New Comp...Possibly last comp!

I have minimally lot very a lot to say.

 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'
It's hardly different, really.

 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.

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.

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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 Anyway,
 Love,
Elder Crist

Holey Moley!!

First of all, what is the deal with the soup stuff?

Also, who had mate? They must be argentines or something.

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.

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))

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.

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!

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 saved?, and if he says it just right, most of the class will kind of shake their heads and say, "No... no, that's those other guys who believe in that."

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 are 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.

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.

So He asks, "How many times have I offered to gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens -and you would not?"

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 - and they will not.

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?


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!

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.

I'll do an audio that's a little more light-hearted.

Love you,
Elder A Conrad Crist

Rebar and cement statues of Mary and St. Teresa

I 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?

 Typing now, ending today:

 9. 9. What?

 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...

 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.

 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.

 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.

 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.

 Well, I'm sorry to be boring and stuff.

 9!

 I need to go get something for this terrifying rugburn I got while saving the goal. (My chapel has an indoor soccer thing.)

 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.

 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.

Little to report, sir

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!

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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...

But there's always next week. Send pictures of something.

Also, if I get home and Jake hasn't done his patriarchal blessing yet I will just go back to Chile.

Love and stuff,
Elder A Conrad Crist


Cool Folky Music to remind myself later:
inti-illimani

most recent May 21, 2012

I 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!

 I found Battlestar Galactica on grooveshark in the office. Maybe that's somewhere to start.

 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.

 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.

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.

 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!

 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.

 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,

I can't think of anything more.

 I'm going to listen to Abby.

 Love
Elder A Conrad Crist

A little e-coli anyone?

I've had an odd week.

 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.

 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.

 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...

 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.)

 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.

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. 

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.

 Thanks,
Love,
Elder A Conrad Crist

In the Millenium Elders...

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.

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..."

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."

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?"

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."

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.

I really, really need to write a letter or two, so if you don't mind. I'll leave you with that.

Love,

Elder Crist