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...