Weekly Letter

Everyone:

Many of you might get confused about Danie and what Jamie is talking about. We had Danie live with us since the first of the year as a nanny to help with the younger girls. Anyway, she became interested in learning about the church. Through her reading scriptures with us as a family and the love of the missionaries at Temple Square, she made the decision to be baptized. She was leaving on Sunday morning for new new assignment in New Jersey and decided to be baptized Thursday night! So, the elders interviewed her and we got it done Saturday night. We are sad to see her go as a family as she has become close as a daughter to Barb and me but excited for her new adventure back east. To give you an example of how the Spirit works, her new bishop in the area she moved to speaks Mandarin! So we are comfoted with that. Anyway here's Jamies Letter:



HEY EVERYBODY!!! :-D HOWZIT GOING?!?! :-D
That is AWESOME that Danie got baptized!! :-D I apologize for the lack of faith, but I didn`t know if Danie was going to come through because one I still have yet to meet her and two I`m surrounded by people everyday that say ``Yeah come over later`` or ``yeah I`ll read tonight`` or ``yeah sure maybe i`ll get baptized on saturday`` :-P Thats wonderful that Danie wanted to do that. It`s like you said Dad, ``When she got here, she didn`t know who Moses was`` :-D I remember something Mom told me way back when, apparently when Danie read the story she said ``You guys really believe all that?`` ``. . . Yes`` :-D I suppose when you think about everything the Bible and Book of Mormon have, there are a couple incredible stories :-D I am really happy that Danie feels that this is all true :-) THAT is something that is really amazing, a testimony. I feel bad that I haven`t been able to meet her :-P but I`m eternally grateful that she passed through Utah and through the house of the McConnell family :-) You guys rule. (Bytheway Dad, Your hair is really white now . . . Love you :-D)
Sam that is really cool that you graduated. I apologize if that sounds sarcastic :-P :-D But seriously it was cool to see you in that weird dress thingy (I think its called a robe right? :-D Spanish is killing my english :-D) You`re all grown up now :-) Make sure to try and enjoy this last summer vacation :-D
Enough about you guys :-D Things here are going good :-D The scriptures and sweets arrived on tuesday and William, Maria, and Isis loved the scriptures :-D They are so happy to be able to read ALL of the scripture references :-D They are so wonderful. They kind of had a hard week :-P They tried selling some things in the week (which bytheway is how food comes into their house) and it didn`t go very well :-P We stopped by on Saturday to have a lesson and we tried to lift their spirits a bit. We sang hymn 228 (well in spanish) and Mathew 6 24-27 and Ether 12 4. I explained how rain falls on everyone but the righteous are secured :-) If you are doing the best you can to keep the commandments YOU WILL BE BLESSED. YOU WILL HAVE HELP. Exactly when, I have no idea, but it will happen :-) They seemed a little better after :-)
Something cool :-) Our District President, Pres Ulbrich, announced in church yesterday that we are going to throw a party next tuesday in the church (as far as one can throw a party in the church of course) to celebrate William`s and Maria`s marriage :-D Everyone got all excited and wanted to pitch in. It got pretty crazy. :-D Its awesome when the ward`s got your back :-D
Transfers are next week so we`ll see if i`m even here for the baptism but if not, i`ll know that they`ll be fine :-) And if i stay, more food for me :-D
Hopefully that package arrives safely :-P i`m kind of worried about that :-P let me know when it gets there :-D
Thats basically it for me :-) Until the next Mom, Dad, Sam, Meri, Grace, and Sophie, I love you all and Be HappY!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

Weekly Letter

HEY EveryBodY!! :-D HOWZIT GOING?!?!?
I have to do this short cuz we are late today but to let you all know we are aight :-D The work is going and going good. Awesome note, You know how William and Maria Jose were going to get married on July 15th? For some reason they changed it to the 6th of June :-D No reason, Maria just wanted to do it sooner :-D I almost asked why but then I didn`t care :-D They are awesome. Out of the 8 weeks that they have know the church they have gone 7 times to the church. Consecutively. MEMBERS DON^T DO THAT. They are a wonderful family :-D They study, they pray, they ask us everytime we come what we brought to share with them :-) Very cool :-)
The rest of the week was good :-) But enough about me :-D Sam, You Graduated! :-D (seminary). Thats awesome :-D And you`re about to graduate high school man. Thats crazy too. Its kind of weird when you go to school for twelve years and then not everything after is all cut out and clear :-P But I suppose thats where the adventure is in life :-D Good job man.
I miss Rugby.
I sent a letter to Jon in the package if you guys could get it over to him.
Church is true.
Little thing before I go :-) If a person really WANTS to be happy in this life, that person will do his or her best to follow the teachings of Christ. That is the best way to have a happy life. To achieve that even more, we gotta create and help a testimony grow. There was something that Elder Scott said in the november conference about faith and character. He said (paraphrasing) Satan cannot take away faith, a testimony, or character from anyone. He does not and never will have the power to do so. The only ways we can lose those things are through doubt, laziness and rebelliousness. So if we`re being good, we won`t have problems :-D God promise :-D
Thats it for me :-) Until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace and Sophie (and Dani if she`s home), I love you all and Be HappY!!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

HEY EVERYBODY!!! HOWZIT GOING?!?! :-D
Hey guys. how`re things? I hoping good. It was cool to hear you guys yesterday. In Paraguay they celebrate mother`s day the 15th of may so yesterday it was Elder Gomez`s turn :-) Just letting you know.
Things this week were kind of glum :-P We did very poorly with the numbers this week which was a combination of people not being home and poor planning on our part :-P We did however have 6 people in church yesterday which was great :-D We had a really cool lesson with William Maria Jose and Isis (well William and Maria Jose) about the law of chastity. I know that that is something kind of awkward to talk about BUT it can be a really cool lesson when the spirit is involved as it was :-D I used a scripture at the end of Jacob 2 which is awesome and it was just a great lesson. By the way (forgot) William and Maria Jose are getting married the 15th of July! :-D They`ve called their parents and they are setting up plans to come down south to see them. As well they`re going to be baptized the 16th of July, even better :-D I think I said this in another email but I`ll say it again, they bore their testimonies some weeks ago and it was so cool to feel how strongly they believe in everything. Thats not something you get to feel with every investigator. Yesterday, William and Maria brought in their Tithing :-D Very very cool.
Today we have interviews with Pres Swenson instead of P-day so that should be fun :-) You always feel you`re in a hurry though because of all the missionaries waiting so hopefully it`ll be better today :-)
Short spiritual thought. When we make correct choices everyday even in the small things (especially in the small things) at first it will be hard because people won`t understand but after people will come to you looking for help because they know that you know what is right and what should be done. Building this habit at first will be dificult but later it will be something so fortified that you will never not know what to do and you will always have the strength of character to pull it off :-D Amen! :-D
. . . THats basically it :-P I have not had the time to send or write anything but i will! :-) :-D Just you wait :-D
I`m sorry for the shortness of the email this week :-P Nothing really happened :-P Next week will be better :-D Until the next, Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace and Sophie, I love you all and Be HappY! :-D
As always
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell
p.s. Tell Jon things will work out and that he WILL be alright :-)

HEY EVERYBODY!! :-D REPORTING LIVE FROM SOMEWHERE ASKING HOWZIT GOING?!?! :-D
Hey guys, How`re things? :-D I hope the best :-) Mom I think for the call I forgot to say Happy Mother`s Day so here goes, Happy Mother`s Day :-D That card was actually for your birthday but since you were thinking that it was for yesterday I was going to not say anything but my conscience got the better of me :-D
So hopefully things on the other side of the world are going good. The pictures are hilarious by the way dad and that looks like a super fun tea party but is Sophie the only one thats dressing up? :-D As for me, things here in Gorbea are going good. Our family (William, Maria Jose, and Isis) continue to go to church except that yesterday Maria had to leave after the sacrament to go and sell some things. She and William had made some wooden plaques (English?) for mother`s day on Saturday but they used some varnish that needed all of Saturday to dry and so they couldn`t sell them :-P So Maria had to go out and try to a couple of them yesterday and fortunately she was able to sell a few :-D William hinted that he and Maria had argued a little in the morning and its possible that he told her not to go out to sell the thingys on sunday. That topic never came up and I`m not going to ask :-D We went over yesterday to explain tithing because they had been asking questions about it and as well fasting. They want to do everything before we teach it :-D You will find people on your mission (Sam) like this family, and they really are a blessing. The rest will be an interesting combination of people who wish you were dead, have a desire to know about the church but perhaps not to the point to commit to anything, have family in the church, or simply like to have your company and no words :-D These are the people that we need to WORK with. We need to always remember that God loves them as much as everyone else even if they are honestly awful people :-D All of these people just need to know some thing that will turn them golden because if you really UNDERSTOOD that you gotta get baptized with proper authority to get to heaven, you`d do it in a second. Thats where we come in to explain :-D Its fun too if you got a sense of humor (sometimes a twisted sense of humor but regardless the ability to laugh in a difficult situation). Its hard somedays but they really are the best two years :-D
Thats it for me for the week. I wanted to share something that Pres Swenson shared the other day and its really cool. He got up in front of everybody and wrote two words down, Route and Destination. He then asked what is destination of our investigators. We were like ``BAPTISM, GOING TO CHURCH, MAKING COVENANTS WITH GOD`` and he was like and what happens after that and we were like `` There`s another lesson?``. Then he said that this is the destination of our investigators. ``The destination and greatest gift of God is eternal life and to get there we have the greatest gift in this world, the supreme gift of the Holy Ghost``. We were like `` MY EYES!!! HE`S TOO AWESOME!!!`` but seriously I at least was very surprised and very impressed. As well I was disappointed that I hadn`t had that in mind in my lessons. Every lesson is just the route, especially baptism. I laughed when I thought of this but baptism is really the beginning of the straight and narrow path not the the end not even close, so heads up, there`s more on the way :-D As well when your goal for your investigators is ETERNAL LIFE you`re going to have a little more focus and a heck of a lot more power and authority in your speech and in your lessons. The lessons aren`t for baptism, they`re for the second part, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and we have THAT gift so that we will eventually make it to the Celestial Kingdom. Gospel bomb. So that was what I learned this week :-D I wish everyone could go on missions and get this kind of information :-D
Thats it for me :-) For rills Sam, Read PMG and the Book of Mormon a lot before you go. I wish I did more. It will give you so much power when you ask people to read the Book of mormon because you`re doing it too :-) and knowing the lessons will help the spirit remind you of what you already know. For everyone one else . . .keep doing what you`re doing :-D So until the next, Mom Dad Sam, Meri Grace and Sophie I love you all and Be HaPPY
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell
p.s. I wanted to know if you guys could send me a good pair of spanish scriptures for this family to me. They don`t have a bible and they want to read everything. If you could, that`d be great :-D PEace

Letter and Pictures

HEY EVERYBODY! :-D HOWZIT GOING?! :-D
It was really cool to see the Cooks all together at last :-D Tommy was on my prayer list for the missionaries I know so let him know that if he feels like he`s not getting the same amount of blessings its cuz I`m not praying for him anymore :-D Just kidding :-D Sophie`s pictures were hilarious as well :-D
Things here in Gorbea are going good :-) We were able to bring 4 to church yesterday :-D The week was kind of a slow one for the fact that we needed to spend a lot of time in Temuco monday, tuesday and wednesday because Elder Gonzalez needed to get some xrays for his legs. Turns out that there`s nothing really wrong with his knees at least, except for a little inflammation which only a little rest from walking and playing soccer will help :-) He kind of got mad when they told him that :-P Besides that it went pretty well :-) We went to William, Maria, and Isis`s house several times during the week to put a date for their marriage and they finally did yesterday :-D but its for October 7th :-P We told them that we were very happy that they had a date set up BUT we encouraged them to continue praying about it to see if it`d be better to get married sooner. We explained how a blessing tomorrow or next week is still the same blessing at the end of the day except for when we receive it, and if the reason that blessings don`t come to us is because we are just waiting, then its better to do it sooner. Of course in a very lovingly way :-D They told us that they still hadn`t prayed really for the date so we told them that it`d help them a lot to do so. They said they would :-) At least there`s a date. :-D
Cambios are tomorrow, and I`m staying here in gorbea and Elder gonzalez is heading out. And guess who`s coming to gorbea . . . Elder Gomez!! :-D But this one is from Paraguay so its not as exciting as you all thought :-D I`m quite a little prankster aren`t I? :-D I don`t know much about Elder Gomez, but I`ve heard that he`s a hard worker :-) hopefully we`ll get stuff done and have fun :-D
I was able to give a talk yesterday, and I thought that it went pretty well. Apparently it went so well that a Sister Gabi came up to me after and told me that I had the gift of tongues. I nodded in agreement. :-D She said that I was using words that had two or three meanings in spanish and that I was using them perfectly. I laughed on the inside and thanked her. I can speak spanish but i`m not that cool yet :-) Good to know that at least she understood me :-D
Nothing really happened this week :-P Sorry for being boring :-P Next week should be good :-D
Yesterday was Easter :-) My major holidays have been rather pathetic here in Chile :-P I didn`t really feel the Easter spirit yesterday, but that doesn`t change my testimony. Something that I love about the Atonement of Jesus Christ (well two actually), is a talk that Elder Wirthlin gave called Sunday will come, and the knowledge that everyone has the ability to change and be better. There`s a line in Elder Wirthlin`s talk that I love, ``No matter how black our fridays can be, Sunday will always come, just like it did on that first Easter Sunday for Jesus``. and the second thing is that no matter how much we`ve messed up our lives (or how ever little), WE CAN CHANGE. We will forever have the ability to choose to be better. We will always be able to say I will try again. Christ made that possible and shame on us if we forget his pain.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Pres Thomas S Monson is the Prophet on the earth today :-) and we will always be able to find comfort in that because Jesus suffered everything, we don`t need to suffer anything.
Thats it for me :-D until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace Sophie, I love you all and Be Happy :-)
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell