AJ's email from 12/12

hey everyone hows it going? this week was kinda crazy to be honest. and we did so much without really doing anything at all. hard to explain. but it happens sometimes in the mission. but anyway tuesday night i went to the baptism that elder leavitt had. cuz i had met her (Rocío) the week before and she asked me to come to her baptism. so i figured why not. but i went with one of the guys in our ward cuz we did divisions cuz elder sosa didnt want to go. but it was very good. except for the part where mauricio (the guy from my ward) and i had to be the witnesses. and she pulled her foot up out of the water. but...it was after she had completely gone under. so we had to make the decision about whether or not she had to do it again. and i honestly felt that she was ok and so did mauricio. so we approved it. but still it was a very nerve recking situation to do be honest.

AJ and E. Sosa...now that's a missionary pose!

        then wednesday i didnt feel very good and neither did elder sosa. so it was a slow day. but what makes it even more miserable right now is that its getting hot and its humid and so walking in the street at 4 in the afternoon is tough to say the least. it really wouldnt be that bad if we werent in ties and pants. cuz i know that if i had shorts and a t shirt i would be completely fine. but i guess its just one of the challenges of the mission. then thursday we were supposed to practice our thing we were doing for the talent show with the elders quorem president. and we planned to meet in the church at 8. but he never showed up and we basically wasted 2 hours just waiting for him there. thats one thing that absolutely drives me crazy about the latin culture is the inability to say a time and day and commit to it. because no one ever shows up on time here or starts anything on time. and it also kinda ruined our plans twice during the week cuz we planned to do divisions and get to more people than normal. but a lot of times they show up half an hour late or just dont even show up and so we do less than we would have normally. but its just something we have to put up with.

Ward party...partyers :)

         friday was pretty cool though. cuz that was the night that we had the talent show. and i was so nervous to sing cuz ive never sang in front of people alone before. but it turned out to be alright. we only ended up singing one song together with elder sosa cuz we had other stuff with him singing and others playing guitar and then him playing harmonica. and i had to worry about the other thing we were doing so i didnt have enough time to practice more songs. but the other thing that we did was better anyway. we performed one of those skits where one person is the head and legs and then someone else is behind as the arms and we did dances and stuff. and it was really funny. unfortuantely the videos are to big to send in email so im gonna try and have a friend here put them up tomorrow on my facebook and then you should all be able to see them. (thats also how i put up those other pictures before if you were wondering. dont worry im not just getting on myself lol) but everyone loved it and laughed a lot. and then all told us how good it was.

painting houses for service

       then saturday morning we went and did service as a stake by painting the houses of the people in one the little passages in our ward. so there were about 80 people there in this little passage painting and it made it kinda packed. but it was a lot of fun and the people there loved it and it honestly made the passage look so much better. but the better part is that because of that, we had 3 kids from there come to church yesterday. they were like 13 years old. so that was pretty cool. but i really did nothing except have fun and mess around with the youth in our ward. cuz there really wasnt a lot for us to do when we got there.

          so yea thats pretty much it for this week.

AJ's email from 12/5/11

well first off i just want to start by saying i just had the dumbest thing ever happen to me. i went to put my memory card into the computer and i pushed it in and the card slid down to far or something and then went into the computer. i dont know if i explained that very well but basically i lost it for now and i have to wait til some tech guy comes in a couple days to take it out. so that sucks.
      but anyway i had a pretty good week, for the most part. elder sosa and i started practicing for the talent show this friday. and we settled on the songs that we are going to sing. we were gonna do unstoppable by rascall flatts but that one is a little to difficult so we changed the english one to more than words. but i cant remember who its by. and then we are adding another for a kind of "encore" song called "mientes" by camila. we are getting help from one of our investigators, sergio, who is like 15 or 16 years old and plays the guitar really well. but im excited for it.
      but thursday this week, we did divisions with a couple of the youth from our ward that are going on missions. one already got his call to peru and the other is doing his papers. but it was kinda cool cuz we went and taught a lesson for just 20 minutes but when we walked out, the one that i was with said wow i just felt the spirit so strong in there and it just made me kinda smile cuz it was just another lesson and so he is going to be more surprised when he actually gets to the mission. but it also showed me how used we get to just feeling the spirit and going off it in the mission that it almost becomes more of a reaction and less of thinking about it. but it was cool. and then thursday night we went and played soccer in the church with the guys that always play there every thursday. cuz we invited a few investigators and put our own team together. and it was cool cuz we just dominated even though we werent very good individually, we worked together well and werent selfish like the other teams. but i played goalie the whole time and the fun part was that after everyone told me how i was the best goalie that played that night. so i felt pretty good that i gained some respect from latins in the soccer area.
        then friday morning we had a special meeting with the missionaries from our zone. each zone had a special meeting to talk about how we can better as a mission. cuz apparently our mission is way under the number of the others in santiago in terms of baptisms. and so we are trying to take a step up to be on the level with the east and north mission. but it was something very spiritual cuz we were all fasting and giving each other ideas and everything about how to get better. so that was cool.
         saturday we did divisions again with the same 2 kids. and it was good cuz we found a very good lady. we knocked on her door and as soon as we started talking, she told us about how her friend always talks to her about the church and that she has been interested and a bunch of other stuff. and then at the end she asked if our church was open to anyone who wanted to come and we said yes and she said that she wants to come and she how it is. so i have some hopes for her.
         then sunday we had stake conference. our ward had to put together the choir for that. and it went pretty well until the very end of the last song when we messed up bad. which kinda sucks cuz thats what people will remember but all well. it was a pretty good conference. there were a ton of people there too. the only thing that was disappointed cuz we had no one come. but i guess you cant have a good week every week. but that was basically my week. hope that you are all doing well. take care

"Borrowed" pictures from November 21

I "borrowed" these pictures from Elder Leavitt's blog again. (I didn't ask this time...I hope it's okay Lisa.) Let me first acknowledge their blog - elderalexleavitt.blogspot.com - which I watch for little bits about AJ. But more than that, I love Elder Leavitt's enthusiasm for his work, the example he is to those around him and most of all his heartfelt testimony of the gospel. I am so grateful AJ has had the opportunity to meet him and have him in his life.


Here's a reminder of a little blurb about the shirts in these pictures from AJ's email on November 21...


     the other cool thing about this week is that we made shirts as a district. cuz we are named los encapuchados (which basically is another name for rioters if i havent explained that before) so we made a jersey type thing with that name on the front and then our names and numbers on the back. and they only cost about 8 dollars so it wasnt bad. but my name is el rey, sosa is el macho, leavitt is el rusio rico, tognetti is the italian stallion, enamorado isenamorado.com, and then carcamo put te pongo.

AJ's email 11/28/11

hey everyone how is it going? so this week was pretty interesting.......the only problem is that i cant remember half of it now to tell you all about it lol but anyway like normal ill do my best.

          this was a very productive week for us to start out the change and so it made it really fun and im excited to finish my time here in this sector (assuming this will be my last change here that is) but the next 5 weeks should be really good. we found a ton of new investigators, but the best part is that more than half of them DONT have to get married first. it was really amazing to find people who arent living together. but the best new that we found im hoping will be able to get baptized in this change. her name is adhia and she is the 10 year old daughter of a less active member. but the mom told us when we passed by that she has been thinking a lot lately about how her daughter needs to get baptized and that she wants to come back to church. so that would be awesome cuz thats a for sure baptism. all we have to do is teach her the basic stuff that a 10 year old needs to know to pass the interview and get her to church enough times. 

        the other person we are working a lot with right now is ainhoa still but she just has to stop smoking and come to church. she has almost stopped now. she hasnt smoked in about a week and a half and she said that she is doing whatever she can to avoid it. the only thing that im a little worried about right now with her is that next week she needs to have her interview to get baptized the 11th. but this next week is stake conference and so its a 45 min walk to that building from where she lives. so we have to try and find someone who has a car to take her which is a problem in our area cuz im pretty sure not a single person in our ward owns a car. so we´ll see.

         another thing that should be fun not this week but next week is that we are having a talent show in the ward. and each organization has to put together something for the show. and considering that our ward mission leader is inactive and we dont have ward missionaries, i would say that its safe to assume that its up to elder sosa and i to do something for the missionary work organization. so what we are thinking about doing is this. because he plays guitar. so he is going to play guitar and im going to sing (or at least make an attempt at it) but we are thinking about doing 3 different songs. the first one is "sideways" by rascal flatts. cuz it doesnt matter how bad i sing that one, the main thing will be that its in english so everyone would love it anyway. the second 2 songs are spanish songs. the first one is called "que lloro" and i really like it so im hoping we can do that one really well. and then the last one is really popular in latin america called "corazón sin cara" but im hoping that we can pull it all off cuz it would be a lot of fun. but we have to get to work practicing right away cuz we have to put the guitar together with my voice. but im kinda looking forward to doing that.

          saturday was kinda funny something that happened. cuz last time we had the sister die in our ward, the church was randomly open in the middle of the day and so we walked in and thats how we found out that she had died. so saturday the church was open again in the middle of the day and i just figured that they were cleaning. but elder sosa and i were joking around and i said i dont know im kinda scared cuz last time it was open there was a dead person, but completely just as a joke. so we went inside and walked to the cultural hall and there was a casket there. and elder sosa and i had to leave like right away cuz we were laughing to hard cuz it was actually true. but this time it was just a lady that was 99 years old so it was her time to go. but still thats the third viewing that ive gone to in the mission now already. hopefully i dont keep up this pace the whole mission.

           but other than that everything is going good. im learning how to play ping pong a lot better now from some of the members here still. they really are so good down here at ping pong. and then elder leavitt and i played today and he beat me 8 straight times. but it was really good ping pong. but anyway i hope that you all have a good week. take care

KEEP READING TO THE NEXT POST...SOME NEW PICTURES SENT FROM LAST WEEK

A few pictures from last week...

Republica District

Who knows...your guess is as good as mine!

Mid-November baptism...father and daughter

Mid-November baptism...girl's family

E. Sosa and E. Mlazgar in new soccer shirts

El Macho and El Rey and...YUMMM...PIZZA!

BONUS POST...stolen pictures...he-he

Okay, so not exactly "stolen". I got permission from Elder Leavitt's mom to use some pictures that he sent to his family since AJ didn't send any this week. 

The Republica Zone with President King.

The email Elder Leavitt sent with these pictures read:
"Enjoy these photos and remember to always raise the banner of freedom -
The Book of Mormon"

Elder Leavitt's blog is one of my favorites and inspires me to keep my blogging-self moving. AJ makes frequent appearances there while they are in the same district...and to AJ's relief they will be for one more change and through the holidays!

Check it out... http://elderalexleavitt.blogspot.com/

AJ's email 11/21/11 -- no pics today :(

this week went by so fast. it was crazy. but i was also really nervous all week cuz i didnt want to get changed. but the good news is that i am staying here in avenida matta for a 4th change and elder sosa and i are staying together. so im hoping for some good things this change. as long as we can stay focused and not enjoy the ward to much that we are in.

          basically the whole week we just focused on making sure we got everything done for the baptism that we had on saturday. but i swear if the baptisms keep getting more and more complicated like they are right now, im gonna die from stress before i come home. cuz the last baptism was stressful enough but this one was even worse. cuz we werent sure if we were even gonna have it til about an hour before. but basically what happened during the week is that we had to figure out who was going to baptize her. but early in the week we found out that the dad wanted to baptize her since she is a 9 year old girl. and that would have been fine.....except for the fact that he has been inactive for the last year. so in order for that to happen, he had to have an interview with the bishop. but the bishop was on vacation til the morning of the baptism. so they had that interview 15 min before it started. and then also we didnt have clothes for either of them til the morning of. then to pile another thing on top, we got to the church building half an hour before and the baptismal font was empty. and it takes 6 hours to fill with hot water. so then we just had to fill it quickly with cold water and so it was literally ice cold for her when she got in. but at least there will be something for her to remember.
      the other cool thing about this week is that we made shirts as a district. cuz we are named los encapuchados (which basically is another name for rioters if i havent explained that before) so we made a jersey type thing with that name on the front and then our names and numbers on the back. and they only cost about 8 dollars so it wasnt bad. but my name is el rey, sosa is el macho, leavitt is el rusio rico, tognetti is the italian stallion, enamorado isenamorado.com, and then carcamo put te pongo which i literally cant explain that one cuz its to dirty. probably not something that a missionary should put but its hilarious on him cuz he is tiny and so quiet.
       the other thing that i bought this week is a soccer jersey of chile that i found pretty cheap. its real but it cost about 25 dollars less than normal. and i also bought another jersey of my favorite team from here in chile, la u de chile. that is one good thing about here in chile is that they have a ton of places called ferias where they sell just about everything and its all cheaper. i cant remember what its called in the states. but its better here cuz they are everywhere and you can find anything. so i took advantage of that
       but i hope that everyone enjoys thanksgiving this week. i wont have anything like it but ill eat a ton during our lunch and call it good since they always feed us a lot. have a good week.

AJ's email 11/14/11 (Look at me...right on time)

alright this week went by way to fast. i literally feel like i was just sitting here at the computer writing and it was a week ago. just a little thing i forgot to include in my letter last week. pday last week we played basketball (elder leavitt and i) in parque o´higgins while we were there. and we played against these kids that were playing. 3 on 3 and for some reason they put us on the same team. but that was just a mistake cuz we ended up destroying them 40-17. and it wasnt even that close. we just got tired at the end and started giving them baskets cuz we felt bad. but it was really fun playing again against other people. i cant wait til the christmas party with all the missionaries cuz then i can play against better people. i heard that in the party last year, these two elders had a dunk contest and the one that won had a between the legs dunk. so im excited to be able to play against them.

       most of the week was pretty normal. we didnt do a whole lot that was anything worth writing. maybe the only thing is that yesterday we had another baptismal interview for a 9 year old who is going to get baptized saturday. but after what we went through with the last one, it just doesnt seem as interesting lol but its still good that we are gonna have another baptism. 

     the only other thing we did different this week is that friday night we saw a little of the chile uruguay soccer game cuz there was no one to visit and so we went to a members house and they were watching the game. and from what i saw, chile played terrible. partly cuz 4 of their best players didnt play but still. they lost 4-0. if any of you really care lol

     and then like 3 nights this week we got done with everything at like 930 so we went by the church and it was still open from the youth being there. and so we played ping pong against some of the youth in the ward. and i found out that i have to really work on playing ping pong cuz everyone here is really good. this one kid in the ward just destroyed me. but it was really fun. other than that, it was just same old stuff. our numbers for the week were pretty decent which means that somehow we stayed busy during the week but it really didnt feel like it. it just shows that time goes by fast when you are busy.

       the pictures that im including are of a cigarette box that i had to take away from one of our investigators this week. not exactly the most spiritual thing but i thought that its funny what they put on the cover of the box. and the funnier part is that people still smoke it. but whatever 

       i  hope that everyone is doing good. take care and have a good week.

Originally I included both pictures, but changed my mind and edited one out. You still get the idea without the picture on the other side of the box...what's a mom to do???

E. Leavitt and E. Mlazgar AND a Pday clip

Here is my favorite recent picture of AJ and his DL (district leader), E. Leavitt. You can see that they have become good friends. Also I have posted a short clip AJ took at a park on their Pday...or at least I'm assuming it was Pday considering the whole district is there and rather casually dressed.

E. Leavitt and E. Mlazgar

AJ's District Pday Picnic

WOW...almost 5 months. Here is a catch up entry that includes some 50th Celebration clips and AJ's email from November 7th.

Let's start with some clips AJ sent from his perspective at the 

50 Year Celebration...

Cultural Dance (25seconds long)

Cultural Dance 2 (16 seconds long)

Cultural Dance 3 (22 seconds long)

Cultural Dance 4 (22 seconds long)

Now a few still pictures from the celebration...

 OKAY...NOW...

I'm just going to start by posting AJ's email as he sends them each week. I will add pictures as I have time. This email was from November 7th.

alright where do i even begin with this week. i hope that ill be able to remember it all to be able to tell you guys. but here we go.

E. Mlazgar and E. Leavitt on Pday

      so elder leavitt and i did divisions again this week so that he could make my divisions paper which has our goals to get better for the next change. so monday after we went to the mall together, we just spilt up and elder leavitt came back to my sector monday night. and then we were together monday and tuesday and then switched back wednesday morning. and it was a ton of fun and we had so much success. cuz tuesday we taught 7 lessons which is the most by far that i have taught in one day. so we just started the week of so good. then wednesday is when the week started getting weird. cuz wednesday afternoon we got a call from one of the members in the ward. and he told us that a lady had died in our ward and that they were gonna have a funeral that night for her. but the weird part is that i didnt even know that she was sick. and i remember talking with her a week and a half earlier in church. and she was only 40 years old. so it just showed how quickly you can go cuz i definitely not expect her to die. but that day was slow cuz we had to be at the church at 6 to set up everything and then we had to be there the whole time saying hi to people. and then at 9 the funeral started and it was pretty sad but it was also really good, cuz there were a couple non members there and the bishop and stake president both talked about the plan of salvation and how its ok that she is gone cuz we know that we will see her again. so that was kinda cool. but the weird part of it all too was that i helped carry her casket in when they got there to the church. and its the first time ive ever had to do that. so a different experience.

AJ and E. Sosa

        then thursday we had a meeting with president king in the morning. but i was more interested the whole time in after, cuz magali was going to have her interview and i was really nervous about that. but she passed and president said that she has a strong faith and is going to be a wonderful member. so that made me happy to hear and it relieved some of the pressure.....for the moment. then thursday night the office called us and told us that we had to be in maipu at 8 in the morning to do the stuff for elder sosa´s visa. so we had to get up so early to be there on time. and we spent all day standing in lines and walking through the middle of santiago to get his paperwork done. so that just drained our time and then basically all we were able to do all day was at the very end when we went to visit jose and magali to plan the baptism. and it surprised me when we talked about who would baptize her, cuz i thought that he would do it and thats what i suggested. but they both wanted me to do it. and that really made me more happy that they would want for me to be the one to baptize her.

      saturday we had another meeting that we had to be to early in the morning. and president had told me that we were going to have an apostle, but i was disappointed when we got there and there wasnt an apostle, it was just steven snow from the presidency of the 70, which is still someone really good but he´s not an apostle. but the cool thing about the whole meeting is that half of it was in spanish. and when someone talked in english, there was a traslator there to turn it to spanish. but when it was in spanish, elder leavitt and i had to translate it to english for the senior couple that was sitting right in front of us. and i never knew how hard it is to translate til i had to do that. cuz you have to listen in spanish, think about what is said, then turn it to english and say that, all at the same time. and its continuous so you dont have time to stop and think. cuz if we had missed something, the senior couple wouldnt have understood what was being said. so that was fun and good experience for something in the future.

Jose and Magali

Melipilla convert (Natalia)

     then sunday was the big day of the baptism. and it was literally one of the longest days of the mission so far, but also one of the most satisfying. the craziness started during church, cuz one of my converts from melipilla, natalia, came to see me. (and yes she is the one in the picture that i sent with this) but it was really good to see her and talk to her and see how much she has changed. cuz i remember that first night that we talked to her and i thought she had no clue about anything in life and was crazy. but also during church i had to finish getting everything together for the baptism, like the clothes, who was going to give talks and all that. so it was really stressful. then around 630 we walked over to the other church building for the baptism (cuz our building doesnt have a baptism font) and we set everything up and then waited for everyone to start showing up. and i hadnt been so nervous in a long time. with not knowing how many people were going to show up, having to make sure that i was going to say the words right since i was the one baptizing her, and just making sure that it would be a day that she remembered.

Before the baptism

basically i couldnt sit still between 645 til after we had actually done the baptism. but the cool thing was i was nervous until we entered the water, and all of a sudden i was just calm and it was so peaceful. and as i said the words, my mind was so clear and i felt like my spanish was perfect it was awesome. and as i did it and as we were standing there in the water a little after, i was just so happy and i could see in her face how happy she was too. its something that i will definitely never forget. i definitely slept better last night than just about any night in a long time. it was just a great night.

        

well i hope that you are all enjoying the nice weather wherever you may be at, cuz here its absolutely terrible with the heat and i cant imagine what its going to be like in the middle of the summer. but ill have to deal with it. take care and have a good week.

this link is to the article of the celebration that we had, if you havent seen anything from that yet http://lds.org/church/news/chile-celebrates-50-years-of-missionary-work?lang=eng

HERE ARE SOME MORE PICTURES FROM THE 50 YEAR CELEBRATION>>

AJ and E. Leavitt at the 50 Year Celebration

AJ and the youth from Melipilla (previous area)