PENALTY KICKS...

Okay family, how´s it all going? I enjoyed reading your letters as always! This week was alright, except for Chile lost in penalty kicks. Soooooo disappointing. We were locked in our house, and were just calling members every so often to check the score.  I´ve never seen a whole country just go on pause during a sporting event. It´s unreal. There´s no buses going, no people, everything is closed, and even 95 year old grandmas are cheering for their team. I´ve also never seen people so devastated in their lives. In the house, we were pretty devastated as well. Chile would have played on the 4th of July which would have been cool, but wow the Chileans were just destraught. Oh well, life goes on. Hopefully the US can keep it going.. how sick would that be. Everybody here is giving props to the US for improving, slowly but surely. Anyways N got confirmed on Sunday, and she´s doing really well.  B´s family came to church again. The husband, and the son who aren´t members came as well. There´s also a 22 year old daugher who is, and a 6 year old daughter as well. The daughter just loves when we go over and always wants me to play games with her haha. Anyways they all came to church, including the activity we did on Friday. We did like a Family Night. Anyways Elder R is a pretty cool kid. He´s way nice... like about an hour ago he decided to buy me a red sweater for 10 bucks. My black sweater was really dirty and I wore a grey one like 3 days in a row, and he decided I needed some more variety. Haha he´s a nice kid. . To answer your questions Mom, we have to cook every night if we want to eat. About 4 out of the 7 days, I don´t have any time to eat anything. I go to bed absolutely starving, but I guess I´m just used to it. In our house, we actually do our laundry which is so much nicer, but that´s very rare. Most houses don´t have a washer/dryer. My next area a lady will probably do it. All the elders houses are crappy here. For example, we pay about 150 bucks a month to live in our house. Wanna hear about the sisters apartment? It costs 580 bucks a month.We live 4 elders in a tiny house, and they have 2 sisters in a brand new huge apartment with 2 bathrooms. Case closed. As of right now, we aren´t living in filth. We took advantage of being in the house during the Chile game and did a full on cleaning job. We also didn´t leave after, because there were car alarms and everything like that going off and apparently a dude tried to rob the sisters. Anyways we didn´t leave until things had settled down and cleaned our house. It was nasty. Mold all in the windows, spider webs everywhere, fungus growing in the shower, and stuff like that. But that´s every house here in Chile basically... the houses just get nasty. I´m glad you had a nice birthday, and enjoyed Leatherby´s without me :( I love ice cream. It´s just not the same here. I miss smoothies and milk shakes. Hopefully the Lake Powell trip for Robyn and Brian turns out better than the last. I just can´t picture Dallin being active, I still think of him as the the little kid sitting on the floor and not really talking.  He sounds like a funny and active kid. Well that´s basically all I can think of for this week... thanks for praying for me and for everything you guys do. Keep pushing! I love you guys!
P.S. I also want to wish everyone a HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! My 2nd favorite holiday next to Christmas, and wow that day is just awesome. Being with the whole family, parade, barbecue, fireworks, and homeade ice cream. I´ll be thinking of you guys and I hope you guys all enjoy such a great holiday. Living in a different country has made that holiday mean even more, and has made me so much more thankful for the country we live in and to be an American. It´s such a dope country. I LOVE AMERICA!!! 

Here´s a few pictures. One is of the nicest dog with just a jacked up leg. He lives pretty close to our house. I feel so bad for him, but he doesn´t look like he´s ever in pain. He just limps weird and the leg jiggles every which way. Another is of the apple juice I finally decided to buy. I miss the apple juice that was always at home haha. Another is the bugs/ slugs we find on our shower curtains sometimes and on the walls and on the floor. They come out late at night. Not nearly as big as the ones I found/stepped on in Linares, but still. Another one is me on some hills we always have to walk up. At the end of the days, I´m just exhausted. Another is a puppy I found on the street that I sent home in a box to you guys to be with Bella. She should be there in about 3 more days. Be on the lookout please. Another one is just proof of how rich the area I´m working in really is. 

BALLIN‏

6-23-2014
HEY FAMILY! I love you all did you guys know that? FIRST OFF, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER TERESA ON THE 25TH! I hope everything goes well and I´ll be thinking about my one and only mother that day. Okay so SECOND off, "N" GOT BAPTIZED! Thanks Mom for putting her name on the temple roll. The baptism went well and she´s really happy. I´ll see if I can get some pictures sent off! And also putting "J" on the temple roll worked! We have been working with their family for awhile, and FINALLY, they ALL came to church. Including the dad that isn´t a member that I had never met before. I was sitting in sacrament meeting, and I was excited for N's baptism, we had another investigator in church (which I´ll talk more about), and then I see J and his whole family walk in. I was so happy. It was weird, but I can´t even explain how happy I was haha. Anyways, they loved the church, and the mom told me I´ll see you next Sunday. I´m pretty excited for them. I probably won´t be here for when J and possibly his dad gets baptized, but I feel like I´ve done everything I can for them, and am happy that they finally came back to church after 8 years. About the other investigator we have, his name is "Jo". Now I don´t want to jinx this, but he´s so incredibly prepared for baptism. Actually, the older elders we live with found him, but ended up giving him to us because he lives in our sector. He is 23 years old, can´t read very well, and doesn´t really understand when he reads, but has a lot of faith. The first visit we had with him (2nd with missionaries), he said he had read some of the Book of Mormon and prayed, and God had definitely answered him. The elders actually had left him with a whole chapter, but he only read one verse because that´s what he thought his homework was. It was Alma 32:20 that he read... I can´t even remember what that has to do with.. I know 21 is to do with faith, but either way he said the next step for him is baptism. Haha he´s a golden investigator. He´s got a baptism date for July 6th, so if everything goes well, he will get baptized that day. We´re pretty excited. Finally seeing the blessings after having a lot of patience. Second off, I just want to say how ridiculous that goal was that Portugal put in with 10 seconds left. I was SOOOO disappointed haha. I LOVE AMERICA. Okay so in my defense, I did see a little bit of the game. It´s almost impossible to not see the games here because EVERYBODY is watching it. It´s okay, at least we came away with a tie and we still have an opportunity to advance if everything falls into place. A lot of Chileans were talking about Beckerman´s hair... hahaha I was just laughing. And Chile..... wow the Chileans are going crazy. They took out Spain, and things we´re crazy. We basically have to be in our house, but we definitely know when Chile scores a goal. It´s sooooooooo loud and everybody is just blowing air horns, running around, and going crazy. We left a little after the game, but ended up going back to the house early just because it was too crazy. We had permission to do that if things were too crazy and dangerous out. This is why I´m emailing so early... we have to be back in Santa Sabina by 12, when the game starts.  Apparently it just gets too crazy here in Centro (downtown). They play against Holland, and it seems like Holland will win, but we´ll see. It´s nice because I have 2 teams now that I can cheer for haha. Sometimes after the games, it´s kinda sketchy in the streets and people will yell at me like who´s your team? So they don´t beat you up, we´ve realized all you have to do is yell LET´S GO CHILE!!!!!!!!! And they just get so happy and you become their new best friend.. hahaha. It´s so fun though to be here during the World Cup... it´s such a big deal. 
 Other than that, not much else has happened this week. Just got N baptized, working with J and his family, and Jo. Oh and guess what? C.G. came to N´s baptism! Not to church, but just the baptism. She said she liked it, but I´m not sure if that changed her mind about anything. We will be passing by this week and see what happens. We have 3 more weeks until changes, and I imagine I´ll be leaving Santa Sabina. I will have been here for 6 months which is a long time. When I´m in an area, I´m in an area. It´s kind of unheard of to only have 3 sectors with how long I´ve been out, at least in this mission. Haha but I liked it, because changes and adjusting to everything is kinda hard.  That's too bad that Jeremy got mono, hopefully he can get over it pretty fast. I remember when DJ Teaskie had it, and was sick for awhile.THERE´S A LEATHERBY´S IN DRAPER? That´s so sick.. I love Leatherby´s. I miss it. I miss just restaurants.  Justin moved to Price? Hmmmmm.. by the way, he told me he would write me at least one time while I was out. Still waiting Justin :P Remember your sweet spot in around the world? Bro, you were money. Lake Powell? I swear Robyn and Brian just went. Where the big wind storm happened and everything. Has it really been a year since that happened? What the crap. Cowabunga Bay with Teags, haha I miss my nephews. There´s this famliy here that I love. She actually came with us to J´s family to help us get them to come to church. Anyways, they have 3 boys. One is 10, the other s 8, and the other is 6 or so. The first time they invited us all over for breakfast for Elder F's birthday. After, we all had a nerf gun war. They love nerf guns and Elder F and Elder R brought theirs. I didn´t have one, and neither did my companion. But like 2 weeks ago, we both bought one at Lider. For Elder R´s birthday, we all went to have breakfast again. Then we had a nerf war. Hahaha they put on Star Wars background music, we had goggles, and it was a full on war. The couches were everywhere, the kids were jumping on me and shooting me, and they were loving it. Haha the parents were just taking pictures and videos and they said their gonna send the pictures to us soon. All at church, they´re just pretending to shoot me with their pretend nerf guns. They´re such a cool family. Okay so this letter is really long, but this week was just a really good week. Good luck to my country in the World Cup, and hopefully Chile can win again so they can get first seed in their group. I love you all and I´ll talk to you guys all next week!!!

Here´s a picture of the 4 of us after a house inspection. They called us 10 minutes before to tell us they were going to do it, and we ran back to the house and cleaned it in 10 minutes and the picture is us with the Celestial Kingdom paper.. meaning our house was really clean haha.

 She got baptized!

Special Tribute to Jeremy and Staci

This is a special tribute written by Trenton, and read by Jonathan, at the wedding dinner held on Thursday, June 5th, 2014 at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building:

 I have so many memories of Jeremy that I can´t really pick out just one. Most of them just happened when I was alone hanging out with him. I think he may be the only one that remembers it, and I won´t go into too much detail, but Jeremy.. hopefully you know what I´m talking about when I say Disneyland, closet, and tiny towel. I will never forget that. Other than that, I think my favorite memory of Jeremy was just how close we got when we both lived downstairs. Just being able to hang out with him every night when we should have both been sleeping. Also, I will never forget all the car rides in his car just blasting Angels and Airwaves/Blink 182.

 I think Staci should know a couple things about Jeremy before she marries him. First off Staci, he doesn´t care what people think about him. That is just his personality and he just wants to always have fun. He might embarrass you in public for this reason, but you´ll get used to it. Second, you´ve never seen Jeremy mad until you´ve watched him play Call of Duty. He´s decent yes, but not as good as me. Watching him somehow quietly yell at the TV at 3 in the morning and throwing his controller on his bed so he didn´t wake up my mom a room above is a funny sight you need to see. When he gets mad or frustrated, just know it could be worse, and even funnier.

 Staci, you should probably know a couple things about our family as well. First of all, we are AVID UTAH FANS. When it´s Saturday and it´s game day, you will know it. Even if it´s an away game and we are watching it on TV, you would think we were on the front row at a home game. There will be yelling and screaming and if you don´t control my Dad, silverware thrown at the TV. WE LOVE OUR UTES. Second, we like to have fun together. We are constantly joking around, making fun of each other, and doing whatever we can to enjoy ourselves. When you have joined in on one of our family dance parties with glowsticks, you will know what I am talking about.

What I love most about Jeremy is his personality and his attitude towards having fun, and also his love he has for the family. One thing that always sticks out to me every year is when Christmas time comes around. We usually all draw names and buy a present for one other person, but every year Jeremy has a gift bought for everybody. It´s not some regular gift, but he´s goes all out every year on everybody. Just the fact that he´s so unselfish is something that I love about my brother. I think as myself as a perfect mix between my twin brothers, but I´m a lot like Jeremy. I know he came before me, but he definitely got my looks. Also our love for the same music, the same movies, TV shows, sports, and horrible attitude towards school is what I love about Jeremy.

 Jeremy has been an example to me in so many ways. Like I have mentioned, his example in being unselfish is something I admire. Also, his example of serving a mission in the same country as me is pretty cool and something I´m grateful for. Also, I love his outgoing personality and I think I´ve taken after him quite a bit in my personality. More than anything, is his love for other people and his constant attitude towards having fun.

I would like to leave you guys with some advice: Stay strong, and when times are tough, pray and read the scriptures. I know God answers our prayers and if we are humble enough to ask Him sincerely, he will help us. He gives us trials and pains so that we can learn and progress. In these toughest of moments, he tests our faith and our patience. He wants to know if we are willing to give it all we can and rely on Him for help. The other advice I wanted to give you guys is just to always smile. Life really is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. I love this quote and I´ve tried to apply it in my life. Whatever happens, we can wake up in the morning and make the decision right there whether or not we have a good or bad day. It´s up to us.

 I´d just like to give a shout out to Staci and welcome her into the family. I´m excited to gain another sister into the family and know you will be a good example to my brother. At first, I was a little disappointed my brother would be getting married while I was gone. In fact, before I left, I told him he couldn´t. But after I thought about the blessings I´ve received and how close I´ve grown to Brian and Heather, my other in-laws, I knew everything would work out. Again, welcome to the family, and good luck with Jeremy. I´m glad to hear you guys got married in the temple. I know with all my heart that this Gospel is true and that we have the restored church upon the earth. I know that families can be forever. This knowledge keeps me going as I love my family more than anything else. All we have to do is keep the commandments. God asks us so little, and if we can just be humble and do what He asks, we will be able to live with our families forever. I know we will have tough times, That why we have prayer, the scriptures, church, our family and friends, and a living prophet. If we are obedient, we will be happy not only in this life, but also afterwards. Thanks for everything and I can´t wait to meet you when I get home!

I´ve Been to that Place Before, In Spite of Luck, and you Awake a New Tomorrow‏

June 16, 2014
Hello once again everybody! 7 more days have passed and here I am sitting here writing another letter to all you guys. I am doing well here in Santa Sabina, as always. This past week we´ve been working really hard to find new investigators using the list of inactive members. We have been contacting a ton of houses where apparently members live, but they haven´t been too receptive haha. A bunch of them have had bad experiences with the church and that´s why they stopped going obviously. The 2 people I am really trying to focus on this transfer are N and J. N came to church on Sunday and stayed for all the classes and everything. She has a baptism date for this coming Sunday, but she hasn´t actually come right out and said she wanted to do it. It´s always just a if I feel right about it, I´ll get baptized. She´s the lady that´s been really sick, and when she reads the chapters in the Book of Mormon that we leave her, she doesn´t understand a single thing. We are working hard with her with members, and she´s seeming more receptive to baptism. She´s just having a hard time recognizing her answer to her prayers. We have an appointment with her tonight, and we´re supposed to get her baptismal interview set up for tomorrow. I haven´t had a whole lot of luck with investigators the week before their baptism here in Santa Sabina, but I am trying to have faith and pray a ton for N. J is the 10 year old son of a less active. If you remember, this less active had a bad experience in church with her kid running around and that´s why she stopped coming.That was like 7 years ago. She put on her calendar she was going to church this week and we have an appointment set up with an old friend of her with her 10 year old daughter as well. It should go well and we are going to try and set up a baptism date for the 10 year old kid. Hopefully the mom accepts and everything goes well.  Other than all that we´ve haven´t done quite a whole lot. Friday night at 6 when Chile played, we just had to be in the house. We ordered a pizza and just chilled the whole night. On Wednesday at 3, Chile plays again and we have to be in the house again.  Chile actually won their first game which was a surprise to everyone.Now on Wednesday is the big game against Spain. They´re supposed to lose but the Chileans are getting excited anyways. Mom, that lady here sent you a message on facebook, and tried to friend you but their no add as friend. We figured you had every single setting possible set on your facebook to make it as private as possible. She was really looking forward to having you as a friend haha. Her daughter leaves the 29th and I´m not sure when she´ll be in Utah. That would be cool though and wants to know if I need to send anything home or if you guys want to send anything back. Sounds like Carter´s birthday went well and that he enjoyed his Iron Man party. Hahaha such a funny kid. That´s too bad Grandma´s not doing too well. Hopefully she can keep hanging on.. I´d like to see her and I´ll definitely be praying for her.  Anyways that´s about all there is to update you guys on.Thanks Mom H-Train for the letters and I wanted to wish Dad a HAPPY FATHER´S DAY! Was it Father´s Day at home yesterday? Because it was here... and you or Heather didn´t say anything about it but either way I love you FATHER JEFFREY! I love you all and I will talk to you guys next week!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed being at the wedding.. (in cardboat cutout) :)‏

June 9, 2014
Hello family and friends! We added one more to the family this week which is crazy. I really enjoyed all the pictures... I had a good laugh seeing as to how much fun you guys had with all my pictures. I really enjoyed the family wedding one that Mom sent me where I´m just in the back and you can just see my head sticking up.. haha thanks... :) no just kidding it looks like the cardboat cutout turned out well and I was even more excited and I want to give Heather a HUGE shoutout for pulling me on the dance floor during Die Young. That´s what I would have wanted... :) Haha but thanks for all the pictures and for all the videos. That´s cool I was the honorable best man.. thanks Germs.. love you! Congratz by the way.. you may be umm... too busy to read this but when you finally get the chance just remember I was thinking about you guys. From the sounds of it, it sounds like everything went smoothly except for having to wait forever to take the pictures at the temple. I enjoyed the pictures of my nephews/niece.. I saw one picture where Teagan had his Teagan face on and it definitely gave me a good laugh hahaha. Jeremy looked like a stud and I hope he´s enjoying being on the beach in Fort Lauderdale.. just so he knows I was once there in one of those beach houses. We went there for a basketball trip and all stayed in Pardoe´s beach house. It was sick and I´m sure he´ll enjoy it. I hope Haydsey Boy enjoyed his birthday too. 8 years old... so crazy. I always told him before I left.. we would be able to hang out again when he was 8. Well, he´s 8. So crazy how fast time is passing by. Also, Happy Birthday to Carter on Wednesday! I love that kid... such a goofy kid. I hope he enjoys his Iron Man party... definitely want pictures too! I ALSO want to give a shoutout to my best friend the DJ Teaskie! His birthday is tomorrow and I can´t wait to freaking hang out with that kid again. Freaking miss him but I hope he enjoys his birthday tomorrow. Also on the 14th, Happy Birthday Brayton! Hope all is well with you... haven´t heard the latest on you but I bet you´re still funny as ever. Anyways this week we have been working with N... remember her? She got really sick and we weren´t able to meet with her for awhile but she´s slowly getting better. She had a baptismal date for the 15th, but then it started raining on Sunday morning and she didn´t want to go to church because of that. We even had it all set up for a member to go grab her in her car but she still didn´t want to go. (I would just like to point out Die Young just came on and all I can think of are my nephews) Anyways, it´s been awhile since she´s been to church so we´re thinking we might need to reset the date for the 22nd and really see how serious she is about baptism. All of her life, she has wanted to see what the mormons believed in, and she straight up told us she wants to get baptized.  By the way, it rains an unbelievable amount here. It´s rained every single day for the past week and a half, and it´s it´s kept me up at nights way more than I´d like. There is sooooo much wind here, and the mix of the rain hitting a thin metal roof is soooooo loud at night. I honestly didn´t know it was possible to rain as much as it has. It´s absolutely ridiculous. Anyways I´m getting used to it and I have waterproof stuff so don´t worry about that. That´s basically what´s been happening. Anyways I can´t think of too much more... we´ve been working hard with a list we have of all the members in our area. We have tried to visit them and are trying to find family members of them that aren´t members that we can work with. This transfer, we decided to really focus on that so we´ll see how that works. Just wanna give a shout out to the U.S. and to Chile! The World Cup is coming up and the Chileans are getting soooo excited. They know they´re not the best team but they´re hoping for a miracle... so good luck to my home country and Chile! It´s kind of exciting because it´s huge here and everyone is starting to buy huge flat screens and barbecues and everything. We see how it all turns out. Anyways thanks again for all the letters, pictures, and videos. You guys are awesome and I hope all is well and that everyone is happy. I´ll talk to you guys all next week hopefully and I´ll be keeping you updated on everything here!

   ¨I hear your heart beat to the beat of the drums, oh what a shame that you came here with someone, so while you´re here in my heart, let´s make the most of the night like we´re gonna die young.¨

p.s. There´s this family that I´ve gotten to know here that is awesome. He was our old ward mission leader and they´ve got a son in Peru on his mission. Anyways, she really wanted to write mom a facebook message. Their daughter is going to California soon, and then to Provo, and she wants to know if I want to send anything to you guys, or if you guys want to send anything back with her. I´m not exactly sure when she´s leaving, but I think it´s within the next month or so. All she asked was for a telephone number to get in contact with someone at home if that´s the case. We´ve been joking around a lot that she´s going to marry a gringo while she´s there, and I told her I still have one more single brother... hahaha :) I love you all!

CONGRATULATIONS JEREMY AND STACI- Happy Birthday HAYDEN!‏

June 2, 2014
Well, this is an exciting week for sure. First of all, I´d like to say congratulations to Jeremy and Staci on their wedding this week. I´m not gonna lie, it sucks I have to miss it, and I´m a little sad, but I know they´ll be happy. Good luck and I hope everything goes well. Also, Hayden, happy birthday this week! Also a quick heads up in case I forgot, Happy Birthday too Carter next week! You guys are such ballers and I love you guys. I don´t have a whole lot of time to write this letter since I did the thing for Jeremy and Staci and it took me awhile, but I´ll get a little something sent off here. Thanks for all the letters and for everything. By the way, we had transfers today! I will be staying here in Santa Sabina, again. Haha when I´m in an area, I´m definitely in that area for awhile. After this change, I will have been here for 6 months. I love Santa Sabina but some of the people sure are hard hearted. There are a lot of rich people, which makes it hard but I know we can do it. Nothing more to report on our investigators, just the same old same old. We are going to work hard to find new people that actually want to progress. Oh also, I will be staying here with Elder B. Elder R, my son that I trained, will be leaving to go be with Elder P, my MTC companion. Elder F will be staying, and another gringo that is in Yungay right now will be coming. It sucks to see Elder R leave... we´ve been here 3 changes together and we get along really well. But it´s all good, that´s the mission and I´m used to it. We also had an appointment with a family last night that moved here in February from a different ward. The missionaries got permission from the president to come to Santa Sabina from that old sector to kind of help start the transition to us. They have family there in the other ward and she started crying saying how hard it´s been to adjust and build up the courage to go to the new ward. They are an awesome family,  and are just really nice. We will definitely be passing by with some members to help them build up the courage to come to church. I know once we get them to come once, everything will be fine. I´m glad that my cutout should be getting there in time... I definitely want to see some pictures of it. By the way, next week I am expecting a LOT of pictures to go through of the wedding and Haydsy Boy´s birthday. Please please please, I want details and those pictures. That would be awesome. That´s basically all I have to say.. I hope all goes well and everyone has fun without me... :( haha just kidding I´ll be fine. Thanks for everything and I´ll talk to you all next week!