IT'S WHEN THINGS GET TOUGH THAT WE GROW AND PROGRESS

Hello everybody!!!

Well the first week of another cambio has come and gone. I'm still on a spiritual high from the four awesome people that we were able to baptize and witness come unto Christ in the month of April. Well the Cruces were baptized in March but confirmed in April. It was definitely a good month and a good cambio last cambio but it was not easy at all. It was full of worry and stress and lots of fervent prayers but our hard work and obedience paid off in the end. It was an awesome month, but man baptizing isn't easy, but it really shouldn't be either. It's when things get tough that we grow and progress. Salvation isn't a cheap experience so why should the mission be?? I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately if you can´t tell. jaja I guess it's because I'm getting close to the end with just a little over two months left and.. well.. just lots of mixed feelings. Anyways I will now get on with my week and such.

So.. last month was great and all but we baptized all of our best investigators and we're now left with the stragglers and slow progressers to start this cambio. So you know what that means.. Lots and lots of proselyting!!! Jaja it's not that we weren't contacting and knocking doors before but now that's pretty much all we are doing because our teaching pool is kind of slim. But that's ok. We are working our tails off now to find new people, and we've found a few that might be able to progress so we will see how that goes this week.

The only investigator that we had been teaching consistently that we had when Elder Bustos left was Elton. I don't know if I´ve already told you guys about Elton or not but if so well you're going to hear it again. Elton is like 22 years old and is the brother of this returned missionary sister who is living in our ward with her returned missionary husband. Elton came here to live with them so he could study and go to college here in Los Ángeles. He is a special guy and is different than any other person I´ve taught. His older brother a few years ago hung and killed himself in his house and he unfortunately was the one to find him and it really affected him. According to his sister, ever since he has been very depressed and it's easy to tell because Elton is like a walking dementor. But me and Elder Bustos started teaching him and things started getting better and progressing little by little. He is a smart guy and understands what we teach him. He knows what he needs to do and wants to want to do it but he is just completely unmotivated. He just cant find the desire to truly read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. With me and Bustos he went to church twice and the second time even stayed for the classes and was starting to get happier and smile and laugh more. But for Easter week he went back to his home town to be with his family and when he came back it was like he had lost all of the progress he made. He got all difficult to work with again and just isn't motivated to do anything. This week he didn't come to church because he didn't want to get out of bed. My new comp isn't all that optimistic about him but I see in him the desire deep deep in him to be born again and to leave his past behind. He has also had weird experiences with "evil spirtits" (latin america is weird with that stuff sometimes) and he thinks that the devil has control over his life and that keeps him down as well. So we aren't going to give up on him yet. He is going to progress slowly but I think we can help him turn his life around. We have felt the spirit with him before and I'm pretty sure he has felt it too whether he admits it or not.

Anyways my new companion is Elder Swainston.

He goes home the cambio after me and he has a lot of experience as zone leader and has a great reputation so I was excited to get him as a companion. He is a hard worker but is funny as well and is easy to get along with. We have differences of opinion and differences in working styles but we are working to put those together to make a good team. The first week or so is always awkward teaching together and meshing two different styles together but we will get it just fine. He's a really good guy and we are already pretty good friends. He's from Las Vegas.

Yeah, the santification week of 200 contacts was tiring but not too hard to complete because we had plenty of time to do contacts jaja. So we did the 200 contacts and more without stressing. It wasn't that hard this week and we've found some people that can progress this week. So Elder Swainston is great and all but I do kind of miss Elder Bustos. We had started working together really well and he's the best missionary that I've met in the mission so far. I've never met a missionary just so focused. It was a great experience to work with him for the last 3 months and I definitely learned a lot from him. I was working well before but he brought me up to a new level and a new vision of the work that I didn't see as well before. Now with a great missionary like Elder Swainston, I'm excited to keep it going til the end baby!!! All the way through the finish line. Well I had one more thing that I wanted to talk about but I'm just about out of time because we had consejo this Monday instead of Pday so we got back late. But if you guys remind me about the German girls, I'll tell you the story next week. I love you all and I love this gospel, I'm stoked for these last two months or so that I have to work to give it my all. Until next week. CIAO!!!!!

Elder Harper =)

I LOVE THE SAVIOR AND IT WAS A GREAT EASTER, A GREAT DAY TO REMEMBER HIS RESURRECTION. HE TRULY LIVES AND LOVE US.

Muchas holas a todos!!!!

Happy Easter!!! it indeed was a good one. By the way, you're killing me with all that food description Mom. Here we had a pretty good Easter but I will tell you about my week first, because it was a good but also very weird and frustrating week. So last week, or the week before last week, we found this guy who we thought was the prefect golden investigator. He stopped us on the street, said that he had been talking to a mormon friend at work, and then asked us if we could give him a Book of Mormon. When we gave him one he thanked us and said that he had been waiting to be able to read one and he was really excited. Then last Sunday he showed up at church and invited us over to his house to teach him and eat lunch. His house was way out in the campo, the country, and in the end we found it but it took us like all day. In the end, the lunch didn't end up happening and he ended up telling us that he is actually a member who was baptized like ten years ago in Antofagasta. Yeah, then we finally got back to our house at like seven to grab some lunch and then go out and work.

So that was a big bummer and kind of a waste of a day but whatever it's all good. That was Wednesday. Also on Tuesday a rain storm caught me off guard and unprepared so I am once again sick! jaja. Oh joy, gotta love winter here. But not a big deal just a minor detail. Thursday it rained really hard and we spent most of the day going around to investigators and members houses passing out invitations to the baptism on Saturday. Since it was raining and people felt bad for us, everyone insisted on giving us something to eat and something hot to drink. We would try to say no but it's next to impossible to deny food from Chileans; they get offended.

So by the end of the day, I had probably drunk like 10 cups of hot chocolate or hot milk with ecco and a ton of food. I felt so gross and sick at the end of the day. jaja. But that's part of the experience serving here in Latin
America sometimes. Eating until
you think your stomach can't take
anymore, and then going to another house and doing it all over

again. Then it happened again last night when we went around saying goodbye to everybody (Elder Bustos is leaving..that was kind of anti climactic but oh well) and it's going to happen again tonight. But now Im prepared because I ate a very light lunch. Anyways that was Thursday. Friday our lunch was with this rich family who basically kidnapped us and took us to this huge house in the

campo. There we had a barbecue with them and their extended family (like 30 people). That was all fun and tasty food and what not but we had to rely on someone with a car to bring us back so it wasted a lot of time. Also on Friday Morning we had to go to Monte Águila to do a baptismal interview with my convert´s (Raquel) sister and then after the barbecue I went to Galvarino to do an interview and then to another sector to do another interview. But I enjoyed that. I just love doing baptismal interviews and seeing their excitement and hearing their conversion stories.

Then Saturday was the baptism!!!

We were nervous the whole week about their interview and about whether they were going to go through with it or not but everything worked out just fine in the end. On Saturday at like five oclock they were baptized and then on Sunday confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Elder Rubilar (the first missionary who taught them, and then stopped teaching them because they didn't progress) came down to baptize them and it was all a good spiritual experience. We had good ward support there despite the holiday weekend, and the spirit was felt. Afterwards on Sunday morning Ale told us that when he was baptized this warm burning feeling filled his chest and he was still feeling it Sunday morning. Yesterday Elder Bustos went to say good bye to them and they bought a chicken to share with us with the little money they have. They are so poor and humble but willing to share what they have, they are awesome.

Also on Sunday, this gringo Big Wig of a wood company showed up to the chapel and he didn't speak a lick of spanish so I got to go around with him for all three blocks of church and be his translator. It was fun but it was my first time translating and man it was tough, especially since the speaker can't just stop and let me catch up. I had to listen, and translate, and keep up all at the same time. But he was a really nice guy and a long time member of the church. He was excited to have someone there to be able to translate for him.

Well that's all I got for this week, now that Ale and Dina are baptized we have only one progressing investigator who is the brother of a long time member. He is progressing along well but went to his home town of Cañete for the break of the semana santa so we didn't see him at all last week. But he´s coming back today. His name is Elton but I will tell you his story next week because I am out of time. Well I love you all very much. I am grateful for all the support and love I receive from all of you. I love the Savior and it was a great Easter, a great day to remember his resurrection. Fue tan exquisito tomar el pan y el agua de la Santa Cena esa Domingo de la Pascua, y para verles al Ale y la Dina tomarla por la primera vez como miembros ese Domingo fue expectacular!!! He truly lives, and loves us. Until next week CHAO!!!!!!!

con amor, Élder Harper

WHEN THE SPIRIT IS THERE, YOU GOTTA GO ALL OUT. NO REGRETS, NO FEAR!

HEY EVERYBODY!!!

FELIZCUMPLEAÑOS BAYLOR!!!!! Chuta loco te estai poniendo viejo! 16, I can´t believe it. Well it sounds like you had a lot of fun and a good time, and congratulations on your running bro! 4:29 compadre! You are quite the track stud aren't you, keep it up.

Well things here are going just fine and dandy. The week just went by way too fast, and now we will be starting the last week of the cambio and that will go by even faster because it always does. We will know our cambios on Saturday. I'm probably staying but you never know with cambios. President always throws a few curve balls in the cambios, but I really really hope I stay. I love this ward and we have some really good investigators so I will be praying that I stay while my comp will be praying that I go so he can stay jaja. I guess we will be seeing who has more faith by whose prayer gets answered =) jajaja but no really I do hope that I stay.

So this week started off a little slow with not really too much going but things started to pick up on Thursday. Thursday we did intercambios. Elder Bustos went to Yumbel to work with Elder Shore and Elder Ahart came here to work with me, just like old times. He´s doing pretty good, just a little discouraged because spanish is still pretty hard for him and he has only had gringo comps so far. But he' s not afraid to approach people or participate in lessons despite his lack of Spanish so he is coming along alright. The spanish will come.

Also the intercambio was very productive. We went to teach this investigator for the second time and it had been three weeks since we last contacted her so I was a little nervous that she cooled off but it turned out to be a good lesson. She is a very simple and humble lady and has a hard time remembering things but she has a desire to learn and the spirit was felt during the lesson so I decided to invite her to be baptized on the 7th of May (when the spirit is there, you gotta go all out. No regrets no fear!). She does want to be baptized and accepted the invitation but not for the seventh. She said it was too soon, plus she wasn't able to go to church this week due to a funeral service. But that's ok. We are going to help her and her husband out so that they can come unto Christ and be baptized in May still. Then we went and saw Ale and Dina and then visited the Cruces. I love the Cruces so much. They are great converts and sincerely want to dowhat's right and want to follow Christ. And their little two year old son Vicente just cracks me up; he's the coolest little kid I love him. 

On Friday night we had a big ward activity, a ward dinner with drinks, salad, potatoes and steak, well carne a la olla, but its basically steak. Christopher and Paulina came, the Cruces came, and Ale and Dina came. All of our recent converts and our best investigators were also there, so we were very content little missionaries that night. We ate and then we watched as everyone sang karaoke and danced. There were like about a hundred members of the ward there and everyone had a blast. Ale and Dina love it and we had a good time as well joking around with everyone and watching the karaoke and dancing. We left early but later we heard that the bishop even got Ale (who is very shy) to sing some karaoke. So that was good. 

Then on Saturday we had a ward missionary activity which was good but could have turned out better. But that's o.k. We have an awesome ward mission leader who is a recent convert of less 

than a year and full of fire to work with us so we are going to get this ward used to these activities and with working with us slowly, a little bit at a time until we have almost everybody participating. On Sunday we had a pretty good turn out in church, Ale came (Dina had to work=( ) and three other new investigators that are really good that we found this week came so we are really stoked about that. We didn't find very many future investigators but the new ones that we did find are very good so we are content with this week's work. Ale and Dina will be getting baptized this Saturday the 23rd. The first missionary who found them about a year ago will be coming here to baptize them, Ale and Dina worship him. Actually he even went to their house to visit them with Elder Bustos after enrevistas with the President on Tuesday (he is an assistant so he was there) and he gave her a blessing and the spirit was felt really strong. He also had her write the experience down in her Book of Mormon so that when she begins to doubt or get scared she can read that experience and receive the strength she needs. That was inspired because last night at their house she was starting to doubt again and tell us how she doesn't think she is ready yet but I reminded her that she has already received her answer from God and bore testimony to her and helped give her the strength to step forward with faith, follow her answer, and be baptized. So through questions we basically helped her resolve her doubts and when I challenged her once again to be baptized on the 23rd the spirit was there and she accepted. Your right Dad, that article El Misionero que testifica y desafia (a testifying and challenging missionary) is an inspired article. I have it in spanish and it has helped me a lot throughout my mission Dad. Don't worry, I´ll be pushing all the way through the finish line.

I could tell you a few experiences that we had with the new investigators that we found but I'll tell you more about them next week, they are awesome though, different but awesome. Well I got to go now, I'm actually in Monte Águila right now and I'm going to go visit some people but I love you all very much and am so very grateful for your support, your prayers, and your letters and emails. I don't know where I would be without you guys.

con amor, Elder Harper =)

p.s. Thank you very much to the Activity days girls, the Tanners, Grandma and Papa, and you guys for the letters, goodies and treats that I've recieved from you. They were all greatly appreciated. Haha loved the Easter card mom, nice face bay.

IT'S CRAZY HOW FAST TIME FLIES BY; I ALMOST HAVE 21 MONTHS IN THE MISSION!!!!

Hello everybody!

It snowed in orange county in April?! Well, hail or snow, but still, that's pretty dang crazy. The first time that has happened in who knows how many years probably. So that's pretty cool. It sounds like you guys all had a fun filled spring break, awesome! Disneyland, beach, what more could you ask for? The weather here

can´t make up its mind whether it wants to turn to winter or hold on to summer. This week warmed up a lot and we had some pretty hot days like the middle of summer all over again. And now it's cloudy. Yeah, so it kind of just does its own thing but whatever. Whether it's rainy or sunny we are out there working so it's all good.

Well this week here in LA was pretty good. It had some ups and downs and some scares with some investigators but in the end it was all fine and the week ended well. It was actually pretty dang uneventful, especially for the first few days. On Thursday afternoon until the end of Friday morning I went to do an intercambio (divisions) with the missionaries in Galvarino so that was really cool to work the streets once again of Galvarino since over a year ago. I got to see a few members there. Unfortunately none of my converts were home, but thats ok. Since I'm so close I will have a chance to swing by and visit them another day. But it felt really good being back there. I liked that sector a lot and definitely did not appreciate it enough while I was there, but I was still a youngin in the mission and took some things for granted. Anyways it was a good intercambio.

Then Friday and Saturday went fairly well. We didn't really find too many new investigators this week and we couldn't get in touch with any of the ones that we have found within the passed few weeks but we got back in touch with some old investigators from last cambio and had some pretty good lessons with them so we were excited about that. We explained things to them clearly so now it's their decision if they are going to start progressing again and reading, praying and coming to church again. The spirit was definitely felt in the lessons with them so I think that they will take the right decision and start progressing again.

Ale and Dina are progressing along just great. They have a baptismal date for the 23rd of April and it seems like they are commited to it and are ready to come unto Christ. Their relationship with the ward members has improved a lot and they both came to church this Sunday! Dina finally fixed things so that she doesn't have to work on Sunday. In the chapel they were very well received. Everyone said hi to them and lots of people made sure to take some time to chat a little with them and befriend them. They weren't able to stay for the classes but they liked church a lot and said that they would be going to the classes next week. We also had a few other investigators in church but they aren't really progressing at all so I won't talk about them right now. But we plan on taking really good care of Ale and Dina this week and having family nights with them at the members houses to keep them going strong with their decision. So we are very excited about them and their progression.

The Cruces had to go to Santiago to take their little son to the doctor this weekend so they didn't make it to church but they are doing well and we are going to keep visiting them to help them stay strong. But they´re doing good; they´re a great family. Well that's about all for this week, nothing else really to say. Just two weeks left in this cambio and then only two cambios left. It's crazy how fast time flies by; I almost have 21 months in the mission!!!! AHHH!!!!! haha Well I love you all very much, have fun back at school kids and we will be hearing from eachother again next week. Until next Monday CIAO!!!!!!!!!!!

con amor, Elder Harper =)

I WANT TO DIE (end/finish my mission) WITH MY FACE TOWARD ZION

Hola a todos!!!!

Sorry that I'm writing so late Mom. Today we had consejo (zone leader council) in the President's house, or as Danny called it, the council of the Knights of the Round Table. So we had to travel last night to that, stay at a house in Talcahuano, and then go to President's house in the morning. Because conference ended at 7 here in Chile, we got a late start to consejo and didn't get a seat on the bus so we had to take the two hour trip standing up. That kind of..stunk, jaja but what can you do? When I was in Santa Juana I started to get pretty good at kind of half sleeping while standing up and holding on to the hand rail in the bus. Anyways I didn't get all that much sleep last night but it was worth it and worth losing P-day because consejo is awesome. It just feels so cool sitting in President's living room in a circle with all of the leaders of the mission, many of which are good friends in the mission. But there were a lot of young guns there and now I am definitely starting to feel old in the mission jaja. It still hasn't completely hit me yet how little time I have left, but I think that that's a good thing. I'm still going strong and will be doing so toward the end. As the ancestor of one of the apostles (can't remember which one) said, who served in the Martin hand-car company, "I want to die (end the mission, death, it's like the same) with my face toward Zion." Anyways, consejos went well and the mission is going to be going through some changes pretty soon here that I´m excited about.

Yeah, as far as the Cruces goes... They got baptized!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!!! jajaja. I couldn't be more happier for them. Last Monday night we had a very spiritual Noche de Hogar (Family night) and afterwards, while we ate, Jose Cruces said that he wanted to get baptized on Sunday but when he remembered it was conference he said ok, then next Sunday. Madeline (his wife) looked at him and said, no.. this week.. wednesday. Jaja She is such a strong pillar I love it! anyways he looked at her and then agreed. So we spent all Tuesday running around inviting the ward to the baptism and planning the baptism with the ward mission leader. On Wednesday the baptism started a little late (they ALWAYS do here) but other than that it was spectacular and very spiritual. We had a great ward turn out, the bishop came, the stake president came, and even President and the hermana Swenson came. Months back President came to Los Ángeles to do a devotional for recent converts and investigators and they got to know the Cruces very well. Every time President saw us, he always asked us about them and he was very happy when he found out that they were finally getting baptized and well, he came. Jose´s best friend (who is a ward member) baptized him and I got to baptize Madeline. It was a great experience and the spirit was felt strong there, and they definitely recognized it. Yesterday they came to the morning session of conference and afterwards were

confirmed members and saints of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. They are on their way to becoming great members of the Church and in a year more, an eternal family. How awesome!!!!!!

So because of the double baptism, I´m going to say that it was a great week but other than that... jaja well, we´ve had better. We found some good potential new investigators who are member's friends but of the 11 investigators who were supposed to come to one or more sessions of conference, none came. Out of the five opportunities none came. That was a little frustrating especially because Ale y Dina commited to come and then bailed. Our ward here is great but not perferct.. This week we found out that at church last week some member did something to offend him a little bit and not really too many people paid much attention to him so he has been feeling down about that. He says that he still wants to get baptized and stuff but the energy he had before has been all but completely deflated. He said he was going to come still but just completely flaked on us. Now I could let that get me discouraged but that's not going to help anything, jaja, even though it was disappointing. So what we are going to do this week to remedy that problem is have a barbecue at a member's house with a few good fellowshipping families and we are going to invite them to it. We are also going to invite him to play football (soccer) with the men of the ward on Friday night, and if that works out, it should animate him enough to keep on trudging forward. He doesn't have any doctrinal problems really, he just needs some friends in the ward, to feel love and like he's a part of the ward. That will help him out a lot. Dina is actually coming along well. She is becoming more receptive and is now talking about baptism and church membership not as a hypothetical thing but as a future event in her life that has just not happened yet. They are good humble people and are going to be our new number one focus for this week so they can be baptized on the 23rd of April, pray for them.

Conference... conference was awesome!!!! What more can I say? jaja. I loved all the talks and found a lot of common themes such as... charity and helping the poor, Marriage!, revelation, marriage, and marriage jaja. He hit hard on that subject big time especially for all of those RM´s out there who are just twiddling their thumbs. And then hearing Elder Holland's message about conference and how talk subjects are picked, just added testimony to how important those talks are, especially the ones with repeated themes. That is the revelation that we need to make it safely through the next six months my friends.(until the next conference in October) Fortunately I was able to watch all five sessions in English, unfortunately this was due to the fact that there were no investigators I needed to sit next to in the spanish sessions =(. Oh well, conference was still awesome and the spiritual feast that I needed. It brought me a little closer from the gray beginnings of Dawn to the noon day sun =). And I definitely will not be dawdling along for these next three months on my road to Damascus (the rest of my mission). I'm going to be doing everything I can to baptize everyone that I can!!! Because that is the only door which leads to eternal life. If they don't get baptized, then they´re not going anywhere. The gospel is true, and I know that the Prophet, apostles and church leaders are inspired by the hand of God. They have been called to sound the Lord's warning trump here in our days. We must do everything to heed them. I love you all very much and until next week CHAO!!!!!!!!!!!

con amor, Elder Harper =)

IT'S HARD TO EXPLAIN IN WORDS BUT MAN IT BROUGHT ME TO TEARS. PRAYER IS POWERFUL AND YOURS DEFINITELY HELP

Hey hey hey!!!!

Well I'm glad to know that all is well up in the OCS sounds like the kids are doing just fine and are set for a good spring break. Here things are going very well, not perfect, but when are they ever? Yeah, so I'll just get right into my week then.

The week started with a nasty cold jaja. I'm still coughing but thankfully not as much now. Yeah, so that was kind of a bummer, especially since it rained a few days as well but it's not a big deal. I just popped in ibuprophen and worked like normal. Summer is definitely over and the weather is starting to cool way down here. During the day it's not so bad but it's started to rain a little and the nights and especially the mornings are starting to get pretty dang cold. The sleeping bag you sent in the MTC saved the mission Mom, as did the over shoes, you truly are a hero =).

This week we didn't really find any potentially good new investigators but we are starting to do a better job of helping the investigators that we do have progress and we are really excited about them. The familia Cruces are just awesome. Jose, Madelin and their two kids, Elias and Vicente, are coming along just fine. Elias already got baptized like 2 and a half months ago and Vicente will be turning three next month and Jose and Madelin are finally getting baptized!!!!! Yay!!!!!! It's been tough for Jose to just take a step of faith because he is really indicisive. He has known that he wants to get baptized for months but he just couldn't decide when to do it, but we have been helping him out a lot more and teaching him every other day. I just love teaching them because they understand and absorb everything and it just makes every lesson with them an awesome spiritual experience. I really feel it strong there every time I go and they are starting to get good at recognizing it, which is even more exciting. Madelin is set and ready and has really helped for Jose to finally make the decision.

They decided that they are going to do it this week and we have a family night with them and the ward mission leader and his family tonight so tonight we are going to pick the day and plan the whole service. Yeah, so we are stoked about that. I love that family a lot and am grateful that God put me here in this sector and at this time to have the privilege of working with them and serving them. So the specific date isn't picked out but it looks like we are going to baptize them on Friday and then just confirm them right away (with our bishop's permission of course).

Ale and Dina are also doing just great. We are going by their house more often to teach them as well and it has really paid off. We had a few good lessons with them and then on Friday we went to their place with Christopher (the recent convert) and his fiancee Paulina (they are getting married now in April), to teach them. We barely even taught, for most of the time Paulina and Cristopher just talked about their conversion experiences and it was awesome. New converts really just have this fire that us long time members don't. Christopher openly shared his experience with converting and quitting a smoking addiction and testified to them of how the gospel has blessed his life and the relationship with his fiancee so far. It really helped them out a lot and they even accepted a baptismal fecha for the 16th of April! On Sunday Dina had to work but Ale finally came and loved church!!! It really showed that he's serious about completing his goal to get baptized on the 16th. And now Dina is going to change her free day from Monday to Sunday so next week they both should be coming. They are very poor and very humble and it's awesome working with them. I love working with humble people. They definitely learn the easiest and it's also a lot easier to feel the spirit with them and to help them recognize the influences of the spirit in their lives.

Also we have been working with this inactive family for a while and they finally came back to church this week for the first time since I've been here so we were also pretty stoked about that. We were very blessed this week. Things with my companion are going just fine. We have are disagreements every once in a while and don't see eye to eye on everything but he is a hard worker and the most focused missionary I have ever met. He won't even talk about home. 99 percent of our conversation is on the zone, or the ward, or the mission, or our investigators. So that is good, especially since 'Im so close to finishing. Too close. The zone had a better week this week as well so everything is all good.

I had a lot of good spiritual experiences this week but I would have to say the most spiritual experience I had this week was kneeling in a circle in prayer with the familia Cruces before leaving their house. Seeing their two kids kneel, fold their arms, bow their heads and then hearing the Patriarch of the family offer a sincere, heartfelt, humble prayer. Knowing that 4 months ago they didn't even believe in God and then to that... it's hard to explain in words but man it brought me to tears. Even the three year old is just so excited to hold a Book of Mormon in his hands as we study and so excited to pray. He even makes us kneel to pray to bless the food jaja. I could go on forever about that family but that's enough for today.

Well that's all I got for this week. This cambio is looking to be a good one. Keep praying for the Cruces and Ale and Dina everybody. Prayer is powerful and yours definitely help. I love you all and enjoy your last week before spring break. CIAO!!!!!

con amor, Elder Harper =)

I JUST LOVE GENERAL AUTHORITIES, THEY JUST HAVE THIS MANTLE ABOUT THEM THAT'S UNLIKE ANYTHING ELSE.

Hello Hello!!!

Well I'm glad to hear that everything is going good down in Socal. Here things are going well; it was a short week but it was pretty good. As I already mentioned we had cambios on Tuesday and Elder Bustos and I stayed together, but we still had to wait in the bus terminal for a good chunk of the day waiting for all the new missionaries in the zone to get here. And Elder Ahart (yeah, he came up to my zone. I was stoked) came all the way from Loncoche so we did a lot of waiting haha. Also on Thursday (was that st. patrick's day?) we went down to Angol, like an hour and a half away, to a conference with Elder Corbridge who's the second counselor of the area presidency here in Chile. I just love general authorities, they just have this manto (don't know how to say that in English) about them that's unlike anything else. Like they just emanate authority and you can feel the power when they speak, yeah, it's awesome. Now I can´t wait for general conference jaja. So between him and President Swenson, they took up the whole day and we got back like at 9:30 at night so we lost the day of work but it was definitely worth it. It was very spiritually uplifting hearing from Elder Corbridge.

So besides those two events, it was a pretty normal work week. We had a family night with the Cruces and the Bishop's family (our future mission president) which went very well. Due to this big Catholic holiday celebration thing in Yumbel, yesterday Jose Cruces had to work but now starting next Sunday they are going to be coming back to church in full force and should be getting baptized here in the first or second Saturday of April. They are totally ready, she knows it, and he wants it but is still a little hesitant, probably from not going to church last week or the week before due to work. But now that he's going to be able to go again, everything will go just fine. We are going to put a fecha with them this week.

Now I´ll tell you a little bit about another family we are teaching. Their names are Ale (Alex) and Dina. She moved here from Peru to work a couple of years ago and he is from Santiago. They are very poor and live in this tiny one room apartment but they have enough to eat and to pay the bills from what it looks like. They were taught by Elders like 6 months ago and a couple of weeks ago we found them in the area book and have started to teach them again. He is an alcoholic and didn't believe he could change but now just recently he has started suffering from kidney and liver problems and has been going to the doctor a lot. I think this has scared him because he now hasn't drank in two weeks and he tells us that he wants to change. He says that he wants to start going to church so he can get baptized and get away from the alcohol and his drinking friends. His wife is having some trouble supporting him but they are starting to progress and we are excited for them. We have a goal for them as well to get baptized in April so we are going to be working a lot with them.

Well that's about all that I have for this week. We have good investigators and are really excited to help them progress and to get them baptized so they can truly come unto Christ! Also Christopher (the guy we baptized my first week here) had been starting to fall into old smoking habits but we've been helping him out a lot with that and he's clean again. If everything goes well he should get the priesthood this coming week. Well that's all I got for this week. Bay, keep tearing it up in track and Abs, Mom sent me some Mormal pictures, cute as always. Love you all very much and until next week ciao ciao and work on getting those hard working missionaries some referrals! They cant do it without you!

con amor, Élder Harper =)

THEY'VE ALREADY SEEN HOW THE GOSPEL HAS BLESSED FAMILIES AND THEY WANT IT FOR THEIR OWN FAMILY

Hey everybody!!!

Sounds like everybody´s doing good back home which is always good to hear. Our week here was alright; it could have been a lot better but I'm not complaining. We are working hard and know that we are going to be seeing results very soon now. We tried some new things out this week and well it worked out pretty well. We decided that working on our own isn´t getting us very far so we are turning it up a notch on working with the members. We might not see too many results from it right away but they will come. We are trying to have two to three family nights at members homes with our investigators weekly and we made a calender for doing splits with the aaronic and melchezidek priesthood holders and passed it around in priesthood so they could sign up as we explained to them the plan. We also have some missionary activities with the ward that we are planning so we are stoked to see how it's all going to work out for us. We hope to get the ward a lot more excited about getting involved in the work.

This last week we had a family night on Monday with the Cruces family and the ward mission leader and again on Friday with the Cruces and the stake president and his family and it worked out fantastic. It strengthens the bonds between members and investigators and is testimony building for them. In conclusion, it's just a win-win situation. For work issues that usually don't happen, Jose Cruces (the Dad) won't be able to attend church next week' and couldnt attend this week but after that he will be fine. They are excited to get baptized and we will be putting a fecha with them this week for the 26th of March. They are an awesome humble family and you can truly see that they just want to follow Christ better and do what's right. They were atheist before but they´ve already seen how the gospel has blessed families here and they want it for their own family.

We have some other good investigators that are progressing as well but for one reason or another they were not able to go to church this week so I will talk more about them as they start to progress faster and go to church. The beginning of the week was kind of rough because my comp hurt his neck pretty bad somehow and couldn't really move it or even walk for a day so we lost one day of work on Tuesday, but thankfully it slowly got better during the week after many icy hot patches and muscle relaxers and now he is back to normal and we are at the normal fast pace of working again. Also we have cambios tomorrow but me and my comp Elder Bustos are staying together so we are excited about that. Everyone else in our zone though had cambios and most of our zone next cambio will be different. Also due to a decrease in the amount of missionaries in the mission two of the sectors in our zone were closed and so we are going to be down four missionaries this next cambio. I was kind of bummed because one of the sectors that they are closing is Monte Águila. It will be rough for the members there but what can you do? It made me a little sad but hopefully as we get more missionaries in the mission they will be able to put missionaries back there. Hopefully sooner then later because it's a great sector and needs missionaries. But oh well. Oh and my son Elder Ahart is coming up to the zone now and is going to have a great comp and so that will be cool to see him again.

Well due to my comp being discapacitated for a couple of days,' Im about out of things to say for this email but I love you all very much and am very excited to have a good next cambio and of course to BAPTIZE!!! After all,' thats why we are here. To bring people unto Christ, and the only way to come unto Christ is through the waters of baptism. Yeah so until next week CIAO!!!!!!

con cariño, Elder Harper

GOD LOVES HIS CHILDREN, GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS, AND HE REALLY DOES WORK MIRACLES.

Hello family!!!

Well well well what can I say about this week? Unfortunately we are running a little bit late and I don't have too much more time to email but I did have some good experiences this week so I'm going to try to type really fast jaja. So if there are a ton of spelling and grammar errors that's why. So since I don't have too much time I'm just gunna get right to it.

So this week was pretty dang busy and unfortunately we didn't have nearly enough work time. On Monday we had the cosejo de LÍderes which took our whole day on Tuesday district meeting. Wednesday we lost our morning to go to the government offices to pick up some of the newer gringos in our zone passports and visas. Then on Thursday we had capacitations (training) with the President and the assistants, which took most of the day. Then on Friday I had to go apply for my new Chileno ID card because mine is expired ( oops!). And on Saturday we went to the pueblo of Laja to do baptism interviews. But every free moment we had available to work, we worked and the Lord knows that we gave it our all because he truly did bless us this week.

One Little miracle that we saw happened on Friday morning as we passed by the McDonalds in the center to get an ice cream on my way to applying for my ID card. As a little bit of background information, there is this investigator in Laja who has been going to church for 4 months and has stood up two of his planned baptismal services with the font filled and people waiting and everything. Now as we were walking passed the McDonalds, this investigator from Laja (Oscar) ran into us and started to talk to us. He told us of his desire but fear to get baptized because of possibly messing up or going innactive afterwards. So we talked to him about Lehi´s dream and the importance of the sure path of the iron rod and we also shared with him Helaman 5:12 (its a great scripture folks). Short story long he said that on the way to LA in the bus, he was praying for God to answer him about if the church is true and if he should get baptized and less than an hour later he ran into us. He got emotional and told us that that was the sign he was looking for so he told us that he wanted to do it and get baptized right away. The following morning we went up to Laja to do his baptismal interview. 23 hours after running into him in the center of Los Ángeles, he was in the font getting baptized.

Miracles truly do happen and I am very grateful that the Lord used us as instruments in his hands to help this guy get baptized. It's just amazing how he put us in his path (through my id card and us wanting a McDonalds ice cream) to answer his prayers. God loves his children, God answers prayers, and he really does work miracles.

So we were stoked about that whole experience but a little bummed when Sunday morning came around because due to the lack of work time we had, we didn't have too many people to bring to church. Miraculously, five minutes after church started this family (the Cruces family) that had been progressing but hadn't come to church in two months (loooong vacations) walked through the chapel doors with dress and suit and tie and everything. Even their two year old kid had a shirt and tie. That never happens here!!!! Then the Dad of the family bore his testimony in Elders quorum saying how they've made some big mistakes recently but missed the church and how they are going to start coming back now and work towards being baptized. Yeah you can only imagine how happy we were to hear that!

So even though things aren't going perfectly here, they are picking up and we are seeing the Lord's hand in the work so we are happy and will be working hard this last week of the cambio to find new investigators and help the ones that we do have a ton. Just the usual jaja. Well I got to go but I love you all very much and am glad that you all had a good week, I hope this next one is good too. SO until next Monday... CIAO CIAO!!!!!! chaito!!!!!

con amor, Elder Harper =)

p.s. congrats Bay on your first meet!!! you stud you!!! and I'm glad you finished out Lacrosse season good Izzie; your awesome.

LIVING WATER

Muchas holas a todos!!!

That's funny that it's freezing cold down in the OC because it is still pretty dang hot here in Los Ángeles! Summer weather is still going strong but now that we are going to be entering March, things should start cooling down here pretty soon. School starts up again this Thursday for kids here so thank goodness people will be coming back from vacation now. As for as how the work is going here.. a little slow. Actually we had just had consejos here in LA with all of the district and zone leaders of the mission and not only was it a rough month for us and our zone, but it was a rough month for the whole mission. But it's nothing to get disanimated over because that just makes things worse. So we are just going to keep on working hard and keep animating the zone so we can have a killer month in March.

In our sector we found a lot of good potential new investigators and have started
reteaching some old investigators from past missionaries that show some promise but all of our best investigators are still tied up in vacation stuff! But that's ok cuz it's all going to be over very soon. We have a couple that got married a couple of weeks ago that are going to start going to church again and get baptized when they get back to LA and we have at least two other investigators that are pretty good that can get baptized in March so we are doing our best to work with them while at the same time always looking for new people to teach.

Also Elder Bustos and I are working more on what aspects of the work we are focusing most on and different ways to work that I think are going to help out our sector and the zone a lot. Our sector where we work has an excellent ward with excellent members and awesome leaders but it is pretty well off money wise so the people here aren't as humble and accepting when talking to them in the streets and knocking doors. So we are going to start focusing more heavily on working with ward members and leaders in the ward here to get better results. The members are awesome here so we need to take advantage of their disponility (i dont think that's a word) and willingness to work to help us out here with the work. I think that by working with them and the incomplete families that we will start to see a lot more success here.

But besides that, we are still working very hard and are happy. My companion is a great missionary and I'm glad to be working with him; we still get along just fine. There's a lot of work to be done here and there are only two weeks left in this cambio..sigh.. Well hopefully President Swenson will leave us together for another cambio. Ok, well honestly I don't really have much left to say for this week as it wasn't that eventful but we did have a very spiritual experience teaching a friend of a member of the ward who is kind of an eternal investigator. We taught her the story from the Bible when Jesus teaches the Samaritan woman at the well about the difference between the water from the well and the living water that He has to offer us. The water of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the water of which if we drink, we will thirst no more. So we taught her about how she can partake of this water and invited her to do so. The spirit was felt and she went to church the next day with her friend so we will see how things go with her this week. Well everybody I really don't have anything more to say for this week jaja. Sorry, next week's email should be more interesting. OH and one more thing is that yes, Alvaro did end up getting baptized which makes me very happy =). Ok well I love you all very much and until next week ciao ciao!!!!

con mucho cariño, Elder Harper =)

Helaman 5:12, http://www.ldsscripturemastery.net/scriptures/helaman-5-12.html. We used this scripture as well in the lesson with the girl and she liked it a lot as do I. Read it; it's a good one.

IT'S THE TRUTH SO WHY SHRINK AWAY FROM SHARING IT AND FROM TESTIFYING OF IT WITH POWER AND BOLDNESS?

Hello Hello familia y amigos!!!

Well Well Well what can I say for this week? As far as the work went in our sector this week.. it was alright I guess.. nothing too exciting. BUT some interesting events did happen this week so I guess that I'll just go into that right away then.

On Tuesday we had interviews with President Swenson and the Hermana Swenson. That was cool and it is always a pleasure to talk to President and the Hermana. After interviews I went back with Elder Villegas (yeah my old comp from Sta Juana is in Monte) to Monte Águila to work with him for the day because they are kind of having a hard time with their investigators there. We got there really late because of the interviews but it was good to work with him for a few hours back in my old sector. I just love it there: the people, the streets, the members, the converts. I have yet to find a more humble people here in the mission than Monte. All of their citas with investigators fell through so we did a lot of time just talking to people in the streets and doing contacts and I also got to visit a few converts for a few minutes. They were kind of upset that I could only stay for like ten minutes so I told them I would make that trip up on a pday to spend a little more time with them. But still it was awesome to see them, to see my converts who are pressing forward strongly, and to give a word of encouragement to those who are struggling. I did get a little bit of sad news though.

It turns out that my convert, Irma had moved out to the campo, which I already knew, but I also found out that a couple months ago out of the blue she got really sick and within a month passed away. She was an awesome lady and not even that old so that was some tough news to hear but it must have been her time. Anyways I plan on getting her dats now from the church in Cabrero to do the ordinances in the temple that she was not able to complete here on earth. Sigh.. so that was pretty crazy to find out about Irma but what can you do? I'm just grateful that she was able to get to know the gospel and be baptized before she got sick and passed away. On a brighter note, Raquel is thinking about going on a mission and is working a lot with the missionaries there so I am stoked about that! I'm just encouraging the missionaries there to do everything they can to help her go. Yeah but tha'ts enough about Monte.

We found some potentially good investigators this week but now this week is the last week of summer break so everybody is running around and busy and on vacation and stuff so I will be very happy when that ends this next week. Due to that we only had one investigator in the chapel on Sunday but next week we should have a lot more.

Now I don''t know if Ive told you this, but the ward here, Villa Obispo, is awesome. The members are awesome, there are a ton of returned missionaries and just good members willing and eager to help us out, and we have the best bishop in any ward within our mission boundaries. I know I mentioned that earlier and you may have not believed me but I was proved right this week. As of yesterday we found out that our bishop, Bishop Osvaldo Martinez, is to be the new President of Misión Chile Concepción Sur as of the first of July!!!! It's in the church news and everthing now so we are STOKED about that and to have the privilege of working closely here in this ward with the future President of the Misión celestial. Yeah crazy that he has been called to serve in the mission where he lives but we are very excited. He's trying to keep it own the downlo here in the ward as long as possible and the other missionaries don't know yet but 'Im sure they will very soon now.

Well, to be quite honest that's really all I got for this week jaja. Oh and before I go I did relearn something important this week. That is to never be afraid to proclaim the restoration. To never flinch and to always be bold in testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. An instrument in his hands to restore the fulness of the Gospel and the true church. It's the truth so why shrink away from sharing it and from testifying of it with power and boldness. And that goes for members as well as missionaries. Just a thought. Well I love you all very much and I hope that you have a wonderful week. Until next Monday Ciao Ciao!!!!!!

Elder Riley Harper =)

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 =)