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!

The First of Many (14)

Officially, as of today, have been out in the mission field for 2 cambios, and as the new cambio comes, my old companion leaves! After 3 longs months, I am getting a new companion. Tomorrow I meet him in the city Chillan at the bus stops. I have ever met him, but I have heard a few things about him from other Elders, for one, he is 38 years old!!!!!!!!!! And he is Elder Hitler when it comes to everything, which for the most part is a good trait, but with the wrong attitude it creates very bad relations. But we shall see, we have 2 baptisms planned for this weekend, so fingers crossed for that! 

This past week has been quite different than most, and in such was a little fome(bad) in somesorts but great in others. On Monday we had our reunion in Chillan, so we did not have any time to get any work done. On Tuesday we had a noche de hogar and a reunion con the Branch mission leader so not much to get done there. On Wednesday we had our one full day of work! On Thursday we had a conference with Member of the 70, named Elder Jorge Zeballos.

The Conference was great! One thing that I really enjoy from the conference was a story about Elder Zeballos and his children. He talked about how he lived near the beach, by that nearby were a group of small mountains. Well one week his children asked him to climb the highest of the mountains with them. Well on the Saturday they looked to see which mountain was the highest, and after left on a trial to head to the top. After a few hours they reached the top, and to there surprise they saw a mountain even higher! And so, the kids asked to climb that higher mountain that they had not seen from the base. So the next Saturday off they went, and after the whole day they reached the top, and cound see as far at the horizon went on the side facing the ocean, but once again there was a higher mountain, which they had not seen before on the summit of the other mountain.The story went on but in the end he wrapped it up be describing what we consider to be our best. How we put constrictions, or walls, on what we consider to be ¨our best.¨ However, these restrictions are limited to our own knowledge. The phrase, give your 100 and 10 percent, connects to this story. We can achieve the wall we have set to be our best, but once we reach that point it is then that we see, that we have a little more to give. Just as we could not see the higher mountain on the other side from the base, until we reach for our best, we will not know our own potencial!

After the conference my companion and I worked in one of our districts sectors because we had 2 interviews for peeps about to get baptised. We ended making it back in Quilon around 8:30, just in time to play futbal with the Priesthood Holders at 9! On Friday we spent the whole day preparing for an activity we had, named El Gran Sueno, or The Great Dream.

El Gran Sueño: An activity we had this week that consisted of first of all inviting all of the members into the chapel and opening the activity with hymn and prayer, followed by presenting how we were then going to lead people. one by one, blindfolded down the halls of the church. While they were walking we gave them a tight rope to hold onto as they walked to give them some source of direction. During their walk we had different rooms opened with people playing music, cooking french fries, sounds of a futbol game on tv, dancing and singing, all that good stuff, and people were tempting them to come and particiapte and partake. Well at the end of the rope led to a well lit tree with decorations, and lights, and golden apples, and was just a spectacular vision to see! If the people made it to the end of the rope they were un-blindfolded, and given a fruit (papermade) and told to wait in their seats, which we had set up. Once everyone had gone, we brought them around the tree explained that our activity was the represent the Dream of Lehi. After we had a festival con deserts, we asked every member to bring a desert of their choice, I made s´more and everyone was freaking out because they loved them so much and it was their first time partaking of such glory! Overall, great activity!!

Saturday we had another reunion and finally we hit Sunday, and Sundays are always filled with planning, studying, and contacting. Overall, the week went well, but we only worked about a third of the time that we usually do so our progression wasn´t as high as we had hoped, but! with the new cambioand the line up of investigators the future is looking well! Spend most of the morning helping my companion pack, though often times he did get on my nerves, I am going to miss Elder Miranda! Everytime I wonder how can anyone create a relationship in just a few short months, I remember that I have been with him constantly, always having him within sight, basically. I hope that the next companion is a good one, I see why it is important to have a companion in marriage that you would always like being around, because like on the mission you can not just leave when you aren´t getting along, but it will be a long time if you don´t like your companion!

Hope all is well, I am missing everyone!

Con Cariño.

Elder Jacob Siaosi

A few pictures from the Conference this week with Elder Zeballos.

It´s that time of the cambio again.

Those close to my heart,

This past week flew by. It feels like yesturday that I was writing home. And now that I think of it I felt like I was getting set apart yesturday, but again, it feels like I was in High School last week so I guess the time changes make sense. Everytime I write home, I wish to be back, if just to see everyone, see the places I miss, and to feel at home. But at the same time, there is no other place I would rather be. This coming week we have another cambio, so I am enxious to find out if I am leaving or getting a new companion here!

This past Tuesday I was on a mini cambio here in Quillon with the other Elders in our casa. One experience that was very special and we both felt like it was inspired. As we were making our way house to house contacting till we eventually made it to the less active we wanted to teach we came upon a split in the road. And it was basically a paved road to the right, which we needed to go down to reach our less active, and the other was a dirt road that was shade-covered with trees. We stopped at the path and waited, we both felt like we ought to go down the dirt road and see where it led. And so we did, and about every 75 yards or so there was a house, many run down without people living in them. And after we reace the end, about 20 minutes later we came to house that had smoke coming from the chimney. We both thought that we might as well contact the house since wehad no luck with the others and we went this far. So we walked up called out ¨Alo¨and waited for abot 5 minutes, to which a woman walked out and said ¨pasen¨ with just means, pass in, and went around the house to see a man with a huge ax cutting wood. She told us to sit down and we talked and ended up teaching her and her husband about the doctrines of Christ, Faith, Repentance, Bautism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Perseverar Hasta al Fin. After which, they not having said a word went into their house and brought our a Libro de Mormon and told us a story. Of how about 20 years ago a set of Sister missionaries came by and taught them, served them, and the famiy had a bond with the sisters, but one day they came by an said that they had to leave but that Elders would return to teach you. Well the times past and no one ever came, and eventually they thought that they had been forgotten, until one day we showed up. After she finished the story we talked about how sometimes God works in mysterious ways, for we did not know to come here or that you were ever waiting. Well after a while we told them we had to leave but that we would visit them in Thursday. After as E´ Barrios and I were walking back we felt so good! This is why I came right! It is experiences like this that makes me stoked for the future!

The rest of the week was a little rough, we had lunches with members twice in the same week, which were about 15 minutes to travel to by car, had way ot many reunions, and spent too much time in visits. But I guess everything has it´s ups and down, just make sure you keep your mind on the positive side, and remember those short moments of bliss to keep you moving forward.

Time is short once again, but iftime keeps moving this fast, I will be writing to you again tomorrow. Hope the best for all at home. Que Dios nos bendiga con salud y trabajo exitoso. Les amo!

Con Amor,

E´ Siaosi




Some more pictures of the joys of Chile. We had a cancelled service project so we decided to spend a few minutes at the playground. 

A passalong card that went wrong.

The metal animals about 25 minutes north of my city on a road that goes forever. We have two roads in our secotr that go on for about 30 miles. 

And lastely, the best quality of food I have had since I got to chile, it was fried mahi mahi, with alfredo sauce and some noodles. We also had soup, bread, fruit, and other unidentifiable meat.

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!