ONE OF THEM DIDN'T LIKE THAT SO MUCH AND AS I PASSED GRABBED MY BACKPACK

¡¡¡HOLA TODOS!!!

Well Christmas is over but it was a good one here in Chile. Very different but good nonetheless. My favorite part though would definitely have to be talking to you guys though. It was awesome hearing the whole family and just hearing your voices and talking to you guys on Christmas day. My favorite Christmas gift by far :) even though I did love and thoroughly enjoy all of the Christmas gifts in my package and thank you very much for them. My companion and I are enjoying our dulces and I've already used the laminated visual aids you've made me a bunch of times. Oh and everyone in the house is jealous of the pijamas haha. Well on the phone it sounded like all of you guys are doing great and that you had a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas - Familia Gutierrez (Galvarino)

Not too much has happened since I talked to you guys on Christmas. The partially raw Turkey decided to bother my stomach for a little longer but now its almost back to normal. It was fun celebrating la noche buena with families in the ward. My family already knows but for everyone else here in Chile they celebrate Christmas at 12 oclock midnight Christmas day. They eat a huge Cena Navideña (christmas dinner) at 12 and then afterwards open all their presents. Then celebrate until like 3 in the morning and then sleep in until like 3 in the afternoon Christmas day. As missionaries we obviously couldnt stay out that long so a family in the ward invited us to cenar at 1030 and we got home by like 12ish which was still late but what can ya do.

Then Christmas day we had a zone activity where we watched a movie and ate, and then after I talked to the fam, and after that we went and visited an hermana viejita in the ward to keep her company and take once because she was alone on Christmas day and feeling sad. But fortunately we were able to cheer her up abit :)

As far as the work goes it's tough and we are loosing good investigators left and right but we still have a few good ones that whent to church yesterday and still want to be baptized. So we didn't get our white Christmas but we have a few baptisms coming up in a few weeks here. Two of them are a brother and sister (Cecilia age 17 and Juan age 15) and they are great. They are now friends with most of the jovenes in the ward and Juan wants to get baptized as soon as he can and even talks about wanting to serve a mission in the future. Cecilia is moving a little slower than her brother but she is progressing as well and I think she'll catch up to her brother pretty soon here. The familia Godoy which was great just got into the fruteria business and now they have to go work in the campo Sunday mornings so its looking like they wont be able to continue to progress which is sad but it happens. We have some other good ones too but none of them came to church yesterday so today and tomorrow my companion and I have to make some rounds to see what happened. Besides that we're just knocking doors and trying to find new people.

This weekend is going to be tough though because el año nuevo is bigger than Christmas is here and there where alot of drunks out on Christmas which means Friday will be terrible. Oh and that brings up another story before I let you all go. So my back pack had a little rip in it before Christmas but it was'nt really that big of a deal. But going back to the house on Christmas day we ran into a group of drunk flaites. They all started asking for money and as usual I ignored them. One of them didnt like that so much and as I passed grabbed my backpack. I kind of just tried to shove him off without angering him further but it turned out unnessary because his friends told him to lay off. All in all the situation wasn't a big deal except that the little punk made the little rip in my back pack alot bigger. Which means I either A. have to give it a try with a needle and thread, B. ask an hermana to help me fix it, or B. Buy a new one. I think the most promising option looks like B. so I'll give it a shot and let you know how it goes haha.

Well that's all I've got today but I hope that all of you guys are having fun up in Arizona with the viejito mañoso and grandma oh and HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GRANDMA AND PAPA!!! Love you all very much and until next week chou y prospero año nuevo!!

con mucho amor, Élder Harper :)

p.s. Una nota para todos que hablan español y leen mis emails. Mi Padre grabó una parte de la conversación que tuvi con ellos en el dia de la navidad y me pidió para dar mi testimonio en español durante la grabación. Pero yo estaba muy emocionado y estaba un poco nervioso también entonces yo quiero advertirles que el castellano en el tesimonio es muy fome. Como bien bien malo y chanta. Y ahora yo tengo vergüenza porque yo creo que el va a poner la grabación en el blog. Entonces perdonen el español y les prometo que en realidad es mejor que el ejemplo en la grabación. Y eso es todo. Ya, listo, chou!

I CAN SEE THEM GETTING WARMER AND HAPPIER AND MORE SMILEY

Hola querida familia y amigos!

Well things are getting pretty close to Christmas and here in Chile you can barely tell the difference haha. Some people have trees and a few decorations but no one really has lights but for the most part not too many people seem all that excited. As far as when I will call home, to be completely honest I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to try to call at around one o'clock Chile time.

As far as the work goes, this last week was both really good and then really disappointing at the same time. We got to teach the family that went to church last week, la familia Godoy, again and they like the church a lot and a few of them already want to get baptized. They are all very different and have different needs as far as teaching goes and spiritually but I think we will be able to baptize all of them for a complete family. The only thing is they didn't come to church this last week but we are going to get a hold of them tomorrow to find out what happened.

We also taught another family, la familia Gonzalez Chavez, and they are a little timid but awesome and 4 of them commited to being baptized and two of them came to church! The other two had to entertain family coming into town for Christmas. We also had a noche de hogar with the family Carrasco and their son's friend Cecilia that we've been teaching and that went very well. She brought her 15 year old brother, Juan, as well and at the end of the lesson they both said that they want to get baptized. But they both couldn't go to church on Sunday because of family coming into town for Christmas.

It's good that all these people want to visit with family at Christmas but they're not getting what Christmas is really about! They need to put their focus on Christ and if they do that, then family comes naturally. But Oh well what can you do. We have a lot of other investigators as well but those were all the ones that have already commited to be baptized and they are all good and very different. We were supposed to have 15 investigators at church on Sunday but we could only get two there so that's why the week was good but didn't end so great. But we aren't too worried because we are going to help our investigators a lot this coming week and we are going to have a lot more next week! So even though it was disappointing, I didn't let it disanimate me too much because we did a lot of good work last week and I know we are going to start to see some fruits real soon here. The people that we do have are growing and changing and I can see them getting warmer and happier and more smiley. They are not quite there yet but we are helping them get there and we are planning what we need to do to continue to guide them in the right direction.

Haha sorry I'm starting to ramble now, well besides working a lot and teaching a lot, it was a pretty normal week. My companion is a little moody and loses animo easily but we are working on that and I'm working on being more dependent. Because when he loses animo it's easy for me to lose it too so we are working on that. No companionship is perfect. And your right Dad, giving the Christmas story from Luke to investigators is awesome because you really can connect it to any gospel principle. I usually just connect it to baptism but it works for everything :)

Oh, one interesting and sad thing that happened this week was that a house burned down pretty close to our house and almost took two others with it. It was really sad just watching the flames devour the thing and that the Bomberos couldn't put it out in time to save it. Luckily they were able to save the other two. The house was in sector O'higgins and they went to the site but nobody was there and the neighbors said that they left. Hopefully that family will be able to take their situation and grow closer and find the true meaning of Christmas now that their material posessions are gone. Haha there I tried to end the sad story on a good note. Oh and we got to watch the Christmas devotional yesterday so that really got everyones spirits up.

Well it sounds like you guys are going to have a very merry Christmas way up north in southern California and that everyone is doing well. I'm really excited to talk to you all in just four days! Bueno les amo! Chou y vamos a hablar en solomente cuatro dias! Tengan una feliz navidad todos!

Con amor, Élder Harper :)

OUR GOAL IS TO HAVE A WHITE CHRISTMAS, DRESSED IN BAPTISMAL CLOTHES : )

Querido familia y amigos,

Que pasa? Well I had just finished a nice long email that took me a good 45 minutes or so to write and when I tried to send it, the internet decided to shut down on me and the email was lost. So now I have like no time left to write but I'll try to give a brief overview of what I wrote in my last email.

Well first off my compañero nuevo de Columbia is pretty cool. He has the highest squeakiest voice I've ever heard come from a male in my entire life, but he's awesome. I thought his voice was going to bug me after a while but now I've gotten used to it. Well this last week was a sanctification week when the president tells us to make 200 contacts rather than the usual goal of 140. We completed the goal with almost all of them long good contacts. I thought that E' Terrazas and I worked hard but now I realize that we could have worked harder.

Last week we left it all out there. We came home every night exhausted and I absolutely loved it. I've learned that if you're ever feeling a little down, discouraged, or disanimo'd or just plain tired that the secret is to just work harder and give it more. The harder you work the better you feel. And you see the blessings from it. We are now teaching a few families and 3 people out of a family of five (all over age 16) came to church with us. The mom and one of the other kids were voting (yesterday was elections) but they plan on all going to church together next week. Also a friend of one of the eighteen year old kids in the ward has been going to church and wants to be baptized. We are going to teach her and her family this next week. We have a lot of other investigators as well but right now I really don't have much more time to write.

But our goal is to have a white Christmas, dressed in baptismal clothes :) and it looks like we might be able to make that goal. Well there was a lot more that I wrote in the other email but I'm now out of time. We have a cita pretty soon here and have to go. But I'm really excited about this cambio and I can already tell its going to be the best most hard working, and hopefully most successful cambio yet. Chile seems pretty sleepy and not too excited about christmas but I'm doing my best to keep the spirit up and to make everyone else feel it as well. Well I love you all and until next week chou!

Con el espiritu de navidad, Élder Harper :)

p.s. I bought a new camera but because of the whole losing the email thing I now have no time to burn a cd of pictures so I'll send them home next week. Oh and if you could put like 120 dollars or so on my card mom that would be good because I'm now out of money hahaha thanks.

p.s.p.s. Thats awesome that you got to be with all the Harpers for Grandpa's birthday. Sounds like it was a fun family bonding experience. Send me a picture from it! Oh and sorry everyone, I dont have any time to email anyone else this week. Stupid chileno internet connection.

I LOVE SEEING FAMILIES BROUGHT TOGETHER THROUGH THIS GLORIOUS GOSPEL

Hola querida familia y queridos amigos!

Well this last week was both good and bad, weird and awesome. A lot happened and at the same time not that much. You know, just the missionary usual. The whole house was recovering from being sick so things seemed lethargic at times but despite all that, we did a lot of work and had a lot going on.

 On Thursday we had to go to the centro to the government office to work on my visa so that took a little while, plus, Thursday is weekly planning day. On Friday, Marcos and Marcela got married in the church!!! Por fin!!! (finally!!!). After the ceremony, which was performed by the state, (churches can't marry under the law here) we had a small humble little voda (wedding reception) with Marcela's grandma, Marcela's two little munchkin kids, and the whole zone. It was a lot of fun and was awesome to see them finally get married! Nelson was also there at the voda. We've been worried about him because he moved and we haven't been able to see him, but he's doing just fine. He's halfway through Alma in the Book of Mormón and his countenance has just gotten brighter, its awesome :).

Saturday was Marcela's baptism! Élder Terrazas baptized her and I ended up giving the talk because the hermana who was supposed to didn't go. Hey, but that's Chile for you haha. It went great and was very spiritual. She was so happy to finally get baptized. Now she has her sights sent on bringing her family to the temple. I felt the spirit very strong on Sunday watching her take the sacrament for the first time sitting with her husband and her kids. 

I love seeing families brought together through this glorious gospel.

In other news, now that all our golden investigators are baptized, we just have a few very slow progressing investigators and like 2 good contacts that we need to visit next week. In other words, no one. Finding didn't really go too well last week because we were busy, but next week we plan on hitting the streets hard for contacts and hitting members hard for references. We have one good reference, which is a family of seven that sounds like they are interested so hopefully that will go good. I really want a family this next cambio.

Speaking of cambios, we got ours on Saturday. I'm staying in Galvarino but my companion, who has only been senior companion for this last cambio and the one before it, is going to be a branch president in a little pueblo 2 hours south for the next six months. He's kind of freaking out because he hates leadership positions but I know that he'll do just fine. Im getting a Columbiano companion named Élder Tapias, who in the words of Élder Terrazas, "El es mas fleto que yo elder harper" a.k.a he's even more feminine than Terrazas but as long as he's a hard worker I couldn't care less. I've heard he's baptized a lot but that this is going to be his first cambio as senior companion. I'm a little nervous to lead the sector for the first week or so as my campanion learns it but I'll just have to step up and do it. I am excited to have another latino companion so my spanish will keep improving. The Argentino is also leaving the house to become a zone leader and is being replaced by a latino so now no one else besides Kamalu and I will be able to speak english in the house.

Well as all change is, I'm excited and nervous for this cambio but I have plans (like always) to work even harder, find ways to waste less time, and be less timid and akward with contacts (that one is a work in progress). Well friends and family it's time to say good bye but I love you guys and enjoy your Christmas season while I'm roasting here in Los Ángeles, which unfortunately lacks Christmas spirit as of right now. But that's ok, Iĺl make my own Christmas spirit! chao chau (still dont know exactly how its spelled)

Su misionero en la tierra de la navidad con calor,
Élder Harper :)

Baylor the Sailor,

Well good job with cross country you little stud. You now go kick so major butt in lacrosse!!!!!!!!! ....yeah that's all I got this week... Love ya chao!

Élder Harper :)

I AM ASHAMED! I FORGOT ABOUT THANKSGIVING!

Querido familia y amigos,

I am ashamed! I forgot about Thanksgiving! It doesn't exist here so it just came and went and I woke up Friday morning and realized I missed it. In fact, I can't even remember what I did on Thursday jajaja. It was just another day. In fact, until Sunday, this week was pretty uneventful. I got sick again thanks to The Argentino Élder Rodriguez. He got here sick and then he infected my companion and when your companion gets sick, well, it's only a matter of time after that untill it's your turn. And I ate some bad pasta so that added to it for a day or two but after how sick I was last cambio this wasn't a big deal. It was just kind of a groggy week. Even though we were both sick we still went out and worked. I just cant remember too much of what we did haha.

The search for the family still goes on. We found a good one and taught a great lesson with them but they are never at home during the week so we can only visit them on the weekends. And as the missionaries here in Chile say, "Tiemp mata el investigador" (time kills the investigator) So we will have to wait and see on that one. 


The highlight of the week was definitely Victor´s baptism. In case you don't remember, Victor was the old stubborn guy now turned soft by the gospel. His testimony is great and he really loves the church and the service went perfectly as planned (which rarely happens here). It started on time, everything went smoothly, and the spirit was felt strongly. We had a good turn out and a friend of his from the ward baptized him. Oh, and Nelson was confirmed last week and is doing better then ever, and now that he has the gift of the holy spirit, I know that he is going to continue to grow :).

Some other news is that we finally got Marcela and Marcos to set a marriage date. They are getting married under the law on Friday and then after wards we are having a little reception in the church with the whole zone. They want only missionaries at the party for some reason so that will be good. Then the next day on Saturday we are going to baptize Marcela. She is so ready and excited to be baptized. I cant wait :).

We also did some good reactivation work last week. We got two families who hadn't been to church in years to come to both church on Sunday and the baptism. So hopefully they will stick. As far as the spanish is coming, I have my good days and my bad like always. Im starting to dream more in spanish (don't get too excited. it's still very broken) but I´m learning to have patience. It's kind of funny because your never satisfied with it. The more you learn and the better you get, the more you realize how terrible you really are and how much you have to go. But hey, I'm still improving and that's all that matters.

Well, we didn't work as hard as we could have last week because both me and my companion were pretty sick but we are both recovering now so this next week will be a lot better. Plus, we have another baptism this next week :).

Well, it sounds like you guys all had a fun time down at the river. It's funny that it's cold there cuz it's really starting to get hot here in Los Ángeles. I'll be wearing short sleeves and eating asado (barbecue) on Christmas haha. That's too bad about Zach, but that sounds like usual Zach and Blake logic to me, going out without the proper gear and such. Poor Zachy, what are we going to do with you? But hey Zach, at least when people asked you what happened, it sounds cool to say that you did it dirt biking.

About the camera Mom, I can buy I decent one here for about 60 or 70 luca (like 120 or 130 dollars) so I think that I'm going to do that. And yeah, I´ll start doing the cds with the pictures. Well that's all I got for this week but I love you all and enjoy getting ready for the Navidad. Hasta el siguiente lunes chao!

con amor, Élder Harper :)

The Baymeister,

Wad up my brotha from the same motha? It sounds like you guys had a pretty sweet Thanksgiving. Meanwhile I completely forgot about it. But in my defense it doesn't exist here and I was sick. Here I´ve learned not to let the old chilenos know that your sick when you're in their house. Porque cuando tu les decis que estai enfermo, ellos ponen cualquier porqueria plantas en un vaso y te obligan para tomarlo.

Translation they throw a bunch of weird smelling plants that they got who knows where into a cup, pour hot water in it, and make you drink it. Surprisingly though sometimes it does make you feel better, or worse, it depends hahaha. Well I got to go man but take care y porfavor portaté bien. a.k.a dont get into too much trouble. Well until next pday chao.

tu hermano mayor, Élder Harper :)

THE SPIRIT AND SIMPLE TRUTH ARE A LOT MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY AMOUNT OF ELOQUENT SPEECH

Hola de nuevo de su chilenito favorito!

Well.. this last week was both very good and pretty bad all at the same time. A lot happened which means this letter will probably be somewhat unorganized and a little bit of rambling but you´ll just have to deal with it haha. First off, we had entrevistas (interviews) yesterday so President told us to have our P-day on Tuesday instead. Thus, that is why you did not receive my email yesterday.

Moving on, I will start with the bad. First of all, when I went to do the things that you asked me to do last week I found that my camera was broken!!!! AHHH!!!!!! It's weird, the screen and everything still works. Everything works except the lens! It's not cracked or anything but the screen just shows up black and when i take a picture it just turns out black. Second of all, the memory kick freezes up sometimes but luckily there is a reset button for that. But last time I reset it, it erased all of my photos!!!! and now it won't read my sd card to upload all the photos I have on it. And when it does read it, it comes up blank even though it's not. Don't worry, I checked on someone else's camera. Yeah so that's that. Sad, but what can you do? So anyways, I did not send the sd card home yet because I'm going to try to figure out what to do about this whole situation.

That was the worst of last week. Satan is also working very hard with our progressing investigators, but fortunately the spirit and us are working harder. One thing that happened that I won't go into too much detail with, is we got led into a trap, into a "discussion" with three medio loco and thirsty-for-blood seventh day adventists. One of which is there pastor who has like hundreds of scriptures memorized of which he manipulates to his cause. What happened was our investigator Nelson´s dad is a seventh day adventist and he put doubts into his head so Nelson's dad wanted to meet with his son and with us. Which was fine. But a half an hour into our meeting, in walks the whole crew and they just started monolouging basically and wouldn't even let us talk. My companion was very timid with them so I was basically left to defend by myself. Fortunately for us, the spirit and simple truth are a lot more powerful thAn any amount of eloquent speech, an arsenal of scripture and quite frankly, just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

Which leads us too the good news. We were able to resolve his doubts and we baptized Nelson on Sunday. Yayyy!!!!! My first baptism :). His testimony isn't very strong yet but it's stronger than he thinks. He is almost half way done with the Book of Mormon and I know his testimony is going to continue to grow rapidly. It was awesome to see his journey from just leaving a punk nazi life just a few months ago to a now spiritual and rapidly growing faithful member of the church.

I was nervous to do the ordinance but I managed through it without having to redo it and the spirit was very strong. The feeling afterwards is very humbling when they are thanking you from the bottom of their heart and you feel like you didn't really do anything except point them in the right direction. Because I mean the spirit converted him, not me. But anyways, we have another baptism next week (Victor) and maybe two if we can help Marcela and Marcos through the trials that are being thrown at them right now. We have some more for next cambio too when the twins get back from Uruguay.

Since things are moving along with our investigators with fechas, we have to really improve our finding efforts. We have a few good investigators that we just need to start getting to progress faster and we have a lot more work to do with the members. Street contacts are great but references from members and uniting part member families is so much more fruitful. So we have a lot of work to do here in the next couple of weeks. It's really hard to keep up with it all but I wouldnt have it any other way :).

Oh, and thank you very very much for the ridiculously generous Christmas packages grandma and papa and mom and dad. My companion and roommates are very jealous and in disbelief on basically how awesome you guys are hahah. Don't worry Mom, I´m following all of the rules and directions and am resisting the temptation to cheat haha. But sorry grandma and papa and family I'm not waiting to eat the food :D.

Well last week was very eventful but for now I think that that's a rap on the email. As always I love you lots and enjoy your Thanksgiving for me because it doesn't exist here in Chile jaja. But I'll survive and I'll eat even more than usual in honor of it (if that's even possible) Bueno, chao todos! Les quiero mucho! portase bien y haz lo justo como siempre. O a menos epero que es como siempre :)


Su favorito flaquito en el campo chilenito, Élder Harper :)

IT WAS CRAZY HOW MUCH MORE I COULD UNDERSTAND AND SPEAK THAN NORMAL...

muchas holas mi querida familia y amigos!

Well, this last week flew by. It seems like I was just writing home yesterday. But don't worry, I still have plenty to write :). Let's see here.... what happened this week...? We did divisiones y intercambios a lot (splits and divisions with the priesthood in our ward and other missionaries). Tuesday I went to work in the pueblo Laja, an hour away, with mi hermano Élder Moreno. He's my hermano because he was trained by Élder De Leon as well. So it was good working in a different area and seeing another missionary's style. We ran into a Pastor Evangelico that day and I pretty much had to drag Élder Moreno away from that contact because I hate bible bashing, even when you make your point, it gets you absolutely nowhere because bible bashers are too stubborn and hard to see change.

Wednesday we did divisiones with the Presbiteros (priests) of the ward and I went with one of them by myself to teach a lesson to Nelson, who´s baptismal date is this next Sunday. I was really nervous to go by myself to teach a lesson. Unfortunately, the kid didn't help me out at all during the lesson, but fortunately the gift of tounges is real, jaja. My spanish was still a little rough but I was able to teach the lesson by myself and answer/resolve all of Nelson´s questions and doubts. It was crazy how much more I could understand and speak than normal, and then a few hours later, after the appointment, my spanish was back to normal.

Heavenly father gives us the words we need when we need them, then after that, we are back to normal. But experiences like those are very spiritual and testimony building. I mean, I wasn't speaking fluently but I know that I definitely received help. I still need to work on being confident and having more faith. I´m fine with talking during lessons and putting my bit in during contacts but when it comes to starting my own contacts and talking to everyone in the calle (street), I´m still pretty timid. So one of my goals is to break that this cambio. It's crazy that this cambio is half way over but I still got three weeks and hopefully another cambio here with Élder Terrazas. He´s a great guy and I enjoy being his companion. Of course he gets on my nerves every now and then but overall we get along well.

Another really cool experience we had this week was from a reference that E´Rodriquez y Kamalu gave us. References usually aren't very good so we didn't exactly have high hopes. It turned out that we were wrong. The reference was an innactive member from Uruguay whose really buena onda but is a chain smoker and doesn't want to go back to church. But, her twin 13 year old boys were stoked to hear about the gospel and asked us to take them to church with us on Sunday. They asked us!! They loved church and made instant friends with a few members of the deacons quorum and they both want to get baptized. But unfortunately, they leave on the 23rd for Uruguay and they don't get back until the beginning of January so we won't be able to baptize them this cambio. Hopefully though, we will both still be here next cambio and will be able to baptize them then. They are both pure gold. We didn't have to do anything, just find them. After church they thanked us for bringing them and for showing them the church. It was awesome and very spiritual; you can just feel the spirit radiating from them. It's too bad they have to leave. But igual, I´m sure I´ll still be here when they get back :).

In other news about the work, we are baptizing Nelson next week. Then viejito Victor the week after and hopefully Marcella the week after that. And Alex baptized Keka in Pitrufquén last week. So it's going well but we are making goals to work harder and do better. We are praying to find a family so we will be looking hard for one this next week.

Well, there's probably more to say but I really can´t think of anything more. The days and weeks start to blend together after a while. As far as Spanish goes, I have my good days and bad days. Sometimes I feel like I can decently hold a conversation and other times it feels like I can't understand or speak a word. Im still rough on myself about it but I´m working on having more confidence and faith and I know my Heavenly Father is helping me out with that as well. Well before I go, don't worry Mom, I´ll do everything you asked me to do and send it all in the mail next P-day :). Well as always, I love you all and am eternally gratefull for your love and support. I couldn't ask for a better family. Until next week CHAU!

Con amor, Élder Harper :)

p.s. Elder Terrazas manda salud y holas para ustedes

p.s.p.s. yo se ahora que Ecco es mucho mejor que Coronado Bro. Baker. Yo he visto la luz que es Ecco. Y también muchas gracias por su emails que usted me envio de animo. Estoy agradecido su animo y fe en mi, entonces le mando gracias. Oh también portase bien! Chau :)

MAN, IT'S CRAZY WHAT WE 19 AND 20 YEAR OLD MISSIONARIES HAVE TO DO SOMETIMES....

Hola querida familia y amigos!

Well, things have been going pretty well here in Los Ángeles. Parts of last week were kind of weird but as always I have plans for what I´m going to change next week. Let's see here... first off, I will start by answering questions.

No, we don't have a mamita but as far as lunch appointments go here, the members almost fight over who gets to feed us. All of the members invite us to eat with them and we have to turn down offers all of the time. We are only allowed to make appointments for lunch in our mission. We are on our own for breakfast and once (dinner). And we have a mamita for laundry but she doesn't iron our stuff. From what I´ve seen, irons dont exist in Chile haha. Oh, and we are out of the house working for 8 hours a day.

My companion and I are getting along just great. He has a bunch of weird quirks about him and some things about the way he operates as a missionary don't make too much sense, but overall we get along great and he is a good missionary from what I can tell. He is great with people and is very good at gaining the trust of investigators which is very important. Communication is definitely still a problem sometimes when he has to take 5 or so minutes to explain something, but overall I think it's getting easier to converse with him.

I can understand most of what he says and even though I usually can't say everything I want to say to him in the right way, I can usually get my point accross to him. My grammar is still terribly painful but he says that I´ve already improved a lot since I´ve gotten here and that I need to give myself more credit and have more faith in myself. He always chastises me for my lack of confidence and faith in myself when it comes to the language. I think that he's right and that I'm still being a little too hard on myself. It's just hard to see your own progress sometimes. But I´m working on being more bold and confident. I just wish the chilenos didnt talk so fast. I can understand some of them but then there are just some who speak way flaite or just stereo type poster child chileno. It's kind of funny because a lot of times if I don't understand a question or something that someone says, I can turn to my companion and he basically says the same exact thing they said and I can understand it. He translates from chileno into spanish for me hahaha.

Anyways, for most of last week I just let my companion do most of the contacts and most of the teaching because of my lack of confidence, but the last few days he's forced me to do a lot more of the teaching and the conversing and it's helping me to just start talking without fear of making mistakes and overthinking what I´m going to say and how I´m going to say it. I've started to notice that when I just start talking and conversing without thinking so much on the language and how I'm going to say things, is when I speak the best and understand the most. Oh, and by the way mom, sometimes parts of my dreams are in spanish but it's really broken spanish and I can never remember what was said.

Anyways, the work still isn´t going how we would like it to, but it's starting to pick up a lot and we are starting to see little miracles happen in the lives of our investigators. Right now we have 3 firm fechas (baptismal dates) and are working hard to start setting more. One of them is this old stubborn 70 year old man who has a shoe repair shop, and until recently, refused to let us teach him becuase we are just "children" and thought that he didn't need baptism. He went to church every week but wouldn't really let us teach him. Then, out of the blue, when we stopped by his shop last week, he told us that he wanted us to teach him and after that he said that he wants to get baptized.

The other, Marcela, is the "wife"(they are getting married in two weeks because she really wants to get baptized) of a just until recently, innactive member, Marcos. We weren't sure about Marcela until yesterday when during church, there was some drama and it's a long story, but we ended up helping them solve some marital problems and resolved all of her doubts about the church and her worthiness to be baptized. Hahaha it's too long of a story to say but man, it's crazy what we 19 and 20 year old missionaries have to do sometimes. I´ll tell you it wouldn't be possible without the help of the Lord.

The last fecha is a friend of Marcos who until yesterday we had only talked to for 15 or so minutes and gave him a Book of Mormon. Then out of nowhere. yesterday he shows up to church and after church said that after only reading like 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon he knows that it's true and he wants to get baptized. Yesterday was crazy but awesome, I felt the spirit really strong the whole day and for some reason my spanish was pretty dang good yesterday. It's gone back to being blah now jajaja. I guess the Lord just needed me to speak better yesterday.

As far as the area goes, we are safe. In some of the seedier parts of town and at night the flaites will yell things at us but I´ve learned that if you show them you're not scared of them then they leave you alone. They just like giving the mormons a hard time, mostly because they think all mormons and all gringos are rich. But anyways, when the yell at us, I just yell something in English back, doesn't matter what, just anything, and they´ll laugh and let us be. But igual (even still) we stay away from some of the neighborhoods after dark.

Oh, and some random things that I've noticed that are different here then from Pitruf are the majority of people, even the old ones, have teeth and despite it being one of the more "ghetto" sectors of LA, overall, the people here are wealthier than the people of Pitrufquén. Well I think that I´ve done enough rambling for this week. As always, I´m doing good and enjoying my time here. It's not easy and it is very draining work sometimes but I wouldn't have it any other way. I see where I am now and I can envision the missionary that I want to be and it seems impossibly far off sometimes but I´m determined to get there. Sometimes I feel a little discouraged or lazy but whenever I get those feelings, I try to shake them as soon as possible. It´s not possible to be perfect but you know we have to try like it is. I love you guys very much and I will talk to you next week!

Con amor, Élder Harper :)

I STOOD MY GROUND AND STARTED THROWING KICKS LEFT AND RIGHT

Querido familia y amigos,

Hola from the city of Angels! Well a lot has happened from the last email but at the same time it was kind of a sleepy first week here in Galvarino Los Ángeles. For starters, last Tuesday for transfers it was a 4 hour bus ride from Pitrufquén to Los Angeles. Élder De Leon rode with me the whole way because he was heading up to Concepción to leave. We had to switch buses in Temuco to go to Los Ángeles and like 5 of the youth from the rama in Pitruf where waiting there to despedirse (say good bye). I didn´t realize that they liked us so much, they were all very sad to see us go.

Anyways when I got to LA (faster to write LA) my companion, Élder Terrazas, was there to meet me and we went straight to the house to drop our stuff off and then to lunch. Oh, and no he doesn´t speak any English so this last week has been quite the adventure. First off though, we live in a nice cozy little house with another sector, Via O´higgins, and my buddy Élder Kamalu from the MTC is in that sector! So it's cool being in the same house with him but at the same time it's a big blow for my spanish self esteem. He was a stud with spanish in the MTC and his trainer was latino so he speaks really well and understands almost everything. And Élder Vincent is in my zone too and he is speaking like a gringo who´s been here for over a year so I´m just trying my best not to compare myself with them or else I´ll go crazy! hahaha.

Castillano is still rough but I think that I´m still being too hard on myself. My companion says that I´ve already improved a lot since I´ve gotten here and all the families in the barrio (ward, yes we have a ward here) say that I speak well and understand a lot for having so little time here. I guess I can kind of see the improvement. It's just painfully slow. But once again I think that I just need to worry less and have more faith. I know that I'll get it and know I don't need to worry about not speaking it enough now because I don't have a choice haha. My companion is a good guy, his high voice and feminine mannerisms get on my nerves every so often but we get along great. His style of contacting and teaching isn´t as effective as Élder DeLeon´s (I'm starting to appreciate how much deleon really taught me now) but he works a little harder then deleon did and walks faster. And well you can't have a perfect companion and I´m glad I got Elder Terrazas. He´s a good missionarry and a good guy.

Well the work here in Galvarino is a little slow, kind of like it was in Pitrufquén. We only have three good investigators right now and 2 of them need to get married before they are baptized. They are living with their boyfriends of like 7 yrs with kids and everything. You see that a lot here. I´m not too worried about the work though, we are working hard and I have a good feeling that we are going to baptize at least a few this cambio :) So Los Ángeles isnt nearly as big or dangerous as the L.A. back home but if it was, our sector of Galvarino is like the Compton or Inglewood of the LA back home hahaha. There is lots of grafiti and flaites everywhere. The flaites have like their own language here, they talk faster then normal chilenos and use so many of their own words that the older people here can´t even understand them haha.

But don´t worry about me, I´m safe. There are a few neighborhoods we steer clear from at night but my companion is kind of a wuss and thinks every neighborhood is peligroso(dangerous). At night, sometimes when we walk through really flaite parts of town, he tells me to put my hood up and not talk because he thinks that they like to bug gringos but I think his high voice and mannerisms would attract more flaites looking for trouble than my gringo accent. Besides, all the ones I´ve met seem to like me. I just use some of their phrases, give them the flaite handshake, and say that I´m a Colo Colo fan (their favorite soccer team whose name is grafitied everywhere) and they love me. Heck, all I have to say is "yo soy de colo" or "vive colo" and not only do they not bother me, but it's a conversation starter that seguays into a discussion about the gospel.
To answer some questions, they don't do dia del muertos here. They do Halloween but it's an extremely weak weak copy of the Halloween back in the states. It's not nearly as cool here. And don't worry, I´ll send my card home this week. Well, I never thought I´d say this, but I kind of miss Pitrufquén. I didn't fully appreciate all the friends I made there and the strength of the one group of jovenes there until now. We got so many references from them it was insane. But I know it was time to leave and Galvarino is starting to grow on me more and more each day. I just need a little more time to get used to the new sector. But I already like this sector a lot (it's huge so we walk a lot) and I´m excited to work here for the next month and a half or six months. However long they want to keep me here.

Oh, before I go, I have a few funny stories. A couple of days ago we were on a bus traveling to this neighborhood on the far edge of the city and our sector, when all of the sudden my companion got up and starting passing out pass alongs to the entire bus. When he was done he walked to the front of the bus to face everybody and basically started preaching and inviting everyone to church. Hahaha it was awesome!, just like the old soap box days 200 years ago. When we got off the bus I asked him if that was normal and why he did it and he said that he never does stuff like that and he just felt like he needed to. So who knows? Maybe we will get a baptism out of it haha.

Oh, and I had my second dog attack, another big awnry sucker except this time I stood my ground and started throwing kicks left and right. When his dog buddy saw that I was fighting back he joined in with snarls and lunges at my legs. Finally, after one of my kicks grazed the dog's head, they decided they had had enough and ran off. So hah! take that mañoso(uhh..i dont no.. awnry maybe) mutts!

The last story. I lost my last plaque so I now have to go plaqueless until I can order a new one. It was very sad.. I feel naked now hahaha...yeah..

Anyways I´m healthy, I´m safe and I´m happy so don't worry about me. I just need to develop a little more patience with mi español and to start seeing success. I know that both will come, the Lord is just trying my patience and faith, so that's what I will be especially working on for the next bit. Well, as always I love you all and enjoy all of your Halloween candy. Oh, and don't worry about me eating here. The members here are a lot more willing to feed us and there is an empanada factory next door with empanadas almost the size of my head and completos(hot dogs) the length of my arm. And I'm not even exagerating hehehe. I'm getting fat in this sector! Well once again love you all and don't forget to say family prayer everynight!

   Con cariño, amor, y comida grasa, Élder Harper :)

I just read an email Alex sent me in Pitruf and he's baptizing one of our investigadoras, Keka, Next week.

YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! the work wasnt a waste there!

I AM EXCITED TO HIT THE STREETS OF LOS ANGELES AND HIT 'EM HARD!!!

Hola querido familia y amigos,

Well this last week as every week, has had its ups and downs but was definitely not quite as crazy as last week. To start it off, we got the call about our cambios Saturday night and they are completely white washing Pitrufquén. All four of us are leaving. They are putting two new latino zone leaders in the house and then they bought a new house here to have hermanas take me and Elder De Leon´s place. It makes a lot of sense to be putting hermanas here though, considering all the rumors and problems that have been going on with that one hermana and all the flirty girls, I guess president is hoping that putting hermanas here will solve the problem. I hope so because the work needs to continue on here in Pitruf.

Anyways, I´m being sent up north to a sector called Galvarino, which is in the Los Angeles Norte zone. From what I´ve heard, it's right in the middle of the city of Los Angeles, which is like the third biggest city in the mission. I´ve heard a lot of good things about it so I'm excited : ). Oh and I can´t remember my new comp´s name (because it's not a very common name) but he is a Mehicano so it looks like I´ll be forced to speak only spanish this next cambio. I´m nervous but at the same time excited because I know it will make my spanish improve by leaps and bounds. Well at least I hope it will.

As far as how the week was up, until we got the cambios it was pretty uneventful. On Tuesday while walking down the street we saw some white girls speaking English, so of course we contacted them hahaha. It turned out that they are foreign exchange students from Europe. One is from Lithuania and one is from Finnland. They both speak their native languages of course but then they both speak English very well (even better than alex) and they are learning spanish. It's funny cuz they talk to each other in either English or Spanish because they don´t know each other's native languages. Anyways, it was fun talking to them in English and we brought them to family home evening in the capilla where we watched the Joseph Smith movie. They liked it even though they had to leave half way through. I was excited to start teaching them but now we will just have to trust the hermanas to do it.

Besides that it was kind of a blah week. It was my comp's last week so he was a little lazy, I mean we still went out and worked and taught a lot of lessons but he didn't really want to do too many contacts. But we did work hard with the investigators that we did have. Unfortunately though, most of them started slipping through our fingers. One that really wants to get baptized is extremely shy and we just recently found out that she´s an epileptic so she refuses to leave her house. So we couldn't get her to come to church. Also, Jonathan all of a sudden just didn't want to have anything to do with us. I think his flaite (gangster) friends got to him. We still have a Gercy, and Sixto (another really cool kid) but I can´t lie I´m kind of happy to be leaving and starting over new in a new sector.

So anyways all the good jovenes are sad we are leaving but I´m sure they will love the hermanas. I just hope that they are up to dealing with this rama(branch). haha. I almost forgot, Sunday was awesome at church because we had the biggest attendance that I´ve seen yet and Alex gave a talk on the importance of honesty and integrity and the harm rumors and lies can do. Hahaha he totally destroyed the people who started all of this drama during his talk, it was great.
Well, I don't have much else to report this week, it was pretty uneventful. It´s so weird that it's already the end of my first cambio, It´s been quite a crazy first cambio but despite everything that's happened, I´m glad that I started my mission in Pitrufquén. I´ve learned many valuable lessons both from my companion, the zone leaders, and from the people here and the experiences I´ve had. I´ve made alot of friends here that I will miss and my testimony has grown a lot here but I´m ready to move on and am excited to hit the streets of Los Angeles and hit em hard!!! As always I love you guys all so much and I´m glad to hear that things are going just fine at home. Until next week... siguen en la fe y haz lo justo siempre!! Les Amo!!!

su misioner favorito, Élder Harper.. or as im called here Élder Harpy :)

THE HARDER THE ADVERSARY WORKS, THE MORE I KNOW THIS GOSPEL IS TRUE

Hola familia y caulquier gente que esta leyendo esto,

Well it has been quite the strange week here in Pitrufquén. Hahaha oh man I don't even know where to begin. I already told you a little bit about what's going on and I will start by saying the good news is that nobody is being emergency transfered and it doesn't look like the sector is going to be closed down. It's good news and yet at the same time I´m not going to lie, I didn't mind the idea of being emergency transfered out of Pitrufquén. But even though there is still a chance that I will be sent somewhere else at the normal time during cambios, it looks like I will be staying here.

Well, a little bit of background information on what happened is: there is this lady in the branch who is a huge gossiper and manipulater and in my opinion is kind of power hungry. She tries to manipulate the branch president and people into doing what she wants them to do by basically threatening them with slander and I don't even know what else. I didn't believe she was that bad at first but now I´ve seen all the damage that she and her "team" of five others have done. Unfortunately, a lot of members have gone inactive because of her as well. A couple of weeks ago, Élder De Leon and I decided that we were going to focus mostly on visiting less active families for a day and no kidding, almost all of them said they love church and would go back if it wasn't for this hermana.

From what I´ve been told, problems started with her and the missionaries here when an Elder a few cambios ago stood up to her and called her out on what she's been doing. And now recently Elder De Leon and one of the zone leaders have stood up to her too, so she and two "snakes" (girls who try to flirt with the missionaries) began starting rumors about my companion and others. These rumors have been slowly growing and getting more ridiculous each day. Last Monday, the rumors turned into full blown horrible accusations and they basically told us they were going to tell the President all this stuff during entrevistas (interviews) on Thursday just to get the missionaries out of here. Interviews were on Thursday and the days leading up to it were frustrating. My companion was disheartened because he thought we were going to be taken out of Pitruf right away on Thursday and so the work really slowed down.

During this time, the branch basically turned against each other into two groups, those defending us (which happen to be the most faithful members of the branch) and those who are with the accusers. It's been especially bad with the jovenes, dirty looks and threats being exchanged half the time. So when entrevistas came around on Thursday, there were almost more members there than missionaries. It felt like a trial, prosecutors and the defense haha.

But I guess the president could see straight through the liars because we are still here and no one was taken out immediately. I still feel like I´m in the middle of a branch civil war, but thankfully it's now starting to calm down a little bit and more and more members and the branch president are starting to stand up to this one bitter angry hermana, who in my opinion is miserable and wants to make everyone else miserable too. But I´m not angry with her like my companion and the zone leaders (they are itching to leave pitruf) I just feel sorry for her.
It's crazy how much destruction pride and anger can do. They are powerful tools in the hands of Satan. It's just like what President Monson talked about this last conference during priesthood session. "Anger builds nothing, doesn't resolve anything, but can destroy everything" I think that's a direct quote from him, but I could be off. But the point is the same, and I would also add pride with anger. Because pride is the fuel of the fire of anger. Just like the story of the Marshes. Brother Marsh, who I believe was an apostle of the church, ended up apostating from the church and helping to bring to pass governor Boggs extermination order all because of an argument over an exchange of milk.

Anger and pride tear apart friendships, families, and can even ruin lives. Little arguments and misunderstandings can explode into huge problems when pride and anger is involved, and el diablo absolutely loves it. Fortunately, we missionaries have the antidote to pride and anger, and that is Love, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now that a temple has been announced in this, my mission, it is my belief that Satan is throwing everything he´s got at the people of Chile and unfortunately right now he is being somewhat successful here in Pitrufquén. But instead of getting discouraged, it just helps my testimony grow. The harder the adversary works, the more I know that this gospel is true. And even though he can hinder the work, it comforts me to know that he can't stop it. Nothing can stop this work and the harder he tries just means he's getting more desperate. He´s afraid of what this gospel has, the power to heal lives, the power of love. Even though things are tough here and the work in Pitrufquén is going slow, I know that I have a message for these people that can and will heal their lives and make them whole.

Even though I wouldn´t mind being transfered out at the end of this cambio a week from tomorrow, I will try to give it my all if I´m meant to stay here in Pitrufquén for awhile. And although I don't think we will be getting any baptisms this cambio (jonathan is starting to slip through our fingers) We have some people that I think we will be able to baptize next cambio if I stay. And there are still a lot of good members here too as well like, Gercy and Alex and a few other families and youth.

We had a talent show on Friday and it was a whole lot of fun, everybody had like 2 or 3 acts to do and we were all screaming and going crazy. It was fun and it reminded me that there are still good people here haha. Plus, when we are given trials, we are given the opportunity to learn and grow from them. Hermana Swenson told me that Pitrufquén is turning into quite the refiners fire sector haha.

Well I´m still doing well and I´ve got high hopes for next cambio whether I go or stay here in Pitrufquén. Either way, I´ll be preaching the gospel :). I love you all and thanks for being so supportive and great and for keeping me in your prayers. P.s. I loved the package guys and all the letters and goodies from the fam and the young women. p.s.p.s. another request for the next package, flaming hot cheetohs.

con amor, elder harper :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!! :)

I AM PROUD TO WEAR THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST ON MY PLAQUE

Querido familia y amigos,

Hola! Well last week was interesting, lots of up and downs. I´ll start with last Monday. After emails, we went to Temuco to the Pizza Hut that is in the richer part of the city and I now finally understand why Chile is the most Americanized out of all the other countries in South America. It was a side of Chile I´ve never seen before. Clean streets, tall buildings, people with nice clothes and not as many dogs in the streets. It looked like it could be any city in the U.S. it was really weird.

After Pizza Hut, which was delicious, we went to the Mall, yes a mall! and it was a nice mall too! I was like gaping the whole time cuz it was weird being around, well, money here in Chile. There we did some shopping at Gumbo which is like a Walmart and the only place where you can buy things from the U.S. as far as I know. They had peanut butter there and real mustard and mayonaise and Top Ramen!! hahaha I know it sounds weird but I was soo happy to see top ramen I had to control myself not to buy like everything I saw, I just settled for getting some top ramen :).

After that we went back to the Chile that I know, Pitrufquén, where there are humble homes and humble people. Tuesday went extremely well. We placed 4 pretty firm baptismal dates and I even taught parts of the lessons haha. One of them was an old investigator names Keka that lives like an hour walk out in the campo (countryside). She´s 18 years old and really buena honda (i dont know how to say that in english...nice maybe?.. I dont know) anyways we found out why she was never baptized and taught her and bore testimony to her and such and she now has a date too!

It was a great day but unfortunately it kinda whent down hill from there. Tuesday I went to bed with a headache and what do you know, just after recovering from the flu I get a sinus infection!! hahaha its ok though I can deal, bring it on el diablo! So it's been a struggle with my health and all but I´m on antibiotics and taking the Chilean version of ibuprofen (mine ran out). After Tuesday, the other days just kind of blended in together. No one really wanted to talk to us and Elder De Leon used all the minutes on our phone, which is really frustrating because it made it harder to confirm citas (appointments) and to get members to come out and teach with us.


I love my companion and I´m learning a lot from him, both things to do and what 
I´m starting to discover things Not to do. He´s a great contactor and a teacher and is good at winning the friendship and trust with people but he´s not so great at follow up after we get new investigators. He forgets to write citas down, addresses down, and even if he does write them down he forgets to look at them hahaha. I guess it serves me right cuz thats how I was. But then we miss citas because we forgot or spent too much time talking in an earlier cita and so it makes it hard to keep people. Because time kills investigators.

Sorry if I´m ranting or being too negative because he is a good guy and a good missionary. I think he's just gotten really lax with things like sleeping in a little and stuff because he only has two weeks left. I just wish I could communicate with the people and do more to help out the work. All I can do is little things like walk faster so we can be on time to citas and say things and like nudge his foot in an appointment when we have been there forever and are no longer talking about anything important.

Also one thing i did to try to change things around is refusing to talk in or respond to English with my companion unless it is necessary. Because on Friday I was feeling pretty down on how the work has been going and on how I should be a lot better at spanish than I am at this point. And I was kind of frustrated that Elder De Leon never speaks in spanish to me so I decided that I just had to take the bull by the horns and do my best to speak spanish to him and not respond to any English. And it actually went very well, for the rest of that day and Saturday I spoke hardly any English and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I guess I was just too timid or something to take the initiative before.

Sorry this email is choppy and some things are out of order but I´m just writing things as I remember them. So on Friday night we had an activity at the church with the rama (branch) and investigators to watch the Joseph Smith movie! Some how one of the zone leaders got a hold of a copy of it and even though we didn't have a good turn out, it at least lifted my spirits and the jovenes who went loved it too.

On Saturday, Chile played Columbia to see if they would qualify for the world cup and during the game it was impossible to tract or do anything because the whole town was watching it. Chile won and qualified and so after the game it was impossible to do anything as well because like half of Pitrufquén was in the square drinking, waving flags, and honking car horns. I thought that it was crazy but Élder De Leon said that its much worse in the big cities. I was all excited and stuff too about the win until Sunday came along and all the investigators were either celebrating in another city with family or too hungover/drunk to come. On Sunday morning we had like 5 that we told we would pick up to bring to church. The first investigator we went to get is an 18 year old girl whos parents are innactive members and she was never baptized. They live in a tiny little shack as big as our living room back at home in Las Flores and she also has 3 younger siblings who are too young to be baptized. When we got there we found that her and her mom were in the campo visiting relatives (that happens a lot) and the Dad was at home absolutely wasted with his 3 little children just sitting there watching him drink. When we entered the house the first thing he did was offer us beer and then he rambled on and on about how he is poor but loves God and during all of this he continued drinking and his 3 year old son was playing with an empty beer bottle. It made me so sad and I don't know why we didn't leave right away but we just sat there and listened to his rambling for 20 minutes. I wanted to leave but my comp kind of just ignored my nudgings. Then because we stayed with the drunk for so long, we didn't have time to go pick up any of our other investigators except Jonathan but he was in Freire (another town) celebrating with friends. So we had no one in church. I was really bummed out and feeling down at first but during fast and testimony I went up to share a short little testimony and that actually helped a lot to raise my spirits again. That and a lot of praying.

I prayed a lot last week hahaha and those prayers are being answered.
Just with little things like Chilenos complimenting me on how well I speak for having such little time here and other little things like that. After church Elder De Leon and Elder Beauner (one of the zone leaders) went to Cañete so they could visit old converts today, p-day. Which is fine but I was really nervous cuz that meant that I would be with the other zone leader Elder Rolón for the rest of Sunday and today and he doesn't speak any English. Surprisingly though I´ve been able to communicate with him a lot better than I thought I would be able to. I guess my spanish has improved and I just haven't been able to tell. I have a long way to go but I have faith that I will be able to understand, and communicate effectively with these people eventually. I just have to be patient, faithful and diligent. You know me I just stress out over things too much haha. Another thing that I didn't tell you before is that our zone ( Nueva Tolten) is actually the worst zone numbers wise in the whole mission and a lot of the missionaries blame it on the rama becuase "its small and the members dont fellowship well and its full of gossipers and rumor starters which make people go innactive". There are plenty of excuses but I think that missionaries can have success in any zone, in the mission, in any part of the world even. It may be a little hard here but that just means we have to work harder. So I´m trying to do my best not to get caught up with all the things that could be better here but just to focus on the work and the things that are great about the zone. So for now I´ll just keep doing the little that I can to move the work along and help motivate Elder De Leon. We won't have too many baptisms this cambio, investigators have to attend church 3 times in order to get baptized, but I´ll most likely be here in Pitrufquén for a while (one or two more cambios) and I have high hopes for this sector for the future.

Sorry if this email was too negative I guess I just had to get some of that stuff out hahaha and even though its tough at times I´m trying to maintain a positive attitude.

Anyways about the package. I dont have too many requests. flannel pj´s :), reeses peanut butter cups, heck any candy will do as well as chocolate and sugar, the book i left at home how to survive the chilean jungle, uggh!!! i made a list but i accidently left it in the house. To answer other questions, yes, the connection is pretty good here. Well it sounds like things are pretty good at home. Elder Rolón is pretty quick with email and impatient so i dont have much time left but I love you guys and I´m doing good here in Chile. Once again I know this is where I´m supposed to be and I´m proud to wear the name of Jesus Christ on my plaque.


Les amo mucho! Élder Harper :)

I YELLED AND BEFORE I HAD THE CHANCE TO TURN AROUND AND DEFEND MYSELF...

Querido familia y amigos,

¡Hola Nuevamente! Well, this last week was definitely an interesting one but it was really good. Last Monday after emailing, we went with some jovenes to the city of Pucón to spend p-day. When I asked my comp where it 

was he said he didn’t know but that it was a big tourist spot and the jovenes wanted to go there. About an hour into the bus ride we passed the city of Villarica and realized "Chuta!(dang) we are not even in the mission boundaries anymore! This is the Osorno Mission!" But there was nothing we could do about it at that point. So don´t tell President Swenson hahaha. Anyways, Pucón is just right on the other side of Lake Villarica. It’s this little town, that reminds me of Lake Arrowhead or something. It is right on the lake with a beautiful view of the snow-covered, smoky Volcan Villarica in the background, and pine tree forests everywhere. Don’t worry, I took pictures :). It was a fun trip but for now on I´m going to make sure I know exactly where we are going for p-day so we don’t end up in Argentina or something hahaha. Today, after emailing, us and the zone leaders are heading up to Temuco because apparently they have a Pizza Hut there!!! Que bacán!!!! (sweet!!!) So I´m excited and it is in our mission boundaries :).

Anyways, continuing with the week, at the weekly meeting on Tuesday we found out that as far as numbers go, our zone is lagging in the mission so we set some pretty high goals and worked our behinds off all week. Tuesday was awesome. We were making contacts left and right and like ten people told us that they were coming for sure to general conference and a few even told us they wanted to get baptized. I even started a few of the contacts even though I still can’t get very far without my companion jumping in.I´m working on it though. I just really felt like a missionary that day talking to everyone in the street and helping old people and such with groceries while inviting them to come to church. It was awesome.

But Tuesday night I got really sick and was up all night with the flu :( It was rough for many reasons, most of which are too graphic to say in this email hahaha. Then we were out for half of Wednesday too because I couldn’t get out of bed! Even though I wasn’t feeling much better after "lunch" (i obviously didn’t eat) I still just dragged myself out the door and we worked the rest of the day. Man it was hard trekking around all of Pitruf that day but I survived and was glad that I went out even though it wasn’t a very successful day. But I started feeling better and better each day after that and I´m fine now. Still have that stupid cough but even that’s starting to get better now.

General Conference was awesome!!! I was so excited all week for it; I know what you mean Dad. It’s the same for me too. I didn’t truly appreciate the chance to listen to our prophet and church leaders until being out here. Even better was that all us gringos got to watch it downstairs from the chapel with a little t.v. in English!!! It was great. Especially when they announced the Concepción Temple. Everybody got up and started screaming and hugging each other and we could hear all the members and latino missionaries upstairs doing the same. It was so awesome! The spirit was so strong and powerful in the room, some people were even crying. These missionaries, like my companion, have been working their whole missions for this temple and it was a big pay day, so-to-speak, for them. And now I get to continue the work to baptize strong members that will be worthy to go to the temple and pay their tithing so that this thing can be built. I won't physically be at the construction site with hard hat and hammer but I will be building it so to speak with the work and I´m overjoyed and honored to be a part of that, to help build this temple. Hopefully the work will be able to take off now and the members will be even more animated about helping us out and sharing the gospel with their friends.

The announcement set a great tone for the rest of conference, I felt like some of the apostles were almost talking directly to me during their discursos (talks). It was great how much of what they were saying I could apply to me to become a better missionary; I took so many notes hahaha. All the sessions were great and every one felt like it ended too soon. One of my favorite discourses wasm President Uchtdorf´s in priesthood meeting, about getting through trials in life through work and learning. Everything he said and all of his stories really hit me and got me more excited to get out and work. All the talks were just awesome. One of the Seventies who spoke, Elder Zeballos, was the mission president here before Swenson so everyone was really stoked to hear him. It was just a great conference and a needed spiritual surge for me to build my testimony of the gospel and my animo (excitement) for this work. A few of our investigators even came to some sessions; I think we had a total of three. It was kind of disappointing since like 20 said they would come but hey, we improved on last week, so that’s good. And we have a set date for Jonathan to be baptized. He wants to be baptized in the river that runs on the edge of Pitrufquén because he wants to be baptized like Christ was, in a river. He´s a great kid we just have to keep him excited for it and coming to church more often and I think it will go through.

Well, that’s about it for me this week. To answer some questions, no, the mamita thing fell through cuz the 
hermana was going to charge us way too much and the mission financer wouldn’t authorize it. She basically just wanted to rip us off and make money off of us, lame. But we do have consistent lunch appointments 3 times a week and we are talking to another hermana about her possibly being our mamita, so we will see. If not, we have plenty of bread and spaghetti at the house, hahaha, so no matter what, we will survive. 

 And we have some fresh cow milk cuz hermano Volti, who kind of lives on the edge of Pitruf in the campo, lets us go milk his cow and keep the milk. It was fun. I had to compete with the calf for milk while I was milking it hahaha. My only request as of right now for the package is the book I left at home, How To Survive in the Chilean Jungle. A missionary in our zone paid through the nose and went hungry to buy that book in Temuco and went into conniptions when he found out that I had it and left it at home. Next week I will have a few more things hahaha, I just need to make a list.

Oh, and a funny story I forgot to tell last week was about my first dog attack a week and a half ago. Everyone and their mother has a dog here in Pitruf and there are just as many homeless street dogs. The street dogs don’t bother you but some of the owner’s ones are nasty. So while walking down the street we passed an open gate and as we passed I heard a low growl. A few steps later, the growl turned into barking and this big black dog/monster was running after me and nipped at my leg, but fortunately he only got my pant leg. I yelled and before I had the chance to turn around and defend myself, my companion kicked it and it went running. He was laughing afterwards but now I was like traumatized for the rest of the day! He makes fun of me cuz now I´m pretty jumpy when we are passing gates. Every house has some form of a gate with barking dogs. Don’t worry though I´m more careful now and I haven’t had a close encounter since.

Well, it sounds like things are still going well at home. That’s a bummer about Bay being sick. Hopefully he will recover soon despite lacrosse and running. I laughed at Izzie´s turtle’s name. By the way, what does Tish think about the new animal in the home? Well that’s all I got for this week but as always, I love you all very much and appreciate all your emails and all the love, support, and prayers I get from you. I´m so lucky to have such great family and friends. Les amo mucho!!!!

con mucho abrazos y amor como siempre, Élder Harper :)