Christmas

Elder Espiritu, Stephania and Marcelo Dec 21st

Hey Everyone!  

It was a good week in Chile!  On December 21st we organized a Christmas concert.  We had a choir of 12 missionaries and had a great turnout of members and guests.  It was so sick how it all worked out and came together.  The only bad part was that our piano player, a 10 year old kid who can actually play really well, got nervous and ran out after the first song.  So we had to do the rest of the concert a capella haha.  I feel bad for the kid but it was a good activity overall.  

We received some very sad news about Elder Reyes, who was my second companion and finished his mission a few weeks ago.  He recently was hit by a car and apparently is likely to die.  He’s been in a coma for a few days now.  We lived together for a long time and became good friends before he left.  Please keep him in your prayers.  

Elder Gillett

Our mission Christmas conference was really fun.  We started off with a really good talk from President Catala then had a ton of friendly competitions.  It was all super funny and it was cool to see all of the missionaries, especially the ones from my training group in Mexico.  There were two really powerful moments in the conference.  First, to thank the ladies who made lunch for all of us, we all sang The Spirit of God in harmony and it was crazy.  I’ll email the video next week.  The second was when we ended the conference by getting on our knees and praying for Elder Reyes.  

Christmas Eve dinner with Pablo

In Chile, they celebrate Christmas beginning on the 24th at 2:00am!  So we made Christmas eve dinner at Pablo’s house.  I made empanadas and steak, and he made chicken, rice and french fries. I put Lawry’s seasoning on the steak and it was SO good!  One thing I noticed is that presents and stuff alone don’t make the holiday happy.  I got tons of stuff in packages but that didn’t matter at all to me.  I was just thinking about my family.  

Stephania asked us to help with a service project and we also taught tons of lessons.  We are keeping busy!  We have 5 investigators who have committed to baptismal dates in the next few weeks so we will be busy helping them prepare.  Please keep them in your prayers as well.  

I love you all,

Elder Vincent

Christmas Eve dinner

FaceTiming my family on Christmas

Christmas with my training group from Mexico

Elder Espiritu on the bus 

Love and serve others

The Salazar's bunny, Vincent.  Named because he's white.

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a good week! My week was good, especially because we ended the week with 5 people asking for baptismal dates!  We are super excited for all of them and the choices they are making. A great way to start off a new year for them.  

We had a zone conference and it was crazy good.  The message from President Catala was powerful and helped me a lot.  My interview with President was crazy good too and changed my life and my mission.  I have so much respect and love for him.

The work is good here though we are dying from heat! We had a great service project this week where we were asked to get a specific plant which we had to go up to the mountains to find.  It wound up being a big hike to find it.





With Christmas coming up I just want to make sure you all remember our Savior and His love and example for us. There is no better gift at this time of the year than to be like Christ by loving and serving others. I hope you all have a great Christmas with your families!

All my love,

Elder Vincent

Eating at the Salazar home

Working on unity

Hey Everyone -

This week was a little rough.  None of the people we are working with made it to church, which was disappointing.  I did get the chance to go to my first area, Chillan, to pick up my Visa.  It brought back a ton of good memories from the beginning of my mission. 

We spent a couple of our days this week doing service.  One day we split wood for someone and another day we helped Pablo make tortillas that he went and sold on the street.  

Maximo was 2 days sober when we worked with him on Tuesday.  He looks and seems so much better when he's sober.  We taught tons of lessons this week.  I'm exhausted but happy about the work.  

The Salazar family had us over for Noche de Hogar (family home evening). We played Bean Boozled that mom sent me and related it to a trial of faith.  It was super funny and ended up being a really good message.  

Me and Elder Espiritu

My companion and I work really hard together but haven’t yet learned to gel like Elder Perrett and I did.  During studies on Wednesday I asked him if he thought we had good unity and he said no (which was what I was hoping for) and so we talked about all the things that we need to change to have a better companionship. The next few days were better and hopefully moving forward things will be continue to be good between us. 





I can't believe that Christmas is in two weeks!

I love you all and appreciate your love and support,

Elder Vincent

my "tree"

Stefanya got baptized

Hey Everyone!

So my week started out kind of sad. It was really hard to say goodbye to Elder Perrett and others in my area who were transferred that I'd grown so close to. I felt really lonely and a little homesick.

Hard saying goodbye to Elder Perrett

Elder Espiritu's first day in the mission

My new companion is Elder Espiritu from Lima, Peru. He is coming right out of high school. My first impression was that he seems really young but that he is a nice kid who has tons of motivation and is excited to work! As the week went on I discovered that Elder Espiritu is really quiet. We get along well but there's not a lot to talk about. One good thing I've noticed so far about training is I truly have to forget myself. When I'm not focused on the investigators I'm focused on my companion and making sure that he's okay and doing the right things. So it's a good way for me to turn outward and give everything I have to others.

Daycare center

On Wednesday, we went to a daycare center to do a cultural presentation for kids ages 9 months thru 5 years. It was really cute haha. I spoke about the American flag, Disneyland, and American food. Then they gave us certificates, gifts and completos (hot dogs).

On our way home we passed this tiny little wood hut on the side of the road. We actually just walked past it at first assuming that there's no way someone actually lives there. We passed it and about 15 seconds later I had the impression to go back and knock on the door. We knocked and this old, dirty man came out. He looked at us and before anyone said anything he started to cry. He said he used to have everything - a house, family, food, money, etc. Then his parents died and he got into drinking and lost everything. He said he hasn't showered in weeks, only owns the clothes that he's wearing, goes to the bathroom on the floor of his hut because there's no bathroom, and he sleeps on the same floor that he used to go to the bathroom. He also told us he was just deciding to give up on God because he wasn't going to get an answer to his prayers. He told us that we are the answer to his prayers and I think he's 100% right. There's a reason we decided to turn around and go knock on his door. I have a really good feeling about him.

Stefanya's baptism day

The week ended on a high note. Stefanya was baptized and confirmed a member of the church! She thought the service was really good. I'm super happy for her and the progress she has made in her life.

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season!

Love,

Elder Vincent

Saying goodbye to Elder Dawson

Ran into Elder Roundy, my companion from El CCM

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