December 27, 2010

Long time no talk! Oh wait, I can actually say long time no SEE this time! It was realy good to see and talk to you all the other day! I have to admit that when President Swenson told us the other day in the conference that we could use webcam I kind of argued with myself as to whether or not I was going to use it or not (afraid that it would make me trunky). But I'm glad I did because it didn't make me trunky at all - it was just nice to be able to see you all. Better than a normal phone call if you ask me! With just a phone I can play around with the camera or anything, hehe. I hope you enjoyed how I started the conversation haha. Good times.

Well, let's see if there's anything to write about - it's always hard to write the Monday after a phone call because we already talked about everything. I guess I could share the interesting experience we had Saturday night:

Alright, so after the phone call I went down to the ward's (Lican Ray) Christmas party. There I was happy to see that my convert Veronica was in charge of all the food and stuff - she's such a strong member! It was also good to see all the members and old friends and stuff :) The bishop and his family had an interesting number - they did a mini play of the decapatation of John the Baptist....I'm still looking for the Christmas message in that one...haha. Anyway, so my companion and I were supposed to meet back up at 6:30. I called at 6:20 and he still hadn't been able to connect with his family. So I waited and waited until about 8 and called again - still hadn't been able to get through. I guess the situation isn't so easy connecting with Nicaragua. So we decided that he would do his call another day and decided to meet up in the center. A member from Lican Ray drove me to the rally point, and when we got there the elders my companion was with called and said they didn't have any money so they sent my companion ALONE on a bus that was going to pass by where we were. I was like...retards, you're not supposed to do that, but ok. So I sat waiting for my companion, but he never got there, haha. Then the elders he was with called and said that they had sent him on a bus that went to a DIFFERENT part of town. I was like DANGIT!! So we jumped into the van and zoomed over there. I stopped the only bus that passed by, and the driver said that a missionary had gotten on but had gotten off in the center...where we had just come from. DANGIT!!! Again we jumped into the van and went back to the rally point. My companion was not to be seen. Then the member's parents call and say they need to be driven back home because the activity was over. We get in the van, pass through the center looking for my companion, and then decide to go back to the church and send me out with a different brother from the church so he can take his family home. I was pretty frustrated at this point - stinkin' elders! Haha. Anyway, so we're driving down the road and we pass in front of the stake center...my companion wasn't there. But he was down the street a little further looking really dismayed - any missionary who is forced to be alone would feel the same! So we pulled over, I jumped out and then everything was ok. Turns out that I should have just stayed in the spot where I was at first and everything would have been ok, but the elder who called me gave me bad instructions that made us go to a different part. My companion did get to where I should have been, but when we had already left. And then when he realized that he ran over to where we had gone because he knew the bus went over there too. When he got there we had already gone back to where we were at first, haha. So he started to walk back over there hoping that we'd see him at some point. And we did. So it was pretty chaotic for about half an hour but everything turned out alright.

Hmmmm, what else. Well, this weekend we should be having another baptism if everything goes well. His name is Michael Espinoza. He's a reference from a member - turns out a few months ago he started wanting to get closer to God and start a new life, and his uncle (who is a RM) gave him a copy of Gospel Principles which he began to read. Then his uncle brought him to church where he met us, and then he put a baptismal date for himself! He's a great guy and will be a great missionary some day.

Well, I don't really have anything else for this week. Just that story and the cool experience with Michael. We already talked about everything else on Saturday. I'll look forward to hearing from you all this coming week! Love and miss you all tons! Enjoy that snow and cold up there - it's hot and summertimepoohead here! But that's ok - I enjoy summer :) Chao!

His name is...er...was Bob

Bob had a foot transplant

Elder Santa

Santa Pyramid

Love,

Trevor

December 20, 2010

**Note from Trevor's mom: I have to explain (maybe I shouldn't) about the picture "Giant Indio Picaro" ... maybe not. Oh well, he sent us this doll thing like the figure on the left. You pull it up, and out pops... well, enough explanation. Sorry!

Heeeyyyyyooo!

Well, first of all I'll just have to say that I'm a floooooof brain - I forgot to bring the information about the phone call, but I will be able to call you and tell you all of that, or go to a computer and send you all the information. This is what I have planned as of right now - on the 24th I will be at Mario and Jimena's house, so there won't be a way to get the call done then. On the 25th I have planned to go visit people from Lican Ray, so you can probably call me at the Millahual's house. If you don't still have that number let me know and I can get it to you. I'll probably send it to you anyway. But yeah, the call will be on Saturday, the 25th. So plan on that. I'll call and give you all the specifics before then. So buy the card and all that stuff.

This last weekend we had a baptism! Woooo! Her name is Sofía Plaza. The cool thing about her baptismal service is that her inactive mother came! And her father who isn't a member took an hour off work (he drives a taxi) to come see her get baptized. Her grandmother that we reactivated about a month and a half ago also came. So that was a good experience. This ward is really strong and has a great young women program so she'll be well taken care of.

Anything to get to a baptism! Even rob a wheelchair from a cripple!! (we borrowed it)

So on Saturday I re-experienced something that hadn't happened to me since I was in the MTC. I rolled my ankle! I REALLY rolled it, haha. On Saturday mornings we play soccer at the church with members and investigators. So the ball went up into the air and I jumped to intercept it, and one of the players from the other team backed me and threw off my ballance. I came down really hard on my right foot, which wasn't lined up right to land correctly, so I rolled my ankle. It hurt A LOT and I couldn't walk for the rest of that day. So I stayed with a member while Elder Neira ''worked'' with Elder Lusk (I put quotation marks because I found out later that night that they didn't do ANYTHING - GRR!!). Elder Lusk's companion, Elder Laurito, went back to his old sector for the day because there was a baptism there that he was going to participate in. Anyway, so yesterday was a miracle - my foot was better enough to walk on it! So I was able to work for the rest of the day. After church we went to lunch at Mario and Jimena's house (they made some really good mashed potatos with some pork and yummmmmy ribs and stuff like that). Right when we were about to leave Mario told Elder Neira to go cut his grass, haha. We always offer to help them with something but they never have anything for us to do. So anyway, we go out back to start cutting the grass - lawn mowers are very rare here, so we started doing it with a giant pair of garden scissors. I went back inside to look for some more tools and guess what I found....A MACHETE!! Hehe, first time in my life that I had cut grass with a machete. Maybe I'll show you all how to do it when I get gack. Since doing it one time makes you a professional and all. Funny, that's the second time I've found a machete this week - I did an intercambio with Elder Hall and his companion Elder Adams and they had a machete at their house in Nueva Imperial, haha. Fun stuff.

Hanging with Mario, Jimena, and Graciela

Practicing my machete skills in Nueva Imperial

Well, we got cambios here in Maquehue! I'll be staying with an Elder Sanchez from Nicaragua and Elder Neira will be heading out to the zone of Coronel in the sector of Lota. That's in the north of the mission. President Swenson called me last night and told me that Elder Sanchez is obedient and a hard worker so we should be doing lots of great things here this cambio. From what I've heard Elder Sanchez is a great guy so I'm looking forward to working with him. I know him by sight, but not personally.

Things are going really well down here in CHEEEEELAAAYYYYYYY! I'm loving every second of the work. The missionaries in the zone are really excited to be working and as far as I've seen they trust in us as their zone leaders. We've got two new district leaders this cambio so we'll be helping them out a lot. And there will be two greenies getting here tomorrow. So we'll have to pull some fun jokes on them, haha.

Kamalu and me making pancakes on our 17-month day

Well, I'm just about out of things to say for the week. I'll have to start doing what I did at the beginning of my mission again - write down during the week what I want to say on Monday so that I don't have mind-blanks here and there. But anyway, that's something I can do all by myself, I'm a big boy haha. I hope you all have a GREAT Christmas. I'll do the same down here :) I'm looking forward to next year when I can celebrate it with all of you! But I'll make this last mission Christmas the best one ever. Oh! I haven't recieved the box just yet, but we have a conference here in Temuco on Thursday - I imagine it will be here by then. So hopefully I'll have it! I bought some stuff for you all today so I'll try to get that sent off soon. I love and miss you all very much! Merry Christmas! Or rather, Feliz Navidad! Or if you like, The Police Stole My Car!

Santa!!!

Giant Indio Picaro

Love,
Trevor

November 29, 2010

Guess what?! Thanksgiving happened for us in Chile this year! Boom baby! It just so happens that a lunch we had arranged with a member who makes giant cooking ovens fell on the same day as thanksgiving! So we had tons of Chilean meet, some yummy rice, and some other Chilean salads and goodies. Topped off with some ice cream, of course. So I hope you enjoyed the food you were going to eat for me, because I also got me some grub :) Haha.

I'm in Los Angeles! Yup, they transfered me again. Haha, just kidding. We had a meeting with President Swenson (consejo) and this time all the district leaders were invited as well, so we met up in the middle of the mission, which just happens to be LA. I don't think I'll be able to go visit any friends or converts or anything, but I thought you might like to know my travel adventures. We had to wake up at 4:30 this morning (which actually ended up being 5:30 because I fell asleep again after turning off the alarm, hehe) to catch a bus at 6:30 from Temuco to Los Angeles. We got here at about 9:30 and we'll be headed back there pretty soon.

Let's see...what happened this week that was interesting...

1. One of the nights this week we were at Mario and Jimena's house (amazing investigators), and I was playing around with their little daughter Graciela, and Mario was trying to get my attention. After saying my name a few times with no response (I didn't hear him - you know me, hehe) he said, ''¡ey! ¡Gringuito tonto! ¡Escúchame!'' hahahahaha. That basically means, ''Hey! Stupid white guy! Listen to me!'' Everyone got a pretty good laugh at that.

2. Yesterday we went out to work with one of the ward missionaries named Cristina. And of course she decided to wear boots that made her walk REALLY slow, so I transformed into an ox and made her hold onto my back pack and then we walked missionary pace, hahaha. She was pretty much like a waving flag behind us, but she kept up - totally worth it!

So I'm going to get together a Christmas box to send to you all - not exactly sure when I'll send it out, but it'll get there. Any special requests? Let me know by next week!

Here's a cool scripture for the week:

Jeremiah 20:7-9

It talks about how he was about to give up because of all the bad things that were happening to him and the lack of success that he was having, but there was something burning in his bones that kept him from giving up. In our lives there were are many, many trials and many opportunities for us to just throw the towel in. However, if we understand the love our Heavenly Father has for us and the potential He has given us, we can have the strength to press forward and endure. This scripture gives me a lot of motivation as a missionary and as a son of God.

Well, that should be it for this week. I'll see if I have any pictures to send to y'all. I love and miss you all very much! Be good!

Love,

Trevor

November 15, 2010

You're telling me that time just keeps charging ahead - today I completed 16 months in the mission! And it's almost Christmas again - that's just crazy. My last one of the mission...:( I don't suppose God would let slow time down if I asked him?

Wow, when was Spencer supposed to be home? President Swenson only lets missionaries extend their missions one month maximum if they want to do it. And he doesn't let sister missionaries do it at all I don't think. I don't think President Swenson would let me extend my mission because it would mess with my study schedule...I think. That would mean I would get back August 19thish...hmmmm, maybe it wouldn't mess with the schedule. But then again that would mean I would get back and then basically the next day I'd have to get up to Logan to start school, haha. Oh yeah, that reminds me, when am I supposed to register for classes? It would be good to know that and then find the papers that I left with you so you can help me out with that (get me into the classes I need, etc.)

Let's see if I can remember a few things from this week:

1. The other day Elder Neira and I were knocking some apartment buildings up, and on the way out we found out that the gate was locked and we couldn't get out. So I went back to knock a few doors to get someone to come open it for us. Nobody answered until about the 5th door, haha. So an older man came out and opened the door, Elder Neira went out, and I assumed that the gate would just stay open, so I started to walk out as well. Little did I know that the gate was spring-set or however you say that, and it swung and smacked me in the side of the head, haha. I thought Elder Neira had just pulled a prank on me, but I really just walked into a closing door. I am so smart, s-m-r-t!

2. The other day we were doing an interchange with the elders in the town of Carahue (I went there with an Elder Gomez and Elder Neira went back to Maquehue with an Elder Quispe) and there was this old man that yelled ''LIAR!'' to me. I walked over to him and asked him why he had called me a liar. He looked kind of like professor Trelawnmower from Harry Potter - the lenses from his glasses were taped to the frames, one of them upside down, haha. He said that the other day I had given him a card and told him that I would pass by, but while talking he realized it wasn't me, said sorry and then just scuttled off, haha. Funny old people.

So there are now six missionaries in the ward here. An Elder Whitehead from Canada is training a greenie named Elder Lusk (from Utah, I believe. There aren't too many missionaries from there). An Hermana Pielago who is training an Hermana Noxon from Orem. It's fun to watch them both because they hardly understand anything and they always look at me or at Elder Whitehead with a look of ''Help me!'' on their faces, haha. I imagine that's something like what I looked like when I got here.

I'm starting to feel like an old guy out here. There aren't too many missionaries that have more time than I do. I remember back in the MTC when you got to about the 7-week mark the new guys started to be like ''woooooah, he's so old! He'll be leaving soon!'' It's kind of like that when you get out here but it obviously takes more time to get old. Anyway, I may be an older guy, but I've still got all the energy in the world. I love being a missionary - so maybe I'll give President Monson a call and tell him to give me another 2 years, haha. Nah, is a joke. Birdy num num.

Well, that's just about all the time I've got this week. I didn't take too many pictures this week - just one of a dead dog without a head that we found last night while we were working with one of the young-women from the ward, haha. She loved that. But I don't think you would enjoy that picture too much, so I'll just keep that for the after-mission slideshow. I love and miss you very much!

Love,

Trevor

November 8, 2010

Howdy y'all!

Yeah, it is pretty crazy how fast this year is going by. One of the missionaries today actually called me ancient, haha. He was a greenie that just got here two days ago and asked me how much time I had on the mission - 16 months! Pretty crazy stuff, huh? I guess I am one of the older fogies now. Not an old fogie, just an older fogie.

Well, I have been transfered from Los Angeles. Because of some mission-president conference in Santiago that President Swenson has this coming week the new missionaries from the MTC were sent this last weekend and we had cambios on Saturday. I was pretty sure I was going to stay, but President called me on Thursday morning and told me that I'd be going back down south to be a zone leader with an Elder Neira (from Santiago) in the zone of Temuco Cautin. That's right, I'm back in Temuco! Haha. Well, the sector I'm in now, Maquehue 1, is actually in a branch of Temuco called Padre Las Casas. At the moment there are six missionaries in the ward here, two of which are sister missionaries. And now I know why - this sector is HUGE. I'm really enjoying it so far - I've always loved Temuco. Hopefully I'll get to go back and visit some people from Lican Ray soon. Temuco Cautin is quite a change from Los Angeles South, though. LAS is a zone of 6 companionships (12 missionaries) and TC is a zone of 11 companionships (22 missionaries). So there's a lot more work to be done, but I'm really looking forward to it. Elder Hall, my son, is actually in my zone - so I'm pretty excited about that. Elder Laurito is also in the zone, so this is going to be a fun cambio. So far Elder Neira and I get along really well - I've never really had serious companion problems. Call that a blessing, haha.

Cool experience from the other day:

It was a rainy day when I got here on Saturday, so of course that made working so much more fun. At one point we were knocking doors on a street, and this especially nice grandma came out and said she wanted nothing to do with us and slammed the door. Sweet old people, haha. So we walked to the next house, and we turned around to see a young man open up the window to the second floor of the house that we had just knocked. He told us that he was studying at that moment but wanted us to come back during the week to visit him. We set up an appointment for Tuesday, but also said that we'd love him to come to church with us the next day. And he came! His name is Ariel, he's 19 and is studying social work here in Temuco. He loved church and is excited to share with us and attend the salsa and marengue classes that are given in the church every Saturday evening. Welcome to Temuco, Elder Vincent, haha.

Oh yeah, something interesting I found in my studies this last week. I don't have my bible right by me, but I believe it's at the end of the 2nd or 3rd chapter in 1 Samuel. So there's a war, right? And the priest Eli's two sons both die. The messenger comes to tell him, and then what happens? This is the image I had in my head when I read the verses: The fat old priest (it says that he was heavy) Eli was leaning back in his chair, heard the bad news, fell over and cracked his head and died. Then his daughter-in-law comes in the room, sees him and hears about her dead husband and then just plops out a baby. Hahaha, it made me chuckle reading that. Read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Hehe.

Alrighty, my time has gotten pretty short. I'm going to try to get some pictures attached - this computer is really slow. Oh yeah! I thought of something else I would like for Christmas! Ghardetto mix! I haven't had that in a LONG time. Hermana Barillas (one of the sister missionaries) also asked that you throw a small bag in for her, haha. Well, that should be it for this week. I love and miss you very much!

Halloween party - I was Elder Heiser

Mis tres viejitas de Los Angeles

Saying goodbye to Elizabeth

Zona Los Angeles Sur

Love,
Trevor

November 1, 2010

Hola mamá!

Hope you all had a great Halloween! I spent mine on a bus up to Concepción because we had consejo with President Swenson today. Last night we stayed in Boca Sur with Elder Hall (my son) and his companion Elder Martinez. Some little kids came and knocked the door and said that they would egg our door if we didn't give them some treats (they actually do the tricks here, haha) so we made Elder Hall hand over some of the snickers that his family had sent him. All for a good cause, of course. Nobody wants to get a little boy with rats crawling out of his eyeballs (the mask he was wearing) mad. No sir.

Alrighty, so I've got the wierdest experience of all to tell you this week. So a few days ago we were in the house of one our investigators named Luis - we we're talking about the importance of knowing if the Book of Mormon is true or not, when a pastoress showed up from one of the evangelical churches his mom apparently goes to (Luis is 29). They told Luis to come into the other room for a minute, and he said that he couldn't because he was with us. But they insisted and said that they were going to share a scripture. He asked us if we wanted to acompany him, and we said sure, why not. What could a scripture from the Bible hurt, right? So we go into the next room, and the husband of the pastoress opens the Bible to some scripture in Romans and then starts going on about how there are no righteous people on the earth and that we are all useless. Then he ran out of things to say but didn't stop talking, if that makes sense. So he filled the gap with some phrases like ''God loves you, he helps you, come to God, he is love, glory to Him'' and then he picked up his train of thought again but it was on a completely different set of tracks, haha. In other words, the sermon was pretty incoherent and really didn't...edify would be the word I guess. So he went on for about 15 minutes and then out of nowhere he said, ''And now we're going to pray!'' They all got on their knees. Elder Heiser and I just kind of looked at each other and then slowly knelt down, haha. The guy started praying really loud, nothing too wierd. Then Luis's mom just threw herself on the ground and started crying and yelling at the floor. That's when I leaned over to Elder Heiser and said, ''Dude, if they start jumping I'm getting the heck out of here.'' He started to laugh a little, so he hid his face behind a wall. Then the pastoress, who was kneeling against a chair, started to cry uncontrollably and out of nowhere started screaming in gibberish. I looked at Elder Heiser and whispered, ''This is going to be good!'' Hahaha. Anyway, then she crawled over to Luis's mom and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up and put her hand on her chest. All the while saying stuff like, ''Sshylykamy! Shmeeelookally!'' It sounded like a mix of Hebrew and German with a little of Blowyournoseanese haha. In my head I thought, ''This would be a perfect opportunity to apply what I learned from Steve Carrell in Bruce Almighty: NNNNNNNNEEEEWWWWSSSS!!! LAWEGIhewañfoiejwañflekawjf AEWIFEIFJEIJFIEJJJFOOOOOO!!!! OOOOOOOOOOODocacapoopoo! MMMMMMNnnnnnMMMM!!'' You know, just to participate, haha. When that happened Elder Heiser and I just stood up and walked out of the room and waited until it was over. It was like a devil trance, because afterwards they went back to being completely normal people. If only they had read 1 Corinthians 14 before...haha. That was a pretty fun experience that I don't think I'll be forgetting anytime soon.

This last weekend Elder Amado, of the area presidency, came to our stake conference. On Saturday President Swenson called us to see if we could come open the chapel for them (they had an interview) and we got to talk with him and Elder Amado for a little while - he's a great man and a very inspirational speaker. We had an investigator show up that we had met that same day (Saturday) to the next day's session. Her name is Sissi. Anyway, she loved the conference and when we visited her after church she asked about baptism, so we're positive that she'll be getting baptized very soon here. It's just an amazing find, because we were in a huge hurry and we had the impression to talk with her and she just happened to be a golden investigator.

What do I want for Christmas? Hmmmm...ties! I always love getting ties. I would also enjoy more peanut butter, haha, mine is gone now. More CDs of the Tabernacle Choir would be amazing. I only have two on my iPod and I'm pretty sure I've listened to each of them at least 50 times each. That's about all I can think of for right now :)

Well, we need to travel back to Los Angeles. So I'll get some pictures attached and get them sent off. I love and miss you all very much!

Love,
Trevor

October 25, 2010

Hola Mamá!

Glad to hear that the new baby arrived safely and that she is doing well along with the mommy. I'd love to see some more pictures! Wait...you did send some to gmail, so I'll have to take a look at those in just a minute.

Elder Kester...or rather, Camaron wrote me as well and told me about the visit he made to you all. I'm glad you got to meet him - I love that guy. I hope he didn't tell you anything too embarassing, hahaha. We had an amazing time as companions - I'll never forget that guy. I didn't know that he was in that ward, but that's neat.

Well, we had a baptism this last weekend! Wooooo! It was a really cool experience - the last time we had a baptism pretty much nobody from the ward came. The ward has been struggling a bit lately, but we've started to work with all the leaders more and they're all really excited, and we're having much better results. About 50 people came to the service, and 117 to the Sunday meetings. So we're very happy about how things are going here in San Martín.

Christopher's baptism

Today we had a zone activity and watched the Singles 2nd Ward. Everyone was just cracking up about all the stereotypes and stuff in that. You know what, I enjoyed it. I'd watch it again - that series is very cleverly written. Afterwords we had a water balloon fight. I had avoided getting wet, so some of the missionaries got a big pan full of water and chased me down and soaked me. They did that to everyone who stayed dry, haha. Good times.

We have MAAAANY investigators, but I wanted to share about one in particular with you all. Her name is Elizabeth, and we met her about 4 weeks ago. We found her doing door-to-door contacts and when we got to her house she came out and was dressed in black and crying. We asked her what had happened and she said, ''Everything that shouldn't have happened has happened.'' We found out that her husband had passed away just a day or two before and that a few years ago her daughter had also passed away. She was just...depressed - lost. For a good while we just listened to her and let her cry, and then we asked her if we could sing a hymn. We sang her Nearer My God To Thee....I've never felt the power of that song more than in that moment. Ever since then she has had us sing at least one hymn every time we pass by. For about 3 weeks she kind of disappeared - she went out to the country side to be with her mother and get away from everything. But when she got back she called us and asked us to come over. Turns out her neighbor is a less-active member, so we went over to the member's house and watched Finding Faith In Christ, which was also a very spiritual experience. The next day she asked us how to be able to be a member of our church and what she would have to do to participate. She asked about baptism and basically put her own baptismal date - the Lord prepared her, I have no doubt about that.

Well, I believe that's about all I've got for this week. I hope you're all doing well! Send me pictures of the halloween stuff! I might just dress up as a missionary this year...last year I was boring and dressed up as a missionary. Got to mix things up a little, right? Hehe. Well, I'll look forward to hearing from you next week. Love and miss you all tons!

A very tedious way to destroy an old jail

Knocking doors that are too small for me

Zone activity

Love,
Trevor

October 11, 2010

Querida mamá mía,

Sabe que? Creo que poco a poco su español está mejorando! Le felecito! Siga practicando y va a ser super seca (that's a Chilenismo for awesome or the best at something). Todo está de maravilla en la misión - estoy aprendiendo bastante todos los días acerca de ayudar a los demás, y también de ayudarme a mi mismo. Esa experiencia ha sido una de las bendiciones más grandes de toda mi vida. Estoy animado para el día en que podré compartir consigo historias de la misión cara a cara.

I totally spaced it - I didn't realize that I was going to have another niece this week! There's another face I'll have to get to know when I get back. Looking forward to the pictures! I took a look at those blogs - I'm liking Justin and Mandi's house and I'm sure Jasmine is excited to be deflated. Might want to try some gas-x, Wass (two snare pops and a cymbal crash) Haha, I kill myself sometimes. ... :)

It's good that you teach Kelton the financial laws - I remember the rush of having money as a young teenager, going on buying sprees and then regretting it aftwerwards when there was no money left to get what I really needed haha. That's when I studied a little bit about budgeting - do it Kelton! You'll have money! President Swenson said that if you save 2 dolars every day for 60 years with a total inversion, you'll have $1,100,000. I want to try that, haha. Starting the day that I start to earn money again.

Cami - stay away from returned missionaries as more than just friends. Even though they may be fantastic guys, and worthy priesthood holders, they are very much looking for WIVES.

Ian - study the scriptures and pray regularly. The desire to go to church will come. It did for me.

I finally got the box! Thank you for everything! The sister missionaries from the Los Angeles North zone are pretty excited for a joint zone activity to watch the Other Side of Heaven, haha. And I'm very much enjoying the peanut butter and Reeses. It's been awhile since I've had some of those things :) I ended up leaving the other jar of peanut butter you sent with the Millahual family in Temuco.

Cool experience I had from this week:

We were walking down the street one evening, and there was a lady walking with a young girl. We started to talk to them, I almost fell on my face (part of the sidewalk was missing, haha), and then we got on the subject of being happy in life. We asked them if they considered themselves happy people, to which they responded no. Then they asked us the same question - first time that somene has asked me that in my mission! At least that I remember. I told her yes, that I'd never been so happy in my whole life. They asked why, and we did exactly what one of the apostles from conference did - we pulled out a Book of Mormon, told them how it had changed our lives and invited them to read it. They left with smiles on their faces and are excited to have us come over to visit them. Read the Book of Mormon. Gain a testimony of it, and then share it with anyone you can. It can change lives, I testify of its power.

I'm working on putting a christmas box together for you - any special requests? I know you all don't know everything about Chile, but is there anything you would like me to send? I might need some financial help to send the box...but that just depends on what is in it. So talk it over with the family and then let me know.

Family - I love you. I miss you all, and I pray for you constantly. I want to encourage you to do three things that will enrich your lives. If you do these three things I promise you will find more peace and happiness in each of your lives:

1. STUDY the scriptures - this means more than just reading. Use the footnotes, ponder what you have read in your hearts. Look for deeper meaning. Apply the scriptures directly to your lives. Do all that and do it regularly.

2. Pray fervently and constantly. I remember my favorite quote from the book Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage: ''Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul...'' (p.238). Our Heavenly Father loves us and wants to hear from us. Be humble and meek enough to actually CONVERSE with Him.

3. Attend regularly Sunday meetings. As it says in Moroni 6, we can recieve great spiritual strength by talking about our souls and partaking of the sacrament (in spanish -santa cena, which is holy dinner :) ).

I have been doing and will continue doing these things in my life and they have enriched my life in ways I didn't know possible. Spiritual strength requires constant and hard work, and will continue to grow when shared. Share your testimonies and you will be happier - God promises us that.

Well, that should be just about it for this week. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures this week, but I'll send some for you all. I love and miss you very much, but know that I am happy and am doing very well. I'll look forward to the letter next week!

Broken shoe

Kitty jail

They named a street after me!

Love,
Trevor

October 4, 2010

Hoooooooola!

Well that was an insane first week of a cambio for us here in San Martín and Los Angeles South - we're totally kicking trash! Every single sector in the zone had people with them in general conference and we've got oodles of baptismal dates :) President Swenson said he can feel the momentum picking up with this zone, so we're really happy to see some fruits of all the hard work we've been putting into the zone for the last 7 weeks. We had one especially cool experience in general conference on Sunday - the first session finished, and we had to run back to the house quickly to pick something up, head to lunch, and then RUUUN all the way over to the other side of the sector to pick up an investigator to go to the last session with us (her name is Abi). So when we were in the house our phone starts ringing - it was an investigator we have named ¨Patricia. I had called her that morning to remind her about conference, and she said that she had too much studying to do and wasn't going to be able to make it. So that was poopy, but then she called and said two words, ''Vincent! Vine!'' In english, ''Vincent! I came!'' So we raaaan back to the chapel and talked with her for a minute. MIRACLE! Haha.

We also had a really cool thing happen this last week: We were talking to people in the street on the way to an appointment, and we saw a nice couple and decided to talk to them (I think my english is starting to sound really bad...). The first thing the lady said when we shook their hands was ''Hola, Elder!'' So my first thoughts were, ''DANGIT! MEMBER!'' (I imagine the missionaries in Utah get that a lot, haha). After that she said, ''Quiero que pasen a visitarle a mi hijo'' ''I want you to visit my son.'' Next thoughts: ''Great...another mom wanting us to put her wayward teenager into line.'' Then she said this: ''El se quiere bautizar'' ''He wants to get baptized'' Curiously...I asked her how older her son was (if he's 8 years old then we have to tell the ward to teach him, because we're only in charge of convert baptisms which is 9 and up). Crossed fingers....''Tiene once años.'' SCORE! Hahaha, that was a little present from heaven. So we went over the next day to meet her son (she's a less-active member that wants to be active again) and he's a really good kid.

Here's a funny thing that happened last night:

So we were talking to people in the street (we do that a lot, haha) when we found ourselves with two women and their daughters. Come to find out that they are inactive members and had stopped going to church because somebody offended them like a billion years ago and they're still bitter about it. They said that they were even about to baptize their son, who has 10 years, but decided not to because they got angry. At first I was trying to just smooth things over and tell them that everyone makes mistakes and that they have to forgive and stuff, but then I just got sick of her garbage haha. So I said something along these lines: ''Look, lady, you can go your whole life being mad about stupid things, or we can come over to your house, help you come back to church, be happy, and baptize your son. If you want to keep being mad, fine, we'll be on our way, but if you'd like to help your family we'd love to come over.'' She thought for a minute and then said...''Come over on Tuesday.'' Haha, so that was a fun experience for me.

Ian - thanks for the shout out. Let me know when half time is over. And remember, if I'm not back in five minutes...just wait longer!

Kelton - don't cut your neck dummmmmmmbbb face! Collars are for dogs :-p

General conference was amazing - I hope you all got to see it. I've decided that when I get home I will be asking work off MONTHS in advance to be able to go to every session of both days every year. Spiritual refills are great. Let me know which talks were your favorites! I must have taken about 7 pages in notes, but I left my binder at home so I can't share what I wrote, haha. Maybe next week.

I still haven't seen the package, but I haven't been to Concepción since I was there last week. This week on Thursday we have a conference, though, so I'm hoping to get it then. Oh yeah, while I'm talking about that, here are the letters I sent out today:

Lauren Berry

Serena Lever

Margot Crandall

Chauri Thurston

Jasmine and Joel

It took me awhile to send them out because...well, I have very little time to do anything. Since becoming a zone leader I haven't really had too many regular p-days. They're often spent in meetings or doing something for the zone. But that's ok, I love the service.

Well, that should be just about it for this week. Thank you for the letter and the updates - I always enjoy reading about the family. For those who have not yet written me, do so through snail mail! I want to hear from everyone. Alrighty, I'll get some pictures attached now. I love and miss you all very much!

Kissing a turtle

The Bachelor Pad

The Room

We found LIFE cereal! (Blogger rotated the picture and won't let me change it back...)

Love,

Trevor

September 27, 2010

What's up, sick people?

There's actually some kind of bug going around down here in Chile as well - but I haven't caught anything. My companion Elder Heiser has an eternally stuffy nose (I've actually never heard his real voice, haha), but other than that nothing serious.

Alrighty....who wants to hear Elder Vincent's CAMBIOS!!!!
Is he going to the south of the mission?
Is he turning into a sister missionary?
Is he...eating a sandwich?

WRONG!

He is staying exactly where he is! Haha. Yup, I'm not going anywhere. And for the first time in my mission neither is my companion. That's bound to happen when you're a zone leader - we're more likely to stay together to keep the zone rolling. I'm not bothered by it - Elder Heiser and I work well together so it should be a good cambio. I have to admit we do have very different personalities...he's...femmy...haha...and I'm....not...at all...haha. But that's ok. Haha, he asked me if I would like to be his roommate after the mission and I said (without thinking for a second) ''No...'' Haha, I was just messing around with him but in a serious way. We're good friends - but the kind of friends that wouldn't be roommates if you know what I mean. He's a great elder with lots of desire to work and help the people, which is exactly what I want to do, so we work very well together.

H' Romero, H' Bair, E' Heiser, me, E' Bu, E' Cottrell

Zone Leaders of the Chile Concepción South Mission

Carolina got baptized! WOOOOOOO!! It was a really spiritual service despite the fact that hardly any members showed up, haha. That was kind of a FLUUUUUNK! It had been about 4 months since the last baptism here so the members were happy to hear that we were going to have one, and then nobody showed up. Plop! Carolina's mom actually showed up unexpectedly, which was amazing. I was showing her the chapel while Elder Heiser and Carolina were changing and right as we passed by the bathrooms Carolina came out. At first they just said ''Hi!'', but then Carolina said ''I thought you weren't going to come'' and started to cry as they hugged. So that was a really cool moment :)

Carolina's baptism

E' Heiser and Carolina leaving the font

Here's a cool experience we had this last week:

So the week of the 18 (independence day here) the zone had a pretty rough week. Elder Heiser and I were basically the only people in our zone that had investigators in church, and the rest of the indicators kind of plummeted. So yeah...the assistants weren't too happy with us. So that Tuesday in our zone meeting we talked about doing something called a sanctification week - in which we would do as instructed in Heleman 3:35 and give our hearts to the Lord. We decided to fast, and contact at least 200 people that week in each sector so that we could find new people to teach, and then help them progress. This last weekend was the biggesty testimony builder ever. Every single sector had people in church, and all but one sector had baptismal dates. So we finished up the cambio VERY strong and today in consejo we saw that we had pretty much the best results for the 6th week of the cambio in the mission. The zone of Los Angeles South is going to be rockin' it this month of October. Fasting is a real way to recieve needed blessings - I encourage you all to study it and apply it in your own lives.

Well, I'm pretty short on time and we've got a 2-hour bus ride back to Los Angeles (we're in Concepción), so I'll go get some pictures attached. I was just in the office and there's no packages or letters for me or anything. I love and miss you all very much and am looking forward to seeing you all again in about 9 months! Crazy how time passes, right? Oh well, such is life. Have a great week!

I found Waldo!

Love,
Trevor

September 20, 2010

Howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy!

Can I just say that you made me realize that my mission is actually going by really fast? That part about being excited for me to return made me realize...''Shoot! Someday this is actually going to end!'' President Swenson actually talked about that in...I believe it was consejo with the leaders...about if we had realized that the mission really was going to end at some point. He said that when he and Sister Swenson started taking missionaries to the airport that were finishing their missions that they had actually picked up when they got here to the mission made them realize that things are going by really fast. Crazy...I've got less than 10 months left and I still feel like I have way too many things to do before I go home. And that's how I'll keep feeling until the very end, I suppose. But I know when I leave I'll be able to say I did everything I could, because that's what I do with my companions every second of every day. So bring it on, 10 months! You don't scare me, time...ok maybe a little...but still, haha.

You had better get that study schedule going, because I'm sure going to need someone to study with when I get back! Companionship study is one of my favorite things to do - you get to bounce ideas off one another and share the cool things you learned while studying by yourself. And really, a lot of personal revelation comes when you talk about your ideas. And I would love to be able to continue doing it in Spanish, so you'll have to get going on that as well: watch movies in spanish without subtitles, and read the scriptures out loud every day and I promise you'll start getting it down (I say watch movies because it's essential to hear a native speaker constantly to be able to know how to speak the language).

So the 18th of September was kind of a flop this year for us missionaries, haha. It wasn't quite as fun as last year even though it was the 200-year mark for Chile. Part of the reasoning for that was that our ward's activity was on the 17th, and we had our p-day on th 18th, so we didn't even get to participate in that because we had to be working haha. And then on the 18th everything was closed and nobody really wanted to go to the parade in the center, so we spent some time in the activity of the other ward that shares our buildling (Las Américas - my ward is named San Martín). So I actually don't even have any cool pictures from this year - because I never saw anything worth taking pictures of! What am I going to do with me and my lazy-picture-taking self? Haha. We did see many a drunk person, however, and some of them did throw up on the sidewalk so that was entertaining.

This coming weekend we'll be having a baptism - the girl getting baptized is named Carolina Inostroza. I believe I mentioned her before - so it suffeth me to say that she's going to be a solid convert. Yesterday in church she said that she really wants her whole family to be together in the gospel, so we'll continue working with her family. Her mom is actually pretty excited to be sharing with us and her dad is opening up, so I'm sure we'll be having some success with them soon. Edward didn't make it to sacrament meeting (he showed up for the last hour because of some sort of family problem) so we'll have to put the baptism off another week. Actually, maybe two weeks because of general conference. GENERAL CONFERENCE!! VERY EXCITED FOR THAT! And then that lady we found a few weeks ago, Marianela, should be able to start coming to church again, so she'll be getting baptized soon as well. Gotta love being a missionary - you get to see so many miracles and changes in the lives of the people you teach. :)

Quick note - this last week I got letters from:

The Purles family

Serena Lever

Lauren Berry

I've written the responses mostly, and will be sending out the letters when I get a chance. Everything is closed for awhile because of the 200-year thingamajig.

Well, that should be just about it for this week. I love and miss you all very much!

Love,

Trevor

PS. I'll be waiting for the pictures of the new addition to the family!

September 13, 2010

*Note from mom: The first part of his letter refers to my sharing an experience with the BEST meeting I have been to in years, a 150-stake conference this past Sunday with Elder Holland -- landmark address as usual --, Julie Beck and President Packer.

Hey howdy hey!

Thank you for sharing about your spiritual experience, Mom. While I was up at USU...I don't really know what happened, something inside of me just wanted something. That hunger lead me to make the decision to serve a mission and I can say that I've never made a better decision in my entire life. Leaving everything behind has helped me to lose the life I had before and find one that is infinately better and with more purpose. Something one of my investigators, Carolina, said this week made me think about that. She said that nothing and nobody could take her desire to get baptized out of her. I feel the same way about my testimony - it's so important and vital to me that I would never let anyone or anything take it away from me. It really is the most important thing in my life - without it nothing really has a purpose. Sure I would have a family, but to what end? With what purpose? This gospel IS true. This IS the Lord's church. I just wish I could go to a fireside with Elder Holland! I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer for General Conference in October. I finally understand why those guys in the Singles Ward said it would be cooler to watch General Conference than monday-night football, haha!

Let's see, how is Elder Vincent doing this week:

1. Today we went to Saltos del Laja - hadn't been there in awhile. It's actually amazing the difference in water level there is in winter (or the end of winter) as opposed to what there is in summer. I took some pictures, so I'll get some of those sent to you. We went up there as a zone (all but one of the sectors was there) so there will be some new faces in the pictures.

E' Heiser and me by the river

Petting a sleeping dog (H' Bair, H'Barillas, me)

Sleeping dog by the waterfall

Waterfall

2. This coming week we should be having two baptisms - Edward (18) and Carolina (19). Yay for more young people in the church! That's what the ward of San Martín needs, haha. I don't know what I've mentioned about these two before, but here's a short summary: Edward is a guy we met knocking doors. He had some questions about if he could see his dad again or not (he died 2 years ago) and that got him really interested in the church when we said yes. For the last 3 weeks he has been meeting up with us every other day and has gone to church every week. He's a great guy - very innocent and very willing to accept Christ in his life. Carolina is someone we found by taking a look at the people missionaries had taught in the past. A few months ago, actually, she said that she didn't feel ready to get baptized or anything, and her parents weren't too fond of the idea. Now she's loving the church, participating, and she said that nothing could stop her. On top of that, her mom is also sharing with us now! The Lord prepares these people, I have a strong testimony of that.

3. Everyone is getting ready for the 18 - there have been parades of schools pretty much every day, everyone is having parties and, here's the best part, MAKING EMPANADAS! WOOOOOOO!!! They're reaaaally tasty :) I might be taking another wack at the cueca this year...we'll see how that goes haha.

Well, I think that's about all the updates I've got for this week. And my internet time is just about up anyway, so I think I'll go get some pictures attached and get this sent off. Thank you for writing me - I very much enjoyed your letter. Get that scripture studying going on a daily basis, and then when I get back we can have some group study :) I'll share some great things I've learned out here. I love and miss you very much and am always praying for you!

Love,

Trevor

September 6, 2010

Howdy y'all!

I guess if there's more than one person reading this it would be, ''Howdy all y'all!'' Haha, one of the many great things I learned while living in Virginia.

You're always such a busy little bee, mom! But I guess that's better than having nothing to do, right? I love being busy and learning new things, so keep on keepin' on I say. Just don't lose too much family time!

Alrighty, let's see, what's new in the life of Elder Vincent:

Today Elder Heiser and I took a trip up to Cabrero to visit, it was so cool to be able to see some of the people again! We had breakfast at Freddy's house and then went to see another family that is basically my Chilean family. Only the mom, Jaqueline, was there, so that was a little bit of a bummer, but I was really happy to see her. It was very...nostalgic...being back in my greenyville again. I literally felt bigger! Haha. Kind of like when you go back to a place where you grew up as a kid or something - Cabrero seemed pretty small to me, like I had been so much younger when I was there before.

The other day I saw something pretty interesting. We were talking to this guy and asked him if we could come back to meet his family and share a message about Christ, and he said no, I already know everything and I don't really need anything else. And ironically he had a shirt on that said (in english), ''Why do people with closed minds always open their mouths?'' Haha, so I thought that was pretty funny.

Elder Heiser and I are working ourselves to death here! And the Lord is really blessing us for it - this last Sunday we finished up with five baptismal dates, four of which are for September and then one more in October. The people here in Los Angeles are amazing - I'm loving this city. There's this one lady named Marianela that has decided to completely change her life to be able to do live in harmony with the gospel and get baptized. She stopped smoking, has decided to go to churtch every week and is telling her boyfriend that they can't live together anymore. She's going to kick him out! Haha. So she's got a date for the 16th of October. We're teaching a family of three named Angela (the mom) and her two children Gonzalo and Krishna. They have a baptismal date planned for the 17th of September, but it miiiight change. We'll have to figure that out this week. And then the other for the 17th of this month is a girl named Carolina who had actually shared with missionaries before and had gone to church and institute (she's 19). Before she had been going to church with one of her friends, and he got baptized, so she thought she was just doing it for him and decided that wasn't right. So she kind of stopped going to church, but then she said she started thinking that she needed to go back, and that SAME day we passed by to see her (one of the ward councelors gave us the reference a day or two before). So she's really excited to be sharing with us again and her mom is actually participating now as well - she hadn't been doing that before; miracles just happen every day! Gotta love this :) We have plenty more people that we're teaching that don't have baptismal dates yet, but I'm sure they will soon enough.

I think the last bunch of letters I sent out while I was in Curanilahue got lost in the mail, so here's a shout-out to all of the people who should have recieved letters:

Margot Crandall
Jon Baranowski
Rachel King
Serena Lever
Chauri Thurston
Sara McGhie

I may have forgotten a name...or not...but if each of those people could let me or my parents know if you got the letter or not so that I know if I should write another one or not that would be great. If you've already done so don't worry about it - I already know, haha.

The other night we watched Finding Faith in Christ with a family...and it made me feel so much at home - seeing the life of Christ and pondering about it. Christ lives...I know that. He loves me...I know that too. The more one studies the more one comes to realize the divinity of His plan. I encourage you all to really STUDY the scriptures and pray about it. Study without prayer is like going swimming without water (3 Nephi 26:8-10).

Well, I believe that's it for this week. I love and miss you all very much and am constantly praying for you all. This is the Lord's work, there is not a single doubt in my entire being of that. I encourage you all to increase your faith in Christ and I promise you will find things you didn't know and feel things you've never felt.

Anyone want this piece of land?

Best mission in the world - with Elder Hatch my old zone leader from Lebu

Elder Hall liked that picture...so I killed him, haha

Elder Heiser and his mattress mountain

Love,
Trevor

August 31, 2010

Hola Mama!!!

I don't think I'll be writing in spanish this week because the tilde (accent mark) doesn't seem to be working on this keyboard. So that would change the meanings of a couple words, probably.

Mwahaha! Enjoy that back-to-school stuff suckers! Well...I'll enjoy not having it while I can haha - this is my last school year not studying. But then again I'm excited to study again, so it'll all be good.

Congrats to Justin and Mandi! I haven't heard from them in a few weeks...hmm.

Congrats on your new calling! I'm sure you'll be a great choir director. Just look at it this way - if someone good comes before you it just gives you all that much more motivation to work harder and have even better results! That's something I like here in the mission - you always hear about good missionaries that have gone through certain sectors, which motivates us to work really hard so that we can be the missionary they talk about! Haha, just kidding - I don't love myself that much. But if a missionary does good things in a sector the members usually remember them.

So here's a random note - there's a new sister missionary in my zone who lived in Provo who I swear I had met before the mission. Her name is Sister Bair - ring any bells? She said she knows some people I went to high school with: Lauren and Maria Stone, the Crandall family, etc. Yeshhh...

My new companion Elder Heiser and I are working insanely hard. This sector hasn't baptized in about 9 weeks (which is a long time for a zone leader sector), but as of right now we have 4 dates for September - 3 of them are a mom, Angela, and her two kids Gonzalo and Krishna. Their dad r-u-n-n-o-f-t on them and is now living with another woman...scumbag... I should shouldn't say those kinds of things about God's children...son-of-God scumbag...better? Haha. But yeah, they're loving church and all that we're sharing with them and are excited to get baptized. The other lady is named Maria Nela and she's absolutely golden. After church on Sunday we dropped by to see her and she accepted a baptismal date and comitted herself to read the entire Book of Mormon by this Saturday! And the cool thing is I believe she can do it! Haha, so we're extatic about her.

Being a zone leader sure eats up any extra time I may have had at the end of days...we're always doing something, haha. But that's ok - it keeps me VERY much focused and I am learning a lot of new things - how to have success in life in general. So I'm very grateful to have this opportunity.

Well, I forgot my thingy to attach my camera to the computer, so I don't think I'll be able to send pictures this week. We had consejo with President Swenson this morning in Concepcion so I didn't remember to bring it. Funny story about that actually, before I finish up. So we had bought bus tickets from Los Angeles to Concepcion for 7 this morning, which means we were going to wake up at 5 to get all showered and ready, take the 2-hour bus-ride to Concepcion, and then take a micro (small bus) up to Talcahuano for 45 minutes to get to the chaple in Villa Cerro in time for the meeting at 10am. We went to sleep....11pm....wake up in the middle of the night...stupid dogs....SEVEN!!!! IT'S SEVEN!!!! Screams Elder Kamalu in his funny panic voice haha. The stinking alarm didn't go off! So we jumped out of bed, threw our suits on, brushed the teeth, got the hair wet, and bolted it over to the bus terminal. We were able to catch a bus...that left at 8! So we got to the terminal in Concepcion around 9:35...not enough time to take a micro. So we jumped in a taxi, told the driver that we were in a hurry, and he rocketed it over to the chaple. We got there before President Swenson and about half the other missionaries! Haha, so that was a pretty amazing story. Now I'm looking forward to getting back to Los Angeles so I can take a shower and then go visit some investigators. The end :) Hope you enjoyed that, haha.

Alrighty, I believe that's it for now. I'll make sure to get some pictures to you for next week - I have to admit I'm kind of lazy at taking pictures because I don't like to look like a tourist, but I'll get better at it and take more pictures from now on. I hope you have a good week! Love and miss you tons!

Love,
Trevor

August 23, 2010

*Note from mom: He made me laugh with the pouty "his flag is bigger" pic! The story is that he asked me to send him a small American flag for his wall. I sent exactly what he asked for, but this guy's is way bigger.

Dear Mommy,

Getting back into school already? Wow, I feel like just yesterday you were telling me how happy you all were to be leaving school and getting into vacations. I guess time passes by faster when you're not actually around to see everything happen, right? Glad to hear you all enjoyed the summer, though. It's actually been really warm here for the past 2 weeks. Yesterday it rained a bit, but nothing to complain about. When it rains here, though, it RAINS. Curanilahue turns into a giant puddle when it rains...or really all of Chile does. Los Angeles isn't quite as close to the coast, though, so it doesn't reain as much here. It's basically the same as Cabrero (climate-wise) so I won't have to adjust too much.

Well my first week as a zone leader was great. My companion Elder Hall was pretty trunky when I got there, so I took him out to work, resurrected him, and squeezed every last bit of juice out of him that I could, haha. He's really happy to have finished his mission strong - we had people with us in church and 3 baptismal dates. This sector hasn't had baptismal dates for about 6 weeks, so that was pretty cool. The members here are awesome! They pretty much just throw references at us, haha. This last week they gave us 14 references! That has never happened in any of my sectors before! Elder Hall said that they had never done that until I got here, so maybe they just like me, haha. But references are so much better to work with because they already have friends inside of the church. Elder Hall will be leaving for Concepción with another elder that's going home tomorrow, so I'll be with my new companion Elder Heiser, who is from Colorado. We've got some great ideas for the zone and will be working really hard to help everyone have success this cambio. This last weekend the zone had 3 baptisms and we've got 2 more for this week, looks like about 4 or 5 for the next week, and more coming. Just trying to do what President Swenson told me to do - ''Have the zone put goals, and hold them to those goals. Light it up.'' It's been a great experience so far and I have a little over 10 months left to get better at being a zone leader so I'm really excited to continue learning and participating in the Lord's work.

Heading Home

Saying goodbye to Fabiola and family

Saying goodbye to the Chamblás family

Here's a fun story for the week:

So there was this lady hanging around the bus terminal in Los Angeles the day of transfers (the zone leaders have to stay and wait until everyone has their companions and then we can go back to our sectors) that was just bugging the missionaries to death. She gave elders the finger as they were heading off on buses, tried to rob the monopoly cards we had, and even tried to grab a few suitcases hahaha. She was there from about 9 in the morning and was still there with a suitcase at about 3 in the afternoon, ticket in-hand. I don't think she ended up going anywhere, she just wanted to bug all the missionaries. People are fun, right?

Let's see...anything else for this week...Elder Kamalu is a district leader in my zone, and we're living in the same house, so that's actually pretty fun. It's kind of like the MTC over again, haha. He was my district leader and I was his zone leader and we were roommates. Deajavouuu....or however those crazy french spell their words.

Well, I believe that'll be it for this week. Nothing else really comes to mind. I'll go get some of those pictures attached now. I love and miss you very much!

Burning the 1st-year shirt

Love,
Trevor