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| Elders Lawton & West |
Hola! ‘Sup! Que Tal! And other
rookie Spanish phrases...
A few weeks ago when we had the
world of service activity, there was a baptism right after it in centro. We
didn't have time to change. So we went in our hoodies and jeans and I felt
really uncomfortable, ha-ha.
Elder Ryan and I were also
laughing about how as missionaries we are like that kid no one wants to hang
out with.
Some Elders with a really nice
house up north barely escaped their house with their lives. It caught on fire
and burned down on Sept. 18.
Yesterday, my new trainer, Elder
Lawton (hi Lawton family!!), and I talked to a man who was drunk. We shook his hand
about 6 times. And he had an ax in his backpack. While we were talking to him,
he almost fell over backwards because he was pretty sloshed. That ax would
have done some damage to his back.
Yesterday, this super evangelico
guy let us in. We talked about God, and he was super open and everything and
said how we were inspired to teach the word. We tried to tell him about
priesthood authority, but it went nowhere. He said the closing prayer. I closed
my eyes and the next thing I new he was standing over us, all 5 ft. something
of him, with his arms raised to the heavens, and then he pronounced a very
evangelico blessing on us. Pretty cool.
Last week before Elder Ryan left,
we tried out running for our exercise time. We can sprint walk everywhere. But
after running a hill, I was bent over and open-mouth-fat-guy-breathing and all.
Ha-ha Wow, I’ve come a long way since ultimate frisbee season.
This last Sunday, our church attendance
was 63!!! Normally, it is about 40. We are working hard, and the members are
working through branch council with assignments, and we are seeing some legit
growth.
Yesterday on our walking home,
after unsuccessfully knocking a lot of doors, Elder Lawton and I sang hymns on
our way home. I was choked-up with the Spirit. I loved singing. The words
brought me comfort, refreshed perspective, hope, faith, and the Spirit. I felt
relaxed. I´m grateful Elder Lawton is willing to sing with me. There is power
in the hymns. Elder Lawton is from Utah. His mom is from Central America. He
went to a year of BYU before, and I know that the Lord has a lot for me to
learn from him. He his super humble and a hard worker. He strongly desires to
be obedient. He is a good missionary. He will finish up my training.
Elder Lawton has helped me a lot
with stress. This week has been the most stressful of my life. I´m basically
like senior companion because I was using the phone, paid the bills, lead the
planning sessions, and worked with the members. None of that because I’m great
and all, but just because I know the area better. I've done a lot of growing up
this week.
Yesterday, we made contact with a
guy from England who married a menos activo in our ward. He is super cool. He
is super ready to come back to the truth. And he can´t speak Spanish, so we are
going to help teach him that. We also just got the info from a girl living here
from the US. We will visit her too.
Other than that, I´M AMPED FOR
CONFERENCE!!! I have never been more
excited in my life. It is like Christmas. We are going to watch it (hopefully
in English) in the church in centro. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet,
and the Apostles are literal apostles. I´m super pumped to hear the new
apostles too. I think we will have a competition in our house to see who can guess
the 3 new ones.
Helaman 3:35 helped me a lot this
week. I have been working on humbling myself, because I’m getting humbled
again, and I want to help the Lord help me and teach me. And that can only
happen if I’m humble. Helaman 3:35 says if I humble myself, and strengthen my
faith in Christ, then I am yielding my heart to God which will bring me joy and
consolation in any kind of situation I am in. I know that is true.
I love you all! I need your
prayers for my stress. I´m praying for you all!!
Love,
Elder West
Sent from a rented Chilean
computer.
To the family:
Dad- PMG makes me so happy. You
are being blessed for reading it. Keep sharing it with the kids. I’m praying
for that. I love Kyle’s games. Allison brings me SO much joy with all of the
good decisions she is making. I just learned how to copy and paste. So I’ll hit
you up with more stories if I write them to others. How is BYU football? I
heard to only send packages through the US postal service. Kevin better keep
playing that guitar! I love you!
Mom- that’s way cool that you
talked with Abby. She mentioned that and said you are such a great person.
Thanks for the updates with the kids. Allison makes me so happy. Sherri is a
great manager, actually the greatest. I don’t know about all of the prices for
food, but I’m learning. Thanks for all the recipes. I don’t really have time,
even on p-days to make it all, but I’m learning more how to cook. Elder
Peterson’s comp that lives in the house with me knows how to cook really well,
and he has promised to teach me.
Rachel- Congrats with your sports
and thanks for the letter to me this week. You are a dang athletic guuuuurl!
Allison- we were safe on the
18th. Thanks for your prayers. We couldn’t feel the earthquake here. Keep being
a great example. I like seriously want to cry because of all the good things
you are doing. I love you so much and keep it up.
Dad, Wendy sent me a kind email,
please thank her. Aunt Katherine too. Please
thank her and tell her that I almost cried with the Spirit when I read that all
the dozens of little cousins are praying for me daily.
Love Elder West
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| La familia Quintero |
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| Another Chilean dog |
