December 13, 2010

Hey Everyone!

I had a really good week this last week with my companion Elder Scott here in Concepcion in the sector Lorenzo Arenas. This week we had conference and we had a trip to Chillan yesterday. The conference was really good and president talked to us a lot about the things that we need to do to not be wasting the Lord's time. For example, after lunch share a scripture or spiritual thought with the family, planning more effectively so that we aren't walking so much between lessons and working on the language or getting to know our companions better in the street between lessons. My companion and I could definitely do better in a couple areas and we are going to work a lot harder this week. We also talked about Christmas and it felt really nice to hear a message from President and the Assistants about the purpose of Christmas. I am excited to be here in Chile for Christmas. Obviously it isn't going to be the most exciting of all Christmas' for me but it will definitely be one of the most rewarding, knowing that I am out here serving the Lord and sacrificing and I am also really excited to CALL HOME! All of the Christmas stuff is good and the conference with President was amazing bu the best thing of all was the trip to Chillan. I think I mentioned last week that I was going to go back to Chillan this week to baptize. Well if I didn't mention it...now you know haha. We got to Chillan at 3 and visited a family that lives close to the church, it was good to see them and they were excited to see me. It turns out the Elder Gil didn't tell anyone that I was coming so everyone I saw was surprised and I loved it because I got to see like 8 families before the baptismal service. When the baptismal service came I wasn't really nervous I was just kind of worried I would forget her name because her name is Malivna Paola Jeldres Sepulveda, I don't know what it is about her name but it was hard for me. Also this lady weighs about 300 lbs I think and I haven't been doing too hot with my exercises in the morning so I was praying that I would have the strength to baptize her. The baptism went really well and Elder Gil baptized the daughter after me. They are going to baptize 2 or 3 more of our investigators from my older sector this week but I won't be able to go. The trip to Chillan was really good and I got to visit a few of my favorite families. One of the young men from Volcanes (my old ward) got called to serve in the Riverside, California Mission, Spanish speaking ! I was so excited to hear from him and I am hoping I will have a chance to "bump into him" in California when I come back.

Let's see...you asked a little about the people here in Concepcion, they are not very humble from the ones that I have met and they don't want to listen to us. The people here in Chile are like 50 times more religious than back in the states and I actually had an incident with a Jehovah Witness this week that tried to bash on Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon for no reason with out any knowledge butttt lets just say I testified pretty strong to her and called her to repentance haha and invited her to pray about it (and I did it in Spanish!!!!). I have learned that bashing with other religions is not what we are here to do and it never helps...just testify and move on to someone who wants to listen to you. The food here isn't as good as it was in Chillan but there is way more places to eat at in Central, so we usually can find something good to eat. Well thats enough for this week but I hope that you guys have a good week and stay safe. I was sorry to hear about Great Gpa but he is in a better place and I have no doubts that he is more happy where he is.

Yours Truly,

Elder Cody Dastrup