Elder Blotter - April 25

Dear Family

I am well this past Easter Sunday.  Funny it didn’t feel like Easter Sunday but then again they don’t really celebrate it in the branch here like we do back home. I did get some little chocolate Easter eggs from our recent convert’s son Antar who had a little Easter basket he got from in school.  So he shared them with my companion, and me, which was nice. Here Easter Sunday is more powerful in the Catholic Church and evangelic churches where they celebrate the full 3 days with the walking of the cross and a bunch of other stuff. They call Good Friday and the whole weekend Semana Santa that means Holy Week.  It’s interesting to see the culture difference in this holiday especially in a small little town. My companion is adjusting well just a little shocked from this past week because it rained here in the south for more than 72 hours STRAIGHT!!!   It was nuts not going to lie ha-ha and during the whole time until this afternoon we haven’t had power in the house so it was interesting being in the dark with a bunch of candles throughout the house lighting the place.   I guess it gave us a feel for how it must have felt for the pioneers in the old days where electricity didn’t exist at all so it was fun.   But it was sure a week of miracles in the rain because people stopped to talk to us more than usual so it was awesome and it’s always on those really rainy days that we find awesome new investigators!!!   So now we have a couple of new people to teach so maybe when the winter season gets here for real we won’t be walking so much in the rain and be more in houses ha-ha.  Wow it’s been a roller coaster this past week with rain. No power. Traveling to Rio Bueno a lot. Having our LAST interviews with President Lovell.  It’s a shame that he is ending his time as my mission president.  It’s going to be really weird to have a new mission president for the last 6 months of my mission. I'll barely have time to really get to know him. But it’s what the Lord wants. I know Sister Lovell is really sad to be going because I can see that she has really come to love the mission and we have all as missionaries come to love her a lot for what she does for us and brings to the mission. Thank you for all your love and support you give me even though I am a 1000 miles away from you. I love you tons and miss you more!!!

Love,

Elder Blotter

John 8 verse 12

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the

world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have

the light of life."

Elder Blotter pics - April 18

This is Elder Blotter and his missionary companion's new quarters in San Pablo after they lost their previous housing.   It was quite the saga if you read his April 18 letter.

Freeway shot from the highway outside of San Pablo. 

Elder Blotter and some San Pablo members

Elder Blotter - April 18

Dear Family,

Glad to hear all is well with you this past week. I am well here in San Pablo. I haven’t told you guys about in the past 3 weeks but my companion and me have been living in La Union because we lost our house.  We lost our house because the house we were living in before belonged to the Government and we didn’t know that because the houses that are in the neighborhoods here, most of them have contracts with the government that you cannot Rent or Sell them for 5 years.  You must be living in the house and then after 5 years have passed you can Sell it or Rent it out but I guess there is a ton of people breaking the law and apparently so was our owner.  The Government went out to go investigate all these houses to see who is renting these houses out or who is not living in the houses they gave and if they find that they take away the houses and ban the people from buying a house from the government for 35 years so it’s a big price to pay.  So we got out of there as fast as we could and finally about 2 days ago Saturday we finally found a house here in San Pablo so now were not homeless!!!  Everything is in the new house and it is in an area very calm and not ghetto but beautiful and surrounded by a small forest and is on the side of the highway and a little outside of the town.  It’s nice and very spacious.  I can say from the beds the owner has in the house we will sleep like kings ha-ha.  The beds are huge. But the owner is really nice, she has kids that are about my age but are all studying outside of the area like in Santiago and Puerto Montt.   It’s sweet. Me and my companion didn’t have any investigators at church but we hope to have investigators at church this coming Sunday because for some of our investigators that have baptism dates this is the Sunday of make it or break it.  If they don’t attend I guess they’re just not ready yet.  We hope to help them progress and feel the spirit and the want to attend without us really telling them to attend. But we have had a lot of sweet miracles this past week like one of the days this week me and my companion sat down on a bench in a plaza to wait for a member to arrive to go out and teach a couple of appointments that we had and we just said hi to a couple of people walking by and asked how they were doing.  They walked over to us and were interested in what we were doing and what we offer WHOA!!! First time I have ever had people come up to me and contact me, I am always chasing after people in the street to talk to them or stopping them in the street. This time they came to me!!!  YEAH!!! and we got directions so it’s was even sweeter. But that was an awesome miracle that we had this past week. Your weather is sounding a lot like here with rain and cold so it sounds like were both in the same weather pattern. Thank you for all your support in my mission. I pray for you always. I love you tons and miss you more!! 

Love,

Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter - April 11

Dear Family,

I am well this past week here in San Pablo with my new companion, Elder Juarez from Santiago Chile.  So I am training a Chilean. He is great kid with all his family members of the church. He plays soccer like me and practices Judo and was on the selection of Chile for Judo so he was pretty good at it. We had a good Sunday with many members in the church and 3 investigators in the church, which was awesome.  Two of them have dates so we are stoked for them because they are progressing even more.  The winter season is coming closer and it is getting colder every other day. It was a very busy past week with lots of teaching but also moving very fast. I have never trained before and I feel like I have so many other things to do now because I have to teach him everything.  Well not everything but a lot of things about how President runs the mission here in the south. He is a good kid, very smart and knows the gospel. He knows how to feel for the

spirit and find needs in people. I have learned a couple things that I have lost a little here in the mission that I want to gain back and maybe I can gain them back from Elder Juarez because he reminds me a little bit of myself in the beginning feeling a little lost.   He’s

acclimating quickly. I am grateful for the opportunity that the Lord has given me to train one of his servants in the great white fields that is ripe and ready to harvest as we read in D&C 4. I love the mission and love the gospel here in the South. I have learned so much and hope to continue to keep learning more. Thank you for all the support you have given me throughout the mission and in my life.  Tell Ian I say hi and tell him I am glad I am not in his shoes right now Ha-ha.   I already have three callings here in the mission, Missionary, Sunday School Teacher, and Home Teacher ha-ha.   I love the people here in San Pablo and I hope to continue to grow with them and help them grow in the Lords work and help their friends receive this gospel too.

I love you tons and miss you tons!!!

Love, Elder Blotter

.

Matthew 18:3

"And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become

as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Elder Blotter pics - April 11

The pictures are of Elder Blotter and his new comp Elder Juarez in the mission home.  Elder Juarez hails from Santiago Chile and just arrived in the mission.   In the bottom picture Elder Blotter says goodbye to Elder Camarena who is headed south to Punta Arenas.  The other missionary is Elder Camarena first trainer, Elder Sandford.

Elder Blotter pics - April 4th

The pictures are of me with my companion on a log with a waterfall

behind us. We went to a waterfall area in a sector of our zone Called

Lago Ranco. Other pictures with me and my companion with a waterfall

behind us. Me and one of my zone leaders named Elder Cornejo from

Santiago who is headed to Punta Arenas with my companion. Me with all

the waterfalls behind me. And one with me and my companion with Elder

Jones and Elder Riches our District leader who is finishing his

mission at the end of this transfer. 

Elder Blotter - April 4

Hola Famila,

I am glad to hear that Dad’s knee is feeling better and I will keep you in my prayers that it will continue to progress to get better.  Sounds like you loved conference a lot and I loved it so much!!! I learn so much every time I go and I feel like its Christmas when I go. I also loved the talks of the First Presidency because I really think its what the Branch needs here. 

I will be staying here another transfer and my companion will be leaving to Punta Arenas and I will be training another new missionary.  I don’t know if it’s a Latin or North American so I’ll tell you in my next letter Monday.  I got a call from the mission office telling me that I will be getting a little more in my account for travels. and then he told me congrats on becoming a trainer and I was surprised because President usually calls the missionaries when they will train but he has yet to call me so I do not know if I am still training but according to the office and my zone leaders I am training but we will see. 

But all is well here. I went to La Union because that is where the whole district of La Union goes to see Conference.  I was there living there with the zone leaders for the past two days in their house because it was less expensive to stay there for the two days and not travel everyday. It was fun being with the zone leaders, they’re great Elders and I learn a lot from them. I hope to have many investigators in church next week to help them understand the reason on why we go to church because that was one of the first talks of General conference in the Saturday morning session and that helped me a lot and I can´t wait to read it again. The winter season has taken a turn here in San Pablo with a little rain here and cold but all is well.

It was awesome but sadly we didn’t have any investigators come to conference but we hope to have investigators come to church next week.  I also feel sad in one way of conference because it went by soooo fast!! It was sad that the members only came to see and hear conference Sunday morning and the priesthood session.  Hardly anybody came to Saturday or Sunday afternoon because everybody thinks that its Sunday morning is the only important session. That makes me sad because I learned soooo much in the Saturday sessions from the leaders of the church and so many great talks that were so needed for certain members of the church in the branch in San Pablo.  Also investigators that we have that there were messages that I think would have been the key to their conversion or their answer to certain questions or doubts they were having.  I guess we’ll just have to wait for the minds of the Chilean people to understand the whole importance of these messages. 

I loved President Uchtdorf’s talk about the priesthood the night of priesthood meeting which was about men of the church taking for granted their callings or not living up to there callings.  It made me feel happy because some of the members aren’t living to the potential of their callings and I hope the message woke them up a little because, well I am not branch president nor am I a leader in the church and I can’t tell people what to do here because I am just a missionary but I try my hardest. 

As Elder Holland told us that the messages are created through inspiration of the Spirit and are not just chosen topics and its not that millions of people have all these huge problems or what not but through the spirit we receive these messages and every message will touch a certain person and they will know that that message was for them. I love the mission and I love Conference and I know that President Thomas S. Monson was called as a Prophet of God. I thank you for your great example to me in all things. I love you tons and miss you even more!!! I hope to share more experiences with you next week about conference because I do not have my notes with me but its all good

Love,

Elder Blotter