He thrusteth in his sickle

 Hola hola! Its been a little bit since I've sent one of these, I've been absolutely zonked the last few p-days. Lots has happened since the last update, heres a rundown of the big events:

- interviews with President

- Consejo in Puerto Montt about how the carpeta is our Liahona. Actually a phenomenal consejo.

- Zone meeting over zoom to talk about said Liahona. I love our zone. #aguanteDinosorno

- Zone P day! Big soccer tournament, I'm very proud to announce that I am the reigning chair soccer champ for the Rahue and Osorno zone😎. miracles happen.

- Intercambio with La Union 1, Elder Allasia. He's from Argentina, I've picked up this habit from him of doing this thing with my hand🤌 while talking in Vosotros, it's hard to explain but I feel very Italian while doing it.

- We had a Thanksgiving lunch with my district! 

- The Saez fam made us buffalo wings😶

Story time!

We told this lady in our ward we would cut her grass, but we couldn't find any tools. Last minute we find a machete and a sickle, show up to her house and she has a certifiable field. Like, 5 foot tall grass and enough space to raise a cow or two. I've always imagined using a sickle being easier than it was, but after about 30 seconds of awkwardly swinging it around I was tired haha. We were there for about 3 hours swinging away, it was hot and afterwards absolutely drained. 

    Not to be dramatic, but this experience actually taught me a lot. The phrase, "he thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store..." took on a whole other meaning! It's easy to start using the sickle, but when we find that it's exhausting, not something we are very used to doing, and something that takes a toll on our body and energy, it's very easy to slacken the pace and take a break. I was cutting grass, I cant even imagine how it would be harvesting an actual field but I imagine it being even more taxing. 

      Like using a sickle, serving the Lord is something demanding. It requires "heart, might, mind and soul," and a constant, diligent effort.

      As we cut down the grass, something interesting happened. The Sickle became sharper and sharper, refining itself as the stocks of grass rubbed the blade. The movement of swinging the sickle became easier and easier, and more and more effective. Similarly, as we do serve with our heart might mind and strength, we learn and improve, literally becoming instruments more and more refined, and the rewards grow and grow. 

Sorry that took such a long time to explain, but I thought it was cool haha.

 

An update on the area: we currently have a few friends getting ready for baptism, the Lord has blessed this area a ton. Juan Pablo and Luis Felipe are going into the waters on the 10th, prayers for them are appreciated. 

Love you all!

Plan A 2.0

 Fantastic week!

The beginning of the week we went to teach Nacho and Amira. I actually love them to death, they're the children of some really less active people. 6 months ago, they didn't know anything about God, but on Monday, they explained to us the Restoration 😮 

They are so anxious to go to church and be baptized, but their mom has a huge fear of people haha so we haven't been able to bring them. Prayers for them are appreciated!

Tuesday our whole zone went to La Union for our district councils, there's a ton of new missionaries in the Dinosorno Zone so I'm stoked, it's an all-star rookie lineup. We had pizza after.

Miracle! We had an incredibly occupied Tuesday planned. After returning from La Union, we had like 5 appointments. On our bus ride, in the space of like 30 minutes, they all canceled. Me and my comp weren't too jazzed about doing 6 hours of plan b, so we prayed to find plan A 2.0, and felt like we should go to the Millaguin family, an active family in the ward. We went, and they informed us that their neighbor had been asking about our church, and would be back in an hour ready to learn...👀

       So we returned in an hour, and meet Valeska. Boy oh boy, was she ready to talk! What ensued was a 2 1/2 hour firehose of information from Valeska. I won't get into details, but she had a lot to get off her chest and is looking to let the light of Christ in her life and her family. We let her know of the blessings that come with letting God prevail, and we have a return appointment with her whole fam this week! The cool part is, she spoke at MACH speed, in some very gangster Spanish, and used many words I definitely have never heard before, but I understood it all. My Spanish capacity has a very direct correlation with the spirit haha.

       It was cool to see how God has plans that aren't our own. He thinks in a different way, a sneaky and masterful chess player up on a higher plane. We didn't have the afternoon we had planned, but it was miraculous nonetheless.  

    

It rained a ton this week. I had glued the sole of my brown shoes back on, and then they got soaked and the glue seeped up through my socks and the leather😐 

Other things: 

- we dropped an elder off at the airport

- my companion is dope

- the DINOSORNO stickers are officially printed

DINOSORNO

 

Howdy! Alright today I've actually made some time to scribble out some thoughts, hip hip hooray!!🥳🥳🥳

This week was very dynamic. Looking back, its nuts just how different it was haha. To start out our week, Elder Mason from La Unión came to stay with us because his compi went home. Elder Mason is awesome, he just got here last transfer and knows almost 0 Spanish. It was awesome watching him work regardless.

The whole beginning of our week was mayhem due to transfers. Over half of our zone got switched up, so Wednesday  and Thursday were spent buying bus tickets and zoomin in and out of the terminal. We took like 8 indrivers (basically uber,) on Thursday to be able to make all of the travels. It was like a 12-hour game of the Hoki-Poki with us and the Terminal. Honestly, just the fact that everything went well and everyone is in their area is a testimony that this is Gods work. 

My cousin, Hermana Elizabeth Jeppson, arrived to our mission! Our mission president called me and my companion as we were in yet another indriver, and we were able to say hello.🙂 We aren't serving very close to eachother, but still exciting!

Friday we had our first Noche de hogar with our zone! Exciting news, due to the frequency that the topic of "Dinosaurs" seems to find its way into conversations in our zone, (weird, right?) We have shucked the name "Zona Osorno" and have adopted the name "Zona 🦕🦖🌋DINOSORNO🌋🦖🦕." Needless to say, our key indicators are on the increase.

On Sunday after church, our investigators Alonso and Kati brought us to their home and we made Curanto together. Odds are I've ranted about Curanto before on my email, but it is probably my favorite Chilean food. Its Clams, Muscles, pig ribs, sausage, milcao, (like bread made of potato,) potato, and this other bread stuff whose name I cant remember all thrown in a pot and cooked with white wine. Its heavenly. While it cooked, we watched the new Book of Mormon video (3 Nephi 18)

Sunday night we had a video lesson with Luis Felipe and he agreed to be baptised! Prayers for him are appreciated.

Even though we were very blessed this week, I felt sad in the beginning. With so much commotion, it was easy to look on the hindside of events and spot things we could've done differently. I found myself focusing solely upon these things, being a perfectionist and cynical about my own efforts, and I was sad. One morning, after yet another cynical comment about how we could've done things better, my companion firmly told me that this was the lords work, we had tried our best, his grace was sufficient and that to focus so much on the negative was halting all progression. At first I was irritated with his straightforward-ness, but he was right! This is the Lords work, and the Lord doesn't want us to despair. After that, I found myself much happier and we managed to work everything out. 

Some scriptures that hit different this week: Hebrews 12: 1-3 and Isaiah 61: 3

Peep below to see my boy, Ice-B.

Los Atalayas

 Hola!

This week was a good week. Elder Walker of the Seventy came to the mission, so we had a Zone conference and a leadership conference this week. Holy cow, my mind was blown. We talked about los Atalayas (the watchmen or sentinels.) 3 Nephi 16: 18-19 and 20: 36-41 are now some of my favorite scriptures, i love how important unity and having the spirit is in declaring the message that missionaries share. 

I've got to go brush my teeth now, I'll have an actual letter next week! Until then🖖

- We've got this cute lil mint garden

- boxer! #tengoliveson

- our friends Amira and Ignacio