Federico changed their P-Day!

I was very excited to read Alex's letter this week. Although when am I not excited? I waited around all day, seriously, and it NEVER came! I decided to wait until the next day and call the Mission Office and be one of those Moms. I had a rough day on Tuesday, imagining the worst. I got home from somewhere and went to look in the past emails for the phone number to the Office and there was the letter! Whew, I didn't have to make a fool of myself or of my son! I suppose this sort of thing happens but seriously they should not let it happen to kids who are on the other side of the world! So, there was no problem and he is still healthy and happy! Thank Goodness!




They changed our Pday to today. I go into more details in the audio (a very long one this week). Basically Monday was a holiday and so we couldn´t shop or do Internet or anything, so they changed it. Which meant we had to work 7 days in a row without doing not-missionary stuff, which made Monday rough.

In other news, it´s pretty cold nowadays. I wear gloves all day, and right now it´s really hard to type because my hands (especially the right - couldn´t tell you why) are cold and sluggish. I wear that scarf all day too, by the way. It´s by far the best one I´ve seen. I remember in the summer I looked at it and thought, "This is ridiculous. What am I going to do with this$" Kind of a similar feeling now for the short sleeve shirts I have.

The sector is still enormous, and I still am not sure what I´m doing a lot of the time. The numbers are pretty weak this week. The work here is so sword-edged - if something doesn´t quite happen, a bus doesn´t come, or a person can´t go out with us, we´re just toast that day. Sometimes we´re just paralyzed in the center of the city, where we have no one. In Chile a missionary can´t go into a house without a man of more than 16 years, so if there´s not someone where we want to go, we just can´t go. So we knock doors all day. It´s hard. The sector is just that way. I´ve tried to keep up hope that with work we can get up to the levels of missionaries in the city, or at least to the level of Melipilla. But we slam and crunch and work so hard I can barely get up in the morning, and when I type the numbers in at the end of the week, we´re still dragging along with a pair of lessons with members and four without. We should be at eight with, and six without. That´s the level we have to be working for, as far as I understand it. It says over and over again in Preach My Gospel that you shouldn´t blame the sector or other people for what´s happening - but I blame the sector. Getting a member out to a "campo" town requires three or four hours of their time, and 1500 pesos, which is like sixteen bucks for an American. How often would you do that$

It´s okay, though. The leaders, while extremely spread out, are stupendous. The trick is figuring out a way to do it and presenting it, and not just giving the problem and asking for them to figure it out. If it´s just a question of money or driving somewhere, they´ll do it easily.

Robbie Williams just came on the radio. "I don´t wanna die. But I ain´t keen on living either," he says. Kind of depressing, the song.

Anyway, I´m also wearing the socks. Of course, we have to have on dress socks, so I just put the dress socks over the good ones. I´ve even worn the long pioneer garments. They work, but they feel really, really strange. I think I´m going to look into getting some thing like that you put over underwear, but under pants. Could be good.

Our investigators who asked for their baptismal date are good still, but they had to go do some tests in the hospital (hope they studied, right$) so we haven´t been able to visit them. They wanted to watch that movie from the Church "Together Forever," so we gave it to our Branch President, a friend of theirs, who will go and watch it with them with his family (like I said, really good leaders). These are your "intellectual" investigators. They studied with every church under the sun (and above it, Tom Cruise) and were ultimately impressed by the Church as being "different" than all the others. (Interestingly enough, in Hebrew, the word kadosh means "holy", but also "different." Next time you hear "holy" think about how it would be if it was "different." "Holy is the Lord of Hosts." "The Lord desires a holy people." etc) Like I was saying, they were impressed, but were very cautious. Then all this medical stuff happened I´ve told you about, and now they´ve seen the need for "Together Forever"-ness.

I´m over time. Blast. My relationship with my companion is getting a lot better. Do you know what the secret is$ I stopped trying. Kind of a wierd thing there, I know. That was all I had to do, though - stop trying. It just happened.

affectionately($),
Elder A. Conrad Crist

Pictures. People in Chile love families. And members always ask for them.
How much Cocoa in brownies$ The recipe doesn´t say how much.
Coins - whatever size, but a variety
Josh Groban
O Magnum Mysterium (song)
Thanks for the pocket knife, it was very usefull today

I whacked the infection, no problem.

A River Runs Through It.

I still cannot grasp the fact that Alex is going through the winter right now. I just have to compensate with thinking he is just having terrible weather but that he is in the US somewhere. It is strange that life just goes on and on and the people in our direct sphere changes. I am pretty sure Alex's world has shrunk pretty small. He has an audio recording that he tries to speak English but he has forgotten a lot of words. Some of them are kind of funny! I will keep trying to figure out how to download his audio's.



That´s hot.

Seriously, that´s hot. It´s now getting pretty cold here. They said this week it will get down to -4. That´s Celsius, but still - enough to freeze water. We could probably skate at that point, for my street has become a river. Filthy water runs down the hill (I explain this in one of the audios) and because all the water on the whole hill has to come down my street, there´s more than a little. It left us with a very gross pool in the back where our cement dips.

Besides a really annoying infection on my neck (this time), I´m pretty well. I inherited a good umbrella from the pension "box of dutey," so I´m okay there. I´ve actually managed to put on every thing I have - shirt, sweater, suit, inside of coat, scarf, outside of coat, gloves, umbrella. Sometimes we have to walk 30 minutes to get somewhere after a bus, so one must go with everything.

I think I´ve started to use everything there was in the packages. I have the pocketknife with me, and the camera, I´ve used a few of the handwarmers (They do not exist here. They freak people out.), I wear the gloves, etc. There´s only two things I need now : a few coins to give people (like 20), and more pictures. With that I wouldn´t know what to request. Well done with the CDs. I expected like 2. I now have some 15.

I´m kind of figuring out how to run this sector. I see what the Lord was saying in D&C 121 when he said that most men get all prideful when they think they have some power, because the last two meetings we´ve had with the Branch President he said that the missionary work is functioning impeccably. Our Mission Leader is a pretty heavy hitter, which doesn´t hurt. He´s the kind of guy that you tell about a need or service or problem and a solution he can help with and he just does it. A lady in the ward needed a new door. He said, "Okay - tomorrow we go to the store and call Bro. Diaz (a construction guy in our ward) to see when he can help us put it in." It silences me when people work like that. We got it all finished in four days.

So you could see how now I go, "I´m such a sick missionary. Look how good my Branch is doing because of me." Eh - careful. The Lord is pretty clear about that stuff. CS Lewis wrote that when you have the same joy from your success and from the success of others, that´s a good balance.

Anyway, it goes on pretty well here for now. Elder Aguilar and I are good, if a little foreign still. What I mean by that is we have almost nothing in common, and we´re just really different. I said that twice to emphasize it. It´s really strange because I get along with the members, and he gets along with the members. But we´re just not friends yet. He´s a rock musician and electrician. I don´t relate to that at all. He had a band and a huge family. I sang in a choir. Just wierd still. I don´t know what to do, but it´s going away with time.

It´s rainy, but I borrowed boots. Note the photo quality change. Pay attention to the Spirit.

Elder A Conrad Crist

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 -