Santiago Chile

Santiago Chile

Monday, June 23, 2014

Simon Bolivar

Hola Familia!

I am so excited to write to you because close to a million things have happened this week. I was catching up on reading emails and I dont know if I will have time to write back to all of you. 

As most of you know, I finished up my time in the CCM. It was so fun. I feel really privileged to have attended the CCM in Chile. the CCM only holds about 100 missionaries, so every missionary is pretty close. I had the privilege tambien to get to know the president of the CCM really well. I am going to miss it there. I had awesome instructors and I learned a ton from them.

On tuesday I woke up and I went to the mission office of Santiago Norte. There I met my mission president, President Essig. President Essig has about a week left as a mission president until we get a new president. nevertheless, I really enjoyed my beginning interview with him. He is really focused on his missionaries acting and becoming like Christ. 

I also met my missionary trainer. His name is Elder Boelter. He is from South Jordan Utah. He has been out in the mission field for a long time. in fact, I am going to kill him (mission slang: I am his last companion). This is his last transfer, so I get to receive the maximum amount of missionary knowledge possible because he has the maximum amount of experience. Elder Boelter is way awesome. 

later on Tuesday I arrived in my sector. the sector is called Simon Bolivar. right away I put my bags down and we went straight to work with appointments. One of our investigators is Fernando. He is not a member, but his wife is. He loves soccer a lot, and we talk about it every time we visit him. Soccer is huge here in Chile, especially when we beat esapana! today there is a game against hollande, and if we win, we've been advised to stay inside.

The people of chile are so nice. they speak so fast, but they have so much patience with me. They love to ask where I am from, and they love it when I tell them Im from Washington because they think I live near the White House. Everyone I have met here has been really nice. Unfortunately, I didn;'t know that taxi drivers dont like it when people close the taxi doors hard. I was in a rush to get in, and I closed it a little too hard, and he kicked me out of the taxi, and left me with some new vocabulary. 

It was all good though, because that night I got to go to a noche de Hogar, and the family was so nice! We watched a mormon message with them and expounded more upon it, and they fed us these fried cakes called picarones.

I also had my first meal from a member. We had mashed potatoes and carne. It was really tastey.

on Friday we had more nuevo misioner training with the president. It was nice to see my friends from the CCM again. they are mostly serving in country areas in Chile. I am more in the city. Its kind of like a suburb where Im at. It was also refreshing to hear some english. Its beginning to feel wierd when I hear words in English. Spanish is coming slowly. It is hard to understand because de verdad, the people of chile talk so fast. tambien they have different words.

I had my first Completo the other day too. Where have completos been all of my life. they are seriously so good. one of the recent converts in the ward, hermana zuniga, sells them on the weekend. we had a noche de hogar at her home, and she made me one. it was tan rico. 

The members here in mi barrio (ward) are awesome. I got to know a lot of them on Sunday. They are very involved in helping the missionaries with the work of the Lord. My first Sunday was awesome because we had the baptism of Hermano Fernando that day. The chapel is on the second floor of the church which is kind of cool. there were some great talks given and it was great to sing himnos en espanol. I didn't understand much of what was said, but I really did feel the spirit. if there was a sentence to sum up this week that would be it: I didn't understand much, but I felt the spirit. 

That afternoon a peruvian family made us lunch. arroz y pollo con inca cola! (shout out to momma Williams). That night we had a member, Nacho, join us. we visited investigators and Nacho did a great job of sharing his testimony. it was so strong, and he was baptized 5 months ago.

I know that this church is true. I know that the gospel of Jesus Chist changes people. it helps us become more like our Savior. It helps us find happiness in this life, and it guarantees that we will be able to live with our loving Heavenly Father for eternity.

Love,

Elder Williams


Sunday, June 15, 2014

My last week

hola familia!

It has been another awesome week in the CCM! I have done a lot this week and because of the way my preparation days work out, I wont be able to write a full email for a couple of weeks, but I think I will be able to send a fax of a hand written one next week while I am checking in at the mission office of the Chile Santiago Norte mission! This is my last week in the CCM and I have learned a lot.

we have had the chance to go street contacting a lot this week. It has been a lot of fun talking with people and getting to know them. Its amazing how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help everyone and bring everyone even more happiness to their lives. We got to go out contacting on Saturday and it was raining really hard outside, but we still managed to talk with some people that were huddled under a bustop. 

Sunday was a lot of fun. This is because we got to sit in on the latino meetings. your first four weeks in the CCM, you go to church where your sunday school and priesthood meetings are taught in english, but after those first two weeks, you sit with the latinos in their meetings. That was especially a lot of fun for family home evening that night. there is a tradition in the CCM where on the first sunday the Latinos have in the CCM, the gringos help teach them english. It was the best. for the first time in my CCM experience I felt like a pro at something. 

Yesterday, we did even more street contacting. We got to talk with 3 really cool people. One of them was a student at a nearby University. He was really nice, and said that he had a friend who was Mormon who had already given him a book of Mormon. We also met a student who was from South Korea who also spoke spanish really well. Another person we met was this very nice lady who was taking her baby on a stroll. We talked with her and she said that her baby was a little sick. We told her we would pray for that baby that night, and we truly did. Because we are still in the CCM, we cannot teach these wonderful people in their homes, so instead, we fill out a referral and send it to the church office so other nearby missionaries can teach them the gospel. It is a huge blessing to be in the CCM de Chile because here in Chile we actually do things like street contact. Its the best! by doing it, Ive really discovered how the Lord blesses you with energy as you work. 

As for what happened today, we had a crazy time playing soccer. the park we usually play at has been acting wierd and as a result we have been able to play soccer at your usual spot in a while. I dont know if the change in location (we hav now moved to another nearby field) has made soccer a bit more intense but you can feel something in the air. Today especially, it was Gringos and Brazillians vs. the Latinos, and we won! 

Today was also our preparation day. It was our last preparation day in the CCM, so we had a lot we needed to do. We went and got haircuts, mailed packages, bought ties, obtained dulces from supermarket, and we even had time to stop by the distribution center.

The rest of this week is going to be pretty busy as well. Tomorrow, Elder Lynn G. Robins from the seventy is visiting the CCM. We will get to hear from him for an hour. That will be very exciting because I have heard he is really good at speaking with missionaries. Also, on Thursday we will get to go to the temple for what may be the last time for about a year. On Friday, we get to something really cool. Only the gringos that have been in the CCM for 6 weeks get to do this. we get to go proselyting with missionaries from the Santiago Sur mission. I am so excited!!!!

Sunday and Monday we will have a lot of campo orientation meetings then it will be off to Santiago Norte! If you havent been able to tell yet, I am pretty excited. I have a learned a lot in the CCM. my testimony grows everyday about the importance of this work. I know the Gospel is true and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's true chruch on the earth today.

Love,

Elder Williams

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Feliz cumpleaƱos a mi

Hola familia!

First off I want to start out with a shout out to the best twin sister ever. Happy Birthday Melanie! 

Its been an awesome week in the CCM. last week we were playing soccer with the latinos in the morning. We are blessed to have two professional soccer players in the CCM, one of which is elder Cifuentes. Elder Cifuentes is very good at kicking the ball hard. he got paid to kick it that hard in Argentina. when we were playing the team that I was on was waiting on the sideline because the other two teams were playing. the keeper on one team asked me if I could switch out with him for one second so he could check on another player who had hurt his knee. I stepped into the goal and not even 10 seconds later elder Cifuentes comes up with none of my defenders in site and kicked the ball with all his might. I stopped it! with my face! Im pretty proud that I can say I've stopped a shot from a professional soccer player, and in the future I won't mention how I accomplished the task.

there was an awesome land mark this week in the CCM. it was my first fast sunday in Chile. here in the CCM we start fasting after lunch on saturday. I felt so blessed this Sunday as I was fasting. they work you hard in the CCM and it can be difficult to stay on top of things and stay happy. this is why I love church, especially the sacrament. through the atonement of Jesus Christ, we don't have to suffer through our afflictions alone. we are never alone because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

That Sunday night we had the privilege of hearing from the president of Santiago Oeste mission. we sat in the front row because my companion elder Stephens is going to that mission. I was trying really hard to undertstand him. I was able to clearly understand his wife who spoke beforehand, but for some reason I could not understand the president. he was from brazil and I thought it was because of his accent. halfway through his talk I hear a familiar two words: Elder williams which was then followed by a frase of words that I didn't understand, but that frase ended with a slight increase in the pitch of his voice. this indicates that he was asking me a question. I had no idea what he said, and I asked him to repeat and he did and it was still unclear, so I just said what the latinos behind me whispered was the answer. I was really confused why I didn't understand him until I was talking with the brazillian missionaries. apparently, he was speaking as much portugese as he was spanish so it was nice to know that Im not a complete failure at Spanish.

Yesterday was Elder Stephens birthday. there is a tradition at the CCM that if it is your birthday, herman Doll, the presidentes wife, brings you cookies and the CCM sings happy birthday to you. I was fortunate enough to enjoy that same experience this morning. first, before hermana Doll got there, the brazillian elders sang me happy birhtday in portugese. then hermana Doll arrived and it was sung in spanish. its been a great birthday so far.

I forgot to mention something funny that happened yesterday. We taught a lesson to our teacher and we thouught, wouldn't it be great if we did it in the garden of the temple (because it was a 3 minute walk away)? we wanted to show our investigator the importance of an environment that is welcome to the spirit, an environment that is tranquil and quiet and peaceful. We thought the temple garden would be perfect. when we arrived, there were tons of workers with leaf blowers and when we sat down away from them, behind us in the trees was a man who had just started up his pressure washing machine. needless to say, we had to relocate, and it was OK because the rest of the lesson went great.

One more thing, yester day we got to go on the street and contact people. It can be a little scary when you don't know how to speak the language, but according to my brother Evan, you can't let those doubts (which do not come from God) impede you from sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with every person you meet. my companions and I met a woman named Rosa. she was sweeping the sidewalk across the street from the CCM, and we talked with her. apparently we weren't the first ones to do so because she informed us that she had an appointment with the missionaries this Sunday. she was extremely nice and she said that she has never been approached by missionaries from the CCM before. she thinks we are good jovenes, but she said she never met any of us. I told her that I was sorry that was the case. I told her that new missionaries can be afraid to speak the language, but I told her that that shouldn't be the case. I told her that I was here in Chile not for myself, but for the people of Chile. I told her that we are hear to share the truth of God with her and bring more happiness to her life.

I love my mission here in Chile. Im excited to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, because through that gospel we can live with our families forever, we can return to live with God, we can find peace in this life. anything is possible through Jesus Christ. I am honored to be his representative. I only hope that I can strive to attempt to fill that title.

Love

Elder Williams