Hola unos amados,
Wow, time flies when you really get yourself involved in the work. It´s already been two weeks and SO much has happened, but I only get one hour of email on p-days and i have to write to our mission president and read an bunch of emails. ¡Demasiado estres! Pero, esta bien. Me gusta la obra misional muchisimo y estoy muy ocupado con enseñar muchas personas del Evangelio de Jesucristo Restaurado en el Mundo. I´m trying to write a little bit in Spanish cuz I am struggling a bit in the language still. I wanna understand the people that we meet but It´s so difficult when they speak so fast! I get an hour of extra lanuguage stury everyday for my first two changes (6 weeks each change) as a greeny. I love my companion because he is so strong, supportive, knows Spanish well and expects a lot. We are hoping for two baptisms this month because that is the goal that our mission president gave us but it is coming down to the wire! We have sergio (72 years old) that I talked a little bit about last week. He has been coming to church for the past 3 years and his grand-daughter, who he looks after, just got baptized last month. He kept making up ridiculous excuses until last week when we shared a powerful lesson and he finally told us what was keeping him from getting baptized. I can´t say what but it deeply humbled me and I have such a bigger desire to help the people here. There are so many people here with many problems and I KNOW the Gosple is here to bless them but they are blinded by the social aspect of religion. Almost everyone here is Evangelist or Catholic and think that being religious means having a bunch of pictures of Christ hanging in your house. My companion and I are going to work a ton harder to listen for the REAL doubts of people to help them faster. We are also going to try to incorporate the members of the branch more often even though a lot of them live so far apart. I love the Gospel and the sacrifice and message of our Savior Jesus Christ. This work is true and the Gospel of Christ is restored! I love you all! Hasta proxima semana!
Love,
Elder Boaz
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Josh's first week in Chile!
¿Qué tal todos?
It´s so nice to type on a Spanish keyboard and be able to type all of the spanish characters that I want. But it´s tough at the same time cuz I am trying to talk in english and it keeps correcting me to spanish. Hhaaha! Just so you know, our P-days here are on Mondays but it depends when we write our emails. Wow, there has been so much to get use to here that I don´t know where to start. I don´t remember if I told you about our house but it´s nice. It is just the two of us in our sector so we are only two living in our house. We live in a duplex in the back of a cul-de-sac. Overall, the house is nice for humble conditions. I have a greater respect for the Chilean culture here. Out here, the houses aren´t amazing to look at but when you go inside, the people really make their houses look quality nice. The work is awesome here. I won´t lie, I have had a rough first week with working with Elder Abrams but it was exciting and so worth it. I love the gospel and having the opportunity to share with every person we walk past on the street or their house. The first day we were here, we had a district meeting and I got to meet my Zone and district. My district leader is Elder Alvarez from Argentina and he is a really good teacher. We learned about making effective contacts and how we can share the Gospel mor short and powerful. That is what President Resek wants in the mission: that we make our lessons no longer than 30 minutes because if they are short and powerful, then we can leave when the spirit is the strongest and have them wanting more.
The people here are very friendly as I have been told before the mission but they have about 10 excuses that everyone uses when we want to share a message…. “I´m Catholic or Evangelist”(popular), “I work all the time.” “I´m never home.” “All religions lead to God.” “Estoy Ocupado ( I´m busy).” That´s the most popular one. Anyways, we have a baptism date coming up for two investigators on June 20th with a father named Juan in Lo Miranda and Sergio who has been active in the church for 3 years but does not wanna get baptized yet cuz he´s not ready for the committment. It´s not the best excuse cuz he´s 72 and wouldn´t really have any responsibilities in the ward. We´re visiting him today to see if he prayed about the baptism date that we gave to him. We are haveing the privilege to here from Elder Tallin H. Oaks of the Twelve Apostles on June 16th at our Mission Conference. I am SO excited!!!!!!
The language is a DEFINITE struggle fro me right now cuz all of the Chilenos speak so fast and it´s almost like I learned nothing in the MTC but everyday I am progressing and my companion is an AMAZING trainer. Elder Abrams is so supportive but he doesn´t baby me. I am so grateful for his hard working nature and wanting to progress and set goals like me. This is going to be a great first companionship of my mission. I feel like we are going to work amazing together. He knows spanish very well and I want to learn spanish very well, so I feel like with time, I will get better. I have more to tell you so I will write a letter that will go with this email. I love you all and thank you for your support. Thank you again. No vemos.
Con Amor,
Elder Boaz
P.S. Next week I will send pictures and give you a big list of emails to forward all of my emails to so I am being obedient. Lol. Thanks Mom and Paps!
It´s so nice to type on a Spanish keyboard and be able to type all of the spanish characters that I want. But it´s tough at the same time cuz I am trying to talk in english and it keeps correcting me to spanish. Hhaaha! Just so you know, our P-days here are on Mondays but it depends when we write our emails. Wow, there has been so much to get use to here that I don´t know where to start. I don´t remember if I told you about our house but it´s nice. It is just the two of us in our sector so we are only two living in our house. We live in a duplex in the back of a cul-de-sac. Overall, the house is nice for humble conditions. I have a greater respect for the Chilean culture here. Out here, the houses aren´t amazing to look at but when you go inside, the people really make their houses look quality nice. The work is awesome here. I won´t lie, I have had a rough first week with working with Elder Abrams but it was exciting and so worth it. I love the gospel and having the opportunity to share with every person we walk past on the street or their house. The first day we were here, we had a district meeting and I got to meet my Zone and district. My district leader is Elder Alvarez from Argentina and he is a really good teacher. We learned about making effective contacts and how we can share the Gospel mor short and powerful. That is what President Resek wants in the mission: that we make our lessons no longer than 30 minutes because if they are short and powerful, then we can leave when the spirit is the strongest and have them wanting more.
The people here are very friendly as I have been told before the mission but they have about 10 excuses that everyone uses when we want to share a message…. “I´m Catholic or Evangelist”(popular), “I work all the time.” “I´m never home.” “All religions lead to God.” “Estoy Ocupado ( I´m busy).” That´s the most popular one. Anyways, we have a baptism date coming up for two investigators on June 20th with a father named Juan in Lo Miranda and Sergio who has been active in the church for 3 years but does not wanna get baptized yet cuz he´s not ready for the committment. It´s not the best excuse cuz he´s 72 and wouldn´t really have any responsibilities in the ward. We´re visiting him today to see if he prayed about the baptism date that we gave to him. We are haveing the privilege to here from Elder Tallin H. Oaks of the Twelve Apostles on June 16th at our Mission Conference. I am SO excited!!!!!!
The language is a DEFINITE struggle fro me right now cuz all of the Chilenos speak so fast and it´s almost like I learned nothing in the MTC but everyday I am progressing and my companion is an AMAZING trainer. Elder Abrams is so supportive but he doesn´t baby me. I am so grateful for his hard working nature and wanting to progress and set goals like me. This is going to be a great first companionship of my mission. I feel like we are going to work amazing together. He knows spanish very well and I want to learn spanish very well, so I feel like with time, I will get better. I have more to tell you so I will write a letter that will go with this email. I love you all and thank you for your support. Thank you again. No vemos.
Con Amor,
Elder Boaz
P.S. Next week I will send pictures and give you a big list of emails to forward all of my emails to so I am being obedient. Lol. Thanks Mom and Paps!
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
I'm in Chile now!!!
As of right now, it is 8:30 PM, I´m in an internet café and my companion is sitting on the ground next to me. This is amazing!!! This plane flight was the longest flight I had ever been on in my life and I am dead from it. We left the MTC at 5 AM, got on our flight to L.A. at 8:35, had a 3 hour layover in LA, then flew 7 hours down to Lima, Peru to get gas, and then fly 3 more hours to Santiago where we got there at 4 AM. With the time change and by the time we got to the President´s house and everything, it was about a 25 hour trip. We were exhausted when we got to the President´s house. It was sooooo good to hear from everyone in the family except for the girls. I feel so bad that I missed their lunch time during school. Soy triste. :( Pero, esta bien. I feel like I´m already learning so much more just from listening, speaking , and using the language. I´m engulfed in it and I love it. Now, as for my president. He is a tall, lanky, friendly, and loving man. I have a deep love for him already cuz I know he is inspired. He welcomed us with huge open arms when we got to his house from the airport. He talked to us as a group for about 20 minutes and allowed us to go take naps for about 2 1/2 hours. We woke up, met the AP´s (Elder Duarte from El Salvador and Elder Cannon from Salt Lake City), took showers in his house and were interviewed. Then, we had breakfast which was so good! The juice they have here is SO delicious! But I´m probably gonna get cancer cuz it had Aspartine in it. Sorry dad! Lol. We went into Rancagua to the mission office after to go through an orientation and ERASE our Myspace and Facebook accounts. My heart is broken. Mom, and the girls can´t keep up no my facebook group anymore cuz they don´t want any elder being distracted. I would never use it, but they had some problems with other Elders using it in the past. Oh well. When i get home and Log on to my mission, I can create my account and it will be the same account again.
My companion is Elder Abrams from Star Valley, Wyoming. He is an awesome, down to earth guy. I can already tell that we´re going to have a good relationship. He is a hard worker (Elder Cannon "AP" told me). He knows the lanuage well, and he is very humble. He played soccer and football in high school and we have a lot in common. In our sector, we are the only two elders living in a house to ourselves. It´s really nice. We are living in Doñihue, Chile which is south west of Rancagua for about 30 minutes. While speaking with some of the other trainers that were getting some of the Gringos, I felt comfortable with talking to them. I could understand for the most part but still need Elder Abram´s help. He is so supportive. While I have been talking, they feel like my Spanish is better than normal at the beginning which is nice but I don´t think so. I can´t wait to learn more and more Spanish. It´s been one day and I´ve learned a lot. By, the way, it was so COOL to talk to Autin on the phone in Spanish and understand him while we were talking. I could actually reply as well! Well, we´ve gotta get back to the house for the night, so I will talk to you all later. ¡Nos vemos!
Con amor,
Elder Boaz.......de Chile Rancagua Misión
My companion is Elder Abrams from Star Valley, Wyoming. He is an awesome, down to earth guy. I can already tell that we´re going to have a good relationship. He is a hard worker (Elder Cannon "AP" told me). He knows the lanuage well, and he is very humble. He played soccer and football in high school and we have a lot in common. In our sector, we are the only two elders living in a house to ourselves. It´s really nice. We are living in Doñihue, Chile which is south west of Rancagua for about 30 minutes. While speaking with some of the other trainers that were getting some of the Gringos, I felt comfortable with talking to them. I could understand for the most part but still need Elder Abram´s help. He is so supportive. While I have been talking, they feel like my Spanish is better than normal at the beginning which is nice but I don´t think so. I can´t wait to learn more and more Spanish. It´s been one day and I´ve learned a lot. By, the way, it was so COOL to talk to Autin on the phone in Spanish and understand him while we were talking. I could actually reply as well! Well, we´ve gotta get back to the house for the night, so I will talk to you all later. ¡Nos vemos!
Con amor,
Elder Boaz.......de Chile Rancagua Misión
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