I love life and I love loving life!

My goodness i just love life. and i love to love life. we´re just having a party over here! Spanish is coming along very nicely. When it get´s rough i just gotta step back and go "wow remember your first day in this country?" Members help me with that too. They´re always commenting about how much better the spanish is. yeah. anyway the new comp´s name is Elder McConnell. It´s way hard to follow a comp like Elder Laurito but he´s doing a good job. McConnell from this no name spot in Utah. never ever heard of it. and never heard of the closest city either. so yeah he´s just from Utah. He´s very obediant. which is good. we work really hard. I´ve never felt more satisfied in my whole mission. I can lay down in bed and say "Wow i really worked hard today and didn´t waist a single minute of the Lord´s time." (wow i always start my thoughts with the word wow.) K so the sweet story of the week. I was showing the sector to McConnell showing him where everything was and what not. anyway we were headed to our mamita´s house and we passed an investigators house to get there.The Spirit imediatly brought that investigator into my thoughts and i was like"Hey Elder this is one of our investigadors we should really drop by and introduce you" so we walked in and she was so happy to see us! Her name´s maria. and she told us she was just thinking about us. when we entered the house the Book of Mormon was open and also the pamphlet of lesson one. she said it was a miracle we stopped by at such a perfect time. the night before she had had a dream. Maria´s arm is broken so it was really giving her problems one night and she started praying. It´s pretty Spiritual to her what happened so i´m just going to say that she got her answer that the Church was true! she was excited and kept asking us when her baptism could be. haha sweet huh? Love you all and miss you all. The Church is true and miracles exist acording to your faith. until next week!

Elder Valdez

Cambios

So cambios are tomorrow. sadly i don´t know my comps name. haha but he´s from Utah so i think we´ll get along. I´m still in Centinela. after this cambio i´ll  have six months in the same sector. it´s not un heard of but everyone expected that i´d be leaving. I don´t mind it. I love Centinela. every where you go there´s just an amesome view. and the people here are so great. I was working with this lady and her daughter in my first cambio and they lost intrest. i was really confused and wondered what went wrong. Laurito and i visited them again and they´re excited about the Gosple again! so hopefuly i get to see their baptism! they´ve got a date for the 29th. they didn´t come this week to church so we´ll see what happened. gonna miss Laurito a ton. we had such a blast. He´s going far south. it´s a seven hour drive to the bottom of our mission and that´s where he´s serving. i didn´t realize how big our mission is. it´s huge. everyone says the south is so much prettier then here. so i hope eventually i´ll work down there. Im happy that Wray and Wilkins are staying in Centinela too. they´re so cool. so we´ll have another cambio of some fun. They´ve found ways to abuse my love for bananas. we have bananas probably 40% of the time for dessert. so they will be like "Valdez i´ll let you have my banana if you give me the rest of your meat." we both win in the end but yeah they definetly understand how much i love them! so yeah that was this week. just combios and stuff. this week i´ll find a story to tell or something. haha it´s weird. this is feeling more like home and you guys are feeling further and further away. its a good thing right? I know this church is true. i base alot of my testimoney on the book of mormon. i know that that book is true. it didn´t just show up. it had to come from somewhere and i know it came from God. hope all is well. love you all so much.

Elder Valdez

Bus Wreck!

Man that was awesome right? i don't know if it's just cuz i'm a missionary or what but  every single talk was so so good. i sure hope you were all staying awake and paying attention. guys did you go to preistood? it was so tight. k so i told everyone at home to be forward and straight with me so i guess i should be as well. also Hermana Martinez tells me that i should of told you guys about this. don't know why i didn't. it's really not that big of a deal. I guess i didnt want anyone to freak out so just know i'm protected and everythings fine :) yeah i'll try to explain it short. so remember the micros straight out of harry potter? yeah we got pushed off the road one day and hit a tree about two months ago. i was on a quick combio with Elder Corliss. everyone drives really close to eachother so when i saw this truck coming closer to us i was like "don't freak out this happens all the time" but nope he pushed us off the road. it was really fast. i don't know how but Corliss was shot to the front off the bus. he broke the seats in front of us. this one lady ended up in my lap. well i hit the left side of my face pretty good and bit through my lip. Corliss bonked his nose really good. everyone in the micro was fine in the end. it was amazing because the micro behind us had a sister from our ward and she saw the crash. she said the Spirit told her she knew someone in the crash and she had to go help. it was such a reliefe to see her run up to us and throw her jacket around me. because we were both bleeding we had to go in the ambulance. It was amazing to see how unselfish everyone was. everyone was checking on me making sure i was alright even though they were hurt too. i made alot of friends in the micro that day. i spent my whole p day in the hospital. that was lame. we finally got let go. oh and that Sister Muñoz staid by our side the whole day! I love that lady! anyway so the next few days I was throwing up so Demke asisted me to the hospitle once again. haha hope this isn't too much detail but it was just such an experiance. anyway after a CAT scan they saw a shadow in the back of my head and loaded me up into the ambulance again. Hermana Martinez met us at the next hospital. The doctors then took me to a brain surgen. he studied the image and to our reliefe it was something that i've had for my whole life our something. K so yeah is everyone breathing again? haha it really was a great experiance of love and laughter (at my spanish and jokes Demke would say to lighten the mood) he}s the shiz and handled the whold thing like a champ. but yeah haha that's my experiance. it was crazy. I spent that week in the Presidents house on close watch and ran to a few more specialists to get second opinions. but yeah i'm totally fine now and back to working with no side effects. this passed two months ago so no worries. :) love you all tons and hope you enjoyed this weeks story :)

Elder Valdez

Other Side of Heaven-ish

Sometimes I feel so other side of heavenish! instead of the elephant disease we have tiña. You see it the most with dogs. It´s a skin disease that your skin flakes or something like that. yeah never seen a human with it but dogs all the time. about 60% of the dogs here have it and it makes their hair fall out. Its really pathetic and creepy looking but we got all these I Am Legend dogs running all over the street. The way i found out the name of this disease was playing tag with some kids and instead of being "it" you have tiña. and you run around trying to give everyone else tiña. haha yup. what else. oh the apartment buildings next to us are finally getting taking down professionally. yeah everything´s so normal to me that i´m running out of things to say. haha as far as spiritual things are going. this week was fast and testimoney meeting. I´ve had a hard time feeling like i´m doing anything. I can´t speak the language and don´t know the scriptures that well so my converts i feel were just the previous missionaries investigatore. but this week Karen stood up and gave a beautiful testimoney and she thanked the missionaries that had helped her get married and then baptized. I felt so happy that i got to be a part of that. that i got to help with her conversion. Her husband and i are buds too and he was at church this week! We´re trying to re activate him. haha this probably doesn´t mean anything to you guys but o well haha. just know that i´m loving it and i know i´m making a difference. I love this gosple it´s just so dang perfect. Love you all and miss you guys tons.

Elder Valdez

18th of September

 I´ve never eaten so much meat in my entire life! The eighteenth is Independance day for Chile. They celebrate it in three days. so we ate a ton of food at a stake activity on the 17th. then the 18th is the big party. and now today is a big party as well. yesterday we were invited to three different Bar B Q´s! and when they barbq they don´t make anything else but meat. I´m serious! no potatoe chips, no mashed potatoes, no vegetables, not anything else but meat! they just bring you a plate with five different kinds of meat and a coke. I thought i was going to die. the very last bite clashed with everything trying to come back up but i forced it all down. haha sorry but that´s what happened. and today we have two more Bar b q´s to go to!!! I dont think i´ll make it! haha it´s crazy fun though. Elder Laurito and I are having such a blast. there´s still a language barrior but sometimes that just makes it twice as fun! He loves soccer and looks for every chance to play. we play with the rocks in the street while we walk. if you can get it through the other companions legs then that´s a goal. It keeps us entertained through the long walks. yesterday was so awesome. with the parties yes but also with church. It was ward conferance and the stake presidencie wanted to talk with the Señor comps. so with out a subject and our little spanish, Elder Wray and I had to teach the Gosple Principle class! Elder Wray´s a stud from West High SLC who now has three weeks in the mission. yup so not speaking much we forced our way through teaching the restauration to everyone. when we got to the First Vision the Spirit was there so strong. We´re not crazy! a Crazy person would leave his family at age 19 and go give up two years of his life for nothing. but we know its true. You guys at home watch all these teenage boys leave everything for two years cuz they know its true. they know they know. and you can make up all these pathetic excuses that we´re from utah and this is just what we do but if i didn´t have a testimoney of this i would be home so fast. this just isn´t worth it if you don´t have a testimoney. this is hard stuff but because i know this is true i keep going just like all these, our best friends, are doing. Love you all millions. miss you tons.

Elder Valdez

Bautizmo!

We had a baptism yesterday. it was so awesome. Karen and Javiera (her daughter) it was so amazing! Javiera almost didn´t at the last but it all turned out! It was so cool to watch Karen progress. She´s been meeting with the missionaries for five years! we finally got her to set some goals and accomplish them. she got married last week and now is a member! so great to watch people change their lives for this gosple. and then on the other hand some people just don´t get it. we had to drop one of my favorite families ever! I´ve been working with them for more then two months and they didn´t move at all! :( we gave a gorgeous lesson of the Restauracion and the Spirit was there a full. right after we got done testifying and all that stuff. they just turned on the tv and started going off about how they´ll read and go to church when God tells them too. ugh it was such a Spirit killer. This week we´re really going to focus on finding news and getting fechas for baptisms. One day it was just going so slow. but we kept on working we kept on knocking. we finally met this lady who  was an old investigador of the church. we got talking with her and Elder Laurito brought up work for the dead right off the back. it was crazy. but she loved it. she was so intrested that we put a fecha with her right then and there for the 24th of sep. it was so cool. diana is still having problems with getting permission from her dad to get baptized. so if we all prayed for her i think we could have an excellent month! Elder Laurito is perfect. we have so much fun together. and! A HUGE jump in the language. its so exciting! this might actually be posible! haha yeah so everythings going so great and i´m having a blast. a huge change from the first month.  Love you all tons! thanks for the letters. they´re starting to come now and it helps me get through the weeks.

Elder Valdez