Lunch from a stranger, Yes he is my Savior and other happenings

Hey guys! Sorry for not writing last week, it was cambios and I was pretty busy with all of that. So I am going to write a little bit about last week as well as this week this time. Last week I had an intercambio with a missionary who at this moment is at his house which is pretty crazy to think. Elder Cruz, he finished his mission last week so it was pretty cool to be able to be his last intercambio and one of the last people he worked with. He was able to teach me a lot and help me with some things that he said had helped him in his mission. It wasn’t the greatest day of success, like most days, but the experiences and striving myself to do my best to serve others and find the people that God has prepared for me makes everything worth it. 

Also last week we had the opportunity to give a blessing of health to a members son who isn’t a member but is going through a hard time with his heart. At the end of the blessing their whole family were in tears and they were so grateful as they all hugged us. It was cool to see some of the hard hearts in that room softened. 

Also last week we had to go to Concepcion twice, one for an interview and another time because my companion got bit by a spider and had to go to the doctor. The bus rides there are pretty beautiful and impressive. There are some amazing views here in Coronel that me and my comp have found because we’ve pretty much contacted our entire sector already.  The views of the ocean and others in Coronel are very beautiful and I love finding different views every day. As you guys already know, this past Monday was cambios but me and Elder Knecht are staying here in Coronel together for another cambio! One of the Peruvians left, Elder Ludeña, and another Latino came in his place. His name is Elder Espitia and he was born and grew up in Columbia but he came to the mission from Spain where he had lived for about 7 years. Heps was cool and way funny, he´s a good time to have in the house. He is also our district leader and he does a good job at that, his laugh is one of the funniest things I´ve heard. He only calls me Matthew McConaughey and he’s convinced that I look exactly like him haha.

 An experience that I had this week that was pretty cool is we were walking in the street and this guy came up to us trying to speak English, thinking he could, (like every other Chilean on this planet) but he said "I love Jesus, so I want to do this for you" and insisted in taking us into this restaurant and buying us both the biggest combo on the menu haha. He would not take no for an answer or even give in a little bit. He just kept on saying how much he loved Jesus and how he knows we are men of Jesus.  Such a good guy. It was a pretty cool experience and as fast as he came, he was gone, leaving us to eat all this food by ourselves haha. 

Also something that happened this week was Chile played the USA in soccer but I know that none of you were probably watching it because of the super bowl. haha  USA was winning and then at the very end, Chile made two goals and they won. I got some crap from all the members and people on the streets and stuff for that but it’s all good because I know we could beat them at literally ANY other sport;) Other than those things, not much has happened.  Just a lot of contacting searching for families to bring into this gospel:) Oh that and  freezing cold showers and getting devoured by fleas haha.

 One thing that really struck me this week is I have started to notice the amazing faith that the Chilean people have. Like you can literally ask any Chilean if they believe in Jesus Christ and they practically scream YES HE IS MY SAVIOR. It’s really impressive and it’s a joy to hear every time I ask them. Well to be a hundred percent honest, lately has been a difficult patch in my mission. We haven’t had the greatest success and the days seem like years frying in the sun. But my testimony has come in strong to help me, and the thing is that I have such a strong testimony that God does have a plan for us, that as every little hard thing that happens to me, I am able to try and look at it from a growing and learning perspective. Something I have definitely gained from the mission. Also I have grown to appreciate and be so exceedingly grateful for my life before the mission, I know that being here on the mission is showing my gratefulness for the Lord. Well that’s about it for this week. Love ya guys. Hope everything is going well back home! 

Love, Elder Clay

A Baptism, Cold Showers Again, and more...

Hey guys, this week actually felt pretty long to me but I had a lot of pretty fun experiences. I started off the week going to Lota Park the last P-day. It was incredibly beautiful and it made me think of all the trips I´ve gone on with my family and friends to National Parks or hiking and things like that. There was an amazing view of the ocean and a beach and the scenery within the park was very beautiful as well.

The next day I had an intercambio with my district leader, Elder Murphy. He´s from California and has one more cambio left in the mission. Crazy stuff but he had a lot of good advice for me and gave me some suggestions on how to make more out of the mission. And that´s what I´m trying to do every day so I was grateful.

This week while we were contacting, all day every day ;), we found a guy and his family who have shared with the missionaries before and they belong to an Evangelical church, the dude was pretty convinced about his church. haha We taught him for about an hour then he taught us about his church for about 2 hours, haha we couldn´t get out!  But he was very respectful and it was interesting for me to hear about his church, which I had never heard about. Pretty interesting what they believe but everyone has their own beliefs.

Oh a thing that was amazing that happened this week, is that I got a call from my old sector Catrihuala and... CHARLOTTE'S MOM GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was honestly the greatest thing to hear and it made me so happy. I got to talk to Charlotte and her mom and they both sounded very happy. I wish I could´ve been there and seen it but still so happy to hear that it happened. I think that I have talked about this before but it is just amazing the love that you develop for people you teach and how fast and strong it comes.

The things that are constant right now in Coronel are that we have been taking cold showers for about two weeks now because our water heater is broken so that has been cool... I have actually learned to love cold showers and how good it feels after them. Also I found that it is impossible to stay away from the fleas here haha I’m going to have scars all over my legs and body when I get back from scratching them. But I’m taking many precautionary measures to try and keep them away!

The biggest thing that happened this week for sure is we had an activity for our mission! It was a giant P-day where we were all together! I have met so many people and have made some good homies. The bus rides there and back were filled with story time from all the missionaries and talking about life after and before the mish. I had a good time. It’s pretty crazy how small the world is and it’s surprising how many connections I can make with people just by knowing other people they know. At the actual activity itself we played a lot of sports, which was sometimes frustrating because we were playing a bunch of gringo sports with Latinos and they didn’t understand a lot of the time hahaha but it was a lot of fun. We also watched Meet the Mormons which was a very good movie and I recommend it to all. Well that’s about it for this week. Hope that you guys have a good week and you are all in my prayers.

Love

Elder Clay

Service, Getting Lost, Home Repairs

This week in Coronel was pretty good and I had some funny experiences. On Wednesday we did service in the morning for one of our investigators and helped them build, adding on to their house. Later that day, I walked more in one day than I ever have in my life. We went searching for a referral that we received and walked 2 hours north looking for it. Then we got lost. So we walked in the direction we thought the beach was and finally hit it. We then followed the beach line south all the way until we hit home haha. We walked for five hours straight and covered so much distance. Along the way we got to see the beach which was beyond beautiful, we found a pack of sea lions, found a jelly fish, watched a Chilean who didn´t know how to surf, Elder Knecht thought that was pretty funny, found a group of drunk guys who we talked with for quite a bit, it’s pretty funny that the nicest people to us here in Coronel and the mission are the drunk guys haha. 

Also this week there was a protest from a ton of people really close to our house because the city is going to destroy all their houses because they never bought the land they built on 12 years ago and they’re  going to build a train rail there. Pretty crazy stuff, there were burning tires everywhere blocking off all the roads and people were throwing garbage and glass and concrete blocks in the street. Smoke was everywhere. Sketchy stuff because some of the people whose houses are outside the area were trying to put out the fires and clean up the streets but that made the people who were doing it even more mad. Crazy stuff.

Another day this week we had a conference with our mission president and two other zones. That went really well and I got to see a bunch of my friends and met a bunch of other homies. I miss having Elder Casperson as a comp, we are just so similar it’s funny. Also during the conference we found out a bunch of big changes that are happening in our mission. Some good, some bad, but change is always good so I’m looking forward to that.

I received this week, the DVD that my mom and dad make every year that has a slide show of videos and pictures of my whole extended family and the experiences throughout the year, that was the best thing ever.  I love those movies. It was pretty weird seeing a half a year of stuff that I missed and next year it will be the whole year that will be new stuff to me. But this year was a lot of fun to watch and it made me realize how much I love my whole family. That’s been happening a lot on this mission. It was a pretty trunky experience but I loved it so much, so amazing, and it was all good.

I played some more soccer this week, I’m still playing so much like a gringo haha gotta get better so I can play with my soccer friends when I get back. Yesterday I had to give a talk in church that was on the importance of missionary work that was pretty easy, seeing as how that’s all I do. haha.

Also another funny experience that happened this week was me and Elder Knecht decided to do some home makeover projects which ended fairly short when I cut a wire with wire cutters and it exploded because it still had electricity running through it.  I don’t know how because I swear it wasn’t connected to anything! Elder Knecht thought that his comp died haha so funny, but external wiring is so ugly so we fixed some stuff up and now we just need to paint! I can’t wait to have my own house, going to be the best. 

Okay, spiritual thought for the week. I heard something in church that I really liked and realized. Everything that we do is directed towards our Heavenly Father but is through the name of his son, Jesus Christ. Everything. There are many ways you can interpret that sentence but I’m going to leave that up to you guys. Love and miss you all. Hope you guys have a good week! 

Elder Clay

Happy New Year in Coronel 2015

Well this week in Coronel went pretty fast with the New Year and everything. I don´t have much to write about because this week was just a lot of contacting, looking for people to teach in the extremely hot weather like usual. I am fried, but only on my face and half of my arms haha missionary tan lines are the best.

At the start of the week we came across this woman who just told us how bad she hated Mormons and was just bashing us but then we said we were from the United States, she invited us right on in haha. That´s been happening a lot with us lately where people let us in but we are pretty sure that they aren´t interested in our message, but just interested in us and want to talk to some gringos.  The new year for us as missionaries was pretty much nothing. New Year´s Eve  we spent with the Ortega Family, the same place as Christmas, where again, we spent the night with way too much blasting loud Latino dance music, eating too much food, but this night we had to be in our house by 11 and we decided to walk home instead of having a drunk guy drive us again haha. We almost got attacked by a gang of dogs which was pretty sketchy.

I passed the new year laying in my bed and I´m not sure if I was awake at 12 or not, pretty boring. I will be here for the whole year of 2015 which is crazy to think but I’m looking forward to the experiences I am going to have. 2014 was definitely one of the best years of my life and 2015 should be pretty good with my New Year´s Resolutions ;)

The first day of the new year we had free because in Chile they pretty much do all their celebrating that day. We had a zone activity where we played a lot of soccer and volleyball, ate these really good brats sandwich things, and watched the Saratov Approach, it was a pretty good day. That was the day that we just got burnt so bad so the next day we went and bought Aloe Vera and sunscreen.

Last Saturday we went and played soccer as usual. There is starting to be an abnormal amount of little kids who come and play with us. Pretty much have a whole Primary playing with us! Later that day we went to an investigators/members house where they made us sushi, which I ate for one of the first times in my life. It was surprising actually good! Kind of sketchy though, eating raw fish in Coronel.

We ended the week staying up all night because our new neighbor who just moved in is a young guy and had his birthday party.... It started at 11 and ended at 6:30 with them just blasting music and yelling and laughing all night. The comps in the other room got woken up by one of them who had been at the party and opened our window, whispering for us to open the door because they had "something" to share with us haha pretty funny. But that was the new year for me in Coronel. Hope that all you back home had a fun time celebrating and that you guys have a good 2015!

First Christmas in Chile!

This week I experienced my first Christmas in Chile! It was weird to experience it without there being snow or family and friends but I had quite the experience! Christmas Eve we had to work as missionaries until 7 and then we could celebrate with member after that. The first house that we went to there was a ton of food. There ALWAYS is a ton of food in Chile. The dad dressed up as Santa Claus and sat us missionaries on his lap one by one and gave us a present. It was pretty funny doing it in Spanish and everything.

At 10:00 we caught a miracle taxi that carried us to a family´s house who are investigators but they have a son who is on a mission. It was pretty insane there haha all the lights were off but they had Latino dance/jazz type music blasting throughout the house and they had flashing dance lights. We sat in this environment for an hour while they prepared us a huge meal.  People here eat dinner at around 10:00 pm, and gave us a present. At midnight we needed to be home so we asked if someone could give us a ride. One of the sons drove us home in his ancient pick up truck thing. I’m pretty sure he was drunk and he was flying to our house on the streets of Coronel, blasting dance music. Haha it was quite the night!

I think I did everything I could’ve to keep my mind away from homesickness but it was still a little rough. I definitely missed all the family traditions we do every year but I had some crazy fun times and experienced a Chilean Christmas! One down, one to go.

On Christmas day it was very tranquil in our house just waiting to go see our families on Skype. I opened some presents that some family and friends had sent me for Christmas which was amazing and I´m so grateful for those who did. We left for lunch and ate an amazing lunch at a members house but I was so excited to see my family I couldn’t focus on the food. After what seemed like an eternity for a morning until 4, I finally got the time to skype my family! So I got on skype and called... and called... and called... and NOBODY answered. For 20 minutes I was just chilling calling with no response haha. Finally I got answered and all my extended family had been at my house for Christmas and they were all getting ready to leave but I was able to see them all! It was so amazing and such a shock to see them I couldn’t get words to leave my mouth haha it was funny. After saying hi to all of them and speaking a little Spanish to my Grandma and cousins who know it, I had my skype sesh with my family. It was incredible to see and talk to them all. We talked about a lot of things but I feel like I could have talked to each of them for a straight day to see what going on in their life and how they’re doing but I had to summarize it all because we didn’t have a lot of time. Saying bye to them was very hard and the past couple days I just keep on thinking of more and more of  things I wish I would have said to them, but as fast as Christmas came, it was gone.

I learned a couple things over this past week. How incredible the members are who invite us and accept us, as missionaries, on Christmas, into their house when they could just spend it with their families, how much I miss and love my family, and how a Chilean Christmas is! A very good week. I hope that you all back home had a very good Christmas as well and remembered the true meaning of Christmas. 

Elder Clay