I love it here!

September 16, 2013



"Legit" Waterfall Villarrica, Chile September 16, 2013 10:30 A.M.

Mom,


I want to start off by telling you that I love it here. I would easily live in Villarrica or Pucòn my entire life. It’s a dream come true here; the most beautiful place in the entire world. It is an Outdoorsman's paradise here. There are volcanoes. There are mountains to climb. There is a lot to see. There is rafting…and hiking. We are up in the woods here. There are caves. There is a lake. There is the beach. It is all just wonderful here. Today we went hiking to see some freaking legit waterfalls. Oh man. I sent you a video in Drop box so that you could experience it. Ahh... I really like it here.


I wish I had four hours to write and tell you about everything that we have done in the last week. It was pretty busy. Not your typical week. First off, the 10th and 11th we could only visit members. We couldn't go out and work like normal because September 11th marked the 40 year anniversary of when the military took over the government in Chile. So every year there are a lot of terrorist acts and riots and stuff. So we stayed in the house most of the day and went to visit the members at night. That was different. I felt really uneasy sitting in the house. We just watched church movies and stuff.


We also went to do a ton of service this week! A ton. It was great. We went and did some tornado clean up in Villarrica. That was fun. Also, we went out to the campo with the Mamita to help her. She takes care of some cabins out there, and we went to mow the lawn!!!!!!!!!! Oh goodness. I had never been so happy in such a long time! Being able to mow the lawn made my whole life. I felt.... at home for the first time in almost ten months. It was a very beautiful experience. I just mowed and mowed for like four hours, and I sang and.... It was just wonderful. I loved it. Also, while I was mowing I did a lot of good thinking. I always liked mowing the lawn for that reason. All of my good ideas come to me while I am showering and mowing the lawn.


On Saturday, we went to Curarrehue with the District Villarrica (the equivalent of a stake service project).  It was great. 6 missionaries and 6 members. We got on a bus and went out into the middle of nowhere.  We helped a member of the church plow the earth?  Picar Tierra.  It was great. He raises wild boars!!!! Can you imagine that? I made a video talking to the wild boars as well. We ate disco, which is a way of cooking meat on a giant flying saucer looking thing.


Later on Saturday, we went to an investigators house and made empanadas. They were really good! I ate way too many that day. She is the one who speaks English. We taught her a lesson as well. She is progressing, which is very good. She is such a nice lady (don’t worry mom, we watch out for snakes here in the mission. By snakes, I mean women who are looking for... something more with the missionaries. She isn’t a snake.)


On Sunday... they always keep us nice and busy. Basically we have to do everything here. We have another calling. We are still in charge of the Young Men. We teach them every week. We are also the Sunday school teachers. And...My companion is the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency and I am the second counselor. So we have to do all of the tithing.  We also conduct all of the meetings and stuff. So... we are busy. Always a lot to do.


We are having some success with the investigators that we have. The girl I was telling you about last week that wants to get baptized? She is progressing a ton! So much! It is really awesome.  She reads everything that we assign her to read. So that is sweet. We have 8 investigators that are reading the Book of Mormon. That is legit; because people who read the Book of Mormon AND gain a testimony AND then get baptized STAY in the church. They don’t go inactive right away like the rest.


I hope you are doing well. I am glad that you went to Megan's farewell. She is really awesome, isn’t she? Her dad is probably the most friendly and nice person that I have ever met. He is super cool.


Hey.... this week we won’t be working like normal again because of the 18th of Septiembre. That is like the Independence Day here in Chile. It is a party that lasts the whole week pretty much. Everyone gets drunk, so we can’t be out at night and we can’t contact people. But we can visit members!


Hey... Have a good week. The package... I can’t think of anything else that you could send. Whatever you would like to send, I will be happy to receive it. I am doing fine on money. I am tempted to buy things sometimes... but I remind myself that I don’t need it.


Have a good week!  You are the best Mother ever, I hope you know. Be happy. Stay healthy. Tell Adrienne that I wrote her a letter for her birthday, but I haven’t sent it yet.


Did I mention that we went to a waterfall? Tell me if the video worked or not. Deal?


Elder Warren

Good Week!

Hot Dog Dinner With The Hermana's

September 2, 2013



Mother!

Hey, I want to start off by telling you that I am sorry that the email last week got deleted. It was really a work of literature. I wrote for 45 minutes and then... It got deleted. I am so bummed about that.


I will start by explaining the new rules to you. I used to have 45 minutes on the internet to email you and my mission president. I still have that 45 minutes to email you and the mission president, but I also have an additional 15 minutes to email friends. What a blessing. I can now really keep in touch with my boys who are out there serving the Lord. I sent them a group email last week with a picture and they all responded, except for Nate. So sweet!! I really have some great friends. I owe a lot to them and their example to me.


Next I will clear up your doubt about where I am. Haha. I am still in Villarrica, Chile. The branch I am in is Volcan Branch. There are two branches in Villarrica, Volcan and Ancahual. Within the two branches, there are 4 sectores or four sets of missionaries. 4 Elderes y 4 Hermana’s. I am in Volcan 2.  I am still with Elder Aburto for another cambio. The water heater has been fixed! So…no worries. I am no longer showering with cold water.


To tell you about our little trip to Argentina last week:  It was awesome! We went with the Elderes de Pucon, Villarrica, y Panguipulli. We went with a group of 15 people in total? Something like that. We crossed over to the line that separates Argentina y Chile! There was a ton of snow. We split up between the line (we were up in the mountains) and we had the most awesome snowball fight across the border of the two countries! It was easily one of the sweetest days ever!


This last week was really good. We actually have people to teach, which is really awesome. That makes me very happy. We are teaching several really good families. We have one family that is progressing a ton. They have come to church 4 times now!! How sweet is that? They have made friends with people in the branch. They are awesome. They always feed us when we go over there. His name is Marcelo, the lumber jack. The dude is sweet. He is already planning for me and Elder Aburto to come and stay with him and his family after the mission, and he is going to take us to all of the tourist attractions that are around here. He is great. They aren´t quite to the point of baptism yet. Marcelo wants to be really sure about what he is doing. But he told us when he gets to that point; he wants to be baptized in Lago Villarrica. We are definitely going ask permission to baptize him in the lake. Wouldn´t that be sweet!?


We also have been working a lot with a woman. She is really cool. Her husband was the Branch President, but she is not a member. In fact, she used to be anti-Mormon. She wouldn´t even let missionaries in her house. Well, that is all changing. She lives in the sector of the Hermana’s, but we went over there to plan an English class. She is a professor of English here in the university. I teach the English class every Saturday to help her students. But she and I get along well. She always invites us over. We went over there the first time with the Hermana’s, and we ended up helping in the lesson. For the last 3 weeks we have been going over there and I have been helping her prepare to take an international certification test for English. If she passes, she will get a scholarship to study in England. So I read all of her essays and help her correct them. Slowly we have been gaining her confidence. So the other day she asked if we would come over and help her with that, and then share something afterwards. So we did. We got a copy of the Book of Mormon in ingles and we gave it to her. She committed to read it. What a miracle! The sister missionaries have invited her to read the Book of Mormon like 10 times, and she always says no. But she said yes! And then Saturday she called me in the morning and she had been reading it! She actually read the chapter! The entire thing and she wants us to come back and talk to her about it. Her husband is so happy with us and for what we are doing for her. It is incredible to see the changes that she is making.


The other really cool thing here in the sector is that we are like... the cool kids. We seriously are friends with everyone. People are always greeting us and giving us hugs. (That is what the men do here: handshake, hug, and handshake.)  We have friends that hook us up with things. There are a lot of men who make things out of wood that we are friends with. Juanito is going to make us baseball bats on his lathe. We have a cake lady. We have an empanada lady. We just have a lot of good friends here. It is kind of funny. It is like the people think that it is cool to be friends with the missionaries in this sector.


I am happy, just to let you know. I am learning a lot. I am under 200 pounds :) and things are going well. Some days are still tough; Haha. Tough to be away from my mama. But I will say this:  The more time I spend away from home the more I realize that you taught me VERY well; manners, hygiene, kindness, cleanliness, responsibility. You taught me well. Job well done. I didn´t always do what you taught me when I was living at home, but I learned something. So thank you!

Sometimes I feel a little stressed about what will happen after the mission. I try not to think about it, but the people we talk with every single day always ask:  What are you going to do after the mission? What are you going to study? How are you going to pay for it?  Haha... those are all really good questions. I know I will study after the mission, but I don´t really know what I will study. Or how I will pay for it. Haha. But it will all work out... I hope.


In other news, I have decided that one day I am going to buy a guitar, learn to play it, go to the nursing home, and sing hymns in Spanish and sing to the old people. That is what I plan on doing in my life.


Hey, have an excellent week. Be happy. Read your scriptures. Ask Brett about when he plans on doing his home teaching this month. Make him do it. Home teaching practically doesn´t exist here, and that is why 90 % of all members of the church in Chile are not active. (I am not even making that statistic up!!)


I hope your back starts feeling better. You are in my prayers

.
Elder Warren


P.s. Thank you for the email address of Megan. I will send her something!

FYI:  I don't think that the Post Office is on strike anymore.

Argentina!

August 26, 2013

Mother.


I am sending emails like this because.... I can now. The rules have changed.  Also…I wrote you a beautiful email, but accidently erased it. But I am alive and well.


This week was a very good week. I will be staying here in Volcan. Which is good news. We have some good investigators that are progressing a lot. A family has now come to church 3 times, so that is really good news.


This is us...at Villarrica national park.

Sorry that I am sending emails like this. It is much faster. Much faster for now. I am so mad that my super long and really good email got erased. But here is another photo with my bald head.


Don’t send the package yet! The postal service is still on strike here so... hold off. And you can put the photos of Christ in the package.


Hey... this week on the blog you can just post something that says I am doing well and that we went to Argentina. How legit is that?  So just upload the photos and tell the world I am doing well.

 

Congrats to Tatum!!

August 19, 2013


Mother!

It is always a pleasure to hear from you! Always. I like hearing about how things are going back at home. It sounds like things are going well, other than the fact that you are in pain. I will pray for you. We pray a lot, so you will be getting extra prayers. Have faith that the prayers will work and that the pain will go away!

Hey, this week was pretty good! I BUZZED my hair! Can you believe it? I am a baldy right now! But I like it. Maybe next week I will send you a photo of my hair. It is short. Some people have told me that they like it, and other people have said that they don’t really like it. But it is more convenient. Perhaps I will keep it this way for a while here on my mission.

Hey... The other thing that I need you to tell Megan Flinders is that she will not be getting a letter from me before she leaves. I wrote her a letter, but Correos de Chile is on strike! I have no idea how long they will not be working for, but they are still closed today. So…I think she will leave before the letter gets up there. Tell her that I will send it to her family and they can send it on to her.

With Correos de Chile on strike, you should hold off on sending the package. Yeah? Hey, I thought of something else you can put in there; threader floss, to floss my bottom teeth. That’s right, I still floss my teeth! You should be very proud!

Hey, the birthday (Elder Aburto) went really well. I bought him a cake and we ate it with the other missionaries.  There were 14 of us, and we all sang and ate cake. It is crazy how quickly time passes. I will be 20 years old in like 3 months! Isn´t that nuts?

The water heater still isn´t fixed. Elder Aburto does the boiled water sponge bath, and I just use ice cold water to shower. It wakes me up in the morning that is for sure. We need to find a technician to come and fix it. We have the mamita... but she just gives us rice or beans every day. So… she isn´t my favorite person in the whole world. But hey, still losing weight.

LL Bean? LL Bean reminds me of you and all of your catalogs in the house. I do, in fact, have the alarm clock. One of the Elders in my district in the MTC hid it from me as a joke. But I have it. And it works.

Nick has a car? Are you serious! What a guy! That is so cool. We will never have a car here, or bikes. We are walkers, bus riders, and taxi takers. Haha. It’s all good though. I like walking. That gives me a chance to think.

I am glad the dog remembers who I am! That makes me happy! She is a good little dog. The dogs here are awful and diseased and they try and bite, but it is okay. There is a big dog that lives in front of our house. I think it is like a bull mastiff or something like that, a big boy. Haha.

I miss buying school supplies with you, too, mama. I always liked my school supplies. Here I get super excited every time I buy a new pen or a notebook.

This Saturday we will know the cambios. I will know if I am going or staying. I have a feeling that I will be staying here with the same companion. But we will see what happens. I like Villarica. But it would also be cool to go to another place, although, we probably live in the nicest house in the whole mission right now. Our house is really nice. Maybe I will send you a picture sometime.

I am good. I am healthy. I have short hair. I am happy. Time is flying by. Haha. Elder Aburto says the only way that I will be able to maintain my Spanish after the mission is if I marry a Latina girl. Haha. What do you think about that, Mama? They are very pretty. Haha... don´t worry though, I am not looking to get married. I am on a mission down here!

Elder Warren


Tatum! Hey, I wanted to say congrats on your mission call to Tennessee! You are going to become a real hick now. And you will love country music! Haha. I wrote you a letter, but like I said earlier... Chile mail system in on strike. So you won’t get it before you leave to Paris. Have fun studying over there! Ahh....you are doing such great things. You will do fantastic things as a misionera. Good luck. Keep in touch. I am proud of you. Thank you for always being a good friend.

I've Still Got It!

August 12, 2013


Mom!!

I want to start off by telling you not to put any kind of cream or vitamins in the package. It will get opened and inspected if you do that. Don´t worry, they sell that kind of stuff here. I am living in a pretty big city and there are like 10 farmacías. So I can get that kind of stuff. I would, though, like Twizzler Pull-n-Peel licorice! Licorice does not exist here.

Mom... You didn´t tell me that Jordan was working at the Guy Fierri Restaurant!! Isn´t that dude like famous? I have seen that restaurant on TV!  That is so sweet! Nick would be dying if he knew that! Tell his mother to tell him. And ask if he got my second letter? It sounds like Jordan is doing well! Good for him! That is awesome.

I love the sleeping bag. It is great. I sleep so much warmer now! That is awesome. I gave a jar of peanut butter to Elder Aburto and I took mine to Correlación.  We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with sopaipillas! They were good!  The sister missionary from Orem was so excited that I had peanut butter! Haha.

I still got it, Mama. I spoke in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. I spoke for about 15 minutes, and I had them all laughing. Haha. It was my first time speaking in Spanish in church, but it turned out really well. To answer your question: I am in a branch, not a ward. There are 523 members on the records, but only 20 come to church. Crazy, right?  We have a lot of work to do here; A lot of work.

Hey, I also have been doing some singing lately. The Hermana’s de Ancahaul had a baptism, and my companion and I sang in a special musical number. We also sang a special musical number in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. We sang "Fe en Cada Paso" con las Hermana’s. It is the mission "theme song".  It was fun!

I went on an intercambio con Elder Leatham this week. He has one cambio less on the mission than me. It was a lot of fun. Haha. We didn´t even speak in English the entire time!  The only time that I speak English anymore is if I am teaching English Class. I teach those every Saturday.

We are busy here. There is a lot of work to do. It seems like we are always running from one place to another trying to get everything done. We have had to sprint back to the house almost every night to get back on time. We are working overtime here pretty much to get everything done.  We get back to the house exhausted every single day.

Last week you were wondering about what I do every single day... I will dedicate an email in the future to tell you what my daily routine is.

I think that is all for this week. I have to go get my hair cut again because they did a really bad job last week. I think I am just going to have them buzz it.

Tell Brett I say hello. Mike Maddix sent me an email that said "we ate beans for dinner”. I laughed.

Elder Warren

One Third

August 5, 2013

saludos desade Chile, Villarrica
su hijo esta en nuestro sector y es muy bueno, aca lo queremos mucho, tenemos fotos de el.
email and picture from member July 28, 2013

Mother!!!

I got your package on Saturday! How great is that?? Wow, it was like Christmas. I got your package and a bunch of letters all at the same time. I really like getting letters here. It is really exciting!! I got two from Tatum. I got another one from Megan, another one from Kinzie, and another one from Marissa. Ahhh... I just love feeling all of the support from my friends. They are all great!! Getting a letter is like getting a little boost of energy here in the mission. It is great. :)

In Megan´s letter she sent two pictures of her with her MISSION CALL!! Mom, she is going to Canada! How exciting is that?  It makes me happy when girls who have the desire to serve make the decision to do so.  It is so awesome!  I bet you are thrilled to hear about that, because she was always your favorite. Haha. She leaves in September I think. I gotta write her a letter of congratulations today so she gets it before she leaves.  Tatum also has been working on her mission papers! How neat! A mission is not for everyone, and not every girl should go, but I am pleased that some of my friends have made the decision to serve. :)

Today marks exactly 8 months as a missionary. 8 months ago you dropped me off at the MTC. 8 Months and 1 day ago I said goodbye to Makayla. It feels like that was only like a month ago. Time passes so freaking fast here in the mission. It is unreal! 1/3 of my mission is in the books. I have been living in Chile for 6 months. Each week passes faster than the last. Yesterday I was thinking about what I have done with my mission thus far. I was thinking about my progress, my Spanish, my teaching and all of that. Let’s just say that I speak Spanish fluently. I could survive here on my own. I understand what people are saying, and I can respond. Obviously there will always be more words and stuff that I can learn, but I speak with ease. My teaching has improved greatly. An investigator yesterday paid me a great compliment and said that he can tell that what I say comes from the heart and that I am telling the truth. It made me feel really good. That is the overall goal that people feel the spirit and believe what I am talking about.

I still have 2/3 of my mission left. I am going to do everything that I can to make the time count. I am going to keep working hard. I am not fully aware of the progress I have made because I live with myself every day. But I read back through my journals and have noticed that I have made some changes. It is kind of exciting to see that in myself.

I enjoyed your story about family history. That is really cool that you are taking more of an interest in it. It is important. Get a head start on that genealogy work because that is what your job will be in the millennium. Family History and Temple work. When I return, you will have to teach me how to do family history work so that I can help out.

Things here are going pretty well. The people I told you about last week are doing great. The man has changed so much from the first time we met him. We visited them yesterday and the lesson went really well. They are progressing. We are going back later in this week to celebrate Elder Aburto’s birthday with them. How neat is that? Also, we had THREE investigators in church yesterday. That was definitely great news. A man and his wife and their two kids (I know that is four, but the youngest isn`t technically an investigator because she is only two).  He is like the Chilean version of Uncle Butch, but younger. Maybe I think that because he is a manly man and he works as a lumberjack. They had a good experience at church.

Tomorrow we are going to Valdivia for a capacitation with the President. That will be good... 6 hours of bus travel tomorrow. And we have to wake up at four in the morning. Great... Haha. It will be good.

In other news:  I caught my shirt on fire the other day. Haha. It was actually really funny. I have no idea how it happened, but I wish I had it on video. I was making eggs and I lit the match to light the stove, and my shirt just ignited! Haha. That was definitely a journal entry I will enjoy reading in about 10 years. Haha.

The North Face? Mom… Expensive, don’t spend a lot of money on me. Haha. And it was a nice touch to put things in zip lock bags in the packages because things tend to get wet here. But the sleeping bag and everything arrived just fine. I liked the religious stickers you put on the box. Haha. In the package... my only other request would be little photos of Christ that they sell at Deseret Book? I don’t know. Haha.

Have an excellent week. I am doing well. The mamita doesn´t feed us well. I have lost 5 kilos... blessing in disguise. I love you and hope all is well. That baby is easily the cutest thing I have ever seen!!!! Ahhh…

Elder Warren

Kashayla Jane July 2013 (Elder Warren's Niece) 

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