~Mlazgar Missionary Moments~: AJ's email from 09/17/2012

AJ and E. Nilsen

this has been a good week for me. getting back into a sector where we have some success and having a comp that helps and that i can have fun with is gonna help me. so im sure youre all wondering where im at after changes last week. i got sent to a zone in maipu called cinco de abril. its in the northern part of maipu. and my sector is called pajaritos. its a sector of just pure houses and houses and more houses which is nice cuz its my first sector like that. my comp is actually someone that i mentioned a couple weeks ago. hes the one that will be flying back to arizona with me cuz his parents are in the tucson mission. his name is elder nilsen. we´ve had fun this first week together and i can tell that he is gonna help me be better. another thing, just for those who dont know. im now zone leader. and that means that im in charge of other missionaries and making sure that they are doing what they should. the mission is divided into sectors, with a companionship of 2 missionaries in each sector. then you have 3 or 4 companionships in a district, 2 or 3 districts in a zone. and there are 12 zones in the mission. so we have 16 missionaries in our zone and me and my comp have to make sure that they are working hard and everything is alright.

AJ, Camela & E. Alcaraz

so monday night i finished saying bye to people. first we went to camila, our investigator. she was sad that i was leaving but she understood and knows why since she has been investigating for almost 3 years now. the best part was that i had her write in my book where everyone writes and after i read what she put. it was special because she said she was grateful that i came on the mission and that she thinks she found her testimony in that really strong lesson we had a couple weeks ago. and that she wants to get baptized, maybe not right away but soon. after that we had a small noche de hogar for my other good bye. it was with paul (our ward mission leader) and his wife, 2 girls named yaris and valentina that are cousins, and then daniela. we just had a short message and then played games and talked the whole time. i had fun and im gonna miss those 5 most from the ward. saying bye to daniela was especially tough cuz weve gotten really close these last couple months and ive helped her witha lot. and so im gonnna be worried now that im not there to help her. i just hope she keeps progressing and doing what she should.

AJ playing Jenga...or whatever they call it in Chile

tuesday was just more about getting to know the sector. and is was only half the day cuz around 6, president sent us a text saying we needed to be in thge house before dark cuz it was that day where the youth go out and cause trouble and its dangerous. our sector was alright pretty much but its cause we are so close to one of the worst parts of santiago called villa francia.

wednesday was a little more of working and getting into everything. going out in the morning and working, doing contacts and everything. we had our meeting with the ward mission leader in the church that night too so i met several people from the ward. we have a decent sized ward here cuz the average attendance is around 150 and the building is normal sized too. so thats a nice change after being in parque subercaseaux

AJ and Spiderman

thursday and friday were good days too cuz we found a couple new good families. on thursday we found a family who is the dad, mom, and daughter. (segundo, louisa, and delicia) they were good and interested and on saturday we went back to teach them the first lesson and the daughter had read the pamphlet that we left and everyone payed attention and was involved. that was good. and on sunday segundo and delicia came to church which is one of the first times that i have found news and then them come to church that first week. it was exciting to see that.

then finally on sunday i met the whole ward and the bishop and everyone. our bishop seems really good and like he knows how to work which isnt very common down here so thats nice. sunday night was really good though. we found another family that seem like some of the best ever. the mom, miriam, isnt very religious but she had a lot of questions and was really interested in everything. and at the end she was excited to say the prayer and said one of the best first prayers that i have ever heard in the mision. it was incredible. and her husband, juan, is pretty good too cuz he had even more questions than she did. so im excited to start working with them and i hope that they start progressing quickly. basically thats it for this week. im happy to be in a good sector again where we can have success and have fun and work hard. i think that it will be a good way to end the mission, assuming that i should end here. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care