We worked hard this week in the baking hot sun. The temperature changed from cold and wearing jackets to a thousand degrees in about one day and this week was so hot. We've been hearing that this summer is going to be one of the hottest in the history so I'm not too excited about that. 

Its been tough lately to find new investigators but this week we found a guy named Carlos that just got out of jail about a month ago. He actually found us on the street and brought us to his house and told us he wanted to get baptized. He's really funny because he can't read and doesn't understand very much but when we ask him questions he just says baptism is a cool thing to do. He doesn't have a job and lives in a house barely big enough to fit one person and basically has nothing. I'm excited to see how he progresses this week.

We had our mission conference this week. They talked a lot about fasting and praying. They talked about the importance of fasting and how some of us are capable of fasting more than once a month and even once a week. That really made me think of the importance of the fast and its something I want to do more often even though I'm still the skinniest man alive and I feel like I get even skinnier every time. That's about it this week. Keep choosing the right!

Feliz Cumpleanos Tyler

First off I want to give Tyler a Feliz cumpleaños! That's crazy he's 23 - that is pretty dang old.

This week went by really fast but we are having good time. Elder Alder is speaking a lot better and he's improving everyday. He's a really nice and quiet kid and we get along really good. This week was really hard to find new investigators. We dropped a lot last week that weren't progressing so some prayers to help us find new people would be great. The mission is putting a really big focus on the less actives and recent converts so we worked a ton with them and we had a lot of people in church this week.

I finally found out what was wrong with my mouth. I have had this sore for about two months that has just killed me to death. The first time I went to the dentist he said he couldn't see anything and that it was my tooth brush rubbing on my mouth. I knew it wasn't that and then I woke up on Wednesday morning and the sore had broken out and was completely visible on the top of my mouth. I went again to the dentist and he found out what it was. I have no idea what its called but he gave me some medicine and its finally starting to get a lot better.

My package got here! Thanks for everything and I can finally send pictures because I now have a camera. Love you guys!

Hello family,

This week was very busy and I got very little sleep. On Tuesday I went down to pick up my new companion! His name is Elder Alder and he is from Salt lake City. He speaks almost no Spanish but he is learning really fast and he's a really nice kid. He's a little bit shy especially because I decided that I'm not going to speak any English to him but he's talking more and more every day and I think he's learning really fast. On Thursday, we had a leader conference in Concepcion so we had to take the 3 hour bus trip again and stayed the night in the assistants' house. The conference was really good and there is going to be some changes in the mission. We are changing a lot of key indicators to work with the recent converts and less actives more. I also saw a ton of my buddies from the mission there and I found out that Filipe and Barbara, our investigators from Chillan should be getting baptized on the 25th so I was really excited to hear that. 

After Conce we went straight to a little town called Retiro to do a baptism interview for some missionaries in my district. We went to do it that night because they were getting baptized the next day, but when we got there they told us they weren't going to make it home in time from work and that we would have to do it in the morning. We ended up doing the interview at 7 30 in the morning and then we took a 15 passenger van and drove about 30 minutes to a river in the middle of nowhere and they got baptized. It was really funny because it was freezing cold and there was also a group of fisherman fishing right next to the baptism. That's about it this week! Love you guys,

I have a lot of pictures to send when I get my new camera battery

Hello everyone! We had some changes again. Every six weeks seriously flies by like nothing. Elder Kemner will be leaving and I will be getting a new companion. This morning I learned that God really wants me to learn the principle of patience when I found out I will be training another gringito! To be honest, I wasn't too excited at first because it really does take a lot of patience and you are on your own for the first few weeks but I do love training and the new kids always have so much animo to work so I'm pretty excited. I will be traveling to Concepcion tomorrow to pick him up and I'll let you know next week who it is.

We don't have very many investigators right now but we are working with a man named Fernando. He's the father of a less active and has cancer. They sent him home from the hospital telling him he had a few months to live and now it has been almost a year and he said the only thing that will stop him from getting baptized is if he dies. He says he's not feeling too good right now so were praying for him that he can live to be baptized. We are also hoping that he really has the desire to go to church because he wasn't able to go this week.

Conference was amazing! I felt like this year they were just so powerful especially President Monson and you could really tell that they are Prophets and Apostles of God. I really liked the talk by Richard G. Scott and the four things that we need to be doing. Prayer, scripture study, Family home evening, and going to the temple. I really liked what he said about family home evening and how nothing is more important on Monday night. Its not just something short but the whole evening and not even school work is more important.

That killed me to hear about the end of the explorer. I felt a special bond with that car -almost like it was my brother. Hopefully I can see him again. Love everyone!

Hello familia! Sounds like you guys have had a great football season and I love hearing about it! Sorry about the cold weather that is coming your way and for the hot weather that is coming very quickly to Chile. It gets warmer every day and I'm loving it. I received some good news from Elder Stallings in Chillan that Tina got baptized! She actually got baptized the week I left and she's doing great and going to church every week so that was awesome to hear. Some bad news, our investigator Moises said he doesn't want to be baptized and we had to leave him. It was a bummer but we worked hard this week and found a ton of new investigators. 

I bought a basketball this week. I got really bored of the push ups and sit ups in the morning so I decided to go play basketball in the mornings at a court that's really close to our house. Me and Elder Mitton challenged a few Chilenos to a game the other day. I don't know if you remember Elder mitton, we came on the mission together and he also lives really close to our house in Pine View. Anyways we played some Chilenos and after a year without playing we were pretty rusty but we still kicked some butt. I also played a kid in one on one and committed him to church if I won and I won but sadly he didn't end up coming to church. It didn't work that time but I think we are going to keep using  that for a finding activity. 

Max and Ryan HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I remember your birthday last year like it was yesterday that went by way to fast. Love you guys!

Hola Familia, Another good week here in Parral. This week was a little tough because it was the biggest holiday in Chile 18 de Septiembre. Everybody was out of town or they just had all of their family over and we didn't get into very many houses this week. We had a big branch activity on Thursday and had another big barbecue again. It was actually really good and I didn't eat too much and get sick this time. 

We are still working with our investigator Moises but its been really hard to get ahold of him because his mom is sick and in the Hospital and he has to be there for hours every day. They same thing happened with Philipe and Barbara in Chillan. Right when we found them, their mom got sick and then they were so hard to find. Moises did go to church though and were hoping he can get baptized on the 4th of October.

The weather is getting really nice here and we are starting to pull out the short sleeve shirts. I'm loving it and I wont be seeing the winter for a whole year from now! Sorry I'm out of time. Love you all!

Hello family and friends,

We had a good and interesting week this week. We have some great investigators that were working with right now. Were still working with Angel the nine year old and he's doing great and excited to be baptized. We still need to do a little more work on reactivating his parents but other than that I don't see any problems with him. We also found a guy this week named Moises who is passing through a rough time right now. After being with his wife for 25 years he just got separated and lives alone. We got there a few days after and he just needed a friend and someone to talk to and he is ready for the gospel. They both went to church and had a great experience. I love the branch here, I have a lot of confidence that they are going to have a good experience at church and the members are going to do their job and be friends with them.

We saw a cool experience with some Recent Converts this week about the law of tithing that I wanted to share with you guys. A family of four got baptized the week before I got here. They have almost nothing and both of the parents are without work. They have a lot of faith and paid tithing for the fist time after putting it off the first couple weeks because they didn't feel like they could do it. The week after they paid tithing, one night they didn't have food for their kids and it was because of tithing. The husband got mad and they even got in a fight but Joseline said she never doubted. A few hours later a man came to their house and asked to keep a tractor in their yard and payed them on the spot for the month. He also noticed that they were without work and he offered the husband work for 3 months. It was a great testimony builder of tithing especially seeing this family that litterly has nothing.

Last Monday we had an activity as a zone. We had a huge barbecue with more meat than I've ever seen in my life. A few hours later I did not feel good at all but we decided to go work anyways. About ten minutes later I puked my guts out in the street. Also two nights ago our bed broke and Elder Mitton fell right on top of me just like in the movie RM. Sorry I don't have much time but I'll send more details later. Love you guys!