The end of the month.

If there is one thing that every missionary comes to learn, is how to properly use your studies, time, and most importantly your money! At the beginning of the month every missionary in my mission recieves 100 mil which sounds like a lot right, well it is not! So what I have come to realize, in the United States we have cents, like 100 cents makes one dollar, well here they only have pesos, so 1000 pesos is only like 2 bucks. Well at the end of every month each missionary finds out i he used his money well or not, for I have to make sure to have at least 3.2 mil at the end ofthe last week for travel, and due to my well planning (or luck) I have 4 mil! But unlike me, my companion has no money left over! So one again we get to scrounge for cash!

This week has been fairly swell. Nothing to horrible, but no baptisms or miracles We have been doing a lot of traveling in our sector which is good that we reach out into all of our area, but the problemis that there is so end! On Monday we drove out to the parents of a members house (in bus) and had lunch and shared a message and they showed us their land so to speak, got to shoot this janky rifle too so that was exceptional! 

On Tuesday I was on a minicambio with another gringo in our area Elder Mills and we are straight newb thus we had the real struggle with our Español, but we have good lessons and many contacts.

Wednesday was the real odd part this week, we took a bus about 45 minutes away to this area called Florida (Miami) had lunch and did some work there, was a first time, and we plan on returning this week to do some more work (we have another lunch there.) 

The rest of the week was just plain, though my companion and I did have a sweet spiritual experience with a few lessons. One that was better than the rest started out on a really unproductive Saturday. My companion and I had no one to take to church that was an Investigator and so we felt pretty bumbed trying to see who would come and teach them. Well as we passed this one street that had a man we had ¨taught¨ before, which consisted of just him rambling and we taught him the history of the Book of Mormon gave him one and left since we were standing outside his house teaching. Well as we were walking I felt like we ought to check on Luis and see how his reading was and teach him if we could. my companion did not want to, saying he wuold just talk forever and we would waste our time. After about 5 minutes I convinced him to go. And as we thought he talked for about an hour alone before we asked him about the Book of Mormon, he had read it but didn´t remember much. And he talked for like another half hour, but as the discussion ended we invited him to church, he agreed and the next day he came and loved it and wants to return next week! Sweetness! 

The mission is such a great experience, to all who debate on going, it is well worth it. I am growing, finding my flaws, and attempting to make them better. I get to serve the Lord and see the benefits of spreading his word.

Hope all is well, for all is well here!

With much love,

E´ Siaosi

The picture of the lake is interesting but the best part is I just reciently found out that part of our sector is on the other side of the lake and we can only get their by boat...or kayak... The other picture of us all at the table for lunch was we had rice with this fishy tuna that wasnt  cooked right and smelled bad, but ate it like always. A photo with the feet, I dont know I saw another picure like this somewhere so I thought I would be ¨cool¨ and the last pic is with the kitties. I love the children.

The War of Tomatoes (24)

Alo, ¿Como estaí?

It has been a quick past week, I feel like I was wiriting home like yesturday! This past week has been quite a week of differences. We had a noche de hogar with a member and his friends this past monday and somehow after planning this great lesson for the night, the head of the house asked me to teach a lesson on how the Book of Mormon blesses families. I had no idea what would be best to teach so I just thought what to teach during the prayer.  I ended up teaching from the introduction of the First Book of Nefi. It is a bit interesting because before I never had considered it was worth reading, you know just something you skip over, but I´ll add itso you can see what I saw.

An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah, and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The Lord warns Lehi to depart out of the land of Jerusalem, because he prophesieth unto the people concerning their iniquity and they seek to destroy his life. He taketh three days’ journey into the wilderness with his family. Nephi taketh his brethren and returneth to the land of Jerusalem after the record of the Jews. The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife. They take their families and depart into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness. The course of their travels. They come to the large waters. Nephi’s brethren rebel against him. He confoundeth them, and buildeth a ship. They call the name of the place Bountiful. They cross the large waters into the promised land, and so forth. This is according to the account of Nephi; or in other words, I, Nephi, wrote this record.

It is a summary of the Book of Nefi right, but when you really look at it with different eyes it becomes much more personal.

An account of Lehi and his wife Sariah, and his four sons, being called, (beginning at the eldest) Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi. The account of their sufferings. They take the daughters of Ishmael to wife. They take their families and depart into the wilderness. Their sufferings and afflictions in the wilderness. The course of their travels. 

All that the Book of Mormon is, is that a story of a family and how through their trials and their joys that found their way through the Lord. This book is an example in our own family on how we can achieve peace of mind and hope. Well it went alright and they were grateful for my lesson so I was stoked! And later in the week they asked to help them with cutting trees for firewood during winter so we got to have fun with chainsaws as well!

Another sweet experience was we ended up contacting this family one day and they asked us to teach them, the only problem was they lived like 2 hours walk away. Well anyways we made they trek, and taught the family. Well! We found out they had already owned a Book of Mormon, read it and believed in it´s doctrine! They just had a bunch of questions for us, and in the end they accepted to be baptised but not a date since they didn´t know how long they would be til all the family could be baptised. Thus the next lesson should be a good one!

Don´t have too much time left,have a lesson in the middle of our PDAY, This past Sunday I gave a talk on the attribute of Service and how it can help the missionary work in our ward. I think the congregation were able to understand my spanish! Through small and simple things, great are come to past!

Love everyone and hope all well! Work hard now so that in the future you can enjoy the fruits!

Con amor,

E´ Siaosi

Oh and I went to the guerra de tomates in chile quillon, did not participate, but watched a little, while contacting of course.

Elder Leatherface in his servicio of cutting trees, A picture that my companion thought was funny of the 5 hermanas at one of our family home evenings, and lastly the wonders of a bed breaking and janking in to work.

We happened to past by this war of tomatoes during our way to a lesson!

A World of Disappointment

Hola Hola! This has been a super tiring week!

Monday

 We had a conference in Chillian, which remember is an hour or so bus ride from Quillon. That ended around 5  and then we took a bus home to which we had to go straight to work since Pday ends at 6:30. After we finally got home, we walked to our first site which was with this super sweet investigatora futura, so we walked to her house (which was super far) and she wasn`t there, so we decided to just go back and think about what to do, to wait or to find others. So we decided to wait and we sat on this bench, of which a man was smoking on another bench right next to it. So we talked to him because we had time, and believe it or not he was a member of about 7 months and had moved away from his old ward. We talked a little bit and then my companion did something that was amazing. Asked him about baptism, asked him about why he originally wanted to change his life. And then, he called him to repentance like it says in the scriptures, and then straight up called him to repentance, for the Santa Cena is for everyone. Luis Torres was his name, and Luis started to cry. He had moved because he wanted to live closer to his daughters but began to stop going to church and started up smoking again, and when we talked with him he felt a spirit that he had not felt for a long time, and he told us how grateful he was for the missionaries. Well we visited him and his daughters are progressives now. And to make the day even better, Isabel, the futura we wanted to teach came home while we were talking with Luis so we were able to talk with her, and it was a GREAT lesson, she talked about how she was searching for the right church but none seemed right, so when we contacted her earlier she agreed because she said ¨we had a good spirit about us and she wanted to learn more.¨ When we were done she agreed to more lessons and wanted her daughters to listen to us too.

Tuesday

We had our weekly Clase de Districto in Chillan, so more traveling. And the normalities of the day, more lessons, none too grandiose, contacts and such, but later we got a call from our zone leaders and they said we had to take the last bus from Quillon to Chillan, (which we thought was 9 at night) because my companion had a reunion to attend early in the morning for the new Liders de Districto. So at 9 we waiting and waited, and the last bus ended coming at 10:10 at night! So by the time we got to the house we were to stay at for the night it was 11:45, and we are supposed to be asleep at 11:30! 

Miercoles

Mini-Cambio in the sector Volcanes(Chillan) with a new missionary of only 2 weeks! And it was raining, and I didn`t bring any rain gear because it has only rained like twice since I have been here, so that was a joy. Well in the morning we had a service project super far in the ghetto of Chillian, so we are walking in the rain and when we get there the lady said, and I kid you not ¨Shootah, no pensé que iban a venir porque estaba lloviendo¨ which translates into- I did not think you were going to come since it was raining...¨ Well then! So we just told her we could return later in the week. Now we had about 2 hours of nothing to do before lunch, so we searched for souls to save, and searched, and we when figured we ought to head for where we had lunch my companion, being a newb had no idea where he was and thus we were lost. To make things even better on our adventures to find lunch my companion slipped and his whole right side of his self was covered in mud and it was a joy! But onward to lunch because they prepared a lunch for us and we are going to eat haha! Well after lunch we just went back to his house and he cleaned up and be then our other companions returned and he separated ways and headed back to Quillon. But not without the super sweet package sent from home!!!! Thanks so much for the jersey, I look like a real fut-baller now! Love the drawings too! Thanks Big Joe for those words of wisdom too, you´re a good example for me in my life. 

Thursday-Friday

Just plain work for the most part.

Sabado

The day started out a little slow, visited some members, had a few contacts, and then around 7pm, had my first BAPTISM! Jose was his name and it was so rad¡ My companoin did the ordinance of baptism, and after it was like Jose was a completely different person, en serio, his whole demeanor changed. We had the service and then after he and Hector (who was another Baptism the Hermanas in our Sector had) went to a members house and had a little get together, and us missionaries just went home and celebrated with some super rico food we were given by the family of Hector. I would say it was a good day!

Domingo

The Confirmacion. Church. Planning for the Week. And back off to work!

So yah, fairly decent week I would say. Sometimes you have disappointments because things don´t work out like you wanted them too, but that is alright. God works in mysterious ways. One mensaje mormon I find interesting is called Wrong Roads. It talks about how many times we go down the wrong roads because then we know that the other way is the absolute right road. And when things don`t go as planned or you choose the wrong choices in life, you find out what is exactly the right decision to make because you know the wrong one. God loves us all, and I love you all as well. As always hope all is well at home, keep on keeping on.

Con Amor,

E´ Siaosi


1. Elder Barrios and I in the plaza of Chillan

2. Lunch and the house of Mario and Mario after a servicio 

3. The Church!

4. We are the CIA, or at least many people think we are

    Pictures of the Baptiziers and the Elders

Feasting on the Spirit during this Fast Sunday

This week has been so filled with work! On Tuesday we had to send away Elder Rojas, and he didn´t pack anything until that morning haha! After that we  had to go to the city Chillan to pick up Elder Mills and his new comp. And now we have a new missionary in our House, his name is Elder Barrios de Guatemala and he has been out for about 7 months. We had to get him all unpacked and show him the ropes of dry Ol´ Quillon. Later this week we helped an Investigator find a new house to live in because she needed to move out of her home with her boyfriend and live solo in the new house until they get married. The good news, now she is able to get baptised yah!

On Friday we had to do this miserable service project to clean this lady´s house and build a new roof, and it will take multiple days to finish, the Hermanas in our Sector set it up...Sometimes I feel like it is good to help, but I do not want to waste my time, serving someone and only one person instead broadening my game. After that I went to Chillan because since my companion is a district leader he is responsable for baptismal interviews. The sweet part was an Elder Jackson came here, who served here before when he first arrived to Chile. The day was great we visited old inverstigators of his, converts, and menos activos and they were so glad to see him, and he committed them and the accepted, many came to church that haven't in a long time. The next day my companion returned and we had to help this lady again! But we owe the Hermanas they do so much for us Elders so we always give them favors! 

Later that day my companion and I were contacting and we stopped and this house that looked like it had not been inhabited forever, so we contacted it for fun right, well this man comes out and invites us in and his wife is there also. They both have thier scriptures out on the table with hymn books and they tell us they have been waiting for us to arrive all week! So weird, they said they had moved to Quillon about a few years ago and stopped coming to church (they had been full members who wore G´s and all). And this past week, the husband felt like he needed to come to church but didn`t think much of it, and then he felt that someone was going to visit him from the church, and we showed up the next few days! They asked us to sing a hymn, and we did, and then give a spritual thought, and then did something super awesome, they gave us references to other family in the area. This Sunday we have 6 menos activos come to church, 5 recent convert, and two investigators. Not too shabby. We almost doubled the ward, haha ok not really but there are about 65 people each reunion and we brought 13 more people than the last weeks attendance!

JOSE. Alright so this coming week we have a very special date planned for the 8th of February. The baptism of our best investigator Jose. He is super great and listens intently to every lesson and completes every commitment! Also a little fun fact about Jose, he can`t read, thus we have to teach him with videos, pictures, and by reading him scriptures. Yesturday we had a Noche de Hogar with him and a few other members in our ward. We played games, ate food, and taught him the commandments necessary for baptism (tithing, Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and the 10 commandments). He has his interview this Thursday so fingers crossed! 

So far this cambio has been great but hope for much more exito! Miss and love everyone at home. Wish the best!!

Elder Siaosi

Oh and one chiste I heard from my zone leader that was a little funny!

Why was the tomatoe red?

Because he saw the salad dressing!

 Jose is the man next to the missionaries! We have a huge circus in town, and forgive my comp he cant take a good picture. A manual nacho cart, and pics of the old zone before cambios!

First Cambio in the Mission Field!

Can`t believe it is already time for another week to begin! Today was the first exchanges, luckily for me, I get to stay in Quillon. After having a few mini cambios, I have begun to realize how blessed a town Quillon is. It is the calmest area in Chile! En serio! The people are so laxed, and will honestly give their all. We had one family cook us lunch, which remember is a big meal here, and later that day we found out that the family had no more food for the next day because they used it all to feed us. So we managed to muster up some pesos and buy/cook food and surprise them. It was so amazing, we had a noche de hogar (family home evening) and we realized how blessed we are to have each other, and we are meant to bear anothers burdens. Anyways, me and my comp are staying, though he got promoted to big time District leader so I get to travel much more for interviews and such!

Already, so this past week was fairly decent. We have had a lot of member present lessons which is very important in our work, and one Hermano Lopez has been wanted to work with us a lot since he doesn`t have much else to do. The best part about him accompaning us is that he has a CAR! Thus, we have been trying to reach out to those menos activos in the country, like way far out. And those lessons are actually very promising! Two times we went out to visit them and they were working so we helped them so that they had extra time, like we grabbed the eggs in the chicken´s coops and we picked tomatoes and such. Oh and for those of you who don`t like tomatoes, we have them with absolutely every meal, I have started to really like them. Instead of having salad like we know it in the USA, they have tomatoes! And usually only tomatoes! One members house was along this dirt road that took us 3 hours to get to (we didn´t know where it was except for ¨it`s the house and the end of the road¨) and when we arrived they lived in the really old looking wood house and outside was a mini coup, and inside they had the new ps4 and a freaking huge flat screen haha! Anyways they came to church, and so did his 3 beautiful daughters! On the way back we contacted someone very interesting. He knew a little ingles, had read the Libro de Mormon (he likes to read and a friends gave it to him) and he has never met the missionaries!, the only issue, he lives in the campos.

Been giving a lot of blessings for the sick, one man, who was not even a member had heard that the missionaries were able to give blessings of the sick, so he asked us to give one to his son. It went great, and hopefully will lead to the water. So another time we were walking just contacting some houses in the campos, we found this giant hand looking thing, which from what my comp thinks, some crazy guy carved it, named luci. Which when I asked luci who...he said luci fer....so who knows ahah.

IT RAINED! One day it rained, the last Thursday, and it poured for about 5 hours in the morning, and then when it stopped the sky cleared and is hasn't rained since! It was so odd, is was freezing that day it rained and then next is was super hot. One thing I am grateful for, every night the sky is clear and I can see the stars as I go to bed. All I know, is it passes all my understanding. 

Lastly, my week concluded by my companion and I eating at a menos activo house, she is fairly old and is very sweet and dear to us. Well as missionaries it is a rule for us not to eat mariscos, which are clams. Well she made soup with mariscos. All I know is we ate them gladly without saying a word. Sometimes it is hard to tell what is wrong and what is right. While trying to be cien por ciento obedient, I feel sometimes the rules can be adjusted. But I know this that through having faith in the Lord, and following by odendience,you will find peace and rest in your life. As in Moroni 7:3--  

 3 Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the ^achurch, that are the ^bpeaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient ^chope by which ye can enter into the ^drest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.

As missionaries people are put into our path, and have been prepared for us, but we are disobedient, leaving late,spend to much time in lessons, or other obstacles, we fall off that path that has been layed before us. How can we expect God to let thing fall into our lives if we are not where he drops them? 

Hope all is well. May Dois Bendice nos con salud y sus bendciones. Be ready to recieve them, for they are there.

ConAmor, 

Elder Siaosi

Faith is a hope for things which are true, and hope is a power beyond all imagination

What the crazy week! Lets see, started out with another mini cambio with Elder Trancoso again, he loves the cambios I guess, so we´ve had a few(3). It was a sweet experience. One thing about the people of Chile, you never know if they are able to be taught. The HARDEST part about the work here is that about 80 percent of the time people are either not ready to be taught (not home, or too busy to be taught) or they never take things in, as a serious matter, they talk fast, and talk a lot about nothing, straight up nada haha. Half our conversations talk about how freaking hot it is! Buen pe, we did have one lesson with a super progressive family of 5, and we taught the 10 Mandamientos, and the Palabra de Sabiduría. After they agreed to follow both laws, my companion (Trancoso) said, well then, do you have anything that goes against these laws, and she said she had coffee, and so he said bring me your coffee. And she was a little taken back, and then he asked again if she was ready to follow all of God´s commandments, and if so bring me your coffee, and then he stood up and we went with her into the kitchen and had her get her coffee and I put it in my backpack! So sick! One thing I have begun to notice is that the days go by super slow but the weeks are fast, and another Elder who has been out 11 months told me that soon the weeks will be super slow, and the months are fast! One bad thing about the cambio, I think they have straight up poisonous plants around their house! But at least the rash went away! One thing I have realized, we as missionaries walk for miles, have aches and pains, get disappointed, and have a fear for every lesson and contact. That is what it is all about though, because for that one baptism, I´d have it no other way!

Had a little fit with my companion this week, we use bikes sometimes, and as a rule, we need helmets, so he made me buy one, and he would get one later since the store only had one. Well he never bought one and we went on using them for about two weeks. Then one day he told me we were not going to use bikes anymore, and I got a little frustrated because I had to buy a helmet (they are not cheap) and he told me we needed helmets so we can´t use them anymore, WHAT THE HECK, but oh well, it was just an hour of bad attitudes, but one thing I realized, it was not worth it, nothing went well, and as Rep. of JC himself, I was not being my best. We got over it after a while, and things are back to normal. If there is any place to change yourself, it would be during the mission, so why not change for the better.

Well we finally have someone with a baptism date, but she was not able to make it to church this Sunday, even though she said would. And so my companion and I waited for her outside of the church, and when it was time for La Santa Cena, the Usher would not open the door for us because they just started the song for the Sacrament, and so we didn´t get any, which I was disappointed but not to bothered about it, AND THEN the next hour we had a meeting with the stake president telling us how we were bad examples for the young people in the ward, and how we have bad planning (which we walked 20 minutes to the investigators house and she was not there so we left to get another investigator, and then 10 minutes before church she called us and said she was walking over), and how we are missionaries of the Lord and need to be the example for the ward! But I guess all we can do is just try to be better, and represent the Lord better.

OH! So we had this super sweet fundraiser for the jovens to be able to pay for EFY, and it was a big tournament for fútbol and we had food and drinks to buy and it was an all out great experience. The missionaries made it to the Finals and lost to these super scrubby guys :P But after this sweet activity for the Branch, my companion and I were walking back to our casa and we saw an accident! It was a hit and run, this white truck rammed a blue van at a cross section and both went straight into this concrete casa no one lives in! And the truck reversed and then hauled. Well my comp and I ran over, there were two people in the van, both were conscious, but the driver had her leg pinned to the door and her arm was broken, but nothing fatal so that was good. That was a crazy night!

Almost time for my first real cambio(which we have every 6 weeks) I do not think I will be moved or have a new comp since I am still being trained but who knows. I feel like as soon as I get the Spanish down I will be PRO! Teaching people is not that hard for me to do, I know what people need to hear and be taught, this I have been trained in, and my companion is a great teacher as well. Hopefully by the next cambio I shall have the language in the bags! Hope everyone at home is heathly and well. I am doing great. One thought for all at home: It is a Mormon message about why sometimes God lets us go down the Wrong Roads in this life. For all those who feel like they are have problems and doubts about their lives.

Les Amo, and wish you well, 

Elder Siaosi

                 A little of the glory of Chile in Quillon. The sunset is smoke, not clouds!

The weeks fly by, but the days are oh so Long!

Hola Hola!

Fairly busy week, not much time to email this week! Got a meeting in the big city! Had a great birthday! Had a random meeting with the Zone in Chillan (hour out so it is a hassle) and we had a normal class like on tuesdays but after Elder Clawson pulled out this cake for me and the whole zone sung Feliz Cumple! Also we had lunch at a members house whose birthday was the same as mine so we shared regalos! BTW thanks again for that awesome package for the birthday! This week I went on a mini cambio, which is when you go on splits for a day with another person in your zone, which happens to be an hour drive for me, and that was quite fun, we were both greens, but he is from Chile so at least we had that!  All is well with me, hope for the same at home! Love everyone and wish you well!

One good spiritual story!

We were at a members house and I was supposed to give the spiritual thought but I was not quite sure what to say so I was flipping through the scritptures, it didn't help it was in Spanish! And I stopped at a verse I had no idea what it said and I just looked through it. I announced that I wanted to read Mosiah 4:9 and then attempted to read it In english it reads:

 9 Believe in ^aGod; believe that he is, and that he ^bcreated all things, 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 can comprehend. 

After I finished, Hermano Lopez (the member) starting crying, he began to tell us about his wife, about how she had died two months ago, and that everyday he pondered about God, and how his sorrow and how much he missed her. And that this scripture was exactly what he needed to hear. M companion started to tell me about how before his wife died he visited them and was prompted to share Alma 40:11, he didn`t know what it said until he read it. It is a very touching scripture about our souls after the pass, look it up if you have the time! Hope to touch those with the Spirit! If I stay ready to teach I won`t have to get ready right!

Love everyone, hope to write much more next week! 

Elder Siaosi

Learning how to make the most  famous food down here! Sopaipillas! They are just fried biscuits and the people down here basically eat everything with them down here! And the other, is this sweet old gothic catholic building we attended a meeting in (it was a Catholic meeting). While on the mini cambio, a investigator said he would go to our church if we went to his!