Grande Bendiciones por Pequeño Hechos

¡Hola! Another week out the window already?! WOW!! Crazy!! in two more weeks I´ll have about three months in the mission, and that really is an insane thought. In onew week I´m halfway through with my training! 

 

Fortunately the language is just getting better and better, and I´m able to relate stories and experiences a lot easier now than I ever have in the past. My companion and I havent have any big arguements and I don´t think we´re going to, we actually are pretty compatible. Which is a great thing. But we definitely have big differences as well and are really starting to realize them and try and work off the other´s strangths rather than point out any weaknesses that we have. So I think if nothing crazy happens I´ll finish my training in a happy state haha.

 

I don´t have a lot to relate this week; we´re teaching several families right now, one of which we´ve helped several times in trying to finish their house. They´re about halfway done but are so excited and happy with what they have. Which is what gave me the titile for my e-mail this week.

 

We recieve huge blessing with small acts. Putting forth an effort is all the Lord asks of us to recieve His help. In building a house, you take tons of time and tiny pieces of wood. And little by little something amazing begins to form. We´re the same way with our lives. Each day we make little decisions and have small acts that will yield enormous results, and we´re the ones who decide what those results are going to be. Is your house going to be large and beautiful, with perfect measurements and lots of time and planning? Attention grabbing with colors and interesting designs and patterns all around it? OR it could be a small box with no effort at all, but we are the ones that build it.  

To end I want to share a quote from a book I´m currently reading, called the Miracle of Forgiveness, I would like to share: "When we follow the instructions of the Lord, we are kept so busy perfecting ourselves that we come to realize that the faults of others are small in comparision [to ours]" - Spencer W. Kimball

 

Don´t focus on other people´s imperfections with their "houses" until you have finished with yours. We can always help other build and improve others peoples "houses" without thinking of the imperfections that they may have, because we´ve all got imperfections. The important thing is that we are always striving to improve.

 

I hope you are all well and happy as possible!

 

Love, Elder Conger  

 

P.S. I´ll send photos now haha

these are from my last day in the CCM and with my trainer on the first day 

Manjar y Completos

¿¡Como esta mis amigos y familia!? Esta semana fue loco rápido y yo no se como es p-day otro vez. Pero estoy muy animado por la oportunidad a escribir ustedes hoy día y tengo muchas cosas a compartir. Sorry I didn´t get an email out to everyone last week! I was trying to do a few personal emails to some people that had written me specifically, and I´ll try to do that again sometime in the future, but I don´t get a lot of time to write everyone so I can´t promise too much. But I hope that your all doing extraordinarily well and loving life. These past week have been so great, and I´m extremely grateful for the opportunity that I have been given to be here and meet all the people that I have. The language is getting better and I can communicate with most people on the street fairly well as long as they recognize that I´m not actually Chilean and can´t understand their crazy fast Spanish very well haha. But my companion and I are now doing English and Spanish days every other day where we talk to each other in only that language because he really wants to get good at his English, and obviously I need to be speaking in Spanish. I forget a lot and talk in Spanish out of habit but I´m getting better. My companion escpecially likes to impersonate Gollum in English at night when we´re all about to fall asleep so that´s been pretty entertaining with his "Chilenglish" that he likes to speak during that time haha. Chileans have several words they use a lot that are not in other countries that speak Spanish, so Riss you might have trouble understanding me when we talk in Spanish haha.

 

        Some people have asked me about the culture weather and food here. The weather is really good right now, the worst thing is that some days it gets like super hot during the day and freezing cold at night (but I think that the cold is because our house really isn´t insulated that well haha) but I really like the climate and area that I´m in. It hasn´t rained at all but yesterday was the first day of Autumn, and the closer we get to winter the more likely it will be to rain or snow. The food here is so delicious! The fruit is so enormous, and is really really good. I´ve eaten grapes that are near the size of golfballs haha it´s so cool! Also they eat a lot of completos (hotdogs) but they put tomatoes, guacamole or avocado, and then mustard mayo and ketchup. But they enormous too! Probably close to a foot and a half long, it´s insane. My new favorite desert is crackers with this stuff called Manjar. I don´t think we have it in the United States and if we do I don´t know why we don´t eat it more often cause it´s freaking amazing. It looks like someone took peanut butter and caramel and mixed them together, and it tastes like..... I really don´t know. I really can´t describe how it tastes haha, but it´s great. The people are really great for the most part, and now that I can communicate pretty well I feel more confident in meeting people on the street. They have a lot of Evangelical people here who are really nice and I enjoy talking to, but they also a lot of times get huge speakers and microphones in the middle of our sector and shout all kinds of Psalms and Proverbs really loud. It gets kinda old when we´re in a house trying to talk to or teach someone and all I can hear is someone shouting into a microphone three blocks away haha. As far as the people we are teaching and helping, they really are very good and nice people. People here are so willing to share with us, especially member of the church. Yesterday an Hermana needed us to come to her house to help her for about five minutes, and afterwards she gave us basically a second lunch and refused to let us leave without eating with her family haha. 

 

        Nothing really crazy has happened though and I´m starting to get into the routine of our everyday activities. I´m really lucky with the companion I got for a trainer because we get along really well, and we also can get a lot done in one day. The other day he was asking me how many companions I´d had before him haha he´d forgotten that this was my first transfer in the field. It´s crazy I´m already starting week five in the field! by the end of next week I´ll have about three months in the mission! That´s completely insane!

 

        I´m going to have to apologize again, we came to the Internet place directly from a Zone activity and I don't have my cord for my camera again, so I´m not going to be able to send any pictures again this week, I´m sorry! Next week there will be like twenty to send haha. To end I just like to encourage each of you to think of someone this week you know who needs help, and make a plan of how you can help them. This is what we do every day in our planning session at night as missionaries, and I´ve seen it help a lot of people. Even when our plans to help people don´t go the way that we think or hope they will, if we put forth an effort to help people the Lord will show us the way that we can accomplish that which they need after we´ve prepared to do the best that we can. Helping people has come to be my favorite thing in the world, and as we give ourselves to others we begin to forget our own problems and worries and get carried away in the service of others rather than the things that normally would bother us, I promise if you look for one person who needs your help each day you will find that there are more things you can do for others than you ever thought, and you will feel true joy afterwards in knowledge that you can help people do things that they can´t always do for themselves.  

Thank you all for the emails, thoughts, and prayers they truly are a blessings. I love you all and pray for your safety and well being. Take care!

Love, Elder Conger

 

Elder Silvestre (companion/trainer) is on Kix's right

Soccer after the zone meeting today

 

¡Dos Semanas en el Campo!

 Hola mi familia y mis amigos, ¿Como esta? Este semana fue un poco mas difícil de las otros pero fue bueno, y yo tengo un testimonio de la obra que estoy haciendo aquí en Chile fue es mas fuerte que cualquier o todas las otros sentimientos antes en mi vida. It's been so great to hear from those of you who have written me these last couple of weeks and I'm so grateful for the things that each of you has had to say to me. Thank you also for all of the prayers and thoughts that have been sent my way, I can honestly say that I have felt them and seen their impact.
    This week my companion and I have had trouble contacting people to teach, but we have been able to do quite a bit of service. One young man by the name of Erly needed help moving a bunch of junk out of his house and we helped with with that for awhile. He's also asked me to teach him how to arc weld because he's got several things he's wanting to build onto his house that he needs to weld for, and I told him if my President is okay with it I'd be more than happy to help him as much as I can. The homes here are incredibly humble, and I am so much more thankful for the circumstances of my family throughout my life because of the blessing to live where we do. Yet as humble and poor as some of these people are, they must have some of the most powerful testimonios of the Savior and faith than any others I have known before. We've helped a people with their homes a lot, and as Elder Loveridge, a misionario I live with would say: "the houses are built from concrete and cardboard." And It's not far off from the truth.
    The most dificult thing has been seeing people I know I can help that will not accept it. Whether it's physical labor they need, my knowledge, or the message of Jesus Christ, many people here are not very receptive to us. We are in a pueblo called Graneros a little ways out of Rancagua, and it's a really nice town with tons of great people. But as there is anywhere else there are a few hard headed people around. My companion and I have a sector of the town that has aparently the most problems with drugs and enemployment. I've seen many people without purpose sitting on the side of the road drinking away their lives each day, and they have no desire to see that there is a better and much happier way to live. The Hermanas (Sister Missionaries) have a lot more trouble with harasment than we do, but we get the occasional gesture and comment that aren't the greatest to hear. It's funny to realize the the only English people know here, are "Hello" and then about every swear word you could think of. It's makes me glad that The pronouciation of English here isn't too great and I reply with an "¡Hola! Yo quiero usted tener una día que es genial y que tiene mucha felicidad en su vida. ¿Como puedo ayuda usted tener estas cosas?" or something along those lines haha usually they just walk away.
    I don't ahve a lot more tim but I'll try and send some pictures to you all. To end I'd lik to share a scripture that has helped me this week. I know above it might sound like I'm complaining or feeling down or a little bit depressed about the circumstances, but this is nopt the case. I'm saddend because of the struggle to help people, this is true, but I am more convinced than ever I am fulfilling my purpose in this life and I am not ashamed of the words I speak or actions I do. In 2 Timothy 1: 7-8 it says: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power, and of love and of sound mind. Be thou not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;" In this scripture, Paul clearly tells us not to be ashamed of our testimonies, and that living this gospel is not always going to be easy. But we can always know that we are doing what is ruight because of the Spirit. I have felt the "spirit of power" in my time here and I have begun to conquer my fears. I know the message I carry of our Savior Jesus Christ is the truth, and through Him I can do all things that are expedient to the Lord. This is the time to prepare, and there is no better time to start than now. I love and pray for you all and hope you are well.

Elder Conger

Primero P-Day en el Campo Misional

¡Hola! ¿Como le va? It´s been an insane past couple of weeks and I don´t know if I´ll have enough time to explain everything but I´ll try my best

   I got my trainer! His name is Elder Silvestre and he´s from Spain, so I get to speak Spanish practically the whole day and I´m loving it!! Currently we are teaching a lot of less active members but we´ve had a lot of service opportunities as well. The people here have incredibly humble homes, and it makes me extremely grateful for everything that I had while growing up. Ther are also many incredible people here, and probably the coolest person I have met yet would be Abraham, who is an 18 year old joven (youth) in our ward. He is the only person in his pamily that attends church, is planning to serve a mission next September, and always helps us out when wqe need him.

   I had my first Chilena completo (hotdog) and it was amazing! They`re food here is pretty different from the U.S. and they eat fruit with about everything, but the fruit is all amazing so it`s good. I´m learning to like a lot of different varieties of food, and some missionaries have had tough times addapting to the foods here, but it has`t bothered me yet.

    Elder Silvestre really knows a fair amount of English, but usually he doesn`t use any of it unless I don`t know how to say a certan word or phrase in Spanish and need a bit of help, but he told me that he was very surprised with the ammount of Spanish I am able to speak. Usually I can understand people but I deffinitely have a lot more that I need to learn. However, wioth diligant studying and a lot of practice I think I`ll be pretty comfortable with the language by the end of my first transfer.

    We are actually in a biking sector of the mission so that`s pretty awesome. We cover a pretty good amount of ground in little time and can teach quite a few lessons in one day. But contacting people is also a lot harder on a bike so it`s got it`s ups and downs.

    There are probably a lot of questions as to the specifics of what`s all hppening and how I`m feeling, but truly There isn`t really a way to describe it haha. I love it here and I`m so grateful for everyone that I`ve met and have come to love already. Especially my mission president who has already helped me more than I can possibly describe, my companion, and all of you and your prayers, thoughts, and e-mails.

    To end I`d like to share a scripture that has helped me a lot this week. In Romans 8:31 we read: "...If God is with us, who can be against us?" and Paul goes on to talk about nothing being able to "seperate us from the love of our God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Savior." This chapter has helped me feel the hand and love of God in my life so much more personally and I would encourage each of you to read it as well. If we has faith is Jesus Christ, nothing is impossible. I know that my Savior lives, loves me, and suffered for my sins and those of all the people on the earth. He wants us to live happily and to attain eternal life, and we have that oppoirtunity if we work for it. Never forget the love and pland that our Heavenly Father has for us, because it`s the onlñy thing that is certain in this life. God is always on our side, even when nobody else is.

    

Love and pray for you all!!

 

Elder Conger