Tierra Bella

The view from my new apartment

Hey Everyone!

I'm in my new area, Tierra Bella.  My new companion is Elder Villanueva from Lima, Peru.  He has been on his mission for 3 months and is awesome.  He is such a humble and genuine person.  It surprised me a ton.  We live with 2 other Elders in the Zone who are both from the Bay Area.  We have a strong ward, good house, solid district, etc.  I am really, really happy.  I can't complain at all.  As soon as I arrived in my new area, I dropped my bags and we went straight to work.  

I'm a little stressed out because when I got here there was only 1 investigator.  We are working really hard to change that and find new people.

We actually found 4 people who want to learn about the Gospel and 2 of them came to church on Sunday, Leyto and Fresia, and both loved it.  Leyto wants to be baptized on March 10.  He is a perfect example of how Heavenly Father prepares people for the missionaries and how, by just being out there and working, we are blessed.

We also took Layton, our Haitian investigator, to the ward activity - singing karaoke.  He had a great time.  The ward here loves activities and they're super friendly!  

I hope that everyone back home is doing great.  I really appreciate all your love and support.  

Love,

Elder Vincent

Saying goodbye in Penco

I made an Acai bowl 

Catapillers everywhere!

My new desk

Saying goodbye to Valle Hermoso

Salazar Family and their bunny named Vincent

Hey Everyone!

I just got transferred from Valle Hermoso to Bella Tierra in Chiguayante, Chile, where I will be serving as a District Leader.  My new companion is Elder Villanuevo from Peru, who has been out for about 3 months.  Although I am sad to leave Valle Hermoso, I am excited about the opportunity to serve the people in Bella Tierra.

In our Mission President's weekly letter he told us the new Disney movie, Coco, is now our official mission movie and a blessing from Walt Disney!  It's a perfect tool to teach people about the importance of families and fits in perfectly with what we'll be teaching them about the Temple that will be opening here very soon.  We watched Coco with the Salazar family during my last Noche de Hogar.  It made me think about my own family, and all the love that we have, and really motivated me to help others have that as well.  

Diego explaining the Sacrament

On Saturday, our recent convert Diego was at a church activity with the young men.  We were also there with our investigators and Diego started explaining the importance of the Sacrament to all of them.  We baptized him only a month ago and now he's passing the sacrament every Sunday and explaining the importance of it.  So cool!  

Sunday was kind of sad.  Everyone knew it was going to be my last Sunday in this area so they did a whole goodbye thing for me at church, with everyone lining up to take pictures.  After church we had lunch with Pablito.  Overall, it was a solid 5 months.  I gave everything I could to finish strong here in Valle Hermoso.  I will never forget this place or these people.  

I love you all,

Elder Vincent

Saying goodbye to the Nunes Family

Our weekly house spiders!

Matthew 19

This was a tough week for me.  I got a virus and was sick in bed for most of the week.  So I got to do a lot of studying and reading haha.  I read a talk entitled "What Lack I Yet" from Elder Larry Lawrence which is awesome.  He tells the story in Matthew 19 about the young rich man who asks Jesus what he lacks.  When Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and follow him, the man declines to do it.  As Elder Lawrence explains, "[the young man] was humble enough to ask the Lord but not faithful enough to follow the divine counsel he was given.  We must be willing to act when we receive an answer."  

I think the most powerful words in the Bible are when Jesus is suffering so greatly in the Garden of Gethsemane and says "not as I will, but as Thou wilt." Like our Savior and brother Jesus Christ, we need to be willing to do the will of the Father in order to receive the fullness of His blessings.  We have to be willing to act or we won't continue to receive answers to our prayers.  My invitation to you all this week is to pray to know what you lack, and when the Lord responds with his will, DO IT!  

Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to share this week. However, I'm feeling better now and am on my way back to normal work.  I hope that you are all doing well.  Please pray for my destroyed digestive system!  

Love you all,

Derek

Homemade weights we found in the new house

Motivation from the previous tenant

Sharpen Your Ax

Hey!  

This wasn't the best week.  We didn't have as much success as we were hoping.  

One morning this week we did a service project chopping down trees in the forest.  It was a cool experience and reminded me of a story I heard a few years ago:  A guy gets a job chopping down trees in the forest.  The first day he chops down 15, the second day 10, the third day 5, and the last day, only 1.  The boss got mad and asked why his results got worse everyday even though he worked the same amount of hours.  The worker realized and responded that he forgot to sharpen his ax. 

Every time we say a prayer, read our scriptures, go to church, etc., we sharpen our spiritual ax.  What are the benefits and blessings of sharpening your spiritual ax?  Will you be more in tune with the Spirit?  Happier?  Closer to your family?  I invite you all to 

"sharpen your ax" and see the ways your lives can improve.  After only having a mediocre week, I will be working on that too. 

I hope all is well back at home.  Please pray for Estefan as he prepares for baptism.  

All my love, 

Derek

Amost got hit by the train!

araña de rincon (brown recluse) that crawled out of my closet,

araña tigre (tiger spider)