A PYTHON, PAINTBALL & TERERÉ IN A PINEAPPLE

May 9, 2018

This week was pretty cool. We've been finding some neat things happen as we try to focus our efforts more on finding, in fact, we eventually start actually finding! We've been setting the week up with tons of teaching appointments and are excited to see how things go. 

This week the ward had a temple trip and we got permission from President to go with! It was great because we could accompany John through baptisms since it would have been tricky due to his lack of Spanish abilities! All was well until a coordinator told us halfway through that he needed our help! He needed us in confirmations and I got to be the guy who records it on the temple cards with the red pencil! It was kinda fun, I'm not gonna lie. John said he really liked the temple, too, so that was great! 

We've also seen some good progress in our 3 groups of investigators. 

Rene and Mikeala:

They used to drink coffee, tea and alcohol but now, Rene only smokes, and only 1 cigarette a day at that! That's big progress for him! We also talked about marriage and they told us they just want us to tell them when they need to go to ask for an appointment at the "registro civil." [city hall] So, they're quite serious about their preparation for baptism.

Ramses (13) and Watson (9):

Our two Haitian kids. Things were a bit difficult because their parents are attending an Evangelical church right now. However, since they really like the lessons, we decided to invite them to a baptismal date. Ramses said he'd like to but in 3 months. (oh boy) We'll see. We still have a lot of things to clear up and review with them so for now it's fine and we'll likely see if we can move it closer in the future.  

Jorge and Noemi (Less Active):

We decided to go over Alma 32 with them and help them to better understand the conversion process. It worked pretty well. They understood it really well, especially Jorge. The main challenge will be helping them to get married. They'll probably want to but they are struggling financially and have lots of things to do so it'll be tough. I think Jorge will really come around though.

That was this week. Hope you all have a good one!

-Elder Sierra

I got to hold a python. Behind that smile is pure fear! 

Tereré in a frozen pineapple. W

e took a pineapple, took out the middle parts, then made a juice with the middle parts and some store-bought pineapple juice, froze the pineapple and chilled the juice 

and we threw in some guaraná yerba. It was intense,

Paintball Wars

The best Chilean sushi I think I've had

'SMALL THINGS THAT PROCEED GREAT THINGS' KIND OF WEEK

May 2, 2018

This week was a lot of looking, I'd say finding, but that infers that we found. I have faith we will find, but for now, we're looking! The investigators we have are actually progressing a little. One in particular, Jorge, has been looking really good. Before I got with my new comp, we hadn't had much of a chance to teach him a full lesson. He's the partner of a less-active whose parents are members. Her dad actually died only a couple months ago and I think that softened them both up a bit. In the last week, we got to teach Jorge a couple times and they were both very good lessons. He had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and was really showing desires to understand. 

We had the chance to serve them a couple of times, both him and Noemi (his partner). It's helped us gain more trust with them and I think they'll start progressing a little more now. 

We also had a fun ward movie night yesterday. We watched the 20 minute Restoration and then afterward, watched Coco. We also had a projector and some popcorn. It was a pretty successful activity. We had about 40 people there and 5 investigators between ourselves and the sisters. 

Today we just watched The Saratov Approach with the district and bought some groceries. Later we plan to eat at Subway. We're excited! 

Anyway, it hasn't been a bad week, but rather one of those "small things that proceeds great things" type of week. Hope you're all doing well! Have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

A NEW COMPANION & PING PONG SHENANIGANS

April 25, 2017

So transfers came and my comp was called to serve somewhere else. The entire weekend I was praying hard to have an especially good companion because I knew he'd likely be my last one and the companion can make a big difference. I really wanted a comp that'd work hard and who'd help me finish the mission with a good taste in my mouth. 

I got my wish 100%! I'm with Elder Pardo now! He's Canadian but his dad was born in Chile. He has 6 months and I'm showing him how to be a DL. He's super nice and very chill. 

It's also good because I'll need a very good comp to get this sector in better shape. Yesterday, I had my first two lessons in creole without my old comp/creole teacher, though it went pretty well. 

We had some fun this p-day playing around-the-world ping pong and a new game called blow-pong.

Have a great week!

Elder Sierra

My new companion, Elder Pardo, and me.

Ping Pong Shenanigans

PUPPIES, A PREPARATORY PIZZA HUT AND OUR SECTOR'S A BIT BETTER 

April 18, 2018

Hey so this week went pretty well. The sector's getting a bit better and we had a good zone conference that gave us some ideas. We've been finding some nice investigators but it's hard to get some that progress. 

We do have some investigators that started to progress recently: Rene and Mykalea. They're both Haitian. Rene speaks a little Spanish but Mykaela doesn't speak any so we teach them mostly in Creole. Rene has had a pretty hard time, mainly because he found out he had cancer while he was here in Chile. It's a really big trial for him but he seems to be hanging in there. He also can't read so it just makes things tough. However, he had lots of problems with the Word of Wisdom and said he got an answer from God about it so he's stopped! They also agreed to get married in order to live the law of chastity. 

We got out of lunch right across the street from our chapel and saw two puppies in the churchyard. A neighbor told us some guys threw them onto our church property and left them there. In Chile, the Church properties are closed off with fences so the puppies stayed there. Seeing two puppies abandoned at the church moved the sister missionaries to take them home for the night! They then took them to church to ask the members to find a home for them. Eventually, the bishop and his family took them in until they find them a home. 

In other news, our Haitian convert, John, was ordained to the Priesthood and passed the sacrament last Sunday. That was pretty cool.

So, that's the news for this week. We worked hard and it passed pretty quickly. Have a good one everyone!

-Elder Sierra

Eating lunch at Pizza Hut last week. It's like a 'lesser' Pizza Hut. One could call it a 'preparatory Pizza Hut'. Someone who's not used to pizza could start there and then go on to the greater Pizza Hut. =)

My companion and me at the temple this week.

HAVE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BUN IN THE TINIEST OF AREAS.

April 11, 2018

This week was a bit of a toughy although my companion finally started really feeling better and we were able to start working 100% again. Coming into the area things were looking good; there were a good deal of investigators, but we've been losing quite a few and have been having to drop some others. It's kind of been taking a toll on my companion's ánimo (energy, excitement) and I've been trying to help him out. My new area is a whopping .3 square miles! The small size makes things a bit discouraging for my comp since he's contacted just about every home in the area. We're going to see what we can do though; we've been trying to talk with members to get them to talk more with their friends and what not. 

We had interviews with President again on Monday and it was super chill cause I'm a little on my way out now and he knows I'm tranquilo. It was so funny because he was just like, "Well, there's not too much to talk about; you're going home soon anyways." And I just sat there like, kinda sniffling. However he did recognize that the ward I'm in has had some trouble in the past. 

We did recently find a Haitian that we thought we had lost contact with. He was excited to see us and said that he had started working so he had a different schedule. 

We saw a police car chase the other day! One car went zooming by cutting off cars through lanes of traffic and then a Police Charger flew by a few seconds later. 

Otherwise, I'm doing fine. We'll be seeing what happens. We're gonna have to think outside the bun on this one.

That's it. It's not too much cause not too much happened. 

Cultural note: Here in Chile we yell, "Alo" instead of knocking on the door because everybody uses little fences around their yard due to the delinquency here. You go up to the fence and yell (preferably with your diaphragm). Thanks to choir and voice lessons, I've got some pretty good 'alos'! But then, people don't actually walk out to their little fence or yell across the yard to respond.

It's the beginning of Fall here in Santiago. Have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

GRAND THEFT AUTO AND A NEW HAITIAN INVESTIGATOR

April 4, 2018

This week was very intense for all the stuff that happened! My companion got a painful lip infection, there was a delinquency holiday here in Chile on Thursday and then, we had the Easter General Conference over the weekend! 

On Sunday, the family that was giving us lunch got their car stolen on the way home from the stake center! Some people in a car blocked them off and pointed a gun at them and had them give up all their jewelry and money. They then went off with the car. The family had insurance, but it was a bit crazy because our ward is not too bad, so for people to be doing grand theft auto was a bit intense.  

Things in the area have been a bit slow since my companion has been having it rough. He was poorly diagnosed by a doctor in a random urgent care so he's been taking antibiotics for a viral infection. We saw a doctor at a much better clinic today and now he should be better within a few days. 

We did have a little miracle of the week, though. We went to find some Haitian investigators, but they weren't home so we started talking to the nice Haitian who answered the door and it turned out he'd been in Chile only 8 days, which is why we had never met him. We got to teach him the Restoration and he really liked it and accepted a baptismal date! That was Monday and to see how things were going we called him yesterday and he said he had read the chapter in the BoM we assigned him! He seems quite promising! 

Our recent convert, John, is doing great! He came to 4 of the 5 sessions of Conference and watched them in French. He loved it and has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot! He's already in 2 Nephi 26. I got to explain to him what priestcraft was.  

That's about it for this week! Have a good one!

-Elder Sierra

MY CREOLE'S GETTING BETTER AND JOHN GETS CONFIRMED

March 28, 2018

So this week, I finally got to meet the ward because last week was stake conference. There weren't too many to meet but the ones we have are really cool. 

My comp got the flu this week so we weren't able to work very much between his vomiting and what not. He also had an ulcer (on his lip) that got infected and started to cause him severe pain so we had to go to the urgent care last night. He's still hurting, but he's better and has the meds he needs. 

My Creole is getting surprisingly better. I'm now teaching in full "ping-pong" with my comp. What's actually hard is not speaking, but really just understanding, since the grammar's quite simple and the vocabulary's all similar. 

We're not even making any efforts to find Haitians anymore but we just talk to people that live with our investigators and end up getting more! 

Our ward's proving to be very good to them and supportive, so we don't have to worry too much. 

John got confirmed this Sunday and is excited to get the Aaronic Priesthood and help with the Sacrament. He's super cool. 

Today we watched Finding Dory and ate some Sloppy Joes as a district. 

Anyway, that was my week, have a good one everybody!

-Elder Sierra

This is John our Haitian convert. He's a gem. Also, my shirt in this photo is 100% wet 'cause we forgot to get an extra shirt for John so we traded right before and then right after the baptism. So the shirt I'm wearing is the one he got baptized in.