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