Hard to focus

One week til we get to skype! Is it possible? Time is just marching on and the benefit this time is really quite great. I only have a few questions for him, the thing I want to see; is him! Oh an btw, this new format is really stupid! I cannot even get it to put a space between the things I say and the the letter. I am so sorry it is happening! For those who want me to just forward the letter, tell me! I really do like audios. They´re way more convenient here in the office than outside. Looks like Skype will be which day? Saturday. Okay. One your time will be five my time, according to what I see on my world clock thing. See you there. Elder Monsen left on Monday, so I am now in the hot seat. I've already had several emergencies, but that's life, really. It's going well. Preparing for the Christmas party has been crazy (I'm spending a can-load of money and Elder Spencer has spent more time on the phone than off for three days.). It is really hard to be spiritual and focused here. I have so much not-missionary things to do that it's hard to just put them all way when I leave. Even more than that, a lot of the time people will call me between lessons to give me more emergency news. Then comes a day or two with nothing really heavy to do. Those days feel like trying to pedal a bike in the lowest gear while already going down a hill at forty miles per hour. Luckily I'd read Getting Things Done, so I have it pretty well figured out using Outlook, which is a pretty cool program, actually. I have already started getting stuff for Christmas. It makes me feel bad because I know the stuff I'm getting for you absolutely will not arrive before then. I'm not even done getting it yet. Thanks for those one socks - they are a great deal better than Chilean cloth-tube socks. I'm kind of in a problem right now, though. I understand the doctrine. I get it. But I've lately had a dip in motivation. It's sometimes difficult to care a lot for me. Elder Tialavea, a BYU foodball player who's about to go home, is in the office his last week. All he wants to do is go out and work. Today was our PDay, but all he wanted to do was work in a sector somewhere. We ran into some missionaries from somewhere close to my first sector and he left with them. Point being, it scares me a little that I didn't have that same desire. It says in Preach My Gospel that as one understands more the Atonement, one's desire to share it with others will increase. I have felt the Atonement in my life, and I do want to share it. But it is still difficult for me to want to contact people in the store on PDay, for example. So I guess I don't get the Atonement? You get to this point in your mission wherein you figure you should have changed more than you have. I'm there. I've been here a reasonable amount of time - I would imagine at least somewhat that I would be different? Have you noticed anything? I honestly haven't - not from what I can see and remember. Do you feel still young and unprepared sometimes? I do. It kind of brings my attention to marriage stuff too. Not to be trunky. I think I need another ten years before I'm capable of making that kind of decision. This has also happened to me when I went to be district leader, and to the office. Do I ever get to feel like I know what I'm doing? I suppose it's worked out okay until now, though. I kind of miss having a trio. It was more than a companionship - it was a friend group. Almost definitely too much fun. This change has been the most fun probably yet. Elder Monsen said something to a member about the mission that I think is apt: Every time you go to a new sector, or even get a new companion it's like your mission starts over. I feel like I've started over a little here, especially since it's a "faster" ward, which is to say that the members are more involved and willing to help, and people are easier to find and to baptize. We have, at this moment, some five baptismal dates - a record for my entire mission. All this with occasionally losing days completely or at least halfway. Something that is super key, by the way : young people. They like us, they want to hang out with us, i.e., go on lessons. They make friends with the investigators fast. They invite people to everything. Etc. I'm verifying my skype junk, by the way. I suggest you make sure it all works by calling Dad's office or something. We have been lucky so far. Well, I need to go. I need to go focus on missionary stuff. Hard sometimes. Ámense. Elder A Conrad Crist

I won!

I like how Alex puts that God has a way of bringing us uncomfortable situations that become beneficial experiences. Isn't that the truest thing ever? I am so happy that he is happy and doing things that are helpful to the other missionaries as well as members in that area. I am also very excited to be able to get to skype with him in just a few more days! Only like 10 more. That is such an exciting thing. And it is the last Christmas he will be out. The end in nearing! It is not as near as I would like but it gets closer every single day!
There are no pictures which always bums me out but more surprise for later on I guess.



So far this is going pretty well.

God has a way of bringing you uncomfortable but beneficial experiences.

For example, an apartment complex wanted 115,000 pesos from me. They said that we owed because we hadn't paid since July, etc. I sent them our internal payment - and they scoffed at my efforts. Before the mission I might have maybe paid it or tried to get someone else to do it. But it is my job, and we weren't going to pay that money twice. So I pulled the bank records and sent them a screenshot of their own page with the transaction numbers. They refused to admit that they had charged again something they shouldn't have... But they gave me a "discount" of the sum we weren't supposed to pay again.

When I read the capitulating email, I stood and half-yelled, "I won(!)"
President King, who is usually not in the office, happened to walk in and say, "... What did you win?"
"La Blanca's building wanted a bunch of money for gastos comunes and they backed down when showed them the bank stuff," I spouted out in over-detail immediately.

But hey, it was a great experience. I used to be a sheep for that kind of stuff, but now no. Not at all.

Not to say that I wasn't spiritual this week. We have several investigators who are simply super easy. (I will be leaving to another ward and remaining in the office next change in January, which will be the neighboring ward Monumento, leaving Esquina Blanca. (Indicating that I will have to essentially 'open' the sector, as it will have been a Sister sector until I go over there.) (We'll see how that goes a little later.))

I say they're too easy because they have all just fallen to us. As if God is saying it's okay that we are in the office, we maintain almost-normal numbers at all times. We leave to work at six or seven instead of four, which is a fair amount of time. And yet we are supported, and have more than enough people we can teach.

I find myself with little to comment about them. I don't know any of them very much, and none of them have a lot of difficulties.

Well, there is one. Raul and Ximena (that's an /h/ sound) are two amazing "eternal investigators." Such a person is created when he hits upon something, like a pending divorce, that prevents him from being baptized even though he attends church and does everything else right. Raul and Ximena would be married, but Raul's crazy ex won't let him. She wants tons of money, and Raul recently suffered a crazy property loss and cannot pay. He wants nothing more than to be baptized, but cannot afford either to move out of his house to "stop breaking the commandments" with his 'wife,' or pay off his nutty old lady he hasn't even seen in twenty years. He and the woman with whom he is currently have a child of nine together and will not split up, even if it is for baptism. I get it, but even so, things can be done. With that thought in our minds, we went to set a baptismal date to help motivate them to fix their situation. Raul started to get a little angry as we talked - not at us, but at his life. As we approached the part where we'd extend the date, he was crying and almost yelling. Then we did it. And he looked down. And he said, "si. Yo creo que si. Sera esta vez." "Yes, I think so. This time it will happen."

And so it was. God is powerful. Raul is looking at a righteous goal with no way to get it. That he knows of. If he really goes for it, he'll have it.

Faith is not the force, remember?

Well, today we went to President King's house to play volleyball and eat a huge american breakfast, so my time is short. I'll get some pictures of it. I have to go to a Christmas party. Keep being good. Read the scriptures. Love each other.

Elder AC Crist

Third line to the top!

I am still trying to figure out the writing on a different day thing! It is very hard to sit down on Friday night and write an inspirational letter when I haven't had the whole day Sunday to reflect and be inspired. I love getting the letters though! I wonder if it is hard for him to write a different day or if all the days just kind of run together? I like that he is on the top of the list of all missionaries in the mission. Not too long and he will be home again. Wow! The first year is definitely the hard one and now we just get ready for the things he needs to do when he is home. It doesn't seem possible that we can be this close already. Weird to say and think about too! 8 months and change!

Okay. The reason you can be excommunicated is that we have a pretty uncontrolled access to mission money and personal information that misused could lead to super-serious problems and crimes. That´s why. It would be really easy to, for example, give my friends 20,000 pesos for no reason. Therein lies the danger.

So nothing I'll actually do will get me in any problems.

I actually did get the tree of matchboxes. It's pretty cool. It's the envy of the senior couple missionaries who do the mail and the baptismal records. I just opened day three - holographic stickers for my study book thing. Excellent.

The missionaries haven't always been terribly diligent about getting out to the sector here, but the sector does exist and we do work it starting at six or six thirty every day. Usually we just do routine stuff and leave. Once a week we have to get some bills from the Area Office in the middle of Santiago (at the temple's distribution center thing) and go to negotiate rent and Common Costs at apartment complexes (I don't know what those are in english - it's the utilities and repairs to the whole building all put together and charged to every one). The administrations are typically very poorly managed, so you have to be ridiculous about getting receipts and and confirmations. Lots of assertive(?) phone calls.

The sector here is young and new, and fairly rich. In my last sector, in the middle-low income area, there were two people, maybe three in my ward that had cars. Here every family has one, some even have two. Most people here work in business jobs, not labor, so they are more available for teaching.

We planned the other day and came up with five people we'll baptize before March. President King's vision is one a month per companionship, so we'd be doing pretty good.

The senior missionary couples are very different. The other night we went down to wash our clothes with the Packs, Elder and Sister Pack from New Orleans. They invited us in, then gave us, in order, soda, grilled cheese, brownies and ice cream, chips, and Butterfinger bars they get from home. Elder Pack is a church educator, and Sister Pack is a big time piano teacher. He's pretty much just a Cache County guy, but she's as south as a white person can be. Jambalaya anyone? Their mission is really cool - he does the mail, and she teaches local member kids piano. (She's been here for some three years, so some are actually getting good.) I thought southern hospitality was a legend. It's not. She just had a recital. She brought three days of baked goods to the recital and the Chileans ate every single item in fifteen minutes. They really like brownies here, apparently.

(I guess this could be a belated thanksgiving theme.)

I think what makes the Packs so likable is that they give, but not only that. They give whatever completely willingly and give thanks for everything they get, be it from God or from others. They've understood that it's a pleasure to give. It sure is fun to work with them.

The voice on the audio that's not me is Elder Monsen, currently residing some five minutes from your house. He's actually related to Elder Christensen at about the same obscure level, so we've made an official after-mission gang plan. Elder Monsen just applied for BYU, having only two or three changes of six weeks to go. He wants to go to summer to get in easier.

(Speaking of this, can someone go on and find out the dates on that stuff? I will need to start doing some things soon-ish.)

Elder Spencer didn't appear in the audio, but I'll be with him longer. Elder Monsen will leave the twelfth to be a zone leader in San Miguel, near La Cisterna where I just was. He (Elder Spencer) actually is going to medical school too. He'll remain for at least another change. In the office, it is imperative that your language skills be perfectly functional for english and spanish, So it's very unlikely I have any latin companions here - and my companion definitely won't be young ever. I had been three changes with missionaries who didn't know how to speak really - it's odd to be not the only one who understands. I really like working with older missionaries - the problem is there just are that many left. I am on the third line to the top in the missionary board. Only like eight months and change left... Is that terrifying?

I talked with my office mates and we concluded that nothing is keeping Kelsey from being in the Skype. Of course, if it were distracting or private, not. But it's not. So if she'd like, invite her. I have the twenty-fourth to the twenty-sixth at whatever time for and hour or so. I'm really at the disposition of you. (that's a spanish idiom- "however you want".) Let me know - and get that dang fiber optic cable plugged INTO the computer. No wifi business.

I've already made some computer innovations, like using Microsoft Access for references. Elder Monsen is very organized, but doesn't really do computer things very much. Every financier improves in there way, and mine is upgrading the computer stuff, which I can do. And I may help with the end-of-year-movie.

It really is difficult to concentrate of the mission mission sometimes. But it's a new challenge that can already see helping me, especially for keeping the spirituality of the mission with me after. I'm happy to be here doing something at which I can succeed that really helps people.

Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist