Oh wow the wedding looked so fun! I didn´t even know what food you had but all I know is that i wanted it...Ugh I want food from home so bad. Wow that sounds like so much fun with everyone there, im so jealous! I can´t believe you had a cut out of me there haha boo yah. Thats so legit though. Ahh i wanna see everyone haha sounds like there was so many people! And Ale and Lexi came AND brought me a watch?! What! haha dang shout out to the coolest cousins! Hows everyone doing!? Man what luck with the rain! And a Samoan sealer how cool! I heard reggae from Samoa in the streets the other day and i was so confused but it was awesome! Dang everyone is leaving now what the heck. There are so many of my friends out or with their calls or gonna leave. Like literally Im going to get back in 2 years and there will be nobody cause i was more or less the first. 

Here we have conference in the stake center. Everyone does cause not that many people have TVs and Satellite. We always have the Liahona but im sure we can ask for the Ensign. I didnt know there was an article from Chile! Thats cool! 

This week was not as slow but still a little bit. Didnt help that you had your birthday and Allisons wedding! But happy birthday! haha sorry my photo is stupid. Last Pday in the afternoon, Elder Sovero twisted his ankle on the curb and it hurt him pretty bad so we didnt work that night and barely the next morning. Then we went to the Doctor at the temple because he is for all the Santiago missions. He doesnt really speak spanish so i was more or less translating for him haha. Technically Elder Sovero should be in a boot for 2 more weeks but he stopped wearing it after one day because he said it hurt and was annoying. Ha. I had one for like 2 and a half months! But then we had Clase de Distrito on Wednesday with out new district and district leader. He was our old Zone Leader so I already know him. Hes super cool and funny. Elder Hix from Wyoming i think. But we have 14 Elders in our District now which is really big! And 3 new missionaries. The next morning we did service for a lady who cant go to church because of her sickness. It was super fun with the 4 Elders in the ward. But we are going to change houses now! Just the 2 of us so we can be solo and actually live in our sector. But that will change this week i think. 

We had a lesson with a family this week and watched the Restauration video. They havent progressed much before this but the wife was asking if she could baptism her kids in our church but they are younger than 8 so we explained baptism a little more. There are going to go to conference with us and meet the prophet. Well not meet him idk how to say it in english. They said Queremos conocer al Profeta, so like get to know him or something i dont know hahaha. But it was a cool lesson. We had one of our investigators come to church for the fifth time and he really wants to get baptised so that is probably in 2 weeks because there is conference. So that will be cool because he was the first person i met in the mission field besides the other missionaries! We had a Home Evening with members and a investigator family and I think it was really successful. They are going to go to conference too! It is so weird here because conference isnt in your house on TV like it is for us. But Im excited! Hopefully I understand everything in Spanish. But nothing else really happened..a little slow still but the week passed so fast!

Im going to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of this transfer. Im learning a lot from it now. I see it a different light as a missionary. But the more I read, the more i realize the stories and the pride cycle of the people. Wickedness always comes when we lose sight of what matters. We are here because of God, what we should do is focus on God. THEN we can do the other things. Everything is spiritual before it is temporal. We cant let a day pass that we dont read the Scriptures or that we dont pray. There shouldnt be a Sunday that we dont go because we are lazy or dont feel like it. The Sacrament is so important for our week. There we renew our convents of Baptism and should promise to change something this next week. It is so important that we devote our time to Christ first. Please help the missionaries in your ward. This work isnt just of the missionaries. They cant do it without you guys. Priesthood holders, it is still your responsibility to help the ward and the church. Do this by going with the missionaries to lessons. Those preparing for your missions, go with the missionaries and learn from them. Thank you for all that you are already doing, and keep doing it. 

I love you guys and missed you a lot this week! Hope everything was good with company and the wedding!!

Love Elder Farnsworth

Hey family!

Ya I got Allison´s wedding anouncement. How crazy!! And your birthday is tomorrow right mom? Big week! Im missing a lot but oh well! WOW Jamis is going to St George? Thats so cool for him haha he almost came back to Arizona. And Boston with Jared! Man everyone is going! Uh oh..I hope it doesnt rain for the wedding haha what luck. It never rains in Arizona and now it has a high chance! Im so jealous about D. Todd Christofferson. That sounds amazing. And the topic about light in our lives is so cool. The scriptures always say that light is Christ. So all those things you said bring Christ into our lives more. Wow theres so much going on at home!

But here was crazy too. Well for us it was pretty slow...but this week was basically the 4th of July of Chile haha. The day is the 18th of September but they celebrate like all week. We went to an investigators house the night before and the husband was already drunk. He usually never talks but he was talking so much this time. He said we are all sinners and was just ranting so we couldnt really teach. But they invited us to lunch the next day so we went. Then he wasnt drunk haha and we had Asado and it was sooo good. That is the photos! We stayed there for a while but didnt do much else that day because everyone was partying. It was super slow. But the next day, we had a Ward Party in the Church. We were in charge of the games and it was really fun! We had pollo asado again but it is so good so im not complaining. There were a lot of dances typical de Chile and they were super interesting. Everyone is asking me this week what i know to dance cause everyone dances here. I was like uhhh oh well...Hahah and everyone asks ``What are typical gringo games?´´ but like literally they play the same things here and call them typical. Minus their kites and tops, those are different. But that was all day in the church and super fun! 

But this week was cambios! or Transfers i guess but nothing happened! We arent moving. Nobody in our ward is so all 4 of us are living together still. Elder Sovero is mad but i think hes starting to change his heart. Hes been here a long time in Cerro Navia so ya..But nope, nothing changed with us. And the newbies arrive so now Im in my second Transfer as of today!

We continue to work with these families and continue to struggle to get them to come to church. It is hard because they are so nice but just arent willing right now to put in their own effort. Alma 5:46 (i think, maybe 48) talks about working and praying and fasting to find our own answer. We all need to do this. We never completely have our answer, but we can continually grow our faith. Im trying to finish the Book of Mormon this transfer which shouldnt be that hard. But it is so important that we read from the Book of Mormon and the Bible daily and pray daily. I cant wait to see the change in someones life when they realize this importance. 

It was kinda a slow week so thats it, but i hope all is well at home! Crazy week this week, i hope it is fun! Love you guys and miss you a lot!

Elder Farnsworth

HOLA FAMILIA

Bueno im going to send more photos but ill explain these ones and total later but ya. First, we have p day today again. And we didnt go to the zoo because we got permission but we have clase de distrito tomorrow and it is usually wednesday. So we did something else this morning. BUT starting last monday night, we went to a investigator who is like 16 years old. He needed a little help with English so i was helping him. He knew so much already compared to everyone else here, but we were talking basics in english and i asked his favorite car, cause i saw all his car posters, and like now we are super close cause he knows so much about cars too. He is super cool. Then Tuesday, we went to this crazy ladys house again and she always says there are 7 gods but they all teach the same thing so we only have the Bible (Jehova). But she says my god is named Jim because im gringo. OK thanks for informing me! haha i love our sector, tanto crazy people. Then we had Conferencia de Zona and it was super cool, but it was from 10 to almost 6 so it took up like a whole day. BUT, i left the Conferencia with Elder Huber from my CCM group because we had intercambios and his comp is our District Leader! Entonces we had two nuevos in his sector! But it was easy. And we just change back the next morning so it was really nothing. Ok, now for the photos, The next day was September 11th so we had all the american stuff we could find between the 3 gringos and put it together. But like i said before, the 11th is crazy here. Pinochet like took over the government that day i guess so they have riots. They started burning matteresses and tires and everything right out side our house and everywhere!! We had to return to the house at 6 and stay there all night. They shot out the street lights with pellet guns and had real guns but we only heard those. The cops drove by and threw tear gas and we had the door open! It was awful but it went away pretty fast. I picked up a tear gas can the next morning, it is so cool! 

But the next day, i had another intercambio with the zone leaders! I was with Elder Hix from Wyoming, and we had some cool lessons. We found one guy and asked if we could share a message with him. He said yes so we shared a little about the Plan of Salvation because his wife died. They owned a little almacen which is basically a tiny gas stop store with the gas and they have them everywhere. They told us to return later and they will give us fresh empanadas. Later, they gave us empanadas, juice, soda, a sandwich and a sweet bread thing. It was all so good and they wouldnt take money! But the next morning we meet up with our companions again and like half the mission went to a service project that i think was world wide Church service day. We painted like a whole street out in the fields. It was super fun! I think my comp sent me a photo of the 4 of us that live together so i will forward that. Then sunday was good as usual. We didnt have progressing investigators in the church but we are trying.

Like i said, we are still working with families. One family, we set a date for baptism and they said they will read and pray to find out. Im a little bummed they didnt go to church but we dont know if there was a legit reason yet. And we went to another family last night and taught them the Plan of Salvation, Its cool to see the family members helping each other out and learning together. 

But today, we hiked Cerro Renca which is a hill close to our house. It was really steep but there is a huge cross on top and you can see everything. The other photos are from there. We had our American flag haha and these college kids climbed the cross and put a huge chilean flag on top of it so now there is one flying there! Haha we witnessed history. Not really, but they all wanted to talk pictures with us and with our flag. It was super fun. But Thats this week more or less! 

I was studying the Atonement this week, and also the question, Why are there people starving and others really lucky or rich? First, the atonement. Christ was choosen specifically for this role. We were never going to make it back with out him. We need to do our part, which is basically nothing. Recognize your sin, confess it to God, Change your heart, dont do it again, and accept Christ. He did the heavy lifting and knows what we feel times 1000. But it is just amazing to me what gift we have. And the other question is answered in the Sermon on the mount. The pure in heart and the poor in spirit with receive and see the Kingdom of God. God has his plan. We understand the general plan through scriptures, but our individual plans, no. All I know, those suffering through this life with nothing that they could possibly change, will receive their grand prize in the life to come. We need to live our lifes with this is mind. Humble yourselves before God and accept His will. We are only here to be tested, and grow. Other than that, we receive a body and wait for our perfect resurrected body after death. Study the scriptures every day and pray always. I love you guys, everyone at home. Thanks for the support. I feel your prayers and your faith. Amazing things are happing here, at home, and around the world. Thanks for everything!

Love you 

Elder Farnsworth

Family! 

Ya I have PDay this monday as usual, but we are now changing NEXT monday to Tuesday and going to the zoo. We had a zone activity this morning and played soccer and ate and just hung out! I was pretty fun, but now we just have internet and buying food for the week! But thats so crazy all the stuff going on at home. Everyone is going on missions and being sooo blessed thats amazing! Man this is a crazy work and a glory haha but seriously, it changes lives. Like i dont know if we think about it enough. This gospel and knowledge literally changes our lives. MAN! But this week was so fast again. Everything just blurs together. Sorry if this letter is disorganized because i didnt write down stuff to email like usual. But first, what we have coming up! So the 11th here is really dangerous and there are riots because Pinochet overthrew the government or something i dont exactly know. All i know is my companion says we need to help everyone so if a crazy flite asks for help in throwing a makeshift explosive, we need to help. HAHA broma, no más ok! No realmente we are returning to the house at 6 that night and turning the lights off. And having a mini rememberance session for the twin towers with my American flag shirts! Seriously though dont worry. Haha my comp hates gringos. Not really but he always says every other country is better than the states. And for some reason this week he was angry like all the time haha it was so funny. He was ranting about how chilean food sucks compared to Peruvian food but it really doesnt. Sorry about the photo, i literally had no other one so i just took it right now. And the 18th is their independence day here and its like a 4 day party. So we spend all day in the chapel at a ward party and i dont know what else. Crazy these chileans.

This week we had a lot of lessons with families again which is always cool. None are technically progressing because they dont go to church but we are trying. So we offered to help the son of this one family with math and now they think we are like personal tutors...and Elder Sovero never denies. We spend so much time but hopefully it will build their confidence. We still teach clase de ingles which is cool and we have this one less active guy that comes every week. He is really nice but im fairly certain he is homeless so we always help him. This Sunday he gave me like 5 CDs cause he didnt know we cant listen to regular music. It had like the Beatles and stuff! haha i dont know what to do with it! But Everyone is super nice here. Man, Friday, one family gave us cookies and juice (everyone drinks juice not water) while we helped with math, then we ate Once with them (which is like fake dinner with bread and sometimes ham and always hot water and for us, herbal tea because everyone drinks coffee and tea but knows we dont drink this). Then we went to another family and they had a huge cake and more stinking herbal tea, and then another family and they had birthday cake for their sons birthday and Coca Cola. Same day as Ammons birthday so i ate cake for your birthday Am! Ayy haha but the only thing im a little mad about is wasting time at houses, we always always return home late, like 30 min to an hour late...and Im never reaching our goal for contacts. Hopefully we can change it though.

In my study, i learned more about the condesencion of Christ. It implies he left a high state to lower himself into a lower state. He was in heaven with the change to live happily there, but he lowered himself into a body of an imperfect mortal baby body. And eventually he made his perfect ascencion back to Heaven. I also was looking deeper into Lehi´s dream of the tree of life and the symbolizism. The iron rod is the word of God like we know, but the word of God is the scriptures. And what does the iron rod do in the story? It is the only way to reach the happiness of the tree of life or the love of God. We literally cant make it through the darkness of life without our life line the Scriptures. And with prayer, we can always have the faith to hold tight to this life line. I love the scriptures so much. Im almost excited for the 11th because we get to stay in and study so like ever. Ha 1 hour of personal study is never enough. But please, everyone read the Book of Mormon daily. I promised one of our investigator families this, and im going to promise you guys too. Read the Book of Mormon at least, AT LEAST, 5 minutes a day and pray before and after sinceramente, and you will know that these things are true. You will never desire to do any wrong once you understand the right. But hes the problem, Satan is real. Never let your standard lower to let him in. Nobody is perfect, but if we always pray and read, we will be alright. I know this church is true and i dont know how i could doubt it. I would be home or studying or fishing or something else if it wasnt true. But it is, and im here only trying to change lives.

I love you guys, hope all is well at home

Love Elder Farnsworth

OH i forgot! We had lunch saturday with members and they decided it was a good idea to have everything sea food.....First salad with locos which was muscle or oyster or something i dont know. Then a soup with like everything imaginable. I still feel a little sick. Stupid mariscos..I ate all of it tho. And they eat so much tomates here so thats like kinda normal now. 

Hola familia!! Man this week flew by. But ya im healthy now thanks mom! No for your question about the office. We dont go there every week, we have Clase de Distrito every Wednesday and someone from the office brings all the letters and stuff to our District. But this week we didnt have it, but we had a conference with the Area President Viñas! He is like 70 and seems like hes 40. Hes so cool! But it was all about the Atonement and how we should use it to change our lives and change the lives of our investigators. 

But this week was cool, i dont know it seemed so short so i dont even know what happened. But we teach a family and this week we have a family and the dad had a birthday Tuesday and the wife Thursday. So we brought them some cake both days and that was pretty cool to just talk with them and get to know them and build confidence. I dont know, it was mainly my companion that really wanted to and he bought the cake too so i guess i cant complain. But we had some many interesting/funny lessons. So first something a little scary, well i was fine but like idk how you will react haha. BUT, we had just bought stuff for the house and we were going to lunch with the people with always eat with, and we saw this super sad looking man on the curb. Elder Sovero had just bought some cookies and he shared a few cause the guy was like homeless. We talked with him and he shared his story. Then since he was interested, we shared a quick lesson with him. When we started to pray with him before we left, i felt a hand pushing on my head really hard (cause we were sitting on the curb) and this man comes around in front of me. He asked what we are doing and who we are. Then he yelled at us to get away from 'his son' and said he hated gringos. He started like yelling stupid things like ''im spanish and you are ingles'' and said inglaterra which is England (i dont know...) haha but like he tried to show cigarettes in my mouth and was like going crazy haha but we just left. Oh and my comp tried to start to pray and the crazy man hit him when he bowed his head, so we couldnt pray. But it was like weird idk, i wasnt scared, but the Spirit left us so fast when he came.

And then we had like 3 lessons with other people who had really strong religious beliefs and they just called us liars and said our prophet gets paid a lot and we are rich but our prophet doesnt even get paid so? idk haha super funny. 

But we had really good lessons with families. We teach one family and they are soooo nice and the little girl reads so much of the Book of Mormon. They are super cool. And another family is part member but the mom is menos activo. Like 3 of them are atheist, but this last lesson, they were asking really good questions. And now they like have a desire to believe. Like right now they are uncertain but they are now willing to try what we say at least, so i have hope. We still have english class every Saturday which is pretty cool! Oh, and i gave a talk yesterday ayyyyyy! Bishop called the night before and its super weird, they talk about chapters of the Book of Mormon, not about topics or whatever like us. So it was super weird cause usually it is like 3 or 4 chapters. Bishop assigned me 12 chapters and my companion 3. So i went to work all that morning on Sunday and wrote some stuff haha. BUT, we get there and the Hermana before me starts talking on chapter 15 thru 18. SO when i get up there, Bishop says ''Only chapter 19 thru 22 now ok'' hahah! I only had 2 lines written for those chapters but i feel good about my talk. 

Man i guess thats it for this week. Its raining right now but all good. The photos are Elder Sovero eating in our study room hahaah and some of the clouds we had over the mountains. No sé what else like i forget everything haha. But ya, Love you guys!!

Elder Farnsworth

MOM! I couldnt watch the video, it like sent me to some Google thing and said i didnt have the account so i dont know how to watch it. Man im so excited for him. Orlando Florida!! Thats so sick! I wish i could watch his video. But oh well...The photos are of our house. We live on the 2nd floor and the other picture is out the window of our kitchen to all the tin roofs. Its on Mapocho Sur is the street in Cerro Navia and our chapel is on Galvarino. I dont know if that helps to find it on google maps. But i can receive pictures and videos i dont know. they have to be different i guess. But oh well. 

So this week was kinda dumb cause we had a lot of stuff that stopped us from working. We still have to transfer stuff from the old house, we had a service project which was kinda a waste of time, and it was raining a ton for one or two days. We tried to work but there was nobody in the street and we didnt have appointments then. We can knock doors causes thats like frowned upon here and also ever house has gates...its so weird. And im kinda sick..its like bronchitus or whatever. I just cough a ton thats it. The air is so bad here and it is cold. 

We had quite a few good lessons this week. We taught a new family for the second time and this lessson was super good. My comp said Si o Si, vamos a bautizarse haha basically no doubt, they are getting baptised. And also we went to an investigators house and her husband was talking with us and we taught him the first lesson and now we are going to teach them together. And one of our street contacts invited us to teach her yesterday. We taught her the first lesson and she started crying in it cause her son was a type of missionary for another church and now he doesnt even believe in God. I felt prompted to promise her that her life would have more peace and her son was figure out his life if she was willing to pray and read about our message. Then like 3 minutes later, the son (who is like 25) came in the room and Elder Sovero invited him to join us. He taught the first lesson to him like really fast, so technically it was two lessons. Both of them seemed touched by the message and i have hope for them. We are going back next Sunday. 

And a little funnier, we went to an investigators house that i didnt know yet. He was drunk at like 4 in the afternoon and he was asking me if i missed my family and stuff. He said now that he is my friend and new family. He took me on a tour of his little house while Elder Sovero talked with his friend, I was so scared honestly...I thought i was going to die, especially when he made me come in his attic with him. He made me sit down and he just like talked about random stuff. And he started crying about his life but like he was so drunk all i understood was that he has parkinsons and something about his son or dad i dont know.. I was terrified hahahaha. 

AND BEST PART OF ALL! WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE! BOO YAH it was so cool. And there was like a blue green light in the sky for like 3 seconds because like a power transformer or something blew up. I was Cooking eggs hahaah and it just started shaking! I heard there was some in Florida and Cali too? Danggggg my investigators better get baptised cause the second coming is here! haha nah but like it was so cool.

Miss you guys! 

Love Elder Farnsworth

First Letter from the Field!

MOM! Hola holaaa..hahah when we greet people on the street, it is always 2 holas haha. Mannnn where do i start? I guess from 2 weeks ago. We had proseltismo in the CCM which was super cool. I went with 2 latinos to the Este mision for a couple of hours. But other wise the rest of the CCM was pretty chill. Just orientations and other stuff. I finished the Doctrine and Convenants there too! So basically all the Joseph Smith stuff with Pearl of Great Price that i finished like 4 weeks ago. We watched the Joseph Smith movie i dont know what it was but it was super cool that we got to watch it since I had been focusing on him so much in the CCM. But it was such a strong testimony builder of Him. I know he is a prophet with no doubt. 

We left for the mission after breakfast Tuesday and we met Presidente and his wife and the APs at the CCM! Presidente is so cool! I couldnt stop smiling in the interview with him cause he was just super cool. Then we like waited around forever and had a snack and then lunch. By the way, the snack is basically lunch and lunch is huge like bigger than our dinner. But they dont really eat dinner. We do but its called Once like 11 for some reason. But we eat lunch with the same members every day. But we pay them, its basically a restaurante. But anyways, we waited til our trainers came and im with Elder Sovero! Hes from Peru and has 13 months in the mission. How did you know i had a Latino? You wrote that you knew already.We are assigned to San Pablo Este Zona in Galvarino 1 Barrio with two other Elders in the ward. It is kinda like the south of our mission i think. But we live with the other two Elders cause the old house they stayed in is like super bad and has mold. But its so fun with 4 people. Just super cramped sometimes cause we have one bathroom. And it is tan frio in the mornings like super cold. No central heating at all. We have little heater plug in things. Oh but the house is on Mapocho Sur if you are trying to look it up. The other Elders are Elder Brady from Arizona in Queen Creek! and Elder Covinos from LA area who is super cool too. 

This week, we mainly focused on all these niños who are all like cousins and brothers and live together like 8 of these little kids plus the adults who we never seen and older kids in a little house. But we teach 4 of the kids (oldest 15 and youngest 8) and one other is already baptized. And some less active people and one old guy who we set a baptismal date the other day for. But he needs to stop smoking. And also we teach a english class every saturday which is funny cause i need to know more spanish but im teaching English. But actually the spanish is coming really well now. It was hard and it is still hard to understand many people. But there are many that i understand everything. And its hard to talk sometimes too but oh well.

On Friday, we had to return to the office for Fase 1 which is like another orientation all day. But it was alright and I got my package! So ill get packages and letters on Wednesday if there was any for that week. Send them all to the mission home and though USPS not FEDEX or not UPS or whatever else private ones. 

This Sunday was cool too. I had to present myself to the ward but that was all good. We gave a blessing to this older man who has a lot of pain and is bedridden. I annoited the oil which i didnt know how to do in spanish but i figured it out haha. Then we had a Noche de Hogar with a part member less active family and taught the Restauraccion to them. It went well except the father doesnt want to accept the information. Hopefully he will pray and read because other wise he isnt going to find out. But no, all is super bien right now. We are cleaning and moving stuff around in the house after this. I might send a photo of our house as of this morning its pretty comical. Oh and the other fotos are of me and Hermano Spolmann the best teacher in the CCM and me and Elder Sovero!

Love you !! Miss you all

Elder Farnsworth

 

4 Elders in a room= a mess!

Hermano Spolmann- CCM Teacher