AJ's email from 1/9/2012

Goodbye and Adios to Sosa

so ill just start with where im at and who my companion is cuz im sure that will be the most important information from this week. im in............the zone talagante in the sector el monte. its the third biggest sector in our mission. and im with elder vilar from valencia, spain. its been such a long week but at the same time has gone by so fast. we are on bikes here in el monte and its made me more sore than ever. thursday especially was a long day. we had to go to a path called paico alto, which is a 45 min bike ride up hill from our house. needless to say the next day i was very sore. i dont think my legs have felt that shaky and worn out since one time coach gibson made us run 6 ten in ones back to back, just to give you an idea how hard it was. but our sector is so big that it takes about an hour and a half on bike to get from one end to the other.

AJ and new companion

       but anyway tuesday we had the change meeting. i will honestly say that that meeting is one of the most nerve wrecking parts of the mission. having to sit there watching the slide show and each zone go by, waiting to hear your name and see your picture to finally know where you are going and who you are with. its terrible. it makes me feel glad that ive only had to do it once now so far in the mission. but finally i saw my name with el monte and i wasnt sure how to feel cuz talagante is the only zone with bikes in the mission. and with it being summer, that doesnt always make a good combination. but the good thing is that its not nearly as hot as it is in the middle of the city. although it still feels hot during the day cuz the sun beats on us, its get down into the low 60s at night so its really cool waking up in the morning and going home at night.

        thursday night i met our best investigators, maria and her daughters maria jose who is 13 and nachita who is 5. maria is basically a member without being baptized. she goes to church every week, knows the lessons almost better than us, reads the scriptures every day. but she cant get baptized yet cuz she isnt married. but she said that she will be getting married hopefully by the end of february. so that will be a baptism.....if im in her sector next change. (president king has said that 2 more missionaries will be coming to el monte next change and so i dont know which part ill be in.

      wednesday we had our coordination meeting with our ward mission leader. its really weird cuz we have a ward mission leader who actually works and knows what he is doing. its the first time since ive been here that ive had that. and its only the second time since ive been in chile that ive seen a ward mission leader that works in all the wards that i know.

       thursday is when we went out to paico alto. we had to leave at 8 to be able to get there, teach and then get home in time. and so we got there, had a 45 min lesson and then went home. and we got home close to 1030. and i honestly felt like i wouldnt make it home cuz my legs were dead. i had no energy left (cuz earlier that day we went out to another street a long way away) but i felt so bad for the family we went to teach. they are all members but very inactive. the dad at one point was branch president but now is an alcoholic. they are sealed in the temple but have lots of martial problems. the 16 year old daughter is pregnant. its just crazy. but it makes me wonder how does a family that is so far into the church fall so far away. its crazy.

Birthday Girls :)

One of the "ladies" in his new ward...huh?

     then saturday we spent basically all day preparing a baptism for a girl in the ward who just turned 8. we had to fill the font, clean the building, and have it all ready by 730. but it was good. and after that we went to a birthday party of 2 ladies in our ward. (which is the pictures that i included) the mom is hermana aida and her daughter cynthia. their birthday is the same day. and it was fun hanging out with them after the baptism.

     sunday didnt feel like my first day at church at all. cuz we had been in the church 3 time earlier in the week and had taught 16 lessons to members, which is a lot. (the most i have ever had before was 11) so i already knew more than half the ward. but it was really fun. this is a really good ward and has a lot of potential. there has been over 40 baptisms here in the last 3 years which is a lot for our mission. so im excited to work. and we have 8 people who can possibly get baptized in the next 2 months if they get married (which is ok here cuz they actually want to get married unlike the last sector) so it´ll be fun.

      anyway i hope that you are all doing good. have a good week.