June 29, 2011

First Baptism


Flood!

Fleas!

I remember the first season of hockey. How frustrated i got that i wasn't skating like everyone else. I felt like such a burden to the team that i couldn't skate. sometimes i did think why am i here? I'm just waisting money. But every so often when i'm putting on my skates and gloves its like "Oh my gosh i'm actually doing this! I'm actually playing hockey! I've wanted to do this ever since i was a kid!" Yup so I got hit pretty hard these first two weeks but i've got my skates under me again. I know I most likely will fall down again but I'll get back up and do it all over again. Idk but I feel pretty confident on skates now so why would spanish be any different? And the difference is I get to practice spanish 24/7! So we had four baptisms this week! Sweet huh? It was hard feeling a part of it because i really didn't do much. but i do love these people and they're my first best friends in Chile! Whenever we visited them they've help me so much with the language. O yeah fleas. I know you all have joked that i have fleas but now its real. haha I wake up every morning with bites all over and they itch so bad. we're waiting for more bug spray but in the meantime i guess i'll just enjoy it. yeah the day of the baptism i woke up to little red bites all over! I went down stairs to shower as fast as I can. But when i got there the entire down stairs was flooded. haha! we spent the morning sponging it up with pieces of a blanket and then ringing those out into a bucket. I'll send you guys the pics. Yup its been such an adventure everyday. The skies right now are all...i don't know the word....cloudy? with ash from the volcano going on. pretty cool huh? Yup so real quick on the baptisms. Names Gabriela, Veronica, Perla, y Pedro. I got to baptize Gabriela. Yeah almost drowned her. I felt so so bad and hope i didn't ruin the special day. We had Once with her after the baptism and about half way through it she started talking to me again so yay i was forgiven! This is a blast. this week was ten million times better. It's all about attitude. You have to have to have to just literally jump out of bed at six thirty knowing that today's going to be a great day. (You also have to jump and get moving cuz we don't have a heater and you gotta get the blood going. You sleep in sweatshirts, sweatpants, socks, and sometimes a beenie ) ok but where was i about attitude. Yeah if your not happy right now you gotta change how you look at it. Everyone tells me this but not until i was here did i realize how true it really is. your in control no one else. Miss and love you all. Hara for Israel!

Elder Valdez

June 21, 2011

Pictures From Mission President




'Nother One Down

I´ve tried diving into this thing. it´s so so tough. i can tell my comp is getting frustrated that i can´t help as much as i want. ugh i got a testimoney. i know the doctrine!  I just can say it. yup really really tough. but i can´t deny the wonderful Spirit that comes when i give everything i got to tell my testimoney. My investigators are just so perfect and so patient with me. we had four baptisms planned this week but they all fell through. it was quite a blow. but they´re all reschedualed and so we´ll see  how this time around goes. O thing about the culture i forgot. there´s grafity everywhere. some of it is of course pretty freakin´ cool but where i live and work is like the place they all practiced before they got good or something. also there´s american music everywhere. its just as popular as the latin stuff. its funny cuz they don´t know the words. they just kinda make noises that sound like english (only during the verses though, they sound pretty good at the chorus) haha probably what we sound like when we´re trying to sing spanish songs right? K so hilarious story. I´ve been trying so hard to just be out going and contacting everyone. Well i went up to someone gave them a pass along and did my spill that i always do. when the contact was done and we started walking again Elder Cortés was just smiling and giggling to himself. when i asked what was up he explained that they guy i just contacted was the member that we had lunch with that day. haha yup totally spaced it and didn´t recognize him. Yup so lot´s of contacting. just trying to spread the gosple here. one house we went into was so so cold. it was a single mother raising two children. she was a reference so we went by and "knocked" all last week and nothing. but she was finally home this time and she was so so happy to see us. don´t really know what was going on the whole time but she was crying and the spirit was so strong there. i tried my best to give a testimoney of  how we´re never alone in our trials. her name is Pobla. She seriously was just so hapy to see us. like we came just in time. Spiritual Coast Gaurds right? haha sorry its hard to tell stories cuz half the time i had no idea what was going on. All I remember is feelings. Haha yeah kinda hard to describe in a letter. I´m really hopin´ these letters get better too and i eventually sound more myself again. i´m just in such a shock right now. can´t believe i´m hear and i´m doing this. Hara for Israel.

Elder Valdez

June 13, 2011

Here!

Dogs! I´ve never seen so many dogs in my entire life! they´re everywhere! which means alot of barking and trying to bite you. It also means dog crap everywhere. your just walking through a land mind out here! yup we walk all day. we contact for most of the day and teach about three lessons in the night. When we´re headed to a meeting we take the micros "buses". I think this is where JK Rowling got the idea for the night bus. no joke they drive just like that. slamming on their brakes to let someone pass, then punching it bak to top speed. there´s really no such thing as speed limits its crazy. I´m in the sector farthest north at a place called Centinela. It´s almost an island. so i got ocean on both sides of me. It´s a hill too and they seem to have just cramed as many houses as they can on this thing. every house is gated off and pretty small. because of the gates we stand outside of them and shout "¡ALO!" I really took the MTC for granted. our apartment is tiny and you have to wear your flip flops everywhere you go. It is alot like Mexico with a few differences. when we contact the older ladies always kiss us and my comp says when we get teaching them in their houses is when we explain we can´t do that. haha its great. yeah so the people are so kind. Lunch is the big thing and someone´s always feeding us that. It´s rude to leave anything on your plate. and they feed us alot! I´ve never had to pray for help to finish eating something but i´ve done it three times here! I seriously feel like i can´t eat anymore about half way through the second course. they always have bread with the meal so that you can actually sponge up the remaining juices on your plate. yeah so we sometimes have breakfast and investigators feed us snacks in the night. yeah i´ll fix my diet but i´m still just tryng to figure it all out. man i´m just throwing up on this email. lots of imfo i hope it makes some sens. o yeah with the night snak. they always give us this drink called ecco. looks like, smells like, and tastes like coffee. but its not. it´s really weird and we have it all the time. yeah this week is  just explaining everything so you guys can picture it and next weeek will be more stories. but yeah its awesome. freezing though. they don´t get snow like we thought. but the wind is always blowing and we have mist storms. its like your standing under one of those mists mechanies at a grocery store. We couldn´t get in any houses yesterday because it was the soccer finals. it was awesome. your just walking then all of the sudden the entire town starts screaming and you know someone just scored. Love you all and miss you. this is just a set up for my wonderful stories that will come.
 
O´Higgins 940, Oficina 503
Concepcion
Bio-bio
Chile
 
Elder Valdez

June 03, 2011

Let's Roll!!!

What an amazing amazing week this has been. super spiritual and have learned so much. Elder Crayton has opened up to me and told me alot alot about his life. Hands down the coolest conversion story i've ever heard! ever! My goodness he's already a successful missionary because he has brought me closer to Christ. there is no way this church isn't true! now i just put my head down and plow into this thing! Yup leave on monday. six in the morning. so so excited. it's going to be so much fun! Today i just met someone from Santiago! he told me how beautiful Concepcion is! I'm pumped and ready to go. There was a talk given in sacrament about marathon's. and it got me thinkin' HOLY CRAP! mom 26 miles is forever! i can't believe you actually did it and got good time on it too! That's a beautiful personal experience that you can relate to the gosple. so mom and all you marathon runners use that oppurtunity in your talks or whatever. i don't know it just really brought the Spirit. Dad to find "investigators" to pretend teach on we go to something called "one in 8 million" its incredible. New York time fines some random person and gives a quick clip about their lives. People are incredible and come from so many different stories. Ugh i can't explain this feeling i have. Its like i'm a little kid again. that little kid that was inoccent and doing his very best to understand the gosple. that little kid i've been striving so hard to find. back home i was like ugh i wish i could go back in time and do this all over again and don't make those stupid mistakes. Here is where that happened! Yeah not explaining it well and now i'm just frustrated. haha the point is through Christ all is forgiven and all is forgotten. we bring up our mistakes too many times. don't talk and think about them and just keep going. one of my maestros said "When satan reminds you of your past, remind satan of your future." start right now. now's the day to put it all behind and be that better person your always wishing you would be. love you all and miss you tons and the next one will be from CHILE!
 
Elder Valdez