Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

 Elder Moore, Elva, and granddaughter Gabby, Trenton

 Excited for first baptisms!

 Ward members that came to support Elva and Gabby

 Baptism of Elva and grandaughter, Gabby

 Splashing water in their faces and sitting in front of the fan to get cool...

 A typical toy in Yungay

 Bored? Must be...

 Trenton with Gabby-his first baptism!

 Poor dog in Chile...

Hello family! This letter probably won´t be too incredibly long because I get to talk to you guys in 2 days :) If you´re all wondering, Gabby and Elva got baptized! Everything worked out and I was able to baptize Gabby, and Elder Moore baptized the grandma. They both were confirmed yesterday so that was really awesome. I have really seen the difference and Elva started crying as she gave her testimony just saying how great she felt as she was baptized. She said she felt her whole body get warm and like someone gave her a huge hug. Haha she´s awesome. I´ll send pictures afterwards. Anyways thanks for all your letters! I really enjoyed hearing about Hawaii and the sleigh ride you guys all went on. Sounds like you guys are all enjoying the Christmas season. Here in Yungay it doesn´t feel even the slightest like Christmas. Blazing hot in the summer, no lights, hardly any Christmas trees, no snow. The only thing that´s helped me get into the Christmas spirit is listening to Christmas This Way (love that song), and I just downloaded Believe from Polar Express :) Also Christmas Shoes... I want some songs to listen to on Christmas. My companion opened his package today but I´m going to open mine on Christmas morning. I´ve been trying to keep my mind occupied with other things so to not think about being here in Chile during Christmas.. trying to keep busy and find more people to teach. I am so excited to talk to you guys on Christmas. I have set everything up with Skype on the nice computer in the church, and I have a camera and I´ve downloaded the software and everything and the picture looked pretty decent. Hopefully the internet works well that day and all goes well. We will be going to Chillan for a 2 and a half hour activity put on by the Pulsipher´s (couple missionaries) and then leave 2 hours early to head back to Yungay to skype. It should be at around 7:15-7:45 that I should sign on.. my time. 315-3:35 your guys time. I´m just hoping all goes well with the bus situation and the internet. Just be patient and be checking your email in case I haven´t signed in for awhile. I´ll see if I can send you guys some emails if something doesn´t go right, which I imagine it should since I´ve been careful to plan it out. I am so excited to talk to my nephews/niece. Hopefully they´re not all shy and want to talk to me.. if not it´s all good! Haha but anyways it´s been forever... since last Mother´s Day! It should be nice to see all your awesome faces. Tonight we have a Christmas activity here in Yungay. There´s food involved so it should turn out. We have a talent show before, and we´ve had some requests to dance and sing an English song. What else besides Wannabe by Spice Girls? Hahaha we had some requests so we might be doing that.. lip synching and dancing. I´ll see if I can take some pictures/videos of the activity and send them next week. By the way Mom and Dad, Happy Anniverary this past week! I forgot to tell you guys last week, but I definitely remember :) That card you made Mom was awesome.. with my card I sent to you guys.. thanks! We had the Christmas Conference this past weekend and it was really good. They had a choir sing christmas songs and everything. We also watched a video that had a bunch of our pictures on it. I sent into a lot of pictures so quite a bit of my pictures made it into the video. It really helped bring the Christmas Spirit since here in Chile there´s hardly any. It´s hard to even remember it´s Christmas. Back at home you have all the reminders... snow, lights, stores, so many people, music, christmas trees, etc. Definitely missing all those things but it´s all good. I gotta remind myself it´s Christmas with my music and try to remember the true meaning of Christmas. I have a picture I would like to send you guys of a toy I found outside of someone´s house when I was in a mini-cambio. If one of my nephews complain about a toy they don´t like for Christmas, you can show them the picture and tell them to be grateful :) haha I just laughed when I saw it. They do open presents here on Christmas, but basically nobody (especially here in Yungay) has enough money to buy anything. I feel bad. I have definitely learned and realized how awesome we really have it back in the states and Utah. I love America. Anyways I hope everyone can remember the true meaning of Christmas: The celebration of our Savior´s birth. It´s a time to spend with family most of all. It´s a time of happiness, joy, and service to others. Remember that and enjoy Christmas Day with the family. Remember I´ll be thinking about all of you that day anxiously waiting to see all of your faces on Skype! Anyways not a whole lot more, just going to sign off and see if I can get some pictures sent off to you guys. I love you all!!!!

Could it get ANY hotter? ¡Me quedo en Yungay!‏

December 16, 2013
Hola familia, amigos, niños, y chicillos. I just first want to say something that I never thought I would say. I MISS THE WINTER. It is soooooo incredibly hot here and I am constantly sweating. I get out of the shower, and I´m sweating. I´m sleeping at night, basically naked, and I´m sweating. I´m in a building eating lunch, and I´m sweating. I just want to give a shout out to my Hydro Flask because it´s going to such good use. I´ve had missionaries and members tell me to tell you mom that you need to send me some more because they all want one. Haha it´s so dope and I´m loving it. From the title of this letter I bet you can tell that we had transfers today. I´ve been so nervous all week because I DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE YUNGAY. I have grown to love it here and am so close with all the members. I was also worried about our investigators being so close to their baptisms on the 21st. Anyways both me and my hijo are staying here in Yungay so we´re going to continue to work hard and make sure Gabby, Elva, and José all get baptized. Gabby and Elva had their support interview or whatever you wanna call it and they´re doing pretty well. We just need to help Elva have a testimony of going to church every Sunday after her baptism. We are going to have an appointment with them tomorrow and then their actual interview is on Wednesday. But anyways hopefully all goes well and they get baptized on the 21st. Gabby wants me to baptize her and the grandma wants Elder Moore to baptize her. They saw the baptism of a members wife that the hermanas had this Sunday, but they mentioned they would like to be baptized in a river. We´ll see what happens and I´ll update you guys next week how everything went.  Anyways I had to conduct like always in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and as the last speaker finishes and I¨m about to announce the closing hymn... the branch president leans over and tells me I have to speak for 10 minutes to take up some more time. I was like woooooooooooow. Haha also earlier on as I was making some announcements at the pulpit, the president´s phone goes off and guess what he does? Yup he goes ahead and answers it and talks SOOOOOOO loud. I turned around like are you serious? Hahaha and some members just hit their heads and tried not to laugh.Afterwards we had the baptism and wow that was an adventure. She can barely walk and she has so many health problems. We had to all lift her in the font and have 2 people basically baptize her. We ended up having to do the baptism 3 times because we couldn´t get her all the way under and her feet won´t bend and kept coming up. I was just a witness but I made sure to tell Gabby and Elva their baptism would be different. It was super awkward and everything was like talking and throwing in their ideas. Such an awkward baptism. Also the font is super ugly and it´s behind the church like in the corner. Anyways about skype on Christmas... I should be able to finalize everything but I made plans to skype in the church with really good internet so that should work out well. Not over wifi this time. I¨m making sure of that. The only thing I have to do is find a camera. One member I think has one I just need to make sure it works well.  I´m not sure what the time difference is in Utah right now. It´s either 2 or 3 hours back I believe. But we have an activity in Chillan from 3:30- 7:30. We´ll have to leave early to take the bus to Yungay at 5:30 and we´ll get here around 7. The bus stop is right by the church so we´ll be there around 7 or 7:30 to start skyping. We have an hour and a half to skype.. and then we´ll be heading over to Hermano Poblete´s house to finish the night. So it will be about at 7:30 Chilean time that we will have to skype you guys. Hopefully everything works out well at home so that you guys can skype me at that time. I´m not sure if we´d be able to do it any other time.. I would rather do it after the activity than before for sure. Please try and make arrangements because I want to talk with everyone.. I don´t want to only talk to some of you and Trevor and Heather or Robyn and Brian not being able to be there. That would really be disappointing. That´s pretty set on the timing but I´ll let you guys know next Monday if anything changes. I haven´t heard any different that we don´t have P Day that day but if you don´t get a letter from me something must have changed.   I called the mission secretary and asked him if we could change houses. Our house is just awful. It´s so disgustingly hot and it´s miserable in there. We are actually going to buy a fan and get reimbursed for it. Anyways he told me for a long time missionaries have been telling him that need a new house. I told him how we have every time of insect in that house, how the pipes are also broken, and just how awful the house is. He gave us the thumbs up to look for a new house and we found a small house in back of a members house that I think we are going to move into. He told me to find a good price because in his house words, ¨the piece of crap hunk a junk that you guys are living in right now costs 85 mil per month.¨ (super cheap) hahahaha I just started laughing. The hermanas here live in such a nice house it´s ridiculous. He was like so the hermanas living conditions are just a little bit better than yours right? And he just busted out laughing. Then he said that we need to learn humility, but there´s a point when you gotta get the heck out of there. Hahaha he knows how awful the house is and that´s when he finally gave us the go ahead to look for a new house. I probably won´t reap the benefits of it but hopefully the next missionaries that come here will be grateful that they will be getting a new house. This past week we´ve been eaten alive by fleas.. we had to go buy a bunch of spray and spray our beds and everything. We´d wake up with red marks EVERYWHERE on our bodies. I think Sophie brought the fleas to our house. Yes, she is still going strong on following u. Anyways thanks for all you do... I will be opening my package here pretty soon.. and talking to you guys. I´m way excited. I love you all and thanks for everything.. I´ll talk to you guys next week!!!

I saw the sign.. I opened up my eyes and I saw the sign!‏

 Barbeque celebrating Hermana T's birthday

Killing bugs in the hut...

Well Elder Neilson sends a big hello back home to good old Utah where it´s not 500 degrees. Haha thanks for all your letters once again.. you guys are awesome. It is super super hot here in Yungay and it´s not even the summer yet. It´s all good because I gotta do what I gotta do! This week was actually a really good week. We killed it this week working with the members and I got a separate exclusive congratulations from the zone leaders because we did work. Haha anyways I have some good news! Remember G and her Grandma? The other day we watched the 20 minute Restoration video of Joseph Smith. You know how the grandma is Catholic and doesn´t want to get baptized.. I told you that guys last week. Well after sharing Acts 19:2-6 and watching the Restoration video, she looked at G and said ¨Should we get baptized?¨ Long story short they have a baptism date all set up for the 21st of December! First day of summer... pretty cool huh? They´ve learned all the commandments and we left the Tithing pamphlet for them to read and we have an appointment with them in about 2 hours from now. Hopefully all goes well with the lesson and they are all good and ready to pay their tithing once their baptized. We actually had 3 people in church on Sunday so I need to tell you about this other person that decided to come to church. The other day I was looking for that one kid in our area book and I came across another investigator that had gone to church like 7 times 2 years before but for whatever reason he didn´t end up getting baptized. We had actually looked for him with Elder C, but the elders 2 years ago had written the address down wrong.  Long story short, it was on the whole other side of town (not huge but still confused us). I had a thought maybe that´s what had happened so we went and headed to find him one morning. We went up to his gate and he was sitting on the side of his house. He immediately told us to come on in and talk with him. About 3 minutes later, his uncle walks through the door. They were so incredibly excited to see us. He told us the day before he had seen us walking past his house and shouted out to us, but we just kept on walking. Anyways his uncle is a really faithful member up in Santiago. He didn´t want to accept a baptism date for the 28th, but told me he would talk to his uncle to see what day he could come from Santiago to baptize him and that they would let me know on Sunday. Anyways all went well on Sunday and they came to church, and they decided on January 4th for the baptism date. We just need to review all the lessons and commandments with him but he literally knows everything. He is super prepared for baptism. He keeps talking about how he is ready to leave all the wordly things behind and make this sacred covenant with God. Anyways that would be 3 baptisms coming up if everything goes well so that´s pretty exciting. My only worry is that we have cambios next week. I hope I won´t be leaving here from Yungay because I have been working so hard to find people to be baptized. I hope the President recognizes that we have 3 baptisms coming up.  Pray that I will be able to stay here at least 1 cambio more and everything goes well and that all 3 of them can be baptized. I´m really excited for them. By the way J is in a wheelchair now (apparently 2 years ago he wasn´t but always has a walker nearby. I´m not sure if he can walk with the walker he has but he is awesome and has a huge heart. On Sunday we had to travel to Chillan for the Stake Leadership meeting with the branch president. There´s a lot of work here to do with the young men and women because they are basically all inactive. They had a lot of good advice there and we´ll see what we can do. Then we had to wait there for a long 3 hours for the Christmas Devotional to start. We watched it in Spanish but it was really good. I really enjoyed Russell M. Nelson´s talk like you said Mom. Then we spent the night there in Chillan at the zone leaders house. There were 4 mattresses on the floor, and guess how many missionaries stayed there last night? 12. Haha I slept horrible but it´s whatever. We then woke up and went and played soccer and had a barbecue after. Latins are amazing at soccer by the way. The whole time I was just thinking can we play some basketball? I guess I just have to wait.... haha.Mom I would definitely love that video of Bella and the newspaper.. haha she´s so funny. Also how she just wonders around in the front yard. Reminds me of Ali. Such awesome dogs. Mom and I just know which dogs are right for us. We´re ballers. That´s too bad about Kelvin. I´ll keep him in my prayers for sure. The Lord will bless him as we show our faith. I definitely laughed when I read the Santa story with Teags. ¨I hate mint!¨ Hahahaha that kid makes me laugh. Also a baller.  I would like to try and get some details to you guys about Skype but it´s just that I don´t know if I´ll still be here in Yungay so it´s hard to tell. I´m definitely excited for that and to see my freaking nephews and my new niece. I love them so much. BALLERS. Anyways not a whole lot more happened this week.. just been working with the members and working with our 3 investigators. Please keep them in your prayers so everything goes well! I love you all and I´ll talk to you guys next week! ¨If I had a chance for another try, I wouldn´t change a thing, it´s made me all of who I am inside.¨ 

Coke, Sprite, Fanta.. anything new?‏

Thanks everyone again for the letters.. it´s always nice on Mondays coming to read everyone´s letters. Sounds like everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and Black Friday. If anyone was wondering that doesn´t exist here so nothing was different. Pretty boring I know. Anything this week was pretty slow at the beginning but started to pick up towards to weekend. We have been as you all now struggling to find new people to teach that are somewhat decent. We have been trying to do less contacts and just to only work through the members to ask for references and also look for less actives that have family members who aren´t members. I will be sending you a picture of this member after, but we have reactivated Hermano V.  He lived in Australia for 30 years and says he knows more than 10 languages. We knows a few words in English but for 30 years there he should be fluent. Anyways I was thinking the other day I guarantee no missionaries have ever asked him for references. We went over there, had a good lesson to help him remember about the blessings he received, and had him write his testimony in the Book of Mormon. (Had me write and he just signed it) We told him to think of someone he could give the book to. He thought of his neighbor a little bit further down and said he would do it. We went back 2 days later to contact and it was a mom with 2 kids and her husband was out working. She told me she had been reading the Book of Mormon but couldn´t understand it. We helped her out and also shared The Restoration with her. She said she was scared of big crowds at church but that she was excited to read and learn more. We have an appointment with her tomorrow and I believe her husband will be there.  Hermano V knows every single date for all the prophets, their births, the ages of prophets in the Book of Mormon and what age they died, etc.) We are going to bring a different member with visit with that family instead of him because he will just start talking about the most random things haha. Anyways she smokes so in the future she might have a problem with that. Don´t worry too much because we´ve only had 1 lesson with her so we´ll see where she goes from there.  Also yesterday we went and visited a 14 year old boy that got baptized 2 years ago but never went to church after that. This whole week we were trying to find his house but we could never find it and would always run out of time. Finally we found it yesterday and his family was so surprised to see the missionaries. We immediately got in their house. G, the 14 year old member, was super shy and nervous it seemed like. We got in and just started talking to them about everything. It had been 2 years since the missionaries had visited them which really surprised me. His mom isn´t a member, his brother, and his aunt that was there visiting but lives in Yungay. We shared the Restoration with them and they all agreed to read the pamphlet we left them about it. It was really good and they really enjoyed talking to the missionaries again. The mom did say she was Catholic but we´re going to keep sharing with them. Maybe it´s their time. The brother is way cool with us but is like 25 or so. G is super excited to come with us to the English class on Friday and the movie night. I guess he hardly leaves his house and his mom wants us to help him out. That should be good. Also yesterday we found a lady I had been wondering about for a very long time. We contacted her a long time ago with Elder C. She told us she would have been baptized but a missionary left and she didn´t like the new one. Haha but we weren´t able to get her address the first time but finally we met up with her in the street. She gave us her phone number and wants us to pass by soon. We are starting to see some small miracles in Yungay and starting to find a few more people to teach little by little. We also had church in Chillan for the Stake Conference. Our ward mission leader gave us a ride there early in the morning so we were there for the priesthood session too. President Arrington gave a talk there but we were the only missionaries there. After, a bunch more came for the actual stake conference where he and his wife( the president translated for her) gave talks as well. They did a really good job. We had a total of 6 members from Yungay make the trip to Chillan which was super disappointing. The President, secretary, ward mission leader, elder´s quorum president, and 2 sisters. Anyways it was a good conference and it was focused on helping the full-time missionaries out. Today we went to Chillan to do some shopping. I was looking for some more pants to wear so I took like 100 bucks there just in case. I was also looking for another backpack for mini-cambios and some sunglasses. We also went because we were craving a Big Mac. Anyways we went into a store and I found some good pants that were 30 bucks so I was looking for another pair. Then I spot a certain brand that is on sale for 16 bucks. I had no idea what size I was in in centimeters so I went and tried 5 different sizes on and finally found the right one. I went to the register to buy the pants for 16 bucks but it rang up about 5 bucks. They were like this can´t be right... so they called the manager over and she´s like it´s all good they´re on sale. I was like wow okay that´s cool. So I went over to look for some more pants and found some tan pants (they are allowed in the mission now) and bought those for also 5 bucks. They are nice pants too and I felt like a champion walking out of that store.. just saying :) While eating some scones before that, I heard some yelping from a dog across the street. There was a huge crowd of people and all I could see was this lady swinging her purse. This yelping was unlike anything I´ve heard before just nonstop... it was so sad. I then finally can see.. and there´s 2 dogs fighting. The same size of dogs, but one was biting the others throat. He was whipping him around like a ragdoll.. I´m not exaggerating. Whipping the dog side to side by his throat and banging him on the sidewalk. It was honestly one of the saddest things I´ve ever seen. There was a huge crowd of people watching and people kicking and hitting the other dog and finally it let go. I didn´t see what happened to the other dog but it walked or ran off. I´ve seen some dead dogs here but that honestly made me so sick to my stomach. Freak I love dogs. I miss Bella but I´m so glad she´s at home. Anyways that´s basically all that happened this week... G has a baptism date for the 21st (after transfers) and is aware she needs to go to church 2 more times in order to do it. She has all the commandments taught except for tithing.  Pray for her so she can progress.  The music from Marshall McDonald didn´t work so if Jon could send it through Gmail that would probably be better. My allergies have been a little bit better.. I had to go buy some nose spray for 20 bucks which I should get reimbursed for. It´s starting to get so hot it´s ridiculous. But I gotta do what I gotta do. I´m glad the Utes were able to win the Toilet Bowl of theirs they had against Colorado. Better luck to them next year. I still love and support my Utes 100%! I shouldn´t need a phone card because we will be able to talk again through Skype for an hour and a half. I will have to make arrangements depending if I get transferred or not. I can´t remember any other questions I was asked or anything that happened this week so I´ll sign off for this week. Thanks for everything and I´ll talk to you all next week!

 Getting a shoeshine!

 Trenton with newly activated member

Enjoying the country...

Chip Eater

November 25, 2013

 Elder P's farewell party

 Elder P

 Hello family! Once again I would like to thank you all for your letters and pictures that you guys sent me. I can´t believe Utah won´t be going bowling again this year. Anyways that´s frustrating so I´ll just say that and leave it at that. This week has been decent. G and her grandma didn´t end up coming to church. I had mini-cambios here with Elder M in Yungay (he was here for 6 months a year ago) and we had an awesome lesson with them. They both told us that know the message is true. However, the grandma doesn´t want to get baptized because she was already baptized and was catholic. G knows she needs a baptism but also wants to see if she should be baptized with us or the catholics. We explained the authority and everything but she told us she was going to come to church that Sunday for sure. We weren´t able to get a hold of her and she was never home and didn´t end up coming to church. That sucks even more because church was really good. The stake presidency came from Chillan to give talks and we also had sacrament meeting in the new ¨chapel.¨ There´s a lot more space now and it should be good for the activites that we have. On Saturday, the leaders also came from Chillan to do divisions with us to look for the less activies and invite them to the conference. I ended up going with the Stake President. We went and visited some less actives and invited them. We also took some time to talk about Yungay and how it was progressing and the problems we had.  There is one other person that would be good to be the branch president. He is always willing to work and he is actually the secretary right now. He has been a member for a little bit more than a year right now. We have changes here on December 17th and I´m not sure if I´ll be going or I´ll be staying. We´ll have to wait and see. We´re trying to find some more less actives that we´ve never visited before to try and get them to come back. There are about 140 members here in Yungay total, but the attendance is about 35 now each week. I´m hoping with the new ¨chapel¨ more people will be more willing to come. In the other area, it was really uncomfortable and a little squished and the members had been complaining of that. Hna. S is active now. She was less active and we have gained her trust and gotten to know her really well. She calls all the time just to see how we´re doing haha. She called me yesterday crying saying she was in the hospital with her mom and that she didn´t feel well. Anyways later that night we went over to her house. It ended up she was diagnosed with depression. We talked a little bit about our purpose here on the Earth and what to do in times of trial. We then gave her a blessing and Hna. S started crying. It´s awesome to see her start coming back to church. She always asks me to bring a new Liahona over to her everytime we go to visit her. About that missionary that was planning to leave.. he ended up getting everything ready and he left on Wednesday. My companion and I gave him some ties because he didn´t have very many and he was definitely grateful. He doesn´t have a ton of support from his family so it was cool to see him have everything ready and take off. We had a party for him a few hours before he had to take the bus up to Santiago. I took a few pictures and I´ll see if I have time to send them to you guys.
      My hay fever has been killing me. I have to go buy some nasal spray at the pharmacy and take 2 zyrtecs per day for 2 weeks to see if that helps. I would love that new music by Marshall McDonald. Hopefully Jon or Jeremy can get that to me as soon as possible. By the way I GOT MY PACKAGE! I got it last week and now it´s just chilling in our house waiting until Christmas... or the 18th. If I end up getting transferred I´ll open it then like I have already told you guys. Thanks! There isn´t anything like Thanksgiving here... :( to be honest I thought Thanksgiving was this past week. Tell all the family that I love them and that I miss them. Tell them they´re in my daily prayers as well! Good luck to you on Black Friday. Jon, you better keep up that recently started tradition of Sports Authority every morning :) But seriously I love Black Friday.. wish I could help you guys out! Yes Mom, we pay 12 bucks a month to have people wash our clothes. It´s nice too... they fold it all up and iron our shirts. Now we still don´t have lunches here every day in Yungay which sucks really bad, but it´s all good. I really enjoyed all the pictures of Bella... that one with the ripped up ball hanging way low seriously made me laugh. She is so freaking cute and looks so clean/healthy. A little fat as well but I still love her! Well that´s pretty much it for this week... I wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Teagan this past week and that I love and miss him. He is such a baller. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and eat a lot of turkey. Jeremy don´t choke again this year :P Good luck on Black Friday.. shop well and don´t get punched. Things aren´t what they seem that day. I love you all and I´ll talk to you all next week!!!!!

Don´t You Know Any Other Gosh Dang Tune?

Another week gone by... still living in Yungay! Thanks for the letters/pictures/videos once again. You guys are awesome. Anyways I wrote an outline of what I wanted to say in my letter but of course I forgot it back at the hut. I´ll see what I can do though. This week was a lot better than last week. Last week was so stressful for reals. But this week.. was decent. We are trying to work more through the members and do less contacts every week. I tried to make a list of all the member´s schedules and when they could go with us to appointments. Basically a couple of them told me at this point they don´t feel well enough spiritually to do it. Anyways that was a good sign (I knew it already) that they still needed a lot of help. Those comments were from some of the highest quality members here. Anyways we had G and her grandma in church on Sunday. We went to go pick them up from their house to walk with them to church but they were taking forever. We ended up getting their like 20 mins. early and I´m sure they felt super awkward walking in especially because the room is so small. The grandma doesn´t want to get baptized but she´s trying to support G, her 16 year old granddaughter. She was the only person in her family not baptized (the rest were baptized catholic, has 1 relative that´s mormon). She knows she needs to get baptized but we´re going to see because she´s a little lazy sometimes. We have an appointment with her tonight and we´re going to talk to her grandma about getting baptized too. We haven´t been able to get a hold of J M but we´re going to keep trying. We also had our English class which ended up going really well. 13 people came. I think I´ve told you about Hermana S and/or P before. They have 10 siblings as well, and about half of them are baptized and live here. The rest are all inactives, but we were working hard especially with these 2. They now have come 3 weeks in a row so that´s awesome. They seriously love us so much. They have a niece that´s not baptized that came to the English class. She loves us too and wants us to go to her house. She is 10 years old and wants a Book of Mormon. Her dad is inactive and her mom is catholic I think. I´m not sure if we´d be able to get permission because of the mom but we´re for sure going to try. Her name is S... and she´s way funny. The mission president called me this week because he wanted to talk about what´s going on here in Yungay. Apparently he´s knows all about the branch's challenges so he wanted to get my view of things.  We have the conference here next Sunday and the leaders from the stake will be coming. Also, they have been fixing up this warehouse thing next to the church to use as our meetinghouse. It will finally be finished and there is going to be a lot more space (still not the biggest thing in the world). The branch trip to the temple was cancelled because we only had 7 members from the ward that wanted to go. We had to invite a different branch to try and fill the bus, but they had 15 people that wanted to go and it would have cost each member about 50 bucks to make the trip. It ended up being too expensive so the president cancelled the trip. The few members that were planning on going were disappointed but what can you do.. the members just don´t have the desire to go.  The zone leaders called me the other day because they also know how Yungay isn´t doing too well.. he reminded me that that´s why I´m there. The Lord trusts me right now and that´s what I´m in Yungay. I feel bad because the branch really is going downhill.. I´m doing all I can to help the members and support the branch president, but obviously I can´t do it alone. We are trying to be creative to help all the members out. I have not gotten my package yet.. I will be sure to wait until Christmas. We have tranfers the 17th or 18th (your wedding anniversary.. maybe it´s the 19th I can´t remember.. I´m ugly)... so if I end up getting transferred that day I´d probably open it that day. It would be too hard to haul it around just to wait one more week.  As for the Christmas CD from Marshall McDonald.. I want that music. I listen to his Christmas Oranges CD all the time even way before Christmas was close... and I would love his new music. Maybe you could have Jon or Jeremy send all the songs through email as .mp3 individually or however many you can fit so I can put them on my flashdrive. That would be awesome.
I can´t believe the news about Kelvin. I read Heather´s letter first and she was like I´m sure you´ve heard about Kelvin.. I was like no? Haha I read my friend´s email first, then my bro´s/sisters email, then Dad´s, then Mom´s. Just for the future :) but wow that´s unbelievable. Stacy has been through more than enough trials already in her life.. and now this. It´s going to be tough for Kelvin because like you guys said, he won´t really know what´s going on or why he´s so sick. That makes me sick to my stomach. They will definitely be in my prayers. There´s this lady in our ward (she´s basically like my 3rd mom.. after Mother Teresa and Big Lor) that always asks us to pray for her because the Lord always listens to missionaries prayers :) But for reals I will be praying for their family. Mom, Ron lived in Idaho right? I didn´t know he was that old... freak time flew. I honestly can´t even remember him... I´m a horrible relative. Someone told me that was this huge hurricane in some country and that a bunch of people died but I had no idea where.. but I guess it was in the Phillipines? That´s crazy. Freak I never have any idea what´s going on in the world.. I guess that´s sometimes good but freak I feel left out :( haha. By the way I freaking miss my puppy. Tell Bella I love her, give her a big kiss, and send me some more pics if possible :) Brielle is so cute.. Heather I loved that video of her..  I can´t wait to talk to her on Skype! Big Lor.... I definitely did get your letter. It was definitely a surprise so thank you very much. I love hearing about my 2nd mom and how my 2nd house is doing. I honestly think of you like my Mom.. (probably why it was so hard for me to say goodbye to you) but thanks for everything!  
Thanks for the updates with Utah Football. Sounds like they played Oregon pretty tough there for a good part of the game but the offense couldn´t keep up with Oregon´s. That doesn´t sound like good news about Travis Wilson.. we have the worst luck with our quarterbacks. Keep me updated.
 Anyways I love you all and thanks for everything. Thanks for all your prayers and your letters. Mondays are the best because I love reading everyone´s letters and seeing pictures of my nephews/niece. I´ll talk to you guys all next week!

Lettuce Napkins

Training a new companion!

 Two redheads in a little hut...

Hello family and friends.. I am still here in wonderful and awesome Yungay. Well, it´s more like yeah Í´m still here in Yungay. Anyways sounds like Utah sure choked in the 4th quarter. Freaking Utah. Anyways this past week was.. well stressful. Haha but anyways... we are not still working with G, Mom. Her grandparents are still talking to her but I think she´s just scared of the baptismal interview. We actually found a new investigator the other day and he could be pretty good.  We are going to pass by in a couple days when he can and see what we can do. Sunday was super stressful as it always is here in Yungay. The branch president was in Concepción to have a big meeting with Elder Holland which I heard was pretty good. I had to conduct and preside (by the way I felt super weird taking the sacrament first). I also had to teach the gospel doctrines class. Some stake people came from Chillan and we had to have a small meeting with the stake mission leader.  Anyways with all that stuff going on and training I have been super stressed and haven´t eaten anything the past 3 days. I´m hungry, but everytime I try to eat, I just can´t. I´ve felt like I need to throw up during those 3 days and of course have those migraines which definitely aren´t anything new. Anyways I am praying a lot so that I can have some help here, eat some food, and overall just feel better.
     Anyways thanks for all the pictures, videos, and updates.  Today we went to a zone activity in Chillan with 3 other zones. I saw R. S., another kid that went to Jordan and recently got here. I also got to see Elder H. Freak I love that kid... we had some good times there in the MTC hahaha. I did get to play basketball with some good players (one that will be playing at SUU. The hoops are like 9 feet tall with really skinny rims and no nets. And the backboards and disgustingly hideous. Anyways we are trying hard to find more people to teach. G wasn´t able to come to church because she had family over at her house.  Most of the work here honestly is helping the members. I feel like they need a lot of help. Only about 8 of them will be going to the temple on the 15th. There should definitely be a lot more but I mean what can you do. We are also working hard with the less actives and one has basically been reactivated. Hermana S she is awesome. She used to be president of the primary but she went inactive. She calls us almost every day just to see how we´re doing and when the next time is that we´re going to visit her. She always asks me what kind of dessert I want to eat when we go to her house. She really is so nice and she is starting to get back to going to church. She has been 2 weeks in a row now and stays the full 3 hours.
         I can´t think of a whole lot more to say... just pray for me please as I´ve been super stressed and (not that this is new) but haven´t felt that great. Eating for 3 days can´t be good but I honestly try as hard as I can but I just can´t. Thanks for all your letters and all the support at home. Tell my nephews/niece that I love them. Tell Teags good job for practicing reading.. and tell Carter boy that I can´t wait to go on some more bear hunts with him. ¨We´re going on a bear hunt, gonna catch a big one, we´re not scared! Uh oh, a deep dark cave! Can´t go over it can´t go under it, we gotta go through it!¨ Haha he´s so freaking funny oh my gosh. Sorry this letter is all over the place again I really need to start writing stuff down that I want to tell you guys. I always forget the stuff that happens to me during the week and everytime after I write I remember something I wanted to tell you guys. But thanks for everything and I love you all!

Me quedo en Yungay!‏

Hola familia how´s everything going? Sorry I´m writing a little late today. We had a zone activity in Chillan and also I had a bunch of letters to read through so thanks!  From my title, I´m sure you can tell that I will be staying here in Yungay! My companion, Elder C, will be leaving to Concepción to most likely finish his mission there.  Okay so I thought this was a little weird after reading Jon and Mom´s email about leadership and stuff like that but I have some news for all you all. I will be training this transfer!  I will meet my companion tomorrow in Concepción. I´m excited but also a little nervous. We´ll see how everything goes. By the way I had to give the District Class 2 weeks ago and I had 2 sister missionaries come up to me after and they told me I´d definitely be training this next transfer. It was a little weird but anyways I´m excited. I might have to sleep in Chillán tonight in order to be in Concepción tomorrow around lunchtime, but we´re not sure yet. By the way, guess who our next assistant to the president is? My good friend PM! Remember him? I was in the talent show in 9th with him and he always led the student section during the basketball games. How dope is that? He went from district leader, to zone leader, to assistant all in 3 or 4 changes. Crazy. Anyways he called me today and we talked for a little. I´ll be seeing him in Conce to pick up my new companion tomorrow. Our investigator G is 14 years old, and her grandma is still working with her little by little to help her. Maybe this transfer we will be able to get her baptized. We also found a girl named G, who had 17 years old. She started crying because all of her family had been baptized (Catholic) but her no. She was really emotional and she really wants to be baptized. She was with her boyfriend Sunday morning so she didn´t come to church which was pretty disappointing. We will continue to work with her and I´ll keep you guys updated.
       I enjoyed all the pictures that I received of Halloween. The kids looked awesome and especially the picture of Dallin walking on the sidewalk surprised me. So different. Freak. That story about Hayden was awesome. I know I might sound like less of a man but as I read that story and looked at the picture Bri sent me I definitely teared up haha. I love you Hayden.. you´re such a baller!  Congratulations to Jon on his new calling!  Haha let me know how that goes.
    Mom, I was actually wondering the other day what day I received my mission call. I think it was around a year ago or so.. I can´t remember for sure.
    Dad, yes Yungay is really small. I feel like I have basically knocked on every door in our sector. We actually found G in the sector of the hermanas (shhhhhhhh) :) Sounds like the Jazz are going to have a rough season this year. Did they sign any good players from other teams or what? I heard they lost our big players but nobody told me if they signed anybody else. Good luck to Utah next week against the Sun Devils. The past 2 years against Arizona St. were horrendous haha let me know what happens.
    As for the package Mom, I can´t think of anything I really need. Maybe some tubes of chapstick with SPF? We played soccer today in the activity and yeah I definitely got burnt haha. Also, I opened up my garments today from the MTC that I bought and wow they are totally different than my others. I know I ordered the exact same ones but the ones they gave me are definitely different and I don´t like them. By the way it´s soooooooooo hot during the day now like wow. I got out of the shower today and immediately started sweating. That water bottle you sent me will be of good use now.. thanks!
    Anyways I can´t think of anything more to tell you guys. Should be interesting training here in Yungay.. hopefully we can find that one person that God has been preparing for us. I´ll let you guys know about my new companion next week and how the work continues to go here in Yungay. Pretty soon we´ll be talking on Skype on Christmas... that´s crazy! Definitely excited to see all your guys faces.. especially my nephews and my awesome niece que no conozco todavía :( But I love you all and I hope you guys all enjoy this letter and I answered all your questions! Mom, I don´t know, but if you could maybe order me a couple more garments of the same type we bought back at home through store.lds.org and have them sent to the mission office I wouldn´t be too incredibly upset with you. Also I hope you remembered those socks because wow I definitely need some more. Thanks for all your letters and the support back at home and I´ll talk to you guys next week!

Pictures

Here´s us in an American clothing store. It was awful. It was about half has cool as shopping in the D.I. My companion was so shocked I went into an american clothing store and didn´t buy anything. Honestly it was 3 times worse than the clothing in the D.I. Here´s a picture I took with one of the shirts in the ¨men´s section.¨  Hahaha

Here is a different part of the river that is right behind our hut with a bridge over it. We went there today to take some pictures because there´s nothing else to do here hahaha

Here is Soledad... she is an investigator of the sisters here and she got baptized on Saturday! I had to direct the meeting.. she was baptized by Leo there.. the secretary here in Yungay. He is awesome. He is member here that is very willing to help us.

Heyyyyyy family and friends how is everyone back at home? Thanks for all your letters, videos, pictures, and everything else! Freaking Utah.. I think that makes the 4th or 5th year in a row our starting quarterback can´t stay healthy. What a joke. I feel like the USC game was one of those games where I would´ve just been sooooooo mad and frustrated while watching it. Utah is a totally different team home and away it´s ridiculous.
 I haven´t gotten the prescription yet but they were going to send it by mail here to Yungay because nobody ever comes here to this ghosttown and I´m supposed to get it today. We´ll see if it helps with the stomach pains in the morning. That´s good Mom you´re enjoying work and your primary calling. How are you enjoying the new and remodeled office?
 Anyways we are still working hard to find more people to teach. It´s extremely tough here in Yungay with it being so small but we are trying to be creative. I will be teaching my first English class this Friday night right before our weekly movie night to try and bring more people to that. I´ve had a lot of people asking me to do an English class so it should turn out pretty well.  I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying life back in good old Utah! Thanks for all your letters and for all do you to make our family the dopest family out there. Love you all!

Cowboy Corndogs

Getting checked out for stomach pain

 Birthday cake!

 Birthday lunch with members and sister missionaries

Hello my family! I am doing well here in Yungay still working hard to find more people to teach. I can´t believe Utah beats Stanford then loses to Arizona. That blows.. keep me updated on Travis Wilson´s injury. This past week has been a little slow like the other weeks but it´s all good. We have been contacting and trying to find more people to teach.  We got into a house the other day and we started teaching this lady. After about halfway through, she asked us what church we were from. Even though we had already told her, she was super confused. When she realized we weren´t Catholics, she got super disappointed and just stared at the floor for like 20 seconds. After she got super angry and kicked us out. Hahaha I was like wooooooow okay. Also we contacted this lady the other day. I handed her a pass-along card with a picture of Christ on it. She took it, ripped it all up, threw it on the floor, and slammed the door without saying anything. Hahaha people are so annoying sometimes. Anyways yes Mom, we had our interviews with the mission president. It went well and we talked about how it was going in Yungay being the 1st counselor. He knows it´s a lot of work. Also on Sunday, we got to church and we were making the announcement list for sacrament meeting and who was going to be speaking. Our ward mission leader, didn´t know he was supposed to give a talk, so he refused. Guess who has to give a talk in place for him? Well Elder Neilson, of course. I had to direct the meeting and while a member was giving a talk, I started to write down a few things I was going to say. I was going to be speaking last, after her and the 2nd counselor of the stake presidency. After she spoke, the 2nd counselor quickly looked at me and asked if I would hurry and talk so he could go last. Well, I ended up going up there with absolutely nothing not knowing what to talk about. Hahaha I ended up just talking about why I decided to serve a mission and the blessings I have seen in my life thanks to the Gospel. It ended up going pretty well. The medication the 1st doctor prescribed for me... well the paper got lost because the 2nd doctor kept it and never gave it back. I have to call the nurse her so she can call the 1st doctor back and figure out what it was that she prescribed me. It´s mostly just when I wake up in the mornings I have really bad stomach pain. Elder M was in Yungay with 2 other gringos, and apparently they got really sick too.  My companion now had 2 other gringos before me and they were super sick as well in their stomachs. The food is really distinct here and I´m thinking that´s the problem but we´ll see. The doctors said there wasn´t anything big wrong so that´s good. I honestly don´t know about my Christmas package yet. I need to think about it this week. I´m a little worried about only having 2 short sleeved shirts here for the summer. It´s already getting super hot some days and I feel like maybe more than 2 would have been a good idea. I do have some Christmas music on my ipod so I should be good there. I´m not sure about shoes yet.. If I need some I¨ll probably be able to buy some here in Chillan.  What else what else.. I don´t know. Our biggest struggle here in Yungay is finding more people to teach. We are trying hard to work with the less actives and to find people through them. We found a less active last night and her kid is 8. We are going to visit them tonight and all she wanted was to see pictures of my family. She wants to see little American kids because they are so ¨handsome.¨ She´s going to love the pictures of my nephews/niece! Also this week, we have family nights planned for every night with members/lessactives/newconverts. It should be good and hopefully we can find more people to teach through them. Anyways I think that´s about it for this week. But I do have some bad news. I talked to the mission president and apparently when Elder Gonzalez from the 70 came to the mission he told us we weren´t able to go to the temple in Santiago. So there goes that idea.. I was a little disappointed but oh well! It´s all good. Plenty of temples back in Utah right? Anyways I should probably go but thanks for everything and I love you all!

                                                     TREMPIN OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Utah takes down #5 Stanford!!!!‏

Good job to my Utes for taking care of business in RES Saturday night. I remember all my friends last year telling me how Stanford was going to kill Utah when they came to town.. never doubt my Utes!! I´m not going to lie and say that news made me a little homesick and made me wish I was able to be at that game.. but I know have more important things to do here in Yungay. I just keep telling myself I´ll be there for Travis Wilson´s senior year when we´ll win the Pac-12 and all head to Cali together for the Rose Bowl. Anyways, you´re all probably wondering why I´m emailing so late and being disobedient and emailing when I should be proselyting. Well... I had the wonderful opportunity of going to the hospital today on my birthday! Haha yesterday I didn´t feel to well so we left church early and I called up the nurse in our mission. She was worried about all my stomach pain I had been having so I had to travel 2 and a half hours to Concepcion to have an ultrasound. Anyways long story short I have to take a bunch of medication so we´ll see if that helps. I´ve been so sick of feeling like crap that I just decided to call the nurse to finally get checked out. Hahaha it was funny they put me in a wheelchair to take me down to the room to get the ultrasound.. I looked at them and said are you serious? I honestly thought they were joking for so long but yes.. I walk all day every day but I can´t walk down the hall to get an ultrasound.. my pride was at an all time low getting rolled down that hallway by a dude.But anyways thanks so much for all the pictures and the birthday video! I loved Hayden´s video.. ¨I´m 7 now! I´m 7... ¨ Haha definitely made me laugh. Also I started laughing when I saw the family video.. haha thanks so much you guys are the best! I was able to make the cake yesterday and I got some pictures.. I don´t know if I¨ll have time to send it because I honestly don´t have a ton of time tonight. I had a bunch of emails to go through before I got to writing this because you guys are awesome.. and I also had to watch those videos a few times. As for this week.. not a whole lot to report again. Geraldine wasn´t able to get baptized because she was missing some teachings, but we got the permission from her parents and everything this week and she is set up for the 19th. She does live in Huepil, so it makes it a little more complicated. We´re not sure if our District Leader will be able to come here this week for the interview, so it might have to wait for the 26th.I will keep you guys posted. This Sunday I had to direct Sacrament Meeting, bless the bread, and bless the sacrament. It´s a joke here.. there honestly is no priesthood here. I like the sister missionaries here, but wow if there´s no priesthood it wouldn´t hurt to have 2 more elders here to help out. Anyways we´re still working hard with all the less actives here because there´s a bunch. We´ll see what we can do. I´m glad the baby blessing went well.. I really enjoyed the pictures! If anyone was wondering.. Dallin has definitely been the biggest shock out of all my nephews. He is so different and huge now and looks like the perfect mix of Hayden and Teagan. It´s nuts. Also sounds like the sealing session was awesome.. wish I could of been there for the blessing and that but it´s all good! I loved Grandpa´s styling glasses. I definitely got a good laugh out of that hahaha. About my shoes and stuff... I believe there´s places I can buy shoes yes mom.. but the size 12 I´m not sure. I had to buy some slippers when I first got here and yeah size 12 doesn´t exist. About the office mom with the computer skills thing.. I honestly wouldn´t mind that haha.. I love computers and everything to do with them! Everybody asks me what I want to do when I come home and I tell them I´m thinking to do something with computers I just don´t know what. Anyways on Saturday we had an activity for the young men and women in Chillan. We don´t have any.. so we had to find some investigators and their friends. We ended up with 4 people that went.. I was actually planning on helping them out dancing to Starships by Nikki Minaj... but last minute we didn´t get permission. They danced to One More Time by Britney Spears. I´m not gonna say it was the greatest dance I´ve ever seen. Anyways there´s not a whole lot more to tell you guys.. I feel like I should be telling you guys more about my week but honestly like I´ve told you guys Yungay isn´t the happening place. I can´t believe I´m not a teenager anymore.. thanks Macee for reminding me how old I am now. But again thanks for all the emails/pictures/videos you guys sent me. You guys are awesome. I just remembered I didn´t bring my cable so I can´t send the pictures today but hopefully next week. I also wanted to write some personal emails to you guys a little bit but I don´t know if I´ll have time. We´re supposed to be in our house in 15 minutes planning for tomorrow haha. The President and his wife actually just called me about a half hour ago to wish me a Happy Birthday. They´re awesome.. we actually have interviews with President Arrington this Wednesday.. so that should be good. Today we were lost in Concepcion looking for the mission office when I spotted some more missionaries in the distance. We met up with them and it was Peter Morgan from school! Haha he is in that area so he helped us out.. anyways I hope I answered all the questions that you guys had and that Mom can now relax that I got my letter sent off.. but I should probably head out. Thanks again for everything and I love you all! Congratz to my Utes again and good luck to them this week against Arizona! ¨Utah Man Sir, Will Be Til I Die!!¨ GO UTES!

My Leg Itches like there´s as Banana Peel Glued to it‏

Trenton received his birthday package in 2 1/2 weeks.

His birthday is on October 14th.

Hey everyone how´s everything going? Conference was awesome this past weekend.. sounds like everyone had the chance to watch it. I´m a little disappointed about my Utes. 0-2 with Stanford coming to town. Uh-oh. With 6 turnovers and still being in the game at the last really surprised me. We´ll see what happens! I´m also a little disappointed you guys left the game early.. but I forgive you all! Yes I was able to watch the conference in English in my own little room with my Starburst.. that was nice. Yes that is right.. I GOT MY PACKAGE! I got it last Wednesday so that was good. Thanks so much everybody.. I loved it! Everything I wanted was there so you guys are awesome. Hayden, Teagan, Carter and Dallin.. thanks for your gifts! I have pictures that I will be sending so stay tuned. I forgot to make an outline for my letter today.. so hopefully it´s not all over the place and I can remember what happened this week. We still have been working in Huepil a lot and with less actives. Geralddin we are still working with.. she wasn´t able to come to general conference but she still has a date for the 12th. She has been hard to find in her house to teach and she is missing some teachings still.. so hopefully all goes well. Anyways Saturday night it suddenly became my problem at 10:00 pm that we didn´t have a computer or anyone that knew how to set it up to watch the relief society meeting in the morning. The branch president always leaves everything last minute here and just dumps it off on me. The stake president is actually really frustrated with him. The only day he does work here for the branch is on Sunday. I´m working hard with the elders quorum president named Hermano Poblete with whom I will get to a little later. He is awesome. Anyways I had to go find a computer last minute and set it all up for the 2 members that came to watch it. Saturday night for the priesthood session, there were 3 people there to watch it. We had more members there for the Sunday morning session, but zero for the afternoon session. Yes yes yes it is obvious, WE ARE IN YUNGAY. Haha that´s kind of a joke known around the mission... good old Yungay. Also yesterday, a member had had a computer for a very long time but nobody in Yungay knew how to set it up. Haha we had a family night over there and I got it all set up for her and she was so thankful. It´s sad here.. there´s so many people that can´t read, type, or know anything about any electronics. Freak I can´t think of anything exciting that happened this week.. sorry. Today a less active member asked me if I knew how to cook this special soup. I was like nope.. haha she was like are you serious? She told me I needed to learn how to cook.. she asked me what do you do if your mom is sick? I told her we usually can just go grab fast food. That probably wasn´t a good idea.. haha apparently we´re rich! Haha people don´t understand how many fast food restauraunts/restuarants there are in America. The only restaurant here in Yungay is this lady that cooks.. you go into her house and sit at her table and she´ll cook you something real quick. Be thankful to live in America! That reminds me the day I left Linares. Eduardo and his family wanted to see our house on google earth. Yes I got a ton of crap because are house is ¨HUGE¨. They were like wow how rich are you? Haha it was funny. I also had a mini-cambio again with Elder W in his area. That was definitely a long day. He really really is struggling with the language and we didn´t have any appointments. We stayed at the zone leaders house with Elder P (Lone Peak) and Elder M because they were in a mini-cambio too! Houses of 4 are so much better.. I sometimes feel like I´m going to die of boredom in my house of 2. Anyways Mom I didn´t really have a favorite talk.. there were a lot of good ones. I really like Russel M. Nelson´s about the human body and how it´s such a great gift from God. Also Gerald Caussé from the presiding bishopric did a good job. He spoke to us in the MTC on Easter if you don´t remember. The guy that gave the closing prayer in priesthood session also came to our mission not too long ago and he helped us out a lot.. Elder Gonzalez. Holland always does a really good job too! Anyways about the address of our house. It´s 62 Chipana.. at least I think it´s 62. It could be 64 as well...There´s a wooden house just inside the black gate to the left.. and you have to keep going down the trail and it´s the last house on the left in front of the river. Let me know if you can find it! That´s cool Brielle is getting blessed this coming Sunday.. take some pictures of her and send them to me if possible! That sucks for Real.. sounds like they really choked like Utah teams love to do. Yes Dad it´s starting to get warmer here now in Yungay and it´s so much better. The freaking winter here sucks big time I´m not gonna lie haha. Sophie when she finds us on the street will follow us still.. my companion is really scared of dogs so he always locks it in the front yard of people´s houses. Sophie loves to hide behind other cars and jump out and chase cars as they go out. She´s almost gotten hit a few times because she doesn´t see the other cars coming from the opposite way. Haha but there´s 2 dogs that chill at our house because they live around there and they´re pretty dope. Some P-Days I´ll just go out and play with them. And yes there´s a ridiculous amount of stray dogs here in Chile! That´s good you went and visited Grandma.. I´m sure she really enjoys the company. Is her health good besides her mind? And how is Grandpa doing? The other day I had the feeling that I just wanted to talk to Grandpa so bad.. haha it was weird. But honestly I can´t think of any more exciting things that happened.. good luck to Utah against Stanford.. wish I could be there! #5 team in the nation will hopefully be an exciting game if Utah comes to play. Let me know how it goes! Also thanks for the package again.. it´s awesome! I will be making the cake at Hermano Poblete´s house this Sunday.. his birthday is also the 14th. We will be eating a really good lunch and then we will eat the cake afterwards.. I´ll see if I can take some pictures! But thanks for everything and I love you all! I´ll talk to you all next week..... PEACE OUT NEIL FAM!

You Killed My Fish in Broad Daylight :(

Heyyyyyyyyyy friends and family! Your letters and everything always make my day and I thank everyone for that! Looks like it was my fish´s time to go... haha it´s all good! I know the trick to keeping a fish alive for 4 years and I should´ve shared it with you before I left :( haha just kidding. But yeah I should still be here in November so that´ll be cool to go to the temple in Santiago. We would travel all through the night, get there in the morning, and leave again around 6. We´re still not sure on all the details but we´ll figure it all out! This Sunday we had Geraldine and Karen in church. Remember them? They are family of some members and this was their 3rd time they´ve gone to church. Geraldine has a baptism date for the 12th of October, but she has had plenty of dates before. Keep her in your prayers so she can go through with it this time! By the way I had to conduct again... there´s no 2nd counselor so I have so much work to do. The President basically makes me and the secretary do everything. The secretary is named Leo, and he is awesome. He is 28 and always willing to help us. He had to order supplies for 2014 the other day but didn´t know how so I had to go help him. Basically nobody knows how to work a freaking computer here haha it´s ridiculous. Also, we had a movie night on Friday and nobody could figure out how to hook the DVD player to the TV. We finally got there and so they asked me to do it. I was like yeah okay where´s the HDMI cable? Everyone looked at me like what in the world is that? That makes the 3rd time here in Chile I´ve had to check a calendar to make sure we´re in 2013 and not 1963. I´ve also had to make a bunch of excel spreadsheets and post them on the wall because nobody else knows how. I´m pretty sure that´s why they always keep at least 1 gringo missionary here haha. The other day we were in Huepil with a member visiting a reference she gave us. We were trying to find the street so we went into a little store and asked the lady there. There was this mom and her little boy in there as well. You know how kids always say stuff out loud that you don´t want them to? Haha well yeah as we were leaving, the kid looks at his mom and says, ¨look Mom! He is HUGE!¨ Haha I just started laughing and so did the Mom. I told her I get that a lot so not to worry. It was pretty funny and reminded me of Teagan saying stuff to cashiers with Robyn. Also as we got off the bus there, we offered to cut some wood for this old guy. He told us no but we insisted. We got a lot done in like 45 minutes and afterwards his wife came out to give us these huge ice cream cones and told us how grateful she was. We didn´t have time to teach them but hopefully another day! We also received a reference from another member. She was talking to this lady as she saw us walking in the distance. She told the member that we had always stopped by her house but that her family wouldn´t let us in. She had been reading the Book of Mormon and she loves it. The member invited her to a family night at her house and we watched a movie and invited her to church. She couldn´t come this past Sunday because of something going on, but she wants to come next week. It´ll have to be in 2 weeks though because of conference. Her name is Gladys so keep her in your prayers as well!  We´ve also been working with this inactive member in Huepil. His name is Alexis and he is a returned missionary. He must be around 40 years old but he first married a returned missonary as well.  They eventually were divorced and now he´s married to a catholic lady. He called us over to give blessings to his kids the other day and afterwards he was like wow, ¨I can feel it again. That feeling of the Spirit is here right now.¨ He wants more than anything for his kid to be a missionary he said but they don´t go to church so I don´t know how that´s gonna work. He´s a cool guy so we´re working hard to reactivate him. He has a down syndrome daughter that blocks the door when we´re about to leave.. haha it´s funny. I´m glad you guys all had a good time at Olive Garden for Dad´s birthday.. man I miss food from home. I also really enjoyed the pictures you guys sent me. I was wondering how Grandma was doing because it had been awhile since I got an update on her. Also that´s too bad for Grandpa and his eye surgery. I hope all goes well and his vision can get better. That´s good you guys were able to give him a blessing, that should help. By the way, I talked to Seth last week. He told me he has been between jobs saving up some money and stuff and that he´s hoping to get his papers in within a month or 2. That´ll be good and I´m excited for him.  Also I was disappointed when I read that Trevor´s funny email was lost because of the kindle.. next week smoothieman! Can´t believe Dad is coming up on 30 years at Wells Fargo.. that´s crazy! Haha keep pushing Dad you´re awesome. I´m definitely looking forward to General Conference this weekend. Like Brian said, it feels like Christmas is next week :) haha it should be good and I´ll be in a little room inside the church watching it in English by myself while the members all watch it in the ¨chapel¨. I definitely will be listening closer and taking note because I´m sure there will be a lot of advice to missionaries because there´s so many serving right now. I´m excited for that. I couldn´t believe how much Dallin looks like Hayden in the Utah picture you sent me Mom. He is so freaking cute and huge oh my gosh. And Bella looks so good and healthy. Haha after seeing all these dogs here.. wow. Again I´m glad she´s at home with you guys and not here. Could you do me one more favor? Send me one more package.. with Brielle in it? I just want to hold her once is that too much to ask? By the way no I haven´t gotten my package yet. I´ll let you know when I do. Anyways I can´t think of a whole lot more.. my letter was a little random and over the place today... sorry! I love you guys and thanks for everything! By the way, do you guys read my letters to my nephews? Just curious.. I love them. Good luck to my Utes this week against UCLA! Until next week.......

                                         NEILSON OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. I have saved the pictures of grandma and grandpa and Bella and my nephews so I will be printing them soon! Thanks again.. I love receiving pictures and videos more than anything!

And Utah beats the team down south!!! GO UTES!‏

I first again want to congratulate my Utes on pulling out the win against BYU and winning bragging rights for the next couple of years! Sounds like it was a good game and Travis Wilson played well. That´s dope. Also thanks for the pictures and videos Brian/Heather. You guys are ballers... so is Hayden! I loved that video of him.. and wow his teeth.. hahaha crazy! All my nephews/niece are ballers by the way. If anyone was wondering I miss them so much. Anyways about my week! Looks like I will be staying here in Yungay with Elder C another 6 weeks. All the members are making fun of my companion because he´s been here forever. This is his 5th change here.. but hopefully we can get a lot done. Anyways yes I had the 18th of September here this past week. For those of you who don´t know what it is it is basically the 4th of July. I ate a ton of empanadas and we went and saw a parade and visited a bunch of less actives. The parades weren´t as cool as ours but there were literally like 200 horses there.. I was like woooooooooooooooow. Should´ve been expected though since we are literally in the middle of nowhere here in Yungay haha. I took some pictures so I´ll see if I can send them after this email. Anyways this week was a little slow but it´s all good! Last week on Sunday I was at the church making a list for the talks to be given this next month when we got a call from the branch president saying we had to go run some oil up to him to give a blessing to someone. We quickly ran to the house and of course he had left. Haha we as missionaries have to do EVERYTHING here in Yungay. Anyways the family invited us to lunch so we quickly ate. Eeeeeeewww my piece of meat they gave me was horrible. I´m not kidding but if you guys would´ve had a choice between that piece of meat they gave me and that piece from Hometown Buffet, you definitely would´ve taken hometown´s.. no doubt. When I found my opportunity, I took it. I had no other choice but to slip the piece of meat in my pocket and chuck it out later. Hahahahaha like for reals oh my gosh I almost threw up when I saw it. Anyways after that we got a call from another member asking us when we were going to eat lunch at her house. Anyways we ended up having to eat 2 lunches.. which wasn´t too bad because I didn´t really eat the first haha. Anyways the other day we were coming back from our district meeting in Chillan and there were no seats so we had to stand up. Being tall and hideous and ugly I couldn´t stand up normally without ducking. Haha so the bus guy came back and opened the moon roof and told me to stand under there so I wasn´t so uncomfortable.. haha it was funny. The other day we were sick of being here in Yungay so we went to Pemuco which is about 25 minutes away from here. It´s like Huepil, but the other direction from Yungay. There´s one member there so we had lunch with her and spent pretty much all day there. I asked her to use her bathroom and she was like yep it´s out in the back go ahead. I went out there and it was like this little outhouse they had built. They had dug a big hole and put a spare toilet seat over the hole. I was like are you serious? Haha people are soooo poor here it´s so sad. Anyways we taught 9 lessons there but nobody would commit to church because it´s too far away. We can teach a ton of lessons in Huepil and Pemuco but they are too poor to pay for the bus. By the way if I´m still here on November 15th, which I should be, I´ll get to travel to Santiago with the branch here to go to the temple! I´m first counselor in the bishopric so I basically have to. It costs like $1100 for the bus so we´re trying to get at least 30 people to go to split the cost. It´s a little difficult because some people can´t afford it which is sad. We can easily go to temples because we have cars and they´re close.. but they don´t have cars, a close temple, or very much money to pay for a bus. It´s sad but we´re trying to combine with a different branch to have more people. Anyways the other day we were contacting and we got into a house with 2 old people. They offered us a drink and we were like yeah sure. Haha anyways it smelled a little funky and tasted soooo nasty that I choked it down. Later on we told a member about it and turns out it was alcohol. Hahaha I was like wow alcohol tastes AWFUL. Anyways don´t judge me because we didn´t know any better! There´s not a whole lot more to report this week... I just want to wish my dad a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the 27th! Can´t believe he´ll be 40... wow time flies ;) haha but I´m going to try and send some pictures so hopefully all goes well with that! By the way Hermana M was here for a change and got transferred... :( we got along really well and this new girl is just way too much. Hermana T told me she is dying with her and misses Hermana M... stupid changes. Anyways thanks again for all your letters I love reading them and seeing how everyone is doing! Again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Dad!  I love you so much and am so thankful for all you have done for the family. You are such a baller. I´ll talk to guys all later and I LOVE YOU ALL!

¨ My eyes are opened up with pure sunlight, I´m the first to know... ¨Here we go, life´s waiting to begin.¨ AVA

Big Chilean Holiday 18 September

 With the Hermanas in Yungay

Big Macs Taste Good

Hey everyone.. another week has come and gone and I´m here in good old ghosttown Yungay! I´m a little disappointed to see my Utes lost to Oregon St... sounds like with a tough schedule it good be a long year.. but good luck to my Utes this week against BYU!  Anyways about this last week. We had a nice family night planned with these members that are too poor to travel from Huepil to Yungay. They invited a ton of people and the kids invited their friends, but as we got there, nobody had showed up. It was a little disappointing but with her kids and her we still had a family home evening. She has an 18 year old, 15 year old, and 11 year old girl. The 15 year old is really extremely tough for her. The 18 year old is pretty cool and way nice but she struggles with the 15 year old. She wants more than anything for her 2 sons to serve missions. She always talks to us and them about it but the 18 year old is quiet and the 15 year old is super against it. I shared with her my testimony about how much the Gospel has blessed my family and life at home. She got a little emotional and it made me feel bad for her. The 2nd counselor from the bishopric also came with us to see her money situation. We found out she doesn´t even have money to buy wood to burn to heat up her house. We´re going to see what we can do for her. It´s been really cold this last week again.. I guess the past week was just a nice little break. In church, we had 22 people there including us 4 missionareis and the bishopric. The branch is declining, but we are doing all we can. I had to conduct this past Sunday by the way. Yungay is really small.. I´ve been here for 5 weeks and I´ve basically knocked on every door. Mostly it´s working with all the less actives and trying to reactivate them and baptize their kids. Us or the sister missionaries haven´t had investigators in church for 4 weeks now but we´re still all trying to keep a positve attitude. By the way Elder M is in my zone again! He got emergency transferred from Linares and is now training a kid from Orem. We actually met up in Chillan today to eat MCDONALDS! Wow that Big Mac has never tasted so amazing. I also looked at portable DVD players but I got Dad´s genes with my money and well it ended up I am going to still wait haha. (Thanks Dad)  I also tried to make the M & M cookies again for a family night we had with a recent convert but wow they ended up even worse. I got the recipe from the internet but brown sugar doesn´t exist here so I had to find a specific recipe but maybe that´s why. By the way changes will be this Thursday instead of Monday because there´s so many missionaries that will be coming in. We´ll find out Wednesday, and we´re pretty sure my companion will be getting transferred. I´ll let you guys know next week. By the way, I laughed when I read Cole´s letter. Yes I have eaten PLENTY of completos here.. they load on the mayonnaise and avocado but I always ask for just a little bit. Too much avocado makes me feel not so great.. (maybe that´s what happened to Cole). But yes it is a hot dog with tomatoes, avocado, and a buttload of mayo. Mom yeah Elder H is like my best friend here in the mish.. too many memories from the MTC haha. But there´s 2 of them from Arizona but his name is Jace. Anyways yeah with the Facebook, I´m pretty sure you can just accept everyone that adds me. They can´t find me unless I give them my first name so pretty much the people that add me will all be good to accept. Thanks for mailing my package... we´ll see how fast it gets here and I´ll let you guys know when I get it! I´m definitely excited.. I´ll be thinking of what I want for Christmas! Beach Boys over Utah Football Mom? I´m not gonna lie and tell you I´m not a little disappointed but it´s all good! :) Yes it´s the 18th of September here on Wednesday (pretty much the 4th of July) and it sound like I´ll be eating a buttload of empanadas! Last year the P-Day was on that day too.. but obviously I´m writing you today so I have no idea. If my companion leaves we´ll be saying goodbye to everyone that night anyways and eating a ton so I´m excited for that. By the way Jeremy asked me about if we would be getting ipads and stuff like DJ Teaskie.. I¨m not sure I haven´t heard a whole lot about that. I heard that stuff would be starting at the beginning of next year so maybe that´s when we´ll start with that stuff. I think that would be good because the door to door stuff sometimes isn´t all that effective seeing as to I´ve knocked on every door here in Yungay already. I´m also more of a technology guy so I would enjoy that haha. I´ve also been talking to Dustin and he´s now in the mission field and worried about Spanish. But guess what? His district leader is Jordan Tuckfield from school! They are working in the same ward and everything.. Jordan Tuckfield is a good friend of mine and Tanner´s. That´s pretty dope! By the way Brian and Heather, thanks so much for those videos! Wow I think those are probably my favorite things I could receive.. I also love the letters too I´m just saying! Wow Dallin is just freaking huge and a spit image of Hayds and Teags. So crazy to see him walking. I also like to think tht Brielle´s smiles were for me and for me only! Sorry Heather I´m gonna take credit :) haha but no really thanks so much! I miss everyone so much and I pray for you guys daily. I´m going to sign off here because there´s not whole lot more to report but I´m going to try and send some pictures. I love you all and until next week....
         
                         NINNON OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An American flag made by a member in Chile....missing a few stars. :)

 A ward activity in Yungay..representing the US of A!

 Trenton's attempt at M&M cookies for the ward activity.  He said they were a failure.

 P-day in Chillan

 Trenton's living quarters in Yungay.  He refers to it as his "hut".