December 14

Hello

Everyone sounds like they are doing well.  It’s weird to think that it’s Christmas, its weirder to think that you guys are cold. It is hot here.  Today we did a zone activity.  The zone leaders talked to the grounds crew of some soccer stadium and they let us have it for a couple hours.  We can’t play soccer here because some missionary had an accident, but we played kickball and some other games.  Like 2nd grade games ha you’d laugh if you knew what we played. We then had sandwiches but they weren’t your normal Chileno style... they were American style and I would like to tell you that never in my life has cheese, ham, mayo, mustard, lettuce, and sliced (yes... sliced bread from a bag) tasted so good. It reminded me a lot of Lake Powell.  Then it reminded me a lot about baseball.  I miss baseball so much.

This week went good... I honestly can’t remember what happened... umm.... some funny things happened but I honestly can’t remember.

On Saturday we did a division with a couple of priesthood holders and I went to Santiago’s house with a 23-year-old returned missionary.  We taught a good lesson.  

We have some great investigators right now that are old in age. That is really weird because usually the old people don’t listen at all, but we have 2 great ones.  One is an absolute miracle because she has tried to go to a lot of churches before but her husband has stopped her and not allowed her but for some reason this time he is letting her go.  He doesn’t know anything about us and doesn’t want anything with us, but he’s supporting her.  We have another old guy that is awesome.  He’s had some weird thoughts and dreams and stuff and he says even when he prays he cant get them out of his head but then we taught him how to pray correctly and the next day he was so pumped.

The bugs are coming more and more... I think the fleas are sneaky cause I honestly haven’t seen any but I think I have been bitten a lot.... key word... think.... maybe I just have allergies ha. Every night we get mosquitoes and this other really small fly bouncing around on the ceiling in our house.  I remember one time in particular when I was trying to get a spider out of the house... I opened the back door. Crucial mistake.  Three more entered in and one did a leaping /flying jumping attack on me.  It was just a little baby sucker.  ha I’m making it sound like I live in the jungle..... Well, I really do have a palm tree in my back yard :)

We are going to have a stake devotional this Sunday.  It should be really good.  The Mission President is going to come with his wife again.  Oh how I love him.  

Oscar and Paulina passed their interviews and will be baptized this week. We have a couple other interviews too, during the week, so I think we'll have some baptisms.

Until next week -

I'm out

December 7

Hello. Hope all is well in the states because all is well here :)

Yesterday we had stake conference. President Chavez and his wife came. I look up to them so much. I love them. They are incredible and just know how things work.  I don’t know if you guys know, but Pres Chavez was in the Seventy before being called to be mission president.

Anywho, in the conference Patricio Alarcon and Victor Rebolledo were sustained elders :) :) Then after the conference we baptized a future Elder :) First, Elder Poma and I were a part of the ordaining of Patricio and Victor. It was very, very sweet. After this we went and changed for the baptism. I baptized Matais. He’s 10 years old. It was funny.... this kid was flailing like a fish when he went down into the water.... he let go of his nose and just started to flail. (ha, ha) Lucky he was a little dude so I could control him easily enough. We just reactivated his mom and sister. His dad doesn’t want anything to do with us, but I pray that Matias will keep progressing in the Gospel until the time he goes on his mission.

It is the most incredible feeling knowing that you’ve changed someone’s life and the generations to come. To this point all of our baptisms are remaining firm. There are 2 that scare me a little bit. But its really, really good that our converts are firm for as long as they have been because usually a lot drop out after 3 weeks after their baptism. We have also reactivated a few people. Officially reactivated only 7 but there are a lot more that are close to being 'officially' reactivated. It is such a blessing to visit those houses. The thing is we haven’t found those people going through the ward list. We found them walking in the street or knocking a door that we felt we should knock.

I’m sad because I don’t think I have much more time here. I think I'll be transferred in 3 weeks. I’d like to do a lot of things for the ward before then to help strengthen the foundation of things, if you know what I mean.

What more?
They play soccer here like we play basketball. At home we get together with all our old friends to play basketball at the church. They get together with all their old friends to play soccer on the basketball court at the church. The court isn’t inside, its outside - out back.

Yesterday we shared with an evangelical pastor. Crazy guy.  I was talking with his wife outside his house and she was saying, “No, no we have our church”... then he opened the door and said, “Come on in!!!” Looking back, it’s like the mouth of Hell opening up and wanting to swallow you. This dude was smart... he knows a lot of things... but he just doesn’t know what he was talking about. We'd try to talk about Christ and he’d talk about Paul... then we’d start to talk about prophets and he’d say, “Don’t talk to me about men... talk to me about God our Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.” Then he’d start to say... “Oh but Paul... Paul was a true apostle of God... he was a real man.” We fought too much with him, but we didn’t fight in a doctrinal way, if you understand me. We didn’t bible bash, but we bashed. It wasn’t the best use of time. Oh and his prayers. I want you guys to understand, I’ve been in a lot of houses. I’ve been a part of a lot of prayers. I’ve been a part of a lot of WEIRD prayers, but when this man prayed it struck fear into the deepest part of my soul. He was yelling and his voice was so powerful.... and before we left I said, “Can we pray before…” and he said, “Yea, but this time standing up"... he was standing up praying (slash) yelling before I even had time to get out of my chair! Like I said... I’ve been a part of a lot of weird evangelical prayers here... but this one was crazy.

So we know for sure that we will have 4 missionaries in this sector next cambio, I just don’t know if I’ll be here or not. The Assistants already brought the stuff for the other companionship. It would make sense that I stay and open the new sector, but I don’t think that I will.

Something else. I haven’t talked about my Spanish for a long time. Honestly, it’s not where I thought it would be. I thought I’d be doing better. The problem is, I never have time to study. I can’t even look up words in the dictionary. I don’t have time. Because of that, I’m losing my English vocabulary... honestly. I have to get the definition of a word from someone speaking Spanish so I understand what it means, but I don’t know or can’t think of the way to say it in English. When I talk... some people still don’t understand everything I say... but I just talk and talk anyway. You’d think that would be good that I talk and talk and talk, but its not. I’m forming bad habits in my speech. My accent is still bad. Please pray a little harder for me :))))

How was the Christmas devotional? They showed it here in the stake center, but at 10 at night, so I wasn’t able to see it. Oscar, Adela and family went though... I think Santiago went too. I’ll have to ask them how it was. I told them they had to go because my family would be watching it at the same time in the USA.

Please tell everyone to send letters.  I love to hear news from home/Utah/USA.
-Elder Pitcher

November 28

Hello Family, Friends and Associates

I would like to start this letter by saying I love life. I love everything about it. I love that fact that I have a headache right now. I love the fact (Nate's cousin) Vince picked up Derek (Danklef. A friend of Nate's when he arrived in the Houston, Texas mission). I love the fact BYU beat Utah. I love that Elder Poma and I had to search for an Internet cafe for an hour and spend 700 extra pesos each to find one. I Love that I'm in Chile. I love that my grandparents are doing well. I love that I've got the coolest friends in the world and I love the American Fork 31st ward... Honestly, I love every member of that ward. EVERYONE. I love that I have the best family in the world. I just love life.

So serving a mission for the Lord is just great. It's amazing to see miracles everyday. Where should I start? I can start a week ago. We were having a family night with a lot of the converts and an investigator (Paulina from Santiago) and we were talking to Adela. She said that Oscar still hadn't left for work, but he was home alone. She also said that he said that if he can give up smoking he was going to get baptized. We left the family night and went and shared with him. We taught him more about the Book of Mormon.... he left the next morning early..... Fast forward to Saturday..... We had an activity in the church, basically a family night, but with anyone from the ward that wanted to come. We had 5 or so investigators attend the activity. As we were walking home with the Hidalgo family (Oscar) we told him that we couldn't go to his house because it was too late. He then said 'well how am I going to prepare to be baptized?' Ha you should have seen him. For the whole night he was like a different man. We passed by their house on Sunday and we were talking with him. He went from smoking 25 cigarettes a day to 3 and he's going to kick them this week. I asked him if he read the chapters in the BofM that we left him. He said no, but said 'but I read Nephi to chapter 20'. Now I ask you faithful members of the church... how many of you read 20 chapters in the Book of Mormon this week? ;) :):):):) We were so happy!! He said his friends at work call him carlosbiblia which is like Bible Charles at his work because they all smoke and drink at lunch and he just sits there and reads his 'bible'. Anywho, he isn't going to get baptized this Sunday... rather he and Paulina are going to get baptized the 20th.
Paulina is awesome too. You should see her study journal she has of the Book of Mormon. Pages and pages...

Yesterday at church we had 10 investigators which is actually a pretty big feat here. I was so anxious trying to help everyone, but it was incredible. Its just a miracle that everything worked. Honestly... Its like Heavenly father just watches us running around... doing our best and right when we don't know what were going to do it's like he smiles and says 'you've tried your best... now let me do it for you' (there's actually a quote from my boy Elder Holland on that).
Oh and I'm very happy to say that we have 3 complete families with a temple date :) Family Rebolledo, Family Alarcon, Family Hidalgo (Oscar)

This Sunday we have stake conference. We should have two baptisms. One kid named Rodrigo who's 21. He lives alone. He's awesome. I love teaching there because its just quite and the spirit is always SO strong. Also a kid named Matias. He is ready to be baptized... he's just scared of water so well see what happens.

This Wednesday we have interviews with the president. I love President Chavez, absolutely love him. I think he is one of the most amazing people in the world. I didn't even know Thursday was Thanksgiving until the President said something while we were in conference. He said "I know today is an important day for the North Americans"... he got us all excited talking about turkey then he said... "we are going to eat the turkey's cousin"... chicken and rice... it's the same thing we eat EVERY TIME ha ha ha.

I love teaching people... especially teaching in the church. I love teaching something in 10 minutes... something short... simple... that will change you, whether you're a member or not. I just love teaching.

Oh, Elder Bravo gave me his rain boots :) I didn't get to see him though.. I sure hope I get to see him before he leaves.

Yes, I have played the guitar here... but I honestly haven't heard many 'Chilean' songs on the guitar. You'd think there would be a style like in Mexico or something, but no. Its all American. Its all Metallica or punk rock or something like that. Once I find someone that plays Chilean, I'll learn it.

I have to tell you about this one thing... it was SOOO funny. Jackelyn Baldevinito. She is a member who's been inactive for some time. She's just this short, fat, sweet lady. She made some pan and gave it too me and I said, "Oh, I love the bread here." She asked if it's different in the USA and I said I don't know, here it's just so heavy and soft and good and she got all excited and said,"I know. That is why there are so many fat Chileans." ha ha ha h ha ha ha. That doesn't even sound funny, but it was hilarious.

Oh Cpitch I've looked for rats in a restaurant today... didn't see any but I think its 'cause of the cat that was prowling around.

I love you all

November 23, 2009

This picture is from a stake activity.

WOW!!! I love love love Grandpa and Grandma. Thank you so much for the photo. I forgot how gringo our family is!!!

Tell Guy we might go fishing next Monday if the President says OK. There is a member who we just recently activated and he goes a lot. He calls them salmon, but I don't know if they are actually salmon or something different because they look silver like salmon but they are the size of a trout. I honestly haven't looked at one up close, but I hope we can go next week.

So the transfers happened on Tuesday, and we had our zone meeting on Wednesday. One of our zone leaders was transferred - Elder Lopez from Mexico. We still have elder Routson as a zone leader. We got a new district leader - he's from Argentina. The sector next to us got a new Chileno and a new gringo. The Chileno is training the gringo. The white kid was in Tanner's district in the MTC. On Friday my papi, Elder Bravo, called me. He was here in Chillan for a meeting of all the zone leaders. He wanted me to come see him but I couldn't. I was so sad. I love Elder Bravo, oh I do. He gave his rain boots and lots of books to Elder Routson so he could give them to me. He gave me his rain boots because he lead me astray when I first got here... he told me to buy certain rain boots. I found out after that they were used... I pulled my foot out one time and it was COVERED in slime. por esto he gave me his boots. He goes home next cambio and so I don't know if I'll even get to see him again. I LOVE him. He also told me that Elder Christenseno is in his zone. Tanner is in Talca. Our mission is made up of two zones... inside and outside. Talca is outside and Chillan is inside. We have our mission conference this Thursday in Concepcion. (the inside zone) however the outside zone has theirs a different day, so I won't see Tanner for a long time I guess... at the very, very minimum, 6 weeks.

Its been very nice, the weather here, for the last couple days. I can't complain at all. Not too hot, not too cold. It has rained a couple times, but the rain just makes me more excited to work. It's easier to go out in the rain than in the heat. The bugs are coming... I don't know if I have fleas or not. Some days I wake up with red dots on me, but I've never seen or felt a flea... so I don't know what it would be. We get a lot of beetle type bugs in our house too and cricket things that run FAST. I haven't seen many rats... only 2 or 3 dead ones in the street in all of my 4 months here.
I still haven't been robbed... I don't know what I'll do if someone tries to rob me... I don't know why, but I can't picture it happening and if it does happen I think I'll ask the person if he's joking. I just don't see it happening, however, the missionaries right next to us were robbed recently.

I've been bad at waking up on time and doing thirty minutes of exercise this week... I don't know why but it's getting harder to get out of bed... not easier... however I'm setting the goal right now to wake up 30 minutes early every morning to get more stuff done... I have to be prepared when I meet Elder Holland... I'm going to look him in the eye and say... My mission meant more to me then your mission... that will happen in about 15 months... mark my words.

I can't remember if I told you last week, but the sister-in-law to Adela came here about 2 weeks ago from Santiago... well we started teaching her and she accepted a baptismal date for the 29th about 2 weeks ago, and we got permission from President to baptize her, but I think she has to leave this Wednesday. It's cool to think that we are going to be a part of a miracle for 2 missionaries in Santiago when they receive a reference of a lady that is ready to be baptized.
We had a family night at Adela and Oscar's house last night. It was great - It was. Oscar actually directed the whole thing, ha. He hasn't smoked in two days and that's actually a huge huge deal. In the church he told me that his eyes were burning because he needed to smoke ha. Adela said its the first time in YEARS that he's arrived home from his week at work without the smell of beer and smoke on him. The spirit is changing them.

November 16th

Santiago and Family

Ok... so...
Elder Poma and I are not transferring. The president wanted 2 more missionaries here and he wanted me to open up the new sector, but maybe that will happen next transfer. Next transfers are December 27th I think.
Santiago. We went to his house and he told us that he doesnt really have the desire to study anymore. He doesnt know... he changes his doubts all the time. His biggest doubt is the spirit world. I cant believe he is willing to lose the opportunity of the gospel in his life because the bible is unclear on the spirit world... for that we need a prophet... guess what... we have a prophet today... plus Joseph Smith was a prophet called by god. He says maybe more in the future... Who knows with him. He hasnt come to church for 2 months, but he came yesterday ha so who knows.
Oscar. The meeting last week with him went well. He commited to come to church and, well, he came yesterday and he stayed for his wife's baptism. He liked it. I asked him how he's doing with the word of wisdom, he said look...I'm going to keep coming to church and if I like the church, I'll work on the word of wisdom... ha ha we need to help him understand a couple things :)
We only taught 3 new inactives this week, but its such a blessing to teach them. Most have a love for the church, and it's such a blessing to listen to their testimonies. The whole ward is making a big effort to visit all of the members that are inactive and so the members are making lots of visits.... but as a missionary they open up to you in a compleity different way... plus we teach pretty decently.
Its awesome to feel the love that people have for you here. Some inactives that are now re-activated had a dinner for us. We aren't suppose to eat dinner at their homes, but when we got to their house and tried to explain that to the mom, she about died and so we ate. I love assigning them to teach me... its so awesome when they get into it and tell us 2 days before the appointment 'I already have my lesson slash thought planned' and I love how they teach like us.... 'Elder pitcher... could you please read this verse... and what does that mean... ' ha I love it.
I love being in Chile. I feel so lucky everyday!
Til next week...

November 9, 2009

So where to start....
Adela... we'll start with Adela. She’s pretty amazing. I have to tell you a little about last week because you never got an email last week. So last week she showed up at church crying because of the things that are going on with her husband. He told her the closer she gets to the church the further she is from him and he basically said me or the church but she chose the church and to make an extremely long story short, she is pushing forward. Her husband, Oscar, is the guy that we taught the good lesson with, but 2 weeks ago something happened when he was working, he works out of town. Adela told us for the whole week he was excited to go to church, but on Friday something happened. So when he came home from work he said, “No, I’m not going blah, blah, blah.” To make matters even tougher for her, when some of Oscars family found out she is going to be baptized they went crazy. One uncle flew in from Argentina to try and stop her and now this next week comes her mother-in-law. But she’s like I don’t care, I’m going through with it. Yesterday for example at church I asked her when we are going to her house or if we should come at all. I asked if her husband had arrived from work and she said no because he called her and asked if she was going to church, when she said yes he said, “Ok, well I’ve been invited to a party and I’m going to go to it because if you and the kids go to church tomorrow I’ll be at home all day alone, so I’m just going to stay here.” When we asked if we should go to her house she was like, “heck yea, come over, I don’t care if my husband listens or not.” That sounds bad, but its not. Its because she honestly knows that if she goes through with her baptism he will follow because he WANTS to change, we’ve decided, but he’s just too scared. Yesterday, for example, we were arriving at her house with Patricio, Marjori, Hans, Philip... in this moment he was arriving from work and he was walking up with his family, but when he saw us he gave his son his bag and went off to an internet salon because he wasn’t going to share with us but its cause he had the smell of Alcohol on him and he was ashamed and all that and so Adela came and met us and she was just as happy as could be (don’t know how) and then we shared in her house with Pato y marjori. Their testimonies are incredible. By the way, yesterday we assigned the talks in church and we had Solage, Marisol, Marjori, and Patricio give talks. They were all incredible... Patricio’s blew me away. But anywho... this is the plan... today at 8 (4 in Utah :)) we are going to show up at Adela’s house with Patricio, Victor, Marjori, Millare, Hans, Darlin, Philip, Vanessa and we are just going to surprise him. Adlea and the kids know we are coming. We aren’t sure what his reaction will be but we think good. Then we’re going to teach a lesson -- and bam... he’ll change. 30 minutes of lesson thirty minutes of talking... 60 minutes to change the eternities. (Where’s Larry King) Pray that it goes well :)

Friday was Elder Poma’s birthday... he turned 25. He’s actually the 2nd oldest in the mission.

I’m doing very well... I’m happy and learning a lot. It is very exciting to be here right now because all of the active members in Chile are working on activating the less-actives. We are honestly changing everything and for the better. We have helped a couple (Juan and Iris) returning to church. De Hecho (in fact), Iris is the sister of Adela and for the longest time we had to do everything separate but now they are supporting each other. Oh, this guy... Hno Poblete. He’s old. He’s been a member of the church for thirty years and has served in the stake presidency. He’s awesome, but for one reason or another he hasn’t been to church in about 2 years. We’ve got him back to church. He reminds me a lot of grandpa. This guy has a grand testimony. Its amazing and sad how many people have been through the temple, and still fall away here. A couple other families we’re re-activating too... we visited have visited 21 in-actives in the last three weeks. Now we are asked to visit 10 in-actives every week; new in-actives that we haven’t visited before. Its not that many because really its not our job... like its not our rebaño... what does rebaño mean... like flock or heard... they aren’t our people, we don’t have authority... wow! I don’t know how to say it in English. I know you probably don’t understand this letter. I’m sorry. My English is bad and my Spanish is bad too. :)

Its amazing to feel the love that these people have... especially for the missionaries. It’s amazing to see what they’ll do for us and how they treat us. Just little things like my companion was cold when we visited Juan and Iris one day and so Iris ran up stairs to get Juan’s suit jacket for him. Since we have to be dressed the same when we walk in the street, she ran back upstairs to get his other suit jacket for me. Then Juan shows up Sunday without a jacket because I have his... lots of little things.

What else... Mom I’m getting pretty doggone good at whipping up fresh guacamole, which is funny because they don’t eat it here. That’s Mexican. Last night I made some and when the district leader called for our numbers and he found out we were eating Mexican, he freaked! Everyone here loves Mexican food.

Until next week-

Elder Pitcher

November 2, 2009

Sorry mom and dad.
I just wrote a long good email for you guys but for some reason it kicked me out of my user name. It is time to leave and work now. sorry.

Just know that I’m alive, happy, and healthy.
Love your son Elder Nathan Pitcher

October 26, 2009

Hello everybody,

Like always, it was another good week. We had a baptism yesterday. Well, first we confirmed Mariana. It is always done in sacrament meeting. I really like confirming people. My first couple times I was nervous, but now that I speak better, I really, really like it. Don’t think I speak perfect. Actually, I don’t speak very well at all, but I am getting better. After church we had another baptism - a kid named Alan. He’s 13 and his mom and sister are members, but he wasn’t. He is part of the family that lives in Pinto. Had quite the fiasco after the baptism. (I just barely realized that’s a Spanish word...fiasco... what do you know... we are always learning) The Bishop surprised everyone and called Alan up right then to be confirmed. Oh the surprises in our lives.
On Saturday there was an activity for the whole stake. We took a mother, son and daughter to it, but it was the primary. Each ward took a country and did a native dance. Last week, the young people...(I forget what they are called in English) like the young men and women, did the same thing. It was very neat. They put a lot of time into it. They all had native dresses and everything and it was very, very well put together. They danced from countries like Peru, Brazil, Spain, Mexico and a couple others. There are 4 wards and 3 branches in our stake. I loved seeing everything that they did. I love the Spanish culture. I will travel to many Spanish countries after my mission... Mexico, Brazil, and Spain will be the first three (I haven’t decided the order yet ;)

Elder Poma contacted this girl on Wednesday. After talking, we found out that she is a member, and her family is too. We went to their house and shared with her family and they are just so awesome, but there was a bad experience some years back. They stopped going to church and now the dad and mom work. They are old and have 5 kids I think. The youngest is 15. They have a 19-year-old boy named Christian. He has basically never been to church because his family has been away from it for 11 years. I have a hope for him that he can serve a mission. He doesn’t have any kids (miracle) so he would be able to. He’s got a long way to go. First he needs to be baptized. ha, ha. I don’t even know if he has the desire, but my hope for him is baptism, and next year, mission. The mom is named Berta. She is awesome too. She continued to go alone even after her husband stopped, but she doesn’t go now. We were crying when we were talking because there is just a special feeling with them. We were sharing with 5 people and a baby and it was a good feeling. They have love in their home and freak I love them. I hope that all goes well. We are going to their house again tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.


Until next week,

Elder Pitcher

Called To Serve. . .

an awesome group of young men