Amen Señor!

Well this week was full of adventure, for sure! I was super grateful for my experiences and I loved it! First though I have been told I will receive my package this wednesday, and they took care of everything so thats great! Anyway, this week we ran into some painters that were painting our house and we contacted them and ended up setting a meeting with them for saturday. We met up with them on saturday and holy moses was this lesson powerful and just so intense. Probably the most intense lesson I have had in my life. Just shows me that the lord puts people in our path to help them. Also we had family home evening with hermano manuel and he brought his neighbors who are not members, we watched the talk given by Tad Callister who talked about the organization of the church, and wow that is doctrine look him up! After the talk they really understood the mormon church and we all bore our testimonies, and she said that was the first time she has felt anything from anyone! 

Well the baptisms we tried to put weren't really anything like I told you before, we haven't talked to the guy forever. We pass by his house all the time and he is never there! But with Ana Maria and her daughter we put a baptism date for March 1! Now all they have to do is come to church because she told us she knows the church is true! The only problem is that her daughter has schitzophrenia, so she is worried to bring her especially in the morning. Also we contacted a man on the street on saturday and we visited him on sunday. This guy is an evangelico and we just kinda got to know him and all that. The lesson went pretty freaking good but this guy was over the top with his amen and praise the lord. While I was giving the prayer he just kept saying Amen Senor! hahahahah tried so hard not to laugh! But anyway my comp asked the guy to close the door and the guy asked why? So my comp shared the scripture matthew 6: 5-7 and basically told him he was a hypocrite. Then we talked about prophets and apostles and priesthood and I can't remember what scripture he used but he also used ephesians 4:5 - one faith, one senor, one baptism, and said "do you have a prophet, apostles or priesthood?" he said no. "then your church is false!" I was just like oh snap hahahahahah wow! but he ended up accepting a baptism too for the 8th of March hahahaha! Super genial enserio! but everything is all good, I had my fisrst bbq and it was super flipping good! oh you guys need to look up huilo huilo in chile it is so flipping beautiful! love you guys!

animal fried chileano

asado! bbq

mom i need more ties!

completo grande

Ana Maria

Hello family and friends. I hope you are all doing just dandy because I am! Sorry I couldn't write very long last week because we went hiking but that was super fun, and I have some awesome pics so be ready for that! Well on thursday I had the opportunity to do service for a guy in our ward and he is super cool, not gonna lie, I love that family! But we helped take out the metal sheets in his roof we aren't done, but it was definitely fun! Also, this week was a lot of contacting on the Simi and to my surprise worked really well this week we have six potential investigators or people we haven't visited before! 

Anyway the highlight of my week was definitely teaching this lady Ana Maria, she has a daughter who is not all their in the head but is super fun and smart. Her mom is Catholic and the first time we taught she didn't really care to listen, but we invited her too and she did. She had tons of questions and wanted to know more. Our next visit she was super excited to learn and again had tons of questions and it was just crazy, we answered all of them hahaha, but she said " I dont know why but usually with people like you, I just reject them and don't want to hear anything, but with you guys I decided to listen. I feel really peaceful right now." She definitely felt the spirit, but we asked her to come to church three times and she said no I have things to do. Then I said pretty sternly " If Jesus Christ was here and he told if you went to church he would send you the spirit, would you go?" she answered "Yes." Then i said " Well as representatives of Jesus Christ I promise you that if you go he will send the spirit to you and the spirit will testify that our message is true. will you go?" she said yes! hahahaha but she ended up not coming but thats okay because it was super spiritual! At church though we had 3 inactives come to church two of them were the Bishop with the problems and his wife and man he looked good! He just looked so happy too! Helped my testimony a TON! 

Well my new years consisted of good food and The Testaments love you guys!

thug life

mom would be proud!

milkshakes. mom would be proud.

transfers. so long elder soulier.

haircut time. sorry jackie :(

Cool Stories

Hello everyone! Sorry this week i don't have much time at all because we went on a hike today and it took a lot longer than expected, so sorry. Well this week has had its ups and downs -- definitely not the week we thought it was going to be, but it was good! It was actually a lot like my first week in the field walking door-to-door and finding people. Not my favorite, but it works hahahah. But i had some cool stories! So in the ward they give out a book of mormon and they have to give it away to someone and its super cool. This guy hermano manuel came contacting with us and you could tell he was kinda nervous, but we ended up talking to this girl. He started by reading the bible and then relating it to the book of mormon and he did an excellent job i was so impressed and it made me think wow, the real missionaries are the ones in the ward, just super awesome! 

Also another thing was this Bravo family, they haven't been active and we went to their house 5 straight days and on the fifth day we went with a member who is the secretary in the stake, but the crazy thing is is this guy who is a less active was a bishop. crazy right? But the situation he is in is insanely crazy. The guy has a testimony, but just said i'm taking a vacation from the church and my companion read a scripture, and told its time to end that vacation. He said your right i will be at church next week! Wow it just strengthens my testimony to hear stuff like that and to know the Lord is preparing everyone for certain people to hear the gospel! 

Well my hike was fun and super beautiful. i love you all! chau!

Christmas Miracle

Hey guys, hows it going?! How was your christmas?! Hopefully amazing! Well this week was a good one, that's for sure. I had the opportunity to see all your faces and talk with your guys. Super grateful. No lie. Anyway after we skyped we headed over to the Bishop's house for dinner, and man was it really good, but it was super important to gain trust and have a good relationship with him. The night went so perfect with the perfect mixture of fun and spiritual, man it was just awesome. 

But guys, you wont believe it. I had a christmas miracle in my mission! We got some presents and stuff, but it wasn't about that, we had no where to go and were just kinda walking and my comp tells me to call hermano manuel, super random but I did and I guess his son was sick, but we passed by anyway. Remember he is a member too and he got baptized I think a year or maybe 3 ago--don't know--but we were just kinda messing around, then we got into kind of a lesson and usually with members it's just a scripture but we practiced the first lesson for some reason with the pamphlet. While we were teaching he was telling us all about his conversion and his baptism and how good he felt and he started talking about the missionaries that baptized him. We finally ended in a prayer right when the prayer was done the phone rang, and guess who it was, The MISSIONARY that baptized him!!! HOLY CRap it was crazy and once he got off the phone he sat down and told us he had a feeling to call him all day and kinda just shrugged it off but during the prayer he had the thought in his mind call him! Call him! and he called wow! Super crazy, and he just started crying, then we gave his son a blessing and were on our way! Super crazy. But anyway we cant' leave our house tomorrow and the work is starting to get better here so I'm super grateful love you guys!

ballin

bishop and elder soulier

Bittersweet Week

Hey, so this was a bittersweet week, for sure. we asked our first guy to be baptized, and he said yes! so that was awesome, and we are working on this 15-year-old boy, so we will see how that goes! The bitter part is that i got sick on thursday, a day before our huge christmas activity which sucked! Elder Allen and I both got sick so we both stayed in thursday night and missed the sports friday morning... but on the upside we got to watch Remember the Titans for our activity in spanish! Holy crap! i was so happy! basically it was a spiritual experience and healed me of my sickness hahaha! so i have tons of pictures this week for you guys. Also we were able to have an awesome dinner and a gift exchange, where I received the best gift ever which was a tellitubbie.... worst gift exchange ever hahaha. it was like someone picked it up off the street hahah, but its all good. i cherish it now!

Well i can't wait to skype you guys and hear about all your cool presents and such. that's not gonna make me super jealous hahaha. Well my plans are to work and go to members houses I believe. and for lunch on christmas, me and my comp are probably going to do a little cookout thing idk. maybe because the guys a chef! hahaha but not as good as chef Brad of course! hahaha miss those smoothies.... anyway the work here has been pretty slow, but we are starting to pick up day by day, so we will see how that goes. We are starting to get to know the members and getting help from them so its going good for sure!. Oh I forgot we went caroling these last two days and it went awesome. we just spread the christmas spirit all over town! hahhaha but people actually really love it, but it really just doesn't feel like christmas.... well love you! bye!

my gift exchange present

cantadores

we felt and earthquake for real...

im a reindeer

completos

"The Work is Coming"

what's up everyone?! what's cracking in the 480?! well i'm not gonna lie this week was pretty tough because as you guys know i'm in a whitewash area, and so we are starting from the ground up. so basically everyday we wake up, do studies and go contact less actives and knock doors for the rest of the day just trying to find new investigators to teach. so as you can imagine it's been pretty tough, my feet flippin hurt. it's almost as bad as going to disneyland three days straight hahahah! but seriously.... well one of my great stories this week was my companion and I were looking for this person and couldn't find the house, but there was this guy just getting out of his car and it was an elantra like ours! so i was like "hey man i like your car!" so we talked and he spoke a little english so it was all good, and next thing you know he is telling me he has cancer and all this stuff. like he has a kid and a wife, but his wife doesn't seem to care too much about him and he is just having a rough time. so i told him "hey our message is centered on jesus christ and families. I know our message can help you. you love your son, right? yes he said. Well through our church and the gospel you can live with your son forever and with god." right when i said that his eyes lit up, and i got his information and all this stuff, so i'm really excited to see where it goes!
  

Also thursday through saturday was just knocking on doors with little to no success, so my companion and i were super frustrated and were just like where do we need to go?! why can't we find people? but in my head i had a thought that said "brock be patient the work is coming." so I just thought about 1 nephi 3:7 and put my trust in the lord, and that night i prayed so hard! the next day we had 2 investigators come to church and 1 less active! wow my prayer was answered! but last night was the devotional and i heard david archuelta perform and he is pretty good, and i had a great time! well love you guys a lot! miss you!

this is my planner. cool right?!

feliz navidad

juice and ice cream

david archuleta concert

investigator and less active

sick pic

keeping selfie sunday alive

In the Field

hello fellow troopers! i made it here and have finished my first week and it has been crazy! hahaha i'm digging it, though it's way better than the ccm! my new companion is elder ocarez from Ecuador and he is awesome. i love him to death! but we had thanksgiving in the ccm, so that was really good but it made me miss home a lot. it was bittersweet for sure, but thats okay. sorry i wasn't able to write. they don't give you a p-day your first day in the field. bummer right? well, esta bien. i love it here. there are tons of great people!

the people here are really poor a lot of the time, and its super sad -- like this old woman by herself with no gas for herself and like no water or money. it was super sad. she kept saying i need the the words of christ! so sad, i wanted to cry but we are gonna do a little service for her on wednesday i think.

this week has been kinda frustrating -- not gonna lie -- but great at the same time. the people here in chile have terrible spanish and speak so flippin fast, so its really hard to understand, but i'm catching on to it! but anyway, i have been really getting frustrated, especially yesterday. i was getting mad and my mind was just exhausted and wanted to go home, but i just kept a smile on my face and kept a good attitude and it went good the rest of the time. we entered a house, which is like unheard of because they all have gates or just don't want to talk to you so you contact through a gate and it makes it so much harder! but we taught that guy a lesson then met a less-active and we talked for about an hour, and this lady and i were just talking while my comp was talking to the kid. she was less active, but after we left he says, 'dude your spanish was perfect. i understood everything you said and you carried a conversation with her for like 30 or 45 minutes that was the gift of tongues!'  It was weird because i didn't think much of it, but i understood what the lady was saying and it was so awesome! but i'm in a white wash area, so we had to start from the bottom up and so we are just contacting a lot and finding less actives and future investigators. the list is so flippin long of inactives it's crazy! 

it's weird here. lunch is the big meal of the day, so it's really freaking good and i eat a lot of rice and i love it!

i'm gonna miss the food here in chile when i come home! but also my schedule is weird because chileans are night people so i dont go to bed till 11:30 and dont wake up till 7:30 so weird i know! 

sorry tj for the bad grammar. it's hard when you don't have much time. just work with me!

p.s. 

i forgot to tell you about my best friend named juan carlos. he was this little kid at the temple we talked to and i absolutely loved him! every time me and my companion go contacting in the temple we just talk to kids because they are the best and fun to talk to! we are going to the biggest mall in south america today so you will have better pics next week! hahaha there are so many stray dogs here! ohh i dont think i told you the story of this girl trying to hug me hahaha well basically we met this girl she spoke english (not a member) and at the end she tried giving me a hug and i just gave her the heisman stiff arm baby! said nope that's not how missionaries roll hermana! ahhahaha! tj, tressa, holli, tricia, jheri, chase--you all dropped the ball this time. i didn't here one peep on my nieces and nephews..... i will let it slide this time but next week will be different hahaha. well i don't know if i will be able to write because i will be leaving but love you guys!