Hi everyone!

I got emails from my family this week about their trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.  It was funny how they were saying that on their trip they were living more like me, and that some parts were tough, but then the photos they attached showed them doing yoga on a giant yacht.  Dang I feel bad for them.  Now they know what it is like being a missionary in Chile.  Some tough days this week.  Tons of wind and rain.  I'm told it is supposed to rain without stopping for the next several days.  Kill me!

After one long day of going door to door in the rain, we were invited into a house full of Haitians.  We taught a lesson to five of them.  It was dope!  The two most interested are Kenji and Berno.  Both are short, ripped Haitian guys.  Berno has met with the missionaries before and really likes the church.  The missionaries are the ones who taught him Spanish.  He told us that if he finds a stable job, so he can get a visa and stay in Chile, he will get baptized.  I hope he finds one.  The next day we found/taught more Haitians.  So now we have about 14 Haitian investigators.  Ha, ha.  The two we focused most on were Willy and his uncle Waldet.  Super humble and super cool guys.  Before the lesson we printed pamphlets in Creole so they could understand perfectly.  It went really well.

Interesting food this week.  One day a hermana made us gnoche (or however you spell it) for lunch.  It was a super let down because first, it's Italian food in Chile, and second, it reminded me of Casa Nostra back home.  Dang, what I would do for chicken parm at Casa Nostra right now.  Another day we ate this weird tasting meat at this old lady's house so my companion asked her what it was.  She said it was one of her pigs that she killed in her backyard.  We had no choice but to eat it.  So far I feel fine but my companion didn't feel well after so stay tuned to see if my digestive system gets destroyed.  Ha, ha.  Vamos Chile!

I had my first Zone Conference this week.  It was awesome.  We opened with a hymn and prayer and then the missionaries going home this next transfer shared their testimonies.  After President Catala spoke for 3 hours.  It was insanely good.  Now I know why some people call him the best Mission President in the world.  He knows everything and sees everything in a different way.  His topic was urgency.  Dang it was good.  During his lectures he always picks on the nuevos and asks them super hard questions.  Elder Cuevas warned me about that a while ago so I've been studying the mission scriptures a ton.  Luckily my studying paid off because he asked each nuevo a question (some got them right and others got them wrong) but asked me 4 questions in a row and I got all 4 right.  Ha, ha.  Also in my separate interview with him we talked about how him and Dad served in the same mission in Argentina.  When he said he was there 2 or 3 years after my Dad, I said "Oh, so you had to go clean up his mess."  He thought that was super funny.  The APs then handed out mail from the Mission Office and I got a package from Katie Raddon!  Thank you!  Long day in all but so good.

Saturday we had a ton of success.  We went out with a member and had taught a ton of people (including Willy and Wadlet).  Also there was no rain!  Sunday also went well.  We had 5 Haitians at church!  It was so dope.  They've been twice now and need to come just one more time to be able to be baptized.  So we are going to push to get them to church again next Sunday.

It's crazy that I'm about to have my first transfer in Chile.  Time goes by so fast.  I'm loving my mission more and more every day.  Honestly, I'm learning to like Chillan and hope this coming transfer I'll get to stay here.

Thanks for all your support.  It means a lot to me.

Love, Elder Vincent

 

Hey everyone!

Solid week this week.  Two highlights of my week were first, our lesson with Christian, and second was a family home evening. 

We met Christian and his wife and taught them the Plan of Salvation.  They were super receptive.  The wife started crying and told us she knows God sent us to her house because she had a desire to change her life but didn’t know how.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and when we went back to teach them Christian had questions about Joseph Smith, Mormon, and Moroni.  It was awesome. 

We also did a family home evening with another investigator and the other elders and their investigators.  We had like 20 people.  We watched the Joseph Smith restoration movie and ate sopapillas (super good bread you eat with salsa, jelly, avocado, etc). 

Our week started out tough.  We lost Sergia.  Her husband won’t let her go to church or continue with the lessons.  She has the desire and wants to move forward but her husband won’t let her. 

I spoke in Sacrament meeting for the 4^th week in a row.  I was assigned the Plan of Salvation but 5 minutes before the Branch President changed it to something else.  I’m trying to develop a sense of humor in Spanish to try and show more of my personality but my jokes just crash and burn.  But then people laugh when I make a fool out of myself, but either way I’m getting them to laugh! 

One thing I will never forget happened when we recently taught 3 Haitians in the house of a member, Hermana Jenny.  We were all crammed into Hermana Jenny’s little kitchen and the Haitians were trying to tell us about their living situation.  They didn’t really speak much Spanish.  My whole time in Chile I’ve been thinking about how lucky I am and that I have so many blessings that many people in Chile don't have.  Hermana Jenny quietly turned to me and whispered, “How lucky are we?  We have so much compared to these guys.  I am so grateful”.  BOOM.  That seriously hit me like a wall.  It was a super powerful moment for me.  The humility and gratitude that these people have is insane.  Hermana Jenny was giving up her food to feed these 3 guys.  Amazing experience.  I wish I could better describe how I feel.   

Our bedroom - for 6 Elders

The attached photos are of my apartment (6 of us in one room), the hole in our ceiling (the rain doesn’t really get our stuff wet because we stay on the other side), me and Elder Chipana (Chips), and my closet. 

I appreciate your support so much.  I wish I could reply to each email individually but I’m limited to just one hour per week at the internet café.  But I take pictures of your letters so that I can look at them on my camera during the week.  It helps get me through the tough times. 

I love you all,

Elder Vincent

The hole in our ceiling



My closet

Hey Everyone,

I hope you all had a good week!

I want to start by saying THANK YOU for all the love with your emails.  I don't have time to reply to everyone in the short time I have to use a computer but I promise I read and appreciate every single one.  I take pictures of them on my camera so I can read them throughout the week.  

My goal this week was to be positive with everything, like dad says "don't just count your blessings, but make your blessings count."  

We taught a few good lessons this week, but had some cancel because of the weather.  It has been dumping rain from the minute we wake up in the morning until we go to bed at night.  Windy and freezing too.  Since the weather is so bad people have cancelled appointments or don't open their doors.  When they do open their door they don't want us to come in because we are soaking wet.  

One crazy thing about Chile is no one here uses umbrellas because the wind is too strong and will snap them.  So, basically you just put on your rain gear and take the rain in the face.  Funny to watch but not to experience it in person.  

Sunday the wind was so strong that all the metal roofs blew off the homes in Yungay.  A lot of the city is destroyed.  The power/internet/telephone lines were all down.  We actually had church in the dark!  After church we all ate lunch together.  There's this super super old lady that's nuts!!  Hermana Rosa.  She's super tiny with spiky white hair.  She offered me a cookie and I took one.  She slapped me on the back of my head really hard and called me a woman for taking just one and handed me 4 more cookies!   

Every day is getter better.  Last week I bought bread, eggs, milk, cereal, and pasta.  I felt like a king.  That's the most food I've seen in two weeks.  

I thought I was pretty tough before my mission but these past few weeks have really humbled me.  The cold, wind, rain, knocking on doors all day have put me in my place.  It's hard but I'm super grateful to be here.  I keep thinking of something my dad emailed me.  He told me to remember how lucky I am and that after 2 years I get to hit the eject button and go back to my nice life.  None of these people have eject buttons, including most of the missionaries I'm serving with.  This is their life.  So, in all, I really have nothing to complain about.      

Thank you for all your love and support.  It means the world to me.  I'm praying for each and every one of you every single day.

Have a good week!

All my love,

Derek

Hey everyone!

This week flew by.  Last p-day we woke up and studied for an hour, played soccer for 2 hours with the zone, then walked around downtown Chillan to shop.  I bought a coat, some gloves, and an umbrella.  I also bought bread and eggs - my meals for the week.  We had about an hour to chill then at 6:30 p-day ended and we got back to work.  We found this cool lady named Patricia who hasn't been to church in 30 years!  I hope she can go back and be an example to her family.  

On Tuesday we were given 50,000 more pesos to pay for our travel to Yungay so now we can have enough money to buy gas and more food.  Now that we have gas the shower gets to room temp instead of ice cold and we can cook on the stove!  This makes things much better.  

We met a 16 year old guy, Michael.  He doesn't belong to a church (which is rare), but recently his parents told him he could get baptized somewhere if he wanted.  He's super cool and has a strong desire to be baptized.  

The first door I knocked on in Chile was a lady named Sergia, who I talked about last week.  We've only taught her 3 lessons, mostly about Joseph Smith and the Restoration of the church.  She has a strong desire to be baptized and set a date of August 19.  She has a lot more to learn before then.  She has so much faith and is willing to make changes in her life.  I'm super excited for her!

Weird story - we knocked on this door with about 3 guys in the living room.  Within a few minutes about 20 guys, one by one, came into the house.  So, there was randomly about 25 of us packed into this tiny Chilean living room.  Turns out it was a drug addiction recovery home run by a tiny local church.  They said "AMEN" to every word I said!  Literally, I would say "I want to share a scripture"- "AMEN" - "it's in the book of Mosiah" - "AMEN!"  Most had tattoos head to toe and some had slit marks on their wrists. Straight thugs.  They asked us to pray with them which we did.  

On Thursday we went to Yungay.  After our 2 hour bus ride we went straight to work.  We taught and visited a lot of people.  We received and contacted 2 referrals.  It was super dope.  At night, we had the Chilean version of Family Home Evening with a family.  The dad reminds me of Bro Beck because he's not a member but lives like one!  The mom, Paulina, made amazing donuts, and the two sons, Miguel and Pablo, invited friends over so we could teach them.  We taught them about the Sabbath day and used Mosiah 18:23.  It went super well. 

I don't mind how much we work, it's actually easier than I thought.  But I'm hungry and cold all day long.  It's been raining a lot and windy and freezing so today I'm going to buy rain pants, boots, and another jacket.  I'm super excited to take it easy today and rest up for next week.  

Thank you all for writing me. I only have a small amount of time to be online but am able to read your emails, even if I can't reply.

Please pray for me.  I need tons of prayers.  And, eat good food for me haha.  

I love you all!  Have a great week,

Elder Vincent

A playground with a swing set (with no swings) 

A sidewalk in Chillan