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