Federico changed their P-Day!

I was very excited to read Alex's letter this week. Although when am I not excited? I waited around all day, seriously, and it NEVER came! I decided to wait until the next day and call the Mission Office and be one of those Moms. I had a rough day on Tuesday, imagining the worst. I got home from somewhere and went to look in the past emails for the phone number to the Office and there was the letter! Whew, I didn't have to make a fool of myself or of my son! I suppose this sort of thing happens but seriously they should not let it happen to kids who are on the other side of the world! So, there was no problem and he is still healthy and happy! Thank Goodness!




They changed our Pday to today. I go into more details in the audio (a very long one this week). Basically Monday was a holiday and so we couldn´t shop or do Internet or anything, so they changed it. Which meant we had to work 7 days in a row without doing not-missionary stuff, which made Monday rough.

In other news, it´s pretty cold nowadays. I wear gloves all day, and right now it´s really hard to type because my hands (especially the right - couldn´t tell you why) are cold and sluggish. I wear that scarf all day too, by the way. It´s by far the best one I´ve seen. I remember in the summer I looked at it and thought, "This is ridiculous. What am I going to do with this$" Kind of a similar feeling now for the short sleeve shirts I have.

The sector is still enormous, and I still am not sure what I´m doing a lot of the time. The numbers are pretty weak this week. The work here is so sword-edged - if something doesn´t quite happen, a bus doesn´t come, or a person can´t go out with us, we´re just toast that day. Sometimes we´re just paralyzed in the center of the city, where we have no one. In Chile a missionary can´t go into a house without a man of more than 16 years, so if there´s not someone where we want to go, we just can´t go. So we knock doors all day. It´s hard. The sector is just that way. I´ve tried to keep up hope that with work we can get up to the levels of missionaries in the city, or at least to the level of Melipilla. But we slam and crunch and work so hard I can barely get up in the morning, and when I type the numbers in at the end of the week, we´re still dragging along with a pair of lessons with members and four without. We should be at eight with, and six without. That´s the level we have to be working for, as far as I understand it. It says over and over again in Preach My Gospel that you shouldn´t blame the sector or other people for what´s happening - but I blame the sector. Getting a member out to a "campo" town requires three or four hours of their time, and 1500 pesos, which is like sixteen bucks for an American. How often would you do that$

It´s okay, though. The leaders, while extremely spread out, are stupendous. The trick is figuring out a way to do it and presenting it, and not just giving the problem and asking for them to figure it out. If it´s just a question of money or driving somewhere, they´ll do it easily.

Robbie Williams just came on the radio. "I don´t wanna die. But I ain´t keen on living either," he says. Kind of depressing, the song.

Anyway, I´m also wearing the socks. Of course, we have to have on dress socks, so I just put the dress socks over the good ones. I´ve even worn the long pioneer garments. They work, but they feel really, really strange. I think I´m going to look into getting some thing like that you put over underwear, but under pants. Could be good.

Our investigators who asked for their baptismal date are good still, but they had to go do some tests in the hospital (hope they studied, right$) so we haven´t been able to visit them. They wanted to watch that movie from the Church "Together Forever," so we gave it to our Branch President, a friend of theirs, who will go and watch it with them with his family (like I said, really good leaders). These are your "intellectual" investigators. They studied with every church under the sun (and above it, Tom Cruise) and were ultimately impressed by the Church as being "different" than all the others. (Interestingly enough, in Hebrew, the word kadosh means "holy", but also "different." Next time you hear "holy" think about how it would be if it was "different." "Holy is the Lord of Hosts." "The Lord desires a holy people." etc) Like I was saying, they were impressed, but were very cautious. Then all this medical stuff happened I´ve told you about, and now they´ve seen the need for "Together Forever"-ness.

I´m over time. Blast. My relationship with my companion is getting a lot better. Do you know what the secret is$ I stopped trying. Kind of a wierd thing there, I know. That was all I had to do, though - stop trying. It just happened.

affectionately($),
Elder A. Conrad Crist

Pictures. People in Chile love families. And members always ask for them.
How much Cocoa in brownies$ The recipe doesn´t say how much.
Coins - whatever size, but a variety
Josh Groban
O Magnum Mysterium (song)
Thanks for the pocket knife, it was very usefull today

I whacked the infection, no problem.

A River Runs Through It.

I still cannot grasp the fact that Alex is going through the winter right now. I just have to compensate with thinking he is just having terrible weather but that he is in the US somewhere. It is strange that life just goes on and on and the people in our direct sphere changes. I am pretty sure Alex's world has shrunk pretty small. He has an audio recording that he tries to speak English but he has forgotten a lot of words. Some of them are kind of funny! I will keep trying to figure out how to download his audio's.



That´s hot.

Seriously, that´s hot. It´s now getting pretty cold here. They said this week it will get down to -4. That´s Celsius, but still - enough to freeze water. We could probably skate at that point, for my street has become a river. Filthy water runs down the hill (I explain this in one of the audios) and because all the water on the whole hill has to come down my street, there´s more than a little. It left us with a very gross pool in the back where our cement dips.

Besides a really annoying infection on my neck (this time), I´m pretty well. I inherited a good umbrella from the pension "box of dutey," so I´m okay there. I´ve actually managed to put on every thing I have - shirt, sweater, suit, inside of coat, scarf, outside of coat, gloves, umbrella. Sometimes we have to walk 30 minutes to get somewhere after a bus, so one must go with everything.

I think I´ve started to use everything there was in the packages. I have the pocketknife with me, and the camera, I´ve used a few of the handwarmers (They do not exist here. They freak people out.), I wear the gloves, etc. There´s only two things I need now : a few coins to give people (like 20), and more pictures. With that I wouldn´t know what to request. Well done with the CDs. I expected like 2. I now have some 15.

I´m kind of figuring out how to run this sector. I see what the Lord was saying in D&C 121 when he said that most men get all prideful when they think they have some power, because the last two meetings we´ve had with the Branch President he said that the missionary work is functioning impeccably. Our Mission Leader is a pretty heavy hitter, which doesn´t hurt. He´s the kind of guy that you tell about a need or service or problem and a solution he can help with and he just does it. A lady in the ward needed a new door. He said, "Okay - tomorrow we go to the store and call Bro. Diaz (a construction guy in our ward) to see when he can help us put it in." It silences me when people work like that. We got it all finished in four days.

So you could see how now I go, "I´m such a sick missionary. Look how good my Branch is doing because of me." Eh - careful. The Lord is pretty clear about that stuff. CS Lewis wrote that when you have the same joy from your success and from the success of others, that´s a good balance.

Anyway, it goes on pretty well here for now. Elder Aguilar and I are good, if a little foreign still. What I mean by that is we have almost nothing in common, and we´re just really different. I said that twice to emphasize it. It´s really strange because I get along with the members, and he gets along with the members. But we´re just not friends yet. He´s a rock musician and electrician. I don´t relate to that at all. He had a band and a huge family. I sang in a choir. Just wierd still. I don´t know what to do, but it´s going away with time.

It´s rainy, but I borrowed boots. Note the photo quality change. Pay attention to the Spirit.

Elder A Conrad Crist

Summer/Winter

I am unable to grasp the concept of having my son living in the middle of winter right now. Is it because I have never experienced a June or July that was like a November or December? It just seems not real to me. I look at the pictures and I find myself thinking they were taken last fall. Very strange! I wonder how he will take next July/August when he comes home and goes right into our winter. That may be the longest winter of his life!




Okay. I just realized I didn´t put in a picture of my companion. Yeah, whatever.

My new companion (I went nowhere) is Elder Aguilar from Argentina. He´s an actual rocker; he had a band and everything. He´s freaking new in the mission. I´m his first companion after his trainer, which is to say he has three months and change in the mission. He´s older than I am, a little. He´s a very well put-together missionary for the time he has. He´s been a member for his whole life like me, which means there´s very little doubt or scripture he doesn´t get. We actually have to try to stay simple with people because we both know a lot. Argentines speak like Italians, but in Spanish. Elder Aguilar speaks with huge, bouncy words which make him really easy to understand. (Anyone who´s not a Chilean is easy to understand, actually. Chileans are the worst speakers ever. If you can understand Chileans, Mexicans or Columbian or Spaniards are super slow and easy.) When someone does something cool, he says "Yiiiiiiiiiiiii!" It´s already starting to stick to me.

He´s not crazy about the sector yet, but he likes the members he´s met and the leadership with whom we´ve had meetings.

This, of course, means I´m Senior Companion, even though our combined experience is a year. There´s a gringo from my group of the MTC who´s training, which is unheard of. Usually you train starting at 12 months, but the mission is so young now that they´re grabbing anyone who doesn´t do bad stuff and can walk and do contacts. The mission´s oldest group goes this change, then we´re down to a group with 16 months -almost no one with more than that. The average I would suspect is about 8 months. I´m at 9 and change, which is all kinds of nuts.

"What do you mean I´m old in the mission?"

Something like that.

I get along a lot better with Elder Aguilar than I did with Elder Silva. We are two young guys who barely know what we´re doing, but that´s also our strength - we have very few faith-breaking preconceptions. We´re seriously kicking butt right now.

I am kind of excited for the package. Not going to lie. They give us stuff every Tuesday, so I think I´ll have it Tuesday. My camera kicked it. The screen just went nuts one day and that was it. It still takes pictures, but as one cannot see anything, it is of limited utility. In other words, it´s pretty well timed. If it doesn´t arrive I may have a panic attack.

There are five steps to repentance. Well, there are five in the cool example I always use.

Reconocer
Dejar
Confesar
Restituir
Cumplir con los Mandamientos

...oh, fetch...

Recognize
Cease
Confess
Restore
Keep the Commandments

I usually put my pen in my hand and pull off a finger with each step. The purpose of the example is to show that Recognizing, Ceasing, and Keeping the Commandments only isn´t repentance - it´s a gang sign. (If you want the pen to fall out, all the fingers must be extended.)

No, but seriously, it´s a good example. You have to tell me first so I can give you some sick field-tested didactic helps!

I asked my zone leader if that feeling of having no idea what you´re doing goes away. He said, "... Yeah. Yeah, it actually does." He went on to tell me that you just go one day at a time doing whatever you can and the results result. That´s what we´re doing. And we´re seeing miracles and *bakanza all over the place. Some investigators who excused themselves out of seeing us had a large trial that involved a Blessing of Health that almost certainly saved a life, and they´re now pretty ready to progress. We found a guy the other day who had been wishing he could find a Book of Mormon to read because it had always interested him.

Oh, and my freaking watch broke. That little pin part that keeps the pieces of the band broke. It was a pretty understandable break (not to mention more injurious for me if it hadn´t), but now I don´t know what to do. The watch places here are kind of ghetto. I´m still looking for something there. Should I buy a four-dollar one so I don´t get robbed anyway$ I think I will.

I have rediscovered eggs, in other news. Can someone tell me how Dad does them$ Here they put oil in it, which I don´t like. Dad´s are so superior - what´s the deal there$

Package Package Package

Did you get that Patriarchal Blessing yet$

Package Package

Okay, that´s enough.

Love,
Elder A Conrad/Alex C Crist

*coolness, sickness

Missionary stuff

This must be the hump they talk about. Well, at least it is for me. It seems like Alex left a long time ago! Like longer than reality! Anyway, in a few more months he will be on the downward slide of things and then it will seem like he hasn't been gone that long. At least that is what I am hoping!




Oh, man. This week Elder Silva leaves and I get a new companion. I am not moving; I will be leading this sector by myself. The biggest sector in the mission. I still don´t know what kind of companion I´m going to get or anything. It´s just kind of scary. There´s about 6,000 people in my sector. One can drive 45 minutes through the middle. (Does that mean it´s bigger than Rhode Island?)

Needless to say, I´m scared as dump (as my trainer, Elder Mann would say). My biggest fear is getting a disobedient missionary to make things worse. I´m hoping for a more-or-less old white guy, maybe 18 months into the mission. That would be ideal.

It´s getting cold now, and there was a terrifying rain storm yesterday. I had to use an umbrella for the first time in my life. It rained until we went inside, then stopped. How lame, right?

We had another baptism last Saturday. The mission leader invited all the right people, and now they´re all best friends. Her husband is still in a problem with the alcohol, but we´re going to bring the hammer next time. The love hammer, of course. A little D&C 19, Alma 5...

Next week I´m either going to be depressed or excitied. Probably both.

Something a doctor (teacher of Gospel Principles) said to me about this - ask yourself, "If I knew how to do this, how would I do it?" It´s surprising how often it gets you over the pretense of not being trained in something. I think it not only is a good mental exercise but also an invitation to the Spirit.

Oh, man. Here we go.

Hoping to recieve that darned package soon,
Elder A. Conrad Crist
Silva Chavez


Is there a more arranged version of Beautiful Savior (Crusader´s Hymn) than the lame one on lds.org? Could you find it in mp3 or something? (If you record Abby ever singing religious stuff, consider sending it in email.)