July 2018

July 9, 2018

So this week was super awesome with a little twist from pday. My leg is fine and I am sure glad I got that tetanus shot. Basically we were on the beach today and i was running and there was this half buried concrete box with iron rebar that I didn't see and I landed on it and it took some flesh out of my shin. Sorry I cant send the photos. The computer I am on doesn't have a place to put in the SD card. but that is why we are writing so late.

This week was way awesome. The week anterior we were told by a active member that she was going to marry her convive (live-in) boyfriend tomorrow and she wanted to know what it took to be baptized. So with that hope, we went over on Friday night to teach the Restauración and the Spirit was so strong. Elder Luque gave the first vision and the spirit was whoah. We usually take a pause after saying it so that the investigador pueda sentir el Espiritu testificar (can feel the spirit testify), but I think the spirit also bound the tongue of my comp because even after a few second pause he couldn't resume until after 20 seconds or so. You could just feel the power of the Spirit of Promise. I was almost crying too. It was a huge testimony builder of the Spirit giving the words needed in the exact moment. During the lesson I was falling in the all too easy trap of formando mis palabras (thinking of what to say) beforehand and I knew that this person would be baptized or not depending on the lesson. Well I heard a voice that just said to just trust God and I stopped trying to think of what to say. Then afterwards, he also voiced a concern about the Book of Mormon and I was able to testify. Fue tan genial.

July 16, 2018

Hey Mom and family!

So I am writing my emails from my new sector in ..............................IQUIQUE That is right I went 20 minutes in collective down the mountain. Actually my new pension is right across from the Plaza Pratt where we took photos 2 weeks ago and where we take out money. It is right in downtown and yes a tsunami zone. I am now a District leader of Zegers A and B. my sector is B and it includes the Zofri. The big mall that we always go to. My comp is Elder Winterton from Oklahoma and I now live with Elder Moon. We have 4 gringos in the pension and 2 latinos.

I have a mamita here and I actually met her back in December when we came for the christmas conference. She is really good or at least that is what everyone says.

Actually leaving Hospicio wasnt all that hard. It was harder to leave Arica but I think the main problem was is that I only had 40 minutes to say goodbye because Elder Luque left early and I was stuck in another sector while we had an intercambio. The next day elder Luque left and then I was in trio with the Zone Leaders until last night at 830 and then I had to show the sector to 2 of the elders that are coming in and orient them a little bit. So it was a bit fome but the good news is is that I can still go up to Hospicio with permission and visit people on Pday.

So I sent you some videos I took this week of my adventures in the wheelchair. I didn't upload the video of the salvavida (lifeguard)cleaning my leg for the first time because it is 8 minutes long and it would take forever but I hope you enjoy the pictures. My leg is doing a lot better. I had to get nuevo curaciones(new bandages) on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and tomorrow. They gave me some antibiotics to prevent infection and it is healing. I wasn't allowed to walk from Wednesday until Saturday but the circumstances required that I did because of the cambios and the silla ruedas on the broken sidewalks. I had to wrap my leg in plastic bags to do the baptisms as well. Anyways I tried my best effort for this week and I hope to light some more fire in my new sector.

We had 3 baptisms in the last 2 weeks and a lot of cambios. The thing is that they called for cambios in the evening which is really weird In the morning since no one got calls the ZL played a joke and said that the zone was going to stay the same which I fell for way hard.

Life is good. One of our investigators who is super awesome said she first talked to the missionaries in Arica back in Enero. That elder there was a filipino and guess what. It is that same Elder that is taking over my sector. The lord knows his cambios. She and her spouse have a fecha bautismal but need to attend church. I am sure Elder Santarin was prepared to help this family enter the gospel.

Lots of love and venting from this side of the world. I know the Lord gives us the experiences to help us grow and so I know in a week it will be awesome.

Love you

July 23

Hey mom!
Thanks for calling the office. 😘 I got a call from President about that. My leg actually is looking a lot better and I hope to be done with the curaciones after this week. Also there is a member who is a surgeon and she has also been taking a look at it and she says it is also good. I actually had to rest for 2 days which really sucked but I think it helped my leg a lot. I was able to work on Sunday and Saturday. I had asked about stitches and such but they said the skin on the shin is so tight that the stitches don't really work. Only for more fleshy parts. That fat or muscle that was sticking out, they cut out so this week has been good. Everything else is healing nicely and I am very grateful for the protection that God gave me that day.

The new pension is nice for what it is. It is literally downtown and theere are 6 of us that live there with 1 bathroom. The water pressure is the only bad thing about it which means that we also have to flush frequently when we use the bathroom, or do as a lot of chileans do here and dispose of used toilet paper in a plastic bag by the toilet. (that was a cultural characteristic that I have omitted until now because it didn't apply to me but yeah...) haha

Love y'all