Elder Blotter - Oct 4

Dear Family,

I am found well here in Puerto Montt, just doing very very well. CONFERENCE WAS SWEET!!!  I love conference and it's sad that my last conference of the mission has passed...QUANK!! ha ha but no it was super awesome I loved all the talks but some of the talks that I remember from my notes at this moment was the one mom mentioned about how husbands can raise their daughters, the one about how we can become REAL learners, teachers, leaders, etc and Elder Hollands of the priesthood session. I really hope a lot of the young men went to that session and heard that talk because I hope that would´ve woken up a couple of young men that haven´t left on the mission yet that SHOULD  be out serving and how the young men should be preparing now and be on the Lord's "TEAM" and not on Satan's team.  Football analogy that he used ha ha but there were several others that I just loved especially also the talk of the "Its better to look up" that was very powerful also.  I can´t wait to get the Liahona to reread the talks.  We have heard the words of the Lord again for the second time this year. I hope you all were able to hear all the sessions of Conference for I know as they will bless my life they will truly bless yours. It was also an awesome experience to see a ton of the old members from the Ward of Libertad. I wanted to give a ton of them a hug but I couldn´t because I am still a missionary ha ha.  The rule of the mission, can´t hug people of the opposite sex. Just seeing their smiles once again and seeing converts and people that are now baptized also that I had been teaching and just seeing the change in so many members and investigators.  It's just an amazing experience that I am grateful to my Heavenly Father that he has given me this opportunity to see them once again. To see the Light of Christ filling each and everyone of them. Our investigator Tamara came to conference this week, AND SHE BROUGHT HER HUSBAND WHO´S BEEN LESS ACTIVE FOREVER!!!  SHES PROGRESSING!!!!  It's so awesome that she came and I hope she heard some of the very important talks they gave. Sadly she and her husband only stayed for the morning Sunday session because they had other things to do. But I know they felt the spirit there. We have  an appointment with them today so we will see the full extent of how they liked church Sunday morning even though it wasn´t morning for us, it was 1 in the afternoon ha ha But hey its OK.  I am well here other wise with my companion getting along very well and a blast also with the other two Elders of Presidente Ibañez 2, Elder Drake and Elder Trejo. I don´t think I told you but I am living in a house with Four Elders again because apparently the house there is better and so we live four so its a lot of fun. Elder Drake is from Utah and Elder Trejo is from Mexico but not really because he lives in Tijuana which is near Baja California so it's practically the USA. But Elder Trejo is in his second transfer and Elder Drake almost has a year in the mission. Wow I remember when I had a year ha ha BEFORE A GET A SHOUT OUT TO BOE FOR HAVING A BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK WOOOO!!! YEA HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOE!!!! ha ha alright.   Sucks to hear the Aggies lost to BYU when they should´ve won those little stinkers ha ha.   Glad to hear Rugar is having a blast  hunting with his dad, that's super sweet!! Love the pic with Rugar with the bird. He doesn´t have any fear to touch dead animals now.   I remember back in the cabin in Idaho when dad brought back a fish and Rugar was scared to touch it, ha ha he´s getting older that's so amazing. Glad to hear Batavia is just smashing in Geneva wooo!!!! GO BULLDOGS!!! ha ha and were one of the best teams in the state in our class that's incredible.   I remember when we went to state like my sophomore year I think it was?? Sad to hear no news about the old cross team. I miss those days but its OK cause I am trying to keep running everyday here with my companion. I hope all is well with you guys back home. I also got my Moroni Letter which means I have only 4 and a half months left and that I have to send some info into the office if you guys are going to come pick me up in the airport etc.all that Jazz and my final destination and which should that be O'Hare or Midway which one is better for you guys to pick me up at the end??  Well that's all my news the photos are of me in front of a school i found in a sector the American school and a picture with my Moroni letter and me and some of the members from Libertad. I love you all and miss you all tons!!!! 

Love, Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter - Sept 25

Dear Family,

I am well this past week here in PUERTO MONTT again...ha-ha  It's super sweet to be back here. Never thought I'd come back here but when we entered Puerto Montt on Wednesday it was like a flashback it was so nutty! and then when I got to my sector it was kind of a flashback too to see old streets that I walked and worked. But my sector I am in I have never really walked so that was a new experience ha-ha Cause I am in Presidente Ibañez 1 and not 2 because I was in number 2 last year.  And then throughout the week I saw old members investigators in the streets and then in church that have been baptized now and I remembered them and they remembered me it was so awesome to see people that I had taught and they got baptized and you really see the difference in there eyes and in there face that there a new person that there a better person. So I have the luck of seeing that change in them.  Me and Elder Patton get along so well and we are having a ton of success its so crazy!! And we had an awesome experience with a woman that came to church that she almost didn't come to church when we called her and then I think it was from all the prayers we were doing my companion and me but right when the sacrament meeting was about to start she walked in with her two little kids!!! it was so sweet I wanted to cry. Like I saw her walk in and my face just lit up and I thought my heart just jumped out of me cause I was sooo surprised that she showed up. She loved church and has such a desire to follow God. She has date for the 29 of October to be baptized so we are praying hard and we are visiting her and her family all the time so that she can accomplish her goal on being baptized!! wooo Whoo!!  But it hasn't been a bad week to start off but I know were going to see more and more success as the transfer goes on. I hope all is well with y'all back home and that everyone is happy and doing well.  I love you all and miss you all tons!!!

Love, Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter pics - Sept 17

Me and my companion being goofs after nightly planning

Me and the Family Santibañez

Me and my companion in Valdiva

Me with the Sea lions of Valdivia for the last time

Elder Blotter - Sept 17

Dear Family,

Hey how’s everyone doing there back home?? I hope all well. This P day we went to Valdivia and played soccer with the Valdivia Zone which was pretty fun because today has been a day of sun it has been pretty nice and we hope to see good weather tomorrow so we’re crossing our fingers and praying really hard. We also found out the transfers already and President called my companion the other day and called him as District leader here in Lanco in the Zone of Los Lagos and for me.......I AM GOING BACK TO PUERTO MONTT!!! ha-ha can you believe it???  I was left surprised when president told me that ha-ha.  AND I am going back to one of my Wards I served in!! ha-ha not Libertad but Presidente Ibañez. It was where I was for like 2 weeks and then I left and went to San Pablo. But I am going back to that Ward but I am going to the other sector ha-ha!!! AND the best part is I am going to be with an Elder named Elder Patton!!! I don´t know if you guys remember him but I was with him in Puerto Montt the last time I was there but we were not companions, we just lived in the same house and he was in the other sector and now we are companions!!! ha-ha and I am killing him because he finishes the mission this coming transfer so it’s going to be a fun transfer I already know this right now. So I am stoked to go back to Puerto Montt. I think if I stay there my last 3 transfers I can call my mission Mision Chile Puerto Montt ha-ha because I will have almost been there for a year and you know what’s even crazier!!!??? I am going back to Puerto Montt in the same time I was there last year!!! I was in Puerto Montt for General Conference of last year AND in the months of October, November and December!!! Freak dude!!! ha-ha This is so nutty but hey it’s revelation from the Lord. I hope to see some of my converts and members in the Conference when it comes up and be able to take photos with them ha-ha!!! But I am well here. A little sad that I am leaving Lanco. I have loved Lanco so much and I will truly miss it very much. But I know the Lord has something better in store for me there in Puerto Montt. An Argentino is coming to take my place here in Lanco and I know Elder Martinez will have a ton

of success with him here in Lanco and will baptize a ton of people we have found here in Lanco. This sector has so much potential. I hope for the best for him. Nothing else really new here in Lanco just preparing for the end of the week festival here and how dead it’s going to be and how many drunks there are going to be in the streets. We have found like in these past two days more than like 20 drunks throughout the day it is just insane. But that’s Chile for ya ha-ha But you guys will hear from me not this coming Monday but the following when I am already in Puerto Montt finishing my first week there. But I miss you all tons and love you all tons!!!

Love, Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter - Sept 12

Dear Family,

I am well this past week here in Lanco. Not much is new here. But this week has not been the best week of the mission work. It was kind of difficult because we didn´t have a couple of brothers who could leave with us and we couldn’t enter a couple of homes with women alone because of the rule we have that we can´t enter homes with women alone so it was tough.  But we did have a rise in assistance this past week. We had 48 almost 50!! It was pretty awesome but we only had one person come to church that was an investigator But we're going to work really hard this coming week on getting people to come to church even though honestly its going to be so tough because well a lot of people are not going to be in town or are going to be occupied because it’s September 18th week and that’s Independence day week.  Everyone likes to go on vacation and are drunk and just go crazy here ha-ha.  We’re going to try to keep working hard even though we can´t work normal for like 3 days the 17 18 and 19th. Oh, for you guys to know my p-day will be this Saturday the 17th because the 19th nothing will be open.  It’s like a Labor day here in Chile so everything will be like closed so yea. We went to Valdivia to take out my second visa so now I need to start my second carnet but I will have to start it in my next sector because in a week we have transfers!!! Holy freak the time flies by so fast!! I heard my companion Elder Camarena is in Osorno now serving there so he left out of Puntarenas already and the Elder I trained is now in Puntarenas. I am well here in health and excitement I am just stoked for this coming week to come and just teach like crazy and just see the hand of the lord in our work as we always do.  Also, for mom from last week I did not respond to what I want in the box is just ummm, Candy. Cheezets, um a pair of underwear and maybe another tie? I really don´t know what to ask to put in the box ha-ha But just put what you feel mom. I love you all very much and miss you all tons!!!

Love,

Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter - Sept 5

Dear Family,

I am well here in Lancito doing the Lord's work. Sadly.....The rain came again on Sunday morning Quank!!! GAhhh!!! We really worked hard this past week on helping people have a desire to come to church but its just like an Achilles heel. Its the southern Chileans weak spot, the rain in the winter. When it rains people just don´t come out. It didn´t rain as much as last week but it still rained enough to keep people away. But we hope the Lord will be more gracious with us the next Sunday and let there be sun ha ha but will just keep working hard here. The week of working wasn't bad nor was it like last week but it was a good week. We have two people with date for baptism and we had one in church. It was a very spiritual testimony meeting. The majority of the testimonies were on prayer and they were very impressive. In all my time here in this Branch I have never gotten up to give mytestimony. I have only given my testimony when I have given talks here in this Branch and I have given quite a few. But I am always blown away by this Branch on how faithful they are and how strong they are on bearing their testimonies. Like every member from the ranch almost got up. We had people up until there were some people waiting to give their testimonies but couldn´t because the meeting had to finish. I will always say that this Branch truly one day will be a Ward or the largest Branch in the district of Los Lagos even though it already it the largest Branch here in the district.  I am well this past week with health and everything. We have conference tomorrow so it´ll be sweet. OH and new rule change we can play soccer now in the mission!!! ha ha but only with other missionaries haha but its all good.  We went to San Jose and played soccer as a Zone in the mud and water on a soccer

field. It was really fun I haven´t gotten that muddy and wet in a long time, quite an experience I will never forget. Only two weeks away from 18th of September whoo hoo!!! ha ha I am so Chilean. I love you all and miss you all very much!!! I hope all it well with you all back home 

Love, Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter - Aug 29

Dear Family,

I am well this past week. This past week has surely been a week of miracles and really seeing the hand of the Lord in the work my companion and me are doing here in Lanco. From this past week we taught 14 people with members and we found a total of 22 news. I am truly stunned with my companion and me. I have never found 22 news in one week in my mission. It just goes to show you the results of our diligence as missionaries and desire and showing it all through being obedient to the commandments and to the rules of the mission.  When we do what the Lord asks of us we receive the blessings of heaven. The only stinky part of this past week was that all those 22 new people that we invited to church and others that we invited didn´t show up and what happened was that 2 hours before the meeting started it started to rain super hard!!! Gahh freaking Satan. I truly believe he was that did it. Because we went by almost every house of the investigators and called every single one of them and either they didn´t open their doors or they told us it was raining and they couldn´t go. quank!!! The rain is evil here on Sunday ha-ha it keeps everyone away because in the end we started the meeting with like 20 and ended it with 30 so it was really low this past week on attendance. But the focus now of my companion and me is that now we are going to challenge all 22 of the news to baptism and focus on really helping them to have a desire to go to church no matter what the circumstances are. Otherwise my excitement for the work is still the same I don´t feel sad for what happened, more I feel excited and stoked for this coming week to just destroy this sector and have so many people ready for baptism and just dunk all 22 of them ha-ha could you imagine?? That would be so tight but it´ll happen I am sure of it wooo whooo!!! ha-ha But I am good here in Lanco. It’s been raining a lot still just sun and rain all week, but they say this is how spring is.  The date that spring officially starts is the 21st of September so we just lack a little bit more to get there. But I am just stoked to start working this coming week. Glad to hear back home that Dad also is doing a bit of the Lords great mission work confirming Molly as a member of the church, that’s so tight. But really nothing new here in the sector just seeing the miracles of the Lord here and me and my companion are going to keep just cranking it out and finding the Lord’s chosen children and helping them progress towards their baptism to be able to enter the kingdom of the Lord. Thanks for all the prayers and support you have given me.  Love you all and miss you more!!!

Love. Elder Blotter