Monday, February 28, 2011

Do your best, and every day do a little better!

I watched the Other Side of Heaven yesterday and I do not understand how parents could let their children go on missions when they didn't hear from them for weeks and weeks. I am not sure I would have been able to do it. I am kind of bugged that he has not been able to send pictures for a few weeks. I love to read his letters every Monday but I really want to see pictures of things he did this week. I am grateful for this opportunity for him though. Sounds like he has a tremendous grasp of the Gospel and the happiness it can bring. But again, I want pictures! I hope he figures out the problem soon... anxiously waiting for more!!!!




I think the key to all that stuff is pretty well contained in Matthew 5, 6, and 7, or also 3 Nephi 12, 13, and 14. I went through Matthew in my study of the New Testament recently. I´m actually marking it a little now, a skill that I have just barely developed. When I finished 7, I had sharpened the pencils several times since starting an hour before. It isn´t a chapter you use to teach the Gospel - you use it to teach how to live the Gospel. I noticed that if you only mark what´s in the Lessons of Preach My Gospel, there would be almost no marking in these chapters, which are basically the sum of everything that makes up a Christian´s attitude. I started doing a "How to Live the Gospel Right" color and that pencil is already half the original size. That is where study should be focused when you know the whole gospel. Always try to understand and improve. There´s a really good talk by Elder Zeballos (the first Chilean seventy) about his called "Intentando Lo Imposible", which would be something like "Trying the Imposible" He says, "Let´s everyone do our best, and every day do a little better."

It sounds like you have everything under control too. I spent a long time on my report to the President, and furthermore, not much happened this week beside the confirmation of Pablo, which I was able to participate in (pardon dangled preposition), so I don´t have a lot to say. The pictures are coming... I had a little difficulty on the front, but I think I will fix it later today.

I am sad to hear about Joey going away. I just told his story to Mónica, who wanted the reciepes. She has a similar situation with her grandson. The parents are kind of... troubled, and she´s helped her grandson during the difficult times. I do hope the progress you made with him will persist. Mónica´s grandson is yet only one, so we can´t know yet.

I was rather pleased to get something from the kids. Technically the email extends to all family, so if anyone else wants to, I´m a better reader than writer.

Thank you for your prayers. I´ve felt them here.
Love,
Elder AC Crist

Monday, February 21, 2011

First Baptism!!!

I LOVE getting Alex's letters! They are so filled with inspiration and fun. Actually, it is just like being there. I am so happy he is finding people who want to learn the Gospel. I also find it seriously amusing that he has already forgotten some English words. He is going to be a foreigner when he comes back! Oh, and still no pictures! Wah! I hate not having pictures to look at and make sure that he really is fine. I hope he gets a card reader soon!


The dog´s back. That´s all I was worried about. Until next week.




Kidding, of course.

I really don´t remember what happened earlier this week. The thing I remember? Baptism. I still need to find a converter for the camera for the pictures, but we did, in fact, hold a service for Pablo Ortiz. When we arrived for the service, right after church, though, our ward mission leader thought we forgot to plan the program, which we hadn´t, so he started to re-plan it. We had a semi-tense argument with him, but it all worked out. Our first speaker was the investigator´s best friend in the ward so far, and the second was the super-cool returned missionary young men´s leader. We had a violinist Elder come over to play for the music too. I would have played piano, but the violin is ever rarer in Chile. The baptiser is about to leave on his mission and helped us teach Pablo several times - really just a good deal all the way around in terms of participation. For the whole day, whenever something bad happened, we´d just look at each other and say "yeah, but we had a baptism today!" (or just "baptism!!") and do a fist-bump. Win.

Speaking of other stuff I did that day, we visited a less-active family who knew Alan. They are sure his name was Elder Crist, looked kind of like me, hurt his ankle, and was pretty quiet. They lived in a place called "San Bernardo" that was more or less near Viña del Mar. So if some one wants to say something to him, it´s the familia Torres. The sister is a high-level singer and knew tons of missionaries. If someone could find an old picture of Alan too for her to see, that would also be cool.

We later went to Mónica, our investigator with the problematic husband and the smoking problem. She´s doing really well. All is well there, but as the discussion went, she asked us about something American she´s heard about - brownies. Could you send me the receta (the word in English is like recipee but I can´t remember how to spell it) for brownies, cheescake, normal chocolate chip cookies, and any others you can think of? This has a really missionaryish application - she loves cooking stuff and it takes her mind off of things for a while - and it´s a substitute for smoking.

I don´t know how much you remember about Raquél. She reminds me of Granny, remember? She has a spinal lesion for a reason yet to be determined. We passed by to see if we could do something. All she ever says is "Just pray for me." She´s got the deepest faith in God I think I´ve ever seen. She knows He loves children, for example, because she never lacked food while her daughter was in her house, but before and after it happened often. She takes that and makes it good. I hope to develop that kind of trust in God. I like to think my faith is strong, but it´s not had that much of a stress on it before. Even the mission (which is the hardest thing I´ve ever done) doesn´t put that much of a strain of my faith. I see things every day that confirm God approves of the work I do and the progress I make. Every now and then I think maybe I´ve been given a surplus of ease so that I can help other people. Is that possible? There´s nothing wrong with my body or my mind. If I want something, I just work for it and get it. Raquél can´t stand up. She cannot physically stand up. But she knows God is guiding her life. That makes everything, from going to Church, to getting in shape a little easier, doesn´t it? Raquél would love to go to Church. She´d love to work out. Please be conscious of what you´ve been given.

Today was pretty cool though. I wish I could send you the pictures I have. We went to Santa Lucía in Santiago - look it up, it´s pretty cool. From the top of the fortress, you can see the entire city in every direction. It´s pretty ridiculous. Then we ate in a pizza place in the middle of Santiago city, complete with more people visible on the street than there are in Saint George at any given time. Then we went to a feria - a "fair", but really more of a market - and I finally got hold of a few of those linen shirts with the symbols on the chest... you may have to wait for a picture to understand. If I were to sent gift stuff home, I would probably send those. A new metro stop opened near my house, so we used it, and it made the trip a lot faster. I´ll have a lot of good pictures when I find a card reader, I promise.

Besides the trip to Santa Lucía and the baptism, it´s been very standard.

I don´t know how advanced a primary lesson would be, but I teach this class fairly often. There are three questions people have: Where were we before we were here?, Why are we here?, and Where are we going to go? I find that the difference between the telestial and terrestrial kingdoms are really not terribly important - but being able to live with my family forever is. We lived with our Father in Heaven before we came here. We valiantly chose to come here to gain what He has. We are here to learn how to make good decisions and endure trials. If we give are best, and learn to love God and do what he wants us to do, we will live forever with our families. That´s all there is to it.

¿Como tradujeron lo que escribí? ¿O no lo han traducido? Bueno, les quiero mucho,
Elder AC Crist


Do you want anything from here? I guess you don´t know what IS here. Yeah, I´ll think about it.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Find that dog!

To give a little insight, we went on a mini vacation and left the dog with family. He ran away and we don't have him back yet. I am sure he will be back soon though. I rather think Alex likes the dog. But then who doesn't? There is also no pictures. Darn it! I really love to see his pictures as well as read his letters.




I suppose now you are starting to understand the sun again. I have understood the sun, and gotten chato(sick) of it in a big way.

The crazy thing is, though, is that on Wednesday, there were some weird clouds. Then it got windy. We went to an appointment, couldn´t make it in, and got a new time to come back, and by the time that happened, it was raining a little. We started to walk to the next one, and it started to rain rather hardcore, complete with lightnings (rayos) and thunderings (truenos), even though one could still see the sun. We decided to go to a member´s house to wait it out, as my silk tie was already rather messed up, and they had our laundry anyway. We "shared a scripture" (it was funny though, because we shared Helaman 5:12) as an excuse. Then, when things started to calm down, we left with our clothes. We got about three hundred feet into the two-mile walk when it started up again, this time filling the sky with clouds and lightenings. We got soaked. Our laundry also became a little wet. Our member friend just kept saying "¡Éste nunca pasa! ¡NUNCA!", which is to say "This never happens! NEVER!" He said it happened once when he was 7, and never again since.

Needless to say, that tie more or less kicked it (I hear you can dry-clean them to revive them). After hanging our clothes out to dry (again), we realized we still had an hour left. So we put on some other clothes and went to an investigator´s house.

The thing is, though, that was the last time we saw him before his baptismal interview - which he passed. I only taught him a few times, but regardless, he is my first convert. I have a picture of him, but I´ve had some problems with SD cards and whatnot, so it´ll come next week. He´s 14, kind of a Brady personality. He´s made a bunch of friends already, and he went to the youth conference/camp with them. A member will be baptising him, with his new friends from the ward as witnesses and speakers ("This never happens!" guy is going to speak on the Holy Ghost after the baptism.). Let me tell you something, after all the stuff we´ve done this week, or even this change that didn´t work, this is a great feeling. I´ll have a convert on Sunday. Someone´s got to put that somewhere.

Elder Crist & Smith : 1
Satan : 0

(I may refer myself to a part in Alma where Ammon says, "I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God.")

God (using Elders Crist and Smith (and Elder Lacambra beforehand)) : 1
Satan : 0

Anyway, this week´s actually been sort of a mixed-emotions situation. Even with all this stuff, our other main investigator is on rocky ground. She loves the Church, and us, and the ward, but her husband (they´re separated but can´t live in different houses because they don´t have enough money) is giving her a lot of, honestly, crap about the Church, and her listening to us. He told her four-year-old son that we "speak pure [crap]" What would you do? I kind of want her to call Dr. Laura or something.

But seriously, we thought for a long time her smoking problem was keeping her from being baptised. Now we´re not so sure.

It´s good, though, that you got a vacation and all that stuff. I, personally, would like to see a little more of the rain and the clouds these days, but I know what you mean. I just passed through this legendary time everyone talks about. Every missionary has a "I´m going to be here forever." moment. I´m right there now. They say when it ends after a week or two, your mission will start up all the sudden. They say it´s usually around the point when you become fully fluent. Could be.

Thanks for support and stuff. Keep reading the scriptures every day, even if it´s just a single, solitary verse. I´m serious. If you do that, I promise you you´ll have a better life. Try it for a week.

Que les vaya súper bien,
Élder AC Crist

I have a little problem with my Ipod. It still has all my not-churchy music, and it´s missing a lot of what I wanted. Do you think sending it back would help anything? Or is it too risky?

They didn´t tell me if they paid for the package, but I don´t think so.

Find that dog.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Transfers





I wrote Alex a big long email and he responded with a quick little note. Ugggh. I want him to write me like two or three pages of everything that he has going on. I love what he writes about when he gets a few minutes but am very thankful that he is busy and not homesick.


I just had a very interesting experience. I went and bought charcoal pants for twelve dollars. They are polyester, which is supposed to be hotter, but they´re twelve bucks and practically unstainable and indestructible. You can buy basically any kind of clothes here cheap - except good socks and garments. Anything but those two things are fine.

I have two of those journals left now, so we should be good there. I do not have a CTR ring (in that box I sent you guys that one you sent me was, it was just barely too small) and I´d like one. Maybe sunscreen, because they don´t make it here very well. I don´t know what else.

This week has been really fast. It doesn´t seem like we´ve done anything yet really. As you know, I now have the whole ward instead of just one half. That´s kind of a problem, as we have to split up our time, but now I have investigators that are almost baptised. And since I gave them a few lessons, they are technically my converts, and I can visit them when I finish.

One of the people we found recently is a guy who has six college degrees. He never married because having a family would have gotten in the way of his studies. He´s a pilot and an engineer in Chile´s air force. Now he wants to believe something but he can´t make the jump. He knows there´s a God, but he can´t prove to himself any religion. All his problems that he discussed with us were the same ones I had. It´s glaringly obvious I was supposed to be out here at this time.

I´m starting to understand a little more how you pretty much have to be your own agent out here and learn how hard you can work and how much you can get to know people. I´m afraid we´ve kind of got smashed on time today.

I´m finally starting to get to where I can joke with people. It´s one thing to talk about gospel stuff, and anther to joke and get to know people in a real way. I´ll never forget my first joke in Spanish. After we washed someone´s windows, I said the bird would crash into them and die like at our house. People actually laughed. Sorry, I have to go.

Perdónenme por este correo. Es chanta.
Elder Alex C Crist