Note: There haven't been any photos in a long time because Connor lost his camera, and the new camera we sent him hasn't arrived, perhaps stolen?

Hola, todos.

Another great week :D Our numbers are still quite dreadful, but we´re finding people that look like they can be solid investigators :D One was an old investigator from the other part of Panguipulli named Pablo. He´s really receptive :D He said that two missionaries came and helped him once after a bike crash when he was 12 (10 years ago) and since them he´s never rejected letting the missionaries in his house. I´m surprised he hasn´t been baptized yet. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted the date. I think his biggest trials will be getting to church and quitting smoking.

You know you have a great companion when he helps us get out of lessons on time. A bad habit in the mission is to stay in and converse about lots of stuff (because Chileans are rather talkative). We need to focus on the things that are most important as we visit so the spirit is not diluted.

Elder Strate is great. He's very talkative. He loves to tell stories about before the mission and he loves talking about guns and hunting (he´s considering joining the military and tells me lots about it). It´s really nice for my stress just listening.

As y´all know, the last transfer was pretty tough, and a lot of the stress from that has carried over. I´m learning how it really helps to simplify the situation. Just focus on the next thing that needs to be done and love doing that thing. Tommy´s always been a really great example to me of that. He loves serving the Lord and as a result is very happy. There´s no internal fight because he´s already given up :D He´s striving to be consecrated (sorry to put you on a pedestal, pal. Psshh. I just called you "pal." I´m pretty sure I´ve never called you "pal" in my life. It´s a silly word. "PAL!")

The branch is struggling right now. Attendance has been dropping every week and it´s less than half of what it was when I got here. Pray for Panguipulli :D They´re branch conference comes up in a few weeks and that should help a lot (here, branch conference is like a weeklong thing where they have an activity every day).

Thanks for all the wonderful emails :D Keep reading the scriptures every day. I started reading the Book of Mormon every day as part of a district goal and it sure does point man to God better than any other book. Nephi was so solid in the face of doubt. It really does work out when we just give up our own desires and serve the Lord. As we do, our desires become more in sync with those of the Lord and we end up enjoying what we do instead of looking to do what we enjoy (if that makes sense).

Love you all :D

Oh! and Happy birthday, Max :D

Oh! and one of the packages arrived. It had Reeses, socks, jeans, and hot chocolate. Thanks :D Elder Strate´s package was robbed, so we´ll see if the second package arrives.

-Elder Connor Christopherson