King and I: Final Cast Party

Seth Mortensen will bring chips

201 Stairs to Climb!

City of Chillancito

First Companion in Chile

Greetings! I had quite the week this week. Yesterday was ward conference. They actually changed the bishopric, so we have new leadership in the ward. The new bishopric is so awesome too! Like 3 of my favorite hermanos in the ward. And they finally called a ward mission leader who is also such a cool guy and we are excited to start working with him! He used to play basketball for the Chilean national team and he´s about 6´8´´ so its hard to miss him haha. Anyway, we are excited to start working with the new bishopric! I am so excited for general conference this weekend too! We´ll get to watch it in English and I´m super excited! As for the rest of last week, it is now official...I have fleas in my bed! Haha but we have some spray stuff and will soon be spraying down the beds so all should be well soon. I´ve woken up with bites mostly around my ankles and on my legs, but nothing too bad, so mom please do not worry! We did an exchange with the zone leaders on Wednesday. I went to Andalien with Elder Dye. He´s from Oregon and is a pretty cool guy. He has about 3 months left i think, so It was good to see how the missionaries with a lot of experiences do things. While in Andalien we gave 2 blessings. I anointed the oil both times, and said the anointing memorized finally! Before I had to use the Spanish cheat sheet, but I finally can do it without it! I was pretty proud of myself haha. Anyway I spent the night in Andalien and then returned to Chillancito the next morning. The other zone leader that was here with Elder Maxfield interviewed one of our investigators for baptism. Her name is Korina. She passed the interview, but still won´t accept a date because she still feels she´s not ready. So we're trying not to push her, and trying to be patient. We also met with the two sisters that we are teaching this week. Angela and Evelyn. They are both students at the University of Concepcion. Angela came to church on Sunday, and Evelyn apparently was going to come too, but had a friend show up Sunday morning and the friend didn´t want to come to church so she didn´t come. Anglea is so golden. We were able to do some service this week too. We helped a recent convert put up some new walls in his house, and helped out with the primary activity on Saturday as well. We´ve really been trying to help with the ward, and we are already seeing good effects. The ward already is more unified and I think we are winning their trust. Elder Maxfield said he can already tell a difference between now and about a month ago, so that is good. Friday was zone conference. All the missionaries that are considered the "inside" of the mission met together. I saw a few of the missionaries I arrived with so that was cool. We heard from the AP´s, the President and his wife, and the missionaries leaving as well as us new missionaries bore our testimonies. We sounded so bad compared to the ones leaving, but I know by that time, I´ll have the language down solid. Anyway, I bore my testimony and really felt the spirit from the other testimonies that were shared. Saturday we had a ward social/get together thing. Then we were supposed to have a talent show, but besides us and the relief society, nobody prepared anything. The relief society presidency did a skit about loving your neighbor, then I drummed on a table and then Elder Maxfield and I sang Ye Elders of Israel and Lead Kindly Light. We're not the best singers, but we did alright. A lot of the young men wanted to use my drumsticks after so I let them. Thanks again for sending me those! Anyway, that was pretty much my week! I did get a little frustrated this week cuz I still can´t communicate, but the President said some comforting things in zone conference and I know I just need to be patient. During our exchange, Elder Dye said he can´t pinpoint a date that he could communicate, but that it just all came over time. So I´m praying for patience and the Gift of tongues and just studying and working hard. Have a great week! Elder Mortensen

LAUNDRY ANYONE?