Just Movin' and Groovin' Aqui en Padre Hurtado

 

Dear Family and Friends, 

Wow, another week in the best mission on Earth! So this week was once again just filled with experiences! First though, I wanted to tell you guys this when I left the CCM, but Elder Leavitt(My first comp) knew Elder Wilson! Haha small world. Tanner was in his ward before he left. Elder Leavitt really liked him, but hated him once his girlfriend said he was hot. I didn´t actually find out that he knew Elder Wilson until our last week in the CCM. I just never asked, and he knew Tanner was from Colorado, but he figured that there was no way that I knew him. He described him as kinda reserved and he could draw super, super well, and I immediately was like…YEAH THAT´S TANNER WILSON! So crazy, Mormons have connections everywhere. So there ya go Wilson family. Elder Leavitt says that Elder Wilson was awesome and he always would watch him draw during Elders Qourum.

So I´m basically just going to hit the highlights of this week. I gave my fist blessing of comfort all in spanish to Hermana Marisol who is completely inactive, but is the mom of Alexander and Brian who we´ve been teaching since my first day here. She has cancer and she is just really struggling right now. We were going to give a blessing for the sick and afflicted, but we didm´t have any oil on us… but the next day we went over to give her a blessing with oil and she was feeling a lot better so I guess my blessing of comfort really helped her.  Elder Ortíz said that the blessing was really, really good, and it was awesome to finally do a blessing all by myself and all in spanish. I´ve been apart of multiple blessings since I´ve been in the field, but I´ve only anointed the oil in spanish and never actually given the whole blessing. So that was a really great experience! Journal worthy for sure.

Alexander and Brian went to sacrament meeting this Sunday! So that means they just have to come next Sunday and then we´re going to baptize them right after church! I´m baptizing Brian who is 10 years old and Elder Ortíz is baptizing Alexander. They both wanted me to baptize them, but I told them that Elder Ortíz deserves to baptize too. They´re great kids and I honestly think that they´ll be great faithful members of the church and even leaders in the church as they grow up. When we taught them Lesson 4 on Wednesday about the commandments it was so funny. They knew all the 10 commandments pretty well already, but when we were talking about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity they were so funny. They have an older brother who is probably 28 years old named Pablo and he smokes like a chimney. Everytime we´re in their house it reeks of smoke. In fact, that whole family just has problems. Their older sister is probably 26 or so and she´s dating this guy who smokes like crazy too, and there´s always beer lying around the house. So when we were teaching about The Word of Wisdom, Brian just straight up said ¨No quiero llegar a ser como Pablo¨ and Pablo was standing right there! He then continued to basically just tell everyone in the house that they were all pecadores, and they needed to start following the commandments or otherwide they´re going to infierno(hell). Brian also made it very clear that Pornografía es muy mala. Hahaha, so they both already know how bad pornography can be. They committed to live all the commandments and pay their tithing once they get jobs! So boom bada bing, they´re golden! Way excited for them! Next P Day I´ll send pics! It will be my first baptism where I´m doing the ordinance.

We also taught an excommunicated member this week. She is such an amazing and great woman. I obviously don´t know what she did to be excommunicated, but I do know that she can come back into His fold! She has such a strong testimony and she even told me that she prays and reads her scriptures everyday, she just doesn´t feel like she can ever be forgiven and she´s ashamed to go to church because of what the members will think of her. I straight up told her that I know she can come back, and that she can be forgiven. I told her that I know that God loves her just as much as he loves me, and His only desire right now is that she works hard to come back into His fold. She started crying and that whole lesson was just super spiritual, and my spanish was on point during that lesson! Elder Ortíz and I feel so bad for her, as we do for a lot of our investigators, but we know she can be forgiven and come back. She really is such a great woman, and not like most of our inactive members. I can´t really articulate how she is or how we felt during that lesson, but it was really just awesome!

Saturday was a weird day. First, Elder Barraza and Elder Pedersen had a baptism that morning so we went to that! It was great, and their convert is going to be a strong member of the church. After that everything was pretty normal. We taught a few lessons and then a few fell through, as they always do. One thing that´s really been bothering me about Elder Ortiz is that he does the same pitch everytime we contact! He also doesn´t really have a genuine love for the Chilenos. So he gives up easily when people say no to us. I told him that he has to display love and demonstrate love otherwise we´re never going to get into anyone´s house. He was a little fiesty with me, but ultiamtely agreed. Since then... we´ve had some success! Wow, crazy how that works! When you display genuine love, people love you back!

Anyways, that Saturday we met the father of this family we´ve been teaching. Well I´ve taught this family with Elder Correa and Elder Ewell everytime we´ve had splits. So Elder Ortiz is a little upset that he has yet to get into this house. Elizabeth, the mother, committed to be read the Book of Mormon and pray. Her daughter Betsabi committed to be baptized in April! Now we just have to teach Diego, the older brother, and their Dad! Well on Saturday we taught their Dad and he let us in almost immediately... which was really weird. We hardly even taught a full lesson and he committed to be baptized too. It´s like we don´t even have to really work to get them to feel the spirit. They just feel it and now almost all of them want to be baptized. The problem is they´re really hard to get in contact with. They´re super special though and it´s almost as if Heavenly Father NEEDS them to be apart of the Church and NOW. Hopefully everything ends up working out. They´d be my first family baptism in the mish.

We had more investigators that have some serious problems. Hermana Sandra is an investigator that knows the Church is true, but she has some serious issues right now that are stopping her from wanting to be baptized. For instance, she´s living with a man who´s married already. She wants to separate from him, but she´s afraid to because he might hurt her. Plus, on top of all that she doesn´t feel like she can be forgiven because she has so many sins and serious sins. After I bore my testimony on the Atonement and the Savior´s love for us, she did feel better, but she still wants and obviously needs to separate from this guy before she gets baptized. Her kids are also cutting themselves and threatening to kill her everyday too... so that´s nice. They´re like 13 and 15 years old too. Once again another instance where I just wanted to cry with her during the lesson, but just held it back the best I could. I feel so bad for some of our investigators. She feels like an awful mother and her kids just have no hope. Bottom line: they need the gospel!  

We have a new investigator who´s catholic... they´re all catholic here, but none of them are REALLY catholic. She also started ripping on America and how we pollute the world. I about wanted to lose it on her and say LOOK AROUND LADY. Chile has smog up the wazoo! Look at all the trash in the streets, look at you burning plastic bottles in your backyard! But, I didn´t. It´s just funny how other countries perceive us. Chile is awesome, but I´m American and I´m proud of it. If anything, traveling abroad just makes me more proud to be American. We have our faults, but by the end of the day we´re the best country on Earth. So there´s my patriotic rant for the week. Plus, everyone thinks we´re racist. But even Elder Ortiz has said that the most racist people you´ll ever meet are Latinos. People yell at me all the time and start mocking me because I´m white and American. That´s so rare in America. No one just straight up starts yelling at Mexicans on the street and starts calling them racist slang terms! Plus we have classes in school about racism... do they have that here? Uh, no. Once again, America is not as bad as we all make it out to be sometimes.

General Conference is in a couple of weeks and I´m pumped for that! Elder Ortiz and I are going to make tacos, burritos, and quesadillas for General Conference! He wants to show me what real Mexican food is like.

Love all y’all and hope you have a great week! This gospel is true! It´s every feeling of happiness and joy rolled up into one. It´s that Disneyland magical feeling times 100000000! And we´ll get to feel that for eternity! How cool is that?

My mailing address for any of you who would like to send a hand written letter is…

Misión Chile Santiago Oeste 

Casilla 149

Pajaritos 1229

Maipú, Chile 

Love,

Elder Weaver

As My Main Girl TSwizzle Once Said, "Shake it Off!"

Dear Family and Friends,
Man, what a week!  Every week is just jammed full of super spiritual moments, and when I finally get a chance to just sit down in this confined Almacen to write you guys, I never know how to start or where to begin. By the way, an Almacen is just basically a little tienda, which is a store, and they have computers, so it´s great. It is super hot today too so I´m sweating my eyes out while I´m writing this. These past two weeks have just been super hot! Now, I´ll get to why I titled this emal the way I did. 

So, this week we invited Alexander and Brian to attend church on Sunday. They have to Attend Sacrament two times before they be baptized so it was imperative that we get them to church this Sunday so that we can baptize them on the 22nd of this Month. We had a great lesson with them and their Mom, who is completely inactive, and they made a compromise to go to Church this Sunday. WOO-HOO! Well they didn´t end up going. So that was incredibly frustrating. We also made a compromiso with Silvia Masias to go to church and she didn´t do it. SO FRUSTRATING! Same goes for multiple inactives we´re teaching right now. That´s the thing with a lot of the Latinos though, they´ll tell you anything to make you feel good, but they almost never actually mean it. I love them nonetheless. After all, Soy Chileno. In Matthew 10:14 it says, “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, SHAKE OFF THE DUST of your feet.” All of Matthew 10 is actually really great and perfect for any missionary who is down in the dumps. It´s basically all about Jesus telling his disciples how to be missionaries. Anyway, I´ve had to do a lot of that since I´ve been in Padre Hurtado. Most Chilenos are very familiar with the Church and so getting the door slammed in your face is an often occurrence. By the way, here in Chile we just stand outside the gate and yell "HALO" and we don´t clap. So in case any of you South American missionaries were wondering that´s how we contact here. The dogs are as annoying as they come too. I swear there are more dogs than people here. And EVERYONE has a dog. The German Sheperds are gnarly here too. It´s always fun though to mess around with the dogs and try to flip the cats on the street. Yeah, Dad´s been a good influece on me. I just love my mission soooo much. Every day is a new experience and a new adventure, and every night walking home I just look up at the stars and know that Heavenly Father is watching out for me. In the words of Tim McGraw “Somebody must be praying for me” because I feel the prayers from my family and friends every day. So thank you everyone for your love & prayers!  I love all of you so much, and you´re all in my thoughts and prayers everyday. 

So, Friday was a very interesting day in particular. Elder Ewell and I went on our first divisiones and I thought it was going to be an absolute nightmare of a day. Elder Ewell is from St. George, Utah and he was on the exact same plane with me traveling here to Chile. We get along super well and he´s a great guy. The problem is that his spanish, well let´s just say his spanish is not quite there yet. He still doesn´t really understand why he needs to conjugate words and his vocab is extremely minimal and... anyways, I was very nervous for these Divisiones. Elder Correra is our District leader though and he´s also Elder Ewell´s trainer. He felt that I was ready to take on the challenge. So there we were, two greenies taking on a day´s work in el campo. We ended up having 3 lessons! All of them went super super well! The people were very receptive of Elder Ewell and I totally felt the spirit. It was a humbling experience for me in particular and I learned a lot. I learned that my spanish doesn´t have to be perfect to teach with power. The spirit testifies of true things, regardless of how on point your spanish is. Yesterday, all of the people we taught did admit to Elder Ortiz and I that my spanish definitely is above and beyond Elder Ewell´s, but they felt the spirit and that´s all that matters. We actually ended up teaching a new investigator the whole Restoration. She started crying when I talked about Santiago 1:5 and she read it. It was a miracle we even got into her house, nevertheless got through the whole lesson! She committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray. I assigned her Nephi 11 and told her to pray to know if Christ came to America. Her name is Elizabeth.  Elder Ortiz and I are going to challenge her to be baptized today! 

So biggest lesson learned this week… I can´t get down on myself for not having PERFECT spanish. I also learned that while faith without works is dead, so is work without faith. I have been working like an aboslute mad man. When we´re walking or riding a micro, I always have my little vocabulary book & Spanish for missionaries book you gave me mom. I memorize at least 50 words a day. My companion thinks I´m absolutely nuts and so does my whole zone. Elder Harris, our zone leader, said that I need to just relax because "the language will come." One thing that I realized with Elder Ewell was that I´m working really hard, but I didn´t REALLY have faith. Sometimes I think that people are being naive or even a little prideful with their confidence that they´ll just learn spanish. I realized It´s not that they´re being naive or prideful though, it´s that they have faith the Lord is going to help them. They have faith that the spirit will testify of their words regardless of whether or not they speak perfectly. So yes, James 2:17-18 is right, ¨"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: whew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." I am going to continue to work like crazy, and demonstrate my faith through my works. I am going to continue to pray as if everything depended on God, but work as if everything depended on me. BUT in lessons, I just go for it now. I say my thoughts and feelings. Elder Ortiz has been just blown away with how much more I talk now. He says my spanish is actually really, really good for being 2 months into the mission. So there ya go people. Hopefully I didn´t bore alguien. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that life can be incredibly hard. People go through worse things than I have ever gone through in my entire life and I am so blessed, but I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt that Christ is there for each and every one of us and knows our pains and our sorrows and our weaknesses. This Gospel brings me comfort, MUCHO CONSUELO! It is absolutely amazing to be here in Chile. I love every bit of it. The hard days and the great days. I grow and progress every single day. 

Now to answer some questions... The food here is great. We always eat a member´s home for Lunch and there really isn´t a dinner here. Just one big lunch. It´s not always rice and beans. In fact it has a lot of variety. I´ve had diarreaha for the past 2 weeks though so that´s been fun. I love the food though.

My feet are great. No problems. My shoes are already taking a beating, but that´s fine. Lots of rocks and dirt.

Elder Ortiz is great. I´ve learned a lot from him!  Everyone in the mission tells me that it was a HUGE shock when he was called as a trainer. He keeps telling me that I´m training him. He´s a fun guy though and he runs with me every morning so that´s good, even though I have to loop around a lot to keep in his sights. He’s a convert to the Church and he has a great knowledge of the scriptures. 

I do my own laundry and we have a washer at the pension.  We just hang dry everything else it’s crazy!

My pension is great. Elder Barraza really, really likes me and Elder Pedersen has a few medical issues, so he goes to the Doc once a week. There definitely can be tension in the pension between Elder Barraza and Elder Ortiz.

My team is La U! I am not of Colo-Colo, but unfortunately they lost this past Saturday! It was absolute mayhem down here. Soccer is life down here for sure. 

Mark 12:30-31 is a great scrip. Love the Lord and Love thy neighbor. If people do this first and foremost, then things tend to work out. Same goes for missonaries. 

We have a huge mission conference last Thursday and it was cool to see some people from the CCM. We watched Meet The Mormons in spanish and it was crazy because the last time I saw that movie I had my call and I was watching it with Daph, Kyle, Liz, and Abby! AHHH! CRAZY! 

Grandpa is in my prayers every single night.  I love that guy so much and this is killing me to hear about his health issues!

Soccer is actually jugar la pelota down here. Garabatos are cuss words. Regatone is rap and it´s played everywhere! Wawa is baby instead of Bebe . La Once is Cena which is dinner. Oh, chicatita or chicatito is small NOT pequeno. They hardly ever use pequeno. Oh, and barracho is drunk. And trust me I talk to a lot of barrachos. I straight up started testifying to an atheist in la calle last week too and Ortiz thought it was great. I basically just said that it´s sad that he has to live a life completely without hope.

Anyways, I love all of you! Hasta proxima semana!

Elder Weaver

What an AMAZING first week in the Field for Elder Weaver...

Elder Weaver entitled his latest email, "Tell Everyone I'm on My Way" from his favorite Disney show Brother Bear.  Enjoy…

Hola Hola Familia y Mis Amigos,

Okay so these past two weeks have been absolute mayhem and I'm not really sure where to start. I also have approximately 40 emails to get through. I want everyone to know that I do read your emails! I appreciate them SO FREAKING MUCH! I'll try and reply to all of you guys today, but if not just know that I absolutely love the support I'm getting from home... It's much needed. 

Okay, so I'm going to start by saying that my trainer for these next three months is Elder Ortiz from Queretaro, Mexico! So I got what I prayed for and got a Latino trainer. He does speak quite a bit of English, but that's turned out to be a great thing-- because lemme tell ya... the Spanish they taught me in the MTC is not the same Spanish they're speaking out here in the field. I know that's cliche to say, but it's so true. My first Zone is called Penaflor and my first sector is Manzana Tres. It's actually a HUGE sector so we do have bicis(bikes) or bicicletas, but everyone here calls em bicis. 

Now I'm just going to jump straight to this past Saturday because it was absolutely CRAZY! I'm not sharing this story to freak anyone out, but it was quite an experience this Saturday. One that I will never forget and it really was a trial in every sense of the word. So, Saturday we have a last minute zone meeting that lasted from 10-1:30. After that we went back to the apartment to just get some stuff and then go proselyting. We share the aparetment with two other Elders. Elder Pedersen from California and Elder "B" from Chile. Well, Elder "B" and Elder Ortiz don't really get along that well. So we got back and then Elder "B" just totally started yelling at Elder Ortiz upstairs. They were just totally going at each other. All in Spanish of course, so it's not like I really had a clue what was going on. We ended up restraining them before they started punching each other. So yeah... 5 days into the field and I'm already dealing with drama. The Zone Leaders were called and it ended up being a huge ordeal and an even bigger waste of precious time. Elder "B" ended up going on splits with our Zone Leader, Elder Harris, until Sunday night and Elder Pedersen was with Elder Chavez. 

So, we finally got out of the apartment around 4 or 5. At that point we were just trying to salvage some of our appointments but everything was falling through or nobody was home. Which led us to go see a family in our area. This is a less active family with a lot of problems. They have an autistic child named Pedro (changed name) and another son named Rodrigo. We went over there to give Rodrigo a message on "Esperanza" or hope. Unfortunately, he had tried to commit suicide on Friday by hanging himself...yeah. Well we got there and the mother was WAY upset and distraught. I can't understand all the Spanish she was speaking, but it was obvious that she had a really, really, really rough day. She's also bi-polar. Well, we got into her house and it was crazy. Pedro was going off the walls! He was screaming bloody murder and just attacking Elder Ortiz. This caused the mother to lose it even more and she was screaming too. "Tranquilase" and "calmase" (basically, "be calm") is what we ended up saying about a million times. I'm not even giving this situation justice in how I'm describing it. We FINALLY got everyone settled down and I just basically bore by testimony to the mother on how Jesus Christ knows our pain and our trials and that he loves her. She kept calling me her angel and just held my hand for a really long time. We ended up singing a hymn to bring in the spirit and calm things down. It was perfect too! It totally brought the spirit into the home and we thought that we actually might get a lesson in... nope. Right after we finished singing, the mother got up and had the most scary, crazy eyes I have ever seen in my life. It literally looked like she was possessed. She went in to the kitchen and started going through this pan of silverware. I immediately got up and she had a knife in her hand. I screamed NO NO NO! And I quickly restrained her and Elder Ortiz helped me. We literally had to tear the knife from her hand and she was absolutely losing it. I have never been so scared in my life! The worst part is that Elder Ortiz was even more scared than I was. She went for the knife probably 4 or 5 more times and she was bound and determined to kill herself. During all of this her autistic child Pedro was just screaming and tearing apart the house. We finally got her restrained and called "Obispo" or Bishop Alvarez for help. The mother kept hugging me and kissing my hand. I know it's against the rules to hug the opposite gender, but this situation kinda called for it. I just kept speaking to her about trials or "desafios" or "pruebas" we have in life. After 2 hours of this mayhem we finally got out of there. The Bishop came over and she pulled the knife on him probably 2 times and I had to help restrain her with the Bishop a few more times. Her brother-in-law came over and she ended up going to his house. The police were callled, and one of the cops gave her this weird Catholic blessing that caused her to just lay down in the street for a while. I honestly can't even describe all that went down. Just know it was scary and after I literally just broke down crying because of how sad I was to see that kind of sadness in a person's life. Enough that she wanted to kill herself. She showed me the slits on her wrist too which just caused me to be even more sad. Needless to say, Saturday was quite the day. Elder Pedersen said that Satan must be working really hard on me to get me to leave because he's never heard of a greeny having these kind of experiences in their first area, nevertheless their first week! Pray for this family though. They need all the help they can get and it's not like Pedro is ever going to get any help and it's not like this mother is going to get any help either... we're in Chile. 

Alright, now that the crazy story is out of the way I'll try and tell you some of the happy things that happened this week. My first day on Miercoles (Wednesday) was way cool. My first lesson we committed two little boys that are age 10 to baptism. Their names are Alexander and Brian and their Grandma is a less active member of the church. Then we committed a 15 year old boy named Eduardo to be baptized this Saturday! He wants Bishop Alvarez to baptize him though. Way cool! Then, on my first day I had a feeling that we should contact this house in the street. It turned out to be a 22 year old girl named Francis and she has a cute little boy too. She lives with her Mom and her boyfriend left her. She accepted to be baptized on March 28th after our first contact with her! Hopefully that ends up working out. We went by her house on Saturday night too after I had a feeling that we should visit her once again, and her Mom was there but they did't have any time to really talk. But her Mom is super interested in the Church too and we have an appointment set up to teach both of them tomorrow! 

There honestly have been so many great and really hard experiences I've had already. I wish I could share all of them. 

Just know that I FINALLY found Preston's letter in my suitcase and Grandma Stewart's! I read Preston's and I just started crying. I'm not trunky or anything, it was just really cool to read. I even admit that my first night in the apartment I pulled out my bed sheets and just smelled them for 5 minutes or so and started weeping again. They totally smell like home. So do some of my clothes too and the first night out in the field was definitely a wake up call to how hard this mission is going to be. I just love you guys so stinking much. I have the best family in the world. 

My companion snores like a freaking bear! His snoring literally shakes the bunk bed we're sleeping on. So I ended up not really sleeping for 3 nights straight and I just went and layed down on the hard wood floor in our study room on a blanket to get away from the noise. 

We're extremely blessed. I want everyone to know that. Chile is an AMAZING place, but I have seen homes and things that I can not even imagine growing up in. The home I was in earlier consists of cinder blocks painted neon green and a tin roof. They sleep on mats on the floor and everything is dirty and dusty. That's South and Latin America in general, but I just realized how blessed I really am in my life this week. In every aspect I'm blessed. 

This gospel is true. It lifts me up and supports me every single day. Spanish is way hard for me. I'm not going to lie. Chilenos speak incredibly fast and that's kinda an understatement. I'm working really hard. I absolutely love the Chilenos. Even though I can't undersstand most of what they're saying. I love the culture too. I love that there's dogs everywhere. I love the dirst roads and the crazy micros. I am totally just living it up here, but it's definitely hard! 

I love all of you guys. I know Jesus Christ loves you too. I know that this gospel can change lives, I've already seen it. I hope you all have the best week of your lives this week! 

Hasta Lleugo! VIVA CHILE!

Elder Weaver 

A Letter from Elder Weaver and his Presidente...

This last week we heard very briefly from Connor's mission President and then, even better, from Connor himself! He wrote it by hand and it was difficult for us to read and so we tried our best to translate it and type it out for you. We should hear from him again early this week to see how it's all going. We also hope that he will have had the opportunity to have read e-mails that we have sent him and respond.

Dear Family & Friends,

Holy Cow!  What a week!  It was definitely an eventful last week in the CCM.  I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but first things first!  I’ll write Preston more about this next week, but I just want to publicly brag about him real quick. 

Preston- YOU ARE A STUD!!  I cannot even explain to you how pumped I was for you when I was reading about how you made it to State in wrestling!  I was bragging about you all week to everyone in the CCM.  Proud does not even begin to describe how happy I am for you.  So, just so everyone knows…MY BROTHER is going to wrestle for Penn State and you better not mess with him cuz he’ll beat the liven tar out of ya!  Oh, and he can do a back flip on flat ground too.  Man I am just so proud and excited for you!  I wish I could have been there to see you.  I wish I could just know how you did!  But I have to wait another week to find out. 

Okay, now that my brag fest is over, I’ll tell you about my week or at least attempt to try and tell you.  Same-ol’, same-ol’ for most of the week.  However, we did baptize our fake investigators here at the CCM and learned more Spanish.  But on Thursday (2/19) yes, mom’s birthday, we went contacting!  Yep!  Just Elder Leavitt and I for an hour and a half out in a random park here in Santiago.  The same Elder Leavitt who has a hard time not pronouncing his “H’s” sometimes, and only conjugates correctly every 10 tries!  Then, there’s me…who’s not much better! Ha! Ha!  Was I nervous? Uh, yeah!  But our goal was to place 3 Books of Mormon and we ended up placing 2 and one pamphlet on the Restoration.  So, we get to the park with Elder Conjer (Colorado Guy) and Elder Mason.  We stood there just looking at the park for 20 seconds and then a ball came flying in from these kids playing soccer in the park.  Then BOOM! Elder Conjer and Elder Mason were on the move.  Elder Mason plays soccer so he just juggled the ball for a little bit and then kicked it back to them.  Then they went to talk to the kids about something that is even better than Futhol…El Evangelio de Jesuecristo (The Gospel of Jesus Christ)!  Then it all became real for Elder Leavitt and I.  We said a quiet prayer together and then went contacting.  The park was packed and it was a beautiful Thursday night in Santiago.  I could tell you all about our contacts, but I just don’t have time.  Just know that I loved it!  We got denied, we had difficulties with Spanish, but we did place 2 Books of Mormon and a pamphlet!  Not bad for having only 5 weeks in the CCM.  I did most of the talking with our contacts, but that was fine.  The people here are so kind.  The best lady we talked to was an older woman who even admitted she was Catholic, but that she never attended church or mass.  She talked a lot about her family and we really connected in how we view Christ and God.  One man was having a rough day, and it was really amazing seeing how my simple testimony could lift his spirits.  I just flat out love my mission and love the Chilenos.  The next day was even better too because I got to go to Santiago Sur and my companion was Elder Vidoso from Peru.  He did not speak any English and it was just awesome!  I hope my trainer is native, I really do! 

I’m at my mission home now; my mission President is just awesome and amazing!  I love him and his wife already!  They speak a lot of Portuguese to us too.  I have a feeling that I might get a little taste of Portuguese on my mission too.  Our last night in the CCM was super spiritual, and I definitely felt the spirit as I watched the Joseph Smith Story in Spanish.  So, now it’s all becoming real.  Tomorrow I’ll be teaching and talking to real people, with a new companion!  I know this gospel is true, I know I am supposed to be here in Chile!  I love my Savior, I love the experiences that I’ve already been given, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else right now, than in Santiago, Chile serving the Lord! 

Funny things for the week:  I’ve slept walked 3 times in the CCM.  The first was when I screamed, “Donde esta mi Companero? (Where is my companion?)”  Then, I was doing sit-ups in the middle of the night and telling my companion that I needed to workout because I’m getting fat, and then finally the last one was kind of freaky.  I got up and just stared at Elder Leavitt gorilla style for 2 or 3 minutes.  He was scared out of his mind, and then I just got into bed and starting punching the air.  Elder Jacobson said that my sleep walking and talking is stress induced.  Oh, and listening to our roommates sing “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem was hilarious.  Elder Velasco is from Argentina and Elder Rutty is from Peru.  I seriously laughed so hard!  Oh and I’m learning Chilean, not Spanish.  Everyone needs to know that I am Chileno proud!  Universidad de Chile is my equipo (soccer team)! 

Anyways, the mission is very exciting.  No matter how hard I try to share it with you guys you will never be able to understand and feel how much I am feeling right now.  Which is great in a way because, my experiences are unique to me!  Thank you for all of your e-mails!  I’ll reply next week once I get access to a computer. 

Alma 26:27…bear your trials with patients…it gets better!

(Thanks mom and dad for 19 years of this advice!)

Los amo, Chau!

-Elder Weaver

Look at Me and This Great Big Opportunity!

Elder Weaver relaxing with a Coca-Cola Light in the park!

Family and Friends,

What is up! Otra semana en el CCM y estoy listo para salir. So this week was awesome as always! Full of ups and downs, but for the most part I just am pumped to wake up every morning and learn more and do better each and everyday! 

Elder Godoy (from Paraguay) and Elder Weaver

So what did I learn this week spiritually? Well, I learned that complaining never does anyone any good. It´s like Dad always says,¨Does complaining make things any better?¨ My district hates it when I use that line. They complain a lot, and everyone´s getting a little tired of the CCM. But, I made a goal never to complain while I´m on my mission and that has made all the difference. I try to see the positive in everything! It´s crazy that Tuesday next week will be my last day in the CMM! 

The view of the Temple upon leaving the CCM

You think about your MTC experience your whole life and then... BOOM, it´s over. It definitely has felt like 6 weeks, but it´s just a surreal feeling that I´m in my final week. I´m so excited to just get out there and serve the Lord with all that I´ve got. Nervous? Of course, but I know that the Lord is on my side.

Elder Contrerras from Peru

So is my spanish good? No. Not at all. I get so frustrated and upset with myself too because of my spanish. I literally have memorized over 200 words this week. But vocab does´t help with grammar and conjugations. I literally take every break, every lunch, and every dinner to just memorize and speak spanish, but sometimes I feel like I haven´t progressed at all.

Elders Correras, Fernandez and Cutipa from Argentina and Elder Leavitt (companion)

This week my district thought it would be fun to make darts out of thumb tacks. So they throw them around the room all the time, and then one Elder decided that he wanted one thrown at him. So he got pegged in the back twice with this handmade dart. It started bleeding and all of that. It seriosuly was so funny to see this dart just stuck in his back...twice, but that kinda paints you a picture of how off track our district can get in class. 

Elder Weaver's first set of room-mates Elder Cupita (Peru) and Elder Godoy (Paraguay)

Anyways, sometimes I just feel like they aren´t even infuenced by me at all or that they´re not learning from me. So, one night I was kinda just down in the dumps on the way back to Alcantara and Elder Allen (our best spanish speaker) said that he really admires my work ethic. He says that I´m a huge example to him and he wishes he had my determination and drive. So Heavenly Father answered my prayers on that one! They do pay attention and learn from me. Just like I learn from each of them everyday. 

A P-day "thug" moment for Elder Weaver

Our new set of Latinos are all going to Santiago Oeste (my mission) and Rancagua, and they´re awesome. We have one Elder from Spain too that´s going to Oeste. Elder Leavitt and I were moved to a room nicknamed the cracker box. Our roomates are from Peru and Argentina and we have a ton of fun with them at night. 

Elder Leavitt and Elder Weaver in front of their daily bus (they call it "the Whip")

For FHE this Sunday we played a game with the Latinos where they had to learn English and then we competed against each other in teams on who could answer questions or say phrases the fastest in English. Needless to say, it´s pretty dang funny to watch Latinos try and speak English. But they pick up on it quick! Then the Americans had to do the same thing but in spanish. It got rowdy as always and was just super fun. Our team won by one point. Our team delegated me as our best spanish speaker, so the tie break was between me and this guy from California that is only staying here for two weeks because he´s fluent in spanish. I beat him though! With the simple phrase El Libro de Mormón, otro testamento de Jesucristo. So I was the super hero on Sunday. 

Elder Weaver's District

What else? Oh, Elder Allen cut his arm open on the side of whiteboard in the ¨room of doom¨ which is our old room. We went in there and within 30 seconds he cut his arm open and needed to get stitches. Yeah, the room is possessed. We´re all just happy to be out of there. 

A favorite drink of Elder Weaver in Chile

I absolutely love this gospel. I´m reading in Mattew 27 right now about the Savior´s atonement and I just love it. I love reading in 2 Nephi right now, I love D&C 4-12, I love Exodus and reading about Moses. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE JESUS THE CHRIST by Talmage. There are serious highs and lows, but all in all, the mission is just great!

Elder Weaver with his favorite teacher Hermano Canas

I love all of you a ton! Keep writing me, I love hearing from you!

Chau,

Elder Weaver

Holy Moly Cow!

Elder Weaver and Elder Godoy (Elder Godoy is from Paraguay where Elder Weaver's dad served a mission). Obviously, the pool isn't used!

I have to say that we were disappointed with Elder Weaver's email this week ONLY because it wasn't enough info! We love that he's busy and happy, but we constantly crave more information from this boy!  The title above is the title of this week's email.  We are trying to get email's out to people that have requested them, but we just haven't finished it yet.  Here you go…

Dear Family and Friends

Wow, another week and it definitely felt like a week. Lemme tell ya. Alright so only 17 minutes to write so here we go! 

I have the first vision memorized in Spanish! I actually memorized it by last P day but I didn't tell you guys. So I have that down pat. Plus, the Su Objectivo in Predicad Mi Evangelio that I memorized day one. I was the 1st one in my district to memorize both but now everyone has both down, so that's fun to recite like 500004823509238 times a day! Seriously, you pray and recite stuff ALL THE TIME down here. 

Okay so this week has been actually awesome. I have grown and progressed in so many ways spiritually. Physically... well lets just say that I've gained 10 pounds since my marathon. But that's okay. I'll get to what I do for exercise later because I know a few of you are interested in that. I totally appreciate everyone in my district now. Each person helps me learn in a very unique way. I know that I need them in my life right now and as I've gotten to know each of them better personally, I have seriosuly learned to love them and see them as Heavenly Father sees them. So my prayers have been answered as far as Heavenly Father helping learn to love my district. So, this Sunday was amazing for me. We listened to Elder Holland's MTC devotional back in 2009 and I just love that man so much. I feel like I relate to him on a very personal level. I've always felt that way. His talk was so inspirational and literally just kicked me in the pants to be an even better missionary than I am now. He said in his talk that good missionaries should give their homecoming talks on a stretcher. I totally agree. I agree with everything he said. THE CHURCH NEEDS US. Not for the last month of my mission but for the full 24! No matter how hard life gets on the mission, it can never be as hard as NOT having this gospel in your life. That's me talking. Not Elder Holland. But seriously, I just loved his talk to much. I think it mostly just scared all the other missionaries though... haha. Except Elder Conger from Sterling, Colorado. He's such an awesome guy. I wish he was in my district or at least going to my mission. I mean his parents divorced a month before he left and he's SO STRONG in the gospel. Talk about having a tough farewell... and he's so dedicated and hard working. Just a prime person, and a prime example of how no matter what comes your way, you stay true to your testimony. 

I am definitely struggling with this language. I wish they would teach Spanish more and stop demanding us to teach lessons all the time. I hardly have anytime to just learn the language. But it's humbling and I have faith that I'll get it. But sometimes I do beat myself up. Singing hymns in spanish is awesome too. Man, I just love it. I get the shivers everytime. So basically the spiritual high's are super high and the low's can be way low. 

Fun Facts. I met my mission president and his wife before last P day and forgot to tell you guys. They are AWESOME PEOPLE. You know how you can just tell sometimes that a person is just so strong in the gospel? That's how they are and they are so happy. I only talked to them for 3 minutes and I already love them. They were leaving the temple. Elder Jacobson and Hermana Jacobson are like interim grandparents at Alcatara. We are so spoiled by them. They are way nice people. Temple Tomorrow too! Sunday was awesome too because the Americans had FHE and we did sherades. It got Stewart family reuinon crazy here at the CCM! IT was SUPER fun! 

Love all of You,

Elder Weaver

Israel, Israel God is Calling

We got another email from Elder Weaver! It is so exciting hearing from this great young man! I guess that they change his P-day every week or every other week or something down there based upon missionary flow? Kind of crazy! Oh well, it sure was awesome to hear from him today.  I've got his email below and I will be sending out these letters via email later this week to those who have requested them.  We sure love this boy!  Unfortunately, he still hasn't sent us even one picture!  We can tell that he's very busy.  Enjoy…


Dear Family and Friends,

I know that you all want to know whats happening here in the best city on Earth-- Santiago! And I wish I had time to write everything that has happened since Ive been here, but theres been SO MUCH that has happened in just the 14 days since Ive been set apart. I seriously have experienced a ton already. Ive grown and learned a lot already too. But things are settling down in the CCM (Centro de Capitación Misional) becuse weve finally picked up on what`s going on and how to schedule. So here`s my best shot at explaining my experiences. When we got to Santiago which is literally trasnlated as James by the way. I just soaked it all in. The spanish, the chaos and confusion of getting to Alcantara, the crazy driving of our van driver where we literally came within 3 inches of kiling someone with our van probably 8 times. I soaked in the city and the culture and meeting the latinos. But as soon as I got the CCM on the 15th I wanted to hit the ground running. I had already memorized Su Objectivo in spanish in PMG and I just wanted to go, go, go. Like I said... this feeling I have can only be described as my determination to win a National Championship times a million--seriosuly. I just want to learn and start telling EVERYONE about this amazing Gospel. UNfotunately, my district is not entirely on the same page as me or at least wasnt. My district has Elder Leavitt our DL and my companion from Atlanta. Elder Blake from Riverside, CA. Elder Allen from Springville, UT.Elder Santini from Kona, Hawaii, Elder Matthews from Whitehall, Wisconsin. Hermana Johnson from Logan, UT, Hermana Hulick from Provo.  Then, Hermana Lane from Cali. 

So only me, one other elder, and the hermanas have really read the Book of Mormon all the way through too. That kinda sums up where our district is at as far as spiritually, obedience, and everything. Most of them have never and won't ever read the Missionary Handbook either because its too long. No matter how many times I encourage them to do so. Yes, so you can imagine that teaching lessons can be rather difficult. Elder Allen knows the best spanish out of all of us though and he's super patient so he's a huge example to me.  So I have learned to exercise some serious patience. And that's where I want to go with this. I prayed a lot these past 2 weeks for the Lord to bless me with patience and to learn why I was given this district for my 6 week stay in the CCM. Because in a way I feel like I've been hindered. BUT I've learned why and I am so thankful for the very minor trials I've had so far in the CCM. I've learned how to love people. Sure, one Hermana cries at the drop of a hat and probably shows that she's feeling the spirit by crying WAY too often, but I've learned to appreciate her and love her for her sweet and sensitive spirit. Sure, a couple of the other Elder's can be disruptive and irreverant, but I've learned to love their humor and learned how to get them to be reverent and little more disciplined without making them feel hurt. I was given the oppurtunity to be apart of District 9 because I need to learn patience and how to be a leader NOW. I dont know why yet. I'm sure I'll find out later when I'm in the field. But Heavenly Father needs me to develop these attributes now because I'll need them down the road... I just know it. So that is why we should be grateful for our trials in a way. Especially minor ones like mine. Our district is SO much better than day 1. We are all growing. Elder Blake and Elder Matthews are understaning that this is a mission not some vacation. They're adapting to the mission life basically. It's all about accenutating the positive in people and not being negative with them. I've learned that they continue to be reverant if you thank them for their reverance and you only say ¨hey guys I'm really going to work on not complaining this week, I just want you to know I'm trying to improve¨ Rather than telling them that they complain ALL THE TIME. And this is coming from Connor the Complainer. You have to take their negative attributes and put them on yourself in order for them to understand that they need to improve their negativity. Weird, I know, but it works. 

I am seriously so happy to be here though. Every morning when we run I can't help but thank Heavenly Father for this beautiful country and these people. I would encourage everyone that is about to serve a mission to listen to Elder Bednar's conference talk about preparing to be a missionary. Be a missionary BEFORE you come on the mission. The transition is easier and you'll find success and blessings immediately. I am so thankful that I prepared the way that I did. 

Now for the fun stuff. Elder Leavitt and I gave a blessing to Hermana Johnson on Thursday that she would find comfort in the CCM. So that was cool and she's doing so much better too. For a girl who knew no spanish coming in, she is improving so rapidly. The latinos left yesterday and it was actually really sad. We developed such a strong relationship with them and Im going to miss 'em. But we get a new set of latinos tomorrow and then we only have to go through one more wave of them after that and then I'm in the field. Alcantara can best be desribed as Snow White's cottage on steroids and we are so lucky to be staying there. Sister Jacobson makes us great breakfasts and snacks at night. Hopefully, I can send pics. OH Dad Elder Godoy from Paraguay asked if you knew Gurani and I said yes and HE FREAKED OUT. He was so happy to hear that. His Dad is from Brazil so he also knows Portuguese and he was so pumped to hear that you knew Protuguese too. He said you're definitely a Paraguayo. When I asked if he knew Guarani he said ¨Si, claro, SOY PARAGUAYO!¨ So he wants us to visit him in El Ciudad de Este in Paraguay at the end of my mission. He was so happy that I knew Ay Wapuh too. I dont think I spelled that right. I became really good friends with Elder Godoy and he cried last night and totally hugged me for like 5 minutes. All the Latinos were sad to leave us and they definitely show it. They are so kind hearted and I LOVE IT. They are so great. 

I love you all so much. This is the best thing that I could possibly be doing in my life right now. I am growing closer to my Savior every day. It's not necessarily the hardest thing I've ever done, but it is making me grow more than I ever have before. Elder Ballard gave us a devotional on Sunday, well from Provo anyway, and he talked about writing a letter to Joseph Smith while he was in Liberty Jail for 4 months to help lift his spirits whenever were feeling down. I personally just think of Tyson and Tim, but either way... I can never feel down because I know that the Lord is on my side. I feel your prayers every single day. The district is improving and so am I. Spanish is overwhelming, and I sometimes wonder if I'm even progressing in it. So please pray that I can just learn this language. Last P Day I got a haricut and just getting that haricut here was tricky. Out in the real world Santiago you realize that you dont know squat about spanish. I wonder how Dad ever did it so fast sometimes. 

I love you all so much! This gospel brings joy and happiness and it is so true. I know it without a doubt. 

Hasta Lluego!

Chau,

Elder Weaver