Busy Week

Ya well we don’t have much time again this week...sorry this week has been, agotador (exhausting), just use google translate ha-ha, I don’t know how to translate it. Well this has not been the best week in my entire mission ha-ha we’ve had some major problems in finding people in this sector. It’s tough because we always have super good planned out days and every single day this week, some missionary has problems, the office comes to our zone, Hermana needs urgent service, or an investigator has problems. Oh I love serving and I know that we just need to be open to what God throws at us, but it’s just tough because we see the need to find a lot of people but we’re just not given the time to do it. Then when we do have the time, no one opens the door. It’s been tough but we’ve been praying a lot and fasting a lot to overcome. We have fasted a lot this cambio, we’ve made it a thing in the zone. Actually with the whole zone we are fasting at least once a week for the mission work. I know major miracles should come from it! We’re trying to make Chiloe into a stake!! I’m actually getting like pretty skinny too ha-ha this week I’ve lost like 8 pounds- whoops. Do it for the work!! Anyways yesterday, they asked me to give a talk in church. So I got to share a message with the branch which was good. I like it because I used to be so nervous for talks but now it’s something easy. I like it a lot actually. I shared the story of Jesus walking on water and then Pedro (Peter) following him but falling, it was good. I put a little mission spin on it too, interesting ;) Ha-ha anyways, that’s my week in a nutshell; we go up to Osorno tomorrow again! Woo! Another 12 hours on a bus!! Wish me luck!

Have a Great Week!

Zack

Volcano:)

Hi Everyone!

I am writing you from Chaiten.  We had to come here, 5 hours in a boat, to do a baptismal interview and house inspections, and I have some cool stories to tell you from here. But that will come later in the letter. First I will tell you about my week. So we just got here yesterday and we will be leaving tomorrow, so our journey to Chaiten will not be very long. We did have a stellar week though! We had zone conference as well, we had to do a part too so that was good. I got to talk a lot about finding and what not, good times, ha-ha and also this week we’ve had some good lessons and good progression with some of the investigators that we have. Like for example, we have one investigator named Elizabeth, and she is awesome! She has felt a strong desire to change her life and she has thought a lot about baptism lately, but she said she was missing something, she just wasn’t quite sure what. So the thing she was missing was going to church!!!! And we finally got her to church yesterday!!!!! Woooooo!!!!!! So that was a win! And she loved it!!! She really felt the spirit and it was awesome! We actually went over on Thursday too and had a really good lesson with her. It was super spiritual and we had a really fun time while we did it. She is great! So we are seeing some major progress with her. Anyways, the zone is doing really well as well, we actually are leading the mission in numbesr which is fantastic. I’m really happy about that! So sorry but I don’t have much time to talk, so I will make it short, and I have A TON of photos to send you guys, because we HIKED A FREAKING VOLCANO TODAY.  So that was pretty cool, I’ll send pics! Love you guys! Chao! 

 

Island Hopping!

Woo...sorry ha-ha it has been such a long week. Insanely long. So I ended up not having time to write last week because of all the traveling...in 2 days I traveled 22 hours...in the same suit...so I had to go from Porvenir to Punta Arenas (3 hours), fly from Punta to Puerto Mont (4 hours) take a bus from Puerto Mont to Chiloe (4 hours and a half) and then when I get there Elder Amaya, my new companion, tells me that we have a zone leader meeting on Friday and we had to go the very next day. So the next days we went up to Osorno (6 hours) and then back (6 more hours). It was insane...I have never traveled so much in my life....But hey I’m here now!

The Conseco de lideres was sick, so our mission president asked me to share some experiences of miracles I had in Porvenir to everyone so that was really good and spiritual. And I got to see some friends from the mission that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It was great! But hey I’m on my 3rd island in a row now ha-ha. President just loves sending me to secluded islands! But it’s cool because the island is pretty big so we’re a whole zone here on the island and now the zone leaders pretty much just go to every sector and work with the missionaries in their sectors and show them how to do stuff and everything so we will just be straight traveling here. It is going to be great! We still have a sector, but we spend a lot of time out of it. But so far the zone leader life has been pretty great. I love the zone already, we have some really cool people here. Today all the people from Castro all met up to play bang and basketball, it was a good time.

Hey dad, here in Castro there’s a Brazilian training another new Brazilian, it’s awesome! We eat lunch with them every day and they’re going to help me with Portuguese, it’s going to be sick ha-ha. But yeah I love it here so far, but it rains ALOT!!! They tell me that it rains more here than in any other place in the mission, and it has been true so far!

So a little about my companion---he’s from Colombia and he is legit. He’s known in the mission as one of the best missionaries and we are getting along so well. He’s such a fun kid who just works like a dog too, it’s awesome. It’s funny because I learned a lot of Colombian slang with Molina (my last companion) so I talk to him in full Colombian and he thinks it’s funny, Venga paca papito! Anyways, he’s such a smart guy, and knows a ton about the gospel! His dad was actually a mission president in Ecuador when he was like 12, so he knows what he’s doing. So now a little about the sector, we are teaching a lady named Pamela who they had just found like a little over a week ago, and she is awesome! She is trying to stop drinking and she has so much desire to change. Her kid Oscarito is awesome! He just loves us and wants to be a missionary just like us one day. He literally taught us the first vision perfectly, he is great and he is 10 years old. So they came to church for the first time on Sunday and LOVED it! And we actually got her with a date for baptism yesterday and she is so stoked! I’m pretty sure we will see some

major miracles in this sector and I’m super excited! I am not able to send any pictures this week but I will try next week. Hope you all have a great week! Looking forward to talking to my family on Mothers Day!!

Love-

Zack

Transferred!

  So because of cambios (exchanges) we're doing like a half Pday today and a half Pday tomorrow hahah so I will write you guys tomorrow. I want to tell you now that sadly I am being transferred. I'm going to miss Porvenir a ton, but I will be headed to the island of Chiloe as a Zone Leader! So that'll be a cool experience. I'll write you guys some more tomorrow...today will just be all packing, contacting, and goodbyes. I'll be sure to send pictures tomorrow! Chao!

**From Zack's Mom----Unfortunately he never did get to write us today so this is all we got for the week:( The island of Chiloe is 2800 miles away from Porvenir so I am sure he had a whole day of traveling today. Looking forward to hearing from him next week and hearing about his new area. Send him a quick email---I am sure he would love to hear from you----zachary.walden@myldsmail.net

 

 

 

 

Baptisms:)

Well I got some good news for the week! Martina and Heriberto were baptized and confirmed! Woo! It was awesome! I got to baptize and confirm Heriberto and my companion baptized and confirmed Martina. It was awesome because there hasn’t been a baptism here for like 4 years so like the whole town came. We had like 40 people there, which is more people than come to church.  All the less actives came too because it’s a rare sight to see 2 baptisms here. I will attach pictures. By the way, funny story--the font here in Porvenir is tiny, so I totally bonked Heriberto’s head on the font but I knew he wasn’t under all the way when he did so I just forced him under a little more ha-ha! Everyone made fun of me for it afterwards-- everyone always makes fun of me here for everything ha-ha! Anyways, it was an awesome baptism, Heriberto was super nervous but afterwards he was all good. But we should also be baptizing again on the 6th. We put one of our investigators with a date this week, and he’s awesome, his name is Gino. He was actually a reference from one of the members and he’s so stoked! We have such powerful lessons with him and he actually asked us, "Is that the only date you have? Or can I get baptized sooner if I want?" ha-ha he’s so great! So we will be looking forward to that, I hope I don’t get transferred before that.

 So anyways, Elder Shumway called me yesterday with some good news; they baptized a family that we found together! The mother and the son! So we’re stoked about that. We seriously found them so randomly, it was so guided by the spirit! We went into the area and we were walking just to like explore to see where this road led to and I had the prompting to knock a house, and they came out and now they’re baptized! So I’m stoked about that! Elder Shumway also had some bad news for me too...Well do you remember our investigator named José and Juana from Calbuco? We always went over to their house and we always ate there and they were super awesome, I always sent photos home with them, so I know you know who they are. Anyways, they had a daughter that had a really strange sickness but had lived with it for 24 years, well Saturday morning she passed away in the hospital; he was telling me that they’re pretty distraught about it. But I actually got it where the missionaries live behind their house now so it’s good because the missionaries have been a major support for them. I really think we showed up at the perfect time in their life. Jose has been saying that God gave her to him for 24 years, what else could he ask for? So he’s dealing with it really well. I wanted to update all of you on that so that you can keep them in your prayers.

Anyways I hope all of you had a good week!

Love you All!

Zack

Happy Easter!

This week has gone by super-fast and I really don’t even remember much of what happened. Ha-ha! But hey we’re going to be baptizing 2 people this Saturday so we are stoked! Ediberto and a 10 year old girl named Martina. I will be baptizing Ediberto and my companion will be baptizing Martina! We’re super stoked!! Porvenir hasn’t had a baptism for like 3 or 4 years, so the President put missionaries here at literally the perfect time, it’s like he’s inspired or something? Weird. (I know he is inspiredJ) Anways, this week was good, we’ve come up with some new ways how to contact people because in Porvenir it is super hard to find people to teach, it’s such a change from Calbuco! So what we’ve been doing is we set up the TV in the church building and we open it up and we literally just stand outside and invite everyone we see to come watch a video and talk about Christ for like 5 minutes. And you know what, it’s been working out a lot, and if it works in Porvenir it should work in other areas too! But it’s cool because we’re not awkwardly asking to enter somebodies house on there time, no we are inviting people to enter the church building! So I thought it was a good idea, and it’s been working great. So if you know any other missionaries who are having trouble finding people, there’s a suggestion ;)

Anyways Easter was great! We actually did not get too much chocolate, ha-ha Our branch didn’t do a big celebration or anything...but we did have 40 people in church on Sunday which was awesome! Usually we have around 17 to 20 people, so we like doubled it which was awesome! Oh  and I have a funny awkward story that would only happen to me...so the branch President asked us beforehand if we could stand by the doors during the sacrament so no one came in or out. So right before the sacrament my companion walked out, so I went to go out too to go ask him which door he would stand at, so I was going out the door, and it like hit my foot while I was opening it and it bounced off my foot and totally nailed me in the face! I looked back and literally everyone was watching...it actually hurt too!  I have a bruise on the side of my face from it! So after sacrament everyone was coming up to me laughing and asking me how I was ha-ha. At least I could make them laughJ

There were quite a bit of foreign people on our island this week because there were some road rallies, and people from all over the world come to this rally car racing event. It’s like a world famous one that happens all over the Tierra del fuego, and it starts in Porvenir. It was cool, all week we were seeing weird rally car things everywhere, doing like street races ha-ha it was awesome. Everyone would freak out when they heard I was from California because it’s like home of Nascar racing, so they would all get super excited and start talking to me about Nascar, and they would realize pretty fast that I knew nothing about Nascar ha-ha. Anyways, pretty chill week, hope you’re all good where you’re at!\

Love-

Zack

Lessons Learned

       This week was amazing and full of miracles! This last week our Mission President called basically every single companionship to tell them that he had felt strongly that he had to make the promise to every sector that with faith they could see a baptism before the 15th of May and another one before June. Super random but he was listening to Elder Rasbands talk about going with the first impressions from the spirit and felt super strongly that he needed to call everyone telling them that. So of course Elder Molina and I were thinking a lot about that all week. We only had one guy with a baptismal date and he has some major problems to work out before that date...so we’re really trying to think who we could focus on to be those baptisms. So Friday I decided that my fast on Sunday would be for that, so we could be capable of fulfilling the promise that the President made us. My Friday studies were all about following the spirits first impressions, and I got a strong prompting from the spirit telling me, "Call Rosa and Heriberto right now.” They are a couple that have been struggling and he never shows up to our appointments but I followed the prompting and called them. She answered and was actually crying and telling me how she was just done and she really was going to divorce and move back to Chiloe and leave him here.  I calmed her down and told her that it’ll be alright and that we would talk at church on Sunday. Then I went and I called Heriberto and he answered (already a miracle) and we actually set a cita for that night in the church building (which we have done 4 times before and didn’t show up) but that night he showed up! And we had a great lesson with him and he actually told us how he hasn’t been drinking lately and he really wants to change how he is. So we got a big impression to invite him to baptism, so he accepted and called his wife and she was so happy and super proud of him. On Sunday they came to church! And he was super happy to be there and said that he will go from now on every Sunday. He will be getting baptized on the 22nd of this month.

       Saturday night during the fast, we had the impression to go to a less actives house that has a daughter that’s 11 who’s not baptized. We went and invited them to church, but she couldn’t go because she’s always working. But the daughter for some reason really wanted to go so the mom agreed to bring her to church and then go to work afterwards. Well, we never can go visit them because she’s single, so we can’t enter and she’s also never home because she’s always working. Well Sunday after church we just had another impression to call her at night to see if we can go over with a sister, and she actually said sure! For the first time in 10 weeks ha-ha. So we got a sister super-fast and went and talked about baptism and she remembered her baptism and everything. It made her super happy, and we had the impression again to invite the daughter to baptism, and the daughter was so happy and the mom was too and we actually put her with the date of April 22 also. She said she would do everything possible to help her daughter get prepared to get baptized that day. Literally God answered our prayers and the promise from the President super-fast, now we have 2 with a baptismal date, that are solid, for the 22nd, and I’m stoked! I love covenants, because God always comes through. 

      That’s actually not all the miracles we saw, just wait. So Elder Molina told me that he was fasting to find a family, that are ready that will be baptized. So there’s this family who have listened to the missionaries before that live right in front of our house and we have never been able to find them or anything. Well Saturday after 10 weeks we finally found them. And they were cool, super nice and have heard the lessons like a thousand times. So we talked with them and that night at our house Elder Molina tells me that that’s the family, he just knew it was them. Well this morning, he tells me "Hey dude I had a weird experience last night." he continued to tell me that he dreamt about that family, and in the middle of the dream he woke up and Heard a voice clear as day tell him "Their daughter will get sick, the missionaries will give her a blessing, she will be healed, and they will believe" so he got up and wrote it all down immediately. We have an appointment with them tonight, so we will see what happens. It is interesting because literally yesterday in the Gordon B Hinckley manual it said that revelation comes at night a lot of the time. So that was interesting, I will keep you all posted on what happens! Also we’ve been giving a lot of blessings lately. The papitos daughter got sick, and was super sick the other day and we went over to give her a blessing and literally like 3 hours later she was all better, up and walking around and totally fine! Blessings work, Priesthood power is real, and God always answers our prayers and fasting. Lessons learned this week. 

Hope everyone has a great week! Look for those miracles that happen every day! Love you all-

Zack

P.S.- The pictures are from us in Porvenir. That’s actually the back yard to our Little house. We live on the property of the elders quorum president so we were doing some service for him and Elder Felipe and Oliver came from Punta Arenas to do some divisions and did it with us, fun times ha-ha. Elder Oliver is super cool, we’re actually really good friends.