Weekly EMAIL

EHY EVERYBODY!! HOWZITGOING!?!?!

So how`re things everybody? :-D I feel very close to home :-D Its
almost sickening :-P I thought what its going to be like when I
finally see everyone after SO LONG. THAT will be quite the feeling
:-D.
So Elder Corbridge of the Seventy came over the other day and
dropped some pretty heavy gospel bombs on us :-D VERY awesome. I even
had the opportunity to talk with him privately about the ``Fullness of
the Gospel`` and he explained that very well. If you guys remind me
about it, I`ll tell you later :-D I took several notes so I`ll share
those later but some of the things that he said that I really liked
was ``What profit is it to get everything and lose your soul``.
Elder Reyes and Elder Fernandez boxed the other day (the Elders
that live with us) Elder REyes isn`t a really big guy but he beat the
snot out of Elder Fernandez. :-D I`ll take a picture :-D
We did intercambios with a companionship the other day as well and
it was really weird to have this newer Elder Rico ask me so much
stuff. I forget that I`m awesome some times :-DAnd By awesome I mean
really really old in the Mission.
Some guy told us that the Book of Mormon was false the other day.
Didn`t know what he was talking about. If he had been any other guy
and not a leader in his church I might have been very . . .
rambunctious with my response but I held my temper and just told him
that it was true. Thats all you need to do.
Whenever we tell anyone that we are the true church, the usual
reply is ``Thats pretty egotistical of you guys to say that`` and I
usually say ``Yeah, it is, but it`s still true`` :-D You can be very
``mean`` and very honest at the same time :-D
I should describe the sector. Its called Lota bajo but the city`s
just called lota. There are in total 6 missionaries but only 4 live
together. Elder Reyes is from Washington but his parents are both
from mexico and he speaks fluent spanish. Elder Fernandez is from
Uruguay and both of these Elder`s families are all members. We are
right next to the ocean but they tell us that the tsunami can`t reach
us where we live because of how the cove is shaped. We have one big
hill in our sector and it a pain to climb but I`m fine. If I were
newer it`d be a challenge. :-D Lota in and of itself is kind of a
challenge because the missionaries have been around here so the people
know us :-D :-P There are a bajillion evangelical churches (I think
that Mom might be able to describe what that means) which is always a
blast :-D We love it when we find people that don`t go to any church
because we dont need to explain why they`re wrong or have to fight
over the bible :-P :-D Thats basically it :-D
Guys, the church is true. Elder Fernandez was sick on sunday and
we had to bring him the Sacrament. We did it right there in the
bedroom. We sang a hymn that Elder Demke played on his guitar and the
bread was crackers. I then read the prayer straight from a random
Libro de Mormon that I had at arms length in the room. ANd to top it
all off we did it with the power and authority of God. Church is
true.
Thats it guys :-) Until the next, Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace and Sophie,
I love you all and BE HAPPY!!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

Weekly EMAIL-Going back where he started

HEY EVERYBODY!!! :-D HOWZITGOING?!?! :-D
SOPHIE!!!!!! WHAT`RE YOU DOING HAVING A SEIZURE!!!???!! Fetch. I
always get emails that say what happened and then one later that
explains how it ended :-P Thats aight but still. :-P
I hope that everything is alright. IT seems that everything is, so
no worries :-D Things are alright here in Lota as well :-D Bytheway
Mom I didn`t actually say I was a Zone Leader in my last letter so
don`t worry about not reading about it :-D I forgot to put that in :-D
My bad. Yeah so me and Elder Demke are the bosses of the Zone of
Coronel where I began my misiòn more than a year ago :-) Like a Boss.
I actually ran into some members from that Camilo yesterday here in
Lota :-D Now I could talk with them :-D Cool stuff. I counted the
other day, I have around 13 weeks left :-P Blegh. Where`d I put the
years? As for you Sam, you are now on the month countdown :-D How
does THAT feel? Spooky?, I know :-D
We are doing really well here. I feel really old and wise and
we`re helping out a lot of missionaries and a lot of people who need
the gospel :-D THe last time I was here I couldn`t really give a lot
of good advice let alone talk with them :-D GUess who`s back. Back
again. Jamie`s back. Tell your friends :-D Elder Demke is not dead
which is awesome and we`re having a lot of fun. We have a new game in
the morning. Whoever gets to the lightswitch first in the morning
gets to slap the other one, hard. Gets you up real fast :-D As
well, the branch here is awesome. There are a ton of wonderful people
and the vast majority of them are converts who are so strong :-D I`m
going to have a lot of fun :-D
I read a scripture the other day (I do that sometimes) and I came
across one that talks about Sherem and Jacob and how Sherem was
thinking that he could get Jacob to give up his beliefs( I got to give
Sherem props for the guts but Oh my gosh are you serious?). Jacob
explains why in Jacob 7:5 why he couldn`t ``be shaken``. He had had
revelations, he had seen angels, and do you know why he had had
revelations and seen angels? Because he looked for them and did what
they said, thats why. People do not recieve revelations or see angels
without searching for them or unless they are going to do what the
revelation or angel says. I say this because in spanish it says
``descarriado`` which is like derailed or astray. Its a common phrase
that people use here to say that they have a religion but they dont
ever go. They say ``Estoy un poco descarriado`` and then laugh a
little like when they say that, their behavior is fine, like it`s not
there fault. Any person that becomes ``descarriado`` is a victim of
his or her own choice. You do not fall away because it ``just
happens``, you fall away because you didn`t hold on, you didn`t look
for the angels and revelations and were left to fend for yourself.
Search the scriptures, really pray, obey the commandments even when
its hard and the angels will come and you will never fall away or
become ``descarriado``.
Thats it for me Guys :-D Hey Sam, Happy birthday, I hope you had a
lot of fun :-) Until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace and Sophie I
love you all and BE HAPPY!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell

Weekly EMAIL

HEY EVERYBODY!! :-D HOWZIT GOING!?!?! :-D
Hey guys, how´re things? :-D I hope the best :-D
Cool things :-D I´m leaving Vilcún!! Actually thats not
cool but where I´m going it is :-D CORONEL :-D Where I started the
mission :-D Fetch YES :-D My new companion´s name is Elder Demke :-)
and he´s really cool. As well, he´s finishing the mission this next
cambio so I´M KILLING HIM :-D Weird stuff man :-D Coronel in spanish
is colonel and for the life of me I don´t know why it sounds like an r
in english :-) Somebody find out please :-D The sector is actually
called Lota so if you guys want to look it up there it is :-D
So honestly this last cambio was really fast and really weird :-P I
´m kind of bad at making really good friends in 6 weeks :-P I need at
least two cambios :-P So It was kind of weird saying goodbye to
everyone because I wasn´t able to have as much of a relationship with
them like Elder Beatty who´s been there since July :-P I´m still going
to miss them all :-) I took Pictures :-D
So now I have two and a little more transfers left in the mission
:-P TOO FAST. I can´t believe that it has gone by so fast :-D Sam for
real, even when it sucks, enjoy the mission :-) I am so old :-D I
don´t know anyone really anymore. I´M that old wise missionary that
all the new missionaries want to be :-D Fetching old. 20 months on
Friday, count them. I can´t wait to see the pictures :-D By the way
Grandpa and Grandma McConnell were asking if I had taken any pictures
so if somebody could go and show them some, that´d be awesome :-D
Something REALLY REALLY cool that I learned yesterday. Yesterday
was new years day which isn´t anywhere near as exciting as the night
before and on top of that its sunday where we need to go to church :-P
7 went to church as in people :-P Sadness :-P Regardless, an awesome
testimony was given yesterday. Luis, the guy who had been assigned to
break and bless the bread went up and gave his testimony. He said
that when he was breaking the bread he knew that there weren´t a lot
of people so he made the pieces really big :-) He said that when there
are a lot of people the bread is broken into smaller pieces but still
everyone gets a piece. I had this thought. There was more bread than
there were people today. There will ALWAYS be more bread than the
people. No matter what we do we will always be able to change and
have the bread to feed the soul. JEsus made it so that there will
always be enough bread for the people :-) I wouldn´t have thought that
if 7 hadn´t come to church on sunday :-) Thanks heaven.
Thats it for me guys :-) Until the next Mom Dad Sam Meri Grace And
Sophie, I love you all and BE HAPPY!!
Sincerely
Elder Jamie McConnell