LA PACIENCIA ES LA CIENCIA DE PAZ

February 8, 2017

Hi Family,

Wow! Looks like you guys have just been havin' a ball!

In the sector we got a new girl to teach who's about 9. She's the friend of an 11-year-old girl who just got baptized. She was just around one day and we started teaching her and now, we've taught her 3 times and she's pretty focused on progressing. It's pretty cool! Her name's Emily (so many people give American names to their kids here. It's weird) Samirah's (Emily's friend) grandmother raises her because Samirah's mom is a drug addict. She's a very good member who just reactivated and is helping us all the time with Emily and will help us bring her to church! 

Another family we're teaching is the Espinoza family. And well... it's a bit interesting. The mom is a less active member and so is the 12 year old daughter. The dad isn't a member but would be by now if he were married to his.... not wife. Lots of people don't get around to getting married here!!! Marcelo's eventually going to marry Patty (thus are their names) but they've  tried a bunch of times and just don't have tons of success doing it. It's hard! 

We've (mainly the elders before me) been teaching the 8 year old son and he's about ready for baptism. When I arrived they went on vacation and so we waited for them to get back. My comp (who only just recently finished his training) told me that bishop said it was a ward baptism because the mom's a member... I thought that was fishy, but I just went with the flow. So that meant we needed the bishop to set a baptismal date for us. (even though the ward has done little to nothing for the spiritual development of this boy). Fast forward to yesterday: I was on divisions with my District leader (he's a straight savage & excellent missionary) and I told him the situation and he was like "naw uh!" (but in Spanish). He said that the parents gotta be active for it to be from the ward. Fast forward to last night. One of the elders that I live with mentioned that the bishop tried to do that before with him but he straight shut him down and threatened to call President because bishops don't have the keys for that. So now I'm going to have to call President to ask him if it is a ward baptism or not and then shut down the bishop (hopefully without damaging our relationship) if he tries to baptize the boy, Kenai. 

Okay, I won't "shut him down", but it will make me happy deep down inside to politely let him know what he can't do, with love and kindness. There are some other things a little messed up in the bishopric... and in the stake.... (except for Carlos! he's super awesome!!!)) 

So, that's where we're at mostly! A bit crazy, but yeah. This transfers been going by FAST! More than halfway through already!!! I don't know [about my package], but I'll just wait and chill. As they say in Spanish, "Paciencia es la ciencia de paz." ('ciencia' meaning science and 'paz' meaning peace)

Happy Valentines day!

-Elder Sierra

I'm in this! Wo hoo!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1eq24hN-YYLamVKRXFNVGpWNTA/view?ts=589b61d5

SENIOR COMP, OUT-OF-CONTROL FIRES AND CHILENO FLAITE

February 1, 2017

Dear Family,

This has been my second week in my sector with my junior companion. Things are neat. We're trying to do what we can to help the members in this ward and bring more people in but it's quite the 'toughy'. We had a interview with President and he was pretty dang cool! We're gonna be having them now every 6 weeks rather than 3 months! It's gonna be so cool! We also get zone conferences every 6 weeks which also used to be every 3 months. We have one tomorrow, actually, and over there I should be able to pick up my package because it wasn't there on Monday. 

One of the funny things President pointed out in the interview was his indifference to whether or not the chapel closes. He pointed out that, for the majority of the ward, the new chapel would be the same distance or closer and it's a much nicer chapel. (Our current one's pretty lame.) He even mentioned the chapel might not even be able to hold 80 people which was funny because it was totally true! It could barely squeeze in 80! We'll keep working though! (If we keep the chapel we could probably write that movie!)

Being the senior comp is neat but sometimes frustrating due to the youngness of my companion. I gotta work pretty hard to memorize all the streets and such and also lead the majority of the lessons. But it's swell. We're doing weekly activities in the chapel now and the next one is a Taekwondo night! I'm getting so hyped! It's been a long while! The two other elders in my ward have 2 investigators that are taking tae kwan do. They're (and probably I, as well) are going to teach it. 

In reference to the out of control fires and bad air: That's happened once where president sent a text saying "yo, don't go work during these hours" and we were like "ok" and that was it. He does also say that we should try to go work in the non-afternoon hours... The air isn't that bad but it's also hot so I guess the two or something. I'm just doing my thing and staying out of the heat during those hours anyway cause it's wicked hot out!

Lots of love!

-Elder Sierra

Here's a recording of a returned missionary reading verses from the Book of Mormon using Chileno flaite. For those of you who already speak Spanish it's the slang dialect that urban youth use to distinguish themselves allí.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1P3D7OIckQ

JUST NEED A FEW (OR A TON) OF MIRACLES AND WE CAN GET THINGS GOING HERE!

January 25, 2017

Dear Family,

WOW! A LOT has been happening over there, hasn't it?

Well, here stuff is going down as well. We've had little miracles here and there in the ward that are making things look bright for our monsterous challenge ahead of us. We knocked a single door Sunday and it happened to be a man who had been baptized a long time ago, started to go inactive, and started to drink. When we came by, we hardly explained who we were or really anything and he invited us in! He then said his wife had taken the kids out of the house for the while cause she was mad he was drinking. He said he had felt that someone was going to come by that day to change his way of thinking. We planned to see him and his family and asked if he could come to church!

We're also doing a lot of planning for activities, 6 months of activities! But it's so we can get a little budget from President Gwilliam to help us. Apparently, the new initiative with missionary work in the area is going to be ward activities and we came to him, like, 3 days ago to talk to him about doing regular ones (#revelación) 

That's really awesome to hear you're so involved in humanitarian work! That must be a blast! What a difference you'll be making!

I don't know what else to mention. This new sector is pretty hard but there are some helpful members here and there. I'll just need a few (or a ton of) miracles and we can get things going. 

Hugs to all!

-Elder Sierra