Roller Coaster

Our Branch President and his wife after the meeting with Elder Holland

Family!

We had a very crazy week! It has been a roller coaster. Monday and Tuesday we worked on coming up with ideas to get this place rolling. I really appreciated dad’s counsel, as always. We have been working with the Branch President, who is awesome! He is very excited to work with us. I think we can really pull off something big here. We meet with him on Tuesday to finalize plans and start incorporating members. I am very excited to get this started. The most efficient way for us to work is through members. I hate tracting; too much time and too little result. It’s good to work hard but it is good to work smart as well.

We had a big inter cambio this weekend and I was paired with one of the office missionaries for a day.  He is from Mexico and attended the CCM before it changed over. We did a lot of tracting. I stayed the night in his apartment. He lives with the Assistants. The Assistants and Office Missionaries are all great guys and were really cool to me.

The next night we were back with our regular companions but we stayed at the District Leader’s house to be on time for the conference with Elder Holland in the morning. The District Leader is in one of the more inner city areas, so it was different to see that area, compared to our small country town. Santa Juana is really growing on me. It is a cool little town nestled in hills covered by pine trees on 3 sides and a large river along the 4^th side. It is about an hour outside of Concepcion. There is a pretty large logging industry here so you see big logging trucks roll through town. They are kind of cool to see.

I also experienced my first earthquake this week. That was pretty cool. It only lasted a couple seconds, but it was cool to feel the ground shake. It was over before I realized what was going on.

Elder Holland spoke to our Stake yesterday and was outstanding. He talked about building strong families to provide a place where children can build testimony. He emphasized how important it is for each of us to have a testimony.

I love you all so much! You are incredible! I hope all is well at home.

Will

"Stop by anytime, if you ever need a glass of milk or anything"

Preparation Day with Zone on the Coast

November 4, 2013

Dear Family,

This is kind of a funny way to write home, but it was the best way I could think of to share as much as possible with you guys. Plus, it can work as my journal entry as well (Will took photos of his journal and e-mailed the photos).

Wow, so much has happened these last two weeks. It has been a little bit of a rough go. Dad wasn’t kidding when he said those first weeks in the mission field were hard.

My first day in Santa Juana I really struggled with some of the temporal things. I am living in a small two-room house. There is barely enough room for me to do push ups. The walls and ceiling are made up of unfinished sheet rock and brick. It is amazing how grateful I am for clean walls and clean carpet now. Only half the lights work here and there are wires poking out everywhere. Not a whole lot works in this house. The bathroom door handle is broken and locks you in if you close the door all the way. The shower is broken as well. We boil water with a jet boil every morning then shower using a bucket and measuring cup. There is no hot water. We have to boil all water. The toilet doesn’t flush unless you open the back and reach in to pull the plug, etc. etc.. I really struggled with the culture shock the first couple of days. Then I realized that that stuff isn’t really all that important.

Although the change has been difficult, we have had some miracles as well. There is a small branch here with about 20 fully active members. The members here are incredible. They are the happiest people I have ever met. We tract and contact all afternoon. I don’t like tracting. You can totally see everybody hiding inside. I feel like nobody likes us. I wish they would just give us a chance. One day after tracting for six hours with pretty much no success we walked up to a house and did the usual routine call over the gate. A guy poked his head out the door and started to open the gate. We were shocked. We had barely said a word and he was coming to let us in. They were a very nice family. We were told that we could stop by any time, if we ever needed a glass of milk or anything like that. The other big miracle happened last night. We had been tracting for several hours. Then we came across someone who had been reading the Book of Mormon and comparing it with the Bible. He wanted to discuss some things and he wanted to come to Church.

It is so beautiful here!

We had the first Baptism in 2 years in this area on Saturday. The Church has ground to build a pretty good-sized chapel here but we need to get new members. Right now we are meeting in a house that has been converted. I had a good idea, with all of the missionaries in the ward maybe you could ask them to not only pray for us, but also for the people we teach as well and that we can find people to teach.

I love you all very much! I know everything will all work out.  My companion Elder N is great. He is very kind and understanding. He works hard as well.

Great news! Elder Holland is speaking in our stake on Sunday. I can’t wait!

 I had a good morning today. We travelled a lot because we got to go play paintball with the zone in some old ruins by the sea side. It was a beautiful day and paintball was a ton of fun. I felt like I was in a video game with the sea and ruins as the backdrop. 

You aré gong to laugh but i am writing forma one of the mimbres ipad

Sorry i hace to be fast and the spanish auto correcta si crazy 

Tris mayor not make much sense 

I am Ok sorry i cant write with the auto correcta

No hot agua 

Súper small house 2 rooms 

I am in a small country town called santa juana 

It si justo me and elder noble 

Not Many people want to listen to us

Shower with a bucket 

I Write moré next week

Arrivial in Concepcion, Chile

Hey, I made it safely here! It is really beautiful and I am really excited to get assigned tomorrow. The plane ride in was sweet because you could see the snow capped mountains out one side and the coast out the other. 

I love you guys! 

Here are some pictures of goodbyes at the Mexico MTC my last week:

Loved my MTC District! A great teacher, Hermano Sanchez in the middle.

Hermana Martinez, another amazing teacher.

Hermano Rangel - our teachers were so good to us! You can also tell that they didn't want me to forget them at the MTC barbershop; they gave me a buzz.

Going to miss the grounds crew and the way they treated us like celebrities.  There were days that I wanted to go and join them!