The Package Exists!

 

"The District"  May 2013

 

July 29, 2013



Mom,


To answer your question about my companion, yes; Elder Aburto de Concepción, Chile. Haha. He is as close to his house as he can be and still be in another mission. It would be the equivalent of me serving in Saint George. Haha.


I am always very pleased to read your emails. They make me smile. I am so very happy that you made the choice to speak in Sacrament Meeting. That is so awesome. I knew you would do it. :)


I have excellent news!! The package that you sent me EXISTS!!!! It exists. I was starting to think that you were pulling my leg!! Haha. I still don´t have it yet, but I know that it exists. What happened was that they made a mistake in the office and sent my package to Rio Bueno. Who knows how long it has been there, but the Senior couple said they would bring it to me on Wednesday or Thursday. That is good news, right?? I am excited. But it makes me wonder how often my mail gets sent to the wrong sector. And there will be another package coming soon! How exciting. But I am telling you right now that this should be the last package, because I am becoming kind of spoiled. The reality is that I have everything that I need (except for a good rain jacket).  Haha. How about every time you feel tempted to send me something, you can just deposit money in my account? ;)  I will save it for a rainy day or something.


Ahhh… today is a good day. :) The sun is shining today. We went to the capilla and played basketball and ping pong with the other missionaries here. It reminded me of the old days with my friends. Haha. I also enjoyed reading the email that Carter sent home to his family. His dad forwards them to me. It sounds like he is doing well over there in Madagascar.  I wonder if Nate or Dave have received the letters that I sent them yet.  That is one thing that I don’t really like about the whole handwritten mail thing…. I never know if people get them because it takes so long to get there and then I have to wait for a handwritten response. Oh well. Hopefully everyone gets the letters that I send them.


I have a cool story about something that happened yesterday.  We went and we knocked on this door. This really big and angry looking guy answered it and said, “What do you want?” He was very short with us and very rude to us actually.  He started to shut the door in our face and then he paused… and then he said, “Come in.”  I was thinking to myself, “Oh great, here we go again. This is probably some man of another religión that is going to try and bash on everything that we believe.” We went in and sat down on his couch and we started talking to him. He was still not very nice and pretty rude. Then his wife came in from the other room and she was so excited to see us. Like… super excited. She said, “I am shocked that he let you in! He usually is very unpleasant with the missionaries and tells them to go away.”  Then he said, “I don´t really know why I let you in.”  We started teaching them and telling them about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses the familias and that familias can be eternal. They were listening to us. Then they both opened up and started talking to us. They said just before we had knocked on their door, they had been talking about getting divorced. The woman started to cry and she said, “And I know that you can help us.”  We then watched a Mormon Message about the importance of the familias. By the end of the lesson, this man had completely changed from rude and unwelcoming, to interested and actively participating. At the end of the lesson he asked us if we would come back. It was incredible. That was definitely the Miracle of the week this past week.


In other news this past week:  Our water heater doesn’t work. So... we have two options. We can either shower with freezing cold water, or we can boil water and do a sponge bath kind of thing. I switch off between the two. Flea bites leave scars… so I will always have souvenirs from my time here in Chile. I saw a drug deal happen right in front of me. I saw a dog get destroyed by a car and die. We are looking into getting a washing machine here in the house because there aren’t enough members here to do our laundry.  There were only 17 people at church yesterday. I make my bed every day, even though I sleep on the top bunk. I sort of cut my own hair today, just so that I could say that I cut my own hair on the mission. Haha. It turned out quite nicely (I really only just cut a hair that the barber missed... Haha.)


About the Sister missionary that went home? I don´t know her. You said she was in my mission? I may have shaken her hand in a conference or something. Hmm... The food here is good. But if someone has a gluten problem, they wouldn´t survive here. All we eat is bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes.


I hope you have an excellent week. I love you to death, mom. The lady who sent you the photo wants to meet you. I talk to her about you. She used to be the mamita here, and she always takes good care of us.


Love,
Elder Warren

You Are Speaking in Sacrament Meeting

July 22, 2013


Mom...

I am going to come right at you and tell you that you better be dialing the phone to tell Bishop Gurr that you would be happy to speak in Sacrament Meeting. He received revelation from the Lord to ask you to speak. Turning him down would be like turning down an assignment from the Lord. So… you best get on that!!

Sorry if that comes across as a little bit straight forward and abrupt, but it is the truth!
The week here was good. A lot has happened in a week. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was emailing you. I do have my new companion, Elder Aburto. I don’t have time to upload photos today, but maybe next week. He is a really nice guy. I don´t have any problems with him so far.
Before he got here, I was working with Elder Ocampo, de Mexico for two days. We were four elders living in the same house. It was actually pretty fun. Elder Silva worked with Elder Malaver from Peru. Elder Ocampo has only been on the mission for three months, so it was cool working with someone who had less experience than me.

Having only been here for a week and a half, I didn´t know very many people when Elder Aburto got here. So we have been having an adventure learning the sector together.  It has been so obvious this past week that we have been guided by the Spirit. Seriously. When he got here, we couldn´t find the map. I thought that maybe Elder Silva left with it. We searched the whole house looking for the map. We really needed to find it, because without it we wouldn´t have been able to find people’s houses. We stopped and prayed and then we kept looking. Within minutes we found the map in a place that we had already looked.

Another example is that we were looking for a certain street, and we couldn´t find it. We were lost, late for our appointment, and we didn´t have the number of the person to call and ask them for directions. Suddenly, a member appeared behind us and asked us if we needed help. She told us how to get to the house and we made it to our appointment.

Something else that happened this week was that we visited an inactive lady. She has not been to church in over nine years. We went in there, and told her that the branch needed her. And that Heavenly Father needed her in church. We gave her the assignment to say the prayer in Principios Del Evangelio. She came to church and brought her daughter, who isn´t a member. So that was really cool. :)

Today I spent the day in Pucón with an Elder from Mexico, one from Guatemala, and a Chileno. It is pretty legit that I have friends that are from every country in South America.

It sounds like you people are busy up there in Utah in the heat. It is about 20 degrees here. I am cold. Haha. The weird thing is that even when it is 20 degrees, it rains, it doesn´t snow. It rains and turns to ice instantly on the sidewalk and stuff. Although the other day it did snow for like 10 minutes. That was actually pretty cool.

I want you to check my account. I took out 86 dollars. I will explain more about that later, but bottom line is that there are dishonest elders that use the sector money, leave, and then we are left to pay bills. I will be reimbursed, so no worries.

Yeah, the Eddie Bauer jacket is no longer water proof. It used to work pretty well, but then I think the waterproof qualities wore off. So… something other than that. :) And some kind of treat for Elder Aburto? His birthday is in three weeks. :)

You are the best mamma in the whole world. I tell a lot of people about you. I appreciate all that you do for me and that you are always worried about me. I am fine. I am a big boy down here, doing my thing.

Elder Warren

P.s.  Heck yeah, sign me up for a trip to the Holy Land!! That would be legit. Why are the Gunther’s going there?? I don´t remember.

Ask Brett if he is watching the Tour de France. They had ESPN on in the restaurant where we ate in Pucón today. I saw that the highlights were playing and I thought of him.

I was called as a counselor in the Young Men’s presidency here with Elder Aburto... How sweet is that!

Still Alive

July 15, 2013


Mom,


The time here just flies by. It is super weird how the time works here in the mission. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was writing you an email. It is weird that you didn´t get it on Monday? I sent it on Monday… strange. Haha.


Things are good here. We have been teaching some good lessons with people. There are a couple of good investigators that are progressing. The hard part is getting people to come to church. We had one investigator in church yesterday, but ironically she is one of the ones who isn´t progressing very much. We will just keep working hard to get people to church.


I don´t really know what to say... Haha. Elder Silva will be leaving on Tuesday, and Elder Aburto will be coming here. I will have to direct the sector... which is always a little bit difficult. It has been kind of weird being with a companion, knowing I would only be with him for a little while.


As far as the rain jacket goes... I like grey or black. But if you buy one... make sure that it is waterproof. My coats are all kind of waterproof. The Eddie Bauer one is okay, but it isn´t completely waterproof material. It doesn´t have to look very formal. It can look sporty. Just something that will keep me dry. That is the most important. Haha. And yes, you still send everything to Casilla 7-0 Osorno, Chile.  And remember that it is through the United States Postal Service.


You are kind of funny. Haha. No, we don´t have a car. Or bikes. Those don´t exist in our mission. Haha. We still walk places, or take a taxi. We take taxis quite a bit here, actually.


Sorry I don´t have anything very worthwhile to say today. Haha. I should really write some things down to share. We have spiritual experiences all the time and we see miracles every single day, but they are such a frequent occurrence that they just seem normal to me. But I bet you would probably like to hear about them. We gave like 12 Priesthood blessings this week. So that was pretty cool.


Elder Warren


P.S.  It was great to hear from Kathryn Maddix and from Carters father with some pictures of Carter in Madagascar.

Where Am I?

July 9, 2013


Mother!


Holy cow... things are crazy down here. Haha. I am not in Llanquihue. There was an emergency cambio. Those almost never happen. The real cambio wasn´t supposed to be for another week! Buckle up and get ready to hear what happened!!!


A Sobre cambio only happens when there are big problems with a companionship. Don’t worry; Elder Amone and I were tight. We got along super well. But when another companionship doesn’t get along, another companionship also has to split up. So it was the other companionship. What happened is that my current companion, Elder Silva, got punched in the face by his last companion!!!! What the freak!? We were sitting in the house when we got the call from President Rappleye. He said I needed to pack my bags and head up to Villarica first thing in the morning. He told us what happened and said that he was going to put the Elder that threw the punch with Elder Amone, because he said that if the Elder tried to hit Elder Amone, Elder Amone would kill him. Hahaha. So at 11:00 Wednesday night I packed my bags and was gone by the next morning at 9:00. This Elder that threw the punch is a very aggressive person. He is famous in the mission for fighting with everyone. He has gotten in fights in the street with a few drunken guys and a gangster. He has some troubles with his temper. So... after 5 months in Llanquihue I didn´t get to say goodbye to anybody. Absolutely nobody. That kind of stinks.


It was a two hour bus ride from Llanquihue to Osorno. Then we all had to talk to President. Then a four hour bus ride north to Villarica. A long day of traveling. I came up here with Elder Chamorro (Chileno) and met up with Elder Silva. He is from Utah. His Mom is from Venezuela and his Dad is from Ecuador. He is super nice. I really like him a lot, but President said that I would only be companions with him for a week, and then another Elder is going to come up here from Chiloe; Elder Aburto (another Chileno). So... That is going to be a challenge because I will be directing the sector... so I have a week to learn where everything is. Crazy stuff.


It is weird being in a new Sector. It is super different here. We are in a much bigger city. There are eight missionaries here; 4 Elders and 4 Hermanas. The section where we live is super nice. Like… all of the houses are super nice. It is weird. There aren´t as many dogs here, either. We are in the furthest sector north in the misión, so it doesn´t rain as much either. It hasn´t rained since I got here.
Being at church was one of the weirdest experiences of my entire life. So we roll up there and the capilla is huge. Brand new, and beautiful. Like… 5 times bigger and nicer than the one in Llanquihue. Guess how many attended in Llanquihue? 70 on average attended Church. Here? 23. Only 23 people. I felt super uncomfortable. I had to go up and present myself in this big chapel to 23 people… so strange. And the members here… aren´t as friendly with the missionaries. And I am definitely going to lose weight here because the mamita makes hardly any food. I guess I just gotta look at it like a blessing in disguise.


There is an active Volcano here that is Only 20 minutes away. It is really pretty here. Super pretty. There is a huge lake and everything. I don´t have any pictures of here yet. With the move and how crazy everything was… I haven´t had a chance to take any pictures. This picture is of me and my umbrella when it broke in Llanquihue.


It is fun being in a city with a bunch of missionaries. We teach English classes here as well. There is a sister missionary here from Paraguay. She speaks English really well. I would marry that lady just for her Accent! Haha. ¡Que chueco! I am just kidding. But I do like her accent. Today we had an activity at the church. We played basketball, ping pong, and a Hermana from Nicaragua made us typical food from her country.


I still haven´t seen my package. It is probably in Puerto Varas (close to Llanquihue) because they probably forwarded it before they knew about the Sobre Cambio. So… I don´t know when I will see it. That is super nice that you are sending me an iPod. Hmm… What else do I need? I don´t really know. Whatever you think. There are things that I always want. Maybe the pants that I sent home in the mail? All of my pants are fine, but it would be nice to have those two other pairs. Also…maybe a rain jacket? I know I have two, but one of them isn´t extremely waterproof. It keeps me sort of dry for like… a few hours. The other one I have (from Eddie Bauer) is better. I went and looked at some in Puerto Montt at the mall, in the North Face store. But they were like 400 bucks. So… I didn´t buy it. I don´t really know what kind; something waterproofish/warm. I would keep looking myself, but we are like 3 hours away from Valdivia and that is where the closest mall is. These things aren´t urgent or even required… just things on my wish list.


I love you. The pictures of the Adrienne and the family are super cute! I think the mail system here is weird, like you said. Because I sent something to Kinzie Payne and she got it in like two weeks! Haha. I sent something for Brett. Tell him happy birthday. There is also something in the mail for the family Allan. I didn´t have their address, so I mailed it to you. I heard from my dad. I sent him a letter today, too.


I hope you are doing well. I also wrote you a letter. Who knows when it will get there… but eventually?


Love Elder Warren


p.s. I heard from Nick. I sent him another letter with 50 Chilean pesos. Haha.

Ella Nos Dejo

The New Mamita's

July 1, 2013


Mom,


The last week was fine, I guess. Actually… It wasn´t that good. My companion and I get along well, but Llanquihue is a tough place. We still don´t really have very many people to teach. Five months here in Llanquihue, and we have only had one investigator progress: Sixta. She is super cool. She made me a hat. She taught me to make sopapillas and bread. She is supposed to get baptized this Saturday. All she needs is her baptismal interview. But we went over to her house last Thursday, and she didn´t want to talk to us. She said she talked to her family members and she is not going to investigate the church anymore. She was actually really rude to us. I don´t know how things like this happen, I really don´t. She had received her answer about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith. She wanted to get baptized. And then overnight… she doesn´t want anything to do with us.


It is hard to stay positive. So hard. I feel honestly like I have been here for five months and I haven´t helped a single person. Nobody. I am here to help people. That is all I really want to do. More than ¼ of my misión has gone by, and nobody has benefited from it. I don´t really know what to think. It is depressing, actually. I am trying hard to keep pushing forward and give my best effort, but it is difficult.


To answer your question; I still have the speaker, but not the iPod. They used to be fine with us having iPods that had the capacity to play videos as long as there were no videos. But there are Elders that don´t do what they are supposed to, so they announced that everyone who had an iPod that could play videos needed to send it to the office. So, I decided to be obedient and send mine in. Obedience is supposed to bring blessings, right?


I finally got the letter from Nick!! That was probably the highlight of the week last week. It sounds like he is doing really well over there! I also read his emails home. He is a stud. Hearing about how my friends are doing is refreshing. It also makes me want to work even harder. My friends are a source of strength for me.


That is cool about the new bishopric. Tim Gurr is legit. So are the others. Tell them I say hello. Tell Bishop Maddox that I took his advice seriously about reading the Book of Mormon. I finished it again last week. Four times now on the mission, twice in English, twice in Spanish.


I liked your scripture. I actually looked one up to share with you! Mosiah 24:15.  And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit CHEERFULLY and with PATIENCE to all the will of the Lord.


I love it. I love that scripture.


I had a ton of other things to say... but I am out of time. I love you.


Elder Warren


P.S. That is me and my Mamita's, Ines y Maria. And also, me drinking our coffee that we drink every day. Apparently….. it isn´t against the word of wisdom here. Jokes. It is something that looks, tastes, and smells like coffee... but isn’t coffee. It is called Ecco.

Ingrown Toenails Are The Worst!

Chillin at the Mall?

June 24, 2013


Mother!!

Hey momma! I am always so pleased to read your emails. Haha. I will definitely have to print out all of these letters from Nick. What a good guy. I have good friends. I got an email from Carter Payne today and one from Dave last week. He finally made it to Peru. I sent off a letter to Nate and Dave today. And Makayla, too. :)  She is great!

Today was a pretty legit Pday. We went to the Mall in Puerto Montt. Good Heavens, it is like being back in the states. I am pretty used to being in really ghetto parts of Chile with no big buildings or anything. We go to Puerto Montt and there are skyscrapers and stuff like that. Today we went to the mall in Puerto Montt. It is like an hour away. We went there mostly because Elder A. wanted to go to the food court. We ate at McDonalds... and it was divine. I usually don´t care for McDonalds... but it was great.

We went to the Apple store and looked around. It is probably a good thing that we can only go to Puerto Montt once a cambio... because I would definitely blow all of my money there on junk I don´t need (not much has changed...haha)  Today I didn´t really buy anything... although I was tempted. I just spent 8 dollars on a basketball. That is all. I am glad to know I have money in my account... but I am really going to try hard not to spend any of that. I still have cash here. I gotta keep that money saved so I won’t be broke when I come home! Haha.

I am still waiting for my package. I have hopes that I will see it eventually. I will see it when I see the Zone Leaders, which is not very often. So… we will just keep waiting.  Did I tell you that Elder B. is my Zone Leader now? How funny is that? Haha.

You were talking about that special conference at BYU? We definitely watched it here in Spanish. It would be legit if they started to let us use technology and stuff, but I doubt that I will see that change here while I am in the mission. Other missions already use iPad, iPhones, and text.  Our cell phone... is a brick straight from the year 1999, I swear. Haha. But the conference was really good, actually. It talked about how the members should be setting up the appointments for the missionaries and they should be much more involved. It is the duty of every member of the church to share the gospel. That includes you. Share what you believe with everyone, by your example. Reach out to those in need. That is a good way of sharing the gospel. It doesn´t necessarily need to be to people who aren´t members. Everyone needs the gospel.

We are still working with Sixta. She knows the Book of Mormon is true. She wants to be baptized. She loves coming to relief society and the activities. She says she feels good at church. The only problem is that her family is opposed to her joining the church. She knows that it is what she needs to do. We are going to keep working with her.

Mom, I have a favor to ask of you. I was wondering if each week in your emails if you could send a scripture or a quote or something from an Ensign article or something like that. Something small every week that you think might help me. (I mostly want you to do it so I can verify that you are reading your scriptures).

Oh... I totally forgot! I got an email from the Allan Family. I didn’t read it yet, but I printed it off so I can read it later.

I hope these pictures work when I send them. I haven´t been able to attatch them like I usually do, so just let me know if they aren’t working. I think I sent three last week? Right? Something like that.

I gotta start making a list of all the important things I want to say before I get to the cyber to do internet... because I always forget what I want to say. Oh well.

Have a good week!

Elder Warren

I Am Doing Well!!

June 17, 2013


Mom!

I am here. I am alive. I always feel like the time comes to email and I forget what to say! Haha. Oh well. You probably like reading my emails whether they are very interesting or not. Hopefully they aren´t boring!

The last week went by really quickly. It has been raining a ton here, and it is cold.  But hey, we are tough! The fleas… are keeping to themselves for the most part. They are only biting my legs now, which is better than all over like it was before.  But my sleeping bag should be here soon!

We have a Mamita, and her name is Ines. She hasn´t started cooking for us yet, but she is going to start tomorrow. That will be nice. She lives close by. She speaks Spanish faster than anyone that I have ever heard in my entire life. Holy Cow. But it’s all good. She is really nice and she makes sopapillas really well.

I finally ate Bistec a la Pobre here! It was just like what we had at Pantrucas. That place is pretty authentic, I have decided.  So when you go there to eat, you really are eating what we eat down here.

Yesterday we went to church and Sixta came! She just needs one more church attendance and she can get baptized. Hopefully everything works out like we are planning. She is a really good lady. She likes coming to church. We took her to a Relief Society Activity. Haha. Imagine that. Two guys in the Relief Society activity with a bunch of Chilean ladies. We learned how to use soy beans. We made soy milk, soy hamburgers, and soy empanadas. Super sweet. Sixta had a good time at the activity.
 
We also had an activity with the branch where everyone got together to play ping pong. It is ridiculous how good these people are!! Like… 55 year old women kicking my butt. I played a lot of ping pong in my days with Nate, Nick, and Carter… and these ladies could destroy anyone of us at ping pong. How did they get so good???? It is super funny.

I still haven´t received a letter from Nick! I sent him one! Did he get it?? I hope so. Yeah, for sure you can email me their letters and such. I would love to read them. I can print them out and read them when I have time.  I hope they are all doing well on their missions.

With each passing day I feel more and more like a capable missionary. I am really working hard to improve my teaching abilities. I am always memorizing scriptures and stuff so that I can use them to teach. The problem I run into is that I can memorize something one day… and completely forget it the next day. I am memorizing the scripture mastery scriptures from the Bible right now… because we talk to a lot of people who know the Bible really well and I don´t want to be ignorant.

Yesterday we taught a lesson to an Evangelico guitar player. He is super cool. Super Evangelico, but super cool. He sang and played the guitar for us. I decided one day I should learn to play the guitar or something.  Wouldn´t that be sweet?

Maybe someday I will send you a picture of what my toenail looked like, but for today I sent some nicer pictures. Haha. The picture is of me with Lago Llanquihue and Volcan Osorno behind me. That is at the beach right by our house. The other picture is of me with Sebastian. He is a funny little guy that has Down Syndrome. He always steals my missionary plaque during church. The other one is of me and Elder A. What am I doing with my hands? Perhaps flashing a gang sign?? No… I don´t know what I am doing with my hands. Haha.

Hey… take care. Tell Brett hello. Have a good week. Rest up. Be happy. And read your scriptures… every single day. It is a commandment, you know.

Elder Warren