Planting Seeds

The weather here is really nice. It is really hot during the day, hardly ever rains, and the salty breeze can always be felt and tasted coming off the ocean. It is going to be hard leaving this place and going back to the desert of St. George. This week was just kind of a regrouping week. Getting over sicknesses, doing without some things [Elder Rich’s apartment was robbed], and weeding out the people that don’t seem to be progressing right now.

We had a cool experience this last week. We were helping Carla with some stuff around the house because she just had a surgery to remove her appendix (Is that how its spelled? I have been speaking Spanish too long.) Her mom came home from work and asked us why we were even there and even bothered. 

*Back story: Carla´s mom used to listen to missionaries 20 years ago but hasn’t since then and has not been very supportive of Carla´s Mormon investigation. She got pregnant young, divorced young, and has not had an easy life. She has spoken maybe 4 words to me and avoids us.*

Anyway, I told her it was because we loved her daughter, but even more importantly, God loved her. She went upstairs and that was all she said too us. The next day we were picking up some stuff from the grocery store and someone tapped my shoulder. I turned around and it was Carla´s mom. She told me she had appreciated what I had said and done, and invited us to dinner. We went over and taught about the restoration and the love of Christ and it was so quiet you could hear the wood stove crackling the whole time. I just told them they were beautiful and that I loved them and that we were genuinely there for them and the atmosphere was so warm and spiritual.

Carla came to watch conference and her mom has invited us back, she isn’t "investigating", but she doesn’t hate us. I think they will both get baptized somewhere down the road, but I am happy with progress in the right direction. This is the first time in my mission I have sincerely understood the importance of planting seeds. I have taken myself out of the equation and it doesn’t matter to me who baptizes them, I just want them with me in the presence of God and I want them to know His love.

I love you.

Elder Rich

My first 'missionary photo' from Chile.

Still has some wrestling moves left in him.

Ancud, Chile. A view of the inland and Pacific Ocean at sunset.

"Don't tell the cat about my new friend."

It takes a lot to get me through studying.  Elder Greenwood says, 'Hello!'

Service Renders Miracles

The week started off pretty crappy, I am not going to lie. It rained non-stop for four days and so no one was outside and those who were wouldn't talk to us. Our "golden investigator" denied the baptism invitation twice and was being difficult. And going home is supposed to be a relief but we didn’t have anything to heat our house so laying in bed you can see your breath. But I promise it gets better.

It was pouring outside and after 10 people totally denying us and all of our appointments falling through, we finally just sat on a bench not knowing what to do. As we sat there I heard the THWACK of an axe hitting wood and looked up to see a man working on a mountain of wood in his front yard that had been dropped off by a dump truck. I grabbed Holt´s arm and dragged him over to the guy and we asked him if we could chop it for him. He said no and we kept asking but he kept denying. Finally, just sick of everything, including the weather, just being a big fat no, I said pretty roughly "DUDE! WE ARE NOT TRYING TO TEACH THE GOSPEL RIGHT NOW. WE ARE TRYING TO CHOP YOUR WOOD!" He was kind of quiet, then opened the gate and let in Holt and me.

He showed us what he wanted done then disappeared into the store next door that he runs with his sisters. We took off our jackets and just started to chop. It was kind of slow at first but I think all the frustration just came out and God gave us a chance to show we aren’t just helpless, white teenagers who have never worked a day in their life like everyone thinks. Holt would place the wood, I would split it as hard as I could, then Holt would place the next big heavy piece. Pretty soon we were knee deep in chopped wood and I was swinging as fast as Holt could place.

The man (Carlos) peeked out the window to see how we were doing and his eyes got really big. He disappeared and returned with his sisters so they could see what we were doing. Pretty soon there were about 15 people inside the store watching two gringos split wood like they had never seen before. We chopped a dump truck load of wood in about 45 minutes. For those of you who have never chopped hard, heavy, water-logged pine wood might not understand that but that is like running a marathon in half an hour. The miracle is that Holt never once misplaced the heavy, uneven wood on the block and I never once needed more than one swing to split the wood that usually takes 4 or 5. We also stacked it all neatly and then walked into the store to see if there was anything else we could do.

Everyone was really quiet and looked at us really weird. Veronica, one of the sisters, was at the counter and when we asked her if we could do anything else, she thought for a second then asked "What do you really want?" Holt said, "To serve is part of our calling, if you don’t need more help and want us to leave, we will." She looked at us for a second then said follow me.

We ended up at her house with her brother, expecting more work, and then she brought out dinner. She told us her mom is very sick and wants us to help. She also asked about our beliefs without us saying anything about it, and asked if she could have some of our teaching materials. She might as well teach herself for how easy it was. We went back two days later to set up some kind of appointment and see if she had read the pamphlets. Holt was talking to her and it was super fast Spanish so eventually I found myself organizing stuff in the store. She walked around the corner to help a customer and her mouth dropped at what I had done

Ten minutes later she had handed us the keys to EVERYTHING in her store and asked us if we could restock because she was working alone. She has such confidence in us after two days that she trusted us with everything she had. Miracle. She also only has lunch breaks every other day so only three days every week. Despite this, she invited us to talk to her on her lunch break Tuesday. Please pray for that to go well.

We had another small experience with service. There was a man with his little Chilean wife and two small kids trying to move big furniture into a small, beaten house while it was raining. Holt and I just walked up and picked up the heaviest ones and started moving them. As we were moving stuff, I heard the man quietly whisper to his wife if she had any cash because he had the equivalent of like two bucks, which was all he had. When we finished, we looked into his wallet and took out two of the three small bills he had and didn’t make eye contact as he handed it to us, embarrassed. I looked at it, looked at him then said ¨Service no more. Here is our card for if you need more help with moving.¨ He looked at me with tears in his eyes and couldn´t say anything as we just walked away into the rain.

Service renders miracles. Go serve someone today. You will be surprised what will come out of it.

With much love,
Elder Aidan Rich

One of the service projects this week. We chopped and stacked this wood 3 rows deep. I was the axe man.

I chopped so much I drove the stump 3 inches into the ground. 

We got to take a little trip to Saltos de Petrohue. 

Saltos de Petrohue

Saltos de Petrohue

Elder Holt said pose like "flaites" (gangstas). He is not a very good gangsta.

I'm a thinking man. This is the cool bench I found while Holt was checking out the bathrooms.

Finally a Normal Week (As normal as it gets, I guess)

First full week in Entre Lagos in the record books.  We have had lots of tiny miracles happen that are starting to lead to bigger and bigger miracles.  Quote of the week: "God is pretty good at being God." -Aidan Rich

Let´s start with a few crazy things and answering a few questions. Elder Petrovelli is fine and is still with Elder Perkins. They are now in Puerto Montt I believe. There are four new Elders in Rio Negro. Chileans know about Halloween, but it is pretty lame here. Mostly egging houses. We also watched our little guardian dog ´Gus´get hit by a bus while protecting us. Worst. Day. Of. My. Life. However, I built him a bed under a tree and we visit him and feed him daily. Such a good dog. And now for the rest of the week:

First off, it is so freaking hard to preach in an area you know absolutely nothing about where you are literally just dropped off with a list of names who are ¨a good idea to visit¨ and then just let loose to go find and teach them all. However, this is where the miracles start coming in. One of the guys in our ward drives us back and forth for lunch every day because it is so far to our mamita´s house. Out of no where he decides to introduce us to this less active family and one week later we are teaching their son who is not a member, is progressing rapidly, and already had a testimony of the Book of Mormon when we found him. Yeah. Miracle.

We also had another miracle Saturday that led to several more. The streets here are super confusing and the numbering is not in any order, so it has been almost impossible to find people. We were getting ready to leave the house as usual when all of the sudden Holt called for an audible in our plans. We canceled our first two goals for the day and headed for the cemetary. It was the national day of the dead and he figured we could go and talk to people about the plan of salvation as they mourn their dead family members. We didn´t have much luck and most people just yelled at us or gave us dirty looks for being their or sent the drunk guys to hassle us. (Their favorite thing. They think it is so funny)

We were about to leave when I all of the sudden had the urge to talk to this guy. He was huge, both ways, had long dreads, headphones, and looked so freaking scary and intimidating. I pointed him out to Holt who was hesitant as well, but we just figured God knew best and went for it. He smiled and hugged us as soon as we got to him and said ¨I was wondering when you would talk to me!¨ He has been good friends with all the missionaries and told us to come over about 4 days later. The next day we were walking around aimlessly trying to talk to people and find houses when we heard a whistle. It was Gustavo, who invited us into his house to meet his super sweet wife and daughter. We talked for a while and it turns out he knows all the people the previous missionaries were teaching and planning on teaching, where they live, and the plans the elders had for them. Yeah. Miracle.

He helped us find all of them and we now have a small teaching pool. He has also accepted to take us to his church, as he is not of our faith, so we can learn about and understand other religions. He is also letting us teach him and his only condition is we have to have a family home evening with him once a week to play ping pong, talk religion, play guitar, and watch the Chile games. All of which we have permission to do. Yeah. Miracle.

That is my challenge for all of us this week. Let us try to be more like Gustavo. Let us not look at people as Mormon and non-Mormon, black or white, good or bad. Let us instead look at everyone as brothers and sisters in Christ, united in the same pursuit: Eternal happiness through salvation. So if the Jehovah´s witnesses come by, invite them in. Love them and talk to them. Learn about them and understand them. If everyone was like Gustavo, who again IS NOT OF OUR FAITH yet IS HELPING THE MORMON MISSIONARIES to spread happiness, the world would be near perfect. No contention. No misunderstanding. No unhappiness. Let us be better as a whole.

I love you all. So very much. Each one of you.

Love,

Elder Rich

¨I may not be my brother´s keeper, but I am my brother´s brother.¨ 

-Elder Jeffery R. Holland

¨With all that we have heard, with all that we now have, with all righteousness, with all diligence, let us be better than before.¨ 

-President Thomas S. Monson

First view of Entre Lagos

We serve until we bleed.  That's just how it is.

Service project working in the garden.
(As Elder Rich's mother, I want you to know I sent that kid with work gloves!)

Some guy washing his car in the rain.  Only in Chile.

Three months in the field.  The St. George Temple just happened to be the temple on our calendar for this month.

It made me a little homesick...well maybe more than a little.

MonkeyBalls.  Chileans love their MonkeyBalls!

Gustavo and his wife.

We live with a member and this is her little baby boy.  He is so dang cute and always happy.  I made those little angel wings for him.

Elder Holt snagged a pic of my studying.

This is a huge slide that we found and tried out today.

There's no sense in waiting to try it out until it stops raining.  It never stops raining.

Beautiful Lake Puyehue

First Week of Real Work!

You know that feeling of relief when you are in the middle of a wrestling match and every muscle is on fire? You are in a bad position and feel really crappy but then you make a good move, end up on top, and then the glorious sound of the whistle and hand slapping the mat brings a wave of indescribable relief. This is how it felt to see Osorno for the first time.

The plane rides were very long and I felt really sick for both. I described my experience with Maria Adriana and our conversation on the plane last email and unfortunately she is not in my area.

After we got to the tiny one-portal airport here in Osorno, we were taken to the Mission Home where we had interviews with President Obeso, ate lunch and dinner, and learned the ways of the missionary. We slept in a small hotel that night and the next day we woke up the next day then went to the government building and started working on our paperwork to be legal here in Chile. Along the way I talked to a man and got his address after he expressed interests in lessons.

After all the paperwork, we went to a church and that is where I met Elder Holt. He is such a stud. He swam and played water polo before his mission and is the epitome of a good teacher. He is kind of a spaz sometimes but is also kind, patient and encouraging. We had a get-to-know-you lunch at the church, then we were off to our sector of Rio Negro in the district of Rahue.

About an hour later I was sitting in my first lesson and I ended up teaching about Alma 17:11 to a less active family. Elder Holt and I then went and taught the coolest people I have ever met. Ricardo and Carla are a young couple with a little girl named Josefa who is the most adorable thing I have EVER seen. They are super nice, humble people and we had a little visit with them.

The next couple days were all work. HARD WORK. We chop wood all the time and taught about 15 lessons in all in those four days. I had the opportunity to invite a family to start on the road to being sealed in the temple as they have been members for just long enough to start that process and it was so awesome. The Spirit was tangible and the effects of it were apparent. I wish I could describe each lesson in detail but there just isn`t enough time.

I also got to participate in my first baptism and marriage. Jacob del Carmen has been investigating the church for ten years but because of dumb marriage and divorce laws here in Chile hasn`t been able to be lawfully wedded to his wife and therefore couldn`t be baptized. However, this week after about 10 years it was all figured out and he had both his marriage and baptism on the same day. Super happy.

As far as what Chile is like in general, it is beautiful. It is very green but very, very cold in the mornings. The house are little wooden shacks with tin roofs that the inhabitants built themselves. Elder Holt and I, with about four other members, helped take on apart that had been damaged in a fire and also flooding. It was service day (where we do service all day) and it took about 6 hours. We were given big, heavy crowbars then just went wild. It was hard, dirty work filled with near death experiences, spiders, and good food as a reward.

There are also dogs EVERYWHERE. The area we are in is very poor and when they can`t afford/ don`t want a dog they put it on the streets. Usually if you bend down and pretend to pick up a rock they will scatter and stop barking or chasing you but yesterday we were running trying to make an appointment and these huge german shepards started chasing us. I bent down to scare them but Elder Holt kept running and screamed, `they are too big! Not scared of rocks!` So we ran for our lives and pretty soon we had about ten dogs behind us. I ended up turning and kicking one in the head and after that they scattered. We laughed so hard about that.

Not much else to report. I miss you all and love you all so much. Keep in touch. Iove this area. It is so beautiful and there is so much work to be done. Oh and the 18th of September is their independence day so the people are going crazy. They know how to celebrate.

Once again I love you all. 

Love,

Elder Rich