Time Changes, and times change.

Nuevas de Chile

This week was a hard one, not that it was not good, but it had it´s difficulties. You can expect opposition in all things, especially the Lord´s work.  For the past few weeks, we have had our days filled to the brim with work, lessons, and contacts, but we have unfortunately unable to get people commited to follow the commitments, and promises from the Lord. Though I feel like we are doing our best, sometimes we do not receive the blessings we hope for, or expect, but those things that we needed. One thing that straight hard work achieves, is you can see who people really are, and you can see who you really are. In the story of Job we know he had many things in his life he worked for, and thus was obedient to those things of the Lord. Later he was tested and stood strong to his heart keeping the things of the Lord close. After he had lost everything he began to see that material things, numbers, or wealth do not keep us strong, but our will, and our mind. The spirit is strong. The relationship between my companion and I is starting to open up, and if I ever learn one thing from our time together, and it can be summarized in a Quote from Jeffery R. Holland.                                                                                                                                                                 “Some blessings come soon, some come late,  and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

All we can do is keep on keeping on. We are getting a set of people ready for baptism this coming month, hope all goes as planned! Other than work, it is starting to get really cold down here, and I am not even in Osorno. So very grateful for all the sweet gear I have, special thanks to Brother Bertha! I always imagined it to be fairly sweet in Concepcion, but I hear it rains there everyday so I am alright in good ol Quillon! Overall, enjoying the work, working on getting letters to people, I never imagined the days to be so filled. Till next week, Chao Chao!

Elder Siaosi

The pictures before the cambio. And the good Jesus paintings that are all over the town!

Semana Santa

As of today I have been out in the mission for 4 of my 16 cambios, and though it seems like I still have a long time to go, I have hardly been out in Chile. As we hit the 21 of Abril we hit another 6 weeks and that means cambios, lucky for me I am still in good ol´Quillon with my companion Elder Bueno! This cambio is his last so I will be killing him as he prepares to return home just in time for the Mundial. He actually wants to extend his mission but the president says that he can not since he will not be able to get a return flight home due to the huge attraction to the east due to the Mundial! This week has been one of stress, but also of great joy!

As for many of your questions, all is well in my area of Chile, though for others not so well, there are many fires, earthquakes, and even tsunamis that are devastating towns, so many of the prayers are being sent to them.

Starting off this week we have been finding people to teach like crazy, we actually have 3 new invests se llaman Jose, and two Luis(es), along with many more Maria(s)! This week had so much fun and success in this manner that it reminded me the joys of doing the Lord´s work, there are so many people waiting for us!

This week we also had the opportunity to have many Noches de Hogar and really help people remember why we celebrate Easter, and for whom we ought to remember. Down here they do not make easter eggs, or such, so we were able to share a very strange custom from ¨gringo land¨ and also thanks to a sweet package from my Family, I was able to give this little girl, one of our new investigators, birthday presents from the Elderes.

Speaking of packages, this week I recieved 4 packages, I was in a state of shock and stoked! Thanks so much to my Aunt Jane, Aunt Jen, my mother, and my dad, who sent me a Nike band because he wants to see if I am actually working. It is funny what things get sent in packages, all of which are good, especially the peanut butter, thank you so much! You would be surprised how grateful people are too to receive something from the United States, one of our investigators was eternally grateful I gifted him a pen from the states. HA! But again thank you so much family!!

This past Saturday was a little jam packed, I was asked to give a talk, our Hermanas in our district asked us to come to where they lived because there was someone ¨creepy¨ outside their house at night, it was their neighbor. And! we were without light in our house so I had to write my talk with a headlight, thanks Dad, and after the night, in the morning at church the whole stake leadership was there and so the missionaries didn´t talk!!

However, yup all is well with me! It is getting cold, but I would rather be cold than hot! Thank you for all of your support! Otta head out!

Elder Siaosi

Pictures of the Season

The girl is so happy in this photo because I gave her some of the toys you send to me in a package a little while back!

High on a Mountain Top

Dearest Family,

First of all, sorry I was not able to finish my letter last week, the whole area of Quillon lost internet access for the day so we all had to just send our letters real quick!

But hopefully, this letter will be better!

Starting off, the week was not too exciting, just a lot of hard work and hastening the work! This whole week we have been working in the more country part of my sector, trying to meet new people that have never talked to the missionaries, which is hard because almost everyone is less active or has a less active family member! One crazy experience of trying to find new people, we came to a house where all off the family were being taught by the missionaries but never got baptized because after the great earthquake here in 2010, they were forced to move and build a new house and lost contact with the missionaries! Well now we are teaching them and they are absolutely amazing!!

Another sweet experience I had this week was with a boy named Bastian, who happens to have the same birthday as me, January 10th! Well this boy, the son of a less active, does not have a father, only his mom is in his life, though he is a normal boy he definately lacks the fatherly parent in his life. Well one day we were teaching his mother, Alejandra, and while we were waiting for her to cook something delicious, I do not know why some people always think they have to feed us when we visit, but I am not complaining. Anyways, while we were waiting, he starting playing with this toy light I have, in the shape of a shark,  and he brought out these coins of 10 pesos, begging me to sell him the shark. Well after some hard bargaining, I accepted four 10 peso coins for the shark and told him that it would protect him in the dark from monsters. The next week, Alejandra called us and asked to visit. We came and she starting giving us so much thanks for all we have done, her son uses the shark and is never afraid, how silly, but I never realized how great small things can be.

Two minutes left!

We went to the mountain this Monday and it was the longest hike I have ever done in the dark!  

E Siaosi

Season of the Conference

WHAT A GREAT WEEK!

I am so excited to write home but I don´t know what to write because there is so much that I want to say, and I only have 15 minutes to type it all out. First of all, I have been trying to work on my attitude in the mission to better apply myself to my work ethics, but I have been having a hard time trying to be that sort of missionary. This past week had been filled with miracles, but they were not mine, we were the miracle to someone else. The work is great, and the fruits are beautiful. I am not sure if I said this before, but nothing is better than being the answer to someone else´s prayers. One day in the morning we were just contacting houses to meet new people and one lady answered us after many unopened houses. She opened the door and started crying, not sure why she told us to come in, and then she expressed to us how she was praying for help, she could not walk well and thus could not leave the house, she felt lonely, none of her family lives near and she just wanted to die from depression. She had knelt down on her knees and prayed for someone to come to her house and make her lose these feelings. In the same instant she stopper praying we called ALO at her door. We taught her, gave her a blessing, prayed for her, and then left to return in another day. This is just one of the many great miracles that happened this week. Conference was amazing too!

I have to go now, the internet is lagging hard!!!!!!!!!!!

During the middle of Conference we thought that we would take time to take a few pictures for the families.

Some pictures of the average days work, we try to find the best enjoyable parts of the day to make the hard parts easy. And the last picture with the matching shoes...¨but it was 99 cents!¨ 

Disfrute el Tiempo que Tenemos.

It is always hard to think about what I want to write, there is always do much, and I only have so much time as well So I guess I shall just give a review on this amazing week!

First of all, this week flew by so fast! It started on Monday with our 4 Pday of the month, and due to various reasons we were all out of money, only having like 4 mil to the each of us, and since it is about three mil to get to our Clase de Districto on Tuesday we were reluctant to use any money at all! So we were without money to buy food, and all other ¨necesities´ and so after talking it over the hermanas in our sector of Quillon invited us to have lunch with them, compromising to buy us lunch if we payed for them the next week (today) and so we agreed! Well the hermanas invited us to an activity with a senior couple called The Pulisifers and said that dos(2) other hermanas were going to be there as well. Well when we got to our destination where we wanted to have lunch, once there we found out that the reunion was meant to be for a get together of all the hermanas in ¨Chillan¨, thus it was doce(12) hermanas and not dos, and the Pulsifers were not even there! Well we invited a few more Elders and all was good. 

Then on Tuesday I had a mini cambio with Elder Jackson, since in his sector he had 2 people that were to be baptized and thus they needed to be interviewed by my companion. Our cambio was a blast, Elder Jackson first started his mission in my sector but knew about no Spanish so this cambio he was able to visit all of his converts and menos activos with a whole new idioma! 

On Wednesday I had a mini cambio with Elder Ramirez, the traveling assistant, who happens to be such a great missionary! I was a little on edge since it was basically a minicambio to test me on my work habits, lessons, contacts, and all the such, so at first I was a little enxious to work with him, but after a little while, he told me that he was here to aid me in my work, teach me new things, and help me fix that which I lacked. Well the day went by and we had so many good lessons, met so many people, and if I learned anything out of the whole cambio, it is that we need to ¨walk tall¨ in our work. Have pride in what we do, no matter what it is! The same night I had planned a Noche de Hogar with one of the member families in our ward, and after not being able to share the planned lesson we had prepared since the Tv they had didn´t work, I shared a lesson about Faith. If we have faith as little as a seed we can work miracles, and out of all the miracles we have in our lives we need to be thankful fot the little things as well as the great ones in our live, and we can show our gratitude by: being obedient to the commandments, all of them, and by being obedient we are blessed with more miracles, and so it is a circle in this life, that all starts with Faith, and everything else flows into place! It was a great night, we had food, they members were happy to see my new companion for a day, and also E Ramirez having worked in my sector earlier in his mission wanted to we visit some of his converts too!

After a straight work, on Thursday we had our Noche de Hogar for the Rama. Basically what the whole night was about, was to edify the testimonies of the members and to share a little more about the Libro de Mormon! it was great, everyone had a good time, and like all good activities we had food after!

We were in Florida yesterday, to contact, to teach, and open the unknown part of our sector. Well, if I say one thing, it was almost the best experience in the mission! All were humble and nice people, the work was great, we were able to pass into peoples home and share a little, which never happens in any other sector, and we met many more people that want us to meet with them! Only one little problem, and that is the transportation. It is like 30 minutes or so in a bus to get there and the last one leaves Florida to Quillon at 8:30 so we can not get our full time of the day working there, and it is also a pain to get there, and even more to bring people to church all the way to Quillon. But the people there are literally waiting for us! What made it the best was not ever an experience of mine it was of the hermanas that came with us. The story goes like this: They were contacting the in the street to find people to teach and they came across a man that litterally had been humbled to his knees. His father had just recently passed away, and his 9 year old son had died 4 months back. He had lost his job, and his wife wanted to divorce him. The man had been trying to kill himself for about 3 weeks, and was on the way to buy a drink at the bar, and had planned to end his life after. Well our hermanas talked to him and taught him there in the street, they invited him to read a little about the Plan of Salvacion, and invited him to let them return. After he accepted and gave the dirrection of his wife, which the hermanas taught as well and she accepted to meet with them as well. I do not know the extent of how touching it was for our sisters, but when we reunited at the bus stop and I asked them how was Florida, Hermana Ruiz started crying and thanked my for convicing us to work in Florida. I enjoyed the experience very much, and hope to return this Sunday.

One thing that I noticed today, is that I have a little more pep in my step, I am a little more excited to work, I guess I must have lost that desire to work that I had first started with. And so one thing that I invite everyone to do, as well as myself is to Disfrute el Tiempo que Tenemos (Enjoy the time that we have).Don´t ever forget that everyday we have is a gift, that is why they call it the present right! Enjoy what we have, what we used to have, and what we will have. Enjoy our lives, our families, our jobs, our callings, everything. We don´t have time to be sad!

I am thankful for everyone at home, and here in Chile. The mission is so awesome, and amazing, and astounding! Hope all is well!

Con Amor,

Elder Siaosi

Pictures in Florida and the second cutest girl ever

Just a few Libro de Mormones fotos

Ups and Downs

To the Ones I love,

This past week was another one of those super busy weeks, filled with conferences, minicambios, and a bunch of other reunions! Monday my companion had to leave with another Elder in our house, Elder Barrios who is now a lider de Districto so I was in Quillon with Elder Mills, to which all we had was a Noche de Hogar with some of Elder Mills Menos Activos. It was a bit interesting since I was the one leading the meeting and did not really know his peeps. We had our  interviews with the President, one every three months this past Tuesday and everything is going great with our mission! Also, was able to talk to him and we finally have real beds in our house!  Whooooo! To be honest, we really were not able to work all that much this week due to a already filled agenda!

In between the times where we were not having reunions, and were able to work, and with our work both good and the bad seem to show themselves. Starting with the bad, Elder Bueno and I had a mother and her two kids with fecha to be baptized, they were golden, having been taught by the missionaries about 10 years back, all these feelings of the spirit came back into her life and she was ready to be baptized then and there and wanted her kids to be baptized too, and so the second time we returned to talk to her she had completely changed, now she was a little depressed, and though still wanted to talk to us, told us that after talking to her husband, we were not allowed to return, mainly being because when the other missionaries were at her house, they would visit her everyday, and often times took away her time with the family and her husband. WHAT A LETDOWN!!!! And so after that we left her house to contact another one of the people we taught, and to our surprise one of the members of the branch was at her house! And so we were able to pass in and teach them with the member and now we have two other invests, Rita y Ignacio! They have been to church twice and love it! So just like in life, the mission has its ups and downs, and sometimes it changes drastically fast! All we can do is just keep on keeping on right! 

One scripture I love is in Mosiah 4:9. In our life so must flys by as each and every day progresses. One thing that I have been promted to share with almost all of the miembros of the church is that we have spiritual highes and lowes. And many times the highes are much much fewer than the spiritual experiences in our lives, but if we think back to the day we became converted into the church, and the day we were baptized, and the day we had our first child, and any other high we were priviledged to recieve, and remember how we felt and what it was, that the times that are harder in our lives may become easier for we can remember. Remember what we knew then, and know now. 

 9 Believe in ^aGod; believe that he is, and that he ^bcreated allthings, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all^cwisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not ^dcomprehend all the things which the Lord cancomprehend.

And many times we may not even understand what and why things happen in our lives. But if we remember the moments that matter the most. Our lives will have more meaning and be much easier filled with more happiness and tranquility.

I am grateful for everyone in my life, and wish the best!

Con Cariño,

Elder Siaosi

The first few are pictures with me and my companion with a sweet sunset in Quillon, the ones after are of a lunch with some other fellow missionaries, and the last is a foto in front of the well known site of the Catholics, it is beautiful!

Pictures of Luchito from last Saturday

Obedience Without a Reason

Dear Friends and Family,

First things first, my new companion is only 27! And to make things better he only have 10 weeks left in the mission. A little more truth about my companion: though he is almost a nazi when it comes to following the rules exactly, he has a good heart when it comes to being obedient. He has a desire to recieve the blessings from being odedient! One thing I though that he does have, or does not have, is no patience with anything! But were he lacks in patience he makes up for in experience! He is an excellent teacher, knows the doctrine, and desires to get the people of Chile back to church and into the waters of baptism!

Speaking of Baptism, with almost all of the work from Elder Miranda and with the support of Elder Bueno, we were able to get two souls into the saving waters of baptism, and it was absolutely amazing! Also they, Luis and Luchito had asked me to do the ordinances! I was so nervous and at the same time excited! It may be the best experience ever! To bring someone closer to God! 

Well I actually have to go, a member asked us to help her with a blessing for the sick! Entoces must go!

Till next week! Chao!

E´ Siaosi

En Sábado tenia mi segundo Bautismal con Luis Talavera aka Luchito! Su Confirmación fue en Domingo!

 En Domingo tenia mi tercera bautismal con Luis Caceres aka Luis Loco porque tiene una casa loca!