Monday, August 4, 2014

Slippin and Slidin

Hahaha Oh my goodness Mom, that is so funny, that Sister is the hermana that you were talking about a long time ago, me and her are SUPER good friends, i love talking to her so much! Actually little known fact, remember how last week i told you i hoped i had to go to Osorno so i could say goodbye to the sisters from my group who were going home, but to say it a little more honestly i dont really care about any of the other sisters that came to chile with me, i really just wanted to say bye to her because we were really good friends hahaha. But even though i couldnt get to go to Osorno to say bye, and to get her email address or anything because the missionaries that i lead down to Punta Arenas would have been completely lost without me, but ill talk about that in a second. If you want to facebook stalk her she is from California.
Dad i laughed so hard when i read ´´Chewiecabra´´ I am assuming that you were making a reference to the chupacabra from Mexico. And i know its not a bad word there in Mexico haha. But iin one of my district i had a missionary that is from Peru, and cabra/cabro is a word that is pretty normally used here in Chile, but it Peru it is a super offensive swear word, well i guess its not really nice here but its commonly used to call someone a immature little kid, but in Peru its super bad and so i pictured dad calling the dog that and i just busted up laughing

So I LOVE PUNTA ARENAS!!!!!!!!!!!! It is so incredible here! I love it, i love it, i love it, I LOVE IT! The people her are just super awesome, the members are awesome, and it doesnt rain!!!!!! hahaha Its kind of crazy being a zone leader though because i am constantly running around working for different mission needs, and then when i am not i am working like crazy with my companion to be an example for all of the other missionaries down here. But i love it so so much! 

But talking about getting down here. I was the only missionary out of the whole group who had flown down south, so i was really the only one who knew what they were doing, and actually almost every single missionary that came with me was brand new, and didnt speak spanish, and so i had to help them out a lot. But there was one sister that i had to help though whos luggage was SUPEr OVER Weight! It was almost 30 pounds over weight, i have no idea what she had in that thing, but they wouldnt let her onto the airplane unless she payed a giant fee, but naturally she didt have money. 
 
And so i was in security because another missionary got pulled aside and was getting searched, and all of his bags searched, and so i was over there helping the missionary, when she comes over to me to tell me what happened, and so i left the other missionary for a second to help her, and there was a fee of 45,000 pesos. that like $90. And i actually reacted really good instead of freaking out i just instantly pulled out my credit card and paid for her with my personal money, i am sure i would have freaked out a little more had i not been so busy, i then rushed back to security, after a quick check up on all of the other missionaries who were all good. But speaking of that i need to write the office and ask for a reimbursement, because that was a ton of money, freakin hermana haha.

But finally we get into the airplane, and my seat was in front of a bunch of the missionaries but not next to any, but i was sitting next to a girl who was like 20 years old, and she was awesome, i spent like the first 30 mins of the flight just talking to her becoming her friend, and then the next hour teaching her about the book of mormon, and reading it with her, she was actually super receptive, and she had a million questions about it. ANd it was really good that all of the missionaries were behind me because they noticed that i was teaching her, and so they all turned onto missionary mode too, and i noticed how a bunch of them started to talk to people that they were sitting next to.

My Skype Conference with President went really good, but the other zone leaders seemed a little stressed out about it, because the new mission president gave A LOT more responsibilities to Zone Leaders than they had initially had. I am totally fine with it, everything from having interviews with sister missionaries if they are fighting with their companions to weekly meeting with district leaders to analyze the weakness that there are in the districts and make plans to overcome them, and just a ton of other things, i have like 8 pages on notes from the conference of stuff we need to do. 
 
I was talking to my companion about it and he said that the way of leadership here in the mission is going to change alot now, because before almost all of the responsibility was on the mission president, and the ZLs were really just there to filter the information so only the import stuff got through to president ( they still had more responsibilities but you get the idea) but now the only time that president gets involved is with his normally scheduled interview and meetings, And he said to us ´´Elders, i chose you all to be the new Leaders of this mission because i see each one of you as Superman, you are all unstoppable missionaries who have an infinite possibility to change the lives of the missionaries in your zones, and to effect the work were you are at.´´ 

Working with Elder Parson is awesome he is from Washington, actually from a city on the border of Oregon, and was a city that i am pretty sure i remember dad talking about before, when he would tell me about his mission, i like to imagine that dad baptized his family. i get along super well with him, better than probably any other comp that i have had. And i love teaching with him, he has more time in the mission than i do, and so he has had alot of time to perfect his teaching, and the two of us teach really really good together. I dont think i have ever seen more miracles while i have been teaching in my whole mission that i am seeing working with him, there is not a single doubt in my mind that since both of us are super dedicated missionaries doing everything possible to follow the spirit, the spirit is obviously guiding us, its super obvious to me, and i love it so much.

The members are awesome here, they leave to work with us every time we call them to ask for their help, and wow they help a ton, i havent had members that were willing to work with us pretty much my whole mission and its super obvious the difference in the work from here in Punta Arenas than any other part of the mission, just this week we had 3 baptisms, which were super awesome, and my companion told me he had been here for a little less than 3 months, and there has been baptisms sense he´s got here, and there was a  bunch more that there was this year before he got here, and then looked at what its like up north, and i was in a couple of ward that there had not been any baptisms in more than a year, and the missionaries would have to work their butt off just to get someone to come to church, and then the investigators would never want to come back because the members didnt sit with them or anything and just felt like an awkward outsider, and then never wanted to come back. 
 
But here the members are awesome, they leave to work with each with us, and so the investigators are already making friends with them, and they sit with the investigators at church, and in ward council meeting my companion and i talked about how every member should have their own copy of preach my gospel so they could be even more effective, and they jumped right on it, the assigned a sister to buy a ton of copies for the ward so that they can start reading the manual to learn. They are just incredible, i have never been happier with the members in my entire life hahaha. I have gotten a bunch of references from them too. Its just like a missionary dream land. I really hope that the work is like that back in Mesa, that would make me SO SO happy. If its not i am going to start working so it can be.

I have a bazillion other things that i want to talk about, like funny walking on ice stuff, and proselyting in the snow, other stories that looking back just make me want to cry because they were so precious and humbling. But i am super happy here in Punta Areana, i really hope that i get to spend the rest of my mission here. I doubt it, but i want so bad to be here a really, really long time.

Welp i love you all! Keep me Posted!

No comments:

Post a Comment