AJ's email from 6/19/12

AJ notes that he had a member post some pictures for him on Facebook. I don't have time to download them from Facebook and then upload them to the blog right now. So I will post again later this week after I have time to transfer the pictures - so check back. ALSO, our family is going to San Diego this week to visit with Elder Leavitt (there are pictures of him in previous posts) and his family, as he returns today and reports in his ward this Sunday. I am extremely excited to meet my good friend - and Elder Leavitt's mom - Lisa for the first time. We will bask is the warmth of Elder Leavitt's missionary spirit ...and I will get a vicarious hug from my son! We'll take some pictures to post as well. For now here is his email...

       there is a saying that we use a lot in english. "when it rains, it pours". normally we just use it figuratively speaking. but ive decided that that phrase works very well for chile but more in a literal kind of way. because thats how i feel about this week after all the rain that we`ve gotten. it rained SO MUCH this week. tuesday it rained all day, wednesday into the afternoon. then it started again friday morning and didnt stop til last night. but the good thing thing like always is how clear the air is today. the mountains here continue to amaze me, especially now when they are covered in snow. we were on our way to talagante this morning and i looked out the window of the car and could see the mountains perfectly. it was just stunning.

        this week was so action packed with so many things that i would be here writing for hours if i told everything. and i did predict that it would be busy but i didnt know that i would be SO busy. but i enjoyed every second of it, mostly.

       first of all i have changes for sure this week. i dont know where im going til tomorrow when we have the change meeting but i hope that i go somewhere good. although nothing will be as good as el monte has been to me. the other thing is that i will become district leader too. so im looking forward to that and having a little more responsibility. tuesday we had our interviews with pres king and everything went well. and thats when he really told me that i was leaving. so i knew like 99 percent sure that i was gone.

        the only other thing from this week that i want to talk about is sunday. it really was almost the perfect day here. we had the baptism and that went almost perfect so i was really happy. and then all day saying bye to people around el monte. and then finishing with the birthday party at the end of the night was so much fun. i havent laughed so much in a really long time. there were times where i had to take a deep breath or get some air cuz i was so red and couldn't breathe from laughing so hard. but it was good. im going to miss all the people here so much and ive really gotten close to them. but change is something necessary in the mission and in life to get progressing. so ill get through it. there are a ton of pictures from yesterday and i didnt feel like sending them all so i just had cynthia put them on facebook for me. it was just easier.

         sorry this is so short but i dont have a lot of time today cuz i still have to say bye to a few more people and then put my stuff together to go tomorrow. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care and have a good week

Happy Birthday to AJ!

We were together as a family last night for Father's Day and talked about AJ as we missed having him there with us. His birthday is this week...June 20th...so we decided to sing to him and email it for him to see today on Pday. I tried a couple times to send it, but it kept bouncing back. I think its too large a file and the church file server is rejecting it. So this morning it occurred to me that I could attach it on the blog and then send an email directing him to this post.

So...Happy Birthday AJ...from all of us! We love you!!

AJ's email from 6/11/12

AJ'S BIRTHDAY IS WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20TH. EVERYONE SHOULD EMAIL AJ THIS WEEK!  EMAIL ADDRESS: anthony.mlazgar@myldsmail.net 
       im so tired of getting sick right now. its rediculous. this is like the third time in this change alone, when i had really only gotten sick like twice before in the whole mission. i dont know if its just cuz we are in winter now so with the cold its affecting me. and im sure being on bikes til 10 at night everyday doesnt exactly help but still, it sucks. im gonna ask president though if we are gonna get flu shots soon like we did just as winter was starting last year. cuz im sure that would help at least a little.

       tuesday we found this really good guy named ivan. we were knocking doors and found him that way. the cool thing about it though is why we were even there to find him. cuz 5 min before knocking his door, our cita at that hour called us to tell us that she wasnt gonna be in her house so that we didnt go all the way out there. and just before that we had decided to do some contacts for about 10 min waiting to go there instead of just going. so when she called, we just kept knocking. we got into his house and did the whole house blessing and everything. but what i liked the most about everything is that he told us that his best friend is a member and had served his mission in colombia about 5 years ago. so he has a good connection with the church and is interested in learning more. then later that night we went to a lady named carolina. she isnt the most interested person that ive ever taught, but at least she listens and she is pretty smart so she understands quickly. but then after i helped her with english cuz she is studying something to work in the airport so english is required and that was pretty cool.

      wednesday we did divisions again and this time i went with elder ramirez to cordillera. it was so cold that day i was frozen walking around. actually really the 2 days before that were also freezing. santiago had a "cold emergency" because it got so cold so quickly. the low was around 25 degrees monday tuesday and wednesday. so being in another sector and having it be so cold didnt help anything. but it was wierd cuz we were in 2 houses for a combined 4 hours to end the night. and considering we shouldnt be in any lesson for more than 45 min, that was a little overboard. but elder ramirez talks a ton and wouldnt never be quiet or say that we had to go so we just never left the house. and with the second house, we would have been there longer if we hadnt hit 10 o clock to have to go home. but i had a good time with him even though we dont exactly get along the greatest.

      thursday morning we had a cita with a less active lady and i felt bad for her cuz she and her family have been active for about 10 years now. but they are sealed in the temple and the dad was actually bishop for a while about 12 years ago. but apparently he lent money to some people in the ward that really needed it but then they never paid him back and he got upset and went inactive. and so now he wont go to church cuz he doesnt want to see those people there. i wish i could say that that kind of thing doesnt happen often here but it really does. people go inactive for really little things sometimes and they just dont realize how much they are losing out on when it was never anything with the church, just with someone in it. and now the wife doesnt have support from anyone in the family.

      friday we had another cita with ivan and it went even better than the first. he is really interested in everything and talks with us and everything. its been awesome. although he has said that he doesnt know if he wants to change churches but i think that once he starts coming and reading the book of mormon, that can change. he did say though that he is going to read what we give him cuz he does want to know. so thats good.

     saturday we found a new girl named maria elena. elder sanchez had contacted her a little while ago during divisions so i had never met her before. and that was the first time that we had gotten in. she is definitely someone interesting though to say the least. she is only about 22 but is really smart and is studying to be a psychiatrist so she has a big vocab and im not gonna lie, there were definitely a few words that i just didnt understand cuz ive never heard them before. but she said that she isnt only interested in listening for her spiritual side but also for her work to understand what we believe. cuz if she ever gets a patient with our beliefs, she wants to know how to help them. but she did seem pretty interested as we were talking to her and she said that she is gonna come to church this week to see how it is. so hopefully that happens.

       then yesterday was a really good day for us cuz maritza passed her baptismal interview and will be getting baptized next sunday. and she asked me to do it so im excited for that. it´ll be good for me though to have that probably the last week that im in el monte. cuz it´ll be the first real baptism that ive had in my time here seeing as how the other one we had was kinda a gimme.

       this week is gonna be crazy seeing as how its most likely my last week in el monte. and then we have the baptism, interviews with president king tomorrow, my "birthday party" on sunday (just something little before i go since most likely no one in my new sector will know its my birthday), and everything else that we always do. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care

AJ's email from 5/28/12

View of Rain from AJ's pension

       well the last couple of days this week got kinda long. i definitely like the rain, but i hate it as a missionary. it makes it so hard to do anything, especially in a sector as big as el monte. cuz then we have to start walking and people dont answer their doors and lots of people go to bed early. so i think the only thing that i actually enjoyed about the rain, was the rain itself. to be honest though it was a lot of rain. it started around one on friday, while we were in lunch, and stopped raining yesterday around 3. and it wasnt like it went on and off the whole time, it rained the WHOLE time. and most of it was a down pour. every couple of hours it would sprinkle for about 10 or 15 minutes, but for the most part it just looked like a shower with all the water coming out of the sky. but then today the view is awesome seeing the mountains on the other side of santiago. cuz in the middle of the city you cant see the bigger ones that are behind the big ones and in the campo you normally cant see them from the air being bad. but the air is pretty clear today and you can see the mountains towering over the littler ones covered in snow. its awesome

More, and more, and more rain

        before i start with what happened this week though, there is something that i forgot to mention last week. there are 2 kids in our branch that are preparing to go on their missions right now and the both got their call last week. they are cousins so its kinda cool that they are leaving together, since one baptized the other about 3 years ago. the one who was baptized 3 years ago, joaquin, is going to cordoba argentina, kinda in the middle of argentina. the other, benjamin (who is the branch presidents son) got a calling that is a little more interesting to me. he is going to fresno california. i think its awesome for him that he is gonna be able to serve in the states and have that experience and to be able to learn english. they both leave in august.

        so last monday we played soccer. and i played the whole 2 hours without stopping while most of the others would play a little and then rest. and towards the end it got to me a little. i dont know what happened but my achilles started hurting all of a sudden. not real badly but enough to bother me while i walked. then tuesday i woke up and it hurt a lot. i couldnt even walk up and down the stairs in our house. i kinda had to hop a little which was funny. so i had the zone leaders call the doctor and set up something to go in. and on top of that we did divisions so i went with elder mcbride to cordillera and was walking the whole day which didnt help me at all. so wednesday morning we went to santiago and the doctor told me that i will be alright. i just strained it and so i have to take iboprofen and rest a little and ill be alright. and that worked out alright cuz yesterday i was back to normal where i could walk without it bothering me at all. but it still kinda worried me on tuesday when it was really bad.

       what i realized from going to santiago though is that im pretty happy that im still in the campo cuz its still kinda hot in the middle of the city. and we are going into winter right now. so im glad that im out here where it cooler and makes it easier. the other thing from santiago is that i had forgotten how big the mountains are. it was so impressive as we got closer and closer to them. cuz there is nothing like it that ive ever seen before in the states. wednesday we went and taught maritza and we kinda just read a chapter of the book of mormon with her and talked about it a little. then after that, i felt impressed to share my testimony with her and it was great. you could feel the spirit so strong and i felt so good after i shared it with her. cuz i really want her to have her own testimony and stay strong after she gets baptized unlike half of the people here that get baptized and are gone between 6 months and a year.

Cutting bell pepper at the short skinny counter

        thursday we got into the house of a cousin of the relief society pres. her name is guadalupe. it was funny though cuz she is really nice and likes to joke around, and she has had lots of missionaries come to her house before. so the first thing she said after she told us her name is "you guys arent gonna convert me, no one can". and so i couldnt help thinking "ya we`ll see about that". but because of that, we did things a little differently with her. instead of trying to share something right away, we just talked with her about whatever for an hour to kinda gain her confidence. and there were a couple of times where she asked questions that had to do with religion so we were able to teach a little that way. then later that night we were looking up names of inactive people from the ward list. and one of the doors we knocked, an older lady came out to talk. and the first things she said to us were "well look who showed up from no where, the lost people". apparently no one from the church has gone by their house in a really long time and she seemed kinda interested in the church again so we set an appointment to go back on tuesday. and i hope that most of the family is there cuz there are 7 kids and all them have kids also. so that could turn out to be something big for us.

Rice for dinner on a rainy night

         sunday we had the district conference here so we got to see president king and hermana king cuz president has to be there being the head authority in the district. they really  kinda focused on missionary work and how important it is for the members to do their part. they talked about knowing who the people are around you and gaining their confidence so that you can share the gospel with them. president shared a story about a lady who got baptized in republica last month. she is a single mom living with her 3 kids in the middle of santiago and her neighbor is the one who introduced her to the missionaries. but the member lady started by doing things like offering her help and inviting the lady to christmas dinner and other things like that. so when she asked the lady to come over and have a family home evening with the missionaries there, the lady had enough confidence to trust her and accepted. a month and a half later she was getting baptized. i hope that it helped some of the members here realize that we can only do so much as missionaries. its really the job of the members to find people and help them progress. we just teach to get them there. so i liked that a lot.

         that was basically everything that happened this weekend. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care

Its a miracle!!! He's eating something with a vegetable in it!
Missions are AMAZING!!

Before I post AJ's email this week, I had an update on another of my Mlazgar Missionaries. On Sunday Nathan was ordained an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood and has begun his mission papers. He turns 19 in November, but will have his papers complete by the end of July. Nathan and AJ's missions will overlap several months. So...the adventure begins anew...
       so ive decided that im gonna have to start writing in my agenda what happens everyday so that i can remember when i get here to write. cuz i always think of the things the day before and then i get here after playing soccer and my mind goes blank from being tired. but ill just have to write the things that i do remember for now.

       wednesday we had a lesson with a girl that we had contacted the week before. she seemed alright but not someone overly amazing that i was really looking forward to teaching. and i was kinda right about that cuz it was tough since she didnt really understand a lot of the stuff we were saying. i dont know if it just didnt stick in her head as we were talking or she just doesnt understand things very well, but it went kinda slow. the good part though was that her sister, trinidad, was there who is a lot better. trinidad understood a lot and actually kinda helped explain some things to her sister sometimes. she seemed pretty interested in what we were teaching and gave us her address to go by her house too cuz she lives somewhere else. so i am kinda looking forward to that cita this week and hopefully she will be there. then at night we had a lesson with the gonzalez santis family. we taught the word of wisdom and it went...alright, is how i guess i would put it. they all drink tea, guillermo (the dad) smokes and says that he literally cant live without it. and they all drink a little. so we are gonna have to work on that with them a lot.

AJ and Elder Braddy

       thursday morning we had a training meeting in peñaflor with president king. we learned about the spirit´s role in the conversion, the importance of prayer, and how investigators can recieve answers through going to church. that was all good but what made me happiest was seeing people there that i knew. i got to see elder braddy and elder merchan from when i was in republica. i saw elder calditaran from when i was in melipilla. and then elder sosa was there too. i was especially happy to see elder braddy cuz he goes home this change and so i probably wont see him again. and us 2 with elder leavitt were the 3 that always caused so much trouble together in republica, so we are pretty close.

Mother's Day dinner

       friday was the mothers day activity in the branch so we spent pretty much all day involved with that. cuz we went to the church around 5 to help set up everything and then it started around 730 and lasted til after we left at 1030, but it was a lot of fun. before it started we had to go out with the elders quorem president to buy some of the food and other ingredientes. and since i have no idea about anything that has to do with cooking, he was laughing at me basically the whole time and kinda teaching me how to buy it all. then after we had to go to some lady´s house to pick up more tables cuz there are only about 2 tables in the entire church building. the lady owns some catering type business so she had a lot of that stuff. when everyone was there, they started off with all the priesthood singing i am a child of god, but dressed up in little hats and with their faces painted like little boys. it was hilarious. i wish that i would have taken pictures of that but i didnt think about it. then everyone ate. they had chicken with rice. the chicken was so good, and i had almost 3 full plates of it all. i was so full after that that i almost had trouble walking around for a little while. then after that, one of the guys from the branch presidency (hno reyes) messed around for a little doing some different stuff and making everyone laugh. he made some hermanas sing, others dance, and then they did a little game where a guy had to sit behind the whiteboard and pick who his wife was out of 3 hermanas. only one got it wrong, and it was hno reyes who started the game.

Maria, Nicole, Hna Susana
and son Sebastian, & Hna Aida

Men cooking for Moms

       saturday we had lunch with hermana aida because almost everyone else went to the temple together. it was nice to have lunch just me and my comp with them. cuz being with all 4 missionaries sometimes can get boring. cuz elder crane and elder bloxham have a different sense of humor than elder sanchez and i and dont laugh sometimes with us and our jokes. that morning though we had a really good lesson with veronica vidal. she has been having a really tough time lately with everything. with her studies and then with her family and just other things that are going on. and so we talked a lot about how the gospel helps us change our lives and helps us be happier. and that when we do what god wants, he blesses us. and the whole time the spirit was super strong and i know that she could feel that what we were saying was true. so she committed to start reading more and trying to really know if this is the true church cuz she wants to be happier.

       yesterday i was kinda sad cuz we didnt have anyone come to church. maritza didnt come cuz apparently one of the girls from her other church called her in the morning crying cuz she missed maritza in their church. cuz it had been 3 weeks since she had gone. so being a 16 year old girl, maritza felt bad and ended up going there instead. so we had to reset her baptismal date for the 17th of june. but she promised to do everything that needs to get done to be baptized that day. i really hope so too cuz it would be my last day in el monte and i would love to leave with a baptism.

       but anyway i hope that everyone is doing well. i hope you have a good week, take care

YW watching kids for Moms

Hno Reyes making Hna Haydee sing

Hna Aida, Hna Oteiza & Hna Carmen

AJ's email from 5/7/12...and a bonus from 4/16/12 (whoops!)

   tuesday was one of the craziest days that i have had in the whole mission, if not the craziest. it started with president king coming to our district meeting in the morning. and when he comes, everyone tries to be on their best behavior so its funny to see how people change. but that meeting went well. elder vilar kept asking him questions to try and get president king to tell him if he has changes but pres wouldnt budge at all and didnt say anything. it was just funny watching elder vilar suffer from dying to know. then after the meeting we did divisions so i was with elder ramirez from peru. he is a greenie so he only has about a month and a half in the mission. and he talks a lot. it kinda got annoying sometimes cuz he just never shuts up. but its cuz he has so much energy i think. we had lunch the 4 of us together in el monte so at least i didnt have to deal with it right away. then after lunch the other 2 came over to our pension to fix my bike tire cuz it had gone flat. while they were there, they asked if we could do divisions with them at 7 cuz they had 2 citas scheduled and both were important. and we agreed cuz we had nothing to do. 

What goof-balls! AJ & Elder Vilar

just after leaving the house to work, elder vilar called me with a plan. cuz he knew that i didnt really want to be with ramirez and he wanted a break from elder crane for a day, so he thought of a way that we could get away with staying together after the divisions at 7. he told me to let the air out of the tire again so that it looked like it was flat again so that elder vilar had to come fix it again. and so i did it without elder ramirez noticing and we got permission from the zone leaders to stay in the divisions all day. it made me happier too having elder vilar in one of the noche de hogares that we had with the gonzalez santis family because he was a lot better teaching them with elder vilar instead of elder ramirez. and it made the whole day fun. and then at night we stayed up later talking cuz it was the first time that we were together alone for the first time since we had split up 6 weeks ago. then around 1 we finally went to bed but the day didnt end there. about 2 minutes after getting in bed, one of our investigators called us asking if we were ok cuz she saw a big fire close to our house and was worried about us. so we looked outside and there really was a huge fire about 100 yards from our house. so elder vilar and i left the house, in our pajamas, me in my glasses, and without our nametags. and the fire was huge and awesome and we stayed there watching it for about 20 minutes before finally going home and going to bed for the night. it was a day that i wont forget for a long time.           wednesday we found a lady to teach that is pretty good. her name is maria veronica. she shared with the missionaries about 10 years ago when she was a little girl and she has lots of good memories with the hermanas that were here. and she seems pretty interested cuz now she older and understands more. and she wants her family to be closer cuz they have grown apart the last couple years as everyone has gotten older. so im looking forward to teaching her.

Eatin pizza with the district.

            then sunday in church, i was so happy cuz maritza (the girl that we are teaching that is the most promising to get baptized) finally came and she loved it and told us that she is going to start coming from now on. and so that means that its a lot more possible for her to get baptized in june like we want. and then from the gonzalez santis family, fabiola the daughter and guillermo the dad came to church too and that was cool to see that they are interested also. so it was nice to see them all there yesterday. and then after church, it started raining around 330 and it rained all day til about 11 so it was tough to do anything. cuz we have to walk in the rain cuz its impossible to go in bike and with the sector being so big, it was tough. but it was fun seeing it rain so much again after the last 7 months of it not raining.

Elder Vilar, AJ and their mission mom!

          and that was pretty much everything from this week. the weather is still crazy here. its hot one day and cold the next. i just want it to be cold all the time already. with the pictures this week, 1 is of when we gave hna aida a little pillow that says i love you mom in spanish for being the best mission mom that we could have possibly asked for. and then the other 2 are of today when we went to eat pizza as a district in the morning for the last time before changes tomorrow. i hope that everyone is doing well. take care

I realized when I was attaching this weeks pictures that I skipped a bunch of pictures from a couple weeks ago... so... here are the pictures from April 16 ~ followed by that email ~ and BOY ~ its a long one! (Remember you can click on any picture to enlarge it.)

Zone Conference at the Santiago Temple. AJ's standing between Brady and Sosa...big surprise...not!

Singing "Happy Birthday" ...and yummy cake!

Working hard? or hardly working??

YUMMM...

Market eating area

Hma Susana and Hma Aida, as usual, keeping busy!

Being sick sucks so bad. especially in the mission cuz you still have to go out and work during the week and dont really have any time to rest. cuz we always have set appointments with people and lots of times its the only time they can meet with us so if we miss the cita, we have to wait another whole week to see them and thats not good. i think i had a cold and thats it, but it was still miserable. it all started on tuesday night. i started getting a runny nose and i just didnt feel good at all. so we ended that night early and went to bed cuz we had to be up early to go to the temple. then i was pretty sick wednesday. thursday was a little better but it changed from a head cold to more of my throat hurting and not being able to talk very well. and thats how ive been since then. even up til this morning i woke up coughing and my throat hurt. so hopefully ill get a little better this week. i think that its just with how weird the weather has been and also with us going into winter, lots of people have been getting sick.

        wednesday we went to the temple for our zone conference. it was awesome, especially cuz i havent gone in almost a year now. being there, feeling the spirit that there is inside, and just being with everyone was great. even being sick i was still able to enjoy it. we had to wake up an hour and a half earlier than normal to get to the temple on time. cuz its an hour an a half long trip from el monte to the east side of santiago where the temple is. it was so weird being back in santiago. we drove right through the middle of my last sector and i felt like i had gone home. it was weird lol but i had forgotten how busy the city always is and how many people there are. but then going into the temple where its just quiet and peaceful all the time, it was nice. then after we got back to el monte, we only had one cita that night with the familia gonzalez santis that we found last week. they are very good. fernando, the son, had read the pamphlet (if thats how you spell it. im used to just saying folleto) and they all payed attention and had really good questions and comments. they are gonna progress really fast if they make time to do just a few things. and the other good thing is that fernando´s girlfriend was there who is a member and even though she is inactive, she helped us out a lot. im hoping that helping us with this family can help her become active again.

         thursday was the best day that we have had in the last 2 weeks. we finally got into a few houses and found a couple new people. one was a guy named mario. he was an antiguo  investigator that we found in the area book. he told us that he has listened to missionaries for about 10 years now but hasnt ever gotten baptized cuz he is co living and cuz his pareja doesnt like the church. cuz apparently everytime he gets close to the missionaries and the church, he gets kinda down or something and so she doesnt like that. so we talked about how satan tried to bring us down when we are doing things to be closer to god. and that he doesnt want us to be happy and have blessings. so he just has to work through it a little and things will be better. but he seems to already have a testimony of everything and wants to get baptized, he just cant right now. i almost feel worse for people like him than people who straight up reject us. cuz he knows what he has to do. at least the others dont know. then at night we had the noche de hogar with hna aida but this was the first time that we have had other people come too. they invited jose and nicole, who are in the retention. and then nicole brought a friend that lives close to her, vivi. vivi is really cool and i had talked to her before when elder vilar and i were together. she is interested in the church a lot but her pareja doesnt like it cuz he and his whole family are evangelico. but it made the whole thing a little different but it was still fun.

        then friday a huge market thing started in el monte for the whole weekend. it was to show off whats called artesanía which i have no idea what thats called in english anymore. but its basically just hand crafts. but there was a show everyday with different people coming and then different stuff to do. and it brought a lot of people to el monte from all over. we stopped by there once on friday to drop something off with hna susana. cuz her and hna aida set up a food place there to sell stuff and make some money. also we had a house blessing with a girl, kati. she is 18 and was taking care of her 1 year old and we just asked to share something with her and she accepted. but the reason i mention that is cuz later we were talking to hna susana about that kind of stuff. and i found out something kind of sad. el monte is the third poorest community which i already knew. but to go along with that, its also the community with the highest teenage pregnancy rate and births to teenage girls. and thats in all of chile. it just made me feel bad for all these girls who dont know what they are getting themselves into and are so young and arent ready for it. but it wont be something that will easily change if it ever does. i dont know the specific number, but i would say that over half the girls between 17 and 22 already have a kid or are pregnant. and considering i have yet to find a couple younger than 35 and married in all of el monte that arent members, those kids arent coming into very good families. so thats sad.

        sunday was kinda a different day. porque hna aida and hna susana were still working in the market thing. and i knew that they needed help with how many people were there. so we kinda had to make a decision. we only had 2 real set citas the whole day. so we thought instead of going out and knocking doors and finding no one cuz everyone was at that place, we decided to go help them sell stuff and do a few contacts while we were there. and it was a lot of fun. we went straight after lunch and it was packed. my job was to tell them what people wanted and then deal with the money. cuz i was their human calculator and helped things move along more smoothly. it was a lot of fun. and over the whole time we were there between friday saturday and sunday, i had 3 conversations with people in english and talked to several people who came up to talk to me about our church. it was good. one of the conversations was with a family that was on vacation from texas. another was a young guy and his friends that were selling beer, all of them from the states. one was from florida, another from boston, and the last was born in santiago but had lived in florida almost all his life. but it was weird contacting him in english.

      the last thing from the week is the family we found yesterday. they were a reference from a guy in the ward of la islita, from our same stake. his name is cristian and the lady is carolina. they are both married but separated and have been living together about 3 years. and they have been having a tough time. and they told us from the beginning that maybe its a  punishment for living together even though they are married to other people. but with the divorce being legal since about 3 years ago, its tough. she is a inactive member and he is really good and is willing to do anything to be happy and have a good relationship with his family. so he will get baptized as soon as the whole thing gets worked out with the divorces and they get married. the problem with that though is that a divorce costs about 400,000 dollars here, and they need 2 of them. and then after all that they have to get married. so needlesstosay, its gonna be a long long time for them. but im gonna be happy to help them with everything.

    the pictures this week are one of our zone, a few from us working in the little place with hna aida and hna susana, a couple of the eating area from the market, and then the last few from when we went to the temple. the one of me in the line there is when they recognized the people who have upcoming birthdays and they gave us a cake. it was delicious. other than that i hope everyone is doing well. take care  

Short and Sweet...AJ's email from 3/30/12

 this letter might be a little short this week cuz im really tired from playing soccer this morning with the zone (my team dominated by the way) and also cuz we dont have a lot more time left here today. but this week was kinda slow for us other than the fact that we found several new people to teach.

         wednesday we found a really good lady to teach. her name is claudia and it was cool listening to her tell us that she doesnt normally let people into her house from churches, but she felt the need to do it with us and she didnt know why. she is 6 months pregnant and is on bed rest cuz she has had some problems with the pregnancy so she should be easy to teach cuz she will always be in her house and will have time to read what we leave her. the only bad thing is that it will be harder for her to get to church if she cant leave the house much but we´ll work with her and im excited cuz she seems really good.

         thursday we had a special training meeting in maipu but president wasnt there which was unusual. apparently he was at some mission president training thing. so we were just there with the assistants. it was good to see friends from other zones. dont ask me what we learned though cuz i was to busy talking to elder vilar the whole time and didnt pay attention a whole lot, whoops. but the bigger thing that day was that we had one of the assistants, elder jones, come with us to our sector. i have no idea why and he didnt either, just that president asked him to come with us. so hopefully it was for something good. 

       friday we had our meeting with hno aguayo for our coordination meeting and it was cool cuz we ate completos before (its a hot dog with tomatoes, avacado, and mayo) and we were celebrating the goals that we havent made yet. it was hilarious and we just joked around basically the whole time. friday it also got really cold and rained a little. so that made me happy. but then yesterday and today were really hot again. the weather here is crazy.

        that was basically it for this week. at least the most important things. sorry that this was so short. ill make up for it next week. take care

The repentant mother...

Current comp...past comp...someone's future comp
Elder Sanches.....Elder Vilar.....Elder Mlazgar

Okay, so I underestimated my son. The last couple weeks he and I have been talking about the fact his email comes late because the pictures are attached to the email. So this week he sent his email and pictures in separate emails. I'm glad he did, because these pictures didn't come until Tuesday morning.

This almost looks like the San Tan Mountains
just south of Queen Creek.

Not sure where all these pictures were taken or who the other missionaries are. Maybe a zone mtg? Click on any picture to see an enlarged version...

A little game of chess...

Bummer...no pics again...I'll have to get on him - AJ's email from 4/9/12

        this week was a very tough week for us. i dont know why but everything, and i mean EVERYTHING, fell through on us during the week. i dont think ive had so many citas fall through in one week in my whole mission til now. it was ridiculous. but its also unfortunate. but it just means that we`ll have to get back to work and move on this week. there was one good thing from this week though. never before this week had i gotten into a house for the first time and have the whole family there to listen to us and actually pay attention and be interested. and then it happened on back to back days this week.

        Wednesday we werent having any luck. and the day before wasnt much better. we were just doing contacts basically the whole day. and we had set a cita on Tuesday with a guy to go back on Wednesday. but since nothing was working out for us, i wasnt real excited to go to his house cuz when we contacted him, he didnt seem real promising. but we went anyway cuz we had told him that we would go back. so we got there and knocked on the door, and a boy answered. it was his son. but the funny thing is that i already knew him. he is the boyfriend of a girl in a less active family that we have been teaching for the last couple months. so we had already talked with him a little before and knew a little about him. and he also knew a little about us. we told him that we had talked to his dad the day before and were there to share something with them. so he invited us in. so we got in and sat down and the whole family started coming together. the daughter stopped what she was doing on the computer, the mom stopped cooking, and the dad stopped working in his shop. it was awesome. cuz normally we get into a house and the only one who stays is the person that invited us in. so we talked a little about the basic stuff that we always share the first time. a little about the restored church, eternal life, eternal families, and baptism. and they all listened the whole time. im really excited to teach them again this week so i hope that they will be there.

          then thursday we were supposed to have a cita with one of the families that is always there, joel and veronica. but we got there and they werent there. so we called and asked where they were and veronica told us that they had gone to the hospital with their youngest son cuz he was having problems with something. but it wasnt anything serious. so we had to think of somewhere else to go. we went to our neighborhood to visit a lady that we found 2 weeks ago. but she wasnt there. so then we decided to go to the house of some old investigators to see if they had any interest. the mom answered the door and we talked to her a little, and after a little convincing, she left us in. basically we just told her that we wanted to share with them why we are here as missionaries and that it wouldnt take more than 10 minutes. so when we got in, they were taking once (which is a small meal around dinner time) together as a family. her, her husband, and her 2 daughters. so we shared that basic stuff like always and asked if we could come by another day to talk more and they kinda hesitantly agreed. but still it was really nice to have their whole family there.

          there is one thing from the week that got me a little frustrated. i dont know if its the culture or just cuz we are missionaries so people act differently. but i got really tired this week of knocking on doors where i know the people are there because i can see them or hear them or cuz their front door is open and so is the gate, but for some reason they dont answer. it happened way too much this week. i thought about how it is in the states. and im pretty sure that almost everyone would open the door at least if they are home, no  matter who it is there. just to see what they want. but here they dont. it even gets to the point sometimes where people will look out the window and look at us, and still not answer the door. i dont understand sometimes. you could at least open and tell us you dont want anything or tell us to leave, but to just leave us standing there? i dont get it. but oh well.

          the other thing from this week that is weird is the weather. its so unpredictable. tuesday and wednesday were cold. so cold that i had to wear a long sleeve shirt all day and even thought about putting my coat on towards the end of the night. then thursday friday and saturday it got really hot. like almost up into the 90s again. and then all of a sudden yesterday and today, its freezing cold again. and yesterday it sprinkled a little, the first time i have seen any amount of rain in over 6 months. everyday could be different. i know that in arizona the weather changes sometimes but as far as i remember, it was never so drastic in one week from cold to hot to cold again. but at least its cold again now so im not complaining.

          but thats basically my week. im having fun with elder sanchez although i felt bad for him a little yesterday cuz he got kinda sick. but i think he is feeling better today. i hope that you are all doing well. take care

AJ's email from 4/2/12...no pics this week

      this week was so weird. it was way different and it seemed to pass by slow but also fast at the same time. like everyday was fast but at the end of the week i thought back and thought about how long it felt. with pday on tuesday, district meeting on thursday and then conference, just a lot of different things going on. the other thing that made it longer was walking everywhere cuz we didnt have our bikes pretty much all week. but ill explain that better.

       tuesday we had our pday cuz of the change meeting that we had on monday. but it was a little shortened cuz we had already done internet so we didnt have to take the time to do that. so we only had til 4 instead of the normal 630. but it was just a normal day after that and we just went around getting to know members and presenting elder sanchez. then wednesday was more of just members really and then at night we had our meeting with our ward mission leader. he is so hilarious all the time and that meeting with 2 more missionaries was just insane. we laughed the whole time. it was rediculous.

      thursday we had the district meeting and its always fun and exciting seeing the new zone all together for the first time. we have 2 greenies in the zone. the elder is from peru and the hermana is from paraguay. whats funny is seeing how excited they are to be here and how much energy they have. i didnt really understand the whole thing with greenie power til then. its true that greenies always bring a little more to the sector they are in that normal missionaries dont really have. cuz as missionaries we kinda get into a routine but they are new so they dont know whats all going on. they just want to teach. but its good. the other thing from the zone is that we have a latin dominated zone now. 9 of the 16 are latins. when last change we had 9 of 14 missionaries that were gringo. so a lot more spanish.

      then saturday and sunday we had conference. saturday we got to the church around 1230 cuz the first session started at 1. and we were there all day til the end of priesthood session that ended at 11. it was a long day sitting in a chair but it was ok cuz you always learn so much listening to all the talks. saturday for me was the better day just cuz i got more out of it. i cant remember what my favorite talk was right now so i would have to look at my notes. but i definitely know my favorite little sayings from a couple of the talks. the first one is about the family. someone said that "family time is sacred time and should be protected and respected". with so much going on around us all the time now, we have to try harder to find time for the family, but its important to do it. and i want to apply that in my family one day when i have one. then the other thing was someone who said that its possible to be active in the church but be inactive in the gospel. and i think thats how i was a little before the mission. i went to church but i wasnt really interested. but it just takes gaining a strong testimony to change that and striving everyday to strengthen that testimony.

      with the bikes it was a struggle the whole week. last week we took a bike and then the parts that we had laying around from a couple other bikes to a bike guy in our sector so that we could try and get 2 bikes together for us. we knew that they wouldnt be as good as the ones we already had but at least it would be something. they were supposed to be done on tuesday so we went by and he told us that it would be better to come back the next day. so we went on wednesday and he had just barely started working on one. we waited an hour and he hadnt dont much so we told him that we would be back the next day. thursday we went but he hadnt been open all day cuz he went to the dentist and hadnt done anything. so we had to go back friday morning and had to wait another hour for him to finish. basically when we werent there, he didnt work at all on our bikes. so finally we got them but it wasnt very good. we have to go back this week so that he can make some more adjustments cuz there are some things wrong that we figured out while riding. but with as bad as the bikes are, im still grateful to have them. cuz i found out this week walking everywhere how hard it would be here to not have them. this sector is way too big to not have bikes. we waste a ton of time walking. and thats even with the division of the sector. we have about a third of all of el monte and its still too big to walk. 

         so thats basically everything. not real exciting this week but another one down. i hope that everyone is doing well and that you have a good week. take care