AJ's email from 1/23/2011

alright this week was kinda a slower week overall. although time seems to be moving by very fast again seeing as how we are already half way through this change and it feels like yesterday that i got to el monte. but im happy that time is going by fast. elder vilar and i are getting along great now. we have become really good friends this last week and a half or so. and its the first time that i feel like i have a companion that will be a good friend outside the mission too. cuz i could be friends with some of my other comps too but its just not the same.

      but anyway first i want to start with a question. does anyone know a lincoln turley from mesa? cuz apparently he served here in el monte about 2 years ago. and everyone here says that i look a lot like him and that i remind everyone of him. just wondering.

      thursday something happened that was really cool. but first i have to explain something. every sunday after sacrament meeting, we have something thats called the minuto misional, where we take 5 min as missionaries and give out a book of mormon to someone in the ward so that they go out and give it to someone else.and then the next week they have to bear their testimony about how it went during the week. and last sunday we gave the book of mormon to maria, the investigator that is basically a member without the baptism. so then thursday we had a lesson with her. and told us something that surprised me a lot. apparently 2 days before we gave her the book of mormon, she had a dream. and in her dream she gave a book of mormon to  someone that she knows.and so all that she was missing was the book to be able to actually do it. so sunday when we gave her the book of mormon, she was shocked and didnt know what to think. but she did know already who she has to give it to. it shows a little of how god works sometimes.

        friday we went to a members house to spend an hour with them. their name is the familia oteiza. but apparently, its not the first time that i had seen them. i found out my first week here that this family is also family with denisse, the girl that got baptized my first week in chile over in melipilla. and i found that out cuz they had a program from the baptism and so i asked where they got it and they told me they are family. and then when we went to their house, i found out that one of their daughters lives in santiago, in the ward avenida matta. and so i was just thinking wow what a coincidence. i know pretty much this whole family now without even realizing it and in 3 different sectors. but that kind of thing could only happen in our mission cuz its so small. no where else in the world do you get to know people from the same family in 3 sectors.

       last night i got kinda sick. i had a pretty bad head cold and didnt want to move at all after 7. so we went to this member family´s house. and i have to say that elder vilar and i are like 2 sons in this family. we are in their house just about every other day for one reason or another. and we can do just about whatever we want there. its really nice. and it was nice last night when i was sick cuz the mom basically treated me like her son and took care of me. she gave me some medicine and made us some food. its definitely nice to have a family like that in the sector.

       but anyway i hope that everyone is doing good and has a good week. take care

AJ's email 1/16/2012

AJ on his new bike heading up El Colon

alright im gonna tell you about the pictures first today. one is of me on my bike on a road called el colon. the next is a girl we are teaching with her family. her name is fernanda and she is 11 and very sweet. the other little girl that is in my lap is named monse and she is 4 and one of the cutest little girls 

AJ and 4-yr-old girl in El Monte

i have seen, although she normally looks a lot better than she does in that picture. the next is of my sun burn that i got from when we went out to chiñigue 
on saturday. and then the last 3 are the views from paico alto, another road in our sector that is absolutely tough on bike cuz its 2 miles up hill but the view is amazing.
       but anyway to start i have to say 2 things that i forgot to mention last week. the first is that i found a food last week that i am allergic to...melon. one day last week we ate a type of melon with one of our investigators and within 15 min i was completely without a voice. i couldnt say anything. and it was weird cuz i could breathe perfectly, i just couldnt say anything and it stayed like that for about 3 hours. then this week we ate watermelon with another investigator and while i was eating it, my lips got swollen and hurt a little but then about half an hour 

Sunburn from ride to Chiñigue

after we stopped eating, i was ok again. so from now on im gonna have to tell people that i cant eat any type of melon cuz i dont want to have a reaction like that again. the other thing i forgot to say last week is how much i 

AJ in Chiñigue

had forgotten how bad the fleas are in the campo. they started eating me alive from the first day that i got here. and there was a point early this week that i counted and had more than 75 bites. so after that we went out and bought spray and i went home and sprayed all over my bed and carpet and its made a huge difference. i still get a bite or 2 every night but its not nearly as bad as before. but its just one bad thing about the campo. i dont know how some people live out here and deal with that all the time.

AJ and new district leader E. Ciccio

       tuesday i did divisions for the first time with my new district leader, elder ciccio. he is from italy and is pretty cool. he knows italian fluently, speaks spanish well cuz thats what he always spoke with his parents, and then he can speak english well for not being gringo, but he is still practicing that a lot. but i had a pretty good day with him. and then we stayed up til 1 in the morning talking while he finished working on his scripture covers that he is making. he is pretty artistic. but at one point he spoke italian for me and it was pretty cool cuz it is so similiar to spanish and i could understand about 60 percent of what he said. and it made me really interested in learning italian when i get back along with continuing to study spanish.
      wednesday was also a good day for me cuz i got a surprise from president king. he sent me a new bike that i was hoping for cuz the one that i had before was a piece of junk. cuz the good bike before got stolen and i had been using the bike we are supposed to use for whoever comes with us. and so this whole week i have been racing elder vilar any chance that i get cuz now i can actually beat him.
      the other highlights from this week were that we set a fecha with an investigator named victor who wants to 

E. Vilar knocking a door.

Should we knock THAT door...what door?

get married the second week of february and then would get baptized after. the only bad thing about that is that we might be getting another set of missionaries in our ward next change, the week before his baptism. and they are most likely going to be hermanas so they would get the city part of the sector where all of the success is right now and we would get sent out to the campo with all the inactive members. but we ll see what happens. and im almost positive that hermana missionaries are coming cuz they started fixing everything in our house this week. or in other words getting it ready for hermanas. (Can I just interrupt here and say from a Missionary Mom's point of view...WHAT?..if its good enough for the Elders, then its good enough for the Hermanas. And if its not good enough for the Hermanas, well then...).and then the last thing was our trip to chiñigue on saturday morning. and i say trip because it was one. it takes 45 min on bike from our pension to that part of the sector. but its really pretty out there. the only problem is that as missionaries we cant waste that kind of time going out to do nothing, which is basically what happened cuz we have no one there and there arent many people to contact. so we probably wont be going there very often. but it was a fun time.
         well i hope that you are all doing good and have a good week. take care

View from Paico Alto...2 miles uphill.

More heading up hill....

Another view from Paico Alto.

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.

A Whole New Year...beginning with a change! AJ's email 1/2/12

Christmas Eve

To be honest, it feels like its been forever for me since i talked to my family on the phone. we just had so much happen this week that  it made time go by so slow, but also extremely fast at the same time. really the biggest news from this week is that i have changes. but we´ll get to that

WOW! Cleaned up this Christmas!!

       on tuesday we did divisions and so i went to carlos valdovinos with elder carcamo. but i didnt end up being with him the whole day really cuz we did divisions and i went with a guy who had gotten back from his mission a week earlier. his name is leo vergara and it was really awesome being with him. although the weird part was that neither of us knew much about the sector and so we kinda just walked around thinking of stuff to do and people that he knew before the mission that we could visit.and it actually turned out to be good cuz we found several houses to get in to. but i learned so much from being with him. we talked a ton and i could tell that he was a pretty good missionary just from his attitude about the work to the way he treated the people. he was always so nice to everyone and was always willing to help. but we talked a lot about what it takes to be a good missionary and to have success and what happens when missionaries do stuff they shouldnt and all that stuff. it was good for me.

A really good lesson.

     then on thursday we had a really good lesson with sergio and luis. they are amazing and understand everything so well. and we havent even taught them a lot yet. but they had a lot of questions about the book of mormon and everything about that. and they learn fast and understand everything and so it was almost fun teaching them. and i wish that i could be here to see them get baptized but it is what it is and im just excited that i got to help them and get to know them a little. and i know that they will do good and will get baptized soon.

     friday we did divisions again and this time elder leavitt came to my sector. and it was such a bad day. cuz with everyone getting ready for parties the next day (and the fact that a lot of people started drinking early) we didnt get into any house til 8 at night. and it was really hot that day so need less to say, it was pretty tough. but we still made the best of out it like always and it was fun.

Sayin' ADIOS and movin' on.

Someone's sad...sayin' goodbye.

Sayin' ADIOS and movin' on.

Looking for Fireworks...don't lean too far...sheesh!

      then saturday started the real party. cuz i already basically knew that i had changes so i started saying bye to people on saturday. and the biggest one was really ainhoa. we went to her house and talked for a long time and hung out for a while while they were getting ready for the night. but when it was time to say bye, she started crying and told me that she didnt want me to go and how she isnt going to be friends with the new elder cuz it wont be the same. and it is kinda tough leaving and not knowing whats gonna happen cuz im the one who started teaching her so ive seen her come a long way. but i know she´ll be fine. then we went back to the apartment and just waited for midnight. cuz we wanted to order pizza but every place had already closed so we just had to wait. but we went up to the top floor of our building and watched the fireworks. and it was cool cuz we could see them in like 4 different places that were shooting off. so we didnt just watch one show. and also that night we got the call telling us that i have changes for sure. although i wont know where im going or who im with til tuesday cuz thats when president announces everything. so you will all just have to wait til next week to find out where i go.

There's the fireworks...ringing in the new year in Chile.

     then the next day at church, we were dead tired cuz we had gone to bed at 130. and the bishop asked us to prepare talks just in case the other people didnt show up. and it worried me when we had less than half the attendance that we normally do. but apparently the bishop asked the right people to talk cuz all 3 showed up. and then after we were ready to sleep but we couldnt cuz we had to go say bye to more people. but it was a pretty good day in the end, although also sad at the same time knowing that i might not ever see these people ever again.

     but it was a pretty good week. i hope that you all enjoyed your new years and that everyone starts the year off good. sorry i didnt include pictures but ive already passed my memory card off to a friend to put the pictures and videos on facebook for the last time. seeing as how now i wont be able to use him anymore since im being changed. so you´ll have to go to facebook to see the pictures. but i hope that everyone has a good week. take care.

In the ZONE...at the Santiago West Christmas Party.

AJ's email from 12/26

Just a side note that for what-ever reason this post was the most frustrating ever. The pictures are all over the place and wouldn't stay put when inserted. I am done being frustrated though, so...it is what it is! :)
AND...don't miss the best post of all, his testimony in the previous post. 

AJ and E. Sosa at a member's house Christmas Eve

hey everyone, i hope that you all had a great christmas. i know that i definitely had a lot of fun the last 2 days. especially yesterday with elder sosa. it was more like a day for us to relax just once. but ill explain that part later.

          first im just gonna start with the beginning of the week. on monday we taught a really good lesson to a kid named javier. he is 19 and is really amazing as far as being an investigator. he has a ton of the same beliefs and wants to know which church is true. and he learns really fast and understand easily so its so easy to teach him. as long as he has time to teach him and he comes to church, he should get baptized without a lot of effort on our part. and that would be awesome. the only problem is that im probably leaving next week and so i wouldnt be able to see it. but its alright.

      tuesday, wednesday and thursday were pretty boring days. the only thing worth mentioning is the fact that we had our coordination meeting with the ward mission leader for the first time in about 3 months. and it wasnt even a good meeting and was really just a waste of our time. cuz we got to the church at 830 when we had the meeting planned and he wasnt there. so we waited for him to come. and at 915 he finally got there and said alright lets have this meeting quick cuz im gonna go play soccer with the ward. and so it was just a 5 minute thing where we didnt really accomplish anything. but its just another thing that we have to deal with here.

E. Leavitt and ? at the mission party

      then friday was a pretty good day. we had the mission christmas party. and there was good sides and bad sides to having it. the good things were that we are the only mission in chile to get together cuz we are the only mission with area small enough to do it. and another thing was that i got to see friends from other zones and talk with all of them and catch up a little. also elder leavitt, elder braddy and i just messed around and talked the whole time. it was really pretty funny. and finally, we had a white elephant thing with the whole mission. and it was pretty funny the way that they did it. cuz everyone picked their present and then before opening it, we played a game where we had to rotate presents several times and so you ended up with something that someone completely different picked. but it was cool. and i ended up with a cooking apron, which is kinda ironic seeing as how i dont cook. (there is a picture of that)

AJ in his apron...looking good!
I couldn't manage to upright the picture. He looks just as silly with your head tilted sideways!

 then saturday was a good day, for multiple reasons. the first one is obviously the fact that i got to talk to my family. its been since may since i have seen them and so it was really good to see everyone and hear their voices and actually have conversations. but that was definitely the best part of the day. but that ended 

Enjoying Christmas eve

A dinner to remember!

around 8, so we still had another 3 hours in the day to do stuff. so we went to the house of jose and magali (my convert) and we had some soda and ate christmas bread. then we left and on the way to 

Ping-pong...and...pong-ping?!

the dinner we planned, we walked past the house of a family in our retention, and the were having a bbq. so they gave us a little meat to eat and some more soda. so at that point i was already about halfway full and we hadnt even started dinner yet. so we got to dinner and we started around 1030 and it was really cool. we were with a member and her pareja which is an investigator and good friend of ours now. (more pictures of that) and it was a huge dinner and i was stuffed after finishing that and could barely walk home. but just before we left, they gave us each a present to open which was really nice of them and it was the ping pong set for us both cuz we like to play so much. but we didnt up going to bed that night til about 1 so we were so tired for church the next day.

opening presents from the fam

opening more presents from the fam

       then sunday we just had sacrament meeting so we got out at like 11. and we had time to rest and then went to lunch and came back and rested again. and then we went back to the same house that we were at the night before and hung out with them for a couple hours. and then around 8 there was nothing else to do so we just went back to the apartment and starting doing stuff just us. and we ate choripan, played ping pong in our pension, and then made a couple videos which are kinda funny. but it was just a relaxing day.

     so that was about everything. i hope that you all have a good new years and stay safe. take care everyone

The BEST present a mom could get...

AJ sent his testimony for his grandma to share with our family at the Milius Family Christmas Party. I got permission from AJ to post it on our blog. It is truely the best Christmas present a mom can get...my heart is full.


I bear my testimony that I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth today. I know that we are guided by a living prophet who recieves revelation for us in these days and for our time. And if we listen to his counsels, we will be more protected from the dangers of the world. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. Its a special book that was written specifically for us and that it came forth by the power of God. When we read it often, we may have the Holy Ghost more and feel the promptings of the Spirit more easily. And we can recieve personal revelation to direct us throughout our lives. I know that families can be together forever through our efforts and actions as well as the power and authority to seal families that is found in the temple. And I want nothing more than to have that, eternal life, being able to live with my family and God forever in happiness. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that He atoned for our sins so that we can become clean to be able to live with God again.Everything that Christ did, was for us. Whether it be His example, His teachings, or His atonement, it was all for us. And this time of year is the time we can remember all of that and think about everything He did for us. But most of all I know that the preisthood is the power of God here on the earth. With it and through our faith, we can do anything. Even perform miracles. As is proof, with the living miracle that we have in our family, my mom. I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. And I share this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

AJ's email 12/19/11

Santa is pretty short in Chile...but still very generous
(Weird Camera Angle!)

alright im definitely ready to get into a new sector now. im tired of walking around from 4 til 7 everyday just knocking doors and watching everyone reject us. especially when its about 100 degrees outside and we are in ties and pants. it sucks.

     anyway last monday night we have a family home evening with a couple in our retention. and it was cool cuz basically we just talked the whole time. but at the end was the best part. cuz a few weeks ago she told us that she didnt get baptized cuz she had a testimony. she just did it for faith. and so then that has made her question getting baptized. but then a couple nights earlier she had a dream. and i cant remember exactly what she said happened in the dream, but she knew that the church is true after that. and she thanked us for being so persistant in wanting to come see them all the time and for not giving up. and that we definitely have made a difference in her life. so that was pretty cool to hear from someone that you dont actually baptize.

        then tuesday is when we started the walking. we literally walked from 4 til 730 without stop and without getting into a single house. cuz all our plans fell through and then all the houses that we knocked were just terrible. so it was a really long day. but one good thing came out of it. and that was a few days later on saturday, a lady stopped us in the road close to the street that we had knocked. and she said that we had knocked on her door the other day but that we had left before her son could answer. and that the family are all inactive. and so we set an appointment to go see her this week. but the cool thing was that who knows if she had stopped us in the street if we hadnt knocked on their door. god works in mysterious ways.

AJ's District playing soccer...on P-day.

      thursday was a very long day as well. cuz in the morning we had a training meeting with president king. and that started at 10 in the morning. and then after we had our interviews. so we were in the church from 10 in the morning til 7 at night. i dont ever want to spend so much time in a church ever again. there is only so much that you can do. but i was nervous for my interview cuz apparently one of the guys in the stake presidency had told president that elder sosa and i had been playing soccer every thursday for the last few weeks. which wasnt true at all. we had only played once and it was cuz we had 6 investigators there and so we thought that it would be a good idea. so i was nervous that president was going to get mad at me. but it turned out to be nothing and he just explained that we shouldnt change out of our clothes except for pday cuz we just have to keep our image. so that made me feel a little better.

      friday night we had a family home evening again with chela, a return missionary, and she invited several of our investigators to it. and it was kinda funny to me cuz afterward i realized that she invited all the people that need to get married and then she taught a lesson about marriage. but it was really good.

      saturday night we were in the church practicing for our choir which had to sing in the stake yesterday for a devotional, when a family walked in from australia. and they didnt speak hardly any spanish. so i had to translate for them. but apparently they are on vacation in chile and were staying close and so they just came to see where the church was for sunday. then yesterday they came to church and i got to talk to them a little. (i loved their accents by the way) but it was parents with their 2 sons and daughter. but i found out that they have been on vacation for a long time now. almost 6  months. and they have been in china, the states, then they went to uruguay for a month, here in chile for 3 weeks, then they are going to peru, bolivia, back to peru, and then from there i dont know where. but need less to say they are very rich. but it was cool. i especially liked talking with the 19 year old daughter lol but just kidding really.

     the other weird thing about sunday is that president corbridge came to our ward. he is the area president of chile and in the first quorem of the 70. so we are talking big time. and i honestly have no idea why he wanted to come to ours but it made me kinda nervous. but he gave a pretty good talk. the only thing that i dont like about him is that he talks so slow in spanish. maybe its just cuz im used to hearing chileans or cuz i just get impatient sometimes but it made me bored at times how slow he talks. but the funny thing is that elder sosa said that the speed he talks is actually normal, we just talk really fast in chile. so it kinda put into perspective how hard it is to understand chilean spanish. im glad that i caught on semi quickly.

     but other than that it was a pretty good week. im looking forward to the next couple weeks with the holidays cuz it should be fun but i know that it is gonna hurt us in the missionary area cuz no one is gonna want us to come over and teach them during holidays. but at least i have the mission party to look forward to friday and then calling home saturday. hope everyone has a very good christmas and enjoys their time together. take care

Another P-day soccer picture.

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.