RUBIK'S CUBE...JUST ANOTHER ONE OF THE THINGS YOU LEARN IN THE MISH

December 28, 2016

Sorry about being on so early (I don't like it either :/ ) The thing is, we don't have anything planned today aside from making lunch in the house. What ends up happening is that we have to go over to this big metro which has kinda like a little mall attached to it to buy food and write (there are other places but we prefer nicer internet so we can upload pics and such). So, we go over here and we have to write 'cause we need to grab groceries and get home and make food and still have time to relax a little with what's left of the day. 

Anyway, not a lot has happened this week since Christmas. We met with our bishop to talk to him about certain things regarding the ward and he's so excited to work with us and strengthen the ward. It was awesome! Aside from that, we've just been repairing the damage from Christmas, finding people and setting appointments and such. We found an old investigator again and taught her the Plan of Salvation and she was really, really focused and it seems like there might be some potential in her. It's always so tough 'cause these people are always busy!!!...

...Sandra's still doing well. It's only been two days since Christmas but we're going to teach her tomorrow so we shall see. If it goes well, we could have a baptism on our hands soon; it all just depends. 

So yeah, it was really awesome being able to talk to you guys Christmas! It was so weird but also really natural! Hearing your accents was also interesting, too! I totally forgot how they sounded and they're so different from the accent here!

Oh! By the way, I also learned how to solve a rubik's cube! I started learning Christmas and now I can do it completely!!! 

Just another one of the things ya learn on the mish.

Love you all,

Elder Sierra

WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT YOUR P-DAY AND YOUR BROTHER'S WEDDING FALL ON THE SAME DAY OF THE WEEK?!


December 21, 2016

Today, Elder Sierra's brother was sealed in the Provo City Center Temple in Provo, Utah, so his time online was spent exchanging greetings and watching videos and pictures them outside the temple, etc. 
Instead of a letter, he sent a video of him giving a surprise toast to his brother for the reception.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2t2t9sIUvhZUmZ1REZJTDN5LUk/view?ts=585ad240

TOUGH WEEK...LAZIEST BUSY PEOPLE?

December 14, 2017

Hey mom! First off.... um ... So I was recording the toast last night and the camera died... and my adaptor has broken... So I wasn't able to get it out... BUT there's no need to fear! It's charging here 'cause of the usb port on the computer and it'll have plenty for the rest of the week. I'll wake up 30 mins early tomorrow, record it and send it out Friday while we're at the chapel, or Sunday. I know I'm cutting it close but honestly it's really hard to do with the type of time we have! 

Anyway I didn't end up getting a package Monday so I'll just wait I guess; it's no big deal. It'll just be a more concentrated 12 days of Christmas. I also talked to my comp and he was super chill about getting on to write at a specific time. He's a real nice guy! 

This week has been another really hard week. It's tough to be the one that knows the sector 'cause you have to lead EVERYTHING: the lessons, planning. I have to make almost EVERY DECISION until my comp learns the area!

Most of our teaching pool has been pretty lame recently! Always working and never being home for our appointments!!! I have a couple of promising ones but they're fairly recent. But anyone who actually completes a commitment every now and then is a miracle! 

(I love Chileans but they are the laziest busy people you'll ever meet!!!)

Also something funny, Elder Canaán (My comp) says that my mannerisms and my accent, to an extent, are quite Cuban! He even said that before I told him I was part Cuban! How neat it that?! I'm interested to hear you guys' accent when we Skype!

Speaking of Skype! If you can make yourselves available for most the day on Christmas that'd be helpful, I won't have really many options for the time I do the call but I'll let you know what it is next week. 

I don't have much to talk about besides that. Send me more pictures and videos!!! (by the way, did you ever get stuff from the play? I know that was a while ago but it'd still be cool to see!)

Take Care!

Elde Sierra

WORKING ON MY SPANISH FLUENCY AND GOING HAM ON MY AREA WITH MY NEW COMPANION

December 7, 2016

Dear Family,

Can you believe it? 4 months already? Although it does feel fast, it also has basically felt like all I've known! Everything is so different here it's seriously like another life. 

Anyway, transfers came and my trainer left for the opposite side of the mission and I got Elder Canaán! He's a little Mexican dude and he's pretty cool! He's actually only been in the mission for 2 more transfers than me! And, he just finished training someone directly after his training! I brought my camera with some pictures but I think I forgot my cord so it looks like we'll have to wait till next week :/  I'm excited to work with him and just go ham in this sector!

I'm really wanting to get my Spanish better and better so I can speak with less trouble and I can connect with my companion better. I can usually say whatever I want but as you know, fluency is a whole nother level!  I live with 2 latinos and a gringo (and then myself) so I'm mostly speaking Spanish almost all day. I also speak to Elder Scott in English here and there but the other 2 elders don't like to be left out (understandably). 

Also in regards to the toast [for John Gregory's wedding reception], I'm very sorry but I haven't gotten the chance to work on it since last week!!! I'm really sorry but my trainer kept us out late for the last 3 nights doing farewells and we got home late so I really didn't have time! I'm SUPER busy this week too 'cause I also have to do a LOT of work in the Area book, but I'm literally going to do all I can to get out a finished version for this next p-day. 

Those gosh darn reactivations didn't happen last week!!! I don't know what happened with one couple but the wife of the other did something to destroy her foot and she couldn't even fit it into her shoe. This next week, I'm going to try hard again to get it to happen and also to get bishop to give them some assignments/callings. 

So I'm getting a 12 days of Christmas!?!?! :D

Wow! I'll look for that on Monday! There's not really a way to get it any sooner cause I won't be going to the office. We got a tree, though, from Bishop!!! It's like 5 or 6 feet tall and Elder Canaan got some lights from a missionary who was going home so it also has some lights on it! It's kinda lame, this whole music thing. Maybe he'll make some exceptions around Christmas but I don't know. 

I'm now forced to speak a lot more Spanish so hopefully it helps me. In lessons things run pretty dang smoothly but outside of lessons and explaining really difficult things is when things get rough. Also this is a TOUGH accent and being in the poorest part of the city people don't speak perfect castellano. I'm hoping to develop an accent similar to that of my comp.

Anyway, we're just going to be basically rebooting this sector cause after my trainer did farewells we lost contact with a lot of the investigators we have so we're working to restore contact. 

That's mostly all I have for this week. Love you all!

-Elder Sierra

INVESTIGATORS, SOCCER AND SWARMA

November 30, 2016

Dear Family,

My health was back to normal the day after I wrote you all. I ended up feeling crappy the entire day, but Thanksgiving I felt fine and even ate some pie!!! The mission gave every district a pie and we ate pie as a zone in the stake center. It was apple pie and pretty dang tasty!

I was kinda touched to hear that you guys did a toast to me at Thanksgiving :) That made me warm inside! 

Also, I had no idea you guys get the Mensajero! (mission president's weekly letter to the missionaries). That's kinda funny! They're pretty neat, aren't they? Do you get the entire thing with the page of people that have been reactivated and/or baptized and the names of the missionaries involved? If you do you'd best look closely for next week's!!! We bout ta get 4 (hopefully four) reactivations up in here!!!! 

Mom, I would KILL for an investigator like you were!!! The fact that you got baptized so fast is a real testament to how in tune you are with the Spirit and how you accept truth so well! 

Things have been spicing up a bit lately! Remember Coni? We hadn't visited her for about 2 weeks and were gonna visit her. We were thinking about just dropping her, but we asked her a bunch of questions and she seemed different! Still difficult but she had a different attitude with our lesson! Now we just have to see if she does her homework! If she does she'll be once again on track for baptism! 

Also, Eric, our Hatian buddy, came to church last Sunday! It was way cool. Even though we got there late and for only the last half of the sacrament itself, it was still cool and he was glued to the talks! He said afterward he really liked how peaceful it was! We're trying to see if we can get him on a date for January, maybe the 1st. The thing is, we only visit him once a week, if that. 

We also have this girl that's been coming to young women group lessons E´Sims and I have been doing. She's come to church twice already on HER OWN and she isn't a member! E´Sims and I didn't realize the other missionaries hadn't even started teaching her but we've ended up teaching her 5 group lessons and 1 1-on-1 lesson with her! Her name is Judith and at this point, even though she doesn't live in our sector, we might teach her because we have known her a long time and the other missionaries don't really know her. Anyway, those are the most exciting investigators (for now!)

Today we went to a big soccer field and played full field soccer. It was really fun and it made it more even for the gringos because the latinos have more skill, but we gringos are, on average, just more athletic, so it was a blast! We also tried out some Swarma. It was Super delicious! We have a photo of that too. That's mostly all this week! Next week you'll see my new companion (12 weeks in the field already!!!) And I'm completing 4 months in the mission this Friday!

Thanks for the support.

Love you all!

-Elder Sierra

PRAYER WORKS PEOPLE!!!

November 23, 2016

Dear Family,

Imma be honest: this week was kinda lame! I got sick AGAIN!!! It started Saturday night and I'm still frickin' sick. It's honestly a miracle I'm out and about. I had to stay inside Sunday except I went to church to take the Sacrament and direct a youth musical number (just a hymn, nothing special, but no one here can direct music save a couple other people in the ward). 

One cool thing, though, was that while I was home from church I just decided to watch the entire district (2) which is half-inspiring and half-depressing because you never get such amazing members or ward leaders like they show in the district because we're in Chile and that just plain out doesn't happen here.... at all. But I was feeling like I should pray for some more members to go out with and for stronger leadership. The next day we were able to do a correlation with our ward mission leader (which is usually very hard to make happen) and he had all of this newfound enthusiasm! He was saying how he wants to meet up TWICE a week to go over things and is coming out with us to an FHE with a new part-member family that just moved in! He's never gone out with us before so that was awesome! Also, yesterday, our 21-year-old elders quorum president called us to see when he could go out with us for lessons as well! Prayer works people!!!

We have also been getting pounded by new rules recently. We can no longer listen to any music that is not published by the Church, so pretty much EFY and Motab from now on. And also, we have to be in proselyting clothes to go buy groceries or write emails at public cafes. This one is especially rough because we have to walk everywhere and usually our sports-orientated p-day activities are about 20-30 mins away, so we now have to walk back home, change, and go walk an extra 25-30 min to our local Líder (Walmart) to buy things and write emails. We may consider taking a change of sports clothes just in our backpacks from now on. So that, plus the whole *not leaving the mission thing when you're the smallest mission in the world* is a bit of a bummer now! Anyway that's really all that's worth sharing this week... The end of my training is coming up real soon!!!

Love you all,

-Elder Sierra

I KNOW IT WAS HIS INFLUENCE THAT LED US TO FIND THAT FAMILY

November 16, 2016

Dear Family and Friends,

This week there has been a lot going on in terms of proselyting! We've got tons of things to do all the time and it's pretty tiring! I'll be honest. In my last area (6 months), we were always so exhausted that when we learned that President Kimball took a 15-minute power nap daily, I decided to follow his example. The trick was not to just go to sleep for an hour but to take a 20-minute nap. It made such a difference! I could power through until midnight somedays. (We actually had permission to work until midnight if we needed to!)

We had a really cool experience Sunday night! We were going from one appointment to the next one, which was about 15 mins away (cause we walk everywhere :( ), and we were already going to be about 5 minutes late. However, on the way there we saw this guy walking with a walker SUPER slowly, like, he took a step every 3 seconds. We passed by him without offering our help because we figured we were late enough but then, we kept looking back and by the time we were about 30 yards past we decided to run back and help him. We had the guy sit on his walker/stroller thingy and asked him where he lived so we could push him there. He ended up living about 15-20 minutes away!!! (and that's for fast-paced missionaries) 

When we got to his house he thanked us and walked inside. He actually lived behind another house (very common in Chile; people live on top of each other a bit) and there was a women there who started talking to us and thanking us for the service. She was his neighbor but thought it was cool that we helped him. She said he usually gets home around 2-3 in the morning! (this was about 9:30ish at night) We were about to just leave and try to salvage our appointment but the women was so kind that instead, we started talking to her and began to share about the gospel. She was very, very interested and we started sharing the Plan of Salvation. Then her husband showed up and I thought he was going to try to shut us down but then he was also super interested and started asking us about José Smith and why he was so important! It was unreal! They invited us inside and we taught them for a good little while and then the both of them started crying and said they've been through such hard times. We talked to them about the healing power of the gospel and set up another appointment. They were basically estactic to read the pamphlet we left them! So we'll see what comes from this but it was just a super cool experience on following the Holy Ghost because I know it was His influence that lead us to find that family.

On a less spiritual, but much tastier note, we made fried chicken wings in buffalo sauce at a less active's home. Elder Sims used to make fried wings at a B-Dubs back in Utah so he showed us how it's done. It's actually stupidly easier than I thought!!!!

That's mostly all I have to share for this week! 

Lots of  Love!

-Elder Sierra

FASTING WORKS! 

Nov. 9, 2016

Dear Family,

So this week was supposed to be super awesome with tons of progress but despite working hard and getting lots of lessons in, we didn't have as much traction as we'd hoped. Remember our golden investigator Coni? We might have to drop her!!! It's super lame and she hasn't been doing anything! We gave her some super simple homework last week saying to read a chapter,6 verses a day, at the beginning of her studies and also start with a prayer and we promised it would help her. If she doesn't we might end up letting her go for about a couple weeks or even longer. 

One really cool thing that happened, though, was that for Fast Sunday I fasted so that we could get some baptismal dates on our investigators (and some other stuff, but mostly that). Because we had a big activity with a part member family that included an Asado (bar-b-que?) on Saturday, we started our fast on Sunday after lunch to Monday at lunch. The same day we finished our fast, one of our weakest investigators said she wanted to get baptized and we set a date for her! We also starting re-teaching an ancient investigator and we'll try to set up a date for next time! 

We also had interviews with President yesterday and it was awesome. He talked about some stuff and it was pretty chill.

Oh yeah, so there's this new rule in all of south America that we can't leave our missions anymore for p-day! President actually tried to get an exception because there's like NOTHING in our mission (it's basically just the poorest 1/8 of Santiago) but he was denied! It's kinda sad but what evs, I guess. We can still go to the temple 6x a year. 

We also went to Micky D's on Monday and I got a dope dijon mustard burger combo! What a splendid way to break a fast it was!!! And, I almost tried a flurry with TOBLERONE!!! but when I asked them about it they didn't even have it despite all their huge banners promoting it and a tv playing commercials about it!! Chile sometimes....

Anyway, things are looking good right now. For p-day today we went to a chapel to have a little water balloon fight, watch The Lion King and have a little asado. 

That`s about all for this week!

Chao!

-Elder Sierra

THERE ARE LOTS OF DOGS IN CHILE!

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

No letter today. Elder Sierra sent a voice recording instead.



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2t2t9sIUvhZSl90ZVpPc1Nlbmc/view?ts=581a3897