Hey everyone!
So truth is this week was just kind of more of the same but I'll try and think of things to say! It was a good week though just a little boring maybe. We had some good lessons and success and all that good stuff too. I love your letters a ton and can't wait to read them this week! Ok so we started out the week with a Gran Intercambio and I went to Nueva Iimperial again and worked with Elder Acevedo again hahaha. It was still awesome. He's totally a friend now. We had a good time there and had some success finding some news (new investigators) there which is hard to do in that sector. He's super cool and from Santiago and we had a really good time talking about the mission and a lot of different stuff while we were out in the street. His grandfather fought for Allende in the revolution in the 70's too which was cool to hear about. I really like Chileans! We finished the day by buying an entire giant watermellon and splitting it between us hahahah After that it was pretty much just life as usual. 3 more weeks of this transfer because it was extra long to make up for the last pre-Christmas short one. We found a ton of people again but had a harder time bringing members to our lessons. I think we kind of wore out the members here the week before. I do really love the members here tho they are so awesome! We did spend part of one day helping a new family move in from Temuco! They are so awesome and are 7 in total so our branch grew by like 35 percent hahahaha. They are super nice and love the missionaries a ton and are super excited to help us so when theyre all done moving in it will be easy to take them to our lessons. After loading up the truck we drove up really slow all the way to Cunco but it was really fun to make the trip a little slower than usual and be able to see how pretty it is. Still kind of working on finding the people who are really going to progress here. We had a ton of lessons again but finished the week again with 0 investigators in the church booooo. People come and go really fast but a couple notable people are P and J who I think I've mentioned before. Theyre awesome and if we do get to baptize this transfer, it will definitely be them. We will see what happens, she's just a little comfortable and we don't want to push her too much to just get it done. Main problem is her husband who doesn't even want to meet us booo. It was a good week but at the same time it felt a little different. Partly I think I've gotten kind of seperated from my good attitude policy and goals of really finding joy in the work. I think part of the problem is that I just need to teach Elder G how to enjoy his mission. I dunno. I want to focus more on loving the people this week and seeing them how Christ sees them, and less on just getting things done. Going to try and work this week with more excitement and fire like I usually do, and really focus on the relationships I'm making with people. It's just kind of hard because sometimes I feel some opposition with that but it's kind of hard to explain. I'm good though -- just need to try and love my mission more! I'm going to try and focus harder too. What I've really been loving this week strangely enough is the Old Testament hahahaha. I was so bored stuck in the house my last transfer that I started reading from genesis ch 1 because I didnt have anything else to do, but to my surprise I really started to love it! Things do slow down kind of around exodus leviticus numbers area but when you hit judges the story really takes fire! As someone who loves stories, iI'll be the first one to tell you that the Old Testament is just full of good stories! They're all so heroic and full of action and drama, and so often end in really poignent tragedy. What's really cool is that I've noticed that throughout every dispensation the Lord really works through the weakest, youngest, most humble people. Every single person who ends up being someone important in the Old Testament starts out from zero! Moses, samuel, saul, david, joseph EVERYONE. It's so cool! I just am really loving reading the stories and learning what I can from them. Also the book of mormon is really cool too I'm still seeing how the Lord really does fill in for our inabilities. Sometimes I think a lesson is going horribly and then the person randomly has a crazy change of heart. I'm learning how to trust that even though we are not perfect missionaries, the Spirit works perfectly in everyone if they let it, so it's not really about us at all. I'm looking forward to having more spiritual experiences and lessons this week, and I'm going to try harder to be grateful for the miracles I see in my journey. Also I finished 6 months! Went way fast! Crazy right? Hmm not sure that's kind of it. We went to the Cunco museum today! Pretty funny because it was a lot like our small town museums -- it acted all official but you could kind of tell it was just kind of a lot of stuff everyones grandmas had laying around that may or may not actually be Mapuche (native tribe thats really strong here). A lot of old typwriters that probably weren't really that old. Pretty funny in a classic Chilean way, where the spirit and pride of the patriotism kind of outweighes what's actually being presented and making more of less. . Ok this is totally not spiritual or relevant at all but I have time and I want to mention a totaly crazy hilarious yet also unexplainable phenomenon I've noticed here in Chile: everyone wears custom printed t shirts from random places in the united states, and all of them are written in english. For example "Johnson family reunion 2006" or "Waterferd country club" or "jacksonville wranglers" etc etc. One time in LA me and E Parkin even saw a totally ghetto looking guy in a utes t shirt! It just boggles my mind and makes me laugh for so many reasons! 1st, how do the shirts get down here. 2nd, why do so many people buy them and where.? 3rd, why do so many people use them while having no idea what they say or mean?!?! I mention it today because right this very moment im looking at this guy wearing a shirt that says on on side "2008 kent stake young women camp" and on the other "SOS Shine Out Saints" WHAT. HOW. Definitely a winner and I almost died laughing!!! Ok that's it I think! Sorry if its a boring email! I hope youre all doing great! I love you all tons and am doing great and have a goal to laugh more this week! Love you all!!! Trevor
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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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