Flowers are underrated

 Howdy! It's been a great couple of weeks. I'm realizing as I go through these photos that I have more Maté photos than people photos, I promise that I love the people and Valdivia more than Maté 😅

Anyways, some great weeks! Here's some highlights: 

- Interviews with President. Love President Gervic.

- Exchanges with Elder Pereira, Elder Reeves, and Elder Johnson. 

- last p-day, everyone in the Zone brought a dessert. We did a bomb oreo rice crispy

- And, by far the biggest highlight, we have seen the Lord's hand guide us as we have worked (:

1 Nephi 17:13 has become a sort of anthem for me these days, I've come to realize that this verse outlines the wag that Christ's grace usually becomes manifest in our lives. As I've shifted my prayers from "Please bless others through my efforts," to "Father, which is the path, what are the ways, that I should seek to work?" I've seen lots of blessings. 

Love y'all!

Exchange with Elder Reeves

The Imperfect Harvest

Great week! Full of lots of tender mercies, and lots of Satans little jabs. We found lots of hostility, but also were able to see the hand of the Lord! I'll just get into it 

I think I mentioned this last week, but started off the week at Curiñanco, this little Beach with a little hill you can climb, lowkey climbing that was one of the sketchier things I've done as a missionary haha. The foto doesn't really do it justice, that thing was like 60 feet tall, and it was made of mud, rocks, and roots. 

After the beach we had a grill with a member. Had a coconut flavored Maté, and a great beach side gospel conversation, hypest moment of the week😎🥥 shoutout to Hermana Jeppson for organizing the District activity!!

Constanza:

OK so one day we were visiting member points on our map and we were receiving Nashville-level hostility. I found out what Gnostisism is! Anyways, we felt that Satan was just trying to block the path to someone that God had prepared, and a few hours later, we met Constanza! She was just in the street, moving stuff in her house, and we started talking to her, and it turns out she's a less- active member who has been on the edge of coming back, but needing a little push.

Carlos:

We met Carlos! Another less active member, who lives in a little nook in a side alleyway, he can't read but as we showed him the fotos in the Book Of Mormon, his face lit up, and he's coming back to church! 

We also had a fun service project in Punucapa, a little mountain country road. We had to dig like a 10 by 5 by 5 foot hole to put a large septic tank in the ground. 

We also had a Multi Zone conference in Osorno! It was awesome being back in that church, I saw Hermana Alicia again and it was an awesome Conference, focused on goals and plans.

Joseph: 

We met Joseph in the street, he's from Haiti and came to church with us. That was rad. 

Anyways, this week, I've grown to appreciate God's organization a lot more. We had lots of goals that we did not reach this week, and while I know that they were within God's will and very possible, I also know that he consecrates our efforts, and uses our imperfect actions and faults as part of this "perfect harvest." I highly recommend reading "The Imperfect Harvest" by Elder Stanfill. Love y'all!

Elders Bezerra and Garlick on our way to dig

Hermanas Rowley and Zolman

Elder Heywood

Mi prima

Sceptic tank dig

Our whole zone went to Curiñanco on accident for P-day... here's us waiting for the bus

May 1st Farewell Alerce

 Hello World! My time in Alerce has come to an end. With many tears shed from my Alerce Family, I left to Valdivia! Valdivia, (or Valdi-lluvia, (valdi- rain in English,) as the locals call it,) is a beautiful City built around a huge river. It also happens to be the rainiest city in Chile 🫠🥳☔️ so far, it's only rained like every other day, but we are about to enter rainy season.

My companion is Elder Winward. He's from Shelly, Idaho, and is absolutely awesome. As per traditional stereotype, we have already eaten lots of Potatoes.

Anyways, another thing that is absolutely rad is that I AM IN MY COUSINS DISTRICT. #repthejeppsonname

Valdivia has been rad! My companion arrived a few days after the transfer, because he was in the office and had to train the next financier, so I was just kinda boolin around for the first week with Elder Fritz and Elder Bazerra. Lots of miracles those days,  son unas máquinas.

In the week that I have had in my área with my companion has been awesome. We've been visiting tons of members and past friends, because we are also white washing and have no idea what's going on here. It's a small ward with lots of Grandparents, kind of a different vibe than I've had before.

One miracle we saw was the Barrera family. We had this guy in our record, Rodolfo Barrera, who is the urbanized 17 year old kid of a member, but the number was bad and the direction as well. Well, after tinkering with the phone number for a little bit, I found out that I just had to delete a certain section of the number and then it worked! And we called Luisa, the mom of this Rodolfo, and she was down to meet with us, and she was actually our neighbor haha. We go over, and she's actually got TWO 17 year-old, unbaptized kids. They came to church with us, please pray for Rodolfo and Juaquin🙏

Other things of the week: 

- Leadership council in Puerto Montt. After the recent conferences with Shane Littlefield and Elder Godoy, the mission had so much momentum and its awesome. Also, 2 of my previous companions, Elder Sanchez and Elder Rolfson, are together in Alerce, my old sector, and its awesome. 

- This guy was playing "one love" by Bob Marley in the park, and after initiating conversation and telling him that he should stop drinking, he let me know that he was Iluminati and so he assassinated perverts, and that he would not, in fact, stop drinking. He then got up, set his guitar down, and just walked away.

- Helping a member with her English for her job interview with CranChile

Also shoutout to Eloy Nelson, legend in Alerce, who got baptized this last Saturday

Spiritual thought: Going above and beyond, magnifying our office, is how Christ's grace can mold us.

Love y'all!