Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Singing Solo

     Not much happened this week...its been really slow with the soccer final and everything. You dont know how many times I have heard CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE VIVA CHILE!!!!!!!!! This week was insane with that we have talked to an insane amount of barachos (drunkards). Haha So that was fun but like freaking no one answered their doors to us or wanted to talk to us or anything!!! It's been soooooooo slow! Even our investigators were all super busy this week so we didnt really teach that many lessons either.
    The good news is that we had a baptism on Friday!! So that was good. And then we confirmed her on Sunday. It was awesome and we had 2 investigators at the baptism. It was great! I was incharge of conducting the music and here in Chile theres not any pianists so to start the song the conductor goes up and sings the first couple of notes and then starts to lead the congregation. So at the end of the baptism the Bishop was talking at the microphone and went to go sit down so I was like oh okay its my turn to go up and conduct the song so I went up on the stage and started to sing the first couple of notes and everyone was just looking at me I was like uhm que pasó? and I look over and the Bishop was at the stand with his scriptures and everything. I forgot that he had a talk at the end and theeeennnnn we sing.......so every one laughed and I sat down and then he finished his talk and at the end he was like and noooooowwwww we're going to sing Elder Walden hahaha, I have too many embarrasing moments with these Chileans, gosh dang haha. But our investigator Juan showed up.  He's awesome, he came out of no where!! The first lesson with him he like sang us a song he wrote about Jesus and preached to us the whole time so we thought we would like never go back to him again. But then he came to church randomly and the baptism and he loved them both. He loves the members and his neighbor is our Mamita and they're super good friends. We're going to have a lesson with him at her house this week. It's awesome!
       I've learned alot this week about teaching with the spirit. I have realized that in lessons I have trouble speaking and talking the language when I don't feel the spirit and when I don't know much about what we are talking about. So I've been studying alot and during lessons I realize that when I feel the spirit I always say what I need to say and feel good about the lessons and what we taught about. I've been having a problem lately because my companion really likes to teach by the book and by the points and everything which is good but it wasn't working for us because our investigators would have questions and concerns about the doctrine and he would try to morph the lesson into what he wanted to talk about without answering their questions and it just felt weird. So we had a long talk this week about how to feel the spirit during lessons and how to discern the needs of the investigators by the spirit and direct the lessons by the spirit and not by our own thought. This was a big learning week and this next week will be applying what I learned I hope!
Sorry no pictures....my camera broke. Have a great week!
Love
Elder Walden
 

Monday, June 20, 2016

Chicken! Yuck!

Sorry if the writing is weird today, this computer for some reason autocorrects to Spanish so some English words might become Spanish, not my fault! But this week was crazy. SOOO about the baptism-- the bishop won’t let us do it today because we can’t have activities in the church Monday night because it’s a night for the family. So we went to Andrea and asked what other day works so we moved it to Friday. So we went and told the bishop and he said we have an activity in the church already Friday so yeah it’s frustrating but she passed her baptismal interview which is really awesome!! But we still don’t know when we are going to have it... So yeah there's that. We had 2 exchanges this week, one with other Elders and the other one with the zone leaders. So Tuesday I was with Elder Gonzalez, he’s from Chile. So I learned all the slang phrases from him ha-ha. He has less time in the mission than me though so I was senior companion for a day which was fun. We taught some lessons and what not, but I had to run the sector which was tough because I’ve been here for like 2 and a half weeks so I don’t know the sector like at all so we got lost a lot. I have a video that I’ll attach of him speaking, it will show you how fast the people talk here. Chileans talk really fast!. Then we had an intercambio (exchange) with the zone leaders on Friday. I was in central Osorno with Elder Ordoñez, he’s a Peruvian. Peruvians are super cool! But the intercambio was miserable. I’ve been sick all week and it has gotten worse and worse every day. Thursday my stomach was super bad. I didn’t eat like anything on Wednesday and Thursday but like every 10 minutes I had to go to the bathroom. So all Thursday I had like no energy from the lack of food but we still walked all day and taught lessons and what not...ah I was miserable. Then that night I spent all night in the bathroom so I didn’t sleep at all so I finally called the nurse the next day and have been taking medicine so I'm better now. But for 3 days I was like dying ha-ha I think I lost like 15lbs pounds. So all that weight I gained in Puerto Mont I lost again. I'm skinny again! So that’s a plus! Anyways...I'm almost positive it was from eating bad chicken, which is the second time in Chile. We had gone to lunch out in El Campo, which is like straight up red necks of Chile who own big barns and animals and talk terrible Spanish. It was funny. Next time I’m out there I will have to take pictures for you guys. It’s literally the Alabama of Chile Anyways we went there for lunch, and these people put a giant plate of solid chicken in front of me! I was like oh no...And I couldn’t like ask for less or say no or anything because these people are like pretty poor. They didn’t even have running water in their house. So I ate it...and was so ill afterwards. Chicken just isn’t the same anymore...so yeah. That happened. But it was also funny because those days I didn’t eat because I was sick I had to tell the mamitas (ours and the one in centro) that my stomach didn’t feel good so I wanted to not eat and the mamitas like freaked out and gave me like every single remedy they knew. They gave me like all these random herbs and like teas and these weird pill type things ha-ha it was hilarious. Every Chilean mom has their own like remedies. It was funny because when I went back to our mamita she was like "What did the other mamita tell you?!?! No that’s all wrong! You need to do this and this and this!!” ha-ha I love the Chileans here...they’re honestly such caring people. I got smothered this week with remedies. So what else happened...sorry this email is super-duper long...oh Spanish clicked this week! I don’t know what happened but I can speak Spanish. So weird! We were in a lesson and I just like started speaking and I remember thinking in my head wow how am I doing this? It was like a second language! Weird...so yeah that happened so I can randomly speak fluent Spanish now! Cool stuff! I taught the gospel principles class in church on Sunday that went well. Oh also!!!! I have another story!!! Sorry it’s so long!! So we contacted into this guy named Juan Carlos, and he’s this older guy and thinks he’s like an apostle or something because we went into his house and tried to teach him but the whole time he like preached to us about random stuff. We would ask him like "so do you know what happened after Christ died?" and he'd be like "Well John said this, and in Psalms it says this and in my heart I feel like and my grandson did this when he was younger and that’s why my hair is how it is now." He was so random hahaha. So we ended up just like extending a weak invitation to the church and got out of there. Well HE SHOWED UP to church. It was so random. We invite like 100 people a week to church and no one like ever shows up and he out of everyone did show up and he stayed all 3 hours and participated in the lessons and actually brought up like super good points in the lessons that actually were in line with the gospel! He loved church and says he’s going to come next week as well. So that just goes to show that don’t be afraid to talk to anyone and invite them to church because you never know who will actually show up. Anyways yeah I think that’s it ha-ha so bye! Hope everyone has a great week! And be careful eating chicken— Love- Elder Zack Walden

Monday, June 13, 2016

Looking Peruvian

Hello Everyone- So this week was an adventure! For some reason it felt super long. Like I feel like I’ve done a lot but also like not that much ha-ha it’s weird. So we’ve been teaching this girl who’s about 20 years old and her family was just baptized a couple weeks ago but her and her dad weren’t because she didn’t feel it was right for her. But we have been teaching her a lot and she’s super cool with the missionaries. She loves us. We went over to their house on Friday and we sat down to have a lesson with her and she was like "Hey guys, so I’ve been thinking a lot lately and I think I’m ready to be baptized now.” That is awesome!!!! She’s been like reading every day and studying the scriptures hard core and finally realized like "Why am I not baptized? I need to be!" So that’s some awesome news! She’s going to be baptized next Monday, a week from today. So that’s super exciting news! Also this week we taught Maria Paz more. We went over with a member who was awesome. He has like a cool conversion story so he shared that with her and it was great. Her friend was there too and listened to the whole lesson and said she wants to know more so whenever we meet with Maria her friend is going to be there too. The lesson went super well but she had a lot of questions on like women’s role in the church and why they can’t have the priesthood and all that which was difficult to explain and I don’t think she really gets it yet but we have a lesson with her tomorrow so I hope she has been reading and studying. We had zone conference this week with President Obeso and it was super awesome! I got a lot of spiritual insight from it. The whole time I felt like he was speaking to me. It was really focused on like what we talk about in the streets while tracting and all that, which I need to work on a lot. It was awesome!! We also had intercambios (exchanges) this week with the Aps (Assistant to the President) so I was AP for the day---just kidding. But it felt like it. I lived in their apartment (which is way nicer than ours, wayyyyyy nicer) and I got to drive around in the mission car for a day. It was great! And I got to teach 3 lessons with Elder Sanabria which was super fun, I learned a lot from him. Hmmm let’s see, funny story---this week we were knocking doors and this guy asked Elder Felipe where he was from and he said Mexico and then the guy turned to me and said "Hmmmm Peru???" I was like yeah! Peru! De Lima! Hahaha and the guy like believed me. It’s weird because my skin is super white right now and my accent is totally gringo ha-ha but hey that’s the first time I’ve gotten something other than gringo. It was super weird! Here are some pictures of me and my companion, food that people gave us and me at the mission home. Keep writing—I love getting emails! Hope everyone has a great week! Love- Elder Zack Walden

Monday, June 6, 2016

Transferred to Osorno!

Hey what’s up guys! Guess what?? I’m writing you all from Osorno again ;) This is my new area! I got transferred! My area is called Antillanca. I’ve been here since Wednesday and I love it. It’s cool because we share a Ward with the APs and they are in our district too! Our APs are pretty cool. One is from Lima Peru and the other is from Paraguay. Oh and I have a new comp! Sorry we haven’t taken a picture yet so I do not have a picture of him but next week I promise. His name is Elder Felipe and he is from Mexico. He speaks no English at all so my Spanish has already gotten loads better and I’m teaching him a little English too. I’m getting good at translating because like all of his music is English and he always asks me what everything means. He is a super good kid. He’s a little quiet but he’s a really good missionary and works super hard so it’s super good. And he’s also like super funny so I think I’m going to enjoy the cambio (change). Oh and tomorrow I’m finally getting my visa! We went on Saturday and had to do stuff with it and tomorrow we are finishing the stuff for it. Finally! We also have a new Senior Missionary couple in our mission and they’re awesome! They live here in Osorno so I’ve gotten to meet them. It’s funny because they’re trying to learn Spanish and its awful hahaha but that’s probably how I sounded too so it’s all good. Oh and 2 people from my group, Hermana Hull and Elder Jarmin are here in my zone so I get to see them which is awesome. Okay now for a miracle. The first day here we tracted into a girl named Marcia Paz and she told us she has friends that are Mormon and her friend is actually going to BYUI right now and I was like “Hey no way! That’s my school!!” Apparently she has visited the school before with her friend. She said she went to church there and she felt something about the people there in church, something she couldn’t describe, so she’s been trying to figure out like what it was and what was different. She already knows like all the lessons and everything because her friend at BYUI has been teaching her. So we taught her real fast (we couldn’t go in the house though because she only lives with her sister) about the Holy Ghost and stuff and then invited her to a Ward activity that was going on the next night, it was a noche de cuchen, you can look up what that is later. But she said it would be hard for her to go because of work so she probably wouldn’t go but she did invite us back to teach her and stuff. But the next night at the activity SHE CAME!! And we were so happy and all the Ward members were super good with her and talked to her like the whole time. It was awesome! Then we had a spiritual thought after and all the Ward members bore their testimonies about the temple and it was so spiritual and great and she had so many questions after about how she can go to the temple and about how to know if you’re ready to baptized and stuff. Oh my goodness I have honestly never met anyone so ready for the Gospel! Because she was honestly like answering her own questions about everything ha-ha she’s like practically Mormon! So yeah were going to continue teaching her. I’m so excited about it!! Okay so funny story --Last night we were at a recent converts house with her family for family night. The Mom gave me some Mormon café and she gave me this bag of sugar for it. So instead of like taking a spoon to put the sugar in my drink I decide to pour it because it would be easier...well on accident I like dumped all the sugar in and around my drink...the family was cracking up for like 20 minutes...I felt bad so I drank it anyways...so yeah hahaha. Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for the support! Love----Elder Zack Walden