Glad Tidings of Great Joy

I am leaving this as he wrote it, except for cutting the names off... you can see that his English is giving way to Spanish just a bit  Hey everyone, sorry it has been a couple weeks since I have had time to write an email for everyone. We took a couple of paseos these past 2 Mondays and saw some beautiful places and took lots of pictures. Rather than try to fill you in on everything little thing that has happened, I'll introduce you all to our investigators here. Starting with M(40) and his daughter D(8 almost 9, birthday  August 19th ). His partner is A who is an inactive. She baptized when she was pregnant with D. They are both incredible and the famliy is super friendly and loves missionaries. They make and sell baked goods in the house, and he works installing floors. As a younger kid and man, M was a boxer and still looks the part. Imagine a hispanic Rocky more or less. He is a little slower to learn, but his daughter is super alert and loves the church. They h...

There is no letter to post this week.  Elder Brighton did say this however: We went on another day trip today so I don't have much time to write. It was really pretty and I enjoyed it a lot, just took a lot of travel time. We had a good week and had 4 investigators in church and found 6 new people to teach! 

This week flew by here in my new still relatively new sector. I am getting to know and already love the members, but it is going to take me awhile to get to know the streets and things of this sector. There are tons of houses and very little of anything else so that is great for the work we do! We have some campo on the edges and on clear days it is all so pretty. You can even see two volcanoes when the skies are clear. We taught Gloria and her 12 yr old son Angel this week about the plan of salvation and they really enjoyed it and had lots of questions. I think they are going to progress and be strong members in this church, the circumstances seem to be that now is there time. We just have to do our part and work hard to accomplish the needs they have. We are able to do a lot more service in this sector and I love it. We have chopped firewood a number of times and of course moving and stacking wood. They are small things, but it really is a help to these members and I know the...

I made it here to my new sector in Osorno without any problems. I got the chance to say goodbye to some of the members and investigators in Estanque before I left and I felt at peace that I had helped the ward and investigators there. Although we didn't have any baptisms, I did a lot of small good things that I know have helped that Sector and the people there. Now I have the chance to do good here in Las Vegas! I am happy to be with Elder Azeredo again. I have changed so much since my first cambio in the mission that it is almost like having a new companion anyways. We are both excited for the work here and are going to work hard to have baptisms this month and cambio to help contribute to the mission´s goal of 80 baptisms each month. He is a very loving and kind elder that really cares about the people here. He understands the scriptures well and I look forward to all that i will learn from him in our time together again. Maybe I'll pick up on a little Portuguese, but rig...

Cambio calls came last night and I am leaving Estanque. I will be going to the city of Osorno, the zone of Rahue in the sector Las Vegas. Oddly enough, I will be reuniting with my first companion there: Elder Azeredo. I believe we will be white-washing the sector so that will bring it's challenges and excitements. I am excited to get to work with him again and be a slightly better, less completely-lost companion. I don't know much detail at all about the sector so I will fill y'all in next week and over my time there. This week we had zone conference and we discussed ways that the members and missionaries can do things to work together more. We are getting a really big push to work with them more and involve them in very small ways. I need to improve the way I apply that to my mission and work. We also had a week full of activities leading up to ward conference.  Friday  was the biggest, a festival of the nations. We made chocolate chip cookies and they were a huge ...

Alex didn't have as much time to write this week because they had lunch with other missionaries and cooked chicken which took a long time he said. He did say that Constansa didn't get baptized on Saturday and that he spoke in church again and suggested that we read President Monson's conference address from April 2017 because it is "really short and really good." Since I didn't get his previous week's letter posted until this week, you can read that one (week 28)! Rebecca

This upcoming week we have the baptism of Constansa Ortiz planned for Saturday the 16th. She has been working very hard to prepare for this date and prayers on her behalf would be really appreciated. Either way, she has made so much progress in her life and way of living. It has been a privelege to meet her and help her along over these past 5 months. I pray she can take this step in her life and move forward from here on out. On Sunday someone talked in their talk about cutting the heads of Laban off in our daily lives. Maybe a bit gruesome at first thought, but it makes a lot of sense. It is much better that one sin or bad habit dies, than that a whole soul is lost and dwindles in unbelief or disobedience. Something I thought a lot about and am trying to apply. Making the little changes neccesary to improve as a person and as members of the church. Read more about that story in first Nephi!  I got to do some service of chopping firewood a couple times during intercambios ...