Weekly Letter

HEY EVERYBODY!!! :-D HOWZIT GOING!!! :-D
Hey, How`re things? :-D How is life on the other side of the world? Things are going alright here in Gorbea :-D Its weird to say something else than Ohiggins :-D This week we weren`t really able to go out and work for conferences, Elder Gonzalez being sick and activities, so there`s not much to say :-P Some surprise blessings at the end though :-D Yesterday the husbands of two member mothers both came to church which apparently never happens :-D So that was cool. Ruben and Nivaldo :-) We were able to talk to them about the Sacrament meeting (because it`s the first meeting) and they both said that they really liked it :-) They`ve apparently gone to the church various times because their wives are long-time members, so they basically know everything. So later on in the day we went to have dinner with Nivaldo and his wife, Difrozina (Have fun with THAT) and their children. Elder Gonzalez told me that its really good to have people eating when you ask them to do things and he was perfectly right. Before the night was through, he set up a date for them to get themselves married, and for Nivaldo to get baptized :-D You can imagine that that is kind of a big deal. Let me explain the marriage thing. Chilaens ( and i assume the vast majority of south america) are completely fine with just pairing off with other people for the rest of their lives without even a word about marriage. Marriage for some people is like a shiny gift that would be nice to have but isn`t really necessary. That makes the Law of Chastity really fun :-P I remember one time, this lady, when we had asked why she wouldn`t get married with her ``husband``, told us that if she ever got mad or if he ever did something stupid, she could just go without any problems. She said that while holding her almost two year old daughter in her arms. That was awkward. So you can imagine that when Elder Gonzalez helped Nivaldo and Difrozina put a date to get married, that was kind of a big deal :-D A whole week of almost doing nothing and suddenly a baptism date :-) Something that Pres Swenson said in the conference friday made me think. He said that baptisms are GIVEN, not earned. I think that that is very true :-)
So thats basically it for the work this week :-P Bytheway things, I did get the package with the reeses and hymnbooks, and the one with socks and chapstick and letters from both Grandma and Grandpa Utley AND McConnell :-) I was able to write some letters today to some other people and I figure that I`m just going to send the birthday cards without a gift, cuz I`ve found nothing :-P :-) Something funny, Elder Gomez and my old comp Elder Merrill called me in the morning today to wish me a happy birthday :-D Its crazy to think that Elder Gomez is all the way out here in Chile :-D
Thanks for all the Happy Birthdays guys :-) Today I wrote some letters and then we went ``fishing`` for the rest of the day so that was a blast. Elder Gonzalez has a problem with accepting that he needs to practice with something because we didn`t catch ANYTHING ALL DAY LONG. He said that there was fish but they must have been really really tired all day long. All well :-) I still have candy at the house :-D
Something that Pres Swenson told me the other day was that when Nephi went to pray to the lord in order to make the ship, the lord AT TIMES answered his prayers. later while they were traveling on the boat the wind would push them along one direction and then at times stop, and then begin and push them in another direction. The lesson was that sometimes the Lord is gonna leave us on our own for awhile and we are going to sometimes feel abandoned when really we`re learning more about ourselves and developing a greater faith. The Spirit is always there when we are ready and worthy to have it. Thats a promise of God. Even if we don`t feel it, it doesn`t mean it isn`t there.
Well thats it for me :-) I`m twenty bytheway :-D Crazy stuff to think that a fifth of my life has just finished :-P :-D Until the next monday guys, Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie and Dani, i love you all and Be HAPPY! :-D
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

Happy 20th Birthday Jamie

Weekly Letter

HEYYY EVERYBODY!!! :-D HOWZIT GOING?!!! :-D
Hey Guys, How`re things? :-) Hopefully things are going good :-) All the missionaries seem to be doing good :-D thats always good :-)
Things are going a lot differently here in Gorbea :-) Lots of rain, lots of green, very pretty. The mornings can be monsters of cold but thats what thermal garments are for :-D The people are a ton more . . . . nice :-D We`ve barely had any doors thrown yet :-D Thats so new for me :-D As well as lessons with some of them :-D I`m kind of out of practice :-D A guy the other day said that at the time he was kind of busy but told us he`d love to have us come by on Wednesday so Elder Gonzalez was like ``Yeah we`ll pass by`` and I was like ``DO YOU WANT TO GET BAPTIZED?!!?!? . . . I mean, yeah we`ll pass by``. My enthusiasm got the better of me :-D
Bytheway, My Companion is called Elder Harold Gonzalez from Colombia :-) He`s a pretty cool guy :-) He`s a really good teacher and really really fast. I don`t know if I`m going to be able to keep up with him :-P He has like 17 months I think and leaves in November. He`s kind of a clean freak so we have the house very very tidy :-) He`s kind of bipolar though, and not like he changes his mood quickly, he EXPLODES from doing one thing to the next. I have to mantain a good jog with his walk :-P I don`t know when to insert myself in the lessons cuz he moves so fast and he`s fantastic with the people. We completed with almost all of the weekly goals even with all the time in the house :-P He`s a freak .-D He`s a very hardworking freak :-D I`m doing absolutely fine but PRAY FOR ME.
Its weird to think that next week I`m going to be 20 and in another 2 weeks, I`ll have a year in the mission :-P :-) Crazy stuff. I almost have a fifth of my life done :-P Crazy stuff. It goes to show that the only things that we really have in this life that are completely ours is time (and not an unlimited supply of it) and choice. Sing HO for Albedrio (agency in spanish)(I speak spanish :-D). Elder Hales had a really cool talk on agency and I really like the verse he uses
Know this that every soul is free
To choose his life and what he`ll be
Know this that this eternal truth is giv`n
That God will force no man to heaven.
Crazy stuff. Something that has come to my mind and even more in the mission is the thought of ``Am I doing everything I can with what I have?``. Thats an awful question, I think that that question causes more stress to mankind than almost any other :-P We do have a guidebook though :-) The Apostles asked Jesus what kind of men should they be and he answered `` Even as I am``. Thats kind of a lofty goal, perfection, but its a goal worthy of us to try at least and like that saying says shoot for the moon because even if you miss, you`ll land among the stars. Perhaps a more mormon saying, shoot for the sun. We won`t make it all the way but God will bare us up after all that we could do, and he`ll take us the rest of the way to our heavenly home :-)
Thats it for me this week guys :-) Until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie and Dani, I love you all and BE HappY!! :-D
Sincerely
The only Elder Jamie McConnell

HEY EVERYBODY!! HOWZIT GOING?! :-D
HEy, I`m leaving Villa O`higgins! It is kind of sad :-P I am glad that I`m leaving, to learn more about the mission and learn more about how to teach, but I will miss the O`hig. The ward is doing good, basically the same in attendance but they do seem happier now than when I arrived :-) Thats always good :-) I`m also leaving a baptism date for the 2nd of april so thats good as well :-) Crazy stuff.
So things went alright this week. We taught a lot of lessons which was good. We made it a point to share scriptures during lunches which was always good because they almost always have people over who aren`t members so that always a good opportunity to have a lesson with member :-D Something sad, the rains have started so everything is gray whereas everything before was burning red hot :-P By the way, the sector where I`m going is called Gorbea :-) which is one of the sectors most south of the mission, which is wonderful because winter is about to start . . . wait thats bad. Shoot. Thats one thing the missionaries here have made fun of me is that I had to spend a summer in Los Angeles and now a winter down south. Who loves irony?
Something different, the ward did a play on saturday and we were in it. Superman wanted to go on a mission so he called the Super Elders for advice :-) THe whole show was made up thirty minutes before so when I send it you guys you`ll understand why it was kind of . . . fome(spanish word), but our entries were cool :-D
Honestly . . . this week was very boring :-P Our investigators all said they were going to miss me and in fact we`re going over tonight for a family home evening to say goodbye to an investigating Family. :-) Its cool to see that you`ve made friends with people. But besides all that, there`s not much else :-P Disculpen.
Just a thought. Hope is an interesting word :-) In spanish its even more interesting. Esperanza means hope but it also means expectation. I feel that we use the word hope kind of like how we use the word maybe when in reality it is a much bigger thing than that. Two talks came to mind ``the infinite power of hope`` by Pres Uchtdorf and ``an high priest of good things to come`` by Elder Holland. You guys should read them :-) They`re very good :-) It just goes to show that hoping isn`t a weak thing that passively waits for the good to come, it goes and gets it, even if its hard, and even if it appears impossible. Cool stuff
Thats it for me this week :-) The next email will be from Gorbea so heads up :-D until the next, Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie and Dani, I love you all and Be Happy!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell
p.s. Did somebody tell me that Sam got into the U or did I forget?

Weekly Letter and Pictures

HEY EVERYBODY!!! :-D HOWZIT GOING?!
Hey guys, how´re things? :-) Sounds like everything is going good with you guys :-D I just recently watched Grace´s video and Sams seminary video :-D Hilarious :-D I´m crying. English humor is so much BETTER!!! By the way, I didn´t know you guys went to San Fransisco :-D
So things are going alright here in Ohiggins. We have people, they´re nice :-) They´re having problems with coming to church but we´ll be fixing that soon. :-D The Family Contreras is doing good. We´ve hit some snags, Carmen needs to quit smoking, her husband Pedro likes the church but wants to really feel that its the true church, Magglor has yet to pray about the Book of Mormon but is reading it and likes everything that we´ve taught, Cristian doesn´t want to ´´switch´´ churches because all of his friends go to an adventist church, and Niko who needs to read and pray. Fun stuff. Actually, Something funny with Niko the other day. We were explaining Prophets and Apostols and how when Jesus made his church, it had prophets and apostols and so to be the church of Jesus today it needs to have those two things (and of course other things but we weren´t specifying everything) and Niko pipes up and asks ´´Wait a sec. You mean that your church has prophets and apostols here in the present?´´ and we say ´´. . .Yes´´ and he´s like ´´WHoa are you serious? Where do they live?´´ And I said ´´Um in Utah but they travel a lot, its kind of their job´´ and then Niko says ´´The church is true! It has everything!´´ And we´re like ´´Thats right class, you´ll need to know that for the test after´´ :-D Funny stuff :-D We´re going to see if we can help´them all out with reading and praying. I feel like thats really going to help them.
Elfrides is an older lady, she lives with her husband alone because their family are all grown. Her daughter in law is actually a member (inactive but a member nonetheless) and The daughter in law was going to bring her to church on sunday because she´s older and has trouble walking long distances but the lady never showed up!! This has happened twice now. We´ve decided to bring her ourselves :-) We have another abuelita, Rosa, as well who didn´t come either :-P She´s really nice, she´s kind of forgetful and We need to be very clear with the lessons but she´s doing good :-) thats about it for peoples.
Something interesting yesterday, We were contacting in a plaza thats right next to the church and we start talking to this guy Nelson and he´s nice, we´re talking, we start talking about how there´s one God how he wouldn´t have so many churches and he asks us ´´well which church is true´´ I waiting for a second before pointing across the plaza and said ´´Its that one´´. I think that if i had recently arrived in chile I would have said something like ´´Well you can pray to our Heavenly Father and he will tell you the answer´´ which is true, but I knew what the answer was, and I wasn´t going to wait ´to let him know. I feel that not saying the truth (not lying, just not talking), is almost another way of lying when the truth should be told. As well, when someone keeps their mouth shut when words should be spoken, trust is lost. If people can´t tell each other how they feel and what they think honestly, trust is silently lost. Something as missionaries members and really anyone that we should make sure to do when the truth is asked for is tell it, without fear. People don´t have the time to hear us almost tell he truth, especially family and friends and whoever else we care about.
Well I got to go :-) By the way Mom I haven´t had any health problems so no worries. I´m sending ONE letter for everyone so heads up for that. Until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie and Dani, I love you all and BE HaPPy!!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell