Christmas in Chile

Well, this was a great week here in Santiago!!! I had a wonderful time with Elder Scott and we really enjoyed the Christmas spirit with members and others alike!

Last week, we went Christmas caroling and contacting at the metro station for the Light the World program which was fun! We were able to do a couple contacts and had a great time there with that Zone activity. I met a few people that were really interested in hearing our message and was able to send their reference to the other missionaries!

We also had the chance to go to our Christmas conference last Friday! It was awesome to see the other missionaries from our mission and to hear their stories and stuff! For our Christmas conference, they told about a very interesting World War 1 Christmas story about the soldiers coming together for Christmas instead of fighting on that day. Pretty interesting. Afterwards, we left back to our sectors to work.

Here in Chile, they do a big Christmas eve dinner instead of the one on Christmas day in the United States. So we were really busy! We went by a Ecuadorian family and had a Christmas exchange and then we went to the Bishops house to eat dinner! We had a wonderful time.

 The following day, I had the chance to talk with the family which was really special. It was awesome! There is only one of those calls left now....crazy.

Overall, I have really been enjoying this Christmas season and the chance to share the Light the World program with others. I feel like it was a great opportunity to share the Gospel and help others learn the importance of serving during this time of the year!

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Goodbye Las Americas, Elder Grow and 6 Months of my Mission

HEY!! So this week has been a great one!!! We’ve been as busy as can be! So last Thursday, we had a great lesson with Gabriela and her daughter Matilda! I mentioned that I would be leaving and they got really sad!!! :( but I told them that I would be coming back for their baptism!)

On Friday, we had a really good day and even got to go and visit Brother Toro who works as the Santa Claus in the Christmas Ferria in our sector! We took a picture with him and it was so cool to see all the kids going crazy for Santa Claus(I forgot the picture at my old house.  I will share it next week)!! haha Great memories. Elder Grow ate some churros and we got chocolate strawberries!

On Saturday, we received  a call from President and I got sent out and am now working in the sector next to my old one as a zone leader with Elder Scott!! I am in the same zone just now working in a different ward! So that was an interesting call!

Apparently when we got the call from the zone leaders to see who was leaving the zone, Elder Grows name was there too! We were a bit shocked thinking that he would stay, but he also had changes crazy enough!!! So he is now in El Bosque! 

On Sunday we had to say  our goodbyes and they were tough for both of us! The goodbye to Gabriela was really tough because both of us were leaving right in the heart of her conversion! BTW she came to church on Sunday with Matilda and just loved it! It was a tough goodbye......We were really close to them!

On Monday, I arrived to my new  sector, met my new companion, Elder Scott. We had a great first day and met some of the investigators! They seem to be progressing well and doing great. 

Today, we planned an activity of capture the flag, one in the chamber, call of duty and a water balloon game which were  total hits! We tied 1-1.

Overall a really great week!!!!! 

Have a very Merry Christmas!!!

Haitian Friends

Hey everyone!!! This week was a great week. We were able to see lots of great things happen in the mission. 

So we had a lesson with Adelin and Bob, our Haitian investigators that are progressing! They both want to get married and have great desires to come to church and to be baptized ! Today we’re going to pass by and work on that process and help them get married!!!!

With our investigator Gabriela, we have been doing really well! Each lesson we share with her is very spiritual and powerful! This week we talked about the plan of Salvation with her and she liked it! She really liked the plan and what it meant to us as children of God! She even to this day has not missed one assignment we have given her!!!

Church on Sunday was great! We had our Haitian friends there and they loved church! For the second hour, we had Bob translate for the other 3 Haitians in the class that didn't speak well! It was really cool to see that in action in a class! (Bob speaks Spanish and English perfectly! He is a machine)

On Monday, we had zone conference which was great! A really motivating and good conference. We talked about the difference between being chickens or Eagles and the difference they each have in their natural habitat. Really cool lesson about being like eagles and not being chickens (lazy, unintelligent, scared, etc.) 

On Tuesday, we had a great service with Gabriela and we painted her house!!! It was a blast and cool to help her! Afterwards we had lunch and shared a little bit with her and her family!

Perfect Day on the Mission

Wow! We had a really good week! Looking back I saw where we made some big strides with the work here in Las Americans!! We have been hard at work. There was one day that we had that was perfect. Like not one thing went wrong! hahah As missionaries, we never have those kinds of days. 

However, on Thursday, we died! Everyone in the house was sick to their stomach! Elder Grow ate 40 pieces of sushi, not sure what I ate. And the other Elders were really sick too! Worst day ever!haha but we managed to survive. The next day, we were feeling a little better and went out and got to work in finding and teaching!

The weekend was great! We had a great Sunday and ate with the Gonzalez family which is a strong family from our ward! 

Ok So on Tuesday, We had the best missionary day ever and we managed to pull of a perfect missionary day! (no lessons fell through, and everything clicked) 

 So we contacted a really cool lady working with our lists last week and then went to the lesson on Tuesday and it was great! We shared lesson one with her family and got to know her and have a next lesson set up tomorrow.

We then went to our next lesson which was with another new investigator by the name of Carlos! We shared the first lesson about how the church Christ built was restored and he and his family loved it and even were open to baptism which was awesome! His 11 year old son wasn't there but he even included that he would want to get baptized as well! Really spiritual lesson and awesome new family!

Yesterday I went on divisions with our district leaders Elder Moore and Austin in their sector which was great! Elder Grow lead our sector and did very well!

Today, we watched the 4th star Wars as we are on our Star Wars marathon! 

I have been enjoying the mission! It really is a very cool experience! I wouldn't change it for anything!

Pictures from the Mission

36 Pieces of Sushi

Well this week was very good!!! We had a great time and have been at it with the Missionary work! Last week was a good one, too! We have been teaching a man by the name of Luis. He is a member referral and lives behind a member named Carlos who is his uncle! We have been teaching him and seeing his progression as we have been teaching him along with his kids these past few weeks. He’s been learning a lot and has had lots of good desires. This past Tuesday, we watched the video of the life of Joseph Smith with him and he liked it. He likened the video to his life and situation as he is looking for the truth! I think that message really resinated with him! 

We have been contacting lots lately really just looking for new people to teach. We have found some success. We taught an older lady, and have also found a receptive family that we will be going by this next week!

We had a funny experience actually. So last night, Elder Grow ordered sushi and ate 36 pieces!!!!!! haha anyway, we really didn't realize how much he ate! haha so today rolls around and he wakes up just feeling like crap! haha He felt so sick to his stomach! 

It's Getting Hot Here in Santiago!

Well, My apologies for the past few weeks without emailing or keeping you guys up to date with my missionary life! It was been really good here in Las Americas!! We have been working hard in the Santiago heat and having a great time!!!

Anyway, we met a guy named Bob and he is our homie!!! So we were teaching two Haitians by the name of Adelin and Wolly in English cause they are fluent English speakers and have been really progressing with them! 

So we had a second lesson with them but they weren't there when we arrived to our appointment, so we ended up talking with this guy named Bob at the house, and we taught him lesson 2 about the ´plan of salvation in Spanish cause he spoke really good Spanish. Two days later we came back and had a lesson with all 3 of them. We were concerned about the language barrier cause Wolly and Adelin spoke Spanish less than English but when we got there, we asked them what language they would like us to speak (thinking that we would speak in English and then have them translate for Bob) but Bob started speaking fluent English!!!! We were a bit stunned!! haha it was a pretty funny moment! We taught them lesson 1 and set baptismal dates for the 14 of December!!!

Bob came to church as well the following Sunday!

We have been focusing lots on finding and getting new Investigators which we have done! We were contacting last week and contacted a house to the south of our sector and went right in to teach and get to know this family which was from Peru! They were really nice and listened to us!! We had a follow up appointment which fell through but we ended up teaching their 17 year old son the first lesson!

We also had the opportunity to leave our mission to go to a missionary conference in another suburb of Santiago

As for the rest of our week, it’s been filled  with fun, hard missionary work!

I have been studying a lot about the life of Jesus Christ as I have been reading a book called Jesus the Christ which is an in depth book about his life and his teachings. As I’ve studied it, I have come to learn more about Jesus and who he truly is! I have come to realize how Jesus is the perfect teacher who could use parables and allegories to explain his sound doctrine and connect that through those examples!

Have a great week.

Pictures from the Mission

Elder Hendrix is loving his mission and wirking hard. Here are some pictures of him on the mission

 Elder Grow and Elder Hendrix

 Mountains in the mission

 View from their home

 Elder Hendrix, Elder Brown and Duke the Mission Dog

 Elder Grow and Elder Hendrix

 Santiago Temple