Elder Porter in Chile

Sorry to always be writing emails that are not terribly detailed.  I have been super tired this past week.  It was really good but crazy. Got to go on several intercambios this week and I made a goal to try to take a picture on each one but I wasn't super great at remembering so that's what the selfies are. We were also super blessed to baptize Marleny and her family.  It was a close small service that was one to remember.  It was a miracle to watch because it was just a ton of resistencia with her situation but we saw miracles. On Sunday night we did a zone attack in one of the sectors that are by the beach so that is that photo.  It was a little overcast and not a lot of gente, but we did contact this really cool Brazilian guy.  We have a Brazilian elder in our zone and we are always trying to talk with him in Portugese.  I am not to good at remembering stuff but it's common to here in the zone Duda bain (All Good) Sorry to all those that sp...

Boom! I got transferred... about 20 minutes away.  I think because the micro bus took a very long windy route.  Good news is I still get to see everyone that I knew in zone conferences.  My new companion (number 11) is Elder Jensen and he has 1 transfer less than me.  He too is from Canada like my last comp and they actually have a lot of friends in common. We had a really good last week in the sector that was filled with doing interviews and finding some cool new people.  But I have to say the best part of the week was church. As a missionary, it can be the most stressful morning of the week trying to verify and get people to come.  Well, it was still that way, but we were able to confirm our 2 friends from last week and the other companionship confirmed their 7.  Yes, we had 9 confirmations at church.  Actually it took so long that the sacrament put us over the hour and to the disappointment of the high councilor visiting, he could only ...

Final week of the transfer happening.  Looking like there might be some changes in my companionship. We had a really goo week working and finding some new people.  We finally got a couple to come to church that we have been working with.  and we had 2 baptisms! TA The weather has been pretty brutal.  Cold showers are now my best friend and I hate cold water.  Elder Baines and I decided for lack of people in the street to knock some doors and ask for water as a contact method.  Everyone rejected us but they all gave us some much needed drinks.  It can be a little sketchy because the water here is loaded with heavy metals (copper, arsenic etc..) But my body is used to it now. Some guy even gave us an ice cream bar!   It is good to know that with each rejection, it just gives us more time ot find the ones the Lord is preparing. Ran out of money because I had planned for a 4 week month instead of 5 weeks and so Elder Baines and I had a fun ...

Yes, this week just flew by. Highlights 6 intercambios (exchanges with other elders) to do interviews in many different parts of Antofagasta.  Result: The ward had 7 baptisms this weekend!  It was lit!  Elders San Martin and Cachiguango are really good missionaries and it is a pleasure to share the ward with them and learn from them. RAIN !  It drizzled last night waking me up at 2:30 with a wet bed.  Being as it never rains, the tin roofs are put on top of the houses with very little thought to what angle they slope towards, which in this case, happened to be right above my bed.  Still slept good though! My comp got bit by a big dog so I have felt a little wary while walking this week. We got to eat lunch with our amigos today and it was really great to get to sit down and really get to know them better.   We just keep working here in the field of the Lord.  Really excited and grateful for the experiences I have had and f...

Well, the thing is that the weeks just pass by so quickly that I really honestly don't remember a whole lot.  Something cool this week is that we have a new schedule where we eat lunch at 1 instead of 2 and we do practices and study from 2-3 and then idioma ( language study) from 3-330.  It makes everything flow a lot smoother and I like it.  We found 56 new investigators this week. but only 2 came to church :(  Thats the hardest part to get people to fulfill on their commitments.  But it is part of the fun.     I also am now able to write a little bit more in my journal.  I had an interview with Presidente this week and it was really good.  Elder Baines is super good, and we get along well. We decided to hike the anchor today for preparation day.  You can't really see it in any of the photos. It's like the Y of Antofagasta but it really only took like 30 minutes to get up there.  

part of new area We had a really cool week last week and found a lot of people.  We brought 7 to church yesterday so I was able to leave Elder Burton with a lot of work.  With it being Consejo de Liderazgo on Thursday, the district leaders are invited, so actually the guy I am replacing here is staying until Thursday and we'll be in a trio. Well, cambios have passed by again which means I am entering the 4th quarter of the   mission.  All the sisters from my group go home today and tomorrow so it's a new phase of the mission. I also got transfer calls on Friday and now I will be writing y'all from Antofagasta.  It's not as pretty as Iquique but a lot bigger!   My sector, from what I can see, is  hills and  tomas( shanty towns or slums )  so that should be exciting.   I will miss Iquique and the people there. I will be finishing the training of Elder Baines  who is from elder Bur...

Feliz Navidad! Christmas felt like forever ago, but it was really great.  Ate some turkey, chicken, potatoes, and rice and did some gift exchanges. Shout out to Elder Burton for the sweet shark socks that I will be wearing on  Pday . Also got some candy and cologne, but the best part was just being able to get out and see and visit other people.  We made some brownies and were able to pass those around to some people. So this week was really a different type of week.  We had a really great time at the Christmas conference for missionaries.  The zones from Arica came so we had about 60 missionaries and a lot of fun.  The best part was that the office had asked all the families to make a short video and so while we were all eating our lunch, they showed a reel of a lot of families.  Some were really funny and others more heartfelt.  It was a really cool thing to see my fam up there.  Obviously we also had the Skype call today and tha...

T his week was a little off, we didn't really quite have all the success that we were hoping for both in the sector and in the district, but we pulled through.  Learning to enjoy hard times as well as the good times. So I have to say there really isn't too much to report for things that happened this week. I did a few interviews that went really well and we confirmed our friend Roberto.  He is making slow but steady progress in the gospel and its cool to see the change. We have Christmas Conference on  Thursday so looking forward to  that. Yes, Arica is coming down so I will be seeing some more old friends. Then we have transfers the 31 of December so we will be seeing a new cambio for the new year.  It's kind of up in the air if I will stay or not because I am training and it's not unheard of to have 5 transfers, but at the same time I could be going.  I am just not going to say anything about it and put it in the hands of the Lord. Today we ...

So  to start off we decided to have a fast as a district and as such (it seems that every time during a fast, things get harder and worse) we had a really bad day on Thursday.  All the interviews that  I was going to do in our district fell through except for one that I was doing to someone in the hermanas sector who didn't want to live the ley de castidad.  Well, I can tell you that it didn't turn out.  So many things went wrong. When we finished, we went to the sand dune behind and me and Elder Burton yelled at the top of our lungs, but not in a despairing way, but just a way to give us animo because everything was out of our control and there are just days like that. After we yelled we said a prayer and headed back to the sector.  We got back to our sector just in time to the interview in our sector and the miracle happened and we got a baptism!  Roberto is a cool guy and is proud that he is ex-military, so we tried on his uniform. M...

Buenas, Pues, I got my 3rd Hijito from Antofagasta last week.  His name is Elder Burton from Ogden, but he doesn’t look as gringo as the rest.  He plays good soccer and his Spanish isn’t too bad por una semana en el campo ( 1 week in the field).  Actually, he is a lot like my cousin Jake so we get along pretty well. This week we did a lot of things, but 2 highlights.  The first was our Christmas Service Project,  We went to an Ancianato (old folks home) and sang and visited them with our Christmas hats.  There was also a man there who destroyed half the Elders in our zone at chess.  The other half didn’t get a chance to play.  It was really awesome and fun. The second one was that we have been teaching this Haitian couple for about 2 months and now this week we will go take out an hour so that they can get married.  They will be baptized  either next week or the one after.  They are really awesome and I can’t wait ...