Hey everyone!
Wow big cambios news! I'm going to train! WOOOOOO I'm excited and terrified at the same time! It'll be a really cool experience! All of you return missionaries who trained should send me advice please. It'll be cool and I'm so excited! Cunco is a great sector to start in too and we need some beginner's luck here hahahah. It was funny because usually they call the trainers Sunday in the night but they didn't call us so I thought I was safe and that we were going to keep on normal for another 8 weeks. We were studying this morning and the APs called me and gave me the news. It'll be awesome. The group of missionaries who came with me is kind of known for being celestial haha so I have a lot of friends who are training with me as well. I'll be making a huge journey to Concepcion and back which will be cool. Elder G is going to be opening a sector in Nacimiento which has been closed for a while, another tiny little town. I love him though and am kind of sad while I'm excited at the same time for the new opportunity. . Ok so this week was pretty cool but kind of tough too. A ton of people were gone on vacations so we had a hard time finding the people we were teaching. We are still kind of fighting with the retention of our investigators and having more than one lesson with them. Just looking for those chosen people. We took the opportunity to really work hard with the branch and the members. We did a FHE with famila V who are always kind of shaky and they all came to church this Sunday! Also we had a couple other lessons with other less actives that went well. One funny thing is that I feel like finally this week me and Elder G fell into our best union as far as teaching goes. We had had some problems trusting each other with the teaching but we taught really well this week and with the spirit! It was awesome! It's a really good feeling when you can leave from a lesson knowing that the Spirit testified to the people`s hearts, whether or not they choose to take action on that testimony. Too bad that he's leaving now. o well. The highlight of this week was the branch activity we finally got together! We were really nervous because the activities in the past totally flopped for the missionaries here but we wanted to try anyway. We really wanted to do it well the first time to win the members' trust because if only like 8 people came and saw that no one else came, no one would ever come to another activity. We planned a minute to win it activity, with prizes and teams and everything. It was called La Copa de Cunco. It started at 7 but no one was there in the church and we were getting really, really nervous, but in classic Chilean style, everyone started showing up at 715 730! We ended up having like 20 people there, members and non members, which when you think about it is like 80 percent of the branch and a good chunck of all of Cunco too nah jk. It was super fun! Chileans are really competitive which I love. It was a huge success and I'll attatch a pic. some people left before I took it and I didn't have much time but it turned out ok. Hmm what else. Ok so one thing kind of happened to me for our zone conference. The zone leaders called me and asked me if I would be willing to participate in their example the next day, but didn't tell me what I had to do. I said yes of course. At the end of the meeting they pulled out two boxes of dunkin donuts (literally holy grail and most coveted missionary food) and said they were for everyone but there was a price. I had actually heard about this example before, and it's called the Parable of the Pushups, so I knew what was coming. They said that I had to do 10 pushups for every missionary before they could eat their donut. Our zone is about 20 people, and I am I think the most skinniest missionary in the mission, so it was pretty much known to be imposible. I got all the way through about 6 missionaries, but then my body just pretty much gave out. The whole room was totally silent, and people kept asking the ZLs to end it but they said that everyone agreed to it so we had to keep going. I finished about 3 or 4 more sets by doing like one or two at a time, but I got to the point where i couldnt even do 1 without collapsing. As the analogy became clear somewhere in there, missionaries started to really feel the spirit and a few started even shedding a few tears. It was really powerful, and especially powerful for me being the one doing the pushups. I am someone who absolutely hates that kind of attention, but it was a really powerful experience for the whole zone. I looked up after the ZLs told me I could quit, and I saw the reactions of the zone and it was very spiritually powerful. It was an analogy for the atonement for them, but also an analogy for me of how far from capable I am from being able to convert people without help, just as incapable as I am of doing 200 plus pushups. (luckily I've been keeping my exercises up so I could do more than I thought). It was pretty intense and poignent. I didnt describe it very well but I think you can get the picture. I'm very humbled to be training this next cambio and very excited. Sorry this letter is just ok but we have to get going so G. can say goodbye to everyone here. I'm super super excited and I'll be able to tell you all about my new comp next week after I meet him this Wednesday! I'm excited to have a new excited missionary with me! I love you all and it was a really good, spiritual week and im looking forward to more awesome experiences here! Love! Trevor Shoot ok heres some stuff I thought of for my package in order of priority! I have a list that I left at home so if you don't send it this week I can put some more ideas in my next letter usb voice recorder would be awesome hydrocortazone 10 poptarts haha wool gloves (lost mine) sweater and other stuff for winter if theres room my backpack (exchanges) also my rockports are officially toast and I think my eccos will last up until a yearmark, but we should start thinking about how to get some new shoes up in here. Not sure if buying here or sending them is better let me know love you thanks!
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Elder Trevor SmithElder Trevor Smith is a Mormon missionary in the Chile Concepcion Sur mission, the same mission where his dad served. Although this is Trevor's own mission, he grew up hearing about the beautiful land of Chile and the loving people that inhabit it. These are the letters from his experience there. Archives
July 2017
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