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