Elder Blotter's News From Chile - Week of April 26th

Hola Familia!
How is everyone??? I was happy to get emails from Amy and Brittany this week to see how they are doing along with Mom and Dad. Glad to hear the family is well and everyone is happy. Life here in Chile is starting to turn cold! Way way cold, with rain just about every day and a lot of cloud cover. My companion says that this is how its going to be for the next 6 months, holy cow!! Well, I´m prepared for it because I got a ton of winter gear to keep warm, so I think I'll be ok. Its just the mornings that are going to be hard because the whole house is always way way cold in the mornings! We are still having pretty good success here in our sector with our progressing investigators and also getting a couple of less active members to come to church, that was way awesome to see them there!! We did a 3 way 24 hour companion exchange this past Friday to Saturday and I stayed in my sector and had Elder Campozano as my companion again, but I led my sector! It was a bit hard because I answered our cell phone that we have to keep in contact with all the other sectors that my companion is head of because he´s District Leader and it was all Spanish!! But I did good and that day with Elder Campozano and it went well also. We talked to a lot of people and a couple of people as possible investigators. We taught almost the whole first lesson on a door step to a man, it was way awesome! But we didn´t set up a return time to come back and teach, so me and my companion will have to go by and see if we can talk to him again. My Spanish is getting a whole lot better and I´m doing better with my door approaches and street contacts. Actually with Elder Campozano he was on the phone talking to the other Zone Leader for a second and there was a man walking towards us and I had this prompting that I needed to talk to him so I did it all by myself! I was way proud of myself!! But, we only gave him a little pass along card, but at least we were reaching out to him.  I was happy about that. Also this week, me and my companion went to a members home who is older and she needed our service of cutting down some trees and that was way way fun! Just using an axe and cutting up some wood and watching the trees fall haha!! Me and my companion Elder Simons also did something way awesome on our fire place that we have in our home.  It has a pan looking type top of it to it so I thought of the idea of cooking food on top of it because it gets way hot And we did it haha, it was way way good.  We made burgers and eggs and sliced up hot dogs holy cow!! So freaking good I am becoming a chef out here guys!! haha We also had some fun at a members home one night after we read scriptures with them and talked with them about how we can be more obedient to the lord. We made some grills out of gum wrapper and put them on our teeth like the gangsters have, it was way funny haha! Not much else really happened this week besides what I´ve told you all but I have really felt the spirit very strongly and I love it so much!  I know that through my obedience to the Lord and to myself I will feel this feeling always. I love you all and miss you all very much! I pray for you all everyday for your safety and that the Lord will bless you all for my service to him and that he will help you all in your everyday lives with what ever you are needing help with that day. Again, I miss you all and hope you enjoy this weeks pictures!!
Love, Elder Blotter

Elder Blotter latest pictures include; cooking eggs on the wood burning stove top ( he was quite proud of his cooking prowess this week), another scenic Chilean sunset ( he likes sunsets), he and his companion chopped some wood this week for a elderly member who needed some trees down, testing out all his winter gear for the impending cold weather ( Chile is in Fall right now and headed to Winter), and finally he and his comp showing off their silvery whites (apparently a gangster look in Chile), what a bunch of goofs!

Elder Blotter's Report - 4/19/2010

Hola Familia!
Well this week has been a rainy one, almost raining everyday! The work is still going forth here in my sector just teaching a lot of people and talking with a lot of people also. I guess I will put in some more things about Chile that I have been reminded of during the week. There is a beer here that is called crystal and its sad cause it is dirt cheap. A bottle of this stuff is cheaper than a tube of toothpaste, so it is very popular here. So that's a struggle with people here in giving up that type of stuff that is so cheap and very easy to get here because it just lines the grocery stores. Also, wine here does not come in bottles much, it is all in boxes! All drinks basically come in boxes! It is way funny because when we go buy milk we buy a box of milk! Ha-ha! I’ve had some way good foods lately cooked by my mamita! I’m trying to get down the recipes and everything and make them for yall when I get home maybe! People here drive insanely fast! Like it doesn’t matter what you drive like sometimes when we get on buses to go to other ward building for zone conference they are just hauling it! Taxis here are the same way and just everybody even the trucks that come in from the mountains hauling huge amounts of wood just zooming! Cops do not do anything about it here, it’s weird and crazy but I guess that’s just life here in a different country. This past week I rode in a double decker bus to go from Futronos district to Valdivia and that was way cool! You're so high in those things because normal passengers are up top above the driver and then the more expensive seats are below you which turn into beds which is way cool and those all mostly drive to Santiago and back and that's what my companion will be taking with his district at the end of his mission and I will too possibly which will be way cool! I was supposed to give a talk this week in Church but they didn’t need me this week only my companion but I am speaking next week for the first time in Chile! Crazy stuff that is to me! There has been a lot of success in our zone with baptisms! That’s an amazing thing to see so many people coming unto the church and wanting to come back to him and feel his love and blessings even more in there lives. There is not much else to report here besides that I love you all and hope all is well with you guys in your next week! I miss you all and pray for y'all every night! Can’t wait to hear how y'all are doing next week!

Elder Blotter Photos - 4/19

Here are some pictures from this week! I saw a rainbow after a huge rain yesterday on sunday which was way cool cause it came out so clear! Also took some really sweet pictures of the sunset yesterday over a part of our sector and some clouds so heres more pictures of my sector enjoy!!

Here are some pictures from this past week.  Me next to an odd cactus tree  The next picture is Elder Simon's in our apartment studying by the wood burning stove.  Then me and Elder Simons visiting and teaching some of our investigators who are the two boys; Alfredo and Felipe and their Uncle was there and the little girl's name is Cadi.  She is their little sister, she is soo funny and a cutie.  Reminds me of Rugar (Rob's nephew) all the time haha!! Some of me and Elder Campozano (Rob's Zone Leader) from the zone leaders 24 hour split.  Enjoy!!

Elder Blotter's News From Chile - Week of April 12th

Hola Familia!! I’m happy to hear everything at home is going amazing!! My week here in Chile has been pretty busy. On Tuesday I did a 24-hour split with one of the zone leaders and the other zone leader stayed with my companion so I went to a different sector for a day. It was a weird experience cause the people were slightly different in the zone leaders sector but nonetheless it was a great experience. I stayed with Elder Campozano at their house. He is such an inspiration to me and it’s sad that he is almost done with his mission cause I would love to spend more time working with him but I guess that will be how it is with a lot of missionaries that I come across in my mission time of 2 years. I really feel like I was put in my sector for a reason for certain people but in the Zone leaders sector we came across people that needed our small message. We taught an investigator family at the end of the night and it was SOOO amazing!! My companion taught the first part and I tried to listen to everything he said and all and we read from the scriptures and then he looked at me and I froze for a second cause he was like bare your testimony...It took me a second because I tried to process what he had talked but then I felt the spirit come to me and it just came!! The spirit was sooo strong inside me after that and afterwards my companion was so happy with me cause he said he felt the spirit so strongly from me when I bore my testimony and he said they could feel it too and they thanked me for it. I love that feeling in lessons cause it’s the full spirit of the Lord testifying that these things are true. The rest of the week has been pretty awesome just days full of lessons of teaching investigators and less actives and trying to make them strong and help them create there own testimonies. The work is going strong with my companion and me and we're not going to stop! I feel like I’m getting a little sick and I hope I’m not getting sick cause that would be way way bad! Church this week was good as always and we had lunch with the ward mission leader and he is such a great man and really has the spirit with him. OH!! I’ve had some pretty interesting foods lately! It’s nothing like weird but Completos are Hot Dogs here but they eat them with homemade guacamole and cut up tomatoes and then mayonnaise they put on just about everything!! French fries here are sooooo good!! Like the potato is different than from home. I also had Spaghetti with hot dogs on top with out the bun!! Weird but really good!!  But yea that’s an up date on food I’ve had that’s been different! Um my eye has never totally healed I noticed that in my eye but I guess it will never totally heal. We’ve had our first of rain showers these past few days and you can tell if its going to be a nice day or not by if its cold at night then its going to be a nice day with sun but if we wake up to a warm morning that means its going to rain later that day or the following day and the rain here pounds down hard at times its crazy!! But way awesome cause it keeps it here beautiful. I don’t know what else to say but that I love you all and miss you all so much!! I will keep pushing along and moving the work of the lord forth unto the people the lord has prepared for us. I love you all!!

Futrano Chile

Elder Blotter sent this beautiful picture of the countryside in an area called Futrano.  He and his companion went there to help the  missionaries there with a baptismal interview for a new Church member. It looks like a gorgeous area.  You would think it was in Utah or somewhere out West.