Hello fam,

The weeks keep going by faster and faster. We had a good week though. Christopher was able to get baptized! Thanks for your prayers. He was able to leave drugs, smoking, and drinking within a few months and he has made a complete change. He even gave his testimony after the Baptism and invited his whole family that we had never met before to listen to us and to pray to know these things are true. It was very strong. We also have a great experience with Pamela. We've been taking it slow with her because she doesn't like being pressured and she takes a little longer to understand everything. Usually we don't work with people like that that progress slowly but we felt like we should still visit her and that she would accept soon. Last week she said she didn't want to be baptized and then this Friday after the lesson, out of nowhere she asked us what she needed to do to get baptized in the church. She came to church for the third time and were praying the within a few weeks she will be ready to be baptized. 

I'm jealous of the cruise! Did you learn any Spanish in your time in Mexico? Let me know where Jake and the quads go. I'm excited to hear about it. I'm guessing California Spanish speaking for Jake and Japan for Holli, Peru for Chelsea, and Hawaii for Lindsay.  Love you guys!

We're baking like toasting cheesers!

1/19

Hey family how's it going? Me and Elder Skelton got a lot done this week and we have a great group of investigators that were working with. We are still working with Pamela and she came to church again. She is scared out of her mind to get baptized so I think that might take a little more time but she loves going to church. She has a very sad life and a lot of problems but she understands good and definitely needs some prayers. We've been working with a girl named Eli that is about 25 years old that we found knocking doors. She really cool and super shy and was litery shaking when she went to church. She loved it though and our ward is awesome at being friends with our investigators so she even has some friends. Christopher will be getting baptized this Saturday. He just had his third asistence in church and is ready to go! Also a new person we found named Carolina came to church. We are not sure if she came to church for us or for the church yet because she asks us to be her boyfriend every time we see her. She seriously scares me sometimes so we are going to see her real desires this week.

We had some huge changes in the mission last week. I don't know if you know about all the key indicators that we have like the lessons with members, other lessons, contacts and there was a total of 15. The first presidencia has now told us to take away almost all of the key indicators and to just keep Baptisms, confirmations, asistence in church and contacts. There are basically no numbers now and the way we work has changed a ton. I like it a lot more because were more free to do what we feel the ward needs to grow and not just achieving numbers to get numbers.

Hope your enjoying the slopes. This week was the hottest week ever and we're baking like toasting cheesers. Love you guys!

Luis got Baptized!

We had a good week this week. Luis got baptized! He's a great guy and he's also our neighbor from two houses away. His wife also came to church and loved it so we are going to start working with her. Eveline let us down again and went to the beach or something instead of church, but other than that she is doing really good. She read and prayed and received an answer to her prayers and she loves everything that we teach so were going to give her one more chance this Sunday. We are also working with a kid named Christopher that will be getting baptized in two weeks. He just went from smoking 16 cigarettes a day to 0 in two weeks. We took off  one or two every day until he got to 0 and he's excited to keep going strong. Pray for them they definitely need it!

I'm loving living in Concepcion. There's everything we need here unlike Parral in the middle of nowhere. On Thursday night we ordered a Pizza from our house and it was probably the greatest thing in the world, even though it was super expensive. Well I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!

Hola mis queridos amigos,

Sorry I didn't get to write you very much last week. I decided to send a few pictures and I ran out of time. I also forgot to tell you that I got transferred from Parral! I am now in the other side of the mission really close to Concepcion in a city call Chiguayante. I love it because I'm now really close to the ocean and the weather is so nice. I feel like I'm in California where it doesn't get too hot or too cold unlike Parral, where we got fried every day. My new companion is ElderSkelton, another gringo from California but he's basically chileno because he speaks perfect Spanish so I learn a lot from him. We have been called to be zone leaders so that has been pretty fun. Its nice to have a change for once. As a zone leader the work is a little different than a district leader. I'm also living in the same house as Elder Tafur again. He's the craziest, most annoying little peruano that I've ever met in my life and I have to live with him again after living with him for 3 months already back in Chillan. I'l definitely be studying patience a lot this week.

We are working with some awesome investigators. We have Luis that is getting baptized this Saturday. A few weeks ago he was addicted to weed but it has been a few weeks since he's smoked and he's excited to be baptized. We also found an awesome investigator named Evelyn. She told us that she has visited almost every church looking for a church and hasn't found one that she likes yet. We found her and she accepted to be baptized right away and even better- she lives litteraly right in front of the church. That would be awesome if you could pray for them! Love you guys!

Hola everyone,

We had a tough week this week. Were not finding very much but were still working with the family opazo. The wife Blanca is doing great but Mauricio not so much. We taught the word of wisdom on saturday night and he commited to live it but he ended up drinking that night so were not going to leave him and just focus on his wife that really does want to change and get baptized. Blanca went stopped drinking tee and coffee, went to church and is doing awesome. She would be getting baptized next week but i think she's going out of town for christmas so we'll see what happens but she definatly needs your prayers. 

Carlos who just got baptized recieved the preistood this week! He's doing awesome and the branch is envolving them in everything. Carlos even left with us to work yesterday afternoon and said he wants to start preparing for the mission. He was pretty nervous but he has a strong testimony and did awesome. Its probably the coolest thing ever to see people progress liike this in the gospel. The gospel has changed their lives like night and day.

Sounds like we missed out on the family party. Also skiing sounds like heaven! send me some pics on the slopes! Love you guys!

Hello family,

Sounds like your enjoying the nice ski weather. I dream of that every day here, it is ridiculously hot. From about 4 to 6pm every day, we just toast in the sun. The nights are really nice though, so after the sun goes down it is nice and cool. It still feels weird being Christmastime and it is hot outside, it just doesn't feel the same. But we put up a tree and we are bringing the Christmas spirit. I also received the package! Am I allowed to open it or do I have to wait till Christmas?

We had an amazing week! Estrella, Carlos, Maxi, and Matias all got baptized! Thank you for your prayers- it was seriously a miracle that they progressed so fast and were ready to be baptized. They had an awesome experience and loved every second of it. They already have friends in the ward and are talking about going on a mission. Well I love you guys. Have an awesome week!

Hello everyone and Happy thanksgiving!

I hope you enjoyed your giant meal and judiths. Looks like everybody was there and im definatly jealous of the family football game. Also i hope you enjoyed the little package and hopfully you learned how to use the little tops. I tried for a long time and i couldn't learn until a chilean taught me how its done so good luck. 

We had a great week this week in the work of the Lord. Both of the families that were working with went to church this week! We are super exited for them because they are all progressing very good. Estrella, Carlos, Matias, and mazamiliano have all been to church 3 times and are ready to be baptized on saturday. They are the coolest familly and so ready. They already have friends in the branch,  they come and play soccer with us every week, and this week at church they came ready in a white shirt and a tie. Also Matias like i told you a few weeks ago was living with his girlfriend but two days after we taught the law of chastity she was gone and out of the house. It was such an answer to our prayers and we've seen so many blessings and changes in this family. We also found out that Maximiliano thats 11 years old has read half of the book of mormon already. He's been reading every day so gave him a challenge to read the whole thing before his baptism and im going to give him one of my favorite ties.

Mauricio, daniela, and sebastian came to church. Blanca had her baby on wednesday so she couldn't make it. They actually invited us to the hospital the very next day and we went and saw the baby. It was a little weird but we have gained a lot of confidence with them and their doing awesome. Pray for all of them and i will send you pictures next week. Love you guys!!!