Monday, July 31, 2017

Time is Flying!

So a little bit from this side of the world, nothing much has changed, we’ve had a pretty normal week. So we’ve got another Californian living in the house! He’s pretty cool and we actually get along super well. He’s Mexican so he already speaks Spanish, he’s a lot like Danny. He’s from Santa Ana, like close to Anaheim so not too far! But yeah, right now we are in Puerto Mont...We have to travel so much...tomorrow we have leaders’ conference, so later we will be going to Puerto Varas and then off to Osorno. But it’ll be good! I’m excited!
Today I found a super cheap wallet made out of cow hair! It’s sick! So I bought it. But yeah, and I actually ran into a Hermana from my ward here in Puerto, because I was trained here. It is fun running into those people because back then I didn’t know how to speak Spanish and now I speak pretty fluently so they’re all like "Elder Walden?! What the heck! You’re not even the same missionary anymore!" Its funny ha-ha. I like being able to know Spanish, it’s fun. You guys should look into if there’s Spanish tutor jobs at BYUI and what I need to do to do that, because I would love to make a little money speaking Spanish.
 Anyways, it weird, it’s already week 2 of this cambio! I’m in my 14th week with Elder Amaya! So weird! It’s weird because we started our missions together basically, we were in the same zone and saw each other every week, but almost didn’t talk because I didn’t know how to speak Spanish very well, but we never imagined being together. And now we’re in our 3rd cambio! It’s interesting how the mission is. Anyways, this week we finally got to pass by Paula. And we taught her about the restoration with her 7 kids, and it was awesome! They all told us that they want to be baptized ha-ha now it’s the whole matter of getting them to church...That’s the hard part.  I’m super stoked because we have like 10 people with a baptismal date right now in the sector but only 1 counts because no one ever goes to church! It’s just tougher because our ward starts at 9am and that’s like an hour and a half earlier than any other branch! Anyways, the work continues to move forward.
Hope all is well at home with everyone! That is awesome that Quinn and Josh are home! The mission is flying by too fast-
Love you All-
Zack 


Monday, July 24, 2017

Staying in Chiloe!

It’s weird that I’ve only got 5 months left, that’s such a short time!!! 3 and a half cambios! By the way we have cambios (exchanges) this week and we’re staying another cambio together!! Ha-ha this’ll be my 3rd cambio with Elder Amaya! But that’s actually exactly what we were hoping for ha-ha so I’m cool with it; this sector is awesome so I’m stoked to see some more miracles here. So it’s been frustrating because we have 3 people in the sector that want to be baptized and have a date and everything but they don’t go to church because they sleep in!!! We legitimately go to their house and everything in the morning and they don’t answer and then they always feel really bad when we visit them afterwards and then they do the same thing the next week! They have such strong testimonies, just can’t win the fight with the bed in the morning. It’s frustrating. But we’ve been teaching this one viejita named Rosa and she is awesome! She always gives us food and what not and she finally came to church this Sunday!!!! And she loved it and wants to come more!!! Woo!!! We are super excited for her!
So anyways, due to the fire in the house, we’ve been living with these other missionaries for a little bit, and one of them is leaving in this cambio to go somewhere else, and the other one is going to train. A gringo! From California!! Named Elder Cueva’s. Literally Elder Cave and I am stoked! I’ll have a newbie from California in the house!! It’ll be awesome, so anyways that’s been the week. Not a very exciting week --- just getting stuff ready for the cambios right now, nothing too interesting is going on. Hope you’ve all had a great week!
Love-
Zack

Monday, July 17, 2017

Snow and Penguins!

Alright so I already sent the photos, I hope you guys got them. So to explain...it snowed in Castro! That was pretty sick, so I have pictures of that and we made snow men and what not, all the typical pictures. And we're in Chaiten again right now. We are now their district leader so we have to go every cambio to do intercambios with them. It was GORGEOUS today, like one of the prettiest days I’ve seen in a while. We went and explored some caves, it was pretty sick. And we had to hike along a beach to get there and it was so pretty and we saw sea lions and PENGUINS!!! We got there at the perfect time and all the penguins were migrating right across that beach!!! Sick right?! So I could only get a picture of its head because they swim really fast but hey we saw penguins, I’m super happy. And that crab pinched me on the foot by the way ha-ha...and that bridge picture, yeah Elder Vaughn jumped onto the bridge and it almost broke and he almost fell like 10 feet, it was sketchy. And then you know how the volcano here exploded a little bit back? Well it destroyed the city and there are some of the houses that got glazed with ash ash.  And the one picture is of the river Chaiten that used to go around the mountains but the volcanic eruption changed its course and now it goes through the city. Pretty sick. Anyways, it was a chill day, filled with adventure!
So anyways story from this week, I got super sick on Saturday...I don’t know why, but my stomach was not feeling good at all, but we had citas so we had to go work, Well that night, last cita, we get there and they’re not home, and an Hermana was with us, so we remembered that we promised to chop some wood for this one lady in our ward. So we went and I looked really bad, like I was dying ha-ha so I told her I was sick, and she’s actually a nurse so she went and got this medicine stuff, like these drops and put like 30 into a glass and told me to drink it because it would calm my stomach and I wouldn’t throw up. So I took it, and right after I said "Wow I want to throw up right now" So I ran to the bathroom but she said I couldn’t use it so I ran outside and threw up literally all over her front lawn. So I threw up everything I had in my stomach...whatever she gave me to not throw up, made me throw up. She sent me home with some of it and told me to take it that night but I didn’t take it...I didn’t want to throw up again. At least now I’m all good, I feel fine ha-ha. Very interesting experience.
Anyways we taught some good lessons and everything this week, it’s been a pretty good one, the work is going strong here! Have a great week! Oh also the President called me this week to tell me that my official return date will be the 28th of December! So it’s official...Won’t be home for Christmas but I’ll be home for New Year’s so that’ll be cool!
Love you All-
Zack







Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Winter Waterfalls


Okay well you’re going to be happy, I’ve got a ton of photos to send you all this week! Woo! We actually went to some waterfalls today which was fun. We went as a district and we all had to hitchhike back ha-ha because we like forgot about the whole return trip...but we took loads of photos! You’re welcome Mom!

Anyways I don’t have too much to write...not much has happened this week. We had zone conference and president had just gotten back from Utah like a couple days before so it was really good with some new spiritual apostolic influences! My companion and I taught a part of it too. It was cool! We taught about the light houses that guide us as missionaries which were: 1. concentrate en la mision, 2. Tenga su objetivo entre ceja y ceja, y 3. Sumerjese en predicad mi evangelio. Sorry I’m tired and don’t feel like translating it ha-ha. But hey mom would have liked it. We made little cards with scriptures and the 3 faros on them for the zone and we even laminated them and everything! Proud, right?

Anyways we also did some exchanges afterwards with the APs which was good! I went with the Italian one from Matt’s mission and it was sick! We taught some good lessons together. It was super cool! This week we were able to put 3 more people with a baptismal date and we will be putting more with dates this week! We are super stoked because this sector is blowing up!!! I really am praying that we stay together another cambio! Anyways that was basically the week for us...oh! Cool story, So we’ve been teaching this lady named Sammy for like 2 weeks and she already has a baptismal date but the other day she told us about her life and she’s had a tough life, like super tough, like tougher than you’re thinking right now, and then a couple months ago she was diagnosed with cancer and she’s just in the last treatments right now. Well she said that a couple weeks ago she prayed for the first time in a while and she said she just kind of told God "Hey I’m still here! I feel like you’ve forgotten about me! Please send me something so I know you’re there listening to me! I have a lot of questions!!" And a couple days later we knock on her door and we have been answering her questions ever since...it’s awesome, she’s super awesome. Just goes to show that God moves this work and makes everything happen. So happy to be an instrument in his hands! 

Have a Great Week!

Love you All-

Zack






Monday, July 3, 2017

Last Two Updates from Zack:)

These are Zack's emails from the last two weeks:) 

6/26/17
Okay so this week was a pretty good one. First time in a couple weeks that something crazy didn’t happen ha-ha. But we’ve been seeing some good miracles here in the sector with finding people. I don’t know why but I’ve never really had a problem in the mission entering houses except in this sector, it has been real difficult! But this week we were able to enter into some houses which was cool! And we found some pretty amazing people that are for sure ready for the gospel. It’s awesome because in this sector right now we have the potential to baptize a lot because all of our investigators have the desire, they just need a little push, and we just got to find out what it is that they are missing! But we counted the other day and we have 9 investigators that are potentials that could soon. be baptized. It’ awesome, we are stoked here ha-ha. Like we don’t have many but the ones we have are golden! Anyways, this week we have also been able to go out with members. We have actually had 6 members go out with us this last week. Which that is the first time that has ever happened on my mission! It  
Hey fun fact, we just got a new ward mission leader this last week and the guy just got back from his mission a week ago. And guess where he was??? He was the AP of the Argentina Posadas mission! So he knows elder Horton! Ha-ha it was fun to talk to him about Elder Horton ha-ha, small world right? Anyways, our President is in Utah this week to get some president training that he never got due to coming to the mission early. It’s cool because he’s doing a zone conference here next week so we will be the first zone to hear his inspiration ha-ha, I’m stoked! Anyways I will also be talking to him this next week about my return date, I prayed about it and I felt that neither option was bad...but I don’t know I felt right about coming home in December...so maybe the 21st will be my return date...if so I’ve got less than 6 months left....that’s weird...but I’ll be talking about it next week with the President. We will see what happens!
Love you All!
Zack
 
7/3/17
What's up Padres? Well this week was an interesting one; we are finally finding some really good people in the sector who are progressing really well! WOOOO! When I got here we were literally teaching like 2 people. But now we’ve finally got a good teaching pool and we are teaching a lot! Anyways, on Monday we went with the papito to go do some citas and randomly he stopped at a house and said "There used to live a big family here that had gone to church and everything and I don’t know what happened to them..." so we knocked and no one was there. Well on Wednesday the Hermanas called us and said they found an old teaching record with some names on it from our sector so they gave us the references and that same day we went to go contact them. Well one of the names they gave us, I realized it was the family that moved to Porvenir and got baptized with us there, so they weren’t there anymore. And as we went to the other one we realized it was the same house that papito had showed us! Well we knock, and the moms home. And it was her! The same lady! But she didn’t seem like very happy to see us, so we talked a little bit outside and ended up setting a date to pass by. So on Friday we pass by with a Hermano from the church and like 100 kids (slight exaggeration) answer the door and they invite us in! It ended up being a whole family of 8!! And they told us that they almost got baptized in the church but the missionaries randomly stopped passing by and they had lost contact with them but she told us how the kids loved going to church and had lately been really missing it. Apparently the kids were too little then to be baptized but now they’re 8 and above! And they’re all stoked to learn about the gospel again. I’m so excited to teach them! It was such a good lesson and everything we had with them. It was awesome ha-ha and the kids were telling us how they want to go to church and be baptized and everything ha-ha it was awesome. Also a couple weeks back we found a lady named Sammy, and she’s had a super tough life...but it was awesome because a couple days ago we went with a Hermano and she totally opened up to us and she had a ton of questions for us about stuff that had been on her conscience for past decisions she had made and everything and we were able to testify about the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ...and she started crying and told us how happy she was to hear what we had to tell her. Its moments like that that I love being missionaries and really learn to appreciate the knowledge I have about Gods plan and makes me want to just share with people who don’t have that same knowledge. Anyways...interesting story, Friday night we got home at like 9:30 and we were all ready to go to bed and everything when our investigator calls crying telling us to come urgently so we grabbed some shoes and ran out the door at like 11 at night. We get there and she’s crying, her younger kid is crying and her 16 year old kid is nowhere to be found...so she storms out when we get there so we grab the younger son and start to calm him down and start making jokes and stuff so he laughs, then we go and find the mom who is outside and she starts to tell us that they had gotten into a giant fight and the son had threatened to commit suicide and ran away...and wasn’t answering his phone...and we calm her down and we go out searching...well we find out from another investigator that he had just gone to a party and was there just hanging out...but man it was quite the scare...we didn’t get home until pretty late that night but I’m glad we were able to help and calm down everything. I’m glad nothing bigger happened. Anyway it was a pretty weird and good week! We saw some miracles and everything! Oh and by the way many people were asking me yesterday if I was from Germany, luckily I could tell them I was gringo ha-ha I’m pretty sure they were ready to kill me if I was German...#Chile Lost haha
Hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you all!
Zack
**No new pictures because it is raining a lot there and he doesn't want to ruin his camera so he doesn't carry it around with him. Hopefully he will have some next week:)