Summer/Winter

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




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

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

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

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

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

Something like that.

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

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

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

Reconocer
Dejar
Confesar
Restituir
Cumplir con los Mandamientos

...oh, fetch...

Recognize
Cease
Confess
Restore
Keep the Commandments

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

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

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

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

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

Package Package Package

Did you get that Patriarchal Blessing yet$

Package Package

Okay, that´s enough.

Love,
Elder A Conrad/Alex C Crist

*coolness, sickness

Missionary stuff

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh, man. Here we go.

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


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

Chorrillana!

I love that these missionaries get to learn life lessons and they do it under the guidance of of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Who better to lead them in their questions and discussions and all the things they get to do? I can think of no one. I will let the pictures do the talking...Alex is hilarious!



That abomination of a fry plate is called a chorrillana. It´s the municipal food of Melipilla - it does not exist anywhere else. It´s homemade fries, scrambled eggs, hot dogs, and fried onions. (I know how to make unbelievable fried onions now, by the way.) If you eat a good sized one, you don´t have to eat for two days.

Anyway, it´s been a good week. Changes are coming up. Our numbers are going nuts.

Our Gospel Principles teacher gave a perspective-changing lesson on Sunday that confirmed everything I´d ever thought about faith, and added some. Faith has always been the hardest thing for me in the Gospel, so you´ll have to appreciate how much this means to me.

He said something very interesting that sums up everything. He said "Tons of people believe in Christ. That doesn´t get you to salvation. The Catholic idea is "I believe in Christ." Not so many people believe Christ.
^
(and pay attention that I put nothing in between here)

"That is what people don´t have. That´s what Jesus asks of people. It says in James - ´The devils believe in Him too.´"

That. That is what I´ve never been able to articulate about faith. I love in Bruce Almighty when Morgan Freeman says, "Parting the soup was a magic trick." Faith doesn´t let us do magic tricks. It´s not the Force. But at the same time, if you believe Christ, and you´ve heard what he says, you know he´ll support you. It´s not so much that faith itself moves mountains. It´s faith and trust in God to the point where there´s a sufficient mutual trust that I ask him to move it for some good reason, and he does it.

Our leading investigators had a little problem, though. The husband drank again pretty hard. He is really pretty compromised to his problem. He tried to explain that they have it to him for free, etc, but he just ended up crying. We decided that his wife would continue on and be baptized the fourth of June as an example to him. She, on the other hand, is pretty exciting as an investigator. She told us that she wantes to hurry so she can get a calling to teach or give a talk or something. She wishes we could go to their house every day to teach them. She´s one of those investigators you know are going to make a big difference in the future of the Branch. If they weren´t so dang poor... We´re talking "we´re going to buy cereal this week as a treat" kind of poor. I think it could be partly responsible for their humility. It´s not the first time I´m seen a scripture fulfilled in the mission; Alma got it pretty well.

Get that patriarchal blessing.

Anyway, what do we learn from this$ (The question mark key is dead.) Keep moving. One of the biggest things I´ve learned in the mission is that if you keep moving, things get better, until you can look back and realize it wasn´t that bad and you may even have learned something.

In other news, I´m trying to teach English to Elder Silva and it is extremely difficult. I can barely make sense of it to myself. Why do you put "es" on "does" and not "dos"$ I don´t get it. English is insane. Spanish is very, very exceptionless on the whole. English is an exception. Have you ever realized that almost every verb in English is irregular$ Sing - sang - sung. Do - did - done. Is/are - was/were - been. Well flip, Kip.

Imagine explaining how to tie your shoes with only words. Times a hundred. That´s kind of what it´s like.

Get that patriarchal blessing.

Love and stuff,
Elder A Conrad Crist
Occasionally good missionary


Much excitement for the package.

Find me 100 pushups on one page somehow so I can print it please! If you do, I´ll send a package home!

And so it is.

A missionary in Alex's mission died? What? That would be my worst nightmare! I ache inside for the family of this Missionary. 20 years old and no previous problems. Why does this stuff happen? I am grateful for the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation. I am so glad that Alex gets to teach others of this great plan and this amazing Gospel that we are so lucky to be a part of. What a great guy my son is and I marvel at the price His Son paid for us to have this Gospel. Godspeed Elder Jennings.




It's actually not as cold as it was. Chile goes very gradually into its winter, they say. There's pockets of rain cold, but it's really pretty average. I have cold hands all day, and there's no free hot water, which is lame, but also not that big of a deal.

I put some audio, as you may have noticed. I noticed upon hearing it again that I say "like" a lot in it. I think that's a symptom of not speaking it enough - it makes me kind of juvenile. You find out when you learn a language the written and spoken parts of it are really quite different and, while I can still write English, sometimes it comes out wierd.

This week has been rough. that last week we ended up doing 30 contacts in total. We did not do 20 a day. Honestly, my companion got sick of them and stopped, and I did the same later, for when one doesn´t want to be in a contact it's pretty obvious to the people being contacted.

Our lessons suffered in the same way; Of 10 with members present (a ridiculous goal, really) we got 2. I wanted to put 4 and put more lessons without members because 10 is impossible with the number of people who will leave with us to lessons, but Elder Silva couldn't find it in himself to put such a low number, because "if we put low goals we won't accomplish anything". Being a low-conflict person, my capacity to argue ran out and I accepted it. I have a lot more resistance to it now, but it wasn't enough this time.

Our investigators with a baptismal date drank, which wrecked our excitement for the two days that remained in the week. We had to put off their date another two weeks. They still want to be baptized, but we're starting to see the depth of his problem. He threw his last remaining cigarette out the window when we hard-commited him to stop that moment.

Abby asked me my favorite thing Jesus has ever said. I only know it in Spanish, but it's something like this:

Juan/John 16:33
En el mundo tendréis afflición,
In the world ye will have aflictions,

Pero confiad; yo he vencido el mundo.
But trust; I have overcome the world.

This is why I am a Christian. I honestly glory in how difficult this is. I don't have any idea how I'm going to pull this sector out of Satan's hands (I will probably be its leader in two weeks), but if it's his will that I change it, I will change it. I love something Paul says about a "Thorn in the flesh" that he had. (Again I only know it in Spanish)

2 Corintios/2 Corinthians 12
Él me dijo: Te basta me gloria ...
He said to me: My glory is sufficient for thee...

Yo gloriaré... porque cuando soy débil, entonces soy fuerte.
I will glory... because when I am weak, then I am strong.

He goes on to say that the glory of Jesus is perfected in weakness. And so it is.

I have found myself wishing I could be in an small sector in a pension of four missionaries. That leads me to my favorite not-scripture quote with religious application:

"So say all men who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. It is for them to decide what to do with the time that is given to them."

Guess who said that.

Another : "The time is coming when we will all have to decide between what is right - and what is easy."

Do family home evening. Read your scriptures every day. Experience the Holy Ghost. Be better prepared than I was. If there's something in your life you don't like, or you wish you could change - fix it.

A missionary died in my mission for unknown causes a few days ago. Though I am almost certain I'll make it home, I want it to stand absolutely clear: I love you. I'm sorry I wasn't who I needed to be always, especially for Abby and Jake, and I hope to have a long time, after learning what I needed to be, to be that brother and son. You mean everything to me.

Thank you for your undying, unquenchable support in everything. Not everyone has a family as good as mine, and I see the consequences of such problems every day. Enjoy it.

Thank you for sending me stuff. It's a great psychological boost, if nothing else.

Thank you for being more than anyone ever asked you to be.

Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist,
Friend of Kato (HA HA HA)

Why so Hard?...Because it was hard for Him!

I love being a Missionary Mom! I love to watch the growth that even a mother can't teach. All of those things that Alex is hating right now, he will learn to love. They will make him a better person and one to get along with easily. I think every missionary has to get through the really bad things and then be able to work on the really good things. But not until they have gone through the really bad things, sometimes with a fine tooth comb. Keep your chin up Alex, you are doing great and becoming even greater!


Fetch. This week was ridiculous. I have done more contacts since last Monday than the four weeks before that.

Our mission's "Standard of Excellence", which is to say, the amount we´d ideally do for contacts is 77 a week. That´s not terrible; it's only 11 a day. A goal came down from even higher up of 140... 20 a day. These aren't quotas; there's no obligation involved, but even so, to think that they expect it made us think, "Is this possible?" So Elder Silva and I, feeling faithy, decided to do it. 20 a day until the next Monday.

The first day we did 17 ... in two hours of doing nothing but contacting in the street. We had to go on to our appointments, so that´s where it ended. It was hard, hard work. We had crazy rejections, girls hitting on us, and drunks yelling at us while we talked to other people.

The last contact was a lady with a stroller. We starting talking about families. Elder Silva said something like, "And with all this, we can be together with our families forever - not until death do you part." She looked up from her stroller suddenly. He continued, "Did you know that?" She said she hadn´t. We told her about it a little more, and she invited us to come over the next day.

We went, and we taught a short Plan of Salvation. Being Catholic, the clarity of the things we taught struck her. It turns out she'd come to my chapel once on an assignment from school and found it very beautiful, perhaps even the best she'd seen. She asked us about resurrection - something she´s never understood. We gave her a chapter in the Book of Mormon, and we return Thursday.

Something interesting about all this, though. In the past, the ratio of contacts to "new"s, or new investigators has been about 9:1. I expected that. The interesting thing, though, was that of the 17, four will very likely be "new"s.

There's a part in the fifth chapter of Jacob (*see below after*) that talks about the laborers in a vineyard. The Lord of the vineyard tells them to go work, and they start working. But the Lord doesn´t just watch them. He goes and He works with them, and they save as much of the vineyard as was possible.

Are you seeing the connection here?

But there´s something I´ve asked myself a few times - "Why is it so hard?" The mission is back-breakingly difficult. It's good to keep an opinion of the mission as being really spiritual and happy, which it is, but don´t let anyone tell you it's an easy thing. Every weakness, no matter how small, will become painfully obvious at some point. The things you´ve been able to avoid doing that you hate, or that you´re terrible at doing you will have to do. I am not a natural contacter. Every contact is like a repetition of some exercise I´m doing that doesn´t get any easier with time. I've heard from members that there are several women in the ward who think I´m a jerk. My companion has something to say every night about something I shouldn´t do or did badly. What´s more, my house is half-without electricity, which means no heating during studies, and our tap sprung a leak in the drain, so we can´t really use it.

So why is it so hard? Because it was hard for Him.

It´s pretty hard to live a sinless life, as far as I know. What He asks of us is "squishy," depending on how much we can put in. He could say "Do everything perfect," wait for the judgement, and watch us all go down. He would be completely in His rights - only He did (or didn´t do) it all. But that´s not how it is, is it?

Sorry for being preachy. I´m kind of becoming a preach, it seems.

Maybe next time, if you´re really good, I´ll talk about not-the-gospel.

Love, and condolences that Annie ended,
Elder A Conrad Crist, annoying preacher





***Has it occured to Jake that there is a Book of Jacob - like Book of Eli? Just saying.
***Speaking of things like that, are there more of those Dragonball Z movies?
***Speaking of other things like that, are there more V?

Maybe receipdees... I´m just going phonetic here - resipees of good things, like brownies and cookies printed out? I left the last ones because Mónica wanted them.

100 pushups on one page (I swear there´s printout of it together)
- Show quoted text -

Mother's Day #1

I had the best skype with Alex! He looks great and I am totally amazed how well he speaks Spanish! He is totally fluent and has been there only 8 months. God certainly helps these missionaries out with language, the spirit, testimony and so many other things. He also helps out the families of missionaries more than we could even begin to comprehend. I like having a missionary out but at the same time, I don't really! I miss being able to talk to him any time I want and he was very helpful in so many ways. One third of the Mission done and that is amazing. He will be home in no time.



After recovering from being trunky, it´s back to work. With my five investigators. Fetch. We are going to knock a lot this week.

What you say about the Spirit is really key (I was going to record this but I didn´t have time. You could do a podcast! How cool would that be? Anyway--). One of the most illustrative examples of that is Nephi. It says in 1 Nephi 4ish that he "was guided by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand what {he} would do." This is him - imagine it nowdays - going up against the house of a big drug dealer to get a Bible with your genealogy written in it. He went up to the house not knowing what he would do. He found the boss stoned on the ground outside the house. And the rest is history.

Spritual guidance is a tricky thing. One of my thoughts has always been, "How do I know it´s not just something wierd I thought of?" I still don´t totally know. I don´t even think I half-know. I have a whole color in the scriptures for it. I think the main keys are found between three scriptures: D&C 8:2-3, Alma 5:45-46, and John 14:26. Even so, Elder Scott said in the MTC that there´s a reason the Prophet is older - he´s had to learn to follow the Spirit his whole life. I read an article by Orson Scott Card in which he said inspiration usually comes like normal thoughts in kind of a fountain of ideas, and that it comes in information intended to accomplish the next step only. It kind of reminds me of a game I played once called BioShock - you have no idea why you´re doing things until the end, but you know you have to do the thing you are told to do. The secret - Do it. One more thing - Elder Scott also said that one´s mind has the power to amplify and destroy impressions. Think of the implications of that.

Something I´ve learned about the Scriptures, now that you mention it. It is extremely valuable to study by topic too. You don´t have to read the whole thing over and over again to learn the gospel. The gospel principles book is very good for that. I don´t know what you guys do exactly, but having one person teach/present some stuff he´s learned is good for everybody. Ideally you´d each have your own study, and after each would talk about his or her studying. (This helps because if you can´t talk about it, you know you didn´t study enough.) I hated doing more than ten minutes at a time, but now I can´t imagine studying for less than a half an hour every day. Start now and you´ll be a lot better than I.

Love each other. Like I said, being able to talk to hundreds of people about their happiness has brought to me the conclusion that it exists in family, and in God, which is family.

Elder A Conrad Crist

One thing - the stickers you sent me are chronological - do they have scripture mastery ones? I really would like those. I think you can find them for the Bible and everything. Thanks for these, though.

Reciepe... type "receta" into google translator spanish-to-english. I can´t spell it .. for Banana Bread

Pictures!! For example, you guys with a cake. That kind of cake just doesn´t exist here.

CDs:
Inside Out
Someone find my O Magnum Mysterium
Any "Beautiful Savior - Crusader´s Hymn" you can find

I´m looking for stuff to send you. Hang on. Mother´s Day, Christmas... eventually it´ll get there.

Do you talk about me in Church and stuff? Don´t know, just curious.

Short and sweet!

I am so excited to be able to talk to Alex this week. It is going to happen on Saturday!!! I love skype and all that allows! I get to see his skinny face! I also get to marvel at the way he looks and speaks, and again, I get to actually see him in "person". Yay for technology!
The pictures are; The area Alex is in; Teniente Merino, A member fixing nails (too poor to buy unbent nails?), Poshy sweaters, and Alex being Laman? Don't ask me!



That ability of Maya gives me something we refer to in the mission as "Holy Envy." If I´d had the desire to learn the scriptures that I have now I´d probably have a degree in it. Grandma said Maya could find the fourth Article of Faith - I didn´t even know they had that in there until tenth grade! Well, at least now that I know that, I can repent. Are we Christians or are we not Christians?

++++++++++Mother´s Day Call++++++++++
We are going to call at 1600 hours Chilean time on Saturday, the 7 of May. I do not know what that will be. I am using Skype - have it turned on, plugged in, all that. This email will be sent at about 1245 today, so you can figure out when that will be. Be careful to not be not in the house and stuff. That would be lame.
You should still have my account - elder.crist

I´m about to go to a barbeque at a member´s house. The rest of the week is going to be pretty normal. Last week was awesome. The whole Branch is different. Before, in testimony meeting, there were several periods of uncomfortable silence. This last one there were lines and lines of people, and not all could talk. People are volunteering for work and responsiblity. I don´t know totally what happened, but I think it comes from partly us, but mostly from the people who´ve worked with us.

Yesterday, we felt to go to a house of a member out of nowhere, really. She had been reading the scriptures looking for understanding of why she needed to go the temple, or even if she needed to go at all. We happened to have the Between Heaven and Earth DVD with us, so we watched and answered all the questions she had. At the end she said, "I guess sometimes God answers immediately to prayers, because I was just praying and studying about this." So it is.

Would it be okay if this email is kind of lame because we´re going to call on Saturday? Good.

See you (literally) fairly soon,
Elder A Conrad Crist

I don´t know what to do about shirts and stuff. They are little big, but I don´t know if you want to try to send stuff. I think I´ll be okay for a while longer. As for socks, like three pairs wool or something like that.

CD:
Anything you can find by Josh Groban - he has at least three albums
Gladiator Soundtrack
Elder Silva likes Enya - look into it
Neoclassical piano - hard to describe. Piano music that sounds kind of classical/romantic era, but often more thematic. Jon Schmidt, for example
I have to have Nevada and Utah All State and Honor Choirs!
Also, the song "O Magnum Mysterium" - a good choir
On my computer there´s some stuff by Eric Whitacre, sung by Polyphony
Any classical stuff Grandma recommends
(This is all mp3 cds, right? So I don´t have to have a thousand cds?)
Sissel
As much tabernacle choir as you can find
maybe EFY, only if it´s not lame though. There´s one sond I really like called One Voice, for example
Anything you feel like would be okay - if it´s not, I can just chuck it