Weekly Letter

Hey Everyone! Howzit Going?! :-D
Hey guys, how`re things? :-) Things are going good here in the Ohig :-D Unfortunately the missionaries that I`m with have no idea how to manage time so we were just giving juice all day long (Dando jugo means giving juice but its another way of saying hanging out but more like wasting time) So I have very little time to say how cool you all are and tell some stories from this week but I`ll try.
First off, I KNOW WHERE DALLIN IS!! :-D Found the little bugger`s sector in another missionaries phone so I`ll be calling him later tonight :-D He`s in a sector called Labranza :-)
Second thing. A little cooler. We were teaching this lady the other day, Elfrides, and we`re teaching the first lesson all about the restoration and we get to the part about Joseph Smith and I`m like ``So Sister, have you ever heard of Joseph Smith?`` and she says, I kid you not ``Oh yeah, You mean that prophet that God and Jesus Christ appeared to, in order to restore the true church?``
. . . And I`m like ```. . . . Yes`` (I`m thinking ``She ruined the story`` :-D Just kidding) We pause for a sec because we are surprised, and then I ask her if she believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is ture, and that the LDS church is the only true church in the world, and she said yes to all of them. So we asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said yes but that her husband wouldn`t let her so we asked if we could talk with him and she said yes, so we did, and he doesn`t want anything to do with us with the gospel anyway because we really hit it off when we didn`t talk about religion but he said that we could teach his wife and help her get baptized :-D Thats tight :-D Elfrides couldn`t come to church yesterday but it`s still looking good :-) :-D
Thats basically it for me :-P I apologize again for length, I`m going to have to talk to these guys next monday cuz this is ridiculous :-) So until the next, Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie and Dani, I love you all and Be Happy!! :-D
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

Weekly Letter

HEY EVERYBODY :-D Howzit going?! :-D How`re things in the United States of A? :-D Thanks for the heads up with whats up in the states mom. As well for that other thing :-) Sam, I couldn`t hear the soundon this computer but I did see it and that was gross. I bet it`s funnier with sound :-D Next week :-D Grace I saw your video too :-) Yoor teeth are all coming out :-D
So I don`t have a lot of time today because we`re doing the emails really late. Honestly there isn`t really a limit but I feel better with less time on the computer on mondays. I feel more . . . ready for lack of a better word. This week was basically the same except that we kind of tanked on lessons taught :-P It`s starting to get difficult to complete with the goals :-P But no worries America :-D We Get Better Every Day! :-D
Things that were different, A convert of ours went back home to Viña Del Mar. She was here in the sector for vacation and got baptized instead :-D She`s actually one of the best converts that I`ve ever seen. She never had problems with the commitments, never a problem with the doctrine, and she studies the book of mormon better than some missionaries that I know. She has a journal at her side whenever she reads so she can write whatever comes to her mind. And something that she said that made me feel that she was progressing really well is that whenever we taught something new she would say that it all makes since and every new thing you guys teach me makes everything you`ve already taught me even more real. Really cool. Her name`s Makarena fernanda tejos and if you guys to send her messages occasionally that`d be cool. As well if you could have Tyson Cook see if he knows anyone where she lives, that`d be great .-)
Yesterday we had a really cool meeting. It was a stake conference but our speakers were an Elder Mayne from the Seventy, Sis Elaine S Dalton, Elder D Todd Christofferson and Pres Packer. (It was a transmission by the way to all of the stakes in Chile) Pres Packer and Sis Dalton had interpreters and the other two spoke spanish. It was really cool because Elder Christofferson speaks really well and it was really cool to here him speak. Pres Packer tried speaking spanish for the first part of his talk but he speaks spanish the same way he speaks english so it was kind of funny :-D They all gave really good talks :-) I don`t know if there is a way to get copies :-D
A spiritual thought and then I go. I had a thought come to me the other day, something that I learned from another missionary and I used it for our inverstigatot family (who are good bytheway). It goes like this. There is a circle. Just a circle and in it, it has the things that we know. For example the sky is blue, grass is green, etc. Other things, Heavenly Father loves us. He wants us to be happy. Jesus Christ completed the Atonement for us. There are others but thats enough. Now unfortunately we don`t know everything and we don`t know can make it hard to be happy and optimistic in this life. Why do bad things happen to good people, Cant i find a job, Am I capable of finding happiness in this world? A thing that I have too many times, Can marriages last, happily? Now these things are things that assalt us daily, there is no way of avoiding them. There are unfortunately more things that we don`t know and that perhaps we can`t answer right now or even ever, BUT whatever the thing is outside of the circle, it cannot change a thing that is inside of the circle. Doubt has no power over truth. Fear is nothing in the light of Faith. If we remember what we know, what we don`t know won`t matter and we`ll be happy :-) I said that all in spanish by the way PERFECTLY. I`m a magician :-D
I gotta go but I love you all and I hope the best for you. Don`t stop praying and never forget who we represent, because we can`t lose if we do.
So mom dad sam meri grace sophie and dani I love you all and BE HAPPY
As always sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

Weekly Letter

So things are going good here in O´higgins :-) Yesterday we confirmed our baptism that we had had the other sunday which was a relief because member had told me that if you wait too long between the baptism and the confirmation, Satan still has time to kill the person who got baptized before they become members for real. So you can bet I was a little on edge during the week :-D The family is doind great :-) (Pedro, Carmen, Magglory, Cristian, Niko, and Pedrito so you know who they are) bytheway Mom, Magglory is mad that you havent accepted her yet on facebook. They are doing really great :-) We´re planning for the 5th for the baptism of Carmen and Magglory. There are some complications in that Carmen has a little problem with smoking, but I told her to knock it off and she said ok so we´re alright :-D Magglory has been baptized twice already in two different churches. She understands the line of authority and she believes that everything that we have said is true, she just doesn´t want to think that this next baptism will be wrong like the other two. She´s reading, she´s praying, she´ll be fine :-) Things are looking up.
Short note, The ´´earthquake´´ did nothing but scare people (I did hear there was one death but it was from a heart attack). Me and Elder Colombo were talking to an Adventist lady. A very Angry Adventist lady, and she and Elder Colombo began to chat in a less than cordial manner. Anyways, So I´m hanging out while my comp and this lady are yelling and the fence that we´re leaning on begins to shake and I for sure thought that it was Elder Colombo shaking the fence with his hands cuz he was mad but then I realized that all the fences that I could see were shaking as well, along with the windows :-D But it was only big enough to get your attention nothing else. So no worries, we´re alright :-D
I wanted to talk about faith. Yesterday we went to the home of an older woman who wanted us to give her a blessing. We chatted for a bit, she hasn´t been to church for longer than I´ve been here in the sector because of her health, so she´s kind of in bad shape. So we give her a blessing, and as we´re leaving she tells us ´´Me siento bien!´´ I feel fine. Not like when people say that they feel better that you passed by to visit them, she felt fine. She was genuinely happy and without her pain. For a sec I was like whoa, what happened but just for sec because I remembered ´´oh yeah, We can heal people with the power of God. thats why´´. I´ve always known that blessins help but I had never seen it work so fast. Another time we gave a blessing to another older lady who was in a lot worse shape. An intestine had ruptured or something and this lady needed to stay in her bed. We were actually just passing when the son sked us to come in and give her blessing. She was asleep when we did it and then we left. couple days later her daughter finds us in the street and says that her mom is fine and in fact her health and personality had changed to what they were like when she was younger. Crazy stuff. It makes me think. One happened very quickly. One happened later but the lady didn´t even hear or was aware of the blessing but regardless is better. Faith to move mountains. Faith to heal. Faith to be Healed. How much is needed to heal someone. How many people need to have it. Only a seed, very tiny seed, of faith is needed and only one person needs to have it. Perhaps what we wish to happen will happen quick, tomorrow. or perhaps much later, but I believe that if we believe that it can and will happen, it will. Only a seed :-D
Thats it for me :-) I´m sending letters to other peoples so heads up for those but the next week I´ll send some for you guys :-) SO until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie and Dani, I love you all and BE HAPPY
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

SO things have been very good here in the Ohig. I don´t think I made this clear but I´m going to be here at least until the 15th of march. So that should be fine :-D I´m going to get know EVERYBODY :-D The other day we were told that God doesn´t exist and that we were wasting our youth trying to teach the scriptures. Another day we were told that ´´the latter day saints were going to be burned in the last day ´´(I may have misinterpreted that one but Elder Colombo says thats what the pastor said) :-) Happy day.
But for good news we had a baptism yesterday :-D It went really well. We had the baptism after sacrament meeting which was good because if we had done it on Saturday almost no one would have come :-P :-D So the ward stayed, I was able to give a cool little talk (I speak spanish by the way), we had the baptism, everybody couldn´t fit in the font room there were so many people, family and non family a like :-D It was a really cool baptism. All of the grandma´s gave Makarena (the girl who got baptized) hugs and kisses, and her Aunt said that she was going to make it a point to come back to church :-) :-D Very cool :-)
We´re still working with the family that we found a couple weeks ago (La Familia Contreras) and they are still doing very well. They were almost all not home during the week but we kept in contact over the cellphone and they told us that they were still reading the Book of Mormon and praying which was great. The daughter was the only one that was able to come to church but she brought three friends with her who are also beginning to listen to the lessons :-D Things are looking up :-D
So thats it for me :-) Letters are on the way :-) Grandma McConnell, I hope that you are doing alright with your sister. Grandma Utley I hope that you´re recuperating more and more everyday, and I Hope that all the rest of you are doing good and if not good, great :-D
A little note, I read Romans chapter 8, the last three verses, and they made me think that there is nothing in or out of the world that can take away the love of God from us. Even if we don´t want to have it, God loves us anyway :-) What a blessing. We can´t lose if we remember who it is that hopes the best for us and is doing everything He can for us to have the best. We can´t lose :-D
Now that´s it for me :-D Until the next then, Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, Sophie, and Dani, and All of you out there, I love you and BE HAppY!! :-D
Sincerely
Elder McConnell