Berto and Leyto

Hey Friends, 

We had another good week.  We are working with 6 investigators now and working really hard to find more people to work with.  Leyto, Berto and Fresia made lots of progress.  We gave  Berto and Leyto a copy of the Book of Mormon in their native language, Creole.  They were so excited that Leyto opened it and immediately started reading it out loud - during the lesson haha.  The rest of the lesson he was hugging it the whole time.  It was super cool to see.  Leyto and Berto both want to get baptized on March 24th.  Fresia also committed this week to be baptized. 

A drunk guy photo bombing Leyto and Berto

Leyto and Berto are so funny, they remind me of Matt and me.  They are always walking around and laughing and joking and doing dumb things that they get in trouble for!  For example, Leyto called a member a REALLY bad name thinking it was a slang term for friend like "homie" or "bro".  But, the members of the ward all love him and thought it was funny!  

We had a zone conference in Tierra Bella and I learned a ton.  President Catala talked about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how much we can learn if we study it.  

We are making heavier weights this week by pouring cement into buckets with a bar in the middle.  A little different than working out at home!  Overall, all is well here and I want you all to know how much I appreciate your support.  It really helps.  

Love,

Elder Vincent

BYU graffiti?!

A dope wall that Benson and I found but couldn't beat the camera timer!

Found a gringo named John Morrison living here!

Elder Maldonado

Evangelico army outside of our apartment

visit with Elder Bragg

Pablo came to Chiguayante one day to work

Hey Everyone!  

I hope you all had a great week!  We've been busy here.   I had a nice surprise when Pablito came all the way from Valle Hermoso to Tierra Bella to work with us for the day.  It was really nice to see him.  

with Berto (green) and Leyto (white) before church

Three of our investigators, Leyto, Berto and Fresia came to church on Sunday and really liked it.  One of them has a very sad past and shared with us why he spent time in jail.  He is working hard to turn his life around.  We are also working with a new investigator, Yaritza, and hoping to find more people to work with.  

One of the highlights of this week was a Mission Conference with Elder Mark Bragg (of the 70) who is from Los Angeles and a friend of our family.  President Catala told me in advance that I would have an interview with him after the conference.  It was a great meeting and I especially enjoyed meeting with Elder Bragg.  It was a crazy deep interview and I wrote notes on everything he said when I got home.  

I love you all very much and really appreciate your letters, emails, packages, and prayers.  

with love,

Elder Vincent

Chorillana one of my favorite Chilean foods - fries, chicken, steak, fried egg, grilled onions, cheese, and hot dog meat

Late for the Mission Conference because we took the wrong bus!

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)

I'm official in Chile!

Hey Everyone,

I'm official in Chile!  I received my carnet (Chilean ID card).  It's sick!!

We had a service project this week where we pulled a ton of weeds and dug a up a bunch of dirt.  It was tiring but a great way to start off the week.

The highlight of the week was Lici getting baptized.  She was so excited all week, she could hardly wait.  When she came up out of the water, she gave us all a high five!  Her story will be one of my favorites in Chile.  Her next door neighbor, Dora, is a member of the church.  When we knocked on Lici's door for the first time, she opened it and said she wanted nothing to do with the church.  Two days later I had a horrible day because of bad news about two close friends.  I remember feeling like I didn't want to work that afternoon and wanting to just stay home.  We had a Noche de Hogar (family night) at Dora's house and I wanted to cancel it because I wasn't in a good mood but at the last second I decided to go.  We got there and Lici showed up.  We hadn't invited her or talked to her about coming.  She just felt the need to go to Dora's house.  She walked in and told us she needed to get baptized.  Crazy!!  We easily could have missed out on that experience just because I didn't feel like working that particular afternoon.  Lici's baptism is proof of the blessings that come from just being out there working, even when you may not necessarily feel like it.  

President Catala taught us another great lesson at zone conference this week.  He gave an example of us standing on a scale between our investigators and Christ.  The investigator is almost 100% natural man.  Christ is 100% spiritual.  They kind of balance each other out.  We are part natural man and spiritual man.  If we become less of the natural man and become closer to Christ, we tip the scale in the investigator's favor and make it easier for them to come unto Christ.  

Please continue to pray for us here in Chile.  Especially Sandra, Estefan, Cyntia, Genesis, Antonela, Rode, and Loretto.  They all really need the prayers right now.  

I love you all,

Elder Vincent

Lici's baptism with Elder Espirtu

Hermano Pasmiño baptized her which was awesome