Almost completed 8 months

I am going to try to put the sound recording at the bottom if you miss the sound of his voice and want to hear a little bit of Spanish. Surprisingly I have not heard much Spanish from him and may request that he do that in the next few weeks. I love the growing up the missionaries do while they are out. They mature at a much quicker rate than most other young men and they come home Men! I would like nothing more than to let my children be trained in the Gospel at this crucial time.



I trust you will be able to catch a little business from the sound
files. A little innovation I´m trying out. Tell me if they work,
please. It could be the greatest thing ever. Even if my voice does
sound punky. Important points : I´m going to get a CD player so I can
request stuff, and also because there´s less danger of getting robbed,
and stuff... better explained in the sound file. Also, if you happen
to send camera, send a memory card too, maybe. They´re expensive here.

Two sets of Scripture Mastery stickers!! Elder Silva really really
really wants them.

Anyway.

I just wrote to the President that if I realized as much about
everything and grew up as much as I did this week, I´d be about 92
years old at the end fo the mission. It was like a dream. I got more
and more information every day about my weaknesses and strengths. I
have become intimitely aquainted with my need for the Atonement and
the help of God. I once was convinced God doesn´t really do anything
to change the course of our lives. It was all set from the beginning,
yes, but to say we don´t need His help is a lie to ourselves. (See one
of my favorite Bible books, 1 John (not the Gospel of John))

See that? I just cited Bible. I've discovered one of my skills in this
work which is uncommonly elevated. (I say this to tell you of God´s
help, not my pride.) With a good amount of study, I am finding myself
more and more hungry to learn the Scriptures. That study has produced
a lot of understanding. I am getting to the point where I have four or
five available scriptures for every point of doctrine memorized and
ready, including background information. I can tell you roughly what
happens in every chapter of the Book of Mormon up to Alma, and I´m
still going. You should see the density of my marking. All that´s
something I have. I´ve also gotten complements on my technical use of
Spanish Grammar. All from study, and from God.

Let me tell you of the key to all of it. Go into every situation with
the goal of helping other people. Do it not in an idealistic, mindless
way, but rather specifically, and fearlessly. As a missionary, it´s
easy in lessons, for example, but when we go to meetings, it´s easy to
think, "I´m here to learn and contribute nothing." In divisions with
old missionaries, it´s easy to think, "I´m here to learn and
contribute nothing." Before the mission in Prinicple of the Gospel -
"I´m here to learn and contibute nothing." Have you ever thought that
not commenting in class could deprive someone of an answer for which
they´ve been looking? Be a blessing to everyone.

We did missionary stuff this week, but I barely remember what we said
or did. Randy´s words to me last week were exactly right. Being on his
level, the "promenade deck," is there for everyone who will climb the
stairs. I think I´m going to remember always "right before I completed
8 months" as when I figured out how to be me, really, and who God
wants me to be, which are one and the same.

I´m physically sitting in front of a computer, but I´m spritually
standing on a tower raising a sword over my head. My God is a God of
Victory.

Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist


I will work on getting this figured out.

A Sign

This is what I have been praying for actually. That Alex would see something or hear something that would let him know that God was aware of him and that he was in the right place, right now. A small, unassuming decal on a bus window. Amazing! I love how when we are at the most needy that God shows himself and let's us know that He is there.





Grandpa said in his letter that I could be in the hardest part of the mission right now. I could believe that. Or that maybe it peaked on Saturday.

We did our planning on Saturday. The whole week was awful. Seriously awful. We got stuffed, people didn´t show up, it was really cold, we barely did any contacts, and our lessons were cut short by different problems. When we got to the part when we talk about each other as people, Elder Silva wrecked me. He said I´d barely helped him do anything the whole week, especially in lessons, that I didn´t know where I was going half the time, that I was too timid with people, that I always forgot things, and that I seemed unfocused. He was absolutely right. (I am glad for someone who is willing to just say things like that, even though the natural man wanted to punch him out.) That day I was devastated. I barely ate at lunch. Spanish was clunky. I didn´t get what I could do to help myself.

Do you know what that feeling was? That´s what it´s like to not have the Spirit, in this case because of fear and lack of faith. I promised God I would do everything He wanted me to, after the manner of President Hinckley. I still felt like I was nothing.

I was looking out the window of the bus. There was a little brand decal in the corner. It was something like this:

Glass - Vidrio - Vedri
Hecho en Brasil
CRISTALEX
---------------------

Do you know what really struck me about that little decal? Look carefully at the brand´s name. Could that possibly have been a coincidence?

Since then nothing has happened, save improvement. I´m just a little closer to understanding what to be here. I have learned one thing, though. Look at a picture of Jesus and watch what feelings come to your mind. Fear because of timidity or laziness? The way is there for you to look at Jesus and smile and have no fear.

Anyway, it´s very cold new. I have cold hands all day, and people don´t stop commenting on them. We´re coming up on jacket-with-sweater days, finally. I looked forward to it the whole summer, and now I want a little more sun. I do get to drink fake coffee more, which I like, and I´ve recently discovered oats, but sometimes you want to type fast, and when your hands are cold they just won't go. It was funny earlier because my left hand was colder than the right, so they would type at uneven speeds so my words would come out like establsihmetn, for exampel. See, it happened again.

I saw Elder Mann on Thursday. He was even thinner. We reminisced about our investigators, blisters, and how he taught his companion to say "Don´t be a fag." Great.

This is week six in Melipilla, the best week of my mission so far.

Amor y toda la cuestión,
Elder A Conrad Crist

That Shave Secret stuff is amazing. I ran out of shaving cream, and I thought, "Well, I can´t really buy more until next Monday, so I guess I´ll give this snake oil a try." It turned out better than any other thing I´ve ever tried.

Thanks for the socks, they were very needed. (I got that package)

You know what would be cool?
Pocket knives that have tweezers and stuff like that are expensive here.
Pictures - St George, new things that are happening, Family that´s not you guys (sorry), that picture with AJ with Kato when he´s smiling, preferentially outdoors
American coins - doesn´t matter which. People think they´re cool.

Still Adjusting!

I have had in my head that Alex is struggling a bit. Is it Mother's intuition or just that I know him? I want him to get all he can out of his mission and hope that he does. I do believe he just needs to get out of his own way. He does all that he can, knows how to do, loves doing, etc. I think the mission field is harder on the missionaries than they really let on. I know he loves it but I also know he likes doing more stuff than what he is doing. It has to be a huge adjustment even when he has been out for 7 months. Keep the Faith Alex, We love you!


I haven´t the slightest idea what to put. This week has been like three hours long. And it´s week five now. I´ve been in Melipilla for a month. That doesn´t seem possible.

We had another baptism on Saturday. He wanted a small service, so we made it small. I forgot my camera that day, so I´ll get to those pictures later.

I´m sorry, I´ve just got the "stupor of thought" today, it seems.

We found a great investigator the other day. She made it to Church this Sunday, having know us only four or five days. I´d say that's pretty good. She still lives with her ex-husband, who, after she paid for operations that saved his life, minimizes and demeans her all day. In Chile, if no one can pay, the person dies, by the way. She's since developed a little alcohol problem to compensate. But the words of Alma 7:11-13 really got to her. It´s hard for her to imagine God planned things the way He did in her life, because to her it´s almost unbearably depressing. Remember that conference talk? - "Who's the gardener here?"

I had to teach the Gospel Principles class, which would have been fine, except for it being a zero-preparation improv jam session. I though the class was half as long as it was, so I did a short thing about the mission of Jesus Christ, 1 Start the Church, 2 Teach the New Law, 3 Effect the Atonement. It went fine, but when I go to the end, I asked Elder Silva how much time remained to see how long the testimony could be - 20 minutes. I stood there for an agonizing twenty seconds, then looked at Elder Silva with my eyebrows raised. Luckily, we occasionally work together, he and I, and he got the message - "I´m out." Without things looking too awkward, we made it look like we´d planned to each take half, and we just switched places. I did a little Kip "Yesssss," and he went on to an oddly polished portion about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is to say, what we need to do to merit his mercy.

Mónica is going to be baptized the sixteenth. That´s in five days, I think, on a Saturday. I don´t know what happened, but it´s going to happen now. She was supposed to write to me and Elder Silva like two weeks ago. I told her I was going to write angrily if she didn´t. Maybe I´ll just do a Billy Mays ALL CAPITAL LETTERS letter.

I´m starting to see another form of trial we face in life. It says "Love your neighbor as thyself." - not less, which is usually the problem, but also not more. It seems to me at times that everyone and their dog is doing better than I did or am doing. The answer probably lies in the forgetting of one´s self, but like the Chileans say, "Me cuesta" - it costs me. I´ve spent too much time in my own head in my life, and it´s a hard change to make. If there was anything I´d tell people to do to be ready for missions, I would give them two things: learn to follow the Spirit before the mission, and learn to think about others - before the mission. Ideally the mission would be almost 100% useful time, so anything you can not have to learn here helps. The gospel you probably know already. Being audacious with people comes more from caring about them than from some training camp you can go to to learn how to contact and teach. I´ve had to come from almost nothing to where I am, which is still not satisfactory.

It's becoming increasingly obvious to me how much we need Jesus. I think of a toaster popping up when I consider trying to go to heaven without Him. "Plink!" Toast. I´ve gotten to the point a few times where I say, "I don´t know why You´d forgive me for this, but could You one more time?" And he takes it right there. I love when Mormon says he "tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus." I´m getting to that understanding.

I´m sure I´ll read this after the mission, or even in my next sector and mark it as one of the more depressed times of the mission, and that it all got better from there. President Hinckley made a covenant with the Lord to forget himself and work, and said his life hinged upon that descision ever after. There´s a big discovery I need to make somewhere. It´s frustrating, but hey, "Who´s the Gardener here, right?"

Maybe you should invent your own Elder Crist letters to publish. Mine are lame.

See you in May. Look forward to packages. I´ll probably send it after the call in May. I´m starting to look into scripture cases, more information next week.

A friend of mine records his voice with his camera on voice memo mode and sends that as a supplement. Look forward to that next week, for I will give it a try. See if I have an accent and stuff.


Rely on each other, and on Jesus.
Elder A. Conrad Crist

Conference Week

I think Alex is feeling a little forgotten! It takes so long to get anything to him that I think many are not trying to. If you feel like you want to write to him, here is his address, alex.crist@myldsmail.net He will answer on Mondays if he can, otherwise he will snail mail you. Please remember him! He is far from home and in need of "Old Friends and Family." I think he would just like to know the everyday things. Whether that is happy or sad or whatever. He is out of the loop and misses everyone.




Could you print out the 100 pushups in (certain number) of days thing online to send next time?
Also, my zone leader has a LUMIX camera that´s really good.

Well, conference was pretty good. That´s kind of a joke, actually. That was a great conference. I would have sat there for another 10 hours for more of that level of advice in a second. I pretty much asked for the three last talks of priesthood. I asked for the talk before Elder Holland also. That one about pain was pretty good too.

It was fun the way we watched it. The english speakers got to watch it in English (Because, as we can read in.. where is it... I think it´s 2 Ne. 32. The Spirit speaks to a man in his own language.), which was a relief, because usually it´s Spanish speakers, down to Spanish notes, with Spanish jokes, etc.

I do hope you managed to watch all of them. I can´t look at the text until the Liahona comes out, so you can bet I was paying as much attention as I had. I am no longer convinced it´s a good idea to watch it at home in a really relaxed setting. If you were going to see, I don´t know, Jesus speak, even on TV, you´d probably sit up straight. You might even put on slightly nicer clothing, shower, and take notes aggressively the whole time. I´m just saying. Well, He is too.

Speaking of things you may want to preserve, you are hanging onto these emails... even printing them, right?

Let me tell you about those last three priesthood talks I requested. The priesthood in my life before now wasn´t a lot. God´s expectations weren´t a lot. Notice how it´s not capitalized. It´s a fun mormon tradition for some people. When you get out here, for example, to Chile, to the razor edge of the battlefront, the Prieshood is something that changes lives.

That´s not to say we don´t feel inadequate. I´m having a lot of problems with that very thing right now. Pretty much everyone I meet here seems better than I am, in the language, in attitude, and in teaching. Reading D&C 19 recently didn´t help terribly either. (Look at 15) I´ve had some major successes, but none of them had to be me in that situation - I don´t think I´ve uniquely affected anyone´s life - I don´t feel neccesary.

That´s hard stuff. I think I may have found myself sitting in a familiar little cabin on a cruise ship. Randy is up in a banquet hall, apparently. Just got to find the stairs.

--

What´s interesting is as I was just thinking about that, one came to my mind. Then another. Then another. God is not a merciless God.

Having run out of time, I´d like to leave that with you. I let the pictures tell you the dumb stories. I am going to bring a list of things to write next time. Make it less... lame.

Love,
Élder A. Conrad Crist
(note accent mark - it makes it cooler)

We´d just like Scripture Mastery from Seminary. Elder Silva would really like them because they´re almost impossible to get in Chile.

Make sure to keep me up on what you´re doing. Tell people that anyone who can claim a blood relation (or a lawful equivalent of the same) can email me and recieve a response, says my zone leaders. If people email and they aren´t, I just have to write them physically - no problem. Don´t forget about me! I feel pretty small here sometimes.

I actually don´t feel like a foreigner anymore, though. With regards to an accent, I don´t think so. The funny thing is, though, since I rarely do more than just speak a few hours a week to other missionaries (and to Elder Silva in his language study), my ability to write and spell has become labored. (Taking notes was rough in Conference) The way Spanish works breaks that American habit of dangling prepositions - it simply cannot be done in Spanish. So that´s actually an improvement to my English. Accent - not yet. Wrecked spelling (trying to spell everything like it sounds), yes.