THE SPIRIT TAUGHT HER IN A WAY THAT SHE WILL NEVER FORGET

Hey Hey Hey everybody!!!

How was your guys´s week? From the email mom sent it sounds like it went well with all of the Valentine's Day activities and what not, oh yeah Happy Valentine´s day everybody, El dia de los enamorados. Oh and by the way one little thing we are going to start doing is emailing a little bit earlier from now on. Today we are doing it even earlier because my comp has a doctor's appointment but anyways it's just a little heads up for all of you procrastinators :).

Let's see how did my week go.. as far as the work went in our own sector.. not that great jaja but we spent a lot of time this last week helping out the zone and in that sense it paid off well and the zone overall had a very good week. It's just hard to find that equilibrio (forgot how to say that) of helping out the zone while taking care of your own sector and investigators. So we are working on that so we can help them out and keep them animated while at the same time showing them the example with how we are working in our own sector. Tough stuff but it's all good. I'm still new and learning.

Anyways my best and most spiritual experience of the week came from when we went to Laja on Wednesday for the whole day to help out the two pairs of missionaries there. We split up with them to work for the whole day and even though I didn't want to really go in the first place and leave our sector abandoned for a whole day, it was worth it in the long run. The whole day of work was pretty good but the best part was when we went to a cita with this somewhat new and really poor and humble investigator named Maria. We taught her the plan of Salvation and even though I didn't know her very well or her needs, after about ten minutes I felt a consistent gnawing thought or sensation or something to teach her about baptism and to show her a picture of baptism. After about a minute or so of ignoring it I finally went with it and as we taught her about this saving ordinance and showed her the picture, the spirit just filled the room and her eyes lit up. The spirit was so strong and she was so accepting that I couldn't help but to invite her to come unto Christ and be redeemed of her sins through the cleansing of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. She accepted without hesitation with watery eyes to be baptized on the 5th of March and although she will have trials along the way she is going to be baptized. I'm sure of it because we didn't teach her anything, but the spirit taught her in a way that she will never forget. We were in her house for about a total of twenty minutes but man it was an awesome lesson and a powerful spiritual boost. It was just what I needed, just what Maria needed and just what the missionary I was with needed. He had previously been struggling getting people to commit and was kind of afraid of extending the invitation to be baptized to people so I'm sure the whole experience helped him a lot.

Yeah so that was definitely the best and most spiritual day of the week. The rest of the week wasn´t really bad but all of our good investigators are gone on vacation. Our sector of the city is wealthier than most and we are coming to the end of summer break here so everyone and their dog is on vacation which is a bummer. But summer break ends here at the beginning of March and then things will really be able to kick off with our good progressing investigators. Until then we are spending most of our time looking. Looking for those who are receptive, ready and prepared to accept our glorious message of the gospel. And we are trying to do our best to be more in tune to the spirit to be led to those elect of God and to be able to discern who they are. My companion, Élder Busto, is a stud. In my opinion one of the best and most focused missionaries in the mission. We never even talk about home or anything. We are doing our best to always keep our focus on the purpose, to work our butts off, and of course to have a good time and joke around along the way. Anyways I'm glad to be with him and to learn from him this cambio and I hope he will be able to learn a little bit and pick up some stuff from me as well.
Well that's all I got for you guys today. I love you all and until next week ciao!!!!

con amor, cariño, y toda la cuestión, Élder Harper =)

ps. I finally got my sd card back thats been touring the mission today.. yay!!!! Ill make a cd copy of it and send you it soon.

Familia Fonseca (Talcahuano)  Good friends that helped the missionaries through the aftermath of the earthquake.

I WAS WORN OUT AND DEAD TIRED BUT MAN DOES THAT KIND OF TIRED FEEL SOOOO GOOD =)

Muchas holas a todos de Los Ángeles!

Well not too much time to write this week because we had to go to Concepción so my companion could get this weird bump thing removed from his neck... yeah anyways, I'm just going to get right into how the week went.

It was a pretty dang good week over all but man did we work are butts off!!! I mean don't get me wrong, we always work hard but it just takes on a new dimension and pace when both of us know what are we are doing more or less and have our purpose and focus clear. Always the first week of the cambio is the semana de santification (santification week) when we do 200 contacts that week instead of the normal 140 and we kicked it up a notch with a companionship goal of 250 and man it wasn´t easy but we worked our tails off to get that done while also teaching our investigators and preparing for a baptism. So when Sunday night came around after all of that and fasting, I was worn out and dead tired but man does that kind of tired feel soooo good =).

With the whole zone leader thing, I was really nervous when we had our first district-zone meeting last week, standing up in front of all them and them expecting to see this seasoned veteran leader standing there capacitating them (I don't know how to say capacitate in english.. ask bro baker). I definitely didn´t feel the part but I guess I did a well enough job trying to look the part and hiding my nervousness jaja. But our zone is awesome. The missionaries are good and excited, my comp and I are stoked, and well, I've been in this zone twice already so I love it and know the sectors well. The zone is Los Ángeles Norte. It consists of a little bit more than half of the city of Los Ángeles and the pueblos (towns) of Laja, Yumbel, Cabrero and Monte Águila (woot woot). Including us there are 20 missionaries in the zone, including one set of sisters. So anyways we are excited to be here this cambio and to do our best to motivate the zone while trying our hardest to show them and teach them by setting the example.

So also we had a baptism this Friday which was awesome. When I got here he was all but ready. He just needed to be taught about modern day prophets, tithing, and the sabbath day. He truly was prepared of the Lord and according to my comp went through a drastic change in his life while taking the lessons in a short three or four weeks. After my first lesson with him, he told us that he wanted to be baptized on Friday and so it went. The baptism went well, the spirit was there, and you could tell that he is a changed man. HOW SWEET is the atonement of Christ and the restored gospel. So even though I only got to teach him twice, it was a great experience and he is a great guy and we are already buddies. He is this big 6´4 and two hundred and something pounds German looking guy, but he's just a big teddy bear. In fact he will give you a bear hug with a big ol smile jaja. Let's see, I will tell you more about my ward and my comp next week but just know that I am happy, I'm excited to serve here, and I am TIRED. But it's a good tired =).

Oh and congratulations on your mission call Zach!!!! Chile Concepción bakán po!!! Solo que lastima que tenía que ser la misión terrestre en vez de la misión celestial. Porque hay solo una misión celestial, y esa es Misión Chile Concepción Sur! La Única misión Celestial hoo raaah! jajajaja. No but seriously I'm sure it's a great mission and you are going to LOVE Chile Zach. Ok Well I got to go now but I love you all and until next Sunday Ciao Ciao!!!!

Elder Riley Harper =)

AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE

Hello hello everybody!

Well this past week has been pretty crazy! Actually, really just Saturday into the wee hours of Monday morning have been crazy and before that is was pretty normal. In some aspects it was awesome and in others it was extremely disappointing sooo... I'll just get down to it.

Monday and Tuesday were normal: Pday in Temuco on Monday, and then Tuesday was just a normal work day. Then Wednesday was just absolutely terrible because all hope of Alvaro getting baptized before the cambio and month ended were just shattered when we found out that the font was going to be ready but not in time for him to be baptized that week. Sooo he is for sure getting baptized on the 5th of February. The font is now ready and it was announced in church so I'm still happy that he is getting baptized but just bummed that I won't be able to be there. Oh well, I will have Elder Ahart send me pictures. Neli, Tamara and Valeria once again went out of town for the weekend so they were not able to get baptized either. They are close but still not ready. They just need to keep patiently reading and praying about the Book of Mormon to get an answer and have the faith sufficient enough to get that answer. I think that Ahart and his new companion will be able to get them baptized this next cambio for sure along with some other good investigators that I left that I hadn't told you about. Loncoche is on the brink of a very rich harvest. It's too bad I left before harvest time but I at least left with the knowledge that I worked very hard there and that now there will be fruits to those labors even if I don't get to see them myself. I very much enjoyed my time in Loncoche even though it wasn´t always easy and I left with the comfortable feeling that I left Loncoche a better place than I found it. I helped to reactive a lot of people which I hadn´t really had success with before in the mission and I left A TON of investigators for the next missionary to work with including, a freebie baptism. 

Riley and his son in front on the Loncoche House

Familia Parra (Loncoche)

Familia Reyes (Loncoche)

On Friday we had the privilege to go to Temuco for a conference with Elder Carlos H. Amado from the first quorum of the seventy and the President of the Area of Chile. For the first hour and a half or so we just listened to him talk which was awesome and a spiritual feast in it of itself but afterwards he just opened it up to answer questions from us missionaries and let's just say that it was awesome. It was quite the spiritual feast and it was awesome to be taught at the feet like this from a General Authority of the Church. Man he knows so much stuff!!!! He answered every question with ease and profoundness that can only come from a general authority and the spirit was truly there to enlighten our minds and senses to help us learn and understand what he was telling us. It was cool and definitely the spiritual boost that I needed after the whole Alvaro situation.

So that was Friday. On Saturday we worked hard teaching & finding and just after lunch President Swenson called me with the cambios. He told me that I was going to go back to the zone of Los Ángeles Norte for the third time to work in the sector Via Obispo, which is in the city, and to be a zone leader. My new companion is Élder Bustos.

He is from Viña del Mar here in Chile and I was way stoked to get him as a comp because we go way back and in my opinion he is one of the best missionaries here in this mission. We survived the earthquake together in the group of 8 in Talcahuano and I was his district leader when I was in Monte Águila. So I was excited but nervous for that because it's a lot of responsibility. Plus, if that wasn't enough, he told me that I had to leave the very next day, Sunday, after church instead of the usual Tuesday to make it to the consejo de Líderes (the monthly zone leaders' conference) with President Swenson at his house on Monday morning. So it was a bummer because I had no time to really say goodbye to very many people but oh well, that's life sometimes.

So Anyways I had to head up to Concepción after church on Sunday with another Elder close by in Gorbea (Elder Smith) who was also moving up to zone leader. To make a long story short, the trip was an absolute nightmare. I left Loncoche at 4:30, got to Temuco at six and when we got there, we hauled all our luggage to the bus terminal. There were no more buses going to Conce from that terminal so we had to go all the way across town to another one. Once there, I realized that I left my backpack, with basically every valuable possession I had, in the last terminal. An hour and a half and a stressful nightmare later I have recovered my backpack and we are now heading out on an 8 oclock bus to Los Ángeles because everyone and their dog decided to go to Conce that weekend to leave us without a bus to get there. Halfway to Los Ángeles, our bus breaks down and we have to get out on the dark highway with all of our luggage to wait for a bus. Another nightmare later and we pull into Los Ángeles midnight.

The story continues from there and gets more ridiculous but I'm running out of time so let's just say that the next hour and a half involved throwing pebbles at missionaries' windows, jumping spiked fences, hucking luggage over spiked fences, and then trudging across Los Ángeles and finally getting into the missionaries' house (my old Galvarino house) at like 1:45 in the morning. Then we woke up at 5:30 and headed out to Concepción where we got to the president's royal mansion (that's what it looks like) at about 9:30. The conference was good and now I am in my new sector in Los Ángeles with my new comp writing you all and am just about out of time. We got here just in time to do internet before going home so I can finally get some real sleep jaja.

Well family that was a watered downed version of my week. I'm a little nervous about my new assignment as zone leader but I know the zone well since already being in Galvarino and Monte Águila. My comp is a freakin stud, which comforts me, and if the Lord and President Swenson think I can do it, then that means I can. No problems no worries. Take care and trust in the Lord. Love you all and until next week CIAO!!!!!!!

Elder Harper =)

p.s. HAPPY 18TH BIRTHDAY ABBIE!!!!!!! I cant believe your already 18, growin up wayyyy tooo fast. Im glad you had a good one =)

IF I COULD GIVE YOU ADVICE IT WOULD BE TO ALWAYS ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST TO RECOGNIZE AND RESPOND TO PROMPTINGS OF THE SPIRIT

Hey Hey Hey from Loncoche!!!

It sounds like you guys are all doing good back home but bummer that everyone was sick. My week.. well.. it wasn´t our best week, in fact it was pretty disappointing and set me off for a little bit but we are staying on our feet, taking the punches and just rollin with them. Man, sometimes it's easy to let yourself get discouraged and ask when it will be enough trials!! when will it end!!! But.. trials never end, you just got to learn how to bare them well and learn from them and always keep the good attitude. You decide whether the glass is half empty or half full. Anyways, I´ll talk a little more about my week. It started off just fine when on Monday night at like 9:30 pm the plumber proclaimed our bathroom functional, which was of course, awesome. No more showering in other people's bathrooms and emergency bathroom runs to the chapel at ll:30 at night. Then Tuesday was just a normal busy work day visiting investigators, contacts, and inactives.

Wednesday we had capacitations (i think that it might mean training) in Temuco which took the whole day and we got back at like 7:30 pm from that. Then that same night we did intercambios with the assistants which went pretty well but was very short. I wonder why they wanted to come all the way down to Loncoche. Anyways, also at the capacitations I saw Elder Calaway and he is doing much better. He´s like a new person, happy, excited to be here, and now he speaks spanish jaja. Yeah but after Wednesday everything fell apart. Opposition is hitting Neli and her family hard and the font.. well.. let's just say it's gunna take a miracle. That last bit was the hardest for me to take because although I would love to baptize in the river here, Alvaro´s health condition is too delicate to be baptized in cold water.

According to his family if he gets even a cold he may die. And we have to baptize him in a chair because he can't walk or stand very well. That guy is just ready and anxiously waiting to be baptized and there´s not much I can do about it. Ugh!!!!! But.. hope is not all lost, there are some few last ditch plans that might go through so he can be baptized this Saturday so keep praying hard for him and for Neli´s family. They are still good but have had opposition and now the only way they are getting baptized this Saturday is if they get a specific answer to their prayers, which they say hasn't come yet. So it's still possible that we can baptize them in the river this Saturday. It just all depends on them and their faith now. But I'm still sure that if it doesn't happen this Saturday, that they will still be getting baptized. That family will be baptized.. I can feel it.. I'm just praying that it can happen this Saturday.

Aside from that, we contacted Patricio for the first time in two weeks last night and have an appointment with him for tomorrow so.. we will see what we are working with there tomorrow. And that's about it for our best investigators. We found some new ones last week but we will see how they progress. Hmm.. what else?

Oh a sad but cool spiritual experience happened to us this last week. On Thursday while planning, I felt the need for us to go visit Hermana Pamela Bustos that day. It didn't make much sense because it was a full day and she lives very far but I felt the need to go over. Her husband had cheated on her and left her a couple months ago and so she was having a hard time but I thought she was getting better. She's the one we killed the lamb with. Anyways, we go all the way out to her house and find out from a family member that she is in the hospital. So we go by the hospital to visit her and found out from the Mom that she attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of pills the night before and they noticed something wrong with her and rushed her to the hospital. So we gave her a priesthood blessing of fortaleza y consuelo (strength and comfort) and we notified the branch president and other ward members that she was in the hospital so they could go visit her. Long story short, our visit and blessing helped her a lot because now she is back on her feet, reading the scriptures, praying and she went to church this last week. She also got a restraining order against her ex husband and is getting help for her depression problems.

She is a mother of 4 children, all under the age of 18, so it would have just devastated that family if she would have died. But she realizes the selfishness and stupidity of what she did and understands how much she is loved now so she is on the rebound, which we are excited about. And she came back to church!! along with many other inactives this week. Usually we have an attendance of 30 to 40 in church but this Sunday some families who are way inactive came back and we had an attendance of 60 in church. So we are also excited about that. The Lord truly is preparing Loncoche for success to come. Well I guess it wasn´t that bad of a week after all jaja. Well, I'm just about out of time but I love you all and if I could give you advice it would be to always AWAYS do your best to recognize and respond to promptings of the spirit. Les quiero mucho!!! ciao ciao!!!

con amor, Elder Harper =)

JUST ALWAYS REMEMBER TO TRUST IN THE LORD, WHEN YOU CAN'T DO IT, HE CAN

Hello everybody!!!

Well it sounds like everyone is doing good back home and no Mom, I had no idea that it's Martin Luther King jr. day. I had a hard enough time remembering Thanksgiving jaja. And about the changes in the stake presidency I know that President Chamberlin will do awesome. Speaking of presidency changes, I think that I forgot to mention it last week, but we finally have had a change in the branch presidency!!! The old one was slackin' big time and was partially less active so everyone's happy about the change and he's happy that he´s been released so everybody wins.

Well overall, I cannot lie, this week was very challenging and might have been one of the worst weeks ever if it wasn´t for some events and a finish that actually made it completely turn around and totally humble me. Because every missionary needs a good humbling every once in a while. Heck, everybody, missionary or not, needs a good humbling every once in a while. Yeah, so anyways here it goes.

Remember about that bathroom problem that I told you guys about last week? Well that turned into a total stressful nightmare this week, and I'm not talking about the loss of our bathroom and shower. I'm talking about getting it fixed. First we spent a bunch of time looking for a new house and the only one we could find was too far away from the chapel and centro so we and President just decided to get it fixed. Most of the week was spent sitting around waiting for plumbers to show up and then never coming. Then, finding new plumbers. Then, dealing with drunken workers in our house from the plumber's team. Anyways, it was a big mess and we lost most of the week dealing with it instead of working. Most of the time I just felt like a caged Lion sitting in the house just wanting to go out and work and help our investigators; it was frustrating. But now we have finally set things straight with a plumber and now he gets here to work when he says he will. If everything goes well, he will finish redoing all the piping and stuff either tonight or tomorrow. But I'm at least at ease now that it's actually getting done.

So as far as the work went this week, we didn't have much time to do anything else but just take care of our investigators who are showing the most progression. Alvaro... well he is still good to go but right now they are remodeling the chapel and the font will not be ready until the 29th, which is the last Saturday of the cambio and probably my last Saturday in Loncoche. We would have just baptized him in the river or taken him to Gorbea or Pitrufquén to baptize him but his health is too delicate for the river or to move him to Gorbea or Pitrufquén. But he is still firm in his decision to be baptized so we will be praying very VERY hard that the baptismal font is ready in time to baptize him before I leave. Oh and we also put a baptismal fecha with Neli, Tamara, and Valeria for the 29th so if everything goes according to plan we will be baptizing 4 souls unto Christ on the 29th of January. Neli and her daughters were shaky with accepting the baptismal challenge at first but now they are progressing more and they feel better about the idea so I think that everything will work out there. Now when we are finally having success we are having tons of opposition, but that's ago because good will always triumph over evil. No unhallowed hand will stop the work!!!

So even though we had very little time to work this last week, the Lord still miraculously blessed us and on Sunday we had 10 investigators in church and 4 of them have a baptismal date. It was pretty incredible and you might think that it would make one prideful, but man, was it a humbling experience for me. Even though our work time was very limited, the Lord provided. He always provides. Really we can't do much of anything through our own strength. It's only through faithful and diligent trust in Him that great things will come to pass. I´ve learned that lesson many times on my mission but I need to be reminded often because like the Nephites of the Book of Mormon and the Jews of the Old Testament, at times I can be very slow to remember. This is kind of random but as for Patricio we were not able to get a hold of him once last week and he didn't go to church. But I still am holding out my faith for him and we will continue to work with him this coming week. Well, I'm running out of time today so I'm going to wrap this up. Just always remember to trust in the Lord, when you can't do it, he can. I love you all and as always we will be hearing from eachother next Monday. Ciao Ciao!!!!

Elder Harper =)

p.s. I turned 18 months two days ago.. cant believe it.. 6 months left... yeah enough said about that, it will have to be enough.

OUR JOURNEY TO THE HILL OF DOOM AND OUR TOUR OF THE WHOLE FLIPPIN' CAMPO

Muchas holas a todos!!!!

Well family.. I think that I have a lot to write today about this past week so I guess that  I'll just get going because it was a pretty eventful week. First off, I will talk about one of our investigators named Alvaro. Alvaro is the Dad of the former branch president (he was released yesterday) and was a former investigator of the other Elders but due to something that happened we took over. We have been teaching him now for the past six weeks and as of late he was progressing really slowly so the other Elders just decided to let us have him completely. Well Alvaro is 74 years old but has bad lungs from smoking and a very fragile and sick heart so around the house he uses a cane and outside he uses a walker. Lately he has been bad, like sicker than normal, and his family thinks that he only has a couple of months left. So on Thursday when we went to go visit him, we offered to give him a blessing of health and he agreed. 

For me when I anoint and bless the sick, in my experience, I haven't really felt anything special but this time was different. I didn't really feel prompted to say anything specific but the words I spoke in the blessing for some reason had a lot of power and the whole room was just blasted with the spirit. He´s a pretty tough guy but he definitely started crying during the blessing, as did I a little bit. After the blessing, we ditched the plan for our lesson and I straight away identified the presence of the spirit in the room and when I asked if he felt it, he once again started crying and told me that he did. Then when we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized this Thursday the 13th, he said that he would. It's been announced in church, it's all planned out and if everything goes according to plan, he´s getting baptized this Thursday at 6pm chileno time! =). So we are very happy about that.

As for Neli, we are still teaching her, her husband, Juan, and her two daughters, Tamara and Valeria. They are good investigators and are reading sometimes and praying de repente (sometimes) and love our visits, but they still need to commit themselves more so they can get an answer if it'.s true or not. They are progressing. It's just a little slower than I would like but the whole family came to church this week. It was the first time that they were all there together. Also Patricio is chugging along, progressing as well and he finally came to church with his six year old son! yay! I just hope that his job keeps permitting him to come on Sunday. We have a few other investigators as well but those are our best so I will leave it at that for now. Oh by the way, I've' used the video ¨How Rare a Possession¨ like three times now. It's old but its a good one and the investigators have seemed to like it so far.

Anyways we had 7 investigators in church this Sunday and have a baptism this week so both me and Elder Ahart are stoked. It was a good week despite all of the trials we have been having. On Saturday morning our old dying piping system in the bathroom finally keeled over and died so since Saturday, we have no access to our shower, bathroom sink, and toilet. When we

need to go to the bathroom.. well, we have the keys to the chapel, which is a block and a half away. And to shower, we have just been using members houses jaja. It's going to be really expensive to replace the piping so we are now in the market for a new house! ugh! so sick of it. We lost two whole mornings of work last week waiting for a plumber who never showed and then waiting for him again the next morning and getting his evaluation. And now we are going to lose a lot more time next week looking for a new house and then with the long process of moving. sigh.. oh well what can ya do? Besides that minor hiccup, we have been doing great and have high hopes for Loncoche with the work and the branch since we now have a new branch presidency (thank goodness). Satan is working hard here and with us but the Lord is working even harder so that we can have success and so that his flock can grow here in Loncoche.

Well, that's about it except our journey to the hill of doom today and our tour of the whole flippin campo surrounding Loncoche. Yeah, so there's this big hill that I've been wanting to climb since I've gotten here so we decided to do it today but there were a few things that went wrong. It was a lot farther away than we thought, there was no public road (private roads.. found that out the hard way.. but no public roads) that lead to it. When we finally started to climb, there was no road but just a bunch of bamboo, crazy thick

vegetation, and a nasty swamp. Yeah, we got lost in the swamp and when we finally got out we had to take this road through the campos and fields of cows that took a bunch of detours. We started the journey at ten this morning and trudged back into town tired, sun burned, covered in mud, and hungry at about 5 in the afternoon. Yeah it was a failure but still lots of fun..kind of.. at least I got good pictures out of it. Well that's all I got for this week but me and my comp are doing fine and are stoked to be serving the Lord here in Loncoche. I love you all very much and until next week ciao ciao.

su chileno preferido, Elder Harper =)

HE'S JUST MOCKING US...SO YEAH, NOW IT'S PERSONAL

Hola hola hola!!!!!

Well another complicated holiday week has passed by and it has been fun celebrating and all but I can´t lie, I'm now glad to be getting back on the normal missionary schedule and through the holidays so we can be more productive. So.. yeah this last week was pretty crazy, well.. it was a normal work week up until New Year's Eve, Friday, and then the weekend was nuts. New Year's Eve is bigger than Christmas here in Chile and so after 8 we couldn't really work anymore and then everyone was drinking and partying until like 5 in the morning. During that day we started running into drunks as early as 11 in the morning and as the day went on and got later the number only increased. Our neighbors, right next door, had music bumping at full blast until about 4:30 in the morning and were extremely loud doing drunken Karaoke and stuff. So we didn't get too much sleep that night. We just kind of stayed up playing games, just another night for us, jaja. We even missed the countdown. But it's crazy to think that I spent all of the year of 2010 here in Chile and that in this year I´ll be coming home. Crazy stuff, the time flies when your working hard and having fun =).

Then President Swenson made New Years P-day because there was just no way it could have been productive. Here in Loncoche we left the house at 2 oclock in the afternoon to get a bite to eat and the place was just a ghost town. Not a single restaurant or shop was open and the only people out in the streets were drunks passed out. People finally started to get back from the river or come outside from their houses like at about 8 o'clock at night. So yeah, it was a pretty boring p-day because there was nothing to do, but that's all good.

Anyways despite the holiday weekend we worked really hard with all of our investigators during the week and by the weekend we had about 13 people commited to go to church and about 8 or 9 of those were legitimate good investigators that have been showing progress so we were really stoked for Sunday but unfortunately we were really disappointed. Of the 13 only four went so we just ended with 4 investigators in the chapel and were missing 9. And of those nine were some of our best investigators that already have attended in the passed, I guess the holiday just one them over. But despite that setback we are still pretty excited because we have a lot of interested and progressing investigators and we should be getting some more firm baptismal dates this week. Patricio is progressing in the sense that he is praying everyday, reading the Book of Mormon, and is starting to live the Word of Wisdom. He has officially made the switch from coffee to Ecco and he is consistently lowering the amount of cigarrettes that he smokes daily. And he didn't even get drunk over the holidays, which he was very proud of jaja. He is still awesome but he just can't get his butt to church!!! It seems like every week there is something or another that prevents him from going. But we aren't losing the faith with him. We will keep working and praying hard to help him out. I'll tell you more about our other investigators as they continue to progress. Yeah so that was basically our week.

Oh and before I go I'll give you a little rat update. We bought three traps and set them very tight with bait and put them at strategic points in the house. Upon waking up in the morning we go out to check the traps and we see that the little maldito ate the bait off of all three traps without getting caught. Basically he's just mocking us.. so yeah now it's personal.. Well that's all that I´ve got for this week. Until next week take care and hopefully you´ll be hearing some good news about our investigators next Sunday. Love you all ciao ciao.

su chileno preferido, Élder Harper =)

oh yeah and about the earthquake here in Loncoche. Iit is was 6.2 or so... yeah enough said.. it was just a reminder of old times jaja but nothing to freak about. The new guys enjoyed it. and I hope you got the essays i sent! =) love you!

WE GOT THERE JUST IN TIME TO WATCH THEM SLAUGHTER THE CHRISTMAS LAMB

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello hello everybody! I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas. Family, it was awesome talking to you guys on Christmas, especially with Skype, gotta love technology. I still can´t believe how huge Baylor and Izzie are. I noticed it on Skype and then again on the Christmas stairs picture. And Baylor's voice still throws me off; the days of his Michael Jackson impressions are definitely over jaja. And Abbie..well..you haven't grown but at least you look older. I have reached that stage now when two years here or there doesn't really change how I look; it makes me feel old or something jaja. Anyways, it was great to talk to and see you all on Christmas; I greatly enjoyed it. And thank you family and everyone for the Christmas package. Me, my comp, and my house mates are very much enjoying their contents now. Well the family already got all the updates about the week and my Christmas but now I´ll talk about how it all went for the rest of you all.

So Tuesday morning we took off early to make the 6 hour drive up to Concepción so Elder Garcia and I could pick up our new hijos (trainees). When we got there we were trained a little bit by some of the zone leaders and then ate pizza while waiting for the newbies to come. It was dejavu being in that chapel again but this time sitting in the back watching instead of being a greenie up front nervously presenting myself in terribly broken spanish. Anywas the new guys came (a group of all gringos) and unto me a son was born jaja. His name is Elder Ahart, he´s from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

He´s a good kid and I think he talks even more than me. He can talk my ear off sometimes jaja but he's excited to be here and excited to work, which is good. We are going to have a lot of fun this cambio and work hard and I think that he will adjust quickly because he doesn't really have much of that wide-eyed what-the-heck-am-I-doing-here look or attitude that most new gringos have. His spanish.. well.. jaja were going to work a lot on that this cambio because as of right now he doesn't speak much but I´m sure that he will learn quickly.

Anyways after picking him up we made the journey back and we arrived in Pitrufquén at 12:00am early Wednesday morning and just stayed the night there and then made it to Loncoche Wednesday afternoon after district meeting. As far as how Christmas went here it actually went a lot better than I thought it would. Jaja to be honest I thought it was going to be a bust and the only thing I was really looking forward to was talking with you guys, which of course was still the high light, but it turned out to be a really good Christmas over all. Since we had so little time to work this week due to picking up the kids, the Christmas Conference with the President in Temuco on Thursday, and Christmas, the time that we did have to work we spent running around visiting our investigators and a few less active members. I went to visit all of them with my Santa hat which they loved and I found that all of them were good and I was able to spend some time with almost all of them and share with them a little Christmas message. Then on Christmas Eve before going home, we decided to visit this less active member that's been having a real rough time to wish them a Merry Christmas and we got there just in time to witness a Christmas tradition of the Chilean campo (the country folk). We got there just in time to watch them slaughter the Christmas lamb. Here in Loncoche it's a tradition on

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve to buy a live lamb, kill it, skin it, clean it, cook it, and then barbecue it and eat it. And we got to watch the whole process jaja. Yes, it might sound a little gross and disturbing but it was a lot of fun and then they invited us to come back on Christmas Day to eat it with them. I won't give you very many details but to kill it they just kind of tied it down to this bench and then stabbed it once through the neck and bled it to death. Yeah the skinning and cleaning process was a little more gruesome so I will spare you all the details but dont worry, we got pictures jaja. So that was Christmas Eve.

Then on Christmas we woke up, I opened my presents and as I was finishing up, we heard a rustling sound and crunching coming from the kitchen. All of us missionaries were together so we crept over there and then peeked into the kitchen to see what was going on. There we found a package of spaghetti spilled all over the ground that led to a little hole in the wall of a kitchen and a crunching sound coming from the wall. Yes, a rat was enjoying a Christmas breakfast of our spaghetti in our house! no no no.. unacceptable. So all of us, still in pajamas and sandals, gathered a broom and some pots and pans and I got the camera to film us getting that thing out. We pounded on the wall a few times and apparently we were unprepared for the big black ball of furry that came out of the hole because everyone yelled and jumped to avoid it running into our feet. It made one circle around the kitchen, ran into 

one of the elder's feet, and ran back. After we gathered together once again the shreds of our manhood and pride, we banged on the wall once again this time prepared to take the sucker down. Unfortunately he had learned his lesson and was not coming back out. So we devised a plan. We lit about fifteen incense sticks and stuck them into one of the holes of the wall to smoke him out. I think we did a better job of smoking us out than him. Anyways we finally got him back out but the broom and pots and pans just couldn't get him; he was too fast for us. Yeah, so short story long we didn't kill the bugger and we are now just going to buy a bunch of rat traps. He better have enjoyed his last Christmas because his days are numbered. Anyways after that we went to go eat the Christmas lamb and then went to the familia Ariz house to talk with you guys. And that was our Christmas; it definitely wasnt boring jaja.

Then on Sunday morning we weren't expecting to have many investigators at church because most were busy or out of town for the holidays but one Mom (Neli) and her two kids (Tamara and Valentina) that we are teaching came and they stayed for all three hours and seemed to enjoy it a lot. This was the Mom's second time in church but the daughter's first time. But they all seemed to make fast friends with the members and you could tell that they felt the spirit during the meetings. They are members of the church of the seventh day adventists and have made that clear to us but we are starting to notice a change in them now and I'm sure that the spirit is working to open their hearts to the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We have an appointment to teach them with some of their neighboors now on Wednesday and if everything goes well we will be putting a baptismal date with them. And that was my week. Well I got to go now but I love you all a lot and for those of you that I didn't talk to on Saturday, I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and that you were able to feel the true spirit of Christmas with the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well until next week chau chau and a happy New Year.

con amor, Elder Harper =)

MAY YOU HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & MAY YOU KEEP IN MIND THE SACRED NATURE & SPIRIT OF THE HOLIDAY. THE BIRTH OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST.

Hola familia,

REGOCIJAD JESUS NACIO!!!!!!! Well Christmas is really underway now. In less than a week I´ll be talking to you guys so that will be pretty awesome. I'm really excited for that. As far as how we are going to do the call.. I'm not sure yet but I will be letting you all know very soon jaja. Oh and I will be going up to Conce on Tuesday Mom so hopefully the package will have made it by then but if not we have the Christmas conference on Thursday, the 23rd and if I don't get it on Tuesday, I'm sure that it will be there by then. Thanks for those few pictures Mom. And Bay, I like how you'er wearing that same leather jacket that I wore in my last family photo by the big tree jaja nice. About the Provo tabernacle, the members yesterday were telling us that the Provo temple burned down so Elder Calaway and I were freaking out. So when we had a member at lunch look it up on google we were just relieved to find out that it wasn't the temple. But it's still a shame.

Well before I tell you guys about my week I guess I´ll say what my cambio is. My comp is leaving to Talcahuano and I will be training a greenie. Elder Calaway is also leaving and his comp, Elder Garcia, will be training as well so we are going to have two little newborn guaguitas (babies) in the house so I'm pretty stoked for that. It will be a new experience and I'm excited to be able to show a new missionary the ropes and to get him in the baptismal font. So tomorrow I get to make the six hour journey up to Conce to pick up my hijo and then if time, make the trip back down to Loncoche jaja. So that will be lots of bus time. But it's all good. You can never complain about extra time to get some rest.

About my week, well, it was a pretty good one. We taught Patricio the Word of Wisdom and he smokes, drinks and takes coffee. You could tell after we taught him that he was a little upset but he wants to change and live the commandments of God and he seems like he has faith that the Lord will help him to give up those things. He also still wants to be baptized but unfortunately could not come to Church this week because he had to go with his Mom on Sunday to the campo to take care of his sick Grandpa. He does this about 2 or 3 Sundays of the month.. I hate the campo.. so much. But anyways I still have faith that he will continue progressing and be able to get baptized in January. He was basically our only GOOD investigator until Friday and then on Friday we knocked this little street that was a gold mine. From that little ten houses, two families let us in where we immediately taught them the first lesson and members from both families came to church on Sunday. So we had 4 investigators in church on Sunday.

One of them, a woman in her early thirties named Miriam, loved church and already wants to get baptized, but when we went to teach them for the second time, her husband was there and I guess they got in a fight about it after we left. He doesn't like the ´´Mormons´´ and forbade her to go to church or to let us over anymore. But despite that, she escaped the house and went to church anyway. But afterwards she asked us to not come over anymore as to not cause more problems in her family but said that she'd go to church. So we asked her to pray to soften her husband's heart and me and my new comp will fast and pray for them this week. The grandma, who initially let us into the house and loves missionaries, also came to church and loves the Mormons. She is visiting from Argentina but was talking us up to Miriam, her granddaughter, a lot before we knocked their door. The other family is good as well but they are more quiet and shy and we´ve only had one chance to teach them so I´ll talk more about them next week.

Ending the cambio now we have some good investigators to work with and so I'm excited to be training so we can spend most of our time teaching and so he can get in the font his first cambio of the mission. I want to be able to give him a good experience for his first cambio of the mission and get him excited for the next two years he has to bring people unto Christ through the waters of baptism.. sigh.. There is nothing better than to see an investigator's life dramatically change, see the light of Christ get brighter and brighter in their eyes, and then to see them get baptized. It's the best. Well I'm excited for Christmas and I'm really excited for this next cambio. Family, I will be talking to you guys on Saturday and for the rest, may you have a very Merry Christmas and may you keep in mind the sacred nature and spirit of the holiday. The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Serve others, exercise charity, and have a good holiday. FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!

tu chileno preferido, Elder Harper

IT'S A SPRINT TO THE FINISH AND I CANNOT LET MYSELF LOSE ANY ANIMO OR ENERGY. THIS IS IT.

Muchas holas a todos!!!!

Another week come and gone and another cambio coming to a close, the mission just continues to fly by. Well it looks like you guys had a pretty fun week with Grandpa´s birthday party and all, happy birthday Grandpa!!! From looking at the picture I couldn't believe how old my little cousins are getting. Everybody is huge! especially Izzie. Your tall now jaja. Anyways my week was good in part that my animo is still going strong. I'm still pumped and stoked to be here but man we had a lot of trials here in Loncoche this week from our part and the other elders as well. But there were also some good things that came out of it.

Unfortunately the white Christmas dream has officially ended =(. The little girl, Victoria, that we were going to be baptizing is now going out of town to Santiago for a couple of weeks so hopefully everything will work out for her when she gets back. As for the branch president's Dad who had a fecha for Christmas, it has now been pushed back because he was not able to attend church this week because it was raining and his feeble state and health don't allow him to come out in the rain, and no one has a car here so yeah. But hopefully he will be baptized on New Year's day now if the weather starts to clear up.

Then an investigator that we found contacting last week really amazingly started to progress this week. He is a 30 year old guy or so and a single Dad living alone with his 6 year old kid. He is very humble and although he doesn't really understand everything yet, he has a desire to change and wants to be baptized. On the second lesson he accepted a baptismal fecha for New Year's day and was really excited to come to church on Sunday but.. he found that his car was stolen (the first investigator I've ever had with a car) when he came out of his house to go to church Sunday morning and so he wasn't able to come because he had to deal with that. He found his car later that day but now his fecha for the 1st of January dropped because he won't be able to get the three asistances to church before that date so we are going to reset a fecha with him this week. But I'm not too worried about him because I can tell that he really has a sincere heart and true intent, I'm excited about his progress.

Besides Patricio we don't really have any other good progressing investigators jaja. We spent a lot of time looking last week but from Thursday to Sunday morning it rained almost nonstop and people just didn't really want to talk to us. Supposedly summer is here and sometimes we get a glimpse of it and when we finally do,here comes the rain again. We even got some hail and a pretty decent thunderstorm one of the days, but it's all good. I don't mind knocking doors in the rain, it's character building jaja. Victor has kind of died on us, not really anything new going on there except that he's stopped going to church, which is sad.. but.. I don't know, if anything changes with him I´ll let you all know.

Things were pretty rough for Elder Calaway here this week. He was just kind of depressed all week and got pretty close to just calling it quits a few times. But we are working with him and helping him out. He's a great guy and I know that when he gets through this, he will make a great missionary. It's just easy to lose perspective at times when things get rough; you just can't lose sight of the vision, the big picture.

Hmm.. what else do I go?.. OH yeah!!! We had an electrical fire in our house the other night jaja. When we got home on Saturday night the house just had this weird burnt smell to it, like an electrical smell. But after a quick investigation of the electrical appliances (the fridge and microwave) we found nothing and so just continued with our night. As we were getting ready to go to bed the smell seemed to be getting worse so we decided to take another look at things before going to bed. This time we found that the plug of the fridge and the outlet where it was plugged into were really hot and that the plastic was melting a little. As soon as we went to touch it to unplug it, it started sparking and caught on fire. We blew it out and tried to unplug it but the metal prongs of the plug had melted into the outlet and we couldnt take them out because the thing kept catching on fire. So we ran and turned off the electricity to the house before it got out of hand and once the electricity was off, we just cut the wires. Jaja so we are now out of a fridge and my comp is looking for the supplies and tools to repair it. He is going to try to ghetto rig it so we will see how that goes jaja. Yeah so it was a good thing we decided to have another look before going to bed, fun stuff fun stuff.

Well I think that is all I got for this week. Satan is working hard to tear us down but I'm just not having it. I've got too little time in the mission to let myself get discouraged or feel bad for myself. No, it's a sprint to the finish and I cannot let myself lose any animo or energy. This is it. My last seven months to be a missionary and then I'll be back home missing it. So despite the failing branch and weak attempts of Satan to get us down the work goes on. We will know what are cambios are this Saturday so next Monday I'll let you know if I'm staying or going. As far as I'm concerned, I'm down for whatever the mission President and the Lord want me to do, whether I'm staying here or leaving, missionary work is missionary work. Wherever Im called to is fine with me =). Well take care everybody and we will talk more next week. ciao, chau, chao, 17 months out and I still don't really know how to spell it, but neither do the chilenos jaja.

con amor, Élder Harper

Consejo de Lideres (Advice of Leaders-meeting)

I JUST FELT THE SPIRIT WELL UP INSIDE ME AND POWERFULLY TESTIFIED

Hello family!!!

Well it sounds like the Christmas season is in full swing now back in SoCal. The events, the food, the lights..sigh.. I love it. Slightly because it's not really that big of a deal here but of course I still would rather be here in Loncoche than anywhere else. And thank you very much for fasting and praying for a White Christmas for me, I really do appreciate it and it feels good to know that my prayers are accompanianed (don't know if that's a word or not) with yours. And at least now I'm starting to see the little two and a half to 3 foot fake trees decorated in the houses. Also, without all the fanfare it is a little easier to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and of course as missionaries we are taking full advantage of this season to share our glad tidings and pray to the Lord that he can soften the hearts of the people of this pueblo during this special season. Oh and Tanners, Loys, Las Flores Young Mens, and Grandma and Papa: Thank you all very much for your packages. My house mates and I are enjoying very much the contents there of and they as well send their thanks. I am so blessed to have such a good support system for me back at home that many missionaries out here (mainly the latins) don't have. I thank the Lord for all of you who pray for me and support me every day and I know that He answers your prayers. Oh and returning to Christmas today, as a zone activity we had an awesome asa´o al disco (an awesome chilean barbecue) and then made brownies and watched the movie Elf for p-day so that was a lot of fun and very tasty.

Anyways now for the weekly update. To be quite honest it was a pretty ordinary week and nothing very miraculous happened but during this week, especially the beginning, I felt an inner calm and peace and a strong accompanionship (don't know how to say that) of the spirit that I haven't enjoyed in a long time. I mean as a missionary I try to always feel the spirit but during this week even though we weren't having any remarkable success, I just felt it strongly by my side lifting me up and making me rejoice in the work. With that I had one good experience with this guy who wanted to fight who was just bashing the church, the book of mormon and Joseph Smith. Usually that immediately puts me on the defense but this time it did not offend me so much but I just felt the spirt well up inside me and powerfully testified to him of how I know that these things are true and kindly invited him that he could feel this joy and find out the truth of these things for himself as well. I don't think he really took it to heart but after that he quietly went back into the house and I felt a powerful reaffirmation that the things of which I testified are indeed true and that I did my part in raising the warning voice to him and inviting him unto repentance. It was awesome =).

As of right now we have a baptismal date from an incomplete family for the 25th of December, Christmas. I would be overjoyed about that (I am really happy) but it came to us under unfortunate circumstances. It was an investigator of the other missionaries here that they had been working with for a couple weeks, the dad of the branch president, but they made a commitment with him and accidently broke it and left him hanging and so he and his wife got mad (mostly his nonmember wife.. she's ridiculous) and now she refuses to talk to them and will not let them back into her house. So the old man with the baptismal date decided that he still wants to get baptized and asked that we take over teaching him. It was really sad for the other Elders and now one of them (the chilean) has hard feelings against me for it but he still needs to be baptized so I'm not going to turn him down. It's sad how some missionaries lose focus of our real purpose and turn the work of the Lord into a numbers game, in my eyes we are all a team and baptizing is a sacred work of the Lord and not a game or a competition. Besides they aren't our baptisms, they are the Lords. So I am glad that after the bad misunderstanding that this brother still wants to get baptized and am sad that it has to be complicated and drama, oh well.

On another not so good note, the problems in the branch here are starting to reach a fever pitch and there are some members here who are trying to stage a coup on the leadership of the branch here in Loncoche. The president here has been negligent both to his duties and the branch and needs to be replaced (which is now in the works thank goodness) but some offended and indignant members are going about it all the wrong way and are looking for blood. This one seemingly harmless and soft spoken member with cancer who is sick with cancer and has been wronged by the presidency is out seeking for justice and in a sense is out for blood. He is going around rounding up all of the innactive families who have been offended or wronged by the branch president, riling them up and organizing them so they can be interviewed by the district president and be brought to a disciplinary council along with some other prominent members of the branch. We went with him to do some of these visits on Saturday without realizing exactly what he was doing and afterwards we realized how dangerous he is and what he could do to the branch so on district conference in Pitrufquen on Sunday we let President Swenson know what's going down and he informed the district president so hopefully things will calm now when things are taken care of in the right way. The brother who is doing this is a good person at heart but he is vindictive and dramatic and is just going about all this in the wrong way. This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The Kingdom of God on earth and it just makes me so sad and weary to see all this stuff going on in His church. I can't tell you how much I've learned to appreciate our peaceful, organized, apostacy free ward back home in Cali from my experiences here in Chile. I'm sure all of these experiences will be for my benefit down the line. Well at least the process to clean this branch up will be started faster now so it will be ready to support and nourish sincere investigators and new members.

Well everybody this email is getting long jaja but I just want you to all know that I love you very much and that I'm infinitely grateful for the learning and growing experiences that I have been able to pass through (I know that sounds off but don't know how to say it) here in the mission. I love the Lord and I love this work. Keep enjoying your holidays everybody and I'll keep doing my best to tear it up down here in Loncoche. I know that the field is white here, I'm just praying every day to be led to the Lord's elect, to find the ones who can strengthen and raise up the struggling branches of the kingdom here in Chile. Until next week CHAITO!!!!!!!!

con mucho amor y abrazos, Elder Harper