week #12

I so love this guy! I love everything about his experiences and I love his humble nature. He is an excellent missionary and once he sorts out the friendliness thing, he will be rockin'! These experiences will serve him his whole life through! I am thankful for his willingness to do what is necessary as well! I am a little biased but I think he is the best! Love you son!


Before I start the ramble-thon, I could use two more garment tops (my infection blood destroyed two and I´ve been perpetually behind since) and a good pen or two. This is a tough row to hoe for you guys, knowing how hardcore picky I am with them, but you can only get Bics here and they are simply insufficient. I just like smooth action, preferrably with a needle point. The brands Staedler and Tul are the coolest, I think. Oh! Socks. Socks. Black athletic anything. I need lots more socks. We had a mix up at a laundry place a few times and now I have like 5 pairs. Which is not enough. But seriously. Anything you see and think, "Hey. This could be useful/cool/rare in Chile." It probably would be. I loved all the ties. I have worn all of them except the grayish red DKNY one. I´m getting there. I´m wearing my companionship tie I got with Elder Mann (It´s in the picture "too much McDonald´s icecream"), but tomorrow, if it´s the correct pant color day, it will happen. We just bought a new pension nostalgia tie, a very blue one with a very slight patterning. I´m sure you´ll see it, it´s very wearable. Some people like getting companionship ties that are only wearable to meetings, not to teach, but we decided that´s dumb. So socks, ties, pens, and - I found a place to send letters that is really close. So I will finally be getting letters off to non-family. Tell them to hang on.

This has been a crazy week. We have changes. Kind of. Elder Mann and Elder Lacambra are gone - and their spots are toast. The powers that be have decided the sectors are better rejoined, and so it is now. Elder Smith and I are now together in Mirador. We expect that I´ll only have one more change here, then I´ll leave. This is very cool, on the whole, because Elder Smith and Elder Lacambra, who have investigators almost baptized, but have no new investigators, and we have a bunch of new investigators, but no one who is soon to be baptized. We have one date - in April. Whatever. So now I´ll get to teach the higher lessons. I´ve only taught the first two lessons out of five, which are The Restoration, and The Plan of Salvation. We haven´t ever taugh the Commandments, Laws and Ordinances, or even The Gospel of Jesus Christ more than twice. I´ll be doing a lot less knocking, and more teaching, which is good as heck for me. We have a baptism the 20th of this month that will technically be partly mine. Yes! Convert! I´m sure to be having a lot to write about next week, I promise you.

How many Chileans have I taught? Since last change, 25 or so. You´d actually be surprised that the biggest problem they have IS the Book of Mormon. We have a lady who´ll be baptized in April if she can find a testimony of it. She says it seems like we worship Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. We say whatever we can, but we´re having a serious problem there.

The thing about Chileans is that they are really nice. So nice, in fact, they have a really hard time telling you when they don´t want to listen. They´ll keep telling you to come back later, but then they won´t be there. We call and set a new time, and the same thing happens. We have had to shelf a few people, and that is a very difficult thing to do. We found a lady crying in the street, and she took three lessons from us, then just dumped us. That kind of thing is rough. On the other hand, we had a fantastic experience with a lady, the lady who reminds me of Granny a lot. She called us back because the doctor said she might have cancer, and she wanted us to pray for her. We instead just went over before she went to do more tests and gave her a blessing - a real one, with oil and everything. Elder Mann told her that she´d be fine with her faith. She´s got plenty of that, so when we sat down after, everyone just felt good about it. Our friend who came with us told her about a sickness diet he learned about in college, and we left. She goes in today to see what´s going on. We fasted for her today too. We´re looking into getting her on the temple roll.

I need to ask Dad some specific stuff. I´ve gone on divisions with some other Elders and seen how they do things. They are all more friendly than my companion. They will go in and talk for 20 minutes, share a scripture for 10 minutes, and leave a few times in a day. Elder Mann will go in and do the scripture in 5 and leave, talking not at all. This brings into focus a huge balance I don´t understand. The members don´t really like us. They prefer to have the other companionship because we´re just not fun to have over. They will usually only fill half our lunches on the sheet until the Relief Society president makes them do it, but the spots for the others fill up in minutes. I keep trying to be more of a human being with the members, but Elder Mann says it´s a waste of time. We were teaching a lesson to a less active lady and she was kind of so-so with us. She didn´t want to go to church. She was petting her dog, and I asked her what kind it was. I got out a picture of Kato (people love him here. I pull him out a few times a week, especially with moms) and we talked for ten minutes about all the dogs we´ve ever had. It looked like Elder Mann was going to kill me. Then, I gave her a short little scripture, and we talked more about church, and she decided to go, because she knew she needed to. When I brought it up, Elder Mann talked about how numbers don´t mean anything - but the other Elders I worked with enjoy their time more, and are more liked by others, and have better numbers. So shouldn´t we try to do this too? Basically what I´m asking is how do I know what´s right? If I did everything how the MTC said to do it, the ward might as well have stationed soldiers who knock doors. I´m going into a change with a less-hardcore Elder, Elder Smith. I don´t want to become disobedient, but I want to have the relationship that Elder Smith and Lacambra have had with the members. I don´t know who I am anymore.

But hey, that´s why we do this, right? It occurs to me that my letters sound manic depressive sometimes. I don´t mean to; I´m just confused. I can´t do what the MTC says, but I can´t not either.

Pórtense bien; les quiero ; recuerden que Dios les quiere también,
Elder AC Crist

By the way, that diet was not to eat anything with added sugar, flour, or salt, and try to eat only fruits and nuts. You don´t have to do it for a long time, but it can make you feel better very fast. Also, cancer grows from protein and fat, and if you aren´t eating either, it´s easier to remove if such an excision can be performed.

Week #11

Where does the time go? I can't believe he has already been in Chile for 11 weeks. He is almost not new anymore. He is about 20 weeks into his Mission and that is like 1/4 done. Amazing!! Alex is such a great writer and so I will let him "speak" to you.



Flip, kip. Finally I got a bunch of stuff. Except I was forty minutes away from home, and I had to carry both of the things from you, and two from Grandma... I was entertaining. I had to have my companion take the newest one, and still the bus was crazy (they didn't have hand holds in the bus, or seats)(So I just bus-surfed). Kind of funny, that day, I was on divisions with a Greenie - he has four weeks in Chile and understands about 25%. That day was scary, but the wierd thing was, we didn't have any problems. We taught lessons, contacted, and taught to members and it all worked out fine. We even found a guy who let us in two sentences into the contact - pretty good, in other words.

It is true, though. It's been a fast week. Sunday next it calls to see if we have changes. They could very well move Elder Mann or I. In fact, it's very likely. He wants me to stay here and get a Latin companion to finish my Spanish. He says if the Latin came here, I'd have to lead the sector for most of the time, because I lived here. I would rather travel somewhere else, personally, but I do want a Latin companion. It's very unlikely that we both leave simultaneously, but it's possible. If a little difficult for those who land here next.

That day of opening all that stuff was very cool. The foot stuff saved my bacon; mine are dying that I bought here. I've found a use for everything, I think, and eaten everything Grandma sent me - everything but the cocoa. What was I going to do with that? I hear that when it is cold, most people will have something like that in meals, and you'll want it. I carry the hankerchiefs (that is to say, one at a time), I wear the ties (I have on the gray squarey one), and everything. Never fear; anything from the States is a real commodity. I really only lack good hot-weather socks, and a few garment tops. (My infection killed two.) But, nothing I can't deal with.

This week was cool because we finally got a baptismal date. The lady reminds me of Cory. She's funny (when I can get her jokes) in the same way. She's got a lot of faith in Christ, but she's having problems accepting Joseph Smith and a Church. There's a common sentiment here that churches are made to make money and nothing more. Our problem is getting her to church. She has some insane neighbors who do party stuff at 5 in the morning so she can't wake up on time. But one of these days we'll get her. Her boy is like Joey too. One time he just walked into the room and yelled and left. Nothing more. I don't know what that's about.

If I had to say something about doing extracurricular activities, I'd just say one thing : "Whatever thou art, play well thy part." That was written on a Scottish Castle near the mission of Elder Ballard - anyway, of everything I ever did, the only things I regreted were not being good at the thing I was doing. You look for what you like, and when you find it, you be the best you can be at it. Doing stuff "ma o meno", "more or less" is a waste of the life God's given you. I'd say if you can't say you're one of the best people you know at this, or that, you need to work harder. I've become convinced that a person can be superior at anything if he likes it and will work to get it. I would say, then, do as much stuff as you can do without taking attention away from the things you are doing. If you can't practice sufficiently to be excellent at what you do, do less. I've also learned that people will respect a person with skills in anything. If you like it, do it.

Of course, being a servant of God, I need to mention something. I think it's Jacob 2 somewhere : To be learned is good, IF THEY HEARKEN TO THE COUNCILS OF GOD. Here in Chile, teaching people what they need to be members, it's very cut and dried as to what people can do. Guess what? There is nothing about caffeine. If people ask, we say yes. Forget about that one. Moderation is the commandment that falls under.

But at the same time, do you know you should pray every morning and evening, and study the scriptures every day? That is a commandment, and if a person won't do it, they won't be baptized. Like it says in Buzz Lightyear : "It's not just a good idea - it's the law." If you have a preach my gospel, I invite you to read it together and write the commandments as they are found in the book. There's a miasma of confusion when you don't defend your beliefs to others, such as is in Utah. There's no problem here, just keep in mind the lack of contrast."This do, and thou shalt live."

Que le vaya tranquilo,
Elder AC Crist

Week #10

Alex has been in Chile for 10 weeks! I can't believe that. I feel like he has been gone for a month or maybe a little longer. Hopefully that keeps up until he comes home. In that case, he will be home in no time. I cannot believe he totally understands Spanish. I am very impressed with all that he has learned in the past few months. Simply Amazing! The pictures are of Alex balancing his cereal on top of the blender so the ants don't get to it, a beautiful tree blossoming, reese's he found in a store, and Elder Mann making a flower out of leaves from a tree. Cool!


What´s wierd is how long the days are, but then how we pass into the next week in no time at all. We´re on week five of my second change - in two weeks, I´ll be a non-new standard Private missionary. Also I´m trying this month to not speak English. I actually was going to try to not speak English until next month at all. Turns out it´s really hard to expain Harry Potter to someone in Spanish, so I gave up. Now I only speak English after 10 and on P Day. I understand everything now, officially, but I get bound up saying stuff occasionally, hence the need for practice. This adds to the longness of the days, but wierdly when I go so say something, usually I start speaking in Spanish automatically, which is wierd.

This week we had at least two miracles. As we walked to an appointment we were rather late for, we saw a lady on a park bench crying. I noticed, but Elder Mann didn´t. I mentioned it to him a block or two later. We kept walking to the appointment, but it fell through. We went back, and the lady was still there. We contacted her, which turned into a 45-minute lesson on the spot. She loved everything we taught. She had been studying with the Testigos de Jehová for two years, but had never felt the way she did with us. We have returned four times this week, and we are going to do a noche de hogar tonight with her family. She is having problems with her husband, and she has started becoming clinically depressed. She´s looked better every time we see her. If it hadn´t been for a medical emergency with one of her children, they´d have all been to church. I have never met someone more prepared for the gospel. Actually, come to think of it, that leads me to our other miracle this week.
The next day, we were doing some contacts in an area we´ve always wanted to contact. We knocked one door, and a man came out who said he didn´t want anything. It was somewhat surprising because when he spoke, he spoke in English. He didn´t even let us give him a pass-along card. But when we got a hundred feet away, he came out and waved and told us to come back. We taught and talked for a very long time. He said he´d never let anyone talk to him about religion, but he felt that he needed to figure out what life was about. He said many times that he wanted to believe, but he couldn´t, because there was no way of proving or recieving a witness of religion. He had six degrees from colleges because he had never married, choosing instead to continue studying while working for over 15 years. As we talked, I realized he had the exact problems I had before I understood the gospel. While most of the conversation was in Spanish, at the end I bore him my testimony in English that the Gospel cannot be proven - that I had tried, to which he said that he had too, but rather that a person must ask God and no one else. He wanted us to come back soon to talk more, having found a lot of reason in what we´d said, but he was leaving to Australia until March. We gave him a Book of Mormon, of course, with many chapters for him to read on the planes he would take.

We´ve had a lot of problems getting to talk to anyone, and now we have too many. I feel kind of spoiled now. We are moving from investigator to investigator all day. Our problem now is keeping up our contact numbers. We´re supposed to do 77 a week, about. We did like 35 this week. But on the other hand we´ve had some two hours of non-people-teaching time since Wednesday. Fetch - but hey, I´m not complaining.

It´s interesting that you notice that. We talk to people all the time who say that only the Bible is right and people are all out to get money from you. Then you ask them why they know the bible is true. Some say "It´s the Bible... it just is." Some people say "Because since I was 5 I´ve been reading it." They´ve been taught always that the Bible is true. It´s kind of stuck that way forever. At the same time, however, like it says in Our Search For Happiness, no spiritual truth has entered the hearts of people except by the Spirit of God. It says over and over again in all the Scriptures that the Holy Ghost testifies of the truth of all things - including the Bible. We don´t hold a patent on the Spirit. However, we do hold a .. "Patent?" .. well, that´s not really the best word, but we have ordained ministers who are entrusted with giving the Gift of the Holy Spirit, which gift is the best gift we can get on the earth. People think "baptize or bust" in the mission. I would say "Confirm or bust." There´s a big push in our mission right about helping people understand how much of a gift it is. I don´t know if you´ll get this (I think Jake will), but when you´re playing, say, Halo or something, there´s always that person who tells you what you need to do, and how you can do it. "Hey, Space Marine Guy, go blow up/resque/shank this person/building/alien." What would you do if that person didn´t talk to you? You´d just walk around and look for stuff to do. The Spirit gives you quests to do and will tell you how to accomplish them. Don´t think for a second that He can only talk to you about religious stuff. If you want to get in shape, look no farther. If you want to get better grades, look no farther.Go to God with every question you have. (It says in the Bible Dictionary under Prayer that some blessings are given contingent on our asking for them, nothing more.) (I recommend that you read a few of those in Family Home Evening, like under Holy Spirit, Prayer, etc.)

And like that, we´re out of time. El Espíritu testifica de la verdad de todas las cosas, y yo sé, porque yo lo he experimentado. Siganlo. Les quiero mucho.
Elder AC Crist

I´m excited for the package, finally. Haha.

Week #9

Alex sounds like he is working very hard! He is loving it and learning so much. I really just wish he had gotten a package or two that we have sent. Does it really take 6 - 8 weeks to get something there? Maybe it won't ever get there and that would be sad. I can't wait to hear what he thinks about the package that he will get this Wednesday. There is some fun stuff in there! The pictures are of him after he ate a lot of meat, the banana still hanging from New Year's,(why hasn't it rotted?) and the meat they cooked at the zone activity. Fun Fun










That is rather exciting, the package thing. I belive if it touches down in the office before Wednesday morning, I get it that week, so I´ll expect that, if nothing else. The pattern seems to be when you stop really getting mad when they don´t arrive, you´ll get them. I´ll probably get them all at once, just because that would be funny.

This week has been fantastic. We took an investigator on a tour of the chapel, and now she´s going to come next week. We finally got in contact with an investigator we´ve been chasing for a month, and we had a sick zone activity/barbeque. I have a little more time this week, and I´m wondering how to use it to help people out or at least give them something interesting to read. Let´s think.

After a vote last week, we decided to do an Asado (barbeque). We bought thirty bucks worth (more like 70 where you guys live) of meat and cooked in this awesomely ghetto grill (the grill part is made of fence - I think you can see if you look in the pictures.) First the sausages (with real intestine casing, which is actually a good thing, I´ve learned) were done, so everyone had a little hot dog. The rest of it was mostly a brisket, complete with dry rub and butter. While it cooked, six white guys and two latins played American football. They didn´t really get it, as you might imagine. Then we ate the meat, which was very good, but had no utinsels, hence the picture. I ate a third of one, I think. Then, in post-meat stupor, we just layed on blankets like engorged walruses (or walrii, you´d have to ask Jake). (I find myself very curious at the mechanics of Latin, after studying Spanish, which is supposedly based upon it.)

Anyway, then we took cold showers (this was earlier today). The other Elders video´d my yelling because of the cold water, which I´m sure will end up on facebook in a year or so. And now I´m here in an internet café. (On that note, type in something like Mirador, Los Cerrillos, Chile. That´s my mainstreet. Then find Pablo Suarez, which connects to it. That´s where my house is, somwhere along there. I´ll get the address for it. I think Google can find it. It´s too bad they won´t have on-the-ground photos.)

This week has been all about hope for me. Two weeks ago, I was on divisions with our Zone Leader, Elder Zmoos (who is in a picture). We were walking to an appointment and I said something like "Yeah, we´re going to pass by, but they probably won´t be there."
He stopped and looked at me. "Elder - Where´s your faith?"
It was a good question. I was walking to a house because I had to verify they weren´t there. I honestly did not expect the people to be there. Because of a few instances of this earlier in the week, I did not have hope that the investigators would be there.



Come with me, if you will, to last Friday. One of our investigators is very awesome. She takes everything we say without problems, and she´s reading the Book of Mormon better than a lot of members may be. Our next step was to get her to church. If you like math, a new investigator has a 3% chance of being baptized. If a person gets to church, it comes up to 25% in our mission. We decided to take advice (that seemed really weird to me) from our President and take them on a tour of the chapel. We invited to a tour that Friday. We set it up, but when the time came, she didn´t arrive. We waited for a half an hour. We decided to walk to her house. On the way there, a car pulled up - with her and her husband, who´d she´d invited (they´re separated). We drove there and had a spectacular lesson and walkthrough of the chapel. Even though he doesn´t live in our sector, we called the missionaries (who are friends of mine) that are over his area, and they are teaching him now, and he is on a straight shot to the font. If she wasn´t pregnant, she´d have a baptismal date.

Let me tell you, when we left the chapel, I believed something like that would happen. I knew that if we set up the tour, God would give us someone who would go into it with us. God does not hang you out to dry. I know a little more about that this week.

Yo sé que vive mi Señor, y que Él nunca va a abandonaros. Y que vosotros, mi familia, sois los mejores.

Que le vaya bien,
Elder A C Crist

Week 8

Sorry about the sideways pictures. I will try to figure out how to fix them and make them right later. It is too much for my brain to handle. I bet Alex could do it in about a minute but since he is not here...






What can I say about this week?

It was the hottest week ever. I think this is the hottest month in Chile, and this is the hottest week. What´s wierd is that here it is still cold every night because there´s so much plants, and there´s no inversion like in Provo, which keeps it hot all night.

Let´s think... Oh. I freaking didn´t get anything in pouch at all besides Randy letters. What in the name of Sonny Bono is that about? I was all "Yay, stuff." But no. I had to buy a liter of yoghurt to console myself. But then we went to eat a sort of New Year´s meal thing with our Bishop, whose picture is included. They brought out these salads with avocados on them, with cottage cheese and olive mash where the core used to be. Anyone who knows me knows that´s not something I´m really into. But this is the Bishop. So I ate it. It was really funny because I´d pick up some and bite it and Elder Mann, knowing I didn´t like it, would laugh a little, which would make me laugh, which made it hard to not spew across the table onto the Bishop´s daughter. Then, finishing with that, he brought out a glass pan of meat. I was thinking, "That looks a little small for a whole family -" when he put it down in front of me. I looked crookedly up at him for a second, and he started laughing. His wife put an identical pan in front of Elder Mann. We were expected to eat about a cow between the two of us. It took a solid forty minutes to eat it all. It was kind of hard core. Then they brought out a cake. No way.

We finally left (and got lost on the way home), and arrived just in time to do a ridiculous dance at 0:00:01 1/1/11. It got so intense we threw banana peels, apparently (that banana in the picture was just hanging there the next morning.) It was kind of morbid to realize, though, that I will not see America for the entirety of 2011. That´s a hefty thought.

I´m kind of short on time this week and I don´t know why.

Everything´s okay, really. Besides a little boringness with the ties, I don´t have any problems. After we scrubbed the mold off the walls in our pension, the house is smelling better, but we still have and ant problem. They got my cereal this morning. Needless to say, we´re looking for a new house now to rent.

What a weak email. I don´t know. Nothing happened besides the sun and mold. Maybe next week.

Elder AC Crist

What is red meat?

week # 7

We got to skype with Alex this week, which was just awesome! I can't believe he is so far away and yet it was like he was just away at college. Actually, he would have been home for Christmas but at least he is safe and having relatively good times! He sent a few pictures too which always makes me happy. I really miss him but realized his mission is 1/6 over! Hard to believe but only 5 more of those and we will have him back! Yay!!!!! He looks really skinny! He says he can put both hands in fists in the waist band of his pants. His shirts are probably about 1/2 inch too big on both sides of his neck. Sheesh! He has been sick as well as walking 10-15 miles a day so the weight has just fallen off. Hopefully he doesn't get any skinnier! I won't even recognize him!




I really haven't done anything since I talked to you guys. We basically went to church (and our investigators ditched us), tracted that day, got our shirts from the lady who cleans them, and then it was PDay. Today we all were super tired, and we have been for a few days. We heard it could be mold or something, so we cleaned the walls and stuff today, all day, with chlorine something that was awful. The house smells like a public pool today. Suddenly I've started getting really bad cramps out of nowhere. I guessed it was electrolyte imbalance from all the 'rhea. What I'm saying with all that is not a lot of stuff you want to hear about happened after that.

However, the week was a lot of stuff. I named the pictures so you can tell what they are if I forget to mention them. (The pictures kind of suck. I think the camera's wearing out or something.) Elder Lacambra moved in this week to replace Elder Silva, who is in the picture "in the pension" Elder Lacambra is from Spain. He already speaks Spanish, as you might imagine, but he speaks English like a missionary who's been out for a month. He can usually get you to understand what he means to say. It's funny though, because whenever the z or c make a 's' sound in Spansih normally, they say 'th.' It makes them sound kind of... metrosexual. There's been a lot of humor about that this week. The word 'civilización' has it three times ("thivilithathion"), and he says it every time he introduces the Book of Mormon. He's actually trying to get rid of it, but it's still really funny.

Also notable among these pictures is the one of the gonzales family. They are they with whom I had Christmas Eve. The one who wants to go to BYU and loves Google is the one who looks just a little older than us. It was a fun night, and they gave us ties! The ties were actually really legit, so we wore them the next day to Church.


If we reach farther back into the week, we also have the activity with President King and the entire mission. I finally got to find out who Elder Christiansen is. He's actually really cool. Elder Monsen is related to him in the same way I am in a different direction... or something. So we took a picture. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, admittedly in Spanish, then had some painting-monkeys time with our mission friends. I sat with my district from the MTC, of course. They really are in every place they could be. I'm in the suburbs, a few of them are out in the boonies, a few in the coast, and even one in downtown city center. One Elder is in the actual most dangerous part of Santiago. Half of their sector is off limits without a member. He says it's so dangerous and scary it actually becomes funny after a while. The Elder on the coast has a picture of a spider the size of a hand that was on a tree by his house. And he has flea bites... what the flip? I don't want to go out there very much. I really like where I am, on Pablo Suarez, where the most exciting thing they do is play mariachi really loud.

Well, that's all for today.

Love,
Elder Alex C Crist