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?

MTC DISTRICT

1st Week in Chile!

Dear Familia, Wow, where do I even begin? How about here...I`M FINALLY IN CHILE!!! I wish that you all could see it here. The people live in such humble circumstances. It sounds like you already know where I am and who my companion is. I am in Chillancito, just outside Concepcion. We live in a very humble home. We have a plug in heater in our bedroom, but the rest of the house is freezing haha. We only have hot water in the shower. which I am very grateful for! However, if you turn the water up too much, all the power in the house shuts off. Its happened to me 3 times so hopefully I get better at it. My companion is Elder Maxfield from Salt Lake. He`s a Utah fan, but we get along fine. He played football, rugby, and ran track and cross country in high school. We're getting a long great! I have been blessed with great companions so far. He`s great at speaking the language and is really a good example. I`m learning a lot everyday tho its frustrating right now because I can`t understand what people are saying! I can pick out words here and there, but Elder Maxfield does most of the talking , cuz I have little idea of what's being said most the time. Chileanos speak so fast too and Elder Maxfield said it took him about 6 months to be able to have a conversation with someone. I really have been praying for patience and help because I just kinda feel useless right now, but I know I´ve only been here a week and that this stage is all part of the mission. Our flight from Dallas to Santiago was about 9 hours. I was actually able to sleep about 6 hours, I woke up about every 20 min, but it was a good sleep for a plane ride. Then our flight to Concepcion was only about 50 min. Before I knew it I was having lunch in the mission home! President Humphrey is awesome! We just got some of our visa forms, took some pictures, had lunch, and were assigned and shipped out to our areas! Elder Maxfield and I did some tracting the night I got here! We're kinda in a refining and reactivating process right now. There were 4 baptisms the weekend before I got here, so we're trying to find more people to teach and there's a lot of inactive that we're trying to get to church. We have a few investigators right now that are pretty strong and one said they want to be baptized so hopefully we`ll set a date soon. The people are really friendly here and will actually at least talk to us before they reject us. So we haven´t had any doors slammed in our face yet. We have lunch with a member everyday which is awesome! Here in Chile, they have a huge lunch and small dinner. So its kinda hard to finish everything the members give me for lunch, but so far I´ve been able to finish everything! I really have a bad feeling that I won´t lose weight with all this food they give me! But I know all the walking we do helps haha. There's a hill right in the middle of our sector and to get to the top we take a staircase with 201 stairs! By the time we get to the top I`m pretty much dead! So my legs are definitely getting a work out. Apparently there was a 6.5 earthquake the 2nd night I was here. Elder Maxfield woke up and said things were shaking, but I slept right through it! I´m so tired at nights now (cuz I´m working so hard) I´m usually asleep within a few minutes. Church was great! One of our investigators came to church and we confirmed one of the baptisms from the weekend before I got here. I was asked to introduce myself in sacrament meeting too and actually wasn't nervous, But I probably sounded like such a gringo cuz I speak so slow compared to the Chilean people! Oh well..and I really couldn´t understand what the talks were about, but I was still able to feel the spirit which is what counts! We´ve already been asked to give many blessings too, so I´m becoming quite good at anointing people with oil. I still don´t have the vocabulary to give a blessing tho! I still haven´t figured out where to print out pictures, so hopefully I find a place soon. We went into the city this morning to take care of visa stuff, so next week maybe we´ll go back and look for a place to print out pictures so I can send. It sounds like you got the mailing address for letters. The one I believe it is... Mission Chile Concepcion O´Higgins 940, Oficina 502 Concepcion Chile Hopefully that's the same one you were given. Please change that on my facebook page also. And here's what I´ve heard about mail. . Dear Elders are printed out every week too, so if we make a trip to the mission office, I believe I will get those every week as well. And hand written letters in envelopes take 2 weeks to get here. As far as packages, I sent 3 boxes home as well as my sleeping bag via Cash on Demand. Let me know if you get everything! I hope everyone is doing well! Its so great to finally be out here in the field. The 18th of September is Independence day for Chile, and this year is their 200th year of celebrating Independence, so there's a lot of fiestas and partying going on. The ward is having a talent show, and me and Elder Maxfield have to come up with something to do! Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well and I hope Clay gets better. I´d love to hear from anyone be it email or DearElders, or even letters too! Although it may take about a month to get a response from me that way because letters take 2 weeks to get here. Glad to hear that Peach Days was fun for everyone! That's a real bummer that BYU lost to Air Force! That's like the first time in forever! They should have all the kinks figured out in 2 years when I get back. I love you all! Have a great week!!! Elder Mortensen