tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77962748919839195682024-03-04T21:45:39.543-08:00AlexCrist.comKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-38190903338548394492012-08-13T14:48:00.000-07:002012-08-13T14:48:21.581-07:00The EndI haven't written on here much but I am going to have to say this has been a very hard, long two years. I am sure everyone else feels like it went by quickly but let me assure you that it did not! However, I am so grateful that Alex was able to go on a mission and learn the lessons he did. He is going to make a wonderful husband and father as well as church member and YM leader. Heavenly Father is preparing him for some great purpose and I feel so privileged to be his Mother. God Speed Elder Crist! See you in 1 week!!!!!!<br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">This is my paper I sent in for my end-of-mission report. As I spent considerable time writing it, please allow it to be my email for this week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">See you on Tuesday. I love you all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Elder A. Conrad Crist</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Stewardship : Alex C. Crist</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Mission Chile Santiago West, September of 2010 to August of 2012</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> I’ve never really thought of myself as a spiritual person. I wasn’t sure what I would do as a missionary. I liked to think I was an intellectual – maybe even a little too intellectual to be a missionary. I supposed I’d wedge myself into the mold for the two years and come back and move on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> There’s a scripture in 1 Corinthians that’s proven to be absolutely true for me. It says something like, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; neither have risen up into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.” (Pardon me; that’s an impromptu translation from the Spanish.) I had no idea what He did have prepared for me, nor could I have – I knew nothing about how to seek after Him. I could read the Books – I could read the words, at least. In fact, I did read the Books. On some level, though, it didn’t penetrate very much. (This isn’t to say I had no testimony before, but it certainly wasn’t much of one.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> One of the purposes of my mission that I can see now (of the great number or purposes I can’t see now) was put me in a position in which I had to rely on Him. All my previous activities were controllable by me. I am a studious person. I naturally see causes and effects. If I needed money, I could get it. If I needed to understand something, with some effort I could get it. Missionary work, though it is clear that work makes a great difference, depends on the actions of other people. Only by help from On High does a missionary have any chance of helping any person. Speaking personally, only by needing Him could I be made to seek after Him. When I finally found part of Him I began to change. My purpose here is not to try to communicate everything He’s taught me up to today’s date (as it would take several days to write), but I think I will be able to impress my most perspective-changing thoughts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> I would lie if I said my mission was completely bright and happy. At the beginning I felt many times crushed by difficult circumstances, difficult (in my estimation) companions, and a constant cold fear of what God thought of me and my lack of performance. I was branded in many homes as the <i>serio</i>, or the person who never laughs or makes jokes. I am not a depressed person; I’ve never been that way. The pressure I felt was so great (multiplied by language difficulties early on) at times that I felt like I was certainly damned, for there was no other thing that could produce such restrictive weight. I don’t know how many people have prayed prostrate in fear of His judgement, but I have. Like I said, though, He had plans for me. He presented me with each new level of understanding, which appeared to me to be the top of all knowledge I could receive, but as I arrived at that level without fail He showed me something even higher. That’s been the pattern. With each discovery the weight became less as I allowed Him to carry more of it until today. And today, my “confidence has waxed strong in His presence” and I fear Him no more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">In my mission we were allowed to read Lectures on Faith, which I felt impressed strongly to read. The book was originally printed with what we know as Doctrine and Covenants, and is an exposition of faith – how we get it, why we need it, its results, etc. When I finally was able to read it, it took me about a week to finish it. But in that short time it was as if my entire understanding of life and God was being razed and rebuilt with the same bricks, only this time higher and indestructible. Faith had always been taught to me as “believe because that’s just how it is.” I couldn’t figure out why God would want me to believe in Him without offering any reason. The truth is this: we trust in the testimony of another <i>until </i>we receive a confirmation of the Holy Ghost. The faith that the prophets have preached is made of three components, one being a belief that God exists, secondly a correct understanding of His attributes, and lastly that the course of life that one follows is according to His will. Without those things there is not not enough faith. It made sense to me for the first time. Christianity isn’t illogical. Anyone who wants to confirm God’s existence can do it. He knew we’d have doubts as to His existence, so He showed us the way. There’s a reason we dwell so much on the First Vision.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> Like Moroni said, after faith comes, hope must follow. I started to form a real relationship with God by way of His Holy Ghost. It wasn’t a relationship of Deity and creation, at least how I’d understood it. At a General Conference I attended here a General Authority told a story about how he’d been somewhat hungry while walking home from work. He felt like he’d been good that day, and that if he could eat some fried chicken from a little drivethrough he was about to pass by. He prayed (almost a little sheepishly) that while he knew it wasn’t a big need, he did not have any money, so he would certainly enjoy finding a quarter on the ground to be able eat. As soon as he finished praying he walked right onto the coin he needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> I think the hope I found in the mission is very similar. God is my dad! He’s like my dad here. He knows exactly how life’s going for me and He understands when all my skills are insufficient. He knows why He called me here. Unlike reading Lectures on Faith, it’s hard to put a line or bracket on when I started to understand this. In the daily life I had in Chile I just started seeing Him more and more – in what I read, in what I saw in people I taught, and in miracles that weren’t always that necessary – or, rather, that were just for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> Thinking back to Moroni 7, first is faith, next is hope, but the most important – the only one that won’t ever “pass away,” even when the very earth and universe have – charity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> I came across a talk by the current President of the Chile Area when he was a mission president in Michigan called “The Fourth Missionary.” It speaks of four kinds of missionaries that exist – The First being one completely disobedient and sent home, the Second disobedient but more furtive, and the Third and Fourth, which are almost equal. The talk dwells little upon the disobedient ones. There’s a phenomenon in motives in the Gospel. To condense about thirty pages of text, the central blessing of life is change. This is change, not knowing more scriptures or learning to live alone. This is change that makes a human into a God. This is change that can only occur if the person desires it to occur. A lot of times one can think that those changes are worked by working hard or being perfectly obedient, but the reality is that God desires the very inside of His children – their money or talents do not interest Him. is a resounding line in the talk that I cannot forget: “You will make out of yourself a smudge. He will make out of you a masterpiece. You will make out of yourself and ordinary man – whatever it is that society makes of you. He will make out of you a God.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;"> The difference is so little – one must want to do God’s will instead of just force himself to do it. That’s the only difference. This echoing truth has changed everything for me. Since I really began to apply that principle, nothing has been the same. God has been closer to me, and I to Him. I have imitated Jesus Christ and I’ll never be the same. Jesus came not only to atone for sin – He came to show us the Way. The only Way. Making myself a missionary has only been difficult when I have been closed to it inside. There’s a line in one of my favorite songs that states the situation well: “Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty/ Though the eyes of the sinful man may not Thy glory see.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">I have thought of myself as a doctor for many years, for the idea has always appealed to me, and I am almost confident that I desire to pursue that career. Using that “instinct,” if you will, I learned to really care about people and listen to them to then be able to help them. Through various circumstances I learned that loving a person – really, actively, as a verb – is the secret to helping him, be it missionaries under one’s charge, investigators, members, or companions. I’ve seen the great help that leaders can be to people, as real conversion occurs after baptism in almost all cases. I am saddened sometimes because I know I could help much more some people as a normal member with a calling than as a missionary. I am eager for the opportunity to have those callings, especially Home Teaching and, fortune willing, Young Men’s. I remember once conversing with my trainer (an excellent missionary) about the purpose we served and he said, “I think they really send us on missions for the after-the-mission. We know who can be in trouble, and how to help – even how to be a good normal no-calling member.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">My future plans have not changed very much in the mission in a vocational sense. I still plan to work long and hard to obtain an education as a Medical Doctor in a high-level medical school, as that is the best profession I can imagine for myself. I will always seek the Lord’s will to follow it. I will always plan and work toward goals in every area of my life (I shall not bore the reader with all the details.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">I think it goes without saying that I will accept any calling from God and His Church, and magnify it as He will.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">I will maintain my family as the highest priority next to God Himself. I have been convinced beyond all return that I must be married to be happy. It will have to be in the Temple. She will have to be someone who, honestly, is a very special, valiant, righteous woman. Her goals will have to be compatible with mine. I will give her myself, holding back nothing (similarly to the way I give myself to my Father)– and I will expect nothing less from her. However the family ends up working out I will defend them (both that which I already have and that which I will have) with everything I have and am and can ever teach them from our Common Enemy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">I will praise my God forever, for He is my Father. I will obey and love my Savior forever, for that it what He is. He is never in debt with me – His blessings are too many to count and too undeserved to reason. I know what I’ve done is right. I finally understand what Elder Holland is saying with, “My mission meant everything to me!” My mission meant everything to me. Every good thing that will happen to me is a result of this mission. I think it’s no coincidence that at the end of Matthew, as a triumphant Jesus ascends to heaven He gives a commandment – “Go ye and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” and right after, as an accompaniment to it, to all those who work in this Work – “I am with you, even to the end of the world.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">He is with me.</span></div>
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<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Temple Marriage to a very special, valiant, righteous woman, whom I will court daily</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Raise children in a home that is safe from the World</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Seek to be an excellent, dependable professional, most likely Medical Doctor</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Avoid all debt except for education and a modest home if necessary</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Pursue passionately my interests in outdoorsmanship, computers, vocal performance, piano, history, and manual work</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">6.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Fulfill and magnify callings, not allow time to pass without callings, do all home teaching, participate actively in geneology, prepare to serve and serve a couple mission</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">7.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Be well-educated in the works of God, studying daily from His word</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">8.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Perpetually practicing exercise and diet habits with a goal in mind</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">9.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Love Family and Friends fiercely, defending them from spiritual and physical dangers and manifesting often my love for them</span></li>
<li style="margin-left: 15px;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">10.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.454545021057129px;">Seek diligently and follow unhesitatingly the will of God</span></li>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-11715511093556067572012-08-07T12:27:00.003-07:002012-08-07T12:27:50.771-07:00<br />
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This is it. Second-to-last Pday in my entire mission.<br />
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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.<br />
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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."<br />
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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.<br />
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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."<br />
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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.
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This is a two part email so I can send all the pictures.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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."<br />
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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.<br />
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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...<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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I'm going to go do my best.<br />
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See you next week.<br />
Love,<br />
Elder A Conrad Crist<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD08-T4OiILmJ0L3mDNNz-jGKjRs39sGomaL9KtgBgbnf8EQzl-EZFFDNgBqpd67FoNnIA7PiHX6I8iDqGN9nOyIGjdi7ZOW1nQ66qKMaeqRtlX7SDumocX8SjQkLEnKeanJPvXsEITy4/s1600/CIMG0052.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD08-T4OiILmJ0L3mDNNz-jGKjRs39sGomaL9KtgBgbnf8EQzl-EZFFDNgBqpd67FoNnIA7PiHX6I8iDqGN9nOyIGjdi7ZOW1nQ66qKMaeqRtlX7SDumocX8SjQkLEnKeanJPvXsEITy4/s320/CIMG0052.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-46635747381631217322012-08-07T12:20:00.000-07:002012-08-07T12:20:04.933-07:00"..."<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Remember those spice cakes with the white frosting? Kind of a gingery taste? That. Also funfetti. If you are thinking about Chilean sayings I have two: the more knightly Chilean motto, "Por la razón o la fuerza", or a fraternal "Ya, Po"</span><br />
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Can someone make chicken squares? I guess Mom's would be more of chicken triangles, being a less-cream-cheesed one-criossant variation of the literally squared two-criossant chicken square.</div>
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Revised: Can someone make chicken triangles?<br /><div>
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Before I forget, the school system here is exactly backwards. They start in December and end in like october or something. They have a longish winter vacation, but it's last week-ish on June.</div>
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Anyway, this week was fast. We saw some investigators and stuff. It went good. I think I've basically told you about everything that can happen out here to I'll pass the more interesting things.</div>
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<br />Do you remember that one time when I told you about this wierd reference we got that is untraceable? That girl (about our age) is technically not a member because they forgot to confirm her... Right. I don't know how that happened. Wierd thing is that the first time we taught her she sort of "hated on" the church for all these dumb things that had happened up until then. She also said she wasn't terribly convinced by the Book of Mormon (or the Bible). We convinced her (in a really really long lesson) that it was worth at least reading the Book of Mormon to see if it was true. She showed up at church with her family (part of which are free baptisms because they want to move here but have already recieved almost all the lessons) last Sunday and talked to the bishop about getting the confirmation done. He said they can do it without baptizing her again. We went to see her again two days ago-ish and she was completely different. Bizarrely 180 degrees different. She read some of the Book of Mormon. In the time since that first visit she decided that even if she did have to get rebaptized she'd just do it. Her mom (member recently getting active) said she walked in on her reading the Book of Mormon again. And we found a probable house for her sister and family (the free baptisms).</div>
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It seemed that she didn't even notice (her name is Emily) (seriously) that her opinions had changed so much. I suggested that it could have been the Spirit and she said, "I think so. I feel so much better now."</div>
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From wierd text messages (still unexplained, and I've talked to the office and they didn't send it) to this! It was such a precise time! Dizzying.</div>
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I'm still not even having a problem with the end coming and stuff. I'm serious. I don't even remember until someone says, "Hay, Crist... ya trunky yet?"</div>
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"No."</div>
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"You only have 21 days left."</div>
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"Really? I hadn't noticed."</div>
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"You're weird. Do you not miss your parents?"</div>
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"Yeah, but-"</div>
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"But what?"</div>
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"I tell everyone the same thing. I don't know what it's like to be normal. Ask me if I'd like to be a giraffe or live in Bolivia; I'll answer the same way."</div>
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"You're totally in denial."</div>
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"Whatever, man."</div>
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I have had that discussion like 75 times. It is second only to this one:</div>
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"What are you going to do after?"</div>
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"Med school, hopefully."</div>
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"That cool! What kind?"</div>
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"I don't know - maybe emergency room or surgery."</div>
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"..."</div>
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"..."</div>
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"Oh... gross."</div>
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"..."</div>
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"Well, someone's got to do it, right?"</div>
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Chileans tend to say the same things, I guess. Several times I have prophesied to my companions what the members would say.</div>
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It appears that we are not going to divide the sector after all. We shall be recieving one more missionary to make a trío for this next little while. President decided it's not enough time to train someone new in a sector (three weeks is very little - generally at least six is required)</div>
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This would leave Elder Fernandez (with whom I am overjoyed to be still) with our new companion to finish the change. It really would work out good. That's not entirely confirmed, but mostly. it is going to be cool.</div>
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I haven't seen Josefa (Abby girl) for three solid weeks! Finally we're going today. As far as I know it's just a straight line from here to water for her. We are still working on the mom. That's going to be my last charge.</div>
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I am attempting to do a few baptisms the 19. Wouldn't that be cool? We had four people with that date. It would be cool if you always felt like you had to get someone for a date you couldn't pass - I've never worked on someone as hard as we are. The nineteenth or death! For real.</div>
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The only real chink in my armor is Macbooks. The other day an investigator didn't have a dvd player but had a Macbook so we played in on the comptuter hooked to the tv like we did back in the day. ... I like Macbooks...</div>
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I'm good though. Nothing terribly too much, as I have been resisting the same distraction the whole time here. Whatever.</div>
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We should go camping too. And singing. I need to get my mitts on that piano.</div>
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I'm going to see if I can get my camera stuff working.</div>
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Elder A Conrad Crist</div>
</div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-41734766803349355802012-07-23T17:59:00.002-07:002012-07-23T17:59:58.868-07:00Passive Religious Culture<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Reality of releases:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I am almost confident that you talk to the Stake President and he comes over that day I get home and releases me. No waiting as far as I know.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I still feel like I'm in the middle, as much as I did a year ago in La Cisterna with Elder Myres. I know what I'm doing a little more but not so much. I'm starting to freak out when I think about people that have kids and stuff (and I remember when I was a kid 21 wasn't that young - you could have kids at 21 and that was okay) are my age and younger and I kind of just sit there staring at them because I am definitely not that old. I feel like an educated large fourteen-year-old. Is that bad?</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">No, it's all good. I make it work.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Everyone's getting back from vacations now so I'll have more to tell you about it next week. We contacted a lot, for there was very little peopleage in the sector. We did find some pretty good new people. They were a mom and two fraternal twin girls. We only talked about some basic... nondenominational (to say it that way) christian stuff, throwing the Restoration on the end. The girls were really pretty interested. The mom too, I think, but she recited some classic no-church-necessary stuff. It's all about the Book of Mormon in those cases. It really is about the Book of Mormon in every case, but especially these people. Our area president calls it "Passive Religious Culture."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">One of the things that's been on my mind lately has been our power to define ourselves. Those non-conformist people are as lost as a Turk in fog! They let society make them whatever it wants. Real non-conformity is defining one's self. Why dress in black clothes? What a product!</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's very interesting to me how much power I have in my own life to change what I am. Not personality (you can if you want, but I like my personality), mostly speaking about work habits, thoughts, vocabulary, and on a longer-term scale, attributes and tendencies.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">As a result I've been thinking too about what I'm going to do with myself. (Not when I'm not supposed to or anything.) I got a paper last wednesday about my mission termination paper! I have to write an essay with ten goals for the future and what I learned in the mission and stuff. I still don't feel like I'm going anywhere. Even if I will only write home three times more - ever. I still have baptisms to do and stuff so it's not over for me. We are splitting the sector, so it's going to go super fast. I just know it. It only slows down when you resent it. If you just go out and stuff and laugh and get to know your companion and do family nights and it rips away.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Wierdly the only effect going home has on me nowdays is it makes me impatient. I can't stand waiting for people to come to the door. I can't take people saying they can't see us this week. I think, "Hey - I need someone to get out here so I can contact them." or "Hey - I can only teach you for so long, man. Let's get on this thing. What are you waiting for?" I don't even know what trunky is. It doesn't make sense to me.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Therefore I feel totally okay giving you this idea:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Priority one : Mountain Dew. I don't care in what medium. I only need there to be a decent amount and it needs to be cold.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Two: Mexican Food</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Three: PF Changs</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That's really all.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Four: Shasta</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Five: Good Chocolate Milk make from milk and powder</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Six: Peppery steak Italian Place Sandwich</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Seven: Burgers</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That's all.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I feel like I hear the Indiana Jones theme song. I'm going to keep going. See you next week.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Love,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Elder A Conrad Crist</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Note C</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I have an idea, furthermore. I think it would be cool to make a two-part journal after - one part written of my writings in journal with printed out letters put in at corresponding dates. Two - all the recording plus an interview with questions of your choice in style of interview. Maybe some sunday we could sit down and let everybody ask or say something. I think that's a good Conrad thing to do. In fifty years people will kill for that recording.</span><br />
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</div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-43007347594975881592012-07-16T22:25:00.000-07:002012-07-16T22:25:02.120-07:003 Nephites Text<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Another really fast week. We did pretty well in terms of investigators. Josefa (Abby's age) has a baptismal date for the 29th. We'll see, though, because the mom left too and so we may have to put off the baptism until the mom's come to church a few times. Josefa is ridiculously solid - tons of friends, goes to all the activities, everything you could want. The ward loves her. Javiera, the other one, is still in the South so it'll be a little later when we get her - but her family is fairly interested, so it will probably be mid-August.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">This week we started teaching a recent convert's girlfriend who is also really good. What's more, this certain convert is a little lazy to come to church, but as we've taught his girlfriend, they show up together to everything consistently. Some kind of synergy thing, I think.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">We had a spiritual guiedance this week that was very interesting. We got a text (unmarked - not from the office here in Chile) for a reference (in english) that only had a name and address. The person, when we contacted her, hadn't talked to missionaries for at least a year or two. We decided to go to the reference and we found her, her mom who was just recently thinking about coming back to church (they're both members). We had a really long and spiritual lesson, part of which resulted in us finding another young girl who has wanted to be baptized but hasn't been able to yet. I am still very wierded out - texts don't send themselves, but no one sent it. At least no one here. The number was ominously 5960. Not even a telephone number. A member, upon hearing the story, said, "That must be a three Nephites text."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">The scriptures that they did rob of mine were spanish. I also gave Elder Guevara my english ones. For some reason I think I will still want physical scriptures. We can look at that later.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Speaking of things like that, it would be nice to have a computer when I get there because I will want to figure it out in time to use it. Is that possible? They've made a lot of changes and I'll have to set up a lot of stuff and copy other stuff to be able to work like before. </span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">I am pretty serious when I say I can't remember what it's like to be normal. I watched with Elder Fernandez a talk by Elder Holland about converting one's self in the mission and I realized one very simply thing: I don't belong here anymore. I feel like my... operating system?... has been... updated?... to be a returned missionary. I feel so much older than my companion, or, for that matter, everyone in the mission! Like nothing surprises me anymore. I feel like my place is studying, working, going out with the missionaries, having a calling, going to church meetings, etc. While I was eating lunch with members the other day a brother was telling me about how he felt at the end of his mission. He said when he had a month to go he started to feel increasingly out of place daily. When they asked him if he wanted to stay on longer he said, "I am grateful for the mission and I will never be the same for it, but no." That's kind of where I am, as it happens. This week I will tip below one month. That is a terrifying thought, but more in the way a roller coaster is terrifying, if you "cachai" (feel me.)</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">I just do my job daily and take a few mates and the days rip past like rapids on the Colorado. See you soon, I guess.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Love,</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Elder A Conrad Crist</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Note A</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Did someone make a recording of Jake at any point?</span>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-46751972428739596182012-07-16T22:21:00.002-07:002012-07-16T22:21:53.974-07:00Scriptures were stolen!<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">I have decided I still dislike moving.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">It ended up being a big deal because we had to take out all the duty that was already in the house. We had to disarm (that's a spanish error)(the word for take apart is desarmar)... I mean, take apart the bed and the stove and stuff to be able to move it. My stuff is pretty scant - it was all these ridiculous plates and stuff we had to mess around with. We moved for like two hours with a car and two hours after. We still are missing a table but we've just not had time to finish.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">I am working dang hard. We are doing a system of reference-seeking that's started to get somewhere. If you remember Josefa, Abby age, she's doing basically perfect - but we have to have her mom at least coming to church to be able to baptize her on her original date, the 29 de July. I'm starting to worry she'll want me to baptize her - which is not the idea. The idea is that they don't support themselves on me, for I'm practically toast. We have a lot of people but it's been hard to really nail them down good. It's a matter of calling and confirming - but even that doesn't always do it.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">We have a wierd situation going with one. There's a new convert guy who is pretty good but lazy as Barack. He has a girlfriend who has decided to be baptized but we make appointments and the convert guy forgets or something. We've passed like six times like that. It's bizarre. Talking to him face-to-face you'd never think he'd do that. I always think that we have to be missing some understanding of his character - otherwise he wouldn't do that.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">It is cold as Barack! The floor is pain-cold! Not cool. You basically have to shower as fast as you can because there's no other way to build up the resistance to cold to be able to dress yourself or otherwise function. The house itself is entirely ceramic except for a wood floor room that we don't use because it's too big - or be it, unheatable with the tiny heater thing we have.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">In the end we stuffed everything into the bedroom - study tables, beds, mate, boiler, etc - to be able to heat the room up to a human temperature. That's where we've ended up. The rest of the house is an unoccupied freezer that will be really cool in the summer.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">We are doing a reference program now that looks good. This ward is a ward of "maquinas" - machines. We're finding that just about every family's got someone that was listening or could listen. Or some inactives, at least.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">To answer to your doubts as to my trunkiness, I can truthfully say that I am of the exact same level of trunkiness as I was a year ago. I always tell people that I don't even remember what it's like to be normal, so it's very similar to someone asking me if I want to go to... for example... Bolivia. I have no idea what Bolivia is like, so if you ask me if I want to go to Bolivia I will say, "I don't know. I've never been there." Similarly I say to people on the subject of going home, "I don't know. I don't remember what it's like."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Quote from weekly report:</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">"We're all moved out. It's certainly a lot nicer, if very cold. We moved all the stuff into one room to study and sleep there - so we only have to heat that room. That works.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">With reference to the girls - well, girl, because with the other one we are teaching the whole family, but it's going slow - she does everything we give her. She has not missed any Sunday or Mutual for five weeks now. We are starting to make real progress with her mom, but she's been really sick recently, so we've not been able to see her. The other girl is starting from zero with her family, which has proved elusive so far. We'll see how it goes this week.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">We have a newer investigator, Luis, who is shooting up to the top of our list. It is really a product of that he really wants to change and drop a drug habit he has which drives him to keep all his commitments. He reads and understands the Book of Mormon. It'll be a quick matter to bring some good member to get him to church.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">I am, unfortunately, lamenting the loss of my bag, complete with scriptures and all other teaching materials I own. Somehow it was stolen in the move. Not to mention, my studies have been... mas o menos for this week. I am actually really sad about that - and I don't know how I'll get scriptures in time to actually work, as </span><a href="http://lds.org/" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" target="_blank" wotsearchprocessed="true">lds.org</a><br />
<div style="color: #222222; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; height: 16px; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 16px;" wotsearchtarget="lds.org">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"> takes a good long time to arrive. Well, I'll see if the office can get me some or something."</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">That's right. I have no scriptures. I have been walking around with an old non-church bible and a hard-cover investigator Book of Mormon. All that work and stuff! I can't believe that my scriptures are probably weed-wrapper now! That's two years of work! I read the Book of Mormon and New Testament in their entirety! I don't know what to do. I think I'll just pull some office strings and have them buy me some. There is no worse thing to happen. Whatever. I still have my journals, at least.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">I need to do some Excel nonsense.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">See you.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">A Conrad Crist</span>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-816736017907560042012-07-03T10:46:00.000-07:002012-07-03T10:46:25.035-07:004th of July...What is that?<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px;">Okay.</span><br />
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I had actually forgotten the fourth of July thing. I basically forgot that that exists.</div>
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Honestly the only thing that makes me trunky is computers. I can wait for anything else. In the absence of having one I've realized that it wasn't just a time waster in my life. I was really good at computers. I could do just about anything. Excel, video editing, formatting drives, changing out chips and video cards, programming, etc - it all interests me. I am thinking I may do a minor in computer science after all.</div>
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In terms of missionary stuff we're doing pretty good. We have taught a lot and the people are doing good. The Abby-age girls have gone from 70% decided that the Church was true to a real and, in my opinion, lasting testimony. They like church, they like young womens, they go to everything, they read and pray - there's nothing they don't do. In addition, their parents are slowly getting interested. Their baptismal date is the 29th of July... the idea is that the parents be attending by then. If not, new rules will prevent us from baptizing them.</div>
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We have a lot of people that have big obstacles. I got somewhat angry with myself because we went with the intention of telling an investigators that he would have to stop working on Sunday, which would be somewhat of a problem from his dad who can only take days off if his son works for him. We went to teach that and the investigator started talking about how hard his studies were and how he was barely passing and how he was really disanimated... so I backed off and we didn't commit him to do it. Mistake. How are we going to teach it now? He can't get baptized if he is straight breaking the commandements.</div>
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It's made me think a lot about how I regard the commandments. I would just stop working on Sunday and look for something else because God doesn't give impossible commandments, and the faster I turned over my will the faster I would be out of it. There are some commandments that are much harder for me than others - for example, I was a first-class software pirate before the mission. Can I go back to doing that? No. I'm not sure how I'll operate exactly, but no. How could I? How could I huck all my eternal progress out the window for something I could pay for with money that doesn't even matter?</div>
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It's an easy argument to say that it doesn't hurt anyone or steal anything tangible, and that the software manufacturers charge much too much to compensate for all the pirating that goes on (which is absolutely true), but it's the same thing. What will I do when I want to mess around with Photoshop? Not pay $699.</div>
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But it can be hard to convey that to someone who's so new to the Church. We actually have two really good investigators with the same problem. I suppose before too long we're just going to have to be straight with them.</div>
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It's an interesting place to be trained for my companion. We are doing a lot better than I did with my trainer. At least we have investigators. I actually am doing better here than I have in any other place. We are getting above-average results in every factor. It would be very strange if I left here without five or six baptisms.</div>
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ABBY! Those two girls that are her age always ask about her. I try to imagine Abby at their age and I can't ever do it. They seem too grown up. I remember very well when we got her - shows how young I am. More people have seen her than you know - almost anyone with whom I am has seen her and asked, "Wait... your sister? Are you sure?"</div>
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Then I tell Mom's story about "Look at her lips!" and I tell them that it was never weird or anything. It got to the point (Jake will back me up on this) that people see you with her in the park or something and they say, "That's your sister?" and you would look at them with a "What are you talking about? Um, duh..?" Then some ten minutes later you think, "Oh... that's right."</div>
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I love you, Abby. It's gonna be demasiado (too much) fun when I get back. Happy Birthday.</div>
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I'm in for the concert thing. As long as there's good musicianship I'm in for anything.</div>
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I think my vision for how I am going to be when I get back is similar, but three times more vibrant and active. I am going to not just like backbacking - I am going to be an expert at it. I am going to learn how to build and fix stuff. I am going to learn everything I can. I am going to go to the gym and run. I am going to practice piano and even more so practice voice. I am going to learn Greek and Hebrew. (I learned Spanish on paper in a month; how much harder could it be?) I am going to be something. Somebody find me a project! I can't handle the idea of wasting time. Excel, painting, DVDs, pictures - whatever. Just something.</div>
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I think I mentioned too that I am going to change how I dress. Forget baggy cargo shorts (when I'm not hammering). I am in love with dress shoes and colored button shirts. And I'm oficially a 33 waist and a "medium tall," so I can get all that sick atheletic-fit stuff.</div>
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Sorry about that.</div>
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Okay.</div>
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We've actually been limited in wierd places to go but I think next week we'll be able to. I will be going to Maipu tomorrow for my last zone conference... ever... and that'll be fun. We're moving out on thursday to our sick new house. </div>
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We've recently been in a rut of having people not show up to our appointments. Last night we only got one lesson the whole night. Lots of midnight contacts that aren't sure if you're going to rob them or baptize them. I think it is honestly just bad luck this week. We went to Ward Council and the whole leadership was pretty surprised by our initiative. More than anything I just say napoleon "yes" with the fist pump for my companion because he's learning how to really be effective in ways that took me a year or more to discover. That and the MTC, which is much more focued in what matters than when I was there. His mission is going to be so much less confusing than mine... I suppose by the time he has his own trainee he'll have figured out new stuff on top of that. Is this what it's like to be a father?</div>
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I almost know how to be a good missionary now that I'm almost done! Fantastic.</div>
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What more can I say? I'm doing better than ever. My companion is a baller. (He is basically me except from Argentina.) We did have to make a no-Babylon-during-proselyting policy. I think that's good though, because we have something to talk about always. It is not that fun to have a companion that says nothing ever or even only talks about mission stuff.</div>
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You know what I mean.</div>
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Elder A Conrad Crist</div>
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Extremist</div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-70036592216322044842012-06-25T14:43:00.000-07:002012-06-25T14:43:08.294-07:00New Comp...Possibly last comp!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I have minimally lot very a lot to say.<br />
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Oh, hang on - My companion is Elder Andrés Fernández from Mendoza, Argentina, which is just over the Cordillera on the Argentine side to the east. Mendocinos are Argentines but are significantly influenced by their proximity to Chile and Chile's capital, Santiago. They have a very reduced accent from that of the rest of the country ('ll' in Chile is 'y', 'll' in Argentina normally is 'sh' (and this is a sh that is almost spit). The most you'll get out of Elder Fernandez is 'zh' like 'montage'<br />
It's hardly different, really.<br />
<br />
We are similar. Bizarrely so. We are exactly the same height, though his build is more like Jake than me. He worked in computer repair and helped his dad with a natural gas-repair business and is looking at studying "informatica" which is something like our "IT" Information Technology. Needless to say he's been around a lot of computers so we have that in common. Our musical tastes are like a Venn diagram that's almost the same circle, he going more toward Iron Maiden and I going more toward neoclassical and choir music. Still, anything like Battlestar Galactica soundtrack to Metallica to Sufjan Stevens would be in our shared circle.
As a result we aren't missing things to talk about.<br />
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The sector is doing well. We recieved several references last Sunday after a talk I gave about Missionary Work that are looking like baptisms in addition to some seven people who are progressing well.
I talked about how much the gospel can mean to someone who needed it. A couple people nodded as I talked so I felt good about it.<br />
<br />
I used the good samaritan as a way of talking about how you don't only have to helpe people physically - that could be the easiest and least meaningful way, really. It's kind of hard to imagine how it is to not know what happens after death or how to get over difficult things. If you try, though, you get an idea.<br />
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I was unfortunately sick this week, so my energy for contacting was limited. We did a good number even so. There's something called "greenie power" that is real. Their excitement and lack of memories of rejection make them great at contacting. You just have to tell them what to do and they do it. I imagine that we are going to pass a successful and very fast change.<br />
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Also - he played in a rock band. He was a straight guitarist like dad. His guitar looks like Dad's except green. I mentioned to him the Marshall amp and he looked at me as if to say, "How did he get that??!" He definitely knows what those are. The person that is most like him that I can think of is probably Jake. He's a got a waiting girlfriend that sounds possible. He's a good guy and surprisingly mature for his time here. ANd he was in New York for three months and almost knows English. We're seeing what we can do about that. When I explained stuff to Elder Guevara, for example, it would take maybe three days to really get in. If I explain stuff like a computer process Elder Fernandez understands immediately. President said, "I met your companion in the MTC. He is perfect for you." He was pretty right.<br />
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I have basically forgotten that I am going home. I can't really remember what it's like to be at home not doing this. I really can say I'm not trunky because I do not remember what I am waiting to go home to do. I like what grandma wrote me - act like you're in the middle perpetually. That's what I'll do. All the people will be telling me that I have little time left or something and I just nod and say, "Well, there's still work to do." I think I'll just be going on like I was a year ago and then it will just be over. That'll be super bizarre but it's a good ways away. I think the worst thing that's been happening to me is when I see Apple stuff (HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEWEST OPERATING SYSTEM??!!!) or when my companion fills me in on some technology-related things that have happened. Even that is shrug-offable. No problem. Sometimes I'll be walking along and I'll think, "How many contacts have I done in Chile...? I have been here forever..." but then we go into a house or something and I don't even think about it again. So whatever.<br />
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Very good. See you next week. I don't really need any physical item here so just send pixystix and hot chocolate and stuff like that. I am going to need a new quad because I gave my English ones to Elder Guevara because he needed some. I'll get it at home, though. Spanish is the exact same for me now. I could probably go the rest of my life reading spanish and not have a problem.<br />
<br />
Anyway,<br />
Love,<br />
Elder CristKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-73469532722800413222012-06-20T14:58:00.000-07:002012-06-20T14:58:04.927-07:00Holey Moley!!<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">First of all, what is the deal with the soup stuff?</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Also, who had mate? They must be argentines or something.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This week was really wet. It rained like Barack every day. There's paved roads in most places where I am, but there's still some good shoulder that is made of dirt. Or rather, at this moment, mud. I have to clean and reshine my shoes every day. And my clothes never dry. Never. (I have only ever seen one drying in this country - it was in the office's apartment.) So we basically hang it (get this) on open cabinets all throughout the house. The whole house gets kind of moldy if we don't open all the doors. The good news, of course, is that we are leaving on the second or third of July to a super nice house a few hundred meters down the street. The ward members have actually said to me, "You should really get out of that apartment because Rodrigo (drug dealer below us) is probably going to get into a gunfight with the cops and you're not going to want to be there when that happens." So we're out. The new house is super sick.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">President called me last night to say that my companion is leaving, and I'll be training a new latin missionary. Cool. I get to go to the temple again and enjoy a fun day picking him up. President says he's "an excellent missionary" and that "you (I) are perfect for him." I have found that my favorite country here is probably Argentina. They're the most classy, the most intelligent, the most educated, the most reasonable, and the most interesting people around. I think in the future we have to do a vacation here, maybe to Santiago and Mendoza which is in Argentina. You can take a bus from one to the other very easily. They say in Mendoza you can go to a meat buffet that is one of the best in the continent for twelve dollars. Not to mention practically unlimited variety of mate. (They are the original materos. (a matero is a person who likes mate))</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The missionary work didn't go to well, though one day we did seven lessons in one day, which is a record for me. We went in and out and in and out all day without a single failure. The next day, oddly enough, we didn't do a single lesson. Possibly because it was Father's Day basically no one came to church. Everyone's sick too. The Bishop barely made it. We were missing thirty people from normal. Not a single investigator.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">It's okay though. I'll just keep doing what I always do. I want to work more with members this change. It works more, and, paradoxically enough, is more enjoyable. I had this wierd idea that if something is enjoyable it isn't hard work. Perish the thought!</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This brings me to my thoughts this week generally speaking about the gospel. I read a talk I think you'd like about the Atonement. The speaker, in a BYU devotional, says in his religion classes he teaches he gets up and says "Do we believe in being </span><i style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">saved</i><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">?, and if he says it just right, most of the class will kind of shake their heads and say, "No... no, that's those </span><i style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">other</i><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> guys who believe in that."</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">How sad that is! Of course we believe in being saved! Do you think we can do anything else? Those evangelical people have that part right. Not only do we rely on being saved but the Plan is stacked so that we </span><i style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">are</i><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> saved! Do you think God sad there and looked out at all His children and said, "Well, 3% sounds good enough to me. We'll just have to make a super-big telestial bin for the rest."? That is not my God.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We have a unique dispensation here. The people before Christ had to believe He'd be able to do everything He promised. For us it's a done deal. It's over. His Victory is accomplished and set in eternal stone. Nothing can change that. We are the only changing factor.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So He asks, "How many times have I offered to gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens -</span><i style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">and you would not</i><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">?"</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I imagine you don't have a big problem with this, but my people here do. I teach doctrine, I extend commitments, I try to fellowship them with my great ward - </span><i style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">and they will not.</i><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">How can I make them understand? How can I make them act and not just bob their heads? How can I make them act and not be acted upon? What do you mean you couldn't go to church because there was mud on the ground? You've only said you'd go four weeks in a row! What does remission of sins mean to you?! Are you okay without it?</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Is this what it feels like be a prophet? I have recently become extremely... not impatient... let's say "bold." Oddly it comes out of love, not annoyance. I love these people like family and when they won't progress it frustrates me terribly. But the joy when one single person progresses!</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Well, in terms of trunkiness, I don't have a problem until my mind becomes unoccupied, like at night. I think having a new missionary around will help. Sometimes I get something stuck in my head like Apple computers or big soft drinks and I have to really get after getting focused. But it always works and I always keep going. I'm in a good ward. I'm about to be in one of the nicest pensions in the mission. I have a ton of good investigators, including four who are sure baptisms, three before I leave. We just found another guy and his son. The guy is addicted to marijuana but wants to get off. Perfect situation.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'll do an audio that's a little more light-hearted.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Love you,</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Elder A Conrad Crist</span>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-12560316699119499232012-06-12T12:22:00.000-07:002012-06-12T12:23:48.027-07:00Rebar and cement statues of Mary and St. TeresaI had a shocking experience this morning. As I prepared to play soccer today (with my cool jersey), I went to rip of the page of my calendar (cat calendar) and it reminded me of how much time I don't have left. The question inevitably came to my mind: How many PDays to I have left?<br />
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Typing now, ending today:<br />
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9. 9. What?<br />
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And even for the much I didn't want to think about it, the number just pops back. Inevitably my mind starts to do the math - Two fast sundays, two more times to get money out at an ATM, two more initiative sets...<br />
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The change is over. We'll know who leaves on Saturday, and said people will leave tuesday. It's possible that my companion leaves. Actually, it's more likely that he leaves. That will mean two more companions. I have next change, then half of the next.<br />
<br />
President has decided that our sector is big enough and has enough members to put in four missionaries. We have double coverage at almost all hours of the week of people to go out and enough families to give lunches. And the sector is 40 minutes tall and 20 wide. I'll be taking one half with whoever arrives and whoever is my companion next change will do the same. Of course, that person will have to learn fast because I'll be gone in only three weeks. I imagine it will be someone not super young.We'll see what happens.<br />
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This week ended up going pretty well if with a slow start. The ward did conference this week, so there were some activities that we wanted to fill up with investigators. We managed one in one activity and none in the other, despite a lot of work. Oddly the sacrament meeting absolutely filled up to the highest anyone can remember - 135. No space anywhere. We also did a choir, and, for the lack of musical training in the ward I was basically obliged to participate. We sang Love at Home and Lord I Would Follow Thee, the former of which came out significantly better than the other. The tenor was pretty high for me and the others. Not only that, but it started on the highest note in the whole song. The song always started rough no matter how many times we practiced. I had so sing off to the side a little for the other tenors, but they couldn't always hear me. That's when we had problems. A lot of times they would hear the melody and just get dragged into it. Love at Home was okay, though.<br />
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Our two investigators that are Abby's age are doing very well, except for one thing. President has come out with a new rule that kids under fifteen years old who are being baptized without active or interested parents have to be approved by him individually. It doesn't matter if they've come for a few months - if they aren't approved by the bishop and President, they cannot get baptized. One parent has already said he's completely disinterested. We're just going to have to interest as many as we can. In my last email from him, President said I should say to the parents that the girls can't get baptized alone and that mentioning parental condemnation couldn't hurt. It was going to be so easy! Time to get the whole family, I guess. Kids are so much easier to teach than adults! At probably 20 a person's ideas just weld on and you have to break whatever's in the way to put in the gospel. Some people just have a hole there already so it's a little easier - but some people have rebar and concrete statues of Mary and Saint Teresa set up already.<br />
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Well, I'm sorry to be boring and stuff.<br />
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9!<br />
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I need to go get something for this terrifying rugburn I got while saving the goal. (My chapel has an indoor soccer thing.)<br />
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I've decided I'm going to be one of those permanently slightly dressed-up people who always have cool colored button shirts and dress shoes on. Let me know what you think. It wins you something before you even speak.<br />
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Note A
Part of the reasoning for the pictures of me in various jerseys is to show the contrast between the design of football and soccer jerseys with reference to how they make you look. It's striking.<br />
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<br />Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-3043037153591235412012-06-12T12:13:00.000-07:002012-06-12T12:14:43.165-07:00Little to report, sir<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I think it is cool that he keeps noticing his name in different places. I like to think it is because God is letting him know he has not been forgotten. I can't believe he is going to be coming home in such a short time. It almost doesn't seem real but I am ready for it!</div>
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<br /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Today was our zone activity. We went to Santa Lucía's artesan mall thing and bowled. I made some last purchases for the mission, including a matelisto (I'll explain later) Then we found my favorite burrito place in the middle of the city, so we went there and partook of the only burrito made in town besides in my apartment. No we're in a cibercafe in the middle of santiago and I have this wierd CRT monitor that is flickering and making me epileptic. The computer is very fast, though. Odd.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This week, in terms of work, was very good right up until Sunday. We had seven people ready to go for church. Not a single one came. Some even answered the phone the morning of saying they would! I thought a lot about what more we could have done and, next to handcuffing them and putting them in a prison quarry line with a big iron ball behind each one, there was nothing more. We taught as much as we could, called the night before, and they didn't come.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">There is an activity this Friday which will be a formal dinner. Unfortunately we only knew it was a 'dinner'. So we told some poor investigators to go however they wanted. Oops. Now what?</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">On the more fun side, people heard me singing in church and I got conscripted into the choir for ward conference next week. I wouldn't have done a ward choir that met weekly, for that's a lot of time, but since they have no one that can read music but the director and they have no decently high voices, me not participating basically means that the choir cannot function. So I am in it. We're singing Love at Home and Lord I Would Follow Thee at different parts. The bonding with the members has been worth it. I think we've scored several new people to come out with us as a result of being there just two hours in the last two week. I felt uneasy while I was there in terms of wasting time but looking back it was a good idea. This whole time I've only sang in the pension. I can tell how out of shape I am immediately. I'l have to get back on it as fast as possible and start practicing daily like I did at BYU. Is the piano still there? I am definitely loking foward to playing Grandma's piano.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We are officially signed up for the new house. The office, specifically Elder Wheelwright, did the contact and paid the security deposit in advance. (I had a lot of sway because the whole office is still my companions.) We move in July 2.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Speaking to your last email, when a person doesn't have the Spirit with them, they do go backwards. They may retain some intellectual understanding of the gospel. A lot of the time, though, they don't get what they read so they stop reading. They don't get the higher lessons of the gospel. I have come to understand some things in the mission I never would have supposed alone that have become extremely important. I feel like I can't teach them - every person would have to learn them alone. I had to look for the thing I wanted. I had to depend on God and the scriptures, mixed with experiences in teaching and talking to come to any conclusion. I think I understand to a great extent what the prophets feel. They say it in the most attention-calling language they can and try so hard but if people don't want to understand, they never do. Jesus' lament over Jerusalem sounds so much like my life sometimes...</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">But there's always next week. Send pictures of something.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Also, if I get home and Jake hasn't done his patriarchal blessing yet I will just go back to Chile.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Love and stuff,</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Elder A Conrad Crist</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Cool Folky Music to remind myself later:</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">inti-illimani</span>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-38762916524286013872012-05-30T19:04:00.000-07:002012-05-30T19:04:01.539-07:00most recent May 21, 2012I am sorry I have not been diligent in getting Alex's letters posted. I will try to do better. Every time I now try to post his letters, the blogger site removes all line breaks and/or makes it all white. I would just like to be able to copy and paste the letters like before. Then my life would be easy!<br />
<br />
I found Battlestar Galactica on grooveshark in the office. Maybe that's somewhere to start.<br />
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This week was a lot of lame happenstance things. We had interviews (my last, by the way), but we got back at seven that day so we barely got anything done. Lots of appointments failed, but even more than that our members who were supposed to go with us just failed. I was slightly taken aback by how only one of seven came through the whole week. Bizarre. Then yesterday, my companion lost his wallet/money/ID/home card/church card, and in his distracted anger he locked our only key inside the house, which resulted in us having to kick the lock out of the door, with the help of our ward mission leader who lives near by. All our neighbors came out and opinionated about how we should do it and later how we should have done it. That day we happened to have looked at a new place to live that was way better, which took some of the day, and the door distaster took some more, so in the end we only worked like two hours the whole day.<br />
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We did get some investigators to church - Peruvians, but the volume was very low where we sat and we heard little - which was pretty boring for everyone. They were good sports about it - hopefully we'll get'em for next week.
I really shouldn't complain though.<br />
<br />
We got seven new investigators that were almost all references, three of which are almost sure baptisms. The others are a family that's very good. Two of the references were from the young womens - two twelve-year-olds who just appeared and started coming to church and going to the activities. People didn't even notice that they weren't members. It shouldn't be a hard thing, really - the hard thing is mainly interesting the respective parents. If not, we have to wait seven sundays of attendance before they can be baptized. And, of course, the odds of them staying active are not very good if they have no family, even though they have the best of intentions. Chile is littered with people like that. If the whole family goes for it, it's very difficult that they leave, really.<br />
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It rained like Barack these last few days. I have an official rip in my shoe in the side that I didn't notice, so I got good wet foot that whole day. Like Randy's dad always says, "Take care of your feet!" That's what I should have been doing, I think. When your feet are cold/wet, it's kind of hard to get satisfactorally dry/warm. Yesterday when we got locked out we were supposed to bring food back to eat in the pension - but as we could not get into it, we went to find a member's house to eat in. I didn't want to because I knew they would make us eat their lunch too. But we did, and they did. No choice in a Chilean household. When someone eats, everyone eats. Then someone noticed my feet were all wet and muddy and started freaking out about how I was going to get sick and stuff. Chilean moms are like that. I just kept saying I wasn't cold and they kept saying I needed to take my shoes off and dry them out by the heater but there was not time for that kind of nonsense!<br />
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All in all I am liking the new sector. I got here speaking well, knowing what to do, and excited to work hard but use members also, etc. Several people have asked me where I'm from and been weirded out when I say the US because they think I'm from the rich german part of Santiago up in the East Mission (do some google earth around Las Condes or La Dehesa and you'll see a whole new world). Really rich people live up there that talk, if a little educatedly, pretty normal Chilean. They come from german stock that moved here right before 1900 when the country was starting up. They were the educated people, and that richness has continued on ever since. Point is, I guess my speaking has gotten pretty okay.<br />
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I did my second baptismal interview in this area yesterday, too. My interviews had all been easy, and this one was no exception. Nice kid of 23 - new we'll have to convince him to go on a mission.
Well,<br />
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I can't think of anything more.<br />
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I'm going to listen to Abby.<br />
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Love<br />
Elder A Conrad CristKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-65570168344879885752012-04-23T21:51:00.000-07:002012-04-23T21:51:40.333-07:00A little e-coli anyone?I've had an odd week.<br />
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You see, on Monday I went to a barbeque thing with the zone Maipu, which was fun (even though it took forever to start the fire). There was this last piece, after all was eaten, and since I hadn't eaten very much, I decided to eat it. The coals had been going out, fact unknown to me, so the cooking had been somewhat substandard. I bit a few times, but on perhaps the fifth, pure blood came out of the middle. I stopped there, of course. I went through that whole day fine. I got up the next day, ate breakfast, went to my meetings, went to lunch, then went to get some blankets we needed from the store... and then everything went bad. I don't want to be really graphic, but I think I will just say diarrhea with the adjective "extreme" and leave the rest to your imagination.<br />
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I had just ferried another missionary to the emergency room a few days earlier for dehydration incident to the same problem, so I did what I could to drink. I came back to the office feeling rather bad. I was struck by terrible chills on the way home. I came back, found a space heater, and sat in front of it between bathroom trips about from six to ten that night (tuesday). I had the whole works - sweating beads while still cold, shakes, kidney pain, headache, urge to vomit, etc. It was the most intense I can remember those symptoms. Toward the end of the day I was on the border on consciousness several times. I had the sense to drink, which saved me. I woke the next day pretty much in the same situation. That entire day was fitful rest (wednesday) due to the kidney pain, which had worsened. I don't remember the day too well. The next day I got up at ten and basically worked, but couldn't stand for a long time.<br />
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But now we're on Saturday, and I'm just like I was last Saturday, except two kilos lighter. I don't know what the purpose of that whole thing was. I guess I'll avoid beef for a while. I probably won't tell the missionaries who cooked that day anything...<br />
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The other highlight (there are actually three, this is number two) is how I think I have ended up with the fix-stuff bug from Dad. Yesterday Elder Wheelwright and I went out and replaced a bathroom faucet and that plastic tower thing in a toilet that decides how much water to put in. It was hairy, in reality, because there's no way to get to the assembly that holds the sink on without ripping the whole thing off the wall, including ripping out some rusted wall anchors and silicone. So we redid the wall anchors, switched out the faucet, put it back on, screwed it in, put on new silicone, etc. That was fine, what was strange was how satisfying it was! I had recently unclogged the drain in the same sink, so I just watched the perfect new faucet run at full speed and the drain drain too. Awesome. It's like, "I did this."
Of course I got my summer pants and shirt rather filthy without noticing, but hey - it's supposed to be cold soon, so I won't ever need them again. I'm going to need a lot of bleach.
(Side note: How much of my clothes should I be keeping when I come back? The bodega(clothing warehouse for poor missionaries) here can really use it, and I could fit more Chile in for every thing I don't bring back.)<br />
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Third highlight of the week - tonight we have a movie night with our ward. We are expecting some sixty people, because this ward is cool and has lots of youth that are up for anything. We'll be watching the new Joseph Smith one that no one has seen here on a projector. That´ll be good, I think.
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Also, I did my visa, because I was illegal. I am now not illegal. It was fun, though, because all the people I knew in the MTC were there because we all went illegal at the same time, so I saw them.
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This week was basically a dream because I was only really conscious for three days this week. That's all I have to report. If you've not read Drawing on the Powers of Heaven, I'd recommend it. Elder Wheelwright let me borrow it. It's essentially about how there's a big gap between our personal righteousness and our blessings, or rather, we should have more blessings for how good we are in most members' cases. It's worth a shot.
I would actually like to ask for a copy from you if you are sending anything in the next few months.<br />
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Thanks,<br />
Love,<br />
Elder A Conrad CristKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-73466384612097987622012-04-17T09:43:00.000-07:002012-04-17T09:47:01.923-07:00In the Millenium Elders...<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That kind of reminds me of that one time when they cut my underarm up in Santiago and then I went out and worked... I had a nutty trainer, you see. It was probably for the better, in all reality - you can not work when you're mission-dead.</span><br />
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This week we went to the temple! We finally as a mission got permission to have a conference there, so we did. The Area President before the current one said we should be able to "feel as much spirit in you personal study as you can in the temple." We're all like, "Yeah... but..."</div>
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It was a good conference, complete with Q&A with the first temple counselor. You can guess how that went. We started with sane questions, like, "Why do parents need to be sealed to their children?", "What is a temple divorce?", etc., but as the more intellectual missionaries got warmed up we saw, "What's the deal with poligamy?", and the classic "What happens to me if my wife doesn't qualify for life eternal but I do?" The conselor answered the questions... vaguely. At the end of the day, the answer for the hard questions is "Millenium, Elders. The millenium. Somebody will figure it out then."</div>
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I certainly do like the temple, though. I went with the question you can imagine would have been on my mind, knowing that next Friday I will only have four months left - "How can I finish the mission right?"</div>
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I went to General Conference with the same question and it came across more like, "When you get home, family is what matters." Then I say, "Okay, but what about the mission? It's not over 'till it's over."</div>
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The temple helped me out. I'm hesitant to tell the whole universe about what I recieved in there, but it sufficeth me to say that I know what I have to do. You can generally depend on the temple for that kind of thing. The rest of the mission is going to be fantastic. It's like when you're running and you can see the end, so you forget about all the pacing-yourself stuff and your fears about ending the race. How could I not make it to the end I can see from here? I don't worry about eating or sleeping as much - just to keep me moving. I can only do this once.</div>
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I really, really need to write a letter or two, so if you don't mind. I'll leave you with that.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Elder Crist</div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-69583273172386901602012-04-10T19:31:00.000-07:002012-04-10T19:37:28.421-07:00Doctor Elder CristI really couldn't tell you what I will do when I get back, but I did think I had to have 15 credit hours to get New Century stuff. I will pretty unavoidably work. I hope at least my mission office group of bizarre skills will help me out a little.<br />
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I was looking at the schedule. It is a lot, though. I don't know when I would work, but I have to. I won't have any cars or other expensive nonsense, I hope, but I still will have to pay tuition and those insane books. (I don't know how you could, but if you could look online for some of those books, you could save my bacon.)<br />
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I do think, though, that I can be a lot more disciplined than I was before (and I even got good grades.) As I challenge myself more I find that I get a more-than-multiplied increase in performance... or rather, when something is twice as hard, I get more than twice as much work out of myself. So I'll do good. And I can't be more busy there than I am here. No way.<br />
<br />
To not be repetitive, I'll quote my weekly report:
"This has really been a good week. We're back out into the sector every day helping people out. I'm getting along great with Elder Wheelwright and we're working hard to be ready for when I leave. He's a very hard-working fellow and he's learned just about everything. I think I'll retire on Monday from the job mostly and be around doing the datos projects and being backup for him and Elder Fuentealba to make sure they both are okay with their new responsibilities.<br />
<br />
I've been practising something Elder Christensen told me to do that has made a great difference. He told me to focus on loving - loving people we contact, loving investigators and members, and loving God. As soon as I did, everything became brighter, easier, more fun, more desirable, more hopeful, and so forth. Since I have been doing it time in my day usually is made up of loving people and enjoying what I'm doing - right down to difficult contacts - and not enjoying something, realizing I should be loving, returning to loving, and enjoying it.This is a pretty big revelation for me. I have always wanted to be a youth leader, but I was afraid I would not know what to do or to say. I can see that if I can love them fiercely, I'll know what to do and say. I hope to be able to apply this to the maximum for the rest of my mission."
It turns out, Elder Christensen and I are an example of that same principle. I might not have talked to him if we hadn't been "relatives" of some degree, but now we're great friends because it started on a pre-friend ground. Something to think about.<br />
<br />
Well, here I am, learning secrets of the universe and also very slightly freaking out about my future. I'm good though.
The two people who are taking over my jobs here (one's taking my old job, the other one is taking my new job that I've had for only a change). I kind of bounce between them and my projects to present the retention data to the stakes of the mission.<br />
<br />
I'm elbows-deep in Pivot Tables, if that means anything to you. I remember like ten years ago I started to make a graph in Paint for a science class and Dad came in and looked at it and said,"Nonononono - Let me see it." He made me my very first Excel chart. It's very odd that God prepares things so far in advance - I got here knowing how to do graphs in Excel pretty well, but that was the absolute last thing I could have expected to do here. But it is needed - the stake leaders very often have no idea if the Ward Mission Leaders are working or if their bishops are doing meetings. Glad to be a part.<br />
<br />
I think you'll like this audio, even if it's very random. You may need to know that "Semana Santa" is the "Holy Week" that's going on right now. It's supposed to be dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ. Mostly people just drink. And they don't eat meat - the tradition is that all meat is the body of Christ this week. Needless to say, meat was discounted at the store.<br />
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Sorry, a missionary just called from the city center having fainted and needs to go to an ER. We're going now.<br />
<br />
Love,
Dr. CristKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-63043898618058935852012-04-02T21:26:00.000-07:002012-04-02T21:29:00.233-07:00Conference Weekend<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Conference has been good so far, I think. I have made some pretty big advances since last conference. I remember in the past I always tried to write down everything more or less that each person said. That is a pretty big error. You must pay attention to the Spirit's impressions. You may be writing things that are almost not mentioned in a talk, but it's what you need to know in the coming days. Not only that, but the guidance and insights you get will be absolutely personal. This leads me to a theme I've though about a lot recently. I think I'd do better to give you an example.</span><br />
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Since I can remember, I've always needed to be different than others. It took various forms over the years. I didn't play sports or like watching them. I spent bizarre amounts of time reading and researching scientific and mathematic concepts. I really looked out from my high tower at people who simply went to school, played sports, had testimonies, and so forth, thinking I was, if not superior, at least distinctive.</div>
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If you talked with me at sixteen, my plan for life was really something. I would be going to an Ivy League school, far away from my family. The mission was distant and very, very low priority. But there was one nagging fact that indicated to me that my vision was not yet correct - it didn't make me happy. It satisfied me, surely. I planned a late marriage between two stable adults wherein money would never be a problem and my professional interests would be optimized. I was headed for an illustrious career as the top of my field with my family and religion as a footnote on the Grand Thesis of my life.</div>
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God's plan, as I saw it, would be to be mediocre. If I were to submit to His plan, (again - as I saw it) I would do virtually nothing but prepare to convince people to join the church on a mission, go to BYU like my dad, and his dad, meet a girl immediately after and marry her, graduate poor with two kids, and teach young men's for the rest of my life.</div>
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I hated that vision. "You can't tell ME what to do!", I thought. "I will be a success like there's never been before."</div>
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As time went on, though, as I understood more of God's power, with the help of some Seminary teachers and teachers in Church, the two visions started to come together.</div>
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If something makes you happy, it's for a a reason.</div>
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Every human being needs a quantity of love. Where he looks for it is up to him. You can fill up your need (and it is an absolutely irrevocable, unstoppable one) on junk love, love for entertainment or food or something like that. But just like the junk food which it resembles, it leaves you hungry in minutes. (How long does Trix keep you satisfied?)</div>
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Or you can put in the real kind.</div>
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As time continued by, I began to see that the reason my dad did things how he did, and how his dad did things before him, was that it made them happy! The real wholesome love they found in doing "the same things" as every other grandpa and dad have done filled their souls and didn't leave them wanting.</div>
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So I went to BYU. I served a mission. I took notes on conference and tried to listen to the Spirit, like the books say. Like the leaders say. I'm sitting here telling you this so that you'll do what I have done before you, if you haven't yet found this realization.</div>
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One time, I was thinking about the path my life was taking. I was thinking about how if I were to get married fast, the money would be very difficult. I thought about how that could be negative for the marriage. I though about the terrifying (to me, at least) prospect of kids and all that stuff that comes with it. I thought, "How can I do all this stuff? I want to be a doctor. I want to really raise my kids and not put them in day care. I want that all that stuff so much."</div>
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<br />The reply came back, "Don't you think I know that?"</div>
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He does know that. His plan is going to get me what I want. So I'll do it.</div>
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Sorry, I'm in a conference mood this week. That's my talk.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Elder A Conrad Crist</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXyMMCSPKv2fWhS9KYfQFDdCHQ1ImIMxAhmG-wTrLzjzk1GsqX3NI0qy8rmZpIE_Ho8oprHWj3Ps-tISxwlu69u6vYEpRTqPwOOc3yW9PR7qt6260siyqn80jturkKCnXjIjkZFl1Kc7U/s1600/Elder+Crist+&+Elder+Smart+bike+shop+++++2012+(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXyMMCSPKv2fWhS9KYfQFDdCHQ1ImIMxAhmG-wTrLzjzk1GsqX3NI0qy8rmZpIE_Ho8oprHWj3Ps-tISxwlu69u6vYEpRTqPwOOc3yW9PR7qt6260siyqn80jturkKCnXjIjkZFl1Kc7U/s320/Elder+Crist+&+Elder+Smart+bike+shop+++++2012+(3).JPG" width="320" /></a></div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-66379635832532437672012-03-25T20:50:00.000-07:002012-03-25T20:50:50.585-07:00Training a replacementI'm afraid this will have to be somewhat fast because today I went to the fancy-pants part of Santiago to have a despedida (goodbye) lunch for an outgoing assistant. The office is cool for things like that.
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We are done! We finished doing all the pensions we needed for the new missionaries, so now we can return to normal mission stuff and easy routine pension and medical incidents. Yesterday a missionary "stepped" (Or rather, played football on) a pipe in a pension and blew it to pieces, so they got everything wet and had to have a plumber come over and put in some new pipe. I get the tithing dollar signs in my eyes when I hear things like that.
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Little sidebar here, I think the Dad fix-stuff-in-the-house-and-car thing did, in the end, stick to me. Elder Smart and I have been cutting down on expenses by doing most work on the pensions ourselves. The other day we took out another Ptrap and pulled out some... stuff and it ended up perfect. We were considering buying an arc welder... but then we decided that it would be good if we stayed in for a year, but that it was unlikely that the next set of office elders would be as into it. So we didn't. Almost anything else is our territory.<br />
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On the medical front, it's just people with the normal problems: cough, ingrown toenails, my companion with an infection like the ones for which I am famous (I treated it personally), etc. It is my favorite part of the job, definitely. When the ward members ask what I do in the office, I say, 1"Bueno, fui financiero, pero ahora soy el encargado de medicina y pensiones." To which they say, without fail, 2"Tienes cara de doctor."<br />
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1(I was financier, but now I am in charge of medicine and pensions.)<br />
2(You look like a doctor.)<br />
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The end of my time here is quite evident. I am in my last change of six weeks here. I know because President has asked my to get ready to train my replacement.
So I'll soon be leaving my favorite sector in the mission. Well, my next sector could be my favorite still. I'd leave with three and a half months-ish. Then it's just a sprint to the finish.<br />
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I just looked up and read about the package. I'm going to go see if it is in.<br />
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I need to shop. Sorry. I'm no good.<br />
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Well, I may send some stuff with Elder Christensen to you. We'll see how that goes.<br />
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The church is true.<br />
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Elder A Conrad CristKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-81129015601349746422012-03-21T20:35:00.001-07:002012-03-21T20:39:17.336-07:00Over the five month left mark...I feel like I did this yesterday. Nothing to report.<br />
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We moved lots of stuff. A really obnoxious dueño decided that we had to fix a house we are trying to leave, which was awful. I'm still not sure what to do about it. There's a bunch of damage that we probably did, but I have to convince President King that we should pay it, or convince the guy (and he lives in Chiloe) to back off. Either one looks impossible.<br />
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I'm also the acting medical coordinator for the mission, and the computer person. I have been utterly convinced that medicine and computers are the fields in which I must work. I know, from experience in the office, that I would not like to sell, be a corporate leader, be a realtor, be a driver, be a secretary, or be a negotiator. I do, though, like very much medicine, computers, general house repair (another one of my recent duties with the change resultant from Elder Fuentealba taking finances) and accountancy, in that order. I did an inventory of all the first aid kits and medications we had yesterday and I enjoyed it. I do the graphs each month and fix the network and stuff and I enjoy that too. It's like I asked God, "Should I be a doctor or what?" and he just nodded slightly and winked.<br />
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It's really starting to hit me that this is getting over. Before I write you again, I'll have walked over the five-months-left threshold. That is not a lot of time. I have seven weeks left in the office, then two and a half changes of six weeks on the outside. Just enough time to really get working and... that will be it.<br />
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I was thinking the other day that I really am not that different than I was before. The more I thought, though, I started to think about lots of mañas, or weird habits or pickinesses, that I don't have anymore. I eat tomatoes. I don't freak out when people touch me. I can talk to anyone for any reason, even on the phone in Spanish, even if it's a girl or a person who wants money from me. That's just the things you'd notice easily.<br />
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I had a my second-to-last interview with President King on Monday. He asked me about how I've come to be converted to the gospel, or how I've progressed so far. It's a theme I've entertained a lot looking out on my mission. The biggest change is not how much I live the gospel. I think I always more or less was "living" it. But I've made it an inside force outward, not an outward mold on my actions. That way is a start, but it isn't the tenth of the power and joy that is the real gospel.<br />
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I feel like I can't teach what I've learned. I wonder a lot if most people get to the conclusions that I have. I didn't even hear of the higher concept of it in Church except from a few specific people, all of which had a bigger impact than average on my testimony, for example, Brother Troyer, Brother Leavitt, both good seminary teachers, Adam Dunn from Saint George, and a few scout leaders in their moments.<br />
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I keep coming back to my patriarchal blessing - it is pretty obvious that I will work with youth. Is this why? If I can communicate even a part of the Real Christianity that I have learned here, I'll help anyone who can understand it. That's it's effect - everyone needs it, everyone benefits from it, everyone is a part of it.
So in effect, I know why I'm here, I know how long more I'll be here - all I need to do is finish it well.
So I'm just going to keep being busy for a while longer.<br />
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Have a good week on me,<br />
Elder A Conrad Crist<br />
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Note A
I'll try to register here. I'll let you know if anything doesn't work. I really can't research for scholarships here. Do you think I can go in right as I get home to look for them?Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-24192102183815566612012-03-10T12:08:00.000-08:002012-03-10T12:08:24.164-08:00Heading into Fall as we head into SpringHey, what do you know, it's just getting not-hot here!<br />
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The majority of the new missionaries that are coming are actually going to double up in pensions we have already, which calls for more stuff that we have to take out to the pensions, but not a new pension. We actually only have two of those at this moment. One is in the middle of nowhere (search for El Monte, Chile). We're renting it from a lady who'd never even heard of contracts before now. The other is actually owned by the same person, so it's a pretty safe change.</div>
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That said, there is still a good amount of stuff to do. We have to move another carfull of stuff to Melipilla, my old stomping grounds. I think the main part of it is going to be over this week. At the same time, though, I have to teach Elder Fuentealba, the new senior missionary, how to do the finances. And how to work with the pickiest, finickiest Access database ever to take up space on a terrestrial hard drive. Lots of internet and Excel for a guy born in 1938. Even so, he is really doing well. It takes a long time for him to get something, but he's much better (as he was an accountant) than I am at the real accountancy parts. He was all kinds of executive and master accountant IN THE 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, including working for the church for the 80s and 90s as the Chief of Purchasing in the Chile Area Office. His wife was a homemaker, or in spanish, an owner of the house. She is sorting mail and taking medical calls, but she has a hard time doing any computer things, so I help her do her medical log like a secretary taking dictation. She's already got a thing going with the missionaries as kind of the grandma of the mission. I think she really likes that.</div>
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I still keep graphs, computers, and legal. All that Handel on the Law has really paid off. It's really quite an experience to be a tool of God in a way that is almost completely not spiritual. But I like it. I am pretty sure God is helping us, because we never fail in what we need for the mission. We needed a way to assemble two years of retention data that no one knew how to use. It has to do with how many people who were recently baptised are still coming, how well the wards are recommending inactives to be taught, and how often the Ward Mission Leaders are meeting with the missionaries. The main purpose of the data is to report to stake and district leaders on how well their wards are working. We needed a way to present it by ward hierarchically below take and by date to show when things didn't happen that should have. After looking at it for an hour or two and messing around with dumb graphs and an Access database, I half-designed and half-stumbled upon a way to do it that goes beyond our wildest dreams. Out of nothing I set it up into a "Pivot Table", which I'd never heard of before. And it worked exactly like we wanted. There was a little data cleaning to do - for example, taking out data that came from 2174... I mean, we understand faith and everything, but 2174? I think it was even on the 30th of February. - but it's all fixed now. (Are you getting that I'll probably be a Young Men's leader or in Family History forever? I am.)</div>
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Even President King has said to us, "You know, you really need to work in your sector, but I understand that these next two weeks are going to be difficult. Just do your best to stay out and visit those people." What I mean with that is to excuse myself for not being appreciably spiritual for you this week. In two months or so I am almost certainly out of here, and I'll be back to a short sprint to the finish in the normal missionary world.</div>
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I'm just now putting together how much I needed to come into the office. I've had to learn to keep studying in a more chaotic environment. I've learned how to be firm with people and not be afraid of calling them to oppose them. I was also getting sick of the mission daily routine, and that routine is completely gone in the office. It was a long and much-needed break from the monotony. Now when I go back, I'll know how little is left and not have time to get bored. In other words, It will be like getting to five hundred meters from the end of a 5K and sprinting and beating tons of people who'd passed you farther back because you know the end is right there and after that you don't have to run any more when you finish. It will be a glorious end.</div>
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But for now, I am God's gopher.</div>
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Elder A Conrad Crist</div>
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Note A</div>
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I don't get Riley's letters, except for those he writes to me directly. If someone could add me, that would be cool. (I read fast; don't let anyone not send something because they're afraid of taking all my time.)</div>
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Note B</div>
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<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">When is registration again? Remember, I'm a Junior, not a Freshman, so I should have an advantage somewhere in there.</span><div style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
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</div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-89025198307355704492012-03-09T14:47:00.000-08:002012-03-09T15:06:46.609-08:00Busiest human Mormon<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">No food! There is enough food here. I'm trying to make the most out of the one-kilo yogurt-in-bags. I found fountain pens (disposable) in the BYU bookstore. They're not expensive or anything. There were at least three varieties there. One of them may have been Pilot. The most important thing is definitely socks still as winter is supposedly coming around for April or May.</span><br />
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Do you know what this week is</div>
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At the moment in which I stood up and interrupted the sentence I was writing, some delivery guys appeared to deliver three of eighteen new mattresses that we ordered. Getting those mattresses is part of the story I was about launch into - so here it is.</div>
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This week has been the busiest week of my life. I have never had so many adult things to get finished under adult pressure. I am still surprised at this moment to inform you that, if fact, everything we set out to do this week has come out perfectly as we wanted it.</div>
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You see, the number of missionaries worldwide, especially in Latin America, is growing - so much so that the Area Presidency of Chile has decided to up our mission's complement of missionaries and budget so that we have two hundred in total, a net of eighteen Elders and six sisters.</div>
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The clever reader will immediately begin to see what this means for those who work in mission administration. We have to find about eight new pensions, furnish them, and rent them before they arrive - the twenty-seventh of March, some twenty-four days away.</div>
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Yesterday we woke up and did a bank run, then went to a place close to Melipilla to see a pension we want, which we got, then we came back and went out to fix the gas for some nearby sister missionaries (luckily all my repairing misadventures with Dad and Jake paid off and I found the gas line outside, turned it on and restarted the pressure regulator, which was the problem). Unfortunately we forgot about a family home evening we had planned. After a bout of self-loathing for forgetting, we arrived late. Luckily, God understood and softened the hearts of the people we needed to visit (to the point that they didn't even notice that we were late.)</div>
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I think this week's theme has been that God's got my back.</div>
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I've made an observation in reading the Book of Mormon. The attributes that each person in the Book of Mormon ascribes to God seem to always be the ones of which the observer sees a lack in the current civilization and time. I've actually found it to be instructive to ask people what they think God is like and from that determine what they find to be missing from the world.</div>
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Lehi - Just, Wise - Two dumb sons who try to kill Nephi like five times</div>
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Alma - Good, quick to hear - Big rich civilizations that kick him out all the time</div>
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Mormon - Dependable, loving - Angry, selfish, idolatrous oath-swearing soldiers that he led daily</div>
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<br />And so forth. Just something to think about.</div>
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Today so far has been fun. We went in taxi to a quasi-american mall place and ate at the only restaurant I've ever seen in the entire country that has free refills. I got a burger and a drink. I drank six cups of coke, which essentially meant that after my companions were done, I kept asking for refills for everyone and drink all of theirs also. If you're going to drink soda, you won't do any more damage to yourself drinking four than you will for twelve, so I figured I'd keep going until everyone else got bored. (I am in danger of going soda crazy in America. I will definitely need to make some... goals on that one.)</div>
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Then we went to look at ties and I saw the newest Mac operating system. After picking my jaw up off the floor and pushing out the kid on the bike out of it, I ran away to not get trunky. I'm back on Windows 7 now, purging my love for computers out when the internet goes down for no reason or I have to do battle with Word. Windows 7 is better, but it still looks like it's a good 2006 operating system. </div>
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I'm off that. I'm off.</div>
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I need to go do stuff. I am going to be the busiest human Mormon being on the planet this month. Pray please.</div>
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Love,</div>
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Elder A Conrad Crist</div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-51759560815494443002012-03-09T14:45:00.002-08:002012-03-09T15:01:59.464-08:003 of us to run the whole Mission<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Well, we've almost (well, I've almost) finished upgrading the whole office to Windows 7, so we should be safer for the futures. It's only three to five years behind Apple! At least the networking stuff works more often.</span><br />
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I need to clip my fingernails! (Did you know that they grow faster in Chile because of the hormones in the meat?) (I clip them about every ten days.)</div>
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To get it said at the beginning, I think staying at home for the first semester will be an appreciated shock absorber for all the "tramites", or rather, to-dos of getting back. I have to say here, though, that that will be that last time I live at home. I also am done having room-mates in the same room. That is over.</div>
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I will ask for permission to get on and start looking at classes. President King is forming a three-week-early group for my group, because more than half have to go home for school. It will almost certainly be the 21 of August.</div>
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I have no idea what to do about scholarships. You will have to just impersonate there and do the government and New Century one, I think. I don't know/have the information I need to do it. I'm coming back with basically no money or anything like that. I will certainly need a computer. Phone is medium-low priority comparatively. And a solid bicycle. Dad rode that path for a year or something, so I know I can do it. I think I'm going to avoid cars at all cost for another three years.</div>
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I will have to work. I don't know where. Two things jump out to me - TA in a science class or in the Missionary Department doing international finance coordination. I work with people who are back in Provo and Salt Lake who are just missionaries in school after. I know a pretty ridiculous amount about Chilean finance and law now, so I may have a chance there. I'll have to see when I get there, of course.</div>
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Now, let's talk about what you came here to read.</div>
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I have not done dedicated missionary work for four days. Elder and Hermana Dorius, the senior couple that's still here, have to leave. On Monday. Their planned return date was the end of this six week change. Do you know what this means?</div>
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Hna Dorius has trained us how to put in convert data, and Elder Dorius has filled us in (it took three hours) on all the work that's left to do in the pensions in the mission. Hna Dorius showed me the medical log and how to set people up to go to the doctor.</div>
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In short, Elder Smart and I are responsible for finding, renting and furnishing seven new companionships that are arriving to the mission. And putting in convert data. And distributing the mail.</div>
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And it's all on us. Everything.</div>
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We went over to the Dorius' apartment to talk last night, and we helped them move out today. It's real now. The office is three missionaries. No matrimonies. I have to be the mission doctor!</div>
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"Dizzying, but really fun." That's what I call it.</div>
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As we wrapped up the meeting last night, Hna Dorius said probably the grandest complement I've ever received. She said, "But, you know, I'd be worried if it was someone else, but I know that you'll do excellently. I'm not worried." I looked over at her starting to laugh to break the sarcastic joke she may have made. She just said, "What?", seeming to not know why I laughed.</div>
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Hermana Dorius thinks we can run the whole mission!</div>
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I can't tell you how satisfying that is after working for all this time to be at least dependable. I set a goal about eight months ago to "Be the embodiment of the Scout Law." The mission worked!</div>
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All our investigators have been on vacations until today or Sunday, which is a little God-organized help due to the Dorius' leaving. We have three "slam-dunks" and we're waiting on another one that could reappear at any moment. I will talk missionary again soon. For now it's all advanced logistics and finance. Sorry. Our first normal day is tomorrow.</div>
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I've been thinking a lot about how we look at numbers in the mission. It always is tempting to compare up (and down) numbers between sectors and missions. I have basically no numbers, and I am doing non-spiritual things, and the difference is striking compared with other sectors that are doing well right around me. But somehow I am being bettered by this, and prepared for the future. That much is more than clear. I just don't know how. </div>
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I shall attempt to be more inspiring next week.</div>
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Note A</div>
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Socks! Enviar! Send! Disposable fountain pens too. I really don't lack food here so much.</div>
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Note B</div>
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Got Package! Ate! Liked the Kato one!</div>
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</div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-53069235013626180432012-03-09T14:44:00.002-08:002012-03-09T14:56:02.533-08:00Nooooo!<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Sorry. The Windows NT pteranadon ate my email and I have no time left.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'm going to write some other time when our computers work.</span><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Tell Gypsy and Randy that they actually got the right email this time.</span><br style= font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'll re do my email in a day or two when our computers are working.</span>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-9856416189553451462012-03-09T14:43:00.000-08:002012-03-09T14:54:13.174-08:00Cooler full of sandwiches</div>
<span style=font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This was a week that wasn't very different. I had to do the most complex planning of sending myself checks ever to not run out of money at a bad time, which almost happened twice.</span><br />
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On all other fronts, nothing "llamativo."</div>
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Oh, one thing. As President King was putting on a training for new missionaries, thieves (who have caused us problems before) came in, walked right past the missionaries being trained and carried off a cooler full of sandwiches.</div>
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That's right, readers, family, friends - a cooler. Full of sandwiches. So, we went and bought some more. Can you imagine, though? Can a cooler be that valuable? And in a Church?!</div>
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On Saturday last we had a baptism. Do you remember that I mentioned a girl of about twenty-four who came up to ask to be baptized a few months ago? Belén? Well, even though I didn't finish teaching her, and she went on vacations for a month, she came along perfectly. She kept every challenge, came to church, found friends, and understood everything. She was baptized with four kids from a ward that shares our building (Ciudad Satelite (Satelite City); we are Esquina Blanca (White Corner)). The baptism was a big American-style service, complete with well-prepared speakers, musical numbers, and all the authorities and friends we could find. We started with a talk by Belén's boyfriend Returned MIssionary, then a musical number from another RM and his girlfriend. We passed into the font (well, 50% went in and 50% kind of hung out in the halls and occasionally poked heads in to see) and the people were baptized. Belén's boyfriend's dad baptized her.</div>
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As a surprising move, I thought, our Bishop asked that each baptizee stand and give testimony of the Church. The missionaries found the four kids looking for the parents, who were very inactive. They progressed quickly and were baptized. Their testimonies were strong and simple, like kid's testimonies are. Then Belén stood up. She said a lot of things I don't remember. But she knew it was true, and she said the words through tears that every missionary prays to hear in Latin America - "...y ya sé que no voy a salirme de aquí nunca." "... and I know that I will never leave here."</div>
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It is the custom to always take pictures of these things, as you may imagine. I actually arrived late to that part and almost missed it. I was able to appear in a few, though. The next picture was her with all her friends in the ward - about eighteen people, between the family of her boyfriend, Daniel (who appears in the picture with his name). As I looked at them - all eighteen or so of them - I thought "LIfetime activity ... achieved."</div>
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That's a moment you wait your whole mission to see. Our bishop, in his testimony, mentioned that with one person, the addition to the Kingdom of God is infinite. Have you thought about the gravity of missionary work? Infinite progression, or not.</div>
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Sorry, I have to shop.</div>
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Elder A Conrad Crist</div>
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Note A</div>
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I've been thinking this week in my off time about school and medicine. I thought maybe in the mission I might experience a career change, or that those things would fade into the Babylonian background. False. I reflected a little about it and found that I cannot do any other thing. If I was a doctor, I would never "work" a day in my life. Just in case you were wondering about that with all this talk of school. I had the "Attribute Scores" (that's a Dungeons and Dragons reference for my good friends) to do it before, but now I know how to use them. I think my only problem is going to be stopping studying because I'm too interested in too many things. Everyone's bored of this topic already; just thought I'd say so.</div>
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Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-68338235087997632772012-02-05T10:58:00.000-08:002012-02-05T10:58:01.672-08:00Improper fraction of years<i>Wow, I love how Alex writes when he has something to say. It is kind of like I have to be smarter than I am and I still don't get everything he is saying. Well, in a general sense I do but he is so much deeper and I just don't get that. I guess. I can't wait to see what he is like when he gets home. He will be ready to move on with the next stage in his life. Can't sit still for long I think. If anyone wants a personal letter from him they can email their letter to alex.crist@ldsmail.com and hopefully he will mail something back to you. Oh, and why does he wear his ties so short? It is a little bothersome to me. Is he that tall and needs longer than normal ties? Don't think so but we will have to see! Can't wait to go shopping with him when he gets back!</i>
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<br />
It's hard to believe that that much time has passed. That's true. I feel like I've only been here for a number of months. Not an improper fraction of years.<br />
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Whenever I read Randy's messages I immediately feel that I'm not doing something right. This time, though, I realized that he's eight months ahead of me. It's an example of what I can be in that much time. I know I still have a pretty good amount to learn. I want very much to be able to say, as he did, I go home having done everything the Lord asked of me. I lack still a good deal.<br />
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It has been very difficult for me to understand how to work in such a way that I feel done when it's over. It's difficult for me to always be excited and always care enough. I'm not sure what I'm missing, but there is something.
I can't tell if I'm any better than I was. If I could know that I'd not need to know any more.<br />
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Seven months to get it.<br />
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This week I saw one of the most drastic examples of the Holy Ghost teaching a person independently of any scriptural or missionary help.
We have an investigator named Miguel. Miguel is about fifty. When we first talked to him, he was wearing a very worn blue polo shirt and odd washed-out athletic board shorts. His hair was as long as hair can be without being long, and quite crazy and dirty. He carried a grocery bag full of chinese food boxes in one hand, and a keychain made of wire in the other. We started talking to him as he approached his house. We asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ. He said that he did, and he was even thinking he needed to know more about Him to try to be better. We asked him if he might share a moment with us right then. He, surprising all of us, said he would. We had a first lesson, and besides him talking about needing to change, it was very normal: I didn't think a lot of it.<br />
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A week ago, having taught a few more good lessons to him, we came over (actually I didn't, I was on divisions). He reported that he'd read to "omni" in the Book of Mormon. I didn't get it at first (if you say Omni with a spanish accent, it sounds like the work "OMNI," the spanish translation of "UFO". I didn't get it at all.<br />
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"Oh, good. Aliens. I'm glad he's insane."<br />
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"No, like page 200 of the Book of Mormon. Omnai."<br />
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"Wait, what?"<br />
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Miguel read two hundred pages of the Book of Mormon in a week.
I didn't see how different he was until the time I was able to go, which was last night. Miguel had cut his hair, had his kids over (which he hadn't had for many years because he was somewhat of an addict) was wearing clean clothes, and had cleaned out his entire house. As we started to talk with him, his girlfriend, Argentina, came in and started talking too. We taught her the Restoration. Or rather, Miguel taught her the Restoration. We asked him what he remembered and he gave the entire story of Joseph Smith without any help or error. She understood, especially since Miguel said it just like we did, that there was an apostasy and humanity really needed the Church and the Apostles and Prophets. She accepted the invitation to read the Book of Mormon. (I think she was taken aback by how personal our relationship with God is (That's another story.)<br />
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She then said something off-handedly like, "Well, it really would be good for Miguel to change."<br />
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I would have found that kind of offensive, personally.<br />
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Miguel didn't.
"That's exactly right. I recognize that I need to change. Why do you think I let these guys in? Because they make me? They don't. They just tell me how to fix myself. But only I can do it. I'm sick. I'm been sick for a long time - and these guys are the doctors."<br />
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"I'm not going to make you do anything. I need you to patient with me. I can't tell you that tomorrow I'll be some saint. But I've been through Brazil, Chile, and now I know what matters to me. I want to be better for you. I want to be better for my kids, and granddaughter. I'm doing this to be better tomorrow. Someone died for me. The least I can do is figure out why."<br />
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By the end of this, they both had glistening eyes. This is the work of God. I know it not because of my own goodness, but rather in spite of not having much. No weak being could have aligned the paths of me, an older but still very inexperienced missionary with that of Miguel Espinoza of Martin Lutero 443, who needed heavenly help. I don't feel like I've contributed much. But I don't have to. I had to bring him the Book of Mormon and prayer and with that as a runway, God caught him up and taught him things contained neither in the Library of Congress nor in the natural minds of races of men.<br />
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People are probably going to ask me, "Did you wish you had prepared more?"
In reality, most of what I did was enough. All the seminary and institute classes I took, and the priest, teacher, deacon, and a few Elder 's quorum classes did not teach me the role of the Spirit, nor true Charity, nor Faith in its fullness. I'm not sure I would have necessarily received those messages well. As far as I can tell, the Gospel is based on those three things.<br />
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Speaking specifically of the Spirit (which I knew the least about when I came to the mission), I was never taught thoroughly that the Spirit would help me with anything besides lost keys or scripture mastery. I know that sounds ridiculous. But I wish I would have been able to use the Spirit to make decisions. I wish I could have procured the Spirit in my daily actions. I wish I had known that I could have known that my sins were forgiven.
So when someone asks me, "Do you wish you had prepared more?" I will say yes. I wish I had lived better. For those of you who are thinking about missions, that is my advice to you. Get to know the Spirit now. If you don't know Him, the only sin is not trying to know Him. In the Fourth Missionary I sent you, it says, "God can help you with anything if you're honest with him." Be honest with Him, and yourself. (Mom : Teach the primary kids about the Spirit. Nothing is as valuable.)<br />
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Well, I need to go now and started working on getting my $623,000 to work between a payment of $589,000 and $337,000.<br />
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Funny story. It's a classic one of someone who is not me promising someone else something of mine. Classic. I wonder if Dad's ever done this - I had to call both payees and try to get one of them to wait till next Wednesday. Luckily one of them didn't need money until next Friday, so it worked out. A little (they say heavy here to mean stressful or loud or hard {but seriously just the Engilsh word heavy}) heavy. Things have been pretty good except that my boss in the Area Chile office's first daughter was just born so he's gone on Chilean both-parent leave. (In Chile the dad gets two weeks off to help out.) Which means I am the question-answering problem-fixering powerhouse solo for the next two weeks. It's heavy, but it's fun in the way that gunning an oversized motorcycle down a residential hamlet road is also fun. ("I could be a flaming wreck at any second but this is pretty exciting!")<br />
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See how compartmentalized my life is?
I did do one of those Power of Attorney things. I don't really know what it looked like, but I know I did it. If there's a problem, I'll get permission and start messing around myself.<br />
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I am way over time.<br />
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Thanks for being my family.<br />
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Elder A Conrad CristKimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796274891983919568.post-8514340155675073982012-01-30T16:27:00.000-08:002012-01-30T16:27:30.594-08:00Free refills<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><i>How can Alex run out of things to say? He says he is 98% out of things to say. Does anyone have anything to ask him? I came up with a few but apparently he needs more! I think the office has taken much of the spirituality out and put him on Workman mode. Not to say that this a bad thing and Alex does enjoy it, so it can't be bad. But I do miss the spiritual nature of his earlier letters. He will be in the office for a number of months and then back out onto the streets before he comes home. I hope he finds something to write home about!!!!</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Chile has become to much of my life to really have anything to report. Same with the mission. I don't really remember what it's like to just waste days and weeks doing nothing and have no consequences. I only theoretically understand drive-through fast food and gas stations. It's all seeming pretty distant.</span><br />
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I got a bad sty! And I popped it this morning! And my left lymph node by my hyoid bone hurts.</div>
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That's it.</div>
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We haven't seen our investigators all this week, so there's not much to say. Yesterday we found some new people by knocking that were very good, though. I knocked (in reality, yelled at) a house with a forbidding black spikey fence. A lady appeared in the window and pointed to the left, saying what I thought was, "Your Mormon friends live in that house."</div>
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<br />It turned out that she said "You have to go to the other side of the house - this side has no door."</div>
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So we did, somewhat excited that she'd bothered to even tell us. We talked to her about thirty seconds, then got in. Her daughter and son were also there, both about thirty. They had just been talking about how the mom needed to "look for God more in her life." It's a good time for missionaries. The two kids go to a non-denominational Christian group, which is missionary speak for "some previous knowledge, no previous commitment," i.e., good.</div>
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It was great to see this because we have really had a dry spell in our contacting efforts. But constant effort prevails.</div>
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Today's going to be fun, too. We are going out to lunch with a member family, Boris and Carol and their kids, Vicente and Renato. They are the biggest nerds in the universe, but are also one of the three indestructible go-to families for the ward. Boris is a programmer and accountant. He has a projector set up to play Call of Duty 5 and Resident Evil. (Myth about Chileans : they don't know about technology.) His house is full of circuit boards and Apple Computer Products. (He's a fellow Appleite.) Carol prefers Mortal Kombat.</div>
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(This brings me back to one of my biggest realizations on the mission. More on that later.)</div>
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Should be a fun lunch. Not only that, we are going to a restaurant that is one of three confirmed places in THIS COUNTRY that has free refills. Here's an excerpt from a conversation I had with my fellow officeers:</div>
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Elder Spencer: "We should go to Mahmut."</div>
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Elder Crist: "Is that that place in the Mall Arauco?"</div>
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Elder Spencer: "The one that has free refills? Yes."</div>
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Elder Crist: "...Are we going there? Now??"</div>
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Elder Smart: "Wait... what food do they have there?"</div>
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Elder Crist: "FREE REFILLS!!!"</div>
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Elder Smart: "..."</div>
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You may have noticed how I feel about free refills. Apparently it's a burger place similar to Applebee's. But believe you me, that had me at the those first two glorious words.</div>
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Does it ever seem to you that I speak about retarded nonsense for 75% of my letters? I'm just warming down to the meaningful parts. Dad always told me to just write and not edit at first. I guess I don't ever edit, but I figure you'd rather have more than less.</div>
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This is a good time to purge some business.</div>
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I am pretty split up about staying at home just at first. I really do not have any money whatsoever, so that could help me out a little. I don't think I'll be doing too much dating at first, so that won't be a real issue.</div>
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(Are you sure the dates are right? Elder Jones the assistant is going to do his in like a week.)</div>
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I need a Physics 105 and Organic Chemistry. I'm pretty sure it was those that I needed absolutely for this first semester. I think I'll soon ask permission to look at it on PDay in Februaryish. I am pretty much into the third and fourth year classes now, which is not okay. I'm dizzying up a little thinking about it. I will definitely need a job, which will be hard coming out of the mission without having research time. I'd like a TA position, but I don't know if I can manage that this first semester. Probably not. It's okay. I know how to study, I know how to have God with me, I know how, especially now, to work on something tirelessly and not waste time getting distracted. I got amazing grades the last two or three months at college because I learned to study insanely well. I think it's going to be an instant replay of Dad's come-home story.</div>
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Questions. Please. I'm dying here.</div>
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<br /></div>Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06036404806341760541noreply@blogger.com0