So hey, WHoa Grandma. So everything went well I heard which is good. No offense but I wasn`t all that worried about anything because I didn`t hear about open heart surgery until this morning, and then after I heard that grandma was fine. Before I had only heard of angioplasty which is either not really a big deal or I wasn`t aware of how big of a deal it was. Its cool how everything worked out in the end :-)
So things here in the ohig are going really good :-) We`ve done a lot of things here to help with the ward and sector. I don`t think I said the last but we had a Baptism on the 29th :-) It went very well :-) It was kind of impromtu because we had to do everything but it was good nonetheless :-) We hope that this baptism will help her family make their way back to the church because they are a little inactive. Here`s to hoping. It`s good that we had a baptism because the last time that this sector had a baptism was in March 2010 :-P Sing Ho for not a year! :-D Another cool thing that has happened recently is the family that I was talking about the other week :-) We`ve been teaching them throughout the week and they have accepted everything that we`ve said and they even say that it makes a lot of sense :-D TAke that Satan, Gospel Props! We had a ward activity on friday where we had all the members that came bring a cake(or something sweet to share) and then we provided a spiritual message and games :-D A plus was that the family was able to come and get to know just about everyone in the ward and THEN on sunday they already knew everybody :-D Yesterday after church they told us that they loved everything and want to hear more. So we`re going to leave them alone for a little while . . . . Yeah thats not happening. They`ve been a real blessing for us and I feel that when they become members (When not if, because THEY`ve already been talking about the temple) that they are going to be a great help for the church :-) HAppy Day, all is well.
Another cool thing this week. The Area President, Elder Carlos Amado, came and had a conference with us on thursday :-D It was really fun and he`s a really funny guy. It`s weird to think that if I didn`t know spanish, I wouldn`t have been able to talk with him or listen to what he was teaching. Crazy stuff. Something that he told us was that at the time we may not feel that we are being guided by the spirit but when looking back, its obvious that we were. Cool thought.
Something funny, so we were contacting the other day cuz we do that sometimes, and we run into this old guy and we`re like hey sir how`re you doing? and he was like good good, and we were like Hey were missionaries and we have this special message for YOU, and some other things about the importance of our happiness in this life, and until this point he was being polite until he asks ``What are you guys, Catholics, Evangelists?`` And we say ``We`re from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints`` and he asks ``What?`` and we say ``. . .The Mormons`` and then he flips out and he`s like ``No I dont want anything from you guys, you need to leave`` so we stand there awkwardly for a sec and I`m kind of sad cuz it`s always sad when they do that so I say ``Here`` and I give him a little passalong card of Jesus and he gets all surprised and says ``What is this?`` and I`m like `` . . .Its Jesus`` and he`s like ``But you guys follow Satan, the Devil`` and I`m like ``. . . Nope`` :-D After that he got all happy and smily and thoughtful for awhile and we told him that we can only follow Jesus because anyone else is wrong. He stopped talking to us at this point onward but he was still smiling :-) We told him we`ll pass by someother time when he wasn`t busy and then we left. Funny stuff. Its amazing what people think sometimes.
So hey that`s it for me. I`m mailing some letters today but they`re all for other people but I`m sending letters to you guys next week with pictures so hang tight. (By the way I`m still going to be here in Ohiggins until MArch 15 at least. Forgot to mention that ) Until the next Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, Sophie, and Dani, I love you all and Be HAppy!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

HEY?! :-D HOWZIT GOING?! :-D
I didn`t know that Cody got home already :-D I thought that he was going to get home in like april or something. My Bad :-D And Brock`s heading out as well :-D Crazy stuff :-D
So how`re things? How is everybody? Hopefully your shoulder is getting better Mom :-P Its funny hearing about Sophie watching tv because I can imagine perfectly how she`s in the chair :-D She`s kind of the shape of a potatoe :-D
Its good to hear that everything is going alright at home :-) Actually one thing Dad, Grandpa sent me an email the other day that he had slipped and fallen in his driveway like on sunday I think sometime at 6 in the morning. He didn`t say that he had told anyone so if you could go and check that he has all his parts that`d be cool :-D
So things are going good here on the other side in Chile :-) We were able to bring a lot of people to church yesterday (3 which is a freaking ton load thank you very much). We found a really cool family LAST monday and they are all really cool :-) We arrived and they invited us in with smiles and everything. We were able to have a really cool conversation and share some scritpures with them. We also gave them a Book of Mormon and they`ve been reading it :-D Cool stuff. The kids (3) came with us to play soccer on saturday which was cool :-) It`s only a matter of time and the spirit now :-D VAMOS CHILE!!!
Things continue to kind of slug their way with the ward. Now that I`m with a comp that isn`t really down on himself it isn`t as bad as it was but its still hmhuhm, word. I don`t worry too much because it will have to improve eventually, even if its after my turn here :-)
Thats basically it here :-P :-D Hey dad, I wanted to tell you that I might buy a new luggage bag next monday and it isn`t inexpensive. The biggest bag started falling apart the last cambio. There was a bar that was between the wheels of the bag and yeah, that`s gone now :-) As well I packed the walls of the bag to tight the last cambio and they are all cracked. If I can fix the bag in the week, I let you know on monday but if not then I`ll have to get a bag. The bigger bags range from 100 to 140 DOLLARS not pesos so heads up :-P I think that there is a way that I can fix the bag but just so you know if I can`t.
So thats basically it for me :-D Until the Next Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, Sophie, and DAni, I love you all and BE HAPPY
Sincerely
THe only one
Elder Jamie McConnell

Jamie talking with us on Chirstmas

HEy EverYBody :-D
Howzit going?! :-D Things are going alright here on the other side of the world.
So some interesting things this week :-) We ALMOST had a Baptism :-P And we almost did it in a River :-D but it didn`t happen :-P So we had everything ready, she has been taught all of the lessons and she passed everything in the interview, BUT she told us that she didn`t want to do it. Actually she never said yes or no. The thing is that she at this time can be baptized. There is no problem with that. She however has this really big fear of not enduring to the end. The problem is that she has this ex pareja. The closest word in english that I would use is a husband or wife that live together almost exactly as if they were married but aren`t. Right now there is no problem, but she is afraid that in the future this guy`s going to come back and they`re going to live together and then the baptism would`ve been for nothing :-P She knows everything, she knows that its important, she knows she has to do it, but she wants to be sure that this won`t be a problem for her later :-P So me and Elder Colombo both felt that we shouldn`t push her on this. We knew that this idea was really sad but we also knew that it was the best thing to do. When we got home we didn`t feel too bad :-) Elder Colombo said that If we had baptized we wopuld have felt worse :-D I agreed. So theres that.
Nothing much really crazy happened this week. I gopt the hymnbook and bugstuff on tuesday. We had a capacitacion which is just a big spanish word for a big meeting with los angeles south zone and Pres. Swenson :-D We learned a lot. he talked about how on the mission we are every decision that we make and its the same for the rest of your life :-D Cool stuff. I gave a talk yesterday :-D Darn Bishop told me the night before thatI needed to do it and then 15 minutes before he told me twenty minutes. I whipped out some old talks that I had in my english scripture case and just translated it :-D I gave a talk on forgiveness. It reminded me about when you would call me in the morning Dad and tell me I had a class later on in the day. Thanks for the practice. I also got to giver a blessing in spanish the other day. The thing in Spanish is that there are two different ways to say you, tu and usted, but for some reason blessings and prayers are usually said in tu form. The sad part is that I almost always talk in usted so I hardly know how to speak in tu :-P I did good I thought :-D It was a mix of the two :-D
So yeah, thats basically it :-) I`m sending letters today so heads up. I`m doing great with everything. Really the ward is really really cool :-) I`m going to miss them a lot when they take me out of here. That might happen in February first but I`d be totally fine until the middle of march :-) Sing Ho :-D
ANyways, Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, Sophie, and Danny, I love you all and Be Happy!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell
p.s. Whats in my hand? Nothing, Nothing, I`m a magician

Weekly Letter and Some Pictures

HEY Everybody! :-D Howzit Going?!! :-D I loved reading the emails and Dad, thats a pretty cool article about you :-D though they did forget to put in the rest of us in the story cuz I`m pretty sure we were there for some of those parts :-D So I assume that the Ipod arrived :-) I have to say that I do not trust Chilaen mail services :-P Ten cuidado. Danie seems like she`s really helping out a lot :-) How is her name spelled bytheway? Danny, Danie, Dani . . . :-) Nice cake Sam, And HEy mom said you got those fire poi thingies. Don`t be stupid cuz if you burn down somebody`s house now, you go to jail. Now you gotta make sure that everything you do isn`t too stupid :-D Happy birthday bytheway :-D How does it feel to be 18? I cant even remember what we did for my 18th birthday. I know that you guys were there :-D I think that I got my compùter there as well :-D That was almost 2 years ago :-D Holy caca :-D So yeah, more about me. Things are going good here in the Ohig. (You can`t really be too gangster with a name like ohiggins). We`re improving a lot about the sector. WE didn`t have a lot of success with people coming to church yesterday but you can be darn sure we invited a ton of people to go and they all said ''Yeah we`ll go'' which was great because they usually say si dios quiere which means if god wants which almost makes me want to scream sometimes. ``I`ll go if God wants me to`` ``. . . We just told you that he does moron`` :-D that was rude, and I don`t ever say that but the thought`s still there :-D But seriously, things are improving . We have a lot of new people that we can teach, a lot of inactives that we`ve found that want to start coming back. Everything is looking up :-) SIng ho. Something cool that happened yesterday. On the 15th we have a baptism scheduled for Patricia. The same day, the ward is going on a paseo. I don`t know what the word means exactly but the thing is a really big ward activity at some river some where. We were told that we needed to come because the members might kill us if we don`t, but we said that we might have a baptism for the 15th, so the bishop said ''no importa'' which is like doesn`t matter ''we`ll bring her with us and baptize her there``, and I was like ``Um ok we`ll talk with her``. The thing is that patricia is kind of `timid`` and she doesnt want to get baptized if she`s not sure she`s gonna stick it out, so we were going to talk to her about it. Anyways, the meetings went, blah blah blah, eventually sacrament finished and they began a meeting about the paseo with all the members for a bit. Patricia went outside for a sec and we talked about the baptims and if she`d like it in a river, and stuff and she was like yeah we`ll see. Eventually we went back into the chapel and got ambushed by the members. They were like ``Are you going to come, are you going to get baptized, are you coming, its going to be great, the water`s perfect for baptism, just a little dip, we are ALL going to be there, COMING???`` . . . . I was like ``Guys, shut UP!!`` mentally, but then patricia caved in and said ok :-D It was perfect cuz thats all she really needed was everyone telling her to do it. :-D She knows everything, she`s just afraid of the happily ever after part but i think that the members are going to be a great help :-) So thats basically it .:-) Hey by the way to Mom and Jason, Some of the youth members have asked for my facebook stuff and I told them that you two speak spanish. I hope that they aren`t too crazy :-) The convert that I have is Constanza Rivas so if you want to get to know her and her fam that`d be cool. Something that I wanted to ask for, if you guys ,in a package that might be a little bigger, could send me a pair of missionary mall shoes and more socks, that`s be great :-) I have one more pair but I think it`d be good to have one more backup :-D Thats it for me :-) Until the next, Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, Sophie, and Danny (spelling), I love you all and Be HappY! Sincerely Elder McConnell

Weekly Letter

HEYO!!! :-D Howzit going?! :-D

Things are continuing to go alright here in the other Los Angeles. New years was fun and not at the same time. It was fun in that we were able to go over to some members houses to enjoy the festivities on the 31st and 1st, but it wasn`t fun in that almost all of our investigators (and a bunch of members) weren`t home during the week :-P As well, all the people who remained in the street were drunk. I was going to say, mom and dad, that you both saw a lot of drunk people in the street on your missions (maybe more in Scotland :-D). I swear that some day I`m going to find a drunk guy in the street and he`s going to be dead. They look dead most of the time anyway, but you`re never sure.

So for New years we went over to the house of the Bishop of Galvarino (the ward that we share the chapel with), Bishop Valdebenito. He`s a really cool guy and I think that I already told you guys that he looks a lot like Dad, except spanish. Basically we just hanged out, listened to music, ate a LOT of food, and talked :-) Something I learned the other day, I don`t have to try to understand conversations anymore, its like listening in english now, WAZZUP!? :-D How cool am I? :-D A song that you need to look up Sam is Arriba la vida by (I think) Cronika. Its a pretty cool song and if you emailed me the lyrics, I could probably translate it :-) I`ve recently been making a list of music that I`ve heard in Chile so that I can download it when I get back home. That you should be home.

Some cool things that happened in the week, we went on intercambios(exchanges) on tuesday and we found two people that spoke english. They were both really cool people :-D The first one kind of like to swear a little. he asked us about who we were and what we were doing here and some other questions like the word of wisdom and the Ley de castidad and we we told him what they were he was like ``Dang guys`` but with the actual word :-) Funny stuff. The second one was kind of more interested in that we spoke spanish more than that we were missionaries, but to each his own :-D

The rest of the week was basically contacting cuz everyone wasnt home (or they had lied to us about where they lived). That was fun though because we found a lot of people for this week :-) Yay. . . . Thats basically it.

I cant believe that Its 2011 already :-P Crazy fast. A lot of the Elders that I know are going home this year. This is going to be the one whole year of my life as a missionary :-D Crazy stuff :-D

Hey, about the package. I sent the thumbdrive but not until I had erased all the photos that weren`t still on the camera. I BELIEVE that all the photos that were erased had had a copy of them sent to you guys. Hopefully all of them because I have none of the photos from before that :-P Hopefully you get the thumbdrive and hopefully you have all the photos :-)

Side note. Yeah we felt the earthquake, but I have no idea why it would make news all the way in the states :-P It shook the house for a bit but only so that you knew it was an earthquake. I don`t think that anything happened :-D

So thats it for me. Until the next, Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, and Sophie, I love you all, and Be Happy! :-D

Sincerely

Elder Jamie McConnell