4 Months in a Blink

It is crazy to think that I have already been here in chile for 4 months now and it has honestly felt like a few weeks! That is what happens when you´re working hard right?? This week we were able to start teaching a girl who has received the missionaries before but for some reason they just stopped coming. So we found here again and she is way awesome! She lives about 45 minutes walking from the church and she walked with us all the way there through the rain and back. We are super excited that we are able to teach her. 

We also changed houses! My companion and I now live in our own little house across the street from the stake president. It is nice because it is way clean (because sisters used to live there) and it is closer to our area. We are all settled in now!

February is coming to a close so that means school in chile starts and vacations end!!! WHOO that is a good thing for missionaries since it is always a struggle to find people in their houses during vacations. But thankfully that won´t be a problem any more because all the kids will be in school. 

On the way here we had a cool experience. The driver of our colectivo (or taxi) asked us what elder meant. We told him it meant missionary, then he connected the dots and realized we were mormons. And said ohhh joseph smith and the gold plates right? We told him yep that is us. He was just full of questions so we ended up teaching him lesson one practically all the way through just on the way to the city. We gave him a book of mormon and he started reading it the second we got out of the car. He told us he would love to be able to find a church that he really felt was true and that he could get closer to. He was in awe that joseph smith was a prophet and that he didn´t write the book of mormon by himself but translated it. There are lots of people who are confused about the doctrine of the church and just need a little bit more clarity and they are ready to accept it. Don´t ever forget to share what you know.

Keep on keeping on.

Elder Holdstock

Buenas Tardes!

So first thing is first shout out to mom for coming in clutch this last week with a good idea! I think you sent me the picture of those missionaries giving out lemonade as a joke....

buuuuut I don´t joke around (ok well that part is a joke). Anyway... This week vacations in chile have been in full swing. That means that nobody is home, all of our investigators have peaced out and are enjoying life on the beach so every time we knock on a door there is nobody behind it! Soooo we have had to get creative here in Chile.

We decided that if we can´t go to the people we would make the people come to us. We set up a table with a sign that said ¨jugo gratis y un mensaje de jesucristo¨ which means free juice and a message of jesus christ. We put ourselves right in the middle of the Feria... which is like the chile version of a farmer´s market. And then we just started giving juice to everybody we could. I even chased ladies across the street with cups of juice for them! It was a funny awesome crazy thing all in one. We feel like it went really well! And if you know me you know how much I love lemonade stands so it was a win win.

I have been studying about the mission of Ammon and his brothers this week and the struggles they had among the lamanites. But how their joy was full because of the souls they brought unto christ. In doctrine and covenants it also talks about the joy that we recieve as we seek and work to bring souls unto christ, even so that if we bring but one soul to him our joy will be full but it wants us to imagine how incredibly happy we will be if we bring many sould unto him. Missionary work isn´t just the work of the nametags and ties but everyone! Everyone who has been baptized a member of the church and a disciple of christ can understand and earn this promise of the scriptures.

Hope that all is well in sunny SLC. or as they call it here La Fabrica, or the factory... because that is where every missionary comes from. haha

Keep it real

and as always my friends,

Rip it up.

Elder Holdstock

Buena Buena Chiquillos

It is a new change here in Santiago Oeste. Our Zone is practically completely new everyone in the zone has a new companion and we are all ready to get going! Earlier this week we had a cool experience with a lady outside on the street. We were contacting and I saw this lady sitting down on a bucket. In our mission president woodward´s catch phrase, or his vision for us as a mission is ´Hablar con Todos´ which means Talk with Everyone because we never know who will be in our path that is ready to hear the gospel. It sounds a lot easier than it is but we do our best. So with that in mind I walked up to her and asked her how she was doing. I realized after I started talking that she was bawling.

She wouldn´t talk to us so I just crouched down by her and asked if we could pray with her. She nodded and I asked what we could pray for. She told us everything About all the problems with her family the struggles she is having and how hard it´s been for her. We said the prayer and shared various scriptures with her. She calmed down and by the end of our little visit was back on her feet and determined to just face the problems head on. I don´t even know if I will ever see her again because I don´t think she lives in our sector but I loved being a part of seeing how the hope in Christ will help us in whatever situation we are in. If a few verses of scripture could pick up a chileana of the streets of Santiago and give her the perspective to go out and give it her all they can do the same for any one of us. That´t what they are their for to help us learn and to give us hope. Just open them up every once in a while. Christ is there waiting inside to receive you.

Our ward has been shrinking slowly because vacation season is still going strong but by the end of the month we will be back to ourselves.

Oh and Buena Buena chiquillo is what my new companion allllways says and its kinda catchy so try it out... I promise you won´t be disappointed.

Keep it real,

Rip it up.

Elder Holdstock

Oh Cielos

And Just like that 2 changes are done and in the books! It´s crazy that I have already been here in chile for that long. I received a new companion today and we will both work in my same area. We are excited to get going. His name Is Elder San Martin and he is chilean... So all the bad habits of chilean spanish that I have been trying to avoid I will probably pick up with him... haha Just kidding. 

Chile is starting to chill out a little bit. The incendios have died down and people are starting to come home from vacations. Because if chileanos aren´t sleeping or eating lunch or working they´re probably on vactions. February is about the end of the vacationing season though and so there should be lots more people home these coming weeks! Which is good because I don´t know about you but I don´t love Gritando at an empty house. 

I was able to give the class this week in our district meeting. We studied about how to use our time wisely and how to work more efficiently. I had us study Jacob 5 and we related our experience in our own sectors to that of the parable of the Vineyard. The part that gets me everytime is when the Lord of the vineyard cries and asks himself what else he could have done for his vineyard. God wants all of us to succeed soooo badly. And he works tirelessly every day to help us do it. Afterall it is his work and his glory. But at the end of the day he might even cry because some people are lost. But we know the truth and we know that following christ will make us happy and those tears that the lord sheds won´t be because of us.

 oh and this is our amigo Steve. 

He loves to follow the missionaries around. One day he followed us for about 8 hours. Even when we would go into a house he would just chill outside and lay in the shade to wait for us and then keep walking with us. It is way funny actually 

Hey rip it up errybody.

Elder Holdstock