​We watched most of the conference in English.

Elder Strate on the left, Elder Lawton (middle) is from Provo, and me.

Panguipulli, Chile

 

October 13, 2014

Man, everyone keeps talking about the movie "Meet the Mormons." Elder Strate and I really want to see it, but it´s kinda nonexistant here. I probably won´t get to see it until I get back to the USA, unless a DVD comes out and the missionaries receive free copies.

Oh, you asked about the shoes. I´ve got an old pair that still works and could probably last at least a month. The Eccos which I currently use are very good, and I´d guess they´ve got about 4 months more before they die. I´ve also got boots, but the warmer days are coming so I probably won´t use those for the rest of the mission.

I just tried sending photos. Don´t know why, but some of them aren´t showing up.

Mish (that´s something people say that means "huh, interesting.") Sorry.

We had divisions with the assistants to the president. They´re really good and made me realize that I´ve kinda relaxed and could be pushing harder. I´ve been a little confused about that this month because I´ve wanted to do my best, but being overstressed is really really bad. There´s a way to do both. GOALS AND PLANS! I´m not talking about the key indicators, I´m talking about everything else. For example, I´ve been lazy with my morning exercises, so I asked Elder Strate to make me an exercise routine and now I have something set to measure myself against. With goals and plans, you commit yourself in specific ways to do better. It takes faith to set goals and the act of completing goals is literally repentance. The act of committing yourself is like making covenants, you commit yourself. Then you receive power from God to help accomplish your goal (Gift of the Holy Ghost). Endure in your goals and you will see progress. This is the spark which I´ve needed. By dedicating myself to and verifying myself with goals and plans, I progress and get out of the rut :D   I never thought I´d say something like that before the mission, but goodness, it´s effective when done right. I think the reason goals didn´t really always work before is because they haven’t been internally motivated. That´s key. They must be internally motivated. You have to want to change. Goals and plans are the way to change desire and wishes into action and reality.

Oh, and we taught an 80-year-old lady with a 14-year-old great granddaughter (wow). The lady is missing an eye and people pay her to pray over their kids when they´ve got problems. Elder Strate and I didn´t realize what was going on at first. We walked in the house with several other people. We thought they were family and started talking to them, then I noticed that the lady was holding 3 peppers with a little card with a picture of San Sebastian (all the Catholics here have a ton of San Sebastian stuff. I guess he´s an important Catholic martyr.) She was making cross motions with her hand as she recited a long prayer that was too quiet to hear. Then she threw the peppers in the fire. As the family left, they paid the 80-year-old lady. As it turns out, lots of people bring their children to this lady and she supports herself this way. She´s a very nice lady, but she doesn´t understand much about religion (which she herself acknowledges) and she can´t read because of her vision. She was slow to understand the teachings of the restoration, but I think we´ll pass by again because she listened well even though we´ll need to use lots of examples to help her understand.

Interesting world we live in.

love you all :D

-Elder Connor Christopherson