Merry Christmas

12/25/2006

Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy christmassssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Hope everyone has a very very Merry Christmas. We celebrated Christmas last night at a house of some new members. We ate dinner; we were there with the elders in our ward too. They have been members for like 7 months or something, not very much time. We ate dinner, sang Christmas songs, shared a scripture, hung out, took pictures, ate a little dessert, they don’t eat deserts like we do. It was really good. We stayed out past curfew but we live really close and plus it is Christmas, but it really doesn’t seem. Like Christmas really. At alllllllllllllll .


Oh and with ward leadership, i don’t know with all the elder stuff, as far as things in our ward and in general, all the missionaries, girls and boys, go to ward council. Every month we go. There are areas where the elders are Branch presidents and counselors the Branch presidency. That is all i know as far as that goes, not here in Punta Arenas but in other places.

So i was reading erica´s blog that she sent me, it is amazing how much alli really looks up to me with her soccer and well with everything. I don’t know what i did because after i left for school i hadn’t even been around her that much. But it is really cute.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, i opened my presents!!!!!!! Thanks you for everything. Thank you soooooooooo much for the uggs, I have been wearing them all over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo darn comfortable. I loveeeeeeeeee them. They made me sooooooooo happy. A couple members gave us presents too, that was really nice.

Field Trip this Week

12/18/2006

Well hello family. It is a little late to hear from me today. We are going to hear from me very quickly as well.

I got Tara’s invite last week. I can’t believe that Paige has my room now, that is crazy. I also got a letter from Nelson and Di which is amazing, well on email. It went a long way because Nelson isn’t much of a writer, so I appreciate it. And no, I haven’t gotten anything stolen yet since I have been here. Oh yeah, and thanks for telling me all the good things you all eat that I can’t eat here that are my favs.

So I have a request, you guys need to send my all the church music you have and send it to me. You need send my xmas music and whatever else. That Would be great. Thanks. .

I opened the present from LeAnne because she doesn’t believe in waiting for Christmas and so I opened it today but it was the only one. Thank you for those LeAnne, that was nice of you to think of me. J

We had our conference this week. It was really really really good. We have a lotttttt more work. Before the goal was to have 15 lessons every week and now we have 30 lessons everyyyyyyyy week. We were having a hard time with the 15. they have practically doubled our work. We worked sooooooo hard this week. We need to have 5 investigators at church every week, 5 with baptism dates every week and 10 new investigators every week. A ton. we are doubling our numbers and our faith at the same time. We saw a lot of miracles. We went on my first splits, it was awesome. I loved it. I went with a sister in the ward who is a member one year and she is awesome. Her testimony was so powerful, it was so awesome. I love going on splits, a small break from my comp as well. She was doing so awesome this week after the conference. The conference is always such a lift. So she was teaching all over the place and taking initiative. But it has kina of died off a little bit. So we are back we were. She teaches awesome, she is a great teacher, she just needs to open her mouth. She just needs to teach, but she always makes me talk. She is so good though. I don’t know how to get her to talk to the people or to talk to me. Now I know how hna agurto felt with me but it is not my language. Pero, bueno. Esta es la vida.

Pres Faulkner always talks with such power, if I could just have the faith he has. You can feel the spirit so strongly with him. He promised us there are people in our sector to find, teach, baptize, and they Hill be leaders in our ward, it was so powerful – we just have to be obedient and receptive to the spirit to find them.

So, hna agurto sent a card for me with hna Faulkner. It was so nice. She said so many nice things about me and how we are a lot more than comps but close friends because we went through a lot together. It was so nice, she had a lot of good things to say about me. It made me feel really good, we really did go through a lot together and had a lottttttt of really good times. It was awesome, she sent my a Christmas present too.

So we went to a place called fuerte, i don’t remember. It was a little far away and on the water, it was a lot of fun. I hung out with the other gringa. It was a lot of fun.

So i really did realize that I absolutely love teaching about the restored gospel. It is so simple and so perfect. God{s plan really is so completely perfect. The more and more i teach it the more and more i know that it is true. It is perfect. I don’t have words to describe it other than that, that it is perfect. And we are so blessed to have it.

Give Tara my congrats and mike too

I don’t know if i can email this next week with being Christmas because i don’t know if they are going to be open or not. I will do the best I can to write. I hope everybody has a very happy holidays and remembers really what Christmas is, it is about Christ, and not just his birth but everything that we can accomplish through what he did. He did everything for us and what do we give back in return, one day of the week, one holiday of the year, i am realizing how much i lack to return and live with my heavenly father. I have never seen so many of my faults before, we have so much to work on to return to live with him but what is great, nothing. Just think about what Christ really means to you and if he really means something, than do something with those feelings and show him through your actions and obey. It is so simple. The gospel is simple and narrow. That lord lives, i feel his love everyday. I witness to people everyday that we are truly representatives of him as members and missionaries, but do our actions really show that we are. We teach and bear our souls to the strangers in the street. But yet i have never felt so confidant in the thing that i am saying and sharing because i mean it with all my Heart and soul. We have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I feel the spirit every day and i know others do around me, especially when they act all awkward and don’t know what to do. We are privileged in this live. Show that you are really grateful. Don’t forget why we are really in this World, not to work or have Money or have things. Love ya all.

Merry Christmas to all.

I will talk to you on Saturday……….. awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I am about to have been on my mission for 6 monthssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. The time has gone sooooooooooooooooooooo fast. Incredibely fast, and 4 months in chileeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Awwwwwwwww, i need to get work, this is going wayyyyyyy too fast.

It's Still Cold Here in Chile

12/11/2006

Well family, yet another week here in the cold cold Chile. I didn’t read all of what you guys wrote me, I will read it afterwards. I usually have my planner with me to remind me of everything that I want to write but I forgot it at the house today. I sent your Christmas present just now to everyone. I don’t know how long it will take to get it but it should be there in about three weeks or so. So not a whole lot has happened. We have had just about nothing this week. Nobody is at home, nobody will receive us into their houses. I walked soooooooooo much this week. We walked almost all day everyday. It Is really hard this transfer.

Thank you for the Christmas package with the Christmas stuff, we have the stockings up in the house and the mini tree, the cookies and all were really really good, well there are still some left. The hot chocolate too because they don’t have hot chocolate like we do. And with how cold it is here, it I so nice to drink something hot and yummy .so thank you so much Erica, it was really thoughtful of you.

I hope that LeAnne and Justin enjoy their new house. I have to say it would be really weird to live in the house you grew up in with your husband and family I wouldn’t want it but I am happy for them. They are really lucky and will really enjoy a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee house. You know that LeAnne will take good care of it too. She is good like that. I got a letter from nelson and Di today but I haven’t read it yet.

So we had a really special lesson this week. It was with new members; about 6 months ago they were baptized. We were talking about the goal of going to the temple as a family and how it is making higher covenants with god and how it is the way to enter in the kingdom of god. We got talking about a lot of other doctrines. We are so focused on the basics of the gospel all of the time, the intro of the gospel, which I love. But there was a spirit there that was so different that we don’t normally feel. It was so much stronger and powerful. We were taking about the mentally sick and how they don’t need to be tested on this earth and they don’t have sins. We were also talking about being able to be married in the temple. My comp has only been a member for five years and the only member in her family .so it was a good thing that I understood what was going on because other wise they would have been teaching false doctrines. But that is not important. It was amazing the spirit that was there in that house. It was so powerful; we left like we were walking on air. Like we were so happy and just felt so good. Seriously, it was such a different spirit. It was the highlight of the week.

So the president emailed me last week, I am going to give you what he wrote. Because it was really powerful. Seriously, I have felt like I have been doing everything, I know how hna agurto felt with me now, but I at least didn´t know the language.

Hermana Pratt,

Help sister Moreno understand that negative thoughts and conversation about the ward, members, or others is not productive and will offend the Spirit. Help her realize the affects of positive feelings.

Don't get to worried about what the ward is not doing and focus on what you two need to accomplish with or without their help. You were sent there to find, teach and baptize.

Perhaps, the Lord sent sister Moreno to you to help her overcome her negative perspective of others?

Con Carino,
Carl Faulkner


I am learning a lot. The people are telling me now that I used to never talk and now they can’t shut me up, which is true. Because I actually understand what people are saying to me. It is seriously a huge miracle in my life, the lord has helped me so much. I can’t believe how much i can communicate with the people here, obviously I still don’t understand everything but soooooooo much better than before. It is a miracle. We have our conference tomorrow with the pres. it will be good. but hna Faulkner told hna agurto that I don’t want to work, hna agurto is like, ummmm, she knows me better than that, I think she got a little confused with my companion . Yeah, so it is really hard this transfer for me because before when I would get tired or lazy my comp would push us and when she was lazy I would carry us. This time, if I slack off, we don’t do anything. I think she is trying though. Some people just don’t work as hard as others. i think she honestly thinks she is doing her best and isn’t doing anything wrong. some people just see things differently. That is life.

Yeah, I hope you guys are all great and that all is well, tell all the kids hi for me and there is something for everyone in the mail. something small but still, something. I will write next week with more info about calling, like with the number and everything. we are still here and I am trying to work as hard as I can without slacking and to find those people waiting, patience is accepting the timing of the lord, I am working on accepting the timing of the lord. Until next week. cuidense.
love, Jamie

Mission Drama!

Look at these skies in Punta Areans. Pretty Pretty

12/4/2006

Well family, it is yet another week down in the ole mission.
Mom, I got my package last Monday, thank you sooooooooooooo much. Are you sure I can’t open my presents, how difficult, a full month with them and I can’t do anything with them. Thanks for the brownies and jerky and chapstick and total, my favsssssssssss, it made me smile huge thank you so much. You are too funny with the clothes, that is for sure.

To answer some of your questions, no I am not senor comp but I am pretty much having to do everything because my comp is a little lazy and not taking any initiative. I am learning a lot this transfer with her. There are a lotttttttt of things really really different.
So I have talked with some more gringos and just other latinos too and I am realizing that I am learning Spanish with a little more ease than some of the other people. It is hard. I am realizing that I have been really really really blessed with how much I know, people in the ward are saying to me all the time now that I am a whole different person, and I tell them, yeah it is because I can actually talk and understand things, that is why. so really, I need to count my blessing more with how blessed I really am with it.

So I am learning that there is even drama on the mission amongst the hnas. I found out that hna morphis talked about me all the time and how we are friends. It made me feel good, even as crazy as she is and even as hard as it was for me, I am glad that I was able to treat her well enough that she would still think nice things. Nothing bad happened with us, just she drove me crazy. I don’t want to talk about the drama but let’s just say my comp is a lot more difficult this go around.

How is chan, I never hear from her or the Powell’s either, they can all email me. I want to know how it is all going. Chan would be proud of me, I floss almost everyday.

Mom you would die, we ate, clams, raw, and I had to chokeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it down, it was almost one of the worst experiences of my life. Terrible to say the least.

There is an inactive sister in the ward who can barely walk and can’t read. She has her patriarchal blessing and she wanted us to read it for her, it was really weird reading someone else’s but it was one of the coolest things ever at the same time. It is amazing how powerful they are and how many promises we can really have if we live our lives correctly, it was weird in Spanish too but I understood it. It was so awesome. Seriously, the work that we do In this life is so important. We have so much we have to do. The people on the other side are waiting for us to help them, even in the next life we need to help them. Our ancestors are relying on us and the things that we do here and if we live our lives righteously. We have so much work to do here.

So we had two investigators this week tell us that they know the book of mormon is true but they aren’t married and he is not divorced because it is too expensive!!!!!!!!!! Satan works in all ways. It is one of the saddest things ever. Seriously, we also had another lady tell us that she wants to be baptized, but she lives with a guy who is not divorced either. My heart hurts for these people but it is ssooooooooo hard to get divorced here. So hard.
I have also realized how much the members really need to work and how we need to be proactive. We had a sister come with us this week and we found an inactive, it is amazing how much better is was with her there and not just us as missionaries. The ward members are the key to the mission work. Seriously. Our work is in vain without them.

So yeah, I am having to do everything here. The president emailed me this week and told me that I have to be an example and be positive and show my companion that she can’t complain and stress about how bad our ward is all the time. When we are with other people she doesn’t want any thing to do with me. It is so hard to stay strong when your companion isn’t that strong. So he told me I have to be tough and there is a reason the lord put us together. I was a little taken back because it is always a little scary to hear from him. I am fine though. I am learning a lot and really learning to love the people because they are who I constantly think about. My mentality is really changing and I am losing English and so when I talk to you at Christmas oh noo.

The gas, I forgot dad, I will look at it for you. But you all need to do me a favor. Please stay close to the church. I have seen so much t hat just kills me when the people fall away. Things are so much better when we are close to the lord. At times I can’t believe that theses people lives are so terrible. I have learned so much about the lord. At times I can’t believe how much faith the people have either. They have so much more than me. Seriously it is absolutely amazing.
sorry that i am not too exciting. i am just going day by day, trying to be as obedient as i can but it is hard when your other half is not encouraging you to do so. Really, the church is true and Christ works miracles in our lives every day. he is working in mine every minute and he is blessing me with the ability to share these things with the people here in Spanish and that i can understand them. i need more faith in him and all things are possible through our faith and our actions of faith. What a marvelous work it really is. we are blessed with this great knowledge in our lives.

love ya all. until next week.