Monday, April 25, 2016

Getting Cold!!

Hola Familia! So the story about the picture that was texted you --we were coming out of an appointment with an investigator and we saw a family from the ward and they were with some Americans. They like yelled across the street "Missionaries!!!!" We were like “Is that English?” haha But yeah there was a girl with her Mom visiting Puerto Montt! She was a missionary here like a year ago and she was from Agoura, CA. I was like no way I’m from Simi Valley! It was awesome! Made me a little homesick but it was cool. I felt bad though because the Mom that I met knew as much Spanish as you Mom, and I kept accidentally talking to her in Spanish and her daughter would have to translate. Haha I was like I swear I know English!! Oh and by the way that other missionary in the photo is my new companion!! Elder Neilsen got transferred to Osorno and Elder Peñeñuri is finishing my training. I knew I would get a Latino companion hahah i just knew it! He’s from Mexico, but he speaks really good English because he was born in California and moved when he was 7. So his English is pretty good. But we speak a lot of Spanish so my Spanish is going to get so much better with him. But yeah as you can see in the picture, it has been really wet and really cold this week. That picture was taken right after it had dumped on us! It was funny because the Hermana we were teaching is a single lady so we couldn’t enter her house so we taught her in the doorway with the rain just pouring on us. She felt bad but we had a super good lesson. We still don’t have money for wood so you can literally see your breath in our house and all of our stuff is wet and can’t dry so there’s that……but I am loving it! We did a lot of finding this week and found a lot of great people to teach. It was also cool because Friday night it was 9:20 and Elder Peñeñuri wanted to go home but I was like no man a couple more houses. God will bless us. So literally the next house we knocked at I just do the typical "Hola somos misioneros y tenemos una mensaje sobre jesus cristo, poedmos pasar y enseñarle sobre nuestro mensaje?" which literally never works because it is so typical. But the guy was like "yeah sure" so we did and apparently his Uncle just died and he’s been sad and like wants to know why God takes away good people and why God is how he is. Perfect! So we taught the Plan of Salvation and everything. God literally gave us a miracle of just knocking that one last door. It also firmed my testimony on that it doesn’t really matter what we say as missionaries, if they are ready, they will accept us. We just need to be ready to be used in Gods hand, it was awesome! So far I am loving this transfer! Hope everyone has a great week! Love- Elder Walden Here are some pictures---the one is of us playing a game today. The other pictures are from yesterday-- we went to a member’s house for lunch and he had a sweet view of the city and you can see the volcano. So cool!

Monday, April 18, 2016

Time for New Shoes:/

Well my first transfer is over! Crazy right?! I have 12 weeks of my mission already done. It’s so weird! I feel like I just left, and I heard it only gets faster. So that will be fun! We still don’t know whose getting transferred but like 10 zone leaders are finishing their mission, we know that for sure so like some things will change up. It’ll be interesting and exciting! So not much has happened this week, kind of a cruddy week. We've been inside a lot because Elder Nielsen still has bronchitis. But we finally got like super strong medicine from the hospital that like cures pneumonia so it should work. So we’ve only been leaving to go to appointments and what not but like a lot of them fell through this week so we haven’t really been doing much which stinks but like we’re just trying to get Nielsen better. But yesterday after lunch we went to go get on a bus and I had to get in the back seat but this lady in the back moved over super slow so I had to wait for her so I had my bag like already in the bus and I had one foot in and the bus driver just floors it! So I’m like running alongside the car with one leg and had to like dive into the bus and I tear my shoe like in half and the lady in the back is yelling "CUIDADO!!" So finally I like jump in and the bus driver slams on the brakes and starts asking me if I was alright and I was just like yeah man estoy bien ha-ha. He felt so bad. I was sad about my shoe but my companion was busting up in the front seat. Looking back it was super funny! Anyways, my zone leader Elder Ackerman is getting transferred, this is his last 6 weeks of the mission and it’s his birthday in a couple days so we had a party at our house last night and it was so fun. We all had party hats and made some cake and played pin the tail on the donkey for like hours! Here we are like grown men, he’s turning 23 ha-ha and that’s how we throw a party. I t was so fun though. It was crazy. So it was a boring week but like fun at the same time. My Spanish continues to improve and I continue to look forward to new experiences. I love having the opportunity to see more miracles and to become closer to my Savior. I feel like I've gained a new love for reading the Scriptures and studying the word of God, which is good for a missionary. Hope everyone has a great week! Love- Elder Zack Walden So these pictures are from last night at the party thing and then we ate some weird Chilean like nut shell type things, they were so weird. Not really that good to be honest.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Laundry in a Tub!

Every week I see so many miracles! This week I have definitely seen the hand of God in mine and Elder Nielsens life. This week we found a part member family. The husband served a mission in San Diego, California but his wife is not a member of the church. His English is super good, which is a great blessing for me because he can help me with my Spanish. His wife is learning English so she practices her English with me and I practice my Spanish with her. It’s great! Every Sunday we go to their home and teach about the gospel and I teach the lessons almost all by myself, so I can get practice. They are great! She is ready for this gospel and I think she will want to be baptized soon. Such a blessing! I also think that God has a sense of humor. On Saturday on our way to our house, Elder Nielsen was talking about how nobody ever accepts help from us when we offer it. Right at that moment we saw a woman with a lot of bags on the way to her home. We asked, but it was obvious, if she needed help with her bags. She surprisingly accepted our offer to help! We had a twenty minute walk to her home carrying her bags and taught a little about the gospel. We also set a date with her for a home evening visit this week with a ward member. God really knows what we have in our mind and sees us every day. I know that God loves us and gives us blessings in times of need. I am very grateful for my knowledge of this gospel and the opportunity to preach and serve. Also I have attached a couple of pictures---finally got a charger for my camera. Usually someone in the ward will do our wash for us but this week we couldn’t get anyone. So we had to wash our stuff in the tub—haha! It is so ghetto but I love it! Oh and I am also so mad. We went on intercambios (?) this last week and I went to a very pretty part of our area and it was gorgeous! And I forgot my stinking camera! I was so mad! But I will go back sometime soon and take some pictures for you guys. There are some dang pretty sights here. Have a great week! Love you All! Elder Zack Walden

Monday, April 4, 2016

Fire AND Water

This week has been super interesting!! Last Monday we went to the Obispo’s house for cake and what not because it was my companion’s birthday. It was funny, they tried to give him those trick candles that don’t blow out, which was hilarious but then Nielsen thought they would go out if he licked his fingers and put them out so he did that and then put them on their table. 2 minutes later they lit up and they caught their table cloth thing on fire! He like almost freaking burnt their house down! It was so funny and scary at the same time. Anyways, Elder Nielsen also caught word this week that one of his converts in the city over from us was dying of cancer...and he was not doing so well so we got permission to go and visit him...so we went to go visit him and got there only about 15 minutes after he had passed...that was super sad. I felt so bad for Niels and the family, but it’s good that he accepted this gospel in his life beforehand. Also Elder Nielsen has had bronchitis all week so this week has been a major study week which has been good. I have grown a newfound love for the scriptures, I like can’t get enough of them now. It’s awesome! Um I got a new charger this week for my camera! But I haven’t really taken any pictures but I will try to do that this week for you guys. Also this week somehow the fridge got unplugged so we went into it yesterday and water like flowed out of it ha-ha there was so much freaking water so that was super hectic. General Conference was absolutely amazing!!! We got to watch it all in English except Sunday afternoon session, but the whole time the Wi-Fi at the church building was super spotty so it was freeze and skip and what not, but I’ll just wait for them to come out in the Ensign to read them all. But the ones I did see were so good, got some great notes on them and some great personal inspiration. I had a lot more to tell you guys but I can’t really think of it right now ha-ha I’m always so rushed every week. Sorry! Thank you to all that have written me- I love hearing from you. Hope you all have a great week! Love- Elder Zack Walden