And so it is...again

I LOVE my son! I love that he is trying so hard to be what God wants him to be. I love that he has worked very hard and accomplished so much. I love that he has a fantastic sense of humor and I love that he is my son. I am so proud of him and I cannot wait until I can see his handsome face again in person. I find I miss him more and more! What a great gift he is to me.



Don´t worry about resending anything; I keep everything archived; I have 25600 MB, using 461. Thinking about it, I have no idea why they would put so much. Whatever. Google stuff.

Do you think you could email me songs? I think they could fit; I send you things that are as big as songs all the time. That would be really dope. If you find any of those ones I want, I think through a few emails you could send them to me. That would be really dope.

This week we worked really, really hard. We changed up our contacting approach to not ask if they would like to talk at all, and instead just start teaching the stuff we´re here to teach immediately. People that would like to instant-reject us can´t in time to not hear anything - and what they find is that they´re actually interested, or that we´re interest-ing. It´s very not-me to be pushy, but I´m starting to find out how to do it.

I remember when I started the mission and I could only understand the gist of what people said. Other missionaries would teach about The Plan, or The Gospel, or The Restoration in what ever way going by a need they saw in a person, and I just knew how to chuck the first three sentences of the first pamphlet, essentially.

Now, ironically, I´m finding myself where I always wanted to be. Not in a pushy way like I´ve seen it done, but rather in a softer, more intelligent way. Like I wanted from the beginning.

We had some really heavy progress this week with my new favorite investigators, Esmeralda and Rodolfo. In our second lesson, in which we taught The Gospel (Lesson 3), we started with faith, then repentence, etc. When we got to baptism and the gift of the holy ghost, the mom looked up suddenly. She said, "When you said "Holy Ghost," I got this warm, joyous feeling. What is it?"

As you might imagine, that lesson went pretty good after that. She commited to be baptized without a date. In the second lesson. Winner.

I´m getting way sick of my suits now. It appears that in not too long we´ll be moving back to shirts. Today was actually hot. We played soccer and there was a fair amount of sweat involved. I´m actually discovering I enjoy arquero - goalkeeper - mostly because I can use my hands. I´m still a "defender" personality, so it works. I have no ball control, but I can at least hit the ball away with my foot usually.

I actually got fatter in Melipilla. I have lost half of it since I got here because I´ve been working out hard with Elder Myres. I´d never thought of all the different ways you can use big five-liter bottles as weights, even though it may be awkward and fall occasionally. I kind of got stalled out on the pushups when I got sick, but I´m getting there anyway.

Yesterday was lame, though. We were going around looking for people and it began to rain. It rained all day, and we went to a bunch of people who just weren´t home. I address this in the audio. Then we finally went into a mercy member visit. It was one of those days that only survivable because the next day´s P-day, if you know what I mean.

Spanish isn´t a problem at all anymore. I frequently have conversations with missionaries and later cannot remember if the conversation was English or Spanish. I´m just starting to be comforable enough that I never freak out, even in front of people in Sacrament Meeting. It´s nice. It´s terrifying when a member asks something and you answer bad or don´t understand, because gradually they start to lose trust in you. When they talk to you like another ward member, that´s when you know they trust you with references. Not like I didn´t try hard enough or wait long enough, though. Those were some dark months in Melipilla, being a minority with a companion who doesn´t like you... but that´s over.

Like I said, it´s a pension of four. Which means they burned some natty old clothes because there were enough to make it worth it. The dynamic is okay, except Elder Holton and my companion are frequently at odds. I don´t know why, really. It seems like something out of the ordinary happens and they just happend to take whatever thing as offensive or "too much" or whatever. I´m also kind of worried, or was, that the other missionaries paint monkey, which is to say, waste time too much. I went on divisions with Elder Holton, and we didn´t paint any monkey, but I am the leader; he wouldn´t just do it in front of me, I´d think. We did a normal day, except for the protests they´re having here - they actually forced us indoors at 9. I felt a little uneasy, but some members told us to go straight home. We trusted them. I felt kind of lame, but that´s better than fighting rioters or something.

And so it is.

There´s always this super-uncomfortable part at the end of lessons where everyone just says stuff like, "So it is, Elder," and "Right. Okay." We´re now there. Did you notice?

Right. Okay.

Love
Elder A Conrad Crist

Can someone please email me Josh Groban, O Magnum Mysterium, my all state and honor choir CDs? If it takes you more than 30 minutes, I´ll take you out to lunch when I get back. Maybe you have to send like 5 emails - it´s okay. Please do it.

Thanks in advance (right?).

Can someone find a sung version of hymn 293 each life that touches ours for good that´s not the lame hymn cd one?