Luis Pasmino, ward mission leader

Hi Everyone!

We got the call this morning for transfers that I'm staying here in Valle Hermoso to train and Elder Perrett is going off to Parral as a District Leader and Trainer.  I'm sad we are splitting up but I'm excited to train.  

Marcelo, his girl friend, Pres and Sis Catala

This week was good.  I think the best highlight was going to the Concepcion Temple with Marcelo and his girlfriend. 

It was a super powerful and spiritual lesson and they both cried.  We are still teaching tons of lessons, and working super hard.  

It's getter super hot here in Valle Hermoso.  Someone stole the NEW gas tank we just got again so still showering in ice water.  I kind of like it now though haha.  This time we got a lock and chain for the next time we buy gas.  I made a sign for the tank that says "buen intento, ladron" or "good try, thief".

Birthday egg on my head

Thank you for all the birthday emails last week.  I'm so grateful for the amazing friends and family that I have been blessed with.  On my birthday we woke up, worked out, I took an egg to the head, showered, took an egg to the head, showered, took two more eggs to the head, showered, then got on with our day!  Smashing an egg on someone's head is a Chilean birthday tradition.  For lunch, the Fabian family made pizza and had a cake.  That was super nice of them because that is an expensive meal here.  

I hope everyone at home had a good Thanksgiving - you can now officially turn up the Christmas music!!

Last thing - we have a baptism this Saturday, Dec. 2, for our Haitian investigator named Stephania. We would love it if you could all pray for her as she takes the next couple of days to prepare. Thanks!

Love, 

Derek

A flex off with Dawson

Bonny's aunt

  

Look for opportunities to help others

Crazy week!

After church on Sunday, we had just walked into our house and 30 seconds later we heard a scream and banging on our door.  We opened it and it was Pablo screaming that his sister’s house was on fire around the corner.  We dropped everything and sprinted out the door.  When Elder Perrett and I got there the house was completely covered in fire and we heard the pop of electrical wires exploding.  My comp and I ran over to the house next door, hopped the wooden gate, and climbed on the roof and started throwing buckets of water on the house.

 The firefighters were struggling with the fire because there were only 4 of them so me and Perrett actually helped a ton.  While one of the firefighters was on the roof of the burning house, the roof broke in and he was holding on the side of the roof so he wouldn’t fall into the fire.  There was too much fire in between us so we couldn’t reach him but one other guy was able to help him.  It turned out to be the home of a neighbor of Pablo’s sister and that the fire was started by the mom smoking.  She was a 32 year old single mom of 2 kids, ages 9 and 12.  The kids made it out but the mom didn’t.  It was really, really sad.  

So in the 2 hours or so of fighting the fire we missed out on teaching a good amount of lessons.  One thing I learned is the importance of teaching by example.  A lot of people saw us up there on the house helping and they know who we are.  As missionaries, and for everyone as followers of Christ, people are always watching and judging.  We always need to act according to our beliefs.  We always need to look for opportunities to help others.  Not just wait for them to come.  We need to act like followers of Jesus Christ.

We had some really great lessons this week with our investigators and I learned a lot.  On Saturday we did a service project at a member’s house.  We dug a huge path, made wooden frames, filled the frames with cement and smoothed it out and made a sidewalk.  Also, we were robbed this week.  Someone stole our big gas tank so we don’t have any hot water.  The showers went from room temp to ice cold.  Straight ice.  Love Chile!  

I hope you all had good weeks!  I'm praying for each and every one of you!  Take this week to look for opportunities to help others.  I love you all!!!

Elder Vincent

Need to enjoy each moment

Family Home Evening (Noche Hogar)

This week was kinda tough.  I’ve been super sick so working has been a drag.  Also we got destroyed with the rain the whole week.  Two highlights for this week are when Daniela accepted baptism for Nov18, and having a crazy cool lesson with Marcelo about his future.  Marcelo, Daniela and Sefanya are all getting baptized in the next few weeks!  

SO much rain

I had a cool experience walking in the street on Saturday.  It was raining so hard and it was slapping me in the face and I was soaked and a little cold and this thought popped into my head and I was like wow there is nothing else like this in the world.  At times the mission is so hard.  I’m super sick, starving because I’m fasting, and soaked from rain while walking around all day.  You just gotta enjoy it. I’m living in a foreign country on my own, learning a language and culture, meeting new people and hearing crazy stories everyday, and helping people change their lives forever by coming unto Christ.  It’s hard but I love it.  And this is the only opportunity I get to do something like this.  Tiene que disfrutar y aprovechar cada momento!

I love you ALL!  I hope all is well back at home!  To all my people from L.A., even though I’m in Chile, I could still feel the pain of the Dodgers losing.  NEXT YEAR!!  Haha!!  Have a great week everyone!

All my love,

Elder Vincent

working in the rain

Canella the dog

walking the hills

Halloween time

Victor, our investigator

Shoe inserts from my mom !! 

Enjoying sushi at Noche Hogar

Our district and zone leaders

Beautiful beach