This is it. Second-to-last Pday in my entire mission.

 I still feel normal. This last week I did my go-to-the-temple-with-President. I had a pretty strong experience there you'll have to ask me about later. Basically it was all my old friends from the MTC - Elder Smart from the office was there. We actually ended up as "companions" for the trip up to the temple from Maipu. We talked about how we both are kind of in the same boat in terms of not-trunkyness but a little bit of "I'm too old for this." Listen to the audio for a little piece of that.

 President waited until we were alone in the Celestial Room and said, "This is not the end of your mission. This is the beginning of your mission. Think about it - you can create something that lasts beyond this life. That is your mission."

 The only thing that grabs my attention is MacBooks. Nothing else. I have been without Mountain Dew, mexican food, normal clothes, etc, but I don't care. I could go longer without them if necessary.

 I was talking with Elder Mason about this today. As a missionary you get so unattached after moving so many times that you don't even attach to things or places after a while. You don't even arrange your stuff or you room. You just think to yourself, "Why? I'll just leave in a month or whatever."

 Everything was going normal with Josefa until recently we had a little issue with modern prophets. It's not a big deal, but we put off the baptism to make sure it all goes good. It would be really bad if she were to get to the interview and have him say no. So we put it at the 19. I can still baptize her, it seems. That will be my last working day. Actually, I won't even work that day... yeah, whatever. 

This is a two part email so I can send all the pictures.

 What I mean to say with an "issue" is that she's not convinced. She asked if all the prophets have been Americans. I said yes, and that it had to do with that the Church has been there for so much longer, etc. We explained that all she had to do was confirm the Book of Mormon and it was all a chain reaction from there. She's reading and praying. I have my suspicions about the doubt - I think she heard something negative about the Church being a USA money-making venture and in some way the prophet concept confirmed it in her mind. I just hope we can get her to an answer in time.

I'm ready to "sacrifice" being here for the baptism to be sure we do it right. It certainly was the object of the fast this month. It still worries me something, but there's not much more to do until our next lesson.

 Anyway, it was a good temple outing. I think the big message I recieved (I have to tell you about a somewhat heavy experience I had there)(probably in the temple itself) is that God is actually happy with what I've done. I was walking with Elder Smart and I said to him, "You know, I sometimes feel like I've really mandar'dme la embarrada (made a lot of mistakes) in the mission. I could have done so much better than I did in ever sector. I'm recién (recently, just now) figuring out how to work a sector for reals."

 He said something I found wise: "I think God knew that iba a quedar la escoba (we'd mess up a lot) when he sent us, but he did it for something. We have to learn this stuff somehow and now we're ready for the future.

 I am definitely not very good at this still but I at least know why I'm here and basically what I`m supposed to do. I think I can follow the Spirit somewhat. I love these people, even though they are very misguided a lot of the time. I know the scriptures..ish...

 And the sector is getting somewhere. I am afraid that only Josefa can be baptized while I'm here, but everyone else is on the right track. Crazy miracles are starting to happen, something that always happens to me right as I leave a sector. We got a reference for a family that was almost baptized in another sector that only has to be baptized... to be baptized... if you understand what I mean. All these people I've mentioned to you are going good. Just slower than I'd hoped. They didn't come to church. That was the main problem - One didn't appear, the other's mom has a beef with the bishop, etc. We are looking at leveraging the trio to do some divisiones to cover more ground.

 The tension of this being my second to last email is making my my mind somewhat vapid. I'd like to at least write something interesting.

 ...

 I'm going to go do my best.

See you next week.
 Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist