December 28, 2013
Mom,
Well... We found out our cambios today! Let me just say.... really unexpected. Really unexpected. So President Rappleye called and said Elder Borup was going to Fitzroy in Punta Arenas. And me...Also to Punta Arenas, Porvenir. Let me tell you a little bit about Porvenir. It is the furthest south city in the entire mission, and probably the furthest south city of any mission in the entire world. That will be as close as I could possibly get to the Antarctica. To get there...I have to take a bus, a plane, another bus, and a boat to get to where I am going. Crazy, right? It is completely isolated from everything. We will be the only two missionaries down there. I will be with Elder Keetch. There isn´t a grocery store or anything in the city, so we buy all of our groceries once like every six weeks! We don´t attend district meetings or anything, because we are too far away from everyone and everything. We only leave the sector once every six weeks! Crazy! Haha. Kind of funny, but I am going to the only zone in the whole mission where we can use sunglasses. The hole in the ozone layer is right above Punta Arenas, supposedly.
Christmas was good. It was a little weird talking to you people, though. It seemed almost a little bit like talking to strangers. Maybe that is because I have been gone for such a long time. It was good though. Crazy to think I only have one more phone call left in my entire mission, right? Weird stuff. You seemed... okay. You actually seemed a little sad to me; which makes me kind of sad. I don´t want you to be sad or anything! Don´t be sad!!! Keep your head up and keep moving forward. I love you.
I don´t have a lot more to say. I am doing just fine. I was sick... super sick yesterday. I slept all day. But I am a little better now. Hey.... you won´t hear from me until next Monday, just so you know. I will have P-day on Mondays again.
Elder Warren
P.S. By the way.... they are taking both of us out of Ovejería and putting in Hermana’s. Crazy stuff.
Elder McKay Marble Warren~~ Chile Osorno Mission
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Christmastime in Osorno, Chile
 |
| Elder Warren and Elder Borup |
 |
| Christmas Activity at the Church |
 |
| Singing in the Plaza |
 |
 |
| Silvinia has a baptismal date of January 18, 2014 |
 |
| Looks like a pedicure for these two!! |
Merry Christmas!!!
December 21, 2013
Mama
Hey... I hope that you are doing very well and that you are having a good week. Staying strong and being positive. I want you to know that all is well here. Todo Bien.
Here is what I read to keep me going along.
Doctrine and Covenants 31
1 Thomas, my son, blessed are you because of your faith in my work.
2 Behold, you have had many afflictions because of your family; nevertheless, I will bless you and your family, yea, your little ones; and the day cometh that they will believe and know the truth and be one with you in my church.
3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.
4 You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned.
5 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.
6 Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them.
7 Yea, I will open the hearts of the people, and they will receive you. And I will establish a church by your hand;
So... there you go. That is the scripture that has been helping me. I am fine. I am good. I am not going to let something like this distract me from what is important. The hardest thing for me is probably not being there to help you out. I worry about you and how you are going to go about doing all of your things without any help. But hey, I have faith that the Lord is going to provide for my family while I am here.
I want you to know that I haven´t gotten the package sent home... but I did finish all of the Christmas cards. It took me forever. There are like 50 of them, so you are going to have to be on top of delivering them. Haha. The people will probably get them by Valentine’s Day.
To answer your question about the weather; it is really hot here right now and it isn´t raining. It is about 90 degrees and it is humid. I wear a short sleeve shirt every single day, and I have probably the sweetest tan line ever from where my watch is. Hey... I want you to know also that I wear that red watch all the time, just like back in the good old days. But yeah... in our bedroom in the house it is usually in the 90s. And no, there is no such thing as air conditioning in the majority of the houses. If you send chocolate... it might melt, but I don’t know. It can be refrozen in our house. (We have a freezer).
That is very nice of Uncle Butch to send me Christmas money. Hey, I made him a Christmas card, so he will get that eventually. I will also whip out a thank you note at some point.
I like to sing... but we have been doing WAY too much of it. Haha. We have been singing more than we have been actually working. Last night we went and sang in the plaza. I sent pictures of that. It was cool. Then we had a Christmas activity in the church and our baptismal goal came!
The baptismal goal is named Silvina. She is legit. Her dad is a member, named Orlando. He is blind (visually); but she is progressing a ton. We basically teach her every single day and we leave homework for her to do, like answer questions about chapters in the Book of Mormon. And she actually does everything we ask her to do! That is the cool part. She will get baptized. We got the fecha for the 18th of January. So we will see how that goes. I am pretty confident that it will happen. We have had some really powerful lessons with some serious guidance from the spirit.
I hope that you enjoy the photos today! I only sent about 30 of them. Haha. There is one of us at the infamous foot doctor. She looked at my feet again, and they look pretty good she said. Nothing is ingrown. Nothing is wrong. So... that is good.
In other news...I think I could probably shave twice a day... because I basically have a beard by the end of each day. You can actually see the shadow in a lot of the photos.
Hey... make sure that you keep the blog nice and updated. Elder Borup’s family lives vicariously through my photos because Elder Borup doesn´t send any pictures home. I think his camera got a virus or something. Deal?
Well, I think that is all for me for now. I will be looking forward to seeing you on Christmas! Have your questions ready for me... because we both know how fast that time passes on the phone.
Elder Warren
 |
| Singing in the Plaza |
Mama
Hey... I hope that you are doing very well and that you are having a good week. Staying strong and being positive. I want you to know that all is well here. Todo Bien.
Here is what I read to keep me going along.
Doctrine and Covenants 31
1 Thomas, my son, blessed are you because of your faith in my work.
2 Behold, you have had many afflictions because of your family; nevertheless, I will bless you and your family, yea, your little ones; and the day cometh that they will believe and know the truth and be one with you in my church.
3 Lift up your heart and rejoice, for the hour of your mission is come; and your tongue shall be loosed, and you shall declare glad tidings of great joy unto this generation.
4 You shall declare the things which have been revealed to my servant, Joseph Smith, Jun. You shall begin to preach from this time forth, yea, to reap in the field which is white already to be burned.
5 Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.
6 Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word, and I will prepare a place for them.
7 Yea, I will open the hearts of the people, and they will receive you. And I will establish a church by your hand;
So... there you go. That is the scripture that has been helping me. I am fine. I am good. I am not going to let something like this distract me from what is important. The hardest thing for me is probably not being there to help you out. I worry about you and how you are going to go about doing all of your things without any help. But hey, I have faith that the Lord is going to provide for my family while I am here.
I want you to know that I haven´t gotten the package sent home... but I did finish all of the Christmas cards. It took me forever. There are like 50 of them, so you are going to have to be on top of delivering them. Haha. The people will probably get them by Valentine’s Day.
To answer your question about the weather; it is really hot here right now and it isn´t raining. It is about 90 degrees and it is humid. I wear a short sleeve shirt every single day, and I have probably the sweetest tan line ever from where my watch is. Hey... I want you to know also that I wear that red watch all the time, just like back in the good old days. But yeah... in our bedroom in the house it is usually in the 90s. And no, there is no such thing as air conditioning in the majority of the houses. If you send chocolate... it might melt, but I don’t know. It can be refrozen in our house. (We have a freezer).
That is very nice of Uncle Butch to send me Christmas money. Hey, I made him a Christmas card, so he will get that eventually. I will also whip out a thank you note at some point.
I like to sing... but we have been doing WAY too much of it. Haha. We have been singing more than we have been actually working. Last night we went and sang in the plaza. I sent pictures of that. It was cool. Then we had a Christmas activity in the church and our baptismal goal came!
The baptismal goal is named Silvina. She is legit. Her dad is a member, named Orlando. He is blind (visually); but she is progressing a ton. We basically teach her every single day and we leave homework for her to do, like answer questions about chapters in the Book of Mormon. And she actually does everything we ask her to do! That is the cool part. She will get baptized. We got the fecha for the 18th of January. So we will see how that goes. I am pretty confident that it will happen. We have had some really powerful lessons with some serious guidance from the spirit.
I hope that you enjoy the photos today! I only sent about 30 of them. Haha. There is one of us at the infamous foot doctor. She looked at my feet again, and they look pretty good she said. Nothing is ingrown. Nothing is wrong. So... that is good.
In other news...I think I could probably shave twice a day... because I basically have a beard by the end of each day. You can actually see the shadow in a lot of the photos.
Hey... make sure that you keep the blog nice and updated. Elder Borup’s family lives vicariously through my photos because Elder Borup doesn´t send any pictures home. I think his camera got a virus or something. Deal?
Well, I think that is all for me for now. I will be looking forward to seeing you on Christmas! Have your questions ready for me... because we both know how fast that time passes on the phone.
Elder Warren
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
A Pretty Good Week!
December 14, 2013
Hey,
I hope you are doing well! Haha. It is kind of funny that we are like chatting live here on the computer. Haha. Pero Mientras... Le Voy a Escribir.
So this week was a pretty good week. We worked... almost like normal. We actually have not been in our sector a bunch. This week we had a zone conference! That was pretty sweet. We all wore Santa hats and sang songs from Christmas as a zone. Well... we were actually with three zones. La Union, Rahue, y Osorno. It was a good day. That lasted from 9 am to 5 pm. Then we walked like four miles back to our sector, and then walked another mile to Centro for choir practice. We are working on a choir performance for a Christmas devotional. And yesterday... we got the whole zone together and we went to sing carols to the investigators in each sector that have a baptismal date. That was way sweet. So now I know all of Osorno. It was pretty legit, actually.
So... I want you to know that we played American football today. It was sweet. Another Elder came and played with us today...Elder Medel. He is actually a professional football player. He played for the Mexican National team. How sweet is that? He plays full back... and he is a beast. It was a lot of fun... but I definitely pulled a muscle and I can tell I will be very sore for the next few days, actually. But it happens I guess. I am getting old and a little out of shape, actually.
So...We are getting coordinated with Elder Borup about when we are going to call home. He is going to call at 10 your time, because that way he can three-way with his parents and his sister who is in Argentina on her mission. So we can talk at like 11 your time? Does that work?
So... I want you to know that Elder Borup and I made Christmas cards... like 60 each. And those will be headed up in a box soon. You will have to deliver them for me, deal? Obviously they won’t get there before Christmas, but I think the people back home will still enjoy the cards when they get them.
Also, we are teaching this lady named Silvina. She is a really cool lady. She is reading in the Book of Mormon and she wants to get baptized. She has a baptismal date for the 18th of January. It is just hard to get her at church because she has a young son who is blind and has other mental handicaps... so someone has to watch him.
I don´t really know what else to say this time. There isn´t much to tell, I guess. It was just a fairly normal week.
Well..... I just got your email. I don´t really know what to say. I have no idea what to think. I am filled with sadness, anger, and frustration all at the same time. I will try to stay focused.
Elder Warren
 |
| Three Zones |
Hey,
I hope you are doing well! Haha. It is kind of funny that we are like chatting live here on the computer. Haha. Pero Mientras... Le Voy a Escribir.
So this week was a pretty good week. We worked... almost like normal. We actually have not been in our sector a bunch. This week we had a zone conference! That was pretty sweet. We all wore Santa hats and sang songs from Christmas as a zone. Well... we were actually with three zones. La Union, Rahue, y Osorno. It was a good day. That lasted from 9 am to 5 pm. Then we walked like four miles back to our sector, and then walked another mile to Centro for choir practice. We are working on a choir performance for a Christmas devotional. And yesterday... we got the whole zone together and we went to sing carols to the investigators in each sector that have a baptismal date. That was way sweet. So now I know all of Osorno. It was pretty legit, actually.
So... I want you to know that we played American football today. It was sweet. Another Elder came and played with us today...Elder Medel. He is actually a professional football player. He played for the Mexican National team. How sweet is that? He plays full back... and he is a beast. It was a lot of fun... but I definitely pulled a muscle and I can tell I will be very sore for the next few days, actually. But it happens I guess. I am getting old and a little out of shape, actually.
So...We are getting coordinated with Elder Borup about when we are going to call home. He is going to call at 10 your time, because that way he can three-way with his parents and his sister who is in Argentina on her mission. So we can talk at like 11 your time? Does that work?
So... I want you to know that Elder Borup and I made Christmas cards... like 60 each. And those will be headed up in a box soon. You will have to deliver them for me, deal? Obviously they won’t get there before Christmas, but I think the people back home will still enjoy the cards when they get them.
 |
| Homemade Christmas Cards |
I don´t really know what else to say this time. There isn´t much to tell, I guess. It was just a fairly normal week.
Well..... I just got your email. I don´t really know what to say. I have no idea what to think. I am filled with sadness, anger, and frustration all at the same time. I will try to stay focused.
Elder Warren
Saturday, December 7, 2013
La Matid Ya Se Fue
December 7, 2013
Mom,
It is pretty crazy to think about the fact that I have now been a missionary for over a year. Like... I think back to one year ago and I was still a missionary. That is a really weird feeling. It is also weird to think that in less than a year from now I will be at home. It blows my mind how fast things have passed. I was going to send you a picture of what I looked like this year on December 5th, but this cyber isn´t a very good one... and I don´t want to get my new camera infected. Yep, that is right. I got the package with the camera and stuff! Thank you so much. This camera takes FAR better pictures than the last one. All of the pictures look really good.
Hey, guess what? Elder Borup made me a cake for my one year anniversary. He is a stud. We used the Twizzlers to write "1 Año" on the cake. We went over to an investigators house and ate cake with her and her dad. It was a pretty good day.
Thinking back on the last year is weird. Like...half of my mission is gone. But the weirdest thing is that... the mission has been absolutely nothing like I expected. Not at all. I think before the mission I had this unrealistic, idealized thought about what missionaries are and what they do. I thought it would be this great spiritual high all the time. Like...constantly having one of those awesome spiritual moments. I thought that it would just... become natural. And maybe it has a little, but it isn´t easy. I sometimes say to people that it isn´t all sunshine and rainbows, mostly because the sun doesn´t shine and it doesn’t stop raining long enough to see rainbows. Haha. But really, it has been a hard year of my life. It is hard being away from home. It is hard learning another language. It is hard living in another country where the traditions and customs are different. It is hard to have wet feet all of the time. It is hard to get up each day and get excited to knock doors for 8 hours in the pouring rain. It is hard to live with companions who come from different backgrounds and have a different way of logic and reasoning. It is hard. It is hard to not see the results of our labors. It is hard to get rejected thousands of times. It is more disappointment than triumph. But it is important. It is worth it. I have come so far. I have learned a lot of things. I am learning to face adversity. I am learning to work with other people. I am learning to have charity and serve and love the people here. I am trying to improve and get better each day. Trust me, I have a long ways to go before I will reach my goals and become the person that I want to be... but I am on the right track. And I am doing the Lords work. That fact alone keeps me going. This isn´t my time, this is the Lords time. I am expected to keep moving forward and to bring the world His truth.
I have a year left. One half. Everyone says that I am on the descent now. That now the time will go by twice as fast. We will see. But all I know is that I am going to do all that I can to fulfill my purpose here. I was called here for a reason. I am going to give it all I have. I feel like I spent the first year learning the ropes and really getting comfortable. The first year gaining the experience I need to really be an effective instrument in the hands of God. Now, I have some knowledge and some experience. I am going to apply what I have learned and really go for it here. Obviously there is a lot left to learn, so I will keep trying to improve. But now is the time to shine. I have nothing to lose here.
In other news... We will be talking on Skype here pretty quickly. I want you to pick. I can call the 23, 24 or 25th. Pick a day. We need to start coordinating it as soon as we can. I want you to respond to this part of the email immediately because I will actually be logged on to my email account on Monday morning. So let me know and tell me a time. And… try and figure out the time difference. I think it is like 4 hours or something like that.
Hey... could you send me the recipe for you chocolate chip cookies! I have been going Betty Crocker style recently, but that gets really expensive.
Also... be looking for a package in the mail. Haha. There is a surprise coming and I think you will enjoy it, actually. We have been.... very festive this year.
The work is going really well here, actually. We are trying to get the investigators to church. We have 8 investigators committed to the church activity tonight, so hopefully they come. Yesterday was easily one of the greatest days ever. We taught 7 lessons in one day... which is awesome for us. We went from lesson to lesson and we were teaching all day. It was cool.
Today we went and played American football with all of the missionaries in the zone. It has been so long since I have played football. It was a ton of fun. After that we went to some restaurant to do an ice cream challenge. It was way easier than the ColdStone challenge. But it was still a ton of ice cream.
Well... I think that is it for me. Keep the faith. Keep busy. Keep happy.
Elder Warren
p.s. I sent that letter so long ago that I don´t even remember what it said. Haha. No, don´t send me pens. I have a million. I am in a big enough city that I can buy anything here that they sell up there... almost. They even have an Apple store here.
 |
| Elder Warren Provo MTC December 5, 2012 |
Mom,
It is pretty crazy to think about the fact that I have now been a missionary for over a year. Like... I think back to one year ago and I was still a missionary. That is a really weird feeling. It is also weird to think that in less than a year from now I will be at home. It blows my mind how fast things have passed. I was going to send you a picture of what I looked like this year on December 5th, but this cyber isn´t a very good one... and I don´t want to get my new camera infected. Yep, that is right. I got the package with the camera and stuff! Thank you so much. This camera takes FAR better pictures than the last one. All of the pictures look really good.
Hey, guess what? Elder Borup made me a cake for my one year anniversary. He is a stud. We used the Twizzlers to write "1 Año" on the cake. We went over to an investigators house and ate cake with her and her dad. It was a pretty good day.
Thinking back on the last year is weird. Like...half of my mission is gone. But the weirdest thing is that... the mission has been absolutely nothing like I expected. Not at all. I think before the mission I had this unrealistic, idealized thought about what missionaries are and what they do. I thought it would be this great spiritual high all the time. Like...constantly having one of those awesome spiritual moments. I thought that it would just... become natural. And maybe it has a little, but it isn´t easy. I sometimes say to people that it isn´t all sunshine and rainbows, mostly because the sun doesn´t shine and it doesn’t stop raining long enough to see rainbows. Haha. But really, it has been a hard year of my life. It is hard being away from home. It is hard learning another language. It is hard living in another country where the traditions and customs are different. It is hard to have wet feet all of the time. It is hard to get up each day and get excited to knock doors for 8 hours in the pouring rain. It is hard to live with companions who come from different backgrounds and have a different way of logic and reasoning. It is hard. It is hard to not see the results of our labors. It is hard to get rejected thousands of times. It is more disappointment than triumph. But it is important. It is worth it. I have come so far. I have learned a lot of things. I am learning to face adversity. I am learning to work with other people. I am learning to have charity and serve and love the people here. I am trying to improve and get better each day. Trust me, I have a long ways to go before I will reach my goals and become the person that I want to be... but I am on the right track. And I am doing the Lords work. That fact alone keeps me going. This isn´t my time, this is the Lords time. I am expected to keep moving forward and to bring the world His truth.
I have a year left. One half. Everyone says that I am on the descent now. That now the time will go by twice as fast. We will see. But all I know is that I am going to do all that I can to fulfill my purpose here. I was called here for a reason. I am going to give it all I have. I feel like I spent the first year learning the ropes and really getting comfortable. The first year gaining the experience I need to really be an effective instrument in the hands of God. Now, I have some knowledge and some experience. I am going to apply what I have learned and really go for it here. Obviously there is a lot left to learn, so I will keep trying to improve. But now is the time to shine. I have nothing to lose here.
In other news... We will be talking on Skype here pretty quickly. I want you to pick. I can call the 23, 24 or 25th. Pick a day. We need to start coordinating it as soon as we can. I want you to respond to this part of the email immediately because I will actually be logged on to my email account on Monday morning. So let me know and tell me a time. And… try and figure out the time difference. I think it is like 4 hours or something like that.
Hey... could you send me the recipe for you chocolate chip cookies! I have been going Betty Crocker style recently, but that gets really expensive.
Also... be looking for a package in the mail. Haha. There is a surprise coming and I think you will enjoy it, actually. We have been.... very festive this year.
The work is going really well here, actually. We are trying to get the investigators to church. We have 8 investigators committed to the church activity tonight, so hopefully they come. Yesterday was easily one of the greatest days ever. We taught 7 lessons in one day... which is awesome for us. We went from lesson to lesson and we were teaching all day. It was cool.
Today we went and played American football with all of the missionaries in the zone. It has been so long since I have played football. It was a ton of fun. After that we went to some restaurant to do an ice cream challenge. It was way easier than the ColdStone challenge. But it was still a ton of ice cream.
Well... I think that is it for me. Keep the faith. Keep busy. Keep happy.
Elder Warren
p.s. I sent that letter so long ago that I don´t even remember what it said. Haha. No, don´t send me pens. I have a million. I am in a big enough city that I can buy anything here that they sell up there... almost. They even have an Apple store here.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Life is Good!
November 30, 2013
Mamita
What´s up, my sweet lady mother? I hope that everything is going well for you! I am sorry to hear that story about your friend... that is really sad. But, everything happens for a reason, and sometimes we just don´t understand.
Mom... I really hope you are enjoying all of the pictures that I am sending you. This week I took quite a few. Do you see that nice one of me with the cinnamon roll looking thing?? Yeah... Elder Borup and I eat that every single day for dinner. It isn´t a cinnamon roll. It is called pan con chicharron (bread with chunks of pig fat) and it is heaven!!! It isn´t healthy... at all, but who cares! Just heat those babies up in la microwave for like... 30 seconds. Awesome!! Haha. Don´t worry though, we keep ourselves in shape. We have huge hills in our sector that we constantly have to climb... and we go running in the mornings. Also, Elder Borup has a pedometer and we are clocking in at like 6 miles a day walking, which is decent. Haha.
Mom.... I FORGOT TO TELL YOU THE MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER OF MY LIFE!!!! You know how I would write and tell you about Alexandra when I was in Villarrica? How she was waiting to get married and then she was going to get baptized? She and Juan got MARRIED and she got BAPTIZED!!!! Hermana McNeil told me that when I saw her in the bus terminal last week. She said that she mentioned me in her testimony durante el servicio bautismal. I was so happy to hear that. And also that family that we were teaching in Llanquihue, with Elder Amone? I think I already told you, but the whole family got baptized and now.... Marta, the lady, is the Mamita!!!!! Life is sweet. I may never see a baptism, but I don´t really care. Because I know for sure that my efforts are not being wasted!!!
In other news.... our house flooded yesterday! Haha. It was a mess! We spent most of the day cleaning up and drying everything. A pipe burst under the sink... and we got it fixed. Oh... and we decided we were going to clean our disgusting house. The problem here in the mission is that all of the houses are absolutely disgusting and full of mold and filth... because missionaries never clean them. So we decided to give the house a deep cleaning. The picture I sent is what elder Borup wiped off the floor in one wipe!!! Disgusting! But it is starting to look better and smell better.
Hey... I sent you a picture of me with the tree!!! The Christmas tree is so legit. We are making all of the ornaments of all of the things other missionaries have left behind in the house. It has so many ornaments. And those reindeer?? Those we made out of socks that somebody left in the house. We basically decorate all the time when we aren´t busy doing something else.
In other news...Elder Borup has a portable ping pong net. We set it up on our desk and ponged it up for a while. Haha. He is so cool. He is making me a hat right now, crochet style. I am pumped.
Mom... I actually have good news to report about how the work is going here!! Finally! We are working hard and talking to every single person. Not only that... but every time we teach a lesson to somebody, we invite them to be baptized. I have never really done that in my mission.... mostly because of fear. But we made the decision to do that as a companionship. So.... the other day we were out knocking doors. After one got slammed in our face... we moved on to the next one. And guess what happened there? The man invited us in right away. That NEVER happens. We met his family and they gave us some toast. Then we just kind of chatted with them for a while about cualquier cosa; just things about life. And guess what we did next. We taught them the restoration. Then... I invited them both to be baptized. They ACCEPTED! Legit! They’ve got a fecha for the 28th of December. So we are going to keep working on them.
We also have some new investigators. Marcelo y Ingrid. They are super sweet. We found them with Elder Pereyra and taught them a short little lesson. We went back with Elder Borup, and guess what we did? We taught the entire restoration to them and invited them to be baptized. And guess what? They ACCEPTED! They got their fecha for January 5th. So we will keep working with them. They are so cool. We asked them a few questions and Marcelo said, "I don´t really understand it... but I just feel compelled to talk to you guys. We have a very busy schedule, but I feel like listening to you when you come is far more important than whatever else we have going on." The dude is sweet. He is a truck driver, so he is gone a lot on Sundays. That is going to be the challenge with them, I think.
So...The work is going well. We are teaching quite a few lessons. We have five investigators that have baptismal dates and we have a few more that are coming to church. Life... is good.
My first district meeting went really well. I made cookies for everyone. I have a pretty big district (four companionships) but the meeting went well. In the district we have six Elderes and two Hermana’s. We have people from the United States, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala in the district. Haha. Pretty diverse. I still don´t like how often I am on the phone, though. Every single night I am on the phone for like an hour and a half straight, verifying numbers and things like that. But... I guess I will get used to it.
Mom... I think that is all for me this week. I am doing well. We are going to take like six hour nap today... because we are exhausted. Hahaha. Check out the pics, they don´t all go on in order. Have you seen the videos? It is of me eating fruit cake. It is gross, but everyone loves it here. Haha.
Have a good week!
Elder Warren
 |
What´s up, my sweet lady mother? I hope that everything is going well for you! I am sorry to hear that story about your friend... that is really sad. But, everything happens for a reason, and sometimes we just don´t understand.
 |
| NOT a Cinnamon Roll!! |
Mom... I really hope you are enjoying all of the pictures that I am sending you. This week I took quite a few. Do you see that nice one of me with the cinnamon roll looking thing?? Yeah... Elder Borup and I eat that every single day for dinner. It isn´t a cinnamon roll. It is called pan con chicharron (bread with chunks of pig fat) and it is heaven!!! It isn´t healthy... at all, but who cares! Just heat those babies up in la microwave for like... 30 seconds. Awesome!! Haha. Don´t worry though, we keep ourselves in shape. We have huge hills in our sector that we constantly have to climb... and we go running in the mornings. Also, Elder Borup has a pedometer and we are clocking in at like 6 miles a day walking, which is decent. Haha.
Mom.... I FORGOT TO TELL YOU THE MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER OF MY LIFE!!!! You know how I would write and tell you about Alexandra when I was in Villarrica? How she was waiting to get married and then she was going to get baptized? She and Juan got MARRIED and she got BAPTIZED!!!! Hermana McNeil told me that when I saw her in the bus terminal last week. She said that she mentioned me in her testimony durante el servicio bautismal. I was so happy to hear that. And also that family that we were teaching in Llanquihue, with Elder Amone? I think I already told you, but the whole family got baptized and now.... Marta, the lady, is the Mamita!!!!! Life is sweet. I may never see a baptism, but I don´t really care. Because I know for sure that my efforts are not being wasted!!!
In other news.... our house flooded yesterday! Haha. It was a mess! We spent most of the day cleaning up and drying everything. A pipe burst under the sink... and we got it fixed. Oh... and we decided we were going to clean our disgusting house. The problem here in the mission is that all of the houses are absolutely disgusting and full of mold and filth... because missionaries never clean them. So we decided to give the house a deep cleaning. The picture I sent is what elder Borup wiped off the floor in one wipe!!! Disgusting! But it is starting to look better and smell better.
Hey... I sent you a picture of me with the tree!!! The Christmas tree is so legit. We are making all of the ornaments of all of the things other missionaries have left behind in the house. It has so many ornaments. And those reindeer?? Those we made out of socks that somebody left in the house. We basically decorate all the time when we aren´t busy doing something else.
In other news...Elder Borup has a portable ping pong net. We set it up on our desk and ponged it up for a while. Haha. He is so cool. He is making me a hat right now, crochet style. I am pumped.
Mom... I actually have good news to report about how the work is going here!! Finally! We are working hard and talking to every single person. Not only that... but every time we teach a lesson to somebody, we invite them to be baptized. I have never really done that in my mission.... mostly because of fear. But we made the decision to do that as a companionship. So.... the other day we were out knocking doors. After one got slammed in our face... we moved on to the next one. And guess what happened there? The man invited us in right away. That NEVER happens. We met his family and they gave us some toast. Then we just kind of chatted with them for a while about cualquier cosa; just things about life. And guess what we did next. We taught them the restoration. Then... I invited them both to be baptized. They ACCEPTED! Legit! They’ve got a fecha for the 28th of December. So we are going to keep working on them.
We also have some new investigators. Marcelo y Ingrid. They are super sweet. We found them with Elder Pereyra and taught them a short little lesson. We went back with Elder Borup, and guess what we did? We taught the entire restoration to them and invited them to be baptized. And guess what? They ACCEPTED! They got their fecha for January 5th. So we will keep working with them. They are so cool. We asked them a few questions and Marcelo said, "I don´t really understand it... but I just feel compelled to talk to you guys. We have a very busy schedule, but I feel like listening to you when you come is far more important than whatever else we have going on." The dude is sweet. He is a truck driver, so he is gone a lot on Sundays. That is going to be the challenge with them, I think.
So...The work is going well. We are teaching quite a few lessons. We have five investigators that have baptismal dates and we have a few more that are coming to church. Life... is good.
My first district meeting went really well. I made cookies for everyone. I have a pretty big district (four companionships) but the meeting went well. In the district we have six Elderes and two Hermana’s. We have people from the United States, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and Guatemala in the district. Haha. Pretty diverse. I still don´t like how often I am on the phone, though. Every single night I am on the phone for like an hour and a half straight, verifying numbers and things like that. But... I guess I will get used to it.
Mom... I think that is all for me this week. I am doing well. We are going to take like six hour nap today... because we are exhausted. Hahaha. Check out the pics, they don´t all go on in order. Have you seen the videos? It is of me eating fruit cake. It is gross, but everyone loves it here. Haha.
Have a good week!
Elder Warren
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)