GOD LIVES AND HE WORKS MIRACLES IN PEOPLE'S LIVES, SOMETIMES WITH THE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LEAST EXPECT

Hey hey hey familey!!!

Well another cambio come and gone, chau cambio number 6. This cambio was literally two weeks longer than the last one but somehow it still went faster than the last one. Anyways, I´ll start with the cambios and how my week went.

I am staying and my companion is going to Cabrero. Yes, he is being switched from Monte to five minutes down the road to Cabrero and of course, will still be in the same branch haha. We couldn't believe it! Also, both of the gringos, Elder Elder and Elder Glover, are leaving Cabrero and some other missionary is coming from outside to be
Leiva´s comp. It's kind of weird because neither of them know the sector yet but I guess the President knows what he's doing. So I'm staying in Monte and will be finishing the training of a new gringo missionary, Élder Hickman. As if that wasn't a Challenge enough, President decided it would be a good idea to make me a district leader my second cambio as comp mayor! I guess that's what happens when half the mission has less than a year out here. President has to subir (uhm..bump up) new missionaries as leaders if they are ready or not. I really don't feel ready at all to be district leader and I'm kind of freaking out a bit about it and am really nervous but if the President thinks I can do it, so does the Lord. And if the Lord thinks I can do it, then I guess whether I think I´m ready or not, it doesnt matter. I just have do go out there and do it. And even more, my comp isn't going to know very much Spanish at all so it looks like I´ll be having to do most of the contacting and teaching myself. This next cambio is not going to be easy but I´m sure it will be a good learning experience. I just hope I don't blow it as a district leader. So I will be doing a lot of praying and fasting and working my butt off this next week and this next cambio jaja.

Well anyways back to my week. On Tuesday we didn't get much work done because after district meeting in Los Ángeles, we went to visit Maria (the girl I baptized with Sanabria) in the hospital in LA. She is having heart problems and is going to have surgery this next week. When we visited her she was doing fine and the doctors said the surgery should go well and that it's not life threatening or anything. We are just keeping her in our prayers that everything goes well and that she will be able to stay Strong. She also had her copy of the Book of Mormon in the hospital with her so that made us feel better. That took most of the day because they made us wait in the waiting room for like two hours before we could see her but it was definitely worth it.

After Tuesday the week wasn't all that great but Sunday went well and we did see a Miracle or two happen, which made the week really good in the end. The Miracle that happened is kind of a long story but I'll give you the short version of it. It started like five weeks ago when we met this little girl named Karina (shes 17 but looks like shes 14) in the street with one of our investigators. So we talked to her and told her she should go to church with the investigator. She told us that she was Protestant and that she went to church three times a week and would never change churches but that she would come to ours if we went to hers. We told her maybe and kind of just forgot about her because it didn't really look like she showed potential to progress at all. But for a few weeks after, we kept running into her and talking to her in the street and from talking to her we found out that she was pretty hard core in her church and she told us that her pastor healed her and all this stuff and even though she was cool we didn't pay much attention to her because with how devoted she was to her church we thought there was just no way.

Anyways, long story short, we kept running into her in the street and she asked for our phone number and pamphlets to read about the church and stuff and in the end she called us a couple of weeks ago to tell us that she knew that we weren't going to go with her to her church but that she still wanted to come with us. Elder Leiva thought that she just had a crush on me and that's why she wanted to go but in the end he was wrong. Anyways, she went to church and she liked it and afterwards she said that she still didn't really believe it but she wanted to learn more. So last week we taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and challenged her to read and pray to know the truth and she said she would. She was kind of skeptical and kept going off about her church during the lesson so we weren't like really excited about it or anything but we had hope that she could change. I just thouht that if there was any way she was going to get baptized that it would be a very slow and long process.

Anyways, on Saturday we met with her again and she said that she had read and prayed but wasn't really sure if she had an answer yet. She said she thought that she had her answer but that she wanted to think about it more first because of how hard it would be for her to change. She was raised all her life in her church and was devouted to it. Like one of the most devouted Protestants I´ve met here in Chile. She sang and played guitar in her church and participated in all the activities ... the whole nine yards, and her mom is hardcore in their church too and hates Mormons so she told us she had a lot of thinking to do. Yesterday she came to church on her own and was making friends with a bunch of members and stuff, which was awesome, and then after church she told us she had her answer. She said that she had a dream where she saw two churches and loved them both but knew that she had to make a decision between the two. She then said that she didn't remember the rest of the dream except that in the end my companion, Elder Leiva, baptized her.

So she said that she wanted to get baptized and all that she had to do was break the news to her mom. This whole time we had been teaching her on park benches and she had been sneaking around so her mom had no clue. We were way stoked but a little nervous about her getting permission from her mom. Anyways, she called us this morning a couple of hours ago and said that she had a nice long talk with her Mom and she got the green Light to get baptized. So we set a fecha and if all goes well she will be getting baptized on the fifth of June and even though Elder Leiva got cambio´d he's just in Cabrero so he is going to be baptizing her. It's crazy when things like that happen. It makes me love being a missionary. Even though the week as a whole wasn't that great, Sunday and this morning made it all good =). Pablo is still good and went to church but his Schedule is so busy we couldn't teach him last week or the week before so we really need to revive his progress this week. Well that's all I got for you today folks. God lives and he Works miracles in peoples lives, sometimes with the people that you would least expect. Ok, well until next week, got to go but I love you all. Chauz!!!

Con cariño, Élder Harper =)

SATURDAY AND SUNDAY WERE DEFINITELY PAYDAYS FOR ME AS A MISSIONARY

Hello family!!!!

Well it sounds like you guys had a great trip to Arizona even though it was a little short. I'm glad that you guys were able to go through the temple for the first time with Blake and see his farewell. Oh and good job Blake. I heard you did awesome on your farewell talk. I just love hearing about you cousins and friends that are getting out here to the mission field. I'm way stoked for you guys to join me in the front ranks of the army of the Lord and it's also cool that everyones getting called spanish speaking haha. No hay nada como ensñar el Evangelio de Cristo y además en español. Bakán!

Well I would have to say that we had a pretty dang good week this week. Actually the week itself was just like a normal week but this weekend was absolutely awesome. First on Wednesday we had a noche de hogar (family night) with the non member sister of one of the members here in Monte Águila. The sister loves us and loves when we come and visit and will even talk about the gospel with us but is stubborn and for some reason isn't here or there with baptism. So in the Noche de Hogar we watched the Joseph Smith movie (the one they show in Salt Lake but in spanish, a member gave me a copy) and she loved it, and I think even cried a little bit at the end. She said it answered a lot of her doubts and that she thinks it's true but that she's not ready for baptism. So she is progressing a little bit but very slowly so we will see how it goes.

On Tuesday we didn't work because we had district meeting in the morning and then entrevistas (interviews) in the afternoon. The entrevistas went well but were really short and the president didn't say anything about cambios. But like an hour ago I heard from a semi reliable source that it looks like I'm more than likely going. I have mixed feelings about that because I´d be leaving some good investigators that we could baptize behind but I also feel like it's time to go. But who knows. We will find out on Saturday night what's really going down with the cambios and of course, like always, I'm going to work like there are no cambios this next week.

And then on Saturday we had Irma's baptism!!! Her husband kept to his promise and didn't go to his house in the campo to work so Irma could get baptized. But it almost didn't happen. Elder Glover, our district leader, came down to give her the baptismal interview and it took like an hour and I was just sitting outside waiting. In the end it turned out that she had had an abortion 40 years ago but she still felt terrible about it and couldn't forgive herself. I think that was one of the reasons why she wanted to get baptized so bad. To wash that away. Anyways Glover called the president and talked to him for a while and in the end we got the green light to baptize her on Saturday. On Saturday Elder Glover baptized one of his investigators and I baptized Irma so we had a double baptismal service.=) The branch President and his counselors didn't show up so we had to direct the service. But despite that, we had a good turnout at the baptism and the people giving the talks showed up, so in the end it went just great. It felt great being back in the water again and knowing that I was a tool in the Lord's hands to help show this daughter of God the path to eternal life and help her get started on this path. I love baptisms =).

And then to end a great weekend, on Sunday we had 6 investigators in the chapel! It was awesome. I won't really talk to you about all of them yet until they start progressing more but one of them was a pretty funny story. On Thursday we were walking through the plaza and saw a Group of punk flaite looking kids lurking around and one of them was skate boarding. So we stopped to watch him for a little bit and then we started talking to him about skate boarding and eventually the church. He then asked us if he could go to church and what he had to do to be baptized, while all of his little buddies were cracking up in the backround. But it was cool, we went along with it, taught him, got his address, and then told him that we were going to go pick him up Sunday morning at 9 30 to go to church. My comp thought that he was completely full of it and just joking around to make his buddies laugh and I half agreed but some part of me thought he might be serious and told me to pick him up Sunday morning. What do you know when we drop by his house on Sunday and he is dreesed and ready to go to church haha. My companion could not believe it. So anyways we went to church and he really liked it and afterwards started asking questions about the requirements for baptism and going on a mission. Then after church we went to the missionaries house in Cabrero with the investigador (Kevin) so he could check out the skate ramp that the missionaries made there (that was part of the deal). When he finally went home he thanked us for everything and told us to pick him up for church the next week. He lives in Santiago and he's only down here visiting for a couple of weeks. This kid is already ready to accept the gospel. We told him to look up the missionaries and go to church in Santiago and he's going to give me his email before he leaves so I hope everything works out for him in the end. He's a great kid even though he looks like just another little punk on the outside.

Well to tell you the truth I could tell you some other stories about what happened Sunday but I'm just about out of time for this week. But yeah it was a good week and it ended great. Saturday and Sunday were definitely paydays for me as a missionary jaja. Well I got to go but as always I love you all and I will let you know about Pablo and about what's going on with my other investigators and the cambios next week. So until next Monday les quiero y cuidense mucho. Chau!!!!!

Con mucho cariño, Élder Harper =)

THAT'S WHY I'M HERE. TO MAKE MY FATHER IN HEAVEN PROUD AND TO HELP HIM BRING TO PASS HIS WORK AND HIS GLORY.

Hola Hola everybody!!!

Well It was great talking to you Mom and the rest of the fam yesterday. Although the connection was absolutely terrible and frustrating at times, I was still very grateful to be able to talk to you for a good while and wish you a happy Mother's Day. It sounds like you guys had a great Mother's Day and good job with the dinner Dad. It sounds like you have improved with your cooking since I´ve been gone haha.

Well I already told you a little bit about how my week went but not much since it was so hard for you guys to hear me so I´ll put a little bit of what went down here in the email but to be quite honest it was a pretty uneventful week. We unfortunately had to let go of investigators at the beginning of last week so we spent most of the week looking for new people to teach. Our animo was kind of up and down the whole week but in the end we found some new people that we are starting to teach that might have some promise. It seems like they have desire to learn and to get acquainted with the gospel and we have appointments with them this week so we will see how it all goes. The key is helping them to be able to feel the spirit. Because when they feel the spirit and feel the truth they are willing to step out of their comfort zone and change their lives to be born in Christ.

A lot of the time when people accept offers for us to come teach them they are just expecting us to come read the Bible a bit and speak pretty words about Christ and then after that, they can move on with their lives. So when they come to realize that we bring a message more important than that and that we are here to change everything that they once knew, they either shirk away and decide that they don't want to learn more or they rise to the challenge. I know I´ve mentioned this before, but it's tough sometimes weeding out the ones who are just going to sit and listen from the ones who are going to act and progress and accept the gospel. But I know that the Lord is preparing and has prepared people here in Monte Águila to accept His gospel. We just have to do our best to be the sharpest tools in the Lord's hands and constantly look for those that are prepared. It's hard to keep that perspective sometimes but it's all worth it in the end when you find that 1 person that's ready to change.

Irma is going to be baptized this Saturday the fifteenth and if all goes well Pablo will be baptized the week after on the 22^nd, the last weekend before cambios. So in short I´m pretty stoked that if I leave in two weeks, I´ll at least be here to see some of the fruits of my work here in Monte. Well that's all I got for you guys this week haha. It really was an uneventful week but with the baptism and everything I'm sure I´ll have more to say next week. Once again I´m so grateful that I was able to talk to you guys yesterday. Thank you for all of your love and support and thank you for all that you do for me. I love you all and I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. That's why I´m here. To make you all proud, To fulfill my self expectations and more importantly to make my Father in Heaven proud and to help him bring to pass his work and his Glory. There is nothing better than building the Kingdom.

Les quiero Chau!!!!!!

Élder Harper :)

p.s. thank you for the poem Austin I loved it haha. You´ve got some mad rhyming skills.

OH HOW LUCKY I AM TO BE A MISSIONARY. I LOVE MY SAVIOR, I LOVE THIS GOSPEL AND I LOVE THIS WORK...

Querida familia,

Kiu kiu (a very chileno way to say hola). How's it all going? It sounds like everything's going normal but good as usual back at home with the kids and their sports and social lives. And thanks for making me daydream for a few minutes about the waves Dad jaja. I do miss the ocean but that's ok. The baptismal font is better :). Well my week was very hectic once again but it had a happy ending this week jaja.

We finally got our calefont (water heater) installed on Thursday! The guy told us it was only going to take up the morning hours and Thursday is weekly planning in the house anyways so we thought it was going to work out perfectly. In the end he ended up taking the whole day Thursday and half of Friday due to complications. So we lost a lot of valuable work time this last week. So when we were actually out in the street we were working our tails off talking to everybody and visiting and taking care of all of our investigators that we have. I was really nervous but in the end of the week our work, with fasting and praying and a lot of help from the Lord, paid off. We were able to bring four investigators to church including Irma!

Yes Irma´s, husband has finally returned from the campo and now all she needs is a baptismal interview to get baptized! We are going to see tomorrow if she can still get baptized this Saturday on the eighth but their are some obstacles to that so if that doesn't work out, she will at least get baptized on the fifteenth for sure :). She knows the church is true and she is ready so I am very excited for her to be able to finally get baptized. Also Pablo (the joven we found and brought to church last week) came to church again and is progressing. He is reading the Book of Mormon and praying and I think he´s close to baptism. He likes the church a lot and feels good but he has a lot of questions and his own ideas about religion. But we have a cita with him on Wednesday and we are going to try to put a baptismal fecha with him on Wednesday. The other two investigators that came are progressing a little more slowly so as they progress I´ll let you know a little more about them. We unfortunately also had to let go of some investigators yesterday because they were degressing rather than progressing and didn't come to church. It really hurts me to do it but some people just aren't ready to take upon them the name of Christ and discipleship just yet.

As far as our companionship is going, it's improving a lot. It's not perfect and we still have a ways to go but we are improving and are teaching and working more and more in unity with every day so I´m not too worried about that. Oh and also even though it was terrible that we lost a lot of working time it did give me a lot of time to study and I learned a lot the day and a half that we couldn't work. So I´m thankful for the opportunity I had to learn and broaden my understanding a little of the Great Plan of Salvation that our Father has for us and of the grand divine potential that each one of us, his children, has. I just love the gospel and am so grateful that I´m part of his true church and of his great work as a missionary here on the Earth. Oh how lucky I am to be a missionary. It´s daunting sometimes to try to live up to the calling but I know that He is helping me with each step become the missionary and man that He wants me to be. Not through my will but through His. I love my Savior, I love this Gospel, and I love this work... and of course I love all you guys :). Chao!!!

Con amor, Élder Harper :)

HELLO HELLO FIZZIE IZZIE!!!!!!

It is great to here from you as always and I hadn´t heard too much about the life of THE Iz for a while so it was good to get your email. Well it sounds like even though you are scraping up your face and have a vampire tooth that needs to be removed, you are still having a good time so that is good. Good job in Lacrosse I hear that your tearing it up and have ten goals. You better still be playing when I get back so I can go to your games.

Well Chile is going pretty good. The weather can't make up its mind whether it wants to be warm or cold. Right now it's warm and it's been warm for a few days but who knows about tomorrow. We got cussed out by a drunk guy last night but that's nothing new. The sad part is now I understand most of the cuss words. Oh and when we were fasting Saturday night we went to a members house and they were celebrating their son's Engineering Degree with a huge asado (barbecue) Monte Águila is poor so we never have asado but we were fasting so we just had to sit there and enjoy the aroma and stay strong. Maybe that's why God blessed us with investigators in Church on Sunday haha. Well I got to go Iz a biz but take it easy and don't worry about not reading all of the emails. It's all good and I know that you read when you can. Well I got to go. CHAO!!! Oh and if you read this mom im going to call home in like an hour to plan for Mother's Day.

Con amor, Élder Harper :)

AS SOON AS I AM ABLE TO TAKE A HOT SHOWER IN MY OWN HOUSE I WON'T COMPLAIN

Hello family!!!

Well another week has flown by once again. But it seems like I start every email off with saying how fast the week went by and they just keep on getting faster so we will just skip over that part this week haha. Well this week was pretty dang hectic. We worked our tails off and lost a lot of hours of work due to some problems getting the cash to pay the rent and getting all the stuff we need for the house. All the stuff, even the essentials, are just trickling in slowly and it seems like it's a huge hastle to get every little thing. Still no hot water because we haven't been able to get the cash from the office to pay for a calefont (gas water heater) installation. I could go on about that for quite a while but I´ll save you guys the thrill and excitement of all that hahaha. I just mentioned it because it's been a headache and unfortunately took too many hours out of our work week. But despite that, we still worked very hard. I finally found out what our problem was on not getting anyone to church and how to solve it.

My comp is a great guy and we get along great and joke around and stuff but half of the time while contacting and teaching I wanted to kill him last week haha. He was doing all the talking and at first I let it go, but after a while I got sick of it so I started doing as much butting in as I could so I could stay a part of the companionship and do some teaching as well because hey, I like teaching. Once I started doing that, I was able to speak more in contacts and lessons but it just didn't feel right and the lessons felt scattered and all over the place. Throughout the week I kind of gave him friendly reminders to do switching off with the talking and he said he would try harder but it wasnt resulting.

Finally on Friday night, right after we had a mismatched lesson with us going back and forth interrupting each other, I finally just gave up and let him do the last half of the lesson by himself without interruption because I realized we weren't working as a companionship and this whole cambio we didn't really have the spirit while we were teaching and that's why no one was commiting to go to church with us. It hit me that we were just two separate missionaries going out and working, not a companionship but two separate missionaries without unity. Now I´m usually not good at being bold and fixing stuff like that but the work here in Monte Águila was suffering so that night I had a good long talk with my companion to help him see the reality of what was happening and we had a good discussion, set goals to help us unify in the work and teach and work fluidly as a companionship and with the spirit. We both felt great afterwards and closed it with a very spiritual prayer. That night I also received a good testimony that Élder Leiva was sent to be my companion here in Monte Águila for a reason and that his coming here was inspired of the Lord.

I have had problems with comps before but I was never able to put my foot down and force a resolution before. And it was great because it was without any anger or fighting either and we both realized and admitted to the things we need to change. So on Saturday morning I woke up feeling better and excited to get our companionship and the work back on the right track but was also a little bummed because out of like the 15 good investigators we had, we were either not able to contact them or they had some excuse for why they wouldn't be going on Sunday. But as we said the prayer Saturday morning and pleaded for guidance to help our investigators progress, I felt calm and also impressed that even though maybe none of our investigators that we had would be going but that if we just went out and worked the Lord would provide. So that morning we did splits with the jovenes from the family Iglesias and I went with one of the kids to just do contacts. After about an hour we found this one lady in the plaza who wasn't really all that interested but she told us her nephew might be and then brought us to her house to talk to him. On the way she told me that he was 20 years old and had social problems and not many friends but very studious and a good kid so she wanted us jovenes to talk to him. Long story short, we talked to the kid (Pablo) in his house and he was very excited to talk to us and when we invited him to church he said that he would like that. So when Sunday morning came, all of our investigators bailed but when we went to Pablo´s house he was already outside in the cold waiting for us. He has a lot of weird ideas about religion but he liked church a lot and he even came out of his shell and talked to people in the chapel. At the end, he told us he would like to go again next week and we are going to be going over to his house to teach him this coming week. We only had one in the chapel, which would usually be unsatisfactory but I was never so happy and content for one in church because the Lord provided.

As far as Irma goes, she can't wait to get baptized and loves our visits and learning from us but her stupid old fart husband still hasn't come back. But last night she told us he got sick from the cold so it looks like he´ll be coming back pretty soon. Maria is still coming as well and even though I had my doubts, it looks like she will be staying active. As far as staying warm goes, it's not a problem during the day but the mornings are just absolutely killer and we are still weeks away from winter. But as soon as I'm able to take a hot shower in my own house I won't complain. And don't worry Dad, I sent the memory card home today because the web hop just doesn't work with the internet and computers here. My white shirts are holding up for now but my socks aren't hahaha and we are eating and being taken care of just fine. Oh and the neighbors lied and told are dueño (land lord) that we always leave the dog out at night and never feed it so he took it away. I think they told him that because he barks a lot so they don't like him but I was upset that they took Duke away. He was starting to grow on me. And don't worry about our safety. The neighboorhood is nice and tranquilo. I don't know why the dueño was worried in the first place. Well that's all I got for today but I love you all and tell Abbie that even though there is no school she has to study because I got a 5 on the U.S. test and she can't let me beat her haha. Love ya. Chauzzzz!!!!

Élder Harper :)

RILEY IS FAMOUS. Check out the link in the left margin

Hola hola!

Well in all honesty I don't really have too much to say about this last week. It was a good work week, with many investigators accepting our invitation to come to church, but in the end a local tragedy kept people away from attending church with us. Anyways what happened is that a family man in his thirties here in Monte Águila, that everyone knows, died in a car crash on Thursday leaving his wife, kids, and elderly parents behind here on this side of the veil. It's really very sad and it seems like the whole town is mourning over it. The funeral was at 10:00 am in the Sunday morning, which is exactly when church starts so understandably all of our best investigators, along with the rest of Monte Águila, went to the funeral on Sunday. We did not know the man who died but thought it would be good to attend his funeral accept that we had one investigator, a joven, that said just Saturday night that he was going to come with us to church on Sunday. But Sunday morning at like six it started to rain and rain hard so when we went to go pick up the kid, his phone was turned off and no one answered the door, so it looks like the rain changed his mind.

So after a long week of hard work, we did not have any investigators with us on Sunday. But you just got to shake it off, move on, and work harder and be optimistic about the next week. Next week should be a lot better because we have a lot good investigators and found a few more with Elder Leiva and they were all planning on coming to church before the car crash and funeral so as long as we remember them in our prayers and keep on visiting them and teaching them this next week I think that we´ll have a good cosecha (Harvest) this next week . Also we're going to try to go visit the family of the guy who died this next week so maybe we will be able to help with their loss and share with them the healing powers of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I´ll let you know how that goes but I am sure we will be teaching alot of the plan of Salvation this coming week and answering those powerful questions of; where did we come from? Why are we here? and where are we going when this life is over?

But besides the tragic loss of the young father at the end of the week, it was a good week for missionary work and we worked hard contacting and teaching. My companion, Élder Leiva, is from Santiago and has been here in the misión for five months and this is his fourth cambio. I´m just two cambios older than him. His family is all members and he actually baptized his mom like a month before entering the missión field so that's pretty sweet. As far as not speaking English, like at all (except at the weekly district meeting), goes I really haven't noticed it or missed it too much. I was already speaking Spanish most of the time but I really didn't notice any difference when I stopped speaking English other than I´m starting to think more often in Spanish now as well without making a conscious effort to do it. My Spanish still isn't even close to perfect and I think I'm improving a little faster now. I´m working on getting over the plateau I was starting to hit with the language so I´m excited for that.

So I was a little nervous about moving up to comp Mayor but I had no reason to be. I had to do most of the talking and the work for the first few days but it was fine, I actually liked it. Now In lessons and in contacts I have to try to fight to get a word in haha. I´m having the opposite problem of what I thought I would have as comp mayor. If I start a contact he ends up finishing it somehow in the end and if he starts one, he finishes it without me being able to get two words in. But we are working on that and I´m trying to rein in his excitement and enthusiasm a little bit, enough to let me talk anyways haha. I think he was just excited this last week about how easy it is to talk to people here in Monte Águila and how friendly the people are here overall. Anyways besides that, Elder Leiva is a good guy. He's a hard worker and he is cool and buena onda as well so we are getting along just fine. He is a good missionary but he's got some to learn about teaching and a little humbling to do as well, so I´m praying to be the best teacher I can for him and also praying for the humility sufficient to learn all I can from him as well. Because menor o mayor, you can always learn a lot from every comp. and I have already learned a lot from him. It's a big give and take relationship. Anyways, I´m really lucky to have gotten the companion I have and I am stoked to work with him in Monte Águila (a great sector) this cambio. We've both got excitement to work and are ready to thrust in the sickle and harvest here in Monte Águila this cambio. Love you all and have a great week. Chao!

Con mucho cariño, Élder Harper :)

p.s. once again, happy birthday Baylor. And thanks for the picture guys, everyone is lookin good .

**I'm famous!!! haha hermana swenson sent me this. check it out

http://www.ldsmag.com/churchupdate/100419scenario.html (an article that the wife of Riley's mission President, Jolene Swenson, wrote. The picture in the article was taken outside the capilla in Talcahuano centro on Sunday two weeks or so after the earthquake)

I JUST LOVE THE PROGRESS OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD FROM CONTACT TO BAPTISM!

Hola mis queridos,

Well well well, another week has come and gone and another cambio has come and gone. This cambio was only 4 weeks instead of 6 weeks (the result of our last 8 week earthquake extended cambio) so anyways cambios are this Tuesday, and in three days I complete nine months in the mission. Yo sabia que el tiemp vuela en la missión pero vuela demasiado rapido po! Its going by way too fast. Anyways, for once the President Swenson has finally decided to keep me in a sector for a little longer! YAY! It was starting to get pretty ridiculous when I starting having more sectors than missionaries who have been out here for a year and a half. Anyways I´m stoked to stay here in Eagle Mountain (Monte Águila). We have a lot of investigators who unfortunately are progressing a little slowly but are now starting to show more progress. So my comp is leaving for San Pedro and a Chileno named Élder Leiva is coming to replace him. Yay, another latino! and it's going to be just us in the house, which means I won't be speaking English for a whole cambio except Tuesdays during district meetings. So I’m also excited to improve my Spanish. The only thing I´m a little nervous about is that I’m going to be comp mayor now (senior companion) :0. I´m not sure how I feel about that but I knew it was coming and I´m ready so I just have to do my best and put my trust in the Lord to do the rest.

Well first of all, it sounds like you guys had a pretty fun week of staycationing. I can´t lie, I got way jealous when you started talking about all that Mexican food. My mouth is watering just thinking about it haha. But oh well, I´ll be satisfied with my chileno cuisine until the day that Alber Tacos and I are reunited. I can wait :). Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAYLOR!!!! I know you still got two days to go but it's better early than late. 15, wow man your growing up too fast. Oh, and Austin Elliott gets a shout out too. Happy birthday Austin!!! I'm going to try today for the last time the internet photo thing and if that doesn’t work, I'll just send the card home. I made a cd copy of it a week ago.

Well as far as this last week went, it was a little hectic with the whole thing of moving houses and stuff. The moving process took a while and there were some complications but now we are all moved in and have almost everything we need in the house. It’s a pretty good sized house and it's made of wood so it is pretty dang cold at night and in the mornings. We have a wood stove in the house but it was really poorly positioned so it doesn’t really heat the house up much, just the kitchen. The owner says that where the house is, is kind of sketchy (uhmm no it's not) but anyways we have a big old guard dog that the owner left us haha its pretty cool. We don’t have to do anything just feed it in the morning and at night and let it out in the morning and put it back after lunch. And its name is Duke. I told the owner not to leave it but he insisted, but its all good because hes a good dog. All in all I like the house and don’t worry Dad I will take pictures of it. Anyways, I’m just glad that it’s over and done with because it took away way too much missionary work time last week. 

But one awesome thing about last week was that Maria got baptized!!!

It was kind of sketchy a few hours before and it almost didn’t happen but she did and we were very happy and so was she. Also in the rama, Cabrero had a baptism and Yumbel had one too so we had a quadruple baptismal service in the chapel in Cabrero and it was awesome seeing so many people dressed in white :). I just love the spirit at baptisms. It is very uplifting and very addicting. All I want to do now is get in the font again haha. Well I wasn’t in the font personally for Maria's baptism but you know what I mean. But I´m not worried because we are going to baptize more this coming cambio.

With Irma it's been a struggle but it's not her fault. She loves the church and wants to get baptized and accepts every principle of doctrine and commandment that we teach her with gladness and she is so close to being baptized but she just can’t yet. Her husband has a property out in the campo and recently he’s taken to just leaving for days, even up to a week, to work out there. That wouldn’t be a problem but Irma has a severely handicapped 30 year old son in the house and has to watch him and so she hasn't been able to go to church for the past two weeks because there is nobody else nearby that can watch him. So that’s been rough but she is ready and just needs someone for assistance at church before she can be baptized. And she is not worried because it is getting cold and there place in the campo doesn’t have much heating so she said he should be coming running back to stay pretty soon here and then she will be able to go to church and get baptized. We also have some other good potential baptisms coming up but I´ll tell you more about them as they progress. I just love the progress of the children of God from contact to baptism! I´m a little nervous but also stoked to continue the work here now as comp mayor. Love you all, keep me in your prayers as well as our brothers and sisters here in Chile. Until next week CHAUZZZZ!!!!!

Con mucho amor, abrazos y toda la cuestión, Élder Harper :)