Felix navidad y un buen año nuevo! Well my first christmas come and gone and it was just quite marvelous.
So turns out in Chile they do way more of their celebrating on the 24th, but still they have all celebrations last more than one day. They really like to party here and it was easily a two day if not a three day celebration! haha On the 24th we went around delivering cookies to all of our investigators and just wishing them a merry christmas and sharing a little of our love for them. It was quite the activity and definitely in the heat! haha In the morning of the 24th we also had a zone activity where we made pancakes and then played some games as a zone! It was fun! haha Then on the night of the 24th we went and had a dinner (take note that we have eaten more food in the last 2 weeks than I have in the past 6 months! haha) with the mamita and her familia! It was a lot of fun and we brought them some presents for the kids and the parents and everyone was happy and just having a good time! Then 11 pm rolled around and we had to return to the pension. and I started to make cinnamon rolls cause it just aint christmas without cinnamon rolls! haha so I got those started so they could raise over night and I got in bed about 12:30am haha
Then Christmas day! woo! I was up at 6 and finished the cinnamon rolls, and they were AWESOME! although everyone was still sick from all the food we ate the day before; two breakfasts, lunch, food at everyones house and then a big dinner. So I think maybe Elder Dipaz ate one with me, but I am not even sure on that! haha Then we opened presents and every was very happy with their presents that my familia sent for them! and I was very happy with my "read with me" book! quite possibly the coolest thing since sliced bread! Oh ya! and I also got 3 new ties (yes!) and the movie thing that bryton made, but I still have yet to have the chance to see it. I really want to though! haha Then we got ready and went to church! Church was only an hour but afterwards we got cookies and a few little gifts from people. Such an awesome ward! haha Then we rested at the pension until it was lunch time and hmo Gomez picked us up and drove us out to his house. When we got there hma Gomez gave us some spiced milk and then they explained to us that the ward has a tradition of getting gifts for the missionaries and they gave us a ton of presents that were under their tree! like 5-6 each! it was really cool and we opened them all and took some pictures before eating lunch! it was very cool, I am definitely blessed beyond belief here but I love it! haha Then for lunch we didnt eat a ton but luckily the hma understood when we explained we have been eating everywhere we go! so we didnt have to eat too much! YAY! haha then we took off so that we could go call our parents! yaya! that went well, just had to fix a bunch of technical dificulties and I couldnt skype both my sister and my family so I did a little with brittany´´s family and then the rest with my family but all was well and WOW! Brody has changed! haha that was crazy! Every has changed some but not too much yet, im only at like month 5! haha But that went well mybe my mom will write more about that, but ya! haha 40 minutes goes REALLY fast! haha Then we went and visited a few more people that Elder Yost wanted to say goodbye too and went home to pack. This was Elder Yost´´s last day as aworking missionary and so it was a bitersweet moment, more bitter than sweet though! he said he didnt want to go home, and I cant believe the day finally came! haha Its crazy! haha
Then this morning we got everything together and I went with Elder Yost to meet with the zone leaders because one is leaving and the other will be my comp for the week! haha and I said my goodbyes to my papi and he was off just like that. A man of so few words, but such a great guy! haha and as the missionary terms go, I was his son, and I killed him! haha
Alright, my one crazy story for the week. I might have almost died! haha So I was riding a bike down a hill ( you just know its going to lead into something bad, me , bike, down hill... yup, doomed! haha But I was going, in a no passing zone when another car decided it was going to pass the other. Well it also turns out there is a parked car there two, so the road is about 3 cars wide, and I try to stop, but with no luck cause I have a cheap bike with breaks that dont work! haha so I see the gap, and my stomach ties in about a million knots, and I just stay as calm as I can and by some miracle I managed to miss the mirrors, which should have killed me. There wasnt enough room for me to fit through the gap, but clearly someone is watching over me! Afterwards my stomach straight up hurt but all I could say is "All is well" haha So I highly advise you drivers to follow the trafic laws, cause you dont know if there is a missionary flying down on a bike ! haha
That was how it went! Now this week I will be in villa alemana one day and peña blanca the others! And I will get a new comp next week! This is kinda crazy! but its the life! I am loving it and all is well! Thanks for all your love and warmth sent, and I send it right back! Chile has plenty for me to send! haha Love you all!
Elder Marvin
Monday, December 26, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
Christmas card 12/19/11
Well this week was quite interesting. Not a lot of super exciting times, but hey, it was still good!
So you know our two baptismal dates for this next weekend.... ya, extended. Sunday was, well no where near as crazy as the week before. We had one investigator attend and the others were who knows where. Its frustrating, but I guess they still need to learn some things. its just kinda stinky since Elder Yost was going to get one more baptsim, heck, two more, but then both of them need a little more time I guess.
So we had weird intercambios this week. One tuesday and wednesday The leadersand trainers had a training, so us younger companions went in a trio, Elder Dipaz, Elder King, and me, and we worked in Olmue on tuesday and peña Blanca on wednesday. Olmue is probably a good 20-30 minutes away. Its at the base of "La campana" you should look that up on google, it looks WAY sweet, just a big mountain, but I REALLY want to climb it! I hear its like a 5 hour climb, but I love to climb mountains, maybe some day I will! But we got a bunch of "oso" of in other words people werent in there house. However we did get lunch, which was speghetti that was made with ketchup and tuna fish, not youyr regular speghetti! Oh and there was probably a good 3 cups of cooking oil mixed in as well! Ya, we were feeling THAT ONE later! haha But we had a lot of fun, and since we are all young in the mission, we just had a ball! Surprisingly, being the youngest and NOT in my own area, Igot asked a lot what we should do! haha Probably cause I like to lead, but still it was kinda cool! haha Then when we came back to peña on wednesday we remembered that we didnt have keys to our pension, so we had tyo break in through the kitchen door, but we got it! haha Then we worked until about 430 when the training was finished! Then I was back with Elder Yost, and 2 christmas boxes and a little envelope thing! haha I got LOTS of attention for that, they said "Hope you dont expect that next year!" and "Someone is loved, how many palolas (girlfriends) do you have!?!?" haha It was awesome!
Then saturday we literally had a cita for every hour, it was awesome! The sad part, every last one fell through. ya, talk about stinky! haha but thats the life, just normally you have a little better luck than that!
Elder Yost and I had some great comp bonding last night, we decided it was time to make some cheesecake, and well I just received some in a christmas box, so it was easy! in fact, too easy! We finished the first one in literally 3 minutes! I think we beat the time they give directed SO EASILY! haha Then we decided since we did it so fast that we should do another one! So we made another one that we had! haha SO we have cheesecake in our fridge now! Muahahaha! haha I cant wait for lunch today! haha
That was pretty much my week in a nutshell! There ya go, hope all is well and that everyone is preparing for christmas, I have had to beat all the others in the pension so that they dont open their christmas presents from my family and I really wanna open them too! But we are gonna stick it out and have a good christmas!
Feliz navidad a todos! Les quiero!
Elder Marvin
Monday, December 12, 2011
Chow from Chile!!!
Well "santa vaca" what a week! haha So many things and so little time, so here we go!
Well just to start, I got my first chilean haircut today, and it looks fine thank goodness! I here how they dont know how to cut, so I was fortunate! haha But it was the first time a man cut my hair since... well Elder Willis, and I am SURE my family remembers that quite well, especially Brittany! haha But he was very friendly, I talked about the church a little with him, and then a bunch of elderly "jehovas witness´s" walked by and he started laughing and said "there is your competition!" haha It was funny! But I can finally cool down a little in this hot chilean spring! haha
Another funny thing that I just realized this week is there table manners. I am just going to apologize now if I come home with bad manners, but here you ALWAYS have both arms on the table. It is rude if you have one or both under the table cause you might be doing something like texting or idk! haha but I learned to always have my elbows on the table! haha Its a hard life you know? ;)
I also just want to say how milk here is NOT milk! It would be watery something that they just add stuff to. And its very easy to tell! One of our investigators always gives us milk at the end of the lessons and always says how the missionaries LOVE the milk here, but with a dairy farmer and just a farm boy who know our milk, it is NOTHING close! its not bad if you mix something in but just the milk is not my favorite! haha
Another funny random thought, but they sure love their animals here. Not because everyone has 6 dogs and 2 cats and a fish tank, but because they refer to themselves and their feelings to animals. Such as if someone is being sneaky they say he is a mouse. If someone is stupid, they say he is a turkey. And when they are describing just a person they dont know almost always they call them a goat! haha Its kinda funny, and I know we do somethings like that in the states, but WOW! They really like to refer to people as animals! haha I guess I will learn some words in weird ways! But I have come to find that I am very grateful for being bi-lingual! Its so nice to be able to talk with Elder Yost in the middle of a lesson so that we dont ruin it, but we can clarify or just say whatever we need to! haha Many people say they can speak english, but few actually can! haha
Time for a good old funny story! So yesterday while walking to lunch, we passed a lady with a flat tire, trying to fix it all by her lonesome. So we offer help and she says yes, so I go in on it and Elder Alvarez jumps in to. I crank the jack and at first she was taking the bolts out, and they were tight, so she was kinda jumping on the tool (spaced that word) and Elder Alvarez says "non no no non no!" I didnt see any problems since we do that all the time at home! haha So he come in and does his soft hands work, a whole lot harder than it needed to be, but we got it! I found out later his dad is a mechanic, andhe worked for him. So he knows some stuff, but mechanics and farmers do things slightly differently. Hence my hands were FILTHY and his hands had a little, but not too much. Her spare ended up being flat as well, but there was a member accross the street and sked her to help the lady so we could roll along, and she agreed. Then the lady said thank you and greeted us all Chilean style (hand shake and kiss on the cheek) so I ask myself, why are they all just letting her do that if we arent suppossed to? so I shook her hand, and was about to walk away and she Pulled me in! haha Then as we were walking away the other three said "was that your first Chilean Kiss!?!?!" and Elder Yost said he was a proud papí! haha It was kinda funny! haha
Alright, time for the more exciting news! So One of our investigators, Gabriel, we had a lesson with him and after he surprised us at church last week we were all ears and ready to help him out! We taught him our purpose, and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! and so we set a baptismal date for 24th of December and he said he was work so it could be done then! He is excited and the only difficulty he has is he says church can be boring, but then yesterday at church I think he made like 5 more friends and I think he enjoyed it very much! He is progressing greatly! Then also, yesterday in church we learned that there is a young boy the other two missionaries were teaching in our sector (ya, rule breakers...only 1 lesson haha ;) and they said that he was going to be living in our side more with his mom. His parents are seperated, but he will be more with his mother. Oh, AND he has a baptismal date too! So we acquired another baptismal date for the 25th with Vicente! WOOO!!! and he has 2 brothers that were sick but the other missionaries said they are receptive and want to learn. The mother is a menos activo, and so we plan on working with the whole family, but clearly, Vicente is the only one that could be baptized on the 25th, cause the others need more attendances. But This was fantastic cause Elder Yost and I have a baptismal goal of 2 baptisms, and he leaves on the 27th, so it would be the perfect last weekend of the mission and a "white christmas" here in Chile! =D Also, we would be helping the zone get our 8 baptisms in december! So all the way around it is great! Elder Yost didnt quite seem as happy cause he thinks that Elder Alvarez is just trying to look better, I disagree, but thats alright. We had service on saturday for the bishop and we cleared out all the weeds around his house (in other words, literally his whole backyard and side of the house! ya, my back is still sore!) and Elder Yost was sore and Grumpy, now he is ready to roll, or at least he better be! haha But this was the best sunday of my mission for sure! I loved it! Such a crazy time at church though cause we had 3 investigators attend and 1 menos activo that didnt want to feel bad or he wouldnt return he said! But it all went well!
Then last night we had one more lucky good lesson! we were looking for a contact that I had with Elder Petersen and in stead I asked this elderly lady if we could enter, sing a song and share a message on Jesus Christ. She was a very sweet Catholic lady who said she was very firm in her ways. We taught hr our laminas (pictures) of the life of jesus and slid right into the book of mormon. We taught her why we need it and how it will change our lives for the better! She gladly accepted a book and a picture and said we could pass by at another time. She couldnt give us a firm cita to return, but we will definitely try again and see if we can verify how her reading went of the book of mormon, cause she said she wanted to study it a little! YES! haaha good week! good week!
Thatss pretty much my week! lots of excitement and craziness! haha I hope everyone else was in the same boat! haha Chow my people!
Well just to start, I got my first chilean haircut today, and it looks fine thank goodness! I here how they dont know how to cut, so I was fortunate! haha But it was the first time a man cut my hair since... well Elder Willis, and I am SURE my family remembers that quite well, especially Brittany! haha But he was very friendly, I talked about the church a little with him, and then a bunch of elderly "jehovas witness´s" walked by and he started laughing and said "there is your competition!" haha It was funny! But I can finally cool down a little in this hot chilean spring! haha
Another funny thing that I just realized this week is there table manners. I am just going to apologize now if I come home with bad manners, but here you ALWAYS have both arms on the table. It is rude if you have one or both under the table cause you might be doing something like texting or idk! haha but I learned to always have my elbows on the table! haha Its a hard life you know? ;)
I also just want to say how milk here is NOT milk! It would be watery something that they just add stuff to. And its very easy to tell! One of our investigators always gives us milk at the end of the lessons and always says how the missionaries LOVE the milk here, but with a dairy farmer and just a farm boy who know our milk, it is NOTHING close! its not bad if you mix something in but just the milk is not my favorite! haha
Another funny random thought, but they sure love their animals here. Not because everyone has 6 dogs and 2 cats and a fish tank, but because they refer to themselves and their feelings to animals. Such as if someone is being sneaky they say he is a mouse. If someone is stupid, they say he is a turkey. And when they are describing just a person they dont know almost always they call them a goat! haha Its kinda funny, and I know we do somethings like that in the states, but WOW! They really like to refer to people as animals! haha I guess I will learn some words in weird ways! But I have come to find that I am very grateful for being bi-lingual! Its so nice to be able to talk with Elder Yost in the middle of a lesson so that we dont ruin it, but we can clarify or just say whatever we need to! haha Many people say they can speak english, but few actually can! haha
Time for a good old funny story! So yesterday while walking to lunch, we passed a lady with a flat tire, trying to fix it all by her lonesome. So we offer help and she says yes, so I go in on it and Elder Alvarez jumps in to. I crank the jack and at first she was taking the bolts out, and they were tight, so she was kinda jumping on the tool (spaced that word) and Elder Alvarez says "non no no non no!" I didnt see any problems since we do that all the time at home! haha So he come in and does his soft hands work, a whole lot harder than it needed to be, but we got it! I found out later his dad is a mechanic, andhe worked for him. So he knows some stuff, but mechanics and farmers do things slightly differently. Hence my hands were FILTHY and his hands had a little, but not too much. Her spare ended up being flat as well, but there was a member accross the street and sked her to help the lady so we could roll along, and she agreed. Then the lady said thank you and greeted us all Chilean style (hand shake and kiss on the cheek) so I ask myself, why are they all just letting her do that if we arent suppossed to? so I shook her hand, and was about to walk away and she Pulled me in! haha Then as we were walking away the other three said "was that your first Chilean Kiss!?!?!" and Elder Yost said he was a proud papí! haha It was kinda funny! haha
Alright, time for the more exciting news! So One of our investigators, Gabriel, we had a lesson with him and after he surprised us at church last week we were all ears and ready to help him out! We taught him our purpose, and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! and so we set a baptismal date for 24th of December and he said he was work so it could be done then! He is excited and the only difficulty he has is he says church can be boring, but then yesterday at church I think he made like 5 more friends and I think he enjoyed it very much! He is progressing greatly! Then also, yesterday in church we learned that there is a young boy the other two missionaries were teaching in our sector (ya, rule breakers...only 1 lesson haha ;) and they said that he was going to be living in our side more with his mom. His parents are seperated, but he will be more with his mother. Oh, AND he has a baptismal date too! So we acquired another baptismal date for the 25th with Vicente! WOOO!!! and he has 2 brothers that were sick but the other missionaries said they are receptive and want to learn. The mother is a menos activo, and so we plan on working with the whole family, but clearly, Vicente is the only one that could be baptized on the 25th, cause the others need more attendances. But This was fantastic cause Elder Yost and I have a baptismal goal of 2 baptisms, and he leaves on the 27th, so it would be the perfect last weekend of the mission and a "white christmas" here in Chile! =D Also, we would be helping the zone get our 8 baptisms in december! So all the way around it is great! Elder Yost didnt quite seem as happy cause he thinks that Elder Alvarez is just trying to look better, I disagree, but thats alright. We had service on saturday for the bishop and we cleared out all the weeds around his house (in other words, literally his whole backyard and side of the house! ya, my back is still sore!) and Elder Yost was sore and Grumpy, now he is ready to roll, or at least he better be! haha But this was the best sunday of my mission for sure! I loved it! Such a crazy time at church though cause we had 3 investigators attend and 1 menos activo that didnt want to feel bad or he wouldnt return he said! But it all went well!
Then last night we had one more lucky good lesson! we were looking for a contact that I had with Elder Petersen and in stead I asked this elderly lady if we could enter, sing a song and share a message on Jesus Christ. She was a very sweet Catholic lady who said she was very firm in her ways. We taught hr our laminas (pictures) of the life of jesus and slid right into the book of mormon. We taught her why we need it and how it will change our lives for the better! She gladly accepted a book and a picture and said we could pass by at another time. She couldnt give us a firm cita to return, but we will definitely try again and see if we can verify how her reading went of the book of mormon, cause she said she wanted to study it a little! YES! haaha good week! good week!
Thatss pretty much my week! lots of excitement and craziness! haha I hope everyone else was in the same boat! haha Chow my people!
Monday, December 5, 2011
December 5th 2011
well its me again, I know, SURPRISE! haha Back with a week that is not too shabby
I had intercambios this week with Elder Petersen, the new zone leader. He is one funny cat! haha He gets very excited about the work which I love, but it kinda dies when no one is there to talk to. But I made myself proud cause we were working in my area, and so I got to plan the day, and I just planneda pretty normal day-- goingto all the farthest ends of our area, and using the biokes, nothing TOO hard. I found out that he said he was a farm boy, and I was very happy about that! No complaints right? WRONG! I found out he is a Utah farm boy, of 50 acres. So at least he knows what work is, more or less. haha when we started on the bikes I asked him if he knew how to shift thegears, he kinda laughed and said of course I do! Fantastic! and you know what!? He didnt... in fact he jumped his chain TWICE in the frist 15 minutes! hahaha ya... So we continued. It started out rough, we got ose on our cita, and he is a go go go kinda guy! So we went went went! haha I dont think he knew what he was in for! I wore him out! Thats what made me happy! I totally toook it to him how a real farm boy does! Just for a side note, he is a great guy, no problems with him! I loike him a lot, but boy did it bring a smile to my face when we was DRENCHED in sweat, worse than me, and just exhausted at the end of the day! I know I worked him! haha and yes, I heard ho0w much his behind hurt probably more than I needed to. But over all a good day! haha
I also have had 3 major comments to me lately the first " your face looks fatter" and the other two "Your face looks MUCH skinnier" So I had to decide for myself, why would that firstlady say my face looked fatter! Its quite simple, she is crazy! The other two are good members, and the first lady really is a little bit crazy. I dont know if I have put on weight or lost weight, but I asked some other people, they said my face is skinnier. so there ya go! haha
We took a collectivo the other day (taxi more or less) and we were well, flying! haha He was CRAZY! haha going fast, shar coners, kinda fun really! I looked at the spedometer and saw it on 120... 120!?!?! holy moley! then I came back to my senses and remember they drive km/h cars, and I was a little more comfortable! Wow! Its funny sometimes with things like that!
Alright, also we have this thing as a district. Its our hot potato, but you can only pass it when you get a new investigator. Well last night we got a call about 8:30 saying we had it. What!?! hour and a half to get rid of it! So we went to one house we thought for sure would get it, but they were gone! NOOOO! so we tried a bunch of other people, with no luck still. Then I thought of this girl that we tried the other day, and we went and to our luck she was home with her mom! so we stepped in and taught her a basic principle and how god works in his own time. She was very knowledgeable. and has met withthe missionaries before but not for a while! The spirit was there SO STRONGLY but she just was a little earie (sp?) So we went through and got a return appointment and her member boyfriend is going to join us. the good thing is he is preparing for a mission and she will have a great influence there! yes! and all in time! we left and gave the other missionaries a call (elder Dipaz and Alvarez) and they had 15 minutes! Yes! Wow it was a close onethough! haha I love it!
We also had Gabriel attend church yesterday!!! Yes!!!!! I was so happy and he stayed and went to all the classes! we got acita with him and we are just hopeing that we can reanimate him, cuse he is struggling with colegio (high school) at the same time. It was fast and testimony meeting and I forgot, but I got up and bore my testimony and wow, its hard in that big ward! haha especially in spanish! but I did well and sat down. I was especially glad I did it since gabriel was there. Ihope that maybeI helped him in someway!
Well I think that is really all that happened this week! Ialso got my package from my momma and holy cow! yes! american food! haha havent made anything, but a deliecious bananabread! yes! haha well may the spirit touch you all! and a good challenge that we are doing here: get a book of mormon from a bishop or the missionaries and share the gift of CHRISTmas before christmas! lo0ve you all!
Elder Marvin
psmy comp leaves in 3 weeks, he got his "trunky papers" but I dont think he wants to leave! its better than him being all giddy to go home! haha chow!
I had intercambios this week with Elder Petersen, the new zone leader. He is one funny cat! haha He gets very excited about the work which I love, but it kinda dies when no one is there to talk to. But I made myself proud cause we were working in my area, and so I got to plan the day, and I just planneda pretty normal day-- goingto all the farthest ends of our area, and using the biokes, nothing TOO hard. I found out that he said he was a farm boy, and I was very happy about that! No complaints right? WRONG! I found out he is a Utah farm boy, of 50 acres. So at least he knows what work is, more or less. haha when we started on the bikes I asked him if he knew how to shift thegears, he kinda laughed and said of course I do! Fantastic! and you know what!? He didnt... in fact he jumped his chain TWICE in the frist 15 minutes! hahaha ya... So we continued. It started out rough, we got ose on our cita, and he is a go go go kinda guy! So we went went went! haha I dont think he knew what he was in for! I wore him out! Thats what made me happy! I totally toook it to him how a real farm boy does! Just for a side note, he is a great guy, no problems with him! I loike him a lot, but boy did it bring a smile to my face when we was DRENCHED in sweat, worse than me, and just exhausted at the end of the day! I know I worked him! haha and yes, I heard ho0w much his behind hurt probably more than I needed to. But over all a good day! haha
I also have had 3 major comments to me lately the first " your face looks fatter" and the other two "Your face looks MUCH skinnier" So I had to decide for myself, why would that firstlady say my face looked fatter! Its quite simple, she is crazy! The other two are good members, and the first lady really is a little bit crazy. I dont know if I have put on weight or lost weight, but I asked some other people, they said my face is skinnier. so there ya go! haha
We took a collectivo the other day (taxi more or less) and we were well, flying! haha He was CRAZY! haha going fast, shar coners, kinda fun really! I looked at the spedometer and saw it on 120... 120!?!?! holy moley! then I came back to my senses and remember they drive km/h cars, and I was a little more comfortable! Wow! Its funny sometimes with things like that!
Alright, also we have this thing as a district. Its our hot potato, but you can only pass it when you get a new investigator. Well last night we got a call about 8:30 saying we had it. What!?! hour and a half to get rid of it! So we went to one house we thought for sure would get it, but they were gone! NOOOO! so we tried a bunch of other people, with no luck still. Then I thought of this girl that we tried the other day, and we went and to our luck she was home with her mom! so we stepped in and taught her a basic principle and how god works in his own time. She was very knowledgeable. and has met withthe missionaries before but not for a while! The spirit was there SO STRONGLY but she just was a little earie (sp?) So we went through and got a return appointment and her member boyfriend is going to join us. the good thing is he is preparing for a mission and she will have a great influence there! yes! and all in time! we left and gave the other missionaries a call (elder Dipaz and Alvarez) and they had 15 minutes! Yes! Wow it was a close onethough! haha I love it!
We also had Gabriel attend church yesterday!!! Yes!!!!! I was so happy and he stayed and went to all the classes! we got acita with him and we are just hopeing that we can reanimate him, cuse he is struggling with colegio (high school) at the same time. It was fast and testimony meeting and I forgot, but I got up and bore my testimony and wow, its hard in that big ward! haha especially in spanish! but I did well and sat down. I was especially glad I did it since gabriel was there. Ihope that maybeI helped him in someway!
Well I think that is really all that happened this week! Ialso got my package from my momma and holy cow! yes! american food! haha havent made anything, but a deliecious bananabread! yes! haha well may the spirit touch you all! and a good challenge that we are doing here: get a book of mormon from a bishop or the missionaries and share the gift of CHRISTmas before christmas! lo0ve you all!
Elder Marvin
psmy comp leaves in 3 weeks, he got his "trunky papers" but I dont think he wants to leave! its better than him being all giddy to go home! haha chow!
Monday, November 28, 2011
11/28/11
Well another crazy week come and gone, although this week was a little different, and for somereason was a lot slower than the rest! haha but thats alright. We still had our good times!
Thanksgiving wasn´t too thankgivingy, cause no one celebrates it here. so we just brought a little thanksgiving in our lessons on that day. it went well, just didnt eat turkey and potatoes sadly. Thats alright, I think we had lasagna! mmmm! haha
We also finished my first change and Elder Vargas left, and in exchange we have Elder Alvarez. Funny uick story, we were visiting the bishops wife and we were telling her about him and I said his name was elder sanchez! Woops! haha go figure! He is a good guy. He is from argentina and is very animated about the work. He is our new district leader and he has a lot of good intentions. If I could change a little about him, I would ask him not to sing during personal study, not to touch my legs, EVER again, and he needs to be a little more real. He has got the fake happy plastered on his face always. But h is trying, its just a test o nmy patienece and love for everyone. Sorry, that clearly shows I was being a little judgemental, but im working on it!
We went on an adventure this week too! Hurray for adventures! haha we went in searh of some inactives, and I dont know if it is because they live like 30 miles from civilization that they are inactive, but we rode the bikes way out in the middle of nowhere and finally found the area. unfortunately we cam e to a sig nthat said "no pasar rondin armado" which means no tresspassing, we have an armed guard! haha so we decided we should turn around. But it was cool cause the house with that sign looked like a little white castle! we took some pictures and then turned around and round back into civilization. it was great fun!
We set a baptismal goal for this cahnge of having 2 baptisms! woo! I SO BADLY want to lograr eso or obtain that! So BADLY! so we are going to really invite everyone to be baptized. Thats also a goal for the zone, inviting EVERYONE!
That was pretty much my week, but first, spiritual story. So we planned a noche de hogar, or family home evening with this menos activo and she said ya, and seemed very for it. So we came by on the planned night and we stood a minute before her husband let us in. we shared the story of John tanner who gave so much for the church and we talked about how we should follow in this example. How if we will devote ourselves to the lord he will ALWAYS provide. and then we shared the importance of attending church and her husband said " at first I wasnt going to let you guys in, I new you were going to say i need to forgive and go to church . but now I am glad" it was awesome! and then when we were leaving, and they were like and we will see you on sunday! yay! haha I love those!
Oh ya one more funny story. Last night we passed by an investigator se llama Gabriela. She is an older lady who we have been trying for sin e I got here and she was finally thre and healthy enough to talk. Then we came in and we were going to talk about prohpets and she gave us some cake and some pop, even though we said we wouldnt mind water. Then we started teaching and she went off on a tangent I have never seen leave the lesson topic SO FAR! I realized when she was done that I didnt even know what we were talking aobut! Somehow prophets led into how she painted her cieling and that her brother has money. hahahahaha Then she was like "my brothr gives cookies to people, oh do you guys want some cookies? oh and I have eggs!" and she tried to give us ice cream too, but we said next time! it was late and we barely made it through pophets! hahaha It was hilarious cause we could not get out of there! She was lonely, so we will definitiely pass by more. It was just hilarious how the little old ladies can talk SO MUCH! haha
That was my week in a quick note! here comes week 2 change 2!
Elder Marvin
Thanksgiving wasn´t too thankgivingy, cause no one celebrates it here. so we just brought a little thanksgiving in our lessons on that day. it went well, just didnt eat turkey and potatoes sadly. Thats alright, I think we had lasagna! mmmm! haha
We also finished my first change and Elder Vargas left, and in exchange we have Elder Alvarez. Funny uick story, we were visiting the bishops wife and we were telling her about him and I said his name was elder sanchez! Woops! haha go figure! He is a good guy. He is from argentina and is very animated about the work. He is our new district leader and he has a lot of good intentions. If I could change a little about him, I would ask him not to sing during personal study, not to touch my legs, EVER again, and he needs to be a little more real. He has got the fake happy plastered on his face always. But h is trying, its just a test o nmy patienece and love for everyone. Sorry, that clearly shows I was being a little judgemental, but im working on it!
We went on an adventure this week too! Hurray for adventures! haha we went in searh of some inactives, and I dont know if it is because they live like 30 miles from civilization that they are inactive, but we rode the bikes way out in the middle of nowhere and finally found the area. unfortunately we cam e to a sig nthat said "no pasar rondin armado" which means no tresspassing, we have an armed guard! haha so we decided we should turn around. But it was cool cause the house with that sign looked like a little white castle! we took some pictures and then turned around and round back into civilization. it was great fun!
We set a baptismal goal for this cahnge of having 2 baptisms! woo! I SO BADLY want to lograr eso or obtain that! So BADLY! so we are going to really invite everyone to be baptized. Thats also a goal for the zone, inviting EVERYONE!
That was pretty much my week, but first, spiritual story. So we planned a noche de hogar, or family home evening with this menos activo and she said ya, and seemed very for it. So we came by on the planned night and we stood a minute before her husband let us in. we shared the story of John tanner who gave so much for the church and we talked about how we should follow in this example. How if we will devote ourselves to the lord he will ALWAYS provide. and then we shared the importance of attending church and her husband said " at first I wasnt going to let you guys in, I new you were going to say i need to forgive and go to church . but now I am glad" it was awesome! and then when we were leaving, and they were like and we will see you on sunday! yay! haha I love those!
Oh ya one more funny story. Last night we passed by an investigator se llama Gabriela. She is an older lady who we have been trying for sin e I got here and she was finally thre and healthy enough to talk. Then we came in and we were going to talk about prohpets and she gave us some cake and some pop, even though we said we wouldnt mind water. Then we started teaching and she went off on a tangent I have never seen leave the lesson topic SO FAR! I realized when she was done that I didnt even know what we were talking aobut! Somehow prophets led into how she painted her cieling and that her brother has money. hahahahaha Then she was like "my brothr gives cookies to people, oh do you guys want some cookies? oh and I have eggs!" and she tried to give us ice cream too, but we said next time! it was late and we barely made it through pophets! hahaha It was hilarious cause we could not get out of there! She was lonely, so we will definitiely pass by more. It was just hilarious how the little old ladies can talk SO MUCH! haha
That was my week in a quick note! here comes week 2 change 2!
Elder Marvin
Monday, November 21, 2011
11/21/11
Welp, here we go...
I ended my first cambio! WOOOOHOOOO!!! and the big change..... nada. im still here and I still got mi papi! No complaints, its a good life aqui and im loving the ward and trainer. The only change that we have in all of our pension is Elder Vargas, the mexican, is leaving. its sad, I feel like we got some awesome unity in our pension and now we are going to have an argentine in with us. It shall be great still though!
Rough week for numbers, again. Gosh, that seems to be a good struggle right now. Some people want to talk with us, but then they dont want to have anything else with us after that.... tisk tisk. Not a lot we can do about it but pray and keep working. we are here for the elect, those who are ready adn wanting to receive of the blessings, we just gotta find them. On the plus side Felipe attended church again and this time stayed the whole time! WOOT! and his son came too who at first said "i dont know why my dad brought me here" and was listening to his cellphone in the primary, but then had a great time and he is not baptized so I tihnk we will be teaching him lots more! The sad news, Gabriel told us that he had to go to the beach in stead of church.... really? ugh.... haha
It was a pretty regular week, only have a few exciting things to write about. and the first the crazy lady that lves on the top of the hill. so we were going to talk to ranet, the african english contact lady, and her neighbor and her were outside holding a little puppy that was beaten up from some street dogs. They were very sad and they came and told us the whole story, so we tried to help with what we could, cause we were suppossed to have a lesson with ranet, which ended up getting rescheduled. In stead, we heard how much she LOVES her dogs, and not just once or twice but like ten times. We found out from ranet that she has memory loss. Then she explained to us how good people are reincarnated into dogs after this life, and the bad people become rats. and she taught us that probably 3 or 4 times. haha Finally we rescheduled when we could come and teach her and ranet on another day. it was quite interesting.
For this next part, I give a warning to those who dislike spiders. Well I saw my first "pollito" or in other words GIANT TURANTULA! (sp?) !!!! It was SO COOL! haha I found out that they are not dangerous, dont bite, arent poisoness, but they are about the size of my palm, and then the legs. seriously just HUGE! haha I loved it! we got some good pictures, so once I find a chord for my camera, ill let everyone know of our cool find! it was great!
Thats pretty much all the excitement that I had this week. Starting up another cambio, and it should be great! I cant believe the last day of this cambio is january 1st, 2012! whoa! and elder Yost goes home on december 27th, so idk what I am going to do for those last few days! haha but here goes to another week!
Elder Marvin =D
I ended my first cambio! WOOOOHOOOO!!! and the big change..... nada. im still here and I still got mi papi! No complaints, its a good life aqui and im loving the ward and trainer. The only change that we have in all of our pension is Elder Vargas, the mexican, is leaving. its sad, I feel like we got some awesome unity in our pension and now we are going to have an argentine in with us. It shall be great still though!
Rough week for numbers, again. Gosh, that seems to be a good struggle right now. Some people want to talk with us, but then they dont want to have anything else with us after that.... tisk tisk. Not a lot we can do about it but pray and keep working. we are here for the elect, those who are ready adn wanting to receive of the blessings, we just gotta find them. On the plus side Felipe attended church again and this time stayed the whole time! WOOT! and his son came too who at first said "i dont know why my dad brought me here" and was listening to his cellphone in the primary, but then had a great time and he is not baptized so I tihnk we will be teaching him lots more! The sad news, Gabriel told us that he had to go to the beach in stead of church.... really? ugh.... haha
It was a pretty regular week, only have a few exciting things to write about. and the first the crazy lady that lves on the top of the hill. so we were going to talk to ranet, the african english contact lady, and her neighbor and her were outside holding a little puppy that was beaten up from some street dogs. They were very sad and they came and told us the whole story, so we tried to help with what we could, cause we were suppossed to have a lesson with ranet, which ended up getting rescheduled. In stead, we heard how much she LOVES her dogs, and not just once or twice but like ten times. We found out from ranet that she has memory loss. Then she explained to us how good people are reincarnated into dogs after this life, and the bad people become rats. and she taught us that probably 3 or 4 times. haha Finally we rescheduled when we could come and teach her and ranet on another day. it was quite interesting.
For this next part, I give a warning to those who dislike spiders. Well I saw my first "pollito" or in other words GIANT TURANTULA! (sp?) !!!! It was SO COOL! haha I found out that they are not dangerous, dont bite, arent poisoness, but they are about the size of my palm, and then the legs. seriously just HUGE! haha I loved it! we got some good pictures, so once I find a chord for my camera, ill let everyone know of our cool find! it was great!
Thats pretty much all the excitement that I had this week. Starting up another cambio, and it should be great! I cant believe the last day of this cambio is january 1st, 2012! whoa! and elder Yost goes home on december 27th, so idk what I am going to do for those last few days! haha but here goes to another week!
Elder Marvin =D
Monday, November 14, 2011
November 14th,2011
*Its time for another*
CHAT FROM CHILE
*Audience Cheers*
well did I have QUITE the week. Quite being the word of the week as well, because when my companion was asked how to say thisweçord he was SURE it said quiet, until I explainedto him, it was hilarious!" haha
I would also like to start by saying how everyone should be proud of me, I ate my first "just a banana" since I was 4 this week. It was delicious! haha Oh the things you will eat when you are hungry, but the tomatoe still doesnt work with me! haha
Also learned another fun fact, the bishop in the ward here proposed over the pohone (just likeyou dad!) because he was here in chile and his wife was living in las vegas! Small world we live in! haha I just thought it was funny cause not many people do that, and those that do dont normally get a yes! haha I love my family! haha
So we had our first english contact this week and BOY was that an experience. While looking for any antiguo, we came to a green house at the top of the hill. We gave our "Alo"and stand there for a minute, then a lady walks out and we say how we are missionaries and she looks at us and says "sorry, no entender" and my companion looks confused and asks "do youspeak english" and she says a little. So in DIRECT translations he asks "we are missionaries. we are looking for a person who is called (no recuerdo). does she live here in this house." and she said no she moved. then my companion ask "what do you call yourself?" and she was confused. so I ask whats your name? haha It was like that the whole time! Wow! He can not speak english! hahaalthough, I was in the same boat, I couldnt think either! haha It was just hilarious, on the plus side, we scheduled a cita so that should be fun, teaching in english! haha goodtimes!
The only hard thing that happened this week was we got a flat on the bike tire and really learned how long it takes to walk from one side of our sector all the way to the other side. Allthough, heavenly father always has a plan! We actually got contacted when we were walking past a house by a guy who was very nice and he said he knew god justloved hium so we shared a book of mormon with him and he said he didnt have money and we said we didnt want money and he wasjust so happy! We will definetely pass by again later!
Then I had changes with elder Dipaz (from peru)this week andI was incharge. When I am in charge, we walk a lot! I mean we cover ground andwe do work! haha we had a cita with Felipe (the miracle man) and it wasjust awesome! He said how he had some missionaries from chile come in to get examiniations before their missions and he said how he didnt have much time to go to church and to read, but he wanted to feel god more. So I shared a scripture on blessings through obedience and said if he would give god 3-5 minutes to read everyday heavenly father would give him more time with his family! cause he is very busyt but he loves time with his family and his wife is prego with like 12 weeks to go. then elder Dipaz was like " you know you can get the scriptures onyour phone?" and we downloaded the app right there and then! and the mormon channel app! haha It was awesome! He was excited and he said how he would be able to read when we was traveling to work! YES!"!! Then best yet, we went to leave and he asks us "what time does church start in the morning?" so we told him and he said he would tryto come and bring his 11 year old son! YES! and he did come to church! I was very excited! He didnty stay after sacrament meeting, but that was the first time in 5 years that he came to church! I was very happy!
It was a very harsh week for numbers, but we worked hard, i will tell you what!
Alright, challenge time. They have a thing down here called "la lista" its for families to write names of people and to pray for them and invite them and do litle easy things. Missionaries can giveyou cards and pamphlets if you need them to but the idea is to get everyone praying for the people in the area. And its for the families not for the missionaries! So, make a list! Get to work! share the love and pray for those in need!
Thats all Igot time for this week! I love you all!
Elder Marvin =D
CHAT FROM CHILE
*Audience Cheers*
well did I have QUITE the week. Quite being the word of the week as well, because when my companion was asked how to say thisweçord he was SURE it said quiet, until I explainedto him, it was hilarious!" haha
I would also like to start by saying how everyone should be proud of me, I ate my first "just a banana" since I was 4 this week. It was delicious! haha Oh the things you will eat when you are hungry, but the tomatoe still doesnt work with me! haha
Also learned another fun fact, the bishop in the ward here proposed over the pohone (just likeyou dad!) because he was here in chile and his wife was living in las vegas! Small world we live in! haha I just thought it was funny cause not many people do that, and those that do dont normally get a yes! haha I love my family! haha
So we had our first english contact this week and BOY was that an experience. While looking for any antiguo, we came to a green house at the top of the hill. We gave our "Alo"and stand there for a minute, then a lady walks out and we say how we are missionaries and she looks at us and says "sorry, no entender" and my companion looks confused and asks "do youspeak english" and she says a little. So in DIRECT translations he asks "we are missionaries. we are looking for a person who is called (no recuerdo). does she live here in this house." and she said no she moved. then my companion ask "what do you call yourself?" and she was confused. so I ask whats your name? haha It was like that the whole time! Wow! He can not speak english! hahaalthough, I was in the same boat, I couldnt think either! haha It was just hilarious, on the plus side, we scheduled a cita so that should be fun, teaching in english! haha goodtimes!
The only hard thing that happened this week was we got a flat on the bike tire and really learned how long it takes to walk from one side of our sector all the way to the other side. Allthough, heavenly father always has a plan! We actually got contacted when we were walking past a house by a guy who was very nice and he said he knew god justloved hium so we shared a book of mormon with him and he said he didnt have money and we said we didnt want money and he wasjust so happy! We will definetely pass by again later!
Then I had changes with elder Dipaz (from peru)this week andI was incharge. When I am in charge, we walk a lot! I mean we cover ground andwe do work! haha we had a cita with Felipe (the miracle man) and it wasjust awesome! He said how he had some missionaries from chile come in to get examiniations before their missions and he said how he didnt have much time to go to church and to read, but he wanted to feel god more. So I shared a scripture on blessings through obedience and said if he would give god 3-5 minutes to read everyday heavenly father would give him more time with his family! cause he is very busyt but he loves time with his family and his wife is prego with like 12 weeks to go. then elder Dipaz was like " you know you can get the scriptures onyour phone?" and we downloaded the app right there and then! and the mormon channel app! haha It was awesome! He was excited and he said how he would be able to read when we was traveling to work! YES!"!! Then best yet, we went to leave and he asks us "what time does church start in the morning?" so we told him and he said he would tryto come and bring his 11 year old son! YES! and he did come to church! I was very excited! He didnty stay after sacrament meeting, but that was the first time in 5 years that he came to church! I was very happy!
It was a very harsh week for numbers, but we worked hard, i will tell you what!
Alright, challenge time. They have a thing down here called "la lista" its for families to write names of people and to pray for them and invite them and do litle easy things. Missionaries can giveyou cards and pamphlets if you need them to but the idea is to get everyone praying for the people in the area. And its for the families not for the missionaries! So, make a list! Get to work! share the love and pray for those in need!
Thats all Igot time for this week! I love you all!
Elder Marvin =D
Monday, November 7, 2011
Mission blog
http://web.me.com/richandann/GillespieMission/Mission_Blog/Entries/2011/10/11_Welcoming_new_Missionaries.html
Alright so this week was kinda a rough one, but not too bad! Lots of good ole walking and triyng to find a plan f cause plan a-e didnt work.
We started the week out pretty good! went around and most of our citas worked out, only one sad thing, one of our new investigators we found out smokes, not like it was a bi gsurprise, but we only has 18 years and idk if he will want to have time for us if we tell him to stop that, but we d what we gotta and tell him thats its not just c ause we dont like it but cause god said so! haha he also has a palola, or girlfriend , and idk if she like sthe church very much. again, we shall wait and see.
Oh one reoccuring trend this week was finding our lunches with members were canceled without us knowing, or at least the people were ot home. So we walked all the way there and then walked all the way back to the pension. I think we had lunch on our own probably 50% of the time this week, thats kinda not the idea, but oh weel. I shoulodnt complain! We are blessed with lun ch on so many days and they normally feed us good food, nothing thats too strange... yet! haha
Also, once again, none of our investigators showed up... talk about sadness! Its so sim ple and the fast and testimony meeting this week would have been really nice for our investigators to now they are not alone, but lukily we have had some good lessons with members and I hope that they feel really welcome, they just have things come up and sick family members right now, so hopefully that stuff gets taken care of cause i really would like to see some investigators there!
I also had exchanges with the district president, and that ewnt really well! We had a lot of luck and he helped me with my street contac ts and contacting at the doors cause that seems to be my weekness! but we contacted everyone we needed t ocantact! We even got a cita with a lady in a poblation we decided to go and knock . This was my first time being in charge and boy was it an adventure! I finally had to really think about what we were going to go do !haha but it worked out really well! We also got in with one of the futures that we were hoping for and he is agnostic but really wants to learn and shows some great desire to learn so I hope that we can help him nd get him going to church and on the road for baptism! haha He is really funny though, and he smokes so that will also be someone we have to talk about that with. Then we went and finished the nigt off with Noche de Hogar (FHE) with the barrio, or ward and it went really well! We had Vania, our 9 year old investigtor come with her brother and I think it was good for her! The young women did a skit and it was HILARIOUS! One of the girls came in like mumbling and no one could understand her and so one of the others explained that she was speaking english! It was hilarious! That was the end of that day! Super good and inspiring, and then I went and talked about it with Elder Yost, and now we are trying some new things and just trying to find a lot of sucess!
Speaing of, my companion was having a hard time these last two week.s He is doing a lot better now, but he is getting to the end of his road and he is having some depression things. Its sad, and I am trying my best t help him, cause he just needs to finish strong, but lucily he is a farm boy and work s through the hard times!
S oI have a few comlaints or enjoyments, however you view it, about the cars here. I thin kthey stick lawnmower engines in the cars here! Its ridiculous! haha Its kinda funny though caue you can just hear it when they drive by, make sme glad america does it right! haha Also, thre are a lot of wanna be mini coopers, almost cool, but not. hha Also, random thought, I am the tallest in my pension, ya, I am cool! ;) oh and one last random thing, tell brody he needs to work on his no handed bike riding, cause I am PROFESSIONAL! Its fun, I can corner a nd just go along who needs handle bars! ?! hehe Oh and one more thing, yesterday Ifound out one of the ward pianists is this 10 year old little girl, and she can play pretty well! I just thought it was impressive and that we cant complain about having hard callings! haha
Now time for my funny story of the week! So while knocking doors yesterday we go to a member referral and we walk up and holler our "Halo" and this lady comes out and we say we are looking for so and so and she says how do you know my name, so we said through a member of our church, and she is like i dont know anyone in your church and j ust looks all creeped out. So we explain a little more and why we are there to calm her down and she just says I have doubts, and I dont want a nything to do with that. and so we said thanks and left. kinda a weird awkward moment. I didnt really know how exactly we got the name, but oh well. Then we knok a door and there are dogs barking so I c ant understand, but they people in the house were talking about us thrugh the courtain. then my comp says " they are speaking english" so we listen for a minute , they get quit but we stay there. Then the door opens, and out comes this 18-20 year old guy in a dress, and then ANOTHER and ONE MORE! hahahaha They walk up all seriously so we stay serious and they say they dont know who we are ever talking about so we say thanks and in their girly accents and in english say goodbye and skip back into the house! !! wow! that was SO weird! haha but very funny for us! haha
Thats been my week! ot too bad, and this week we have a HUGE conference with all the misioar ies of this mission in vina on friday I believe, something like a general authority is coming.... ya, thats right! 4th one of my mission! IM hoping its the prophet, but we will see! haha chow!
Elder Marvin
We started the week out pretty good! went around and most of our citas worked out, only one sad thing, one of our new investigators we found out smokes, not like it was a bi gsurprise, but we only has 18 years and idk if he will want to have time for us if we tell him to stop that, but we d what we gotta and tell him thats its not just c ause we dont like it but cause god said so! haha he also has a palola, or girlfriend , and idk if she like sthe church very much. again, we shall wait and see.
Oh one reoccuring trend this week was finding our lunches with members were canceled without us knowing, or at least the people were ot home. So we walked all the way there and then walked all the way back to the pension. I think we had lunch on our own probably 50% of the time this week, thats kinda not the idea, but oh weel. I shoulodnt complain! We are blessed with lun ch on so many days and they normally feed us good food, nothing thats too strange... yet! haha
Also, once again, none of our investigators showed up... talk about sadness! Its so sim ple and the fast and testimony meeting this week would have been really nice for our investigators to now they are not alone, but lukily we have had some good lessons with members and I hope that they feel really welcome, they just have things come up and sick family members right now, so hopefully that stuff gets taken care of cause i really would like to see some investigators there!
I also had exchanges with the district president, and that ewnt really well! We had a lot of luck and he helped me with my street contac ts and contacting at the doors cause that seems to be my weekness! but we contacted everyone we needed t ocantact! We even got a cita with a lady in a poblation we decided to go and knock . This was my first time being in charge and boy was it an adventure! I finally had to really think about what we were going to go do !haha but it worked out really well! We also got in with one of the futures that we were hoping for and he is agnostic but really wants to learn and shows some great desire to learn so I hope that we can help him nd get him going to church and on the road for baptism! haha He is really funny though, and he smokes so that will also be someone we have to talk about that with. Then we went and finished the nigt off with Noche de Hogar (FHE) with the barrio, or ward and it went really well! We had Vania, our 9 year old investigtor come with her brother and I think it was good for her! The young women did a skit and it was HILARIOUS! One of the girls came in like mumbling and no one could understand her and so one of the others explained that she was speaking english! It was hilarious! That was the end of that day! Super good and inspiring, and then I went and talked about it with Elder Yost, and now we are trying some new things and just trying to find a lot of sucess!
Speaing of, my companion was having a hard time these last two week.s He is doing a lot better now, but he is getting to the end of his road and he is having some depression things. Its sad, and I am trying my best t help him, cause he just needs to finish strong, but lucily he is a farm boy and work s through the hard times!
S oI have a few comlaints or enjoyments, however you view it, about the cars here. I thin kthey stick lawnmower engines in the cars here! Its ridiculous! haha Its kinda funny though caue you can just hear it when they drive by, make sme glad america does it right! haha Also, thre are a lot of wanna be mini coopers, almost cool, but not. hha Also, random thought, I am the tallest in my pension, ya, I am cool! ;) oh and one last random thing, tell brody he needs to work on his no handed bike riding, cause I am PROFESSIONAL! Its fun, I can corner a nd just go along who needs handle bars! ?! hehe Oh and one more thing, yesterday Ifound out one of the ward pianists is this 10 year old little girl, and she can play pretty well! I just thought it was impressive and that we cant complain about having hard callings! haha
Now time for my funny story of the week! So while knocking doors yesterday we go to a member referral and we walk up and holler our "Halo" and this lady comes out and we say we are looking for so and so and she says how do you know my name, so we said through a member of our church, and she is like i dont know anyone in your church and j ust looks all creeped out. So we explain a little more and why we are there to calm her down and she just says I have doubts, and I dont want a nything to do with that. and so we said thanks and left. kinda a weird awkward moment. I didnt really know how exactly we got the name, but oh well. Then we knok a door and there are dogs barking so I c ant understand, but they people in the house were talking about us thrugh the courtain. then my comp says " they are speaking english" so we listen for a minute , they get quit but we stay there. Then the door opens, and out comes this 18-20 year old guy in a dress, and then ANOTHER and ONE MORE! hahahaha They walk up all seriously so we stay serious and they say they dont know who we are ever talking about so we say thanks and in their girly accents and in english say goodbye and skip back into the house! !! wow! that was SO weird! haha but very funny for us! haha
Thats been my week! ot too bad, and this week we have a HUGE conference with all the misioar ies of this mission in vina on friday I believe, something like a general authority is coming.... ya, thats right! 4th one of my mission! IM hoping its the prophet, but we will see! haha chow!
Elder Marvin
Monday, October 31, 2011
10/30/11
What a CRAZY week! I started out with exchanges on tuesday with
We Found 3 new investigators this week too. Quite the successful week really! Two of them were referred from the tennis player guy we had lunch with last week. It is a mother and her son, Pablo. She really wants him to find a church that is best for him, and he says he can tell the difference when we prays and when he doesnt pray. he has 11 years and likes tennis. by the way, they run a tennis club! 6 clay courts that just CALL my name! haha But they are nice, its just hard to teach them cause they dont tell you very much. So we are working on helping them to understand everything we can! Our other new investigator is the brother of a recent convert we had. He was actually referred to us from someone who isnt a member but he was asking his friend and his friends said to ask the missionaries. It was really cool! And he is very receptive and I hope that he will keep this enthusiasm going for the gospel! its awesome when people light up like that!
We also had a lesson with a couple who are SO AWESOME! They both want to follow the commandments so much and they need to get married and they know that, but he has to get a divorce first but its really hard and long process here. But we shared the proclamation to the family with them and they just drank it up! It was awesome! They are so fun to teach cause they always have questions and want to do as they are suppossed to! I love it!
The one sad thing, we had all 4 of our investigators planning on attending church, all said they would, and then we had 0 of them show up. Ouc, that one hurt. It would have been good too cause we had the primary program, and who doesnt like little kids doing things!?! haha We need them to attend though, especially our boy with a baptismal date!
My funny storyfor the week, while walking to a cita we had at the top of the mountain, there is this guy who stopped us. He has a bottle of who knows what in his hard nand you can just tell that he is drunk. He walks up and asks us how to write something in english and then turns and (all tihs is spanish, just in case you didnt know) and he asks me if I am american and I say yes and he gets this big , very faministic smile and lifes a little, then he plays with my hair and SLAPS ME 3 times! hahahahahahaha Ya, imagine it, just imagine it! it was pretty funny! Thought I would share the fun! haha
Thats pretty much my week for you! I hope the next one can be just as busy if not more busy! I am lovin it! Though, im TIRED at the end of the day! haha and we are getting warm, summer is on its way! haha Love you all!
Elder Marvin =D
We Found 3 new investigators this week too. Quite the successful week really! Two of them were referred from the tennis player guy we had lunch with last week. It is a mother and her son, Pablo. She really wants him to find a church that is best for him, and he says he can tell the difference when we prays and when he doesnt pray. he has 11 years and likes tennis. by the way, they run a tennis club! 6 clay courts that just CALL my name! haha But they are nice, its just hard to teach them cause they dont tell you very much. So we are working on helping them to understand everything we can! Our other new investigator is the brother of a recent convert we had. He was actually referred to us from someone who isnt a member but he was asking his friend and his friends said to ask the missionaries. It was really cool! And he is very receptive and I hope that he will keep this enthusiasm going for the gospel! its awesome when people light up like that!
We also had a lesson with a couple who are SO AWESOME! They both want to follow the commandments so much and they need to get married and they know that, but he has to get a divorce first but its really hard and long process here. But we shared the proclamation to the family with them and they just drank it up! It was awesome! They are so fun to teach cause they always have questions and want to do as they are suppossed to! I love it!
The one sad thing, we had all 4 of our investigators planning on attending church, all said they would, and then we had 0 of them show up. Ouc, that one hurt. It would have been good too cause we had the primary program, and who doesnt like little kids doing things!?! haha We need them to attend though, especially our boy with a baptismal date!
My funny storyfor the week, while walking to a cita we had at the top of the mountain, there is this guy who stopped us. He has a bottle of who knows what in his hard nand you can just tell that he is drunk. He walks up and asks us how to write something in english and then turns and (all tihs is spanish, just in case you didnt know) and he asks me if I am american and I say yes and he gets this big , very faministic smile and lifes a little, then he plays with my hair and SLAPS ME 3 times! hahahahahahaha Ya, imagine it, just imagine it! it was pretty funny! Thought I would share the fun! haha
Thats pretty much my week for you! I hope the next one can be just as busy if not more busy! I am lovin it! Though, im TIRED at the end of the day! haha and we are getting warm, summer is on its way! haha Love you all!
Elder Marvin =D
Monday, October 24, 2011
Letter from Bryce 10/24/2011
Yes I can, and i am going to send my big everything letter right here, so HERE WE GOª!
First I was thinking you should have brecca create a blog and then you can just copy and paste my letters onto there so that you dont have to add names and minus names when they want the emails. yuou can like post it on facebook and then everyone can read it when they want to!ª Just a thought, trying to make things easier for you!
Well it was a crazy week! Lots of fun but LOTS of walking. I have decided this is the area for climbing hills, but I havent been to any other area. I think that this mission is a mission of hills, so I will be coming home with legs of an olympian!ª haha We have an investigator at the top of the tallest hill in my sector, so we frequently get to climb to the very top of that>!
Last monday we had noche de hogar, or family home evening with this pretty cool family and that was pretty much the excitement of that day minus it being p day nd well I got to write home, so ya!ª haha
Tuesday We had our usual studying in the morning and then we were looking for futures and antiguos like all dayt i swear! haha We also brought our dirty clothes to the mamita, we also cracked out the bikes! hahaha My first thought was there is no way this isnt going to end ugly but then I felt like a little kid and was just having a ball! haha We used bikes a few different days this week, but not too much cause my companions bike is a little broken, it doesnt have a right pedal and it kinda wears him out! I understand why, I tried to ride with only one pedal and it is ridiculous! I applaud him for being able to even do it! haha We received some references and we even tried to do tours of the church which was reallly good for me, cause then I was confronting people all by my lonesome and I had to complete the whole conversation. Some people would just blow past me, and some people told me they were too busy but I totally got an address so that we could swing by their house later! I was pretty proud of myself when I pulled that off! haha It didnt matter if the address was fake, I totally anillated that contact! ( in the most loving way, or in other words, I was actually having a spanish conversation with someone who lives here.
That brings me to another point, how everyone talks to me in english. I think I can speak better spanish than they can speak english, but they really try to be nice to me and make sure I can understand, but I dont need english! The only way I am going to learn is if they willl give me their spanish! haha or, castillano cause its not quite spanish! It makes me laugh cause they have some many words that are strictly chilean! haha but that is part of the fun! haha But I am telling you, I hear hello more than I hear hola! haha Its kinda funny!
So I have also come to find how important it is to have a "plan b" and usually "plan c & d" haha Because there are so many different reasons why people will give you. the more popular is we arent home, there isnt any people in here, or my personl favorite, im busy. If only they could see. The saddest thing happened also. Last week when we were tracting we ran into this little boy. He is the son of an less active member and he was telling us how he wants to be baptized. Why asked him why he wasnt then and if we could come and teach him and his parents the lessons. He said his dad was catholic and he wanted him baptized catholic, but the little boy said he didnt want that. Its kinda funny, nothing against the catholics! I love all the catholic people down here! They are very nice, sometimes we will be tracting and they will just be very friendly which we need! haha
We had conferencia de la estaka, or stake conference yesterday and WOW! I thought it was hard when I pay attention, but when you cant understand you start to zone off and its kinda REALLY hard to understand, its kinda a lot different than inglish! haha But it was fun!
Random bits of facts for this week. There is a girl in our ward, her name is Valentina, and she looks EXACTLY like Brooke Richmond only smaller and maybe like a year younger but its crazy! haha Also, you wouldnt think they have very much tile here because of the earthquakes, but NO EVERYONE has tile! They all have really shiny patios, its kinda cool! haha Also, since you asked, my area is pretty dusty, but it is considered a rich area. We have gone into houses that are nice (not big, cause big houses crash in earthquakes) and I have seen and been in houses that are pretty poor. Not quite like nates trash houses, but pretty beaten and almost made of nothing. I had lunch yesterday with a guy who lives in the ward, and he said he plays TENNIS!!!!!!!! And he wants to play sometime, he said he is pretty good, so I tihnk he is expecting a challenge, and I pray he is ready for it! hahaha also, the house numbers dont always go in order, one second it can be increasing and the next second its decreasing, which makes finding houses difficult sometimes! haha
2 things I wish for. A and camera chord, should I buy one hear or would you like to send one? then I can give you pictures every now and then. and B my oh so loving little sisters brecca. They love change here, and my wallet is not meant for change. If you could make a change pouch than is about the size of a credit card that would be SO SWEET! I know you can do it! if you need some money, ask mom to take some of mine, but I bet you can make a cool one! (it needs to be able to bulge a little! please and thank you! )
Ok, my favorite story of the week: our miracle. So we were in a lesson with Vania, the girl who lives WAY on the top of the hill. Her mom says she isnt ready for baptism, but she is. so after trying to explain to her mother that she needs it, we realized we are late for our last apointment of the day. and its like by the bishop. In fact, the bishop set of the cita, for 9 o clock. So we say a prayer with vania and her family and we RUN down the hill. My companion says "This is when we need the miracles!" haha and we continued running, since we had 5 minutes to go 4 miles! As we get to the bottom of this mountain, a bus pulls up so we run to catch it, and barely get it and ride it for like 3 minutes (we are late at this point by like 2 minutes) and we get off the bus and still have a good half a mile to go. So we run! Its been a long day, we are TIRED like seriously, but we run cause we gotta make this cita! As we get there the man we are set up with, Felipe, is leaving his house. He sees us and says he was about to go down town to get some stuff since we were 5 or 10 minutes late, he wasnt sure if we were still coming. But he invites us in and gives us some water, since he saw us run up to his house. We sit down and get to know him. He is a doctor, his wife is catholic and doesnt want anything to do with the church, but he met with the missionaries about 4 months ago until they transferred. He said he can tell the difference in his life from when we was attending church and now that he isnt. Suddenly I am like just FILLED with energy. After a long day with everyone canceling, and walking a long ways and even RUNNING at the end, I just had all this energy come in me and I felt like I new Felipe! it was CRAZY! And I felt like I should tell him this, so I did. I told him how I was so excited and he sat back just kinda confused and said really? and then he just smiled. and i told him how we wanted to share this message with all his family, and he said that would be hard but he will talk with them. We said we could just share a movie with his family and he said that sounds good, and then he said he would try. I am pretty excited for him though! I cant wait til we get to go visit him again!
Well that is my big and bulky letter! hope its awesome! I love you all!
Oh wait, we need a challenge. Well this week, try to go out of your way and do 5 random act of kindness! and make one of them a little bigger, like not just getting something for someone but like washing the dishes for mom! Love you all! I am doing great!
Monday, October 17, 2011
10/17/2011
Well mom I am hre! sorry for the many typos but the keys at the place are kinda rough. They could use some new teclados. Thanks for writing me.... at ridicuous hours of the day, but you knqw you really should be sleeping! haha Thanks for the good morning hug and I will definitely be feeling it every morning. You know what, I dont even have to wake up until 7 am everyday! haha Once I am adjusted I think I might start getting up earlier, ubt they have a little bit of time difference! haha
Good old cooper, if anything he wont let you gys forget about me! haha hahaha How long is the video if he is watching it for so lng! haha Good little boy, how are things with just the coopster?
Alright, here is basically the last week, and I am sure I will forget something, so I am sorry! I landed! Woohooo! Then we met up with the president and his wife, super sweet! Then we loaded into these fairly crammed buses ( kinda like the saunders van) and drive all the way to Vina Del Mar! And the drive was like oh there isnt too many people here but when you come up over the hill over Vina/ Valpraiso, it is SO AWESOME!!!!! Seriously one of the coolest cites in the worlds! Like you can see the pacific with all the huge ships come in, and then imagine just a semi hilly area just LOADED with houses and buildings! It might not sound super coool but SO AWESOME! haha We then went down to the flower clock and just took some pictures and then president Gillespie was like here is your group, here is the address for the mission home, good luck! And we had to go and find it! haha It was kinda crazy but fun! Then we had some interviews after finding the place, it probably took 30 minutes ish!) and I told president how I dont have pockets and so we will see if I get some sweet magnetic plaques! Then we had some "chilean fast food"and went over finncial and health and everything we need to know! Then all the trainers walked in and we had to find our trainer, so we just talked with a bunch of people and I actually found my trainer n my 2nd try! His name is ELder Yost! He is from Burley, Idaho, and lives on a Dairy there. He has 11 siblings, and he is shorter than me, but a little built kinda like me! haha So we then got all my stuff and headed off to our pension (housing place) on the way, we got stopped by this random lady who just spilled out her soul to us, so the other duo set up a meeting with her it was kinda cool! haha Then wqe got on the metro and road for like an hour out to Peña Blanca, We are in the Villa Alemana stake and we got there and a member drove us to the pension cause it was a little bit away. Then we brought all my junk in, and went to planning. and after a little, we left cause we had dinner with a family )which is odd, they dont really eat dinner) and I could catch bits and pieces but I was mosty lost! haha IT was awesome! aha They hd good food though! haha and they are very very very friendly! Then my first few days consisted of shopping, visitng inactive members,and visiting investigators! Oh, by the way, we hve lunch everyday with members! Its pretty nice, we make breakfast, and thats it! Oh, and we have a mamita, or a lady who washes our clothes if we need it! haha We tried tacando las puertas, but really you walk up to a gate and say Halo. And most the time peopl say they are catholic and dont need our church.
My first few days I tried to take everything in, and understnd as much as I could! haha Well I will always be trying to understand. The funny thing is, they brag abuot how their spanish is much faster than everyone elses! and it was true! It sounds like a big long mummbled word sometmes, but sometimes they speak clearly, still fast, but clearly, and then I can understand the jist of it! I have actually been complimented for my ability to talk. They said I speak better than some people after 6 months! haha I just try to stay calm and cut the words. My only worry is, if heavenly father is helping me learn it this fast, what is he going to have me do next? haha They also have lots of Chilean words, and those are difficult! haha
Oh, one last thing, saturday we got to go to the 50 years of missionary work in Chile Celebration! SO SO SO O SOSOSOSOSOSO cool! They had a spiritual beginning, and then they did a bunch of latin dancing with the lots of faboric dresses and it was SO AWESOME! It was in santiago, but we had permision. Seriously so cool though, I know you wont be able to understand it but if you can look it up! It was awesome! I am starting to gain that chilean pride! haha
Well if yu have an questions ask away, I cant think of anything else! Its awesome, and I am spoiled with a companion who misses his cows too! haha Love ya!
Good old cooper, if anything he wont let you gys forget about me! haha hahaha How long is the video if he is watching it for so lng! haha Good little boy, how are things with just the coopster?
Alright, here is basically the last week, and I am sure I will forget something, so I am sorry! I landed! Woohooo! Then we met up with the president and his wife, super sweet! Then we loaded into these fairly crammed buses ( kinda like the saunders van) and drive all the way to Vina Del Mar! And the drive was like oh there isnt too many people here but when you come up over the hill over Vina/ Valpraiso, it is SO AWESOME!!!!! Seriously one of the coolest cites in the worlds! Like you can see the pacific with all the huge ships come in, and then imagine just a semi hilly area just LOADED with houses and buildings! It might not sound super coool but SO AWESOME! haha We then went down to the flower clock and just took some pictures and then president Gillespie was like here is your group, here is the address for the mission home, good luck! And we had to go and find it! haha It was kinda crazy but fun! Then we had some interviews after finding the place, it probably took 30 minutes ish!) and I told president how I dont have pockets and so we will see if I get some sweet magnetic plaques! Then we had some "chilean fast food"and went over finncial and health and everything we need to know! Then all the trainers walked in and we had to find our trainer, so we just talked with a bunch of people and I actually found my trainer n my 2nd try! His name is ELder Yost! He is from Burley, Idaho, and lives on a Dairy there. He has 11 siblings, and he is shorter than me, but a little built kinda like me! haha So we then got all my stuff and headed off to our pension (housing place) on the way, we got stopped by this random lady who just spilled out her soul to us, so the other duo set up a meeting with her it was kinda cool! haha Then wqe got on the metro and road for like an hour out to Peña Blanca, We are in the Villa Alemana stake and we got there and a member drove us to the pension cause it was a little bit away. Then we brought all my junk in, and went to planning. and after a little, we left cause we had dinner with a family )which is odd, they dont really eat dinner) and I could catch bits and pieces but I was mosty lost! haha IT was awesome! aha They hd good food though! haha and they are very very very friendly! Then my first few days consisted of shopping, visitng inactive members,and visiting investigators! Oh, by the way, we hve lunch everyday with members! Its pretty nice, we make breakfast, and thats it! Oh, and we have a mamita, or a lady who washes our clothes if we need it! haha We tried tacando las puertas, but really you walk up to a gate and say Halo. And most the time peopl say they are catholic and dont need our church.
My first few days I tried to take everything in, and understnd as much as I could! haha Well I will always be trying to understand. The funny thing is, they brag abuot how their spanish is much faster than everyone elses! and it was true! It sounds like a big long mummbled word sometmes, but sometimes they speak clearly, still fast, but clearly, and then I can understand the jist of it! I have actually been complimented for my ability to talk. They said I speak better than some people after 6 months! haha I just try to stay calm and cut the words. My only worry is, if heavenly father is helping me learn it this fast, what is he going to have me do next? haha They also have lots of Chilean words, and those are difficult! haha
Oh, one last thing, saturday we got to go to the 50 years of missionary work in Chile Celebration! SO SO SO O SOSOSOSOSOSO cool! They had a spiritual beginning, and then they did a bunch of latin dancing with the lots of faboric dresses and it was SO AWESOME! It was in santiago, but we had permision. Seriously so cool though, I know you wont be able to understand it but if you can look it up! It was awesome! I am starting to gain that chilean pride! haha
Well if yu have an questions ask away, I cant think of anything else! Its awesome, and I am spoiled with a companion who misses his cows too! haha Love ya!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
try again 50 years of missionaries in Chile
http://web.me.com/richandann/GillespieMission/Mission_Blog/Entries/2011/10/15_Entry_1.html
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Im doing great today! Its been a very productive week! I dont think I have time to not be productive! haha Although, I did not speak NEARLY enough spanish this week, I think I might have gotten worse.... so no more english except in my letters! haha I am SO READY TO FLY! you should know that! ;) hehe We actually get our travel plans later, and if I have time I will try to email them to you, if not, I will tell youin the letter I am going to send! Idk if we stay in the mission home the first night or few nights, I guess I will find out when I get down there! Drink lots of water.... gotcha. I shall listen and heed your words! ;) hehehe EVERY GAME!?!?! eeek,..... I bet Vale is contemplating suicide! haha I kinda figured they would be hurting, but not this bad! Just wait for like 2 years or possibly one year, the young kids ( sophomores now) have a pretty good group, and they just gotta get bigger and know what they are doing! Good ole' Jeffery, tell him I say hi! haha I will be sure to tell you abotu general conference, I wish they had a missionary choir, but oh well.
So I learned this week that I like to argue. haha ok, I really learned that I need to not do it so much. I dont even do it that much, but it still needs to be less! haha I also learned it is very hard when my companion, Elder Wilson, doesnt agree with a word I say. I just laugh, and I do my bestto bite my tongue, but he is sure there is always a better way. haha I dont quite get it, but oh well. We get along great, he just (in his words) "likes to play the devils advocate" a little ironic for a missionary! haha
I also learned my companion Elder Stringham had a friend die in june and it really helped him understand why he is serving a mission. It was good I think for him just because he really had to figure out where he stands on life and death, no more using a crutch, or parents, you know?
I also learned one of satans greatest tools is distraction. If he can plant a thought (a good one even) and distract you, he is feeling the success. I just gottta fight off my day dreams of flying a heli into the mountains with my family, no matter how much I love it! haha
I am SO ready to go to Chile! and I cant even describe to you how excited I am for it! I love you mom, and I am so glad you and dad have raised me the way you did! I hope you guys are raking in the blessings, and if not, I better work a little harder! haha I love you all! Tell the family I send my love!
Su hijo,
Elder Marvin =D
So I learned this week that I like to argue. haha ok, I really learned that I need to not do it so much. I dont even do it that much, but it still needs to be less! haha I also learned it is very hard when my companion, Elder Wilson, doesnt agree with a word I say. I just laugh, and I do my bestto bite my tongue, but he is sure there is always a better way. haha I dont quite get it, but oh well. We get along great, he just (in his words) "likes to play the devils advocate" a little ironic for a missionary! haha
I also learned my companion Elder Stringham had a friend die in june and it really helped him understand why he is serving a mission. It was good I think for him just because he really had to figure out where he stands on life and death, no more using a crutch, or parents, you know?
I also learned one of satans greatest tools is distraction. If he can plant a thought (a good one even) and distract you, he is feeling the success. I just gottta fight off my day dreams of flying a heli into the mountains with my family, no matter how much I love it! haha
I am SO ready to go to Chile! and I cant even describe to you how excited I am for it! I love you mom, and I am so glad you and dad have raised me the way you did! I hope you guys are raking in the blessings, and if not, I better work a little harder! haha I love you all! Tell the family I send my love!
Su hijo,
Elder Marvin =D
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Bryces letter 9/8/11
Haha ya, I am blessed with good leaders and just a good district all the way around! She barrowed the suburban? thats a big rig to drive all the way by herself! haha You may have a harder job, but I will pray for your success as well! haha Well I think if I just use the little phone booths at the airports, you know? Then I could call at some lay-over or just whenever, you know? haha I think it would be cool! although, IM going to look like a mess again if I do call! haha
Thanks for taking care of my stuff! What was he planning on doing with my stuff?! Gotta make sure he doesnt get bored with the homeschooling! Well no I am not sick of it, because I cant listen to my music in the mtc, dont ask me why, its weird, I know, I think so too, but thats a rule.... oh well. I shouldnt need another mp3 (yet) but if you find a sheep memory card for my camera it would be handy because I want to just send those home randomly so that you can unload them and I will take pics with the other one, and I was thinking like a 2 gig size like the other one I have! I will try my best to take lots of pictures! it will be easier in the field! haha
Sounds like regular old cows... cant live with them, cant live without them, they are like the annoying cousin no one wants to hurt but doesnt want to associate with! ;) hehehejkjkjkjkjkjkjkjkjk Tell brody good luck, and work hard, it will pay off! Anything I want... well if you can find sweet cheap ties, and I am always up for those! Otherwise....well Alena turns 17 on the 18th, that should fill my fancy! ;) hehehe btw, dont forget her bday present it should be in my room on the dresser under a blanket ( as that is how I left it) If you want to send a treat, coffee cake or banana bread! m,mmmmmmm =D
Well I hope that Brecca is doing better, and I am sure that will happen , just tell her to breathe and say a prayer! and I am glad briggs didnt try to run to town!
Briggs is such a cutie! well I am out of time, actually running over.... woops! haha I love you! Tell everyone I said I love them and I said hi! As for a challenge, have everyone think of a question, chapter 10 of moroni, and ask if they had their questions answered from god! Tell them to pray about it and have faith!Thanks for everything! love you!
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