Choooloooos Thugs Gettin Ready to Play Soccer!

Hey guys!  Not much happened this past week.   By accident I had my
first alcoholic item hahaha.  We were in a lunch with a member and for
dessert she gave us these ice cream cones.   Without thinking we just
started to eat them until my companion said wait!   What the heck?   On
the cones it said prohibited for minors and that it contained alcohol.  The
lady was really embarrased and truly had no idea.  She had just bought
them for us.  It was hilarious!   We have 2  people progressing for
baptism which is really nice!   They are both kids from less active
families.   We will be able to baptize them and reactivate the families
which will be really awesome!   The weather is getting really warm
here and sometimes it is torture to walk around all sweaty and tired!
But it's much better than the cold so I'm not complaining too much.   We
haven't had too many lessons these past weeks.  Its been really hard to
find people in their houses and when they are in their houses they are
busy.  But its been fun because we have just been able to talk to
people and spent along of time knocking doors!  The week was pretty
fun and we are enjoying our time here!  Not too much happening.  A pretty
normal week!   Hope all is well at home!   Miss and love you guys.

Lessons the Lord Wants Me to Learn

Hey guys! The new companion is great, and he is from Midway Utah, and yes he speaks English and almost perfect Spanish!  He works extremely hard and is pushing me to do everything to prepare for being a senior companion.   I plan our day, direct and lead us to the areas and I do almost all the contacts in the street and at doors.  He directs almost all of the lessons which is really good because I need to learn how to teach and direct better in the lessons!  It's awesome because I started my mission extremely scared to talk to people.  Now I'm happy when I see somebody in the street and I go as quickly as possible and talk to them!   It's so cool being able to talk to people normal and have conversations and not have to worry every single second about what I'm going to say and how to say it!   The work is awesome!!!   This week was terrible... the people we had scheduled almost all canceled their meetings so we ended the week with 6 lessons only... usually we end the week with 20 to 25 so it was rough.   We were frustrated.. but I learned the lesson I feel the Lord wanted me to learn which is  patience, and to open my mouth and overcome my fear of talking with random people.  We contacted people in the street and knocked doors almost the entire week and found really awesome people to be teaching.  So, I guess the frustration was worth it.

My New Companion! A Sign From the Lord!

We had the cambio today!  I will be staying in San Felipe again for this next month and a half!  My new companion is Elder Kelson!  He was the assistant to the president this last month and a half and its such an amazing blessing to have him as a companion.  Our president knew about everything that was going on with my companion and that I was progressing, but he was hindering my progress... and that I was extremely frustrated!  So, I called him on Saturday to talk about problem with a member and he told me that he had really amazing news for me and that I was going to LOVE my new companion.  I didn't push and ask for who it was in that moment because I didn't want to be nosy.. but he didn't waste any time and asked, do you want to know who it is?   Obviously I said yes and he said Elder Kelson, my assistant :)  It was so awesome! There's so much that I will have the opportunity to learn! While I was talking and joking around with president I told him about the dream I had the night before about being told that Elder Kelson would be my new companion!  A sign from the Lord he told me!  Pretty cool.  It's the last exchange for Elder Kelson.  He will be going home after our companionship!  Here in this mission we call it "dying".  When you go home you die. And you "kill" someone when you are their companion for their final exchange.  So far I have "killed" Elder Chung and now Elder Kelson.  Hahah!  All the elders keep joking about it with me.

Two Crazy Spiritual Experiences this Week!

Benjamin and his family at the baptism last week.

We had two crazy spiritual experiences this week! First we were in the beginning part of a lesson with a lady in our sector, just gaining confidence and talking with her about her life. Then we asked if we could say a prayer and I was asked to give it.  Something that I have been trying to do better is listen for the spirit when I am giving a prayer and to follow the promptings of the spirit as to what to pray for).  Well, I chose to follow and gave a prayer completely by the spirit.  After the prayer we were all in tears and you could feel the spirit soo strong!  It was amazing!  The next story I have is even more powerful.  After the baptism of Benjamin we went to their house.  The dad was extremely sad and so was the mom.  We asked what was wrong and they told us that the daughter was really sick and they weren't sure what was going to happen and all the doctor did was give a little medicine.  We could tell that it was a big problem so I asked if we could give a blessing.  The dad said yes and we went upstairs to the room of the girl.  She looked horrible.. really really sick and was crying and yelling.  It was sad.  I gave the first part, the sealing of the oil, and my companion gave the second part.  She was cying and screaming during the entire blessing.   BUT, as soon as my companion said Amen, she stopped crying,  her eyes went back to normal,  and her fever went away.  She started to laugh and smile and play with her toys with Benjamin and run around like normal.  It was amazing :) So, so powerful. The dad was amazed as well as the mom!  It was such an amazing blessing for us and for them!  It strengthened my testimony sooooo much!  We are going to continue to help them progress towards baptism and an eternal family!   Yeah that was our week and things are still really good here!   Next week I might be in a new area and with a new companion!   :)

I Have 100 Days Already in my Mission!

Benjamin at his baptism on August 24, 2013.

This week was CRAZY!!!  We started off with having to bless a haunted house of the father of one of our investigators.  It was really creepy!  Things would randomly just fall throughout the day and night and they kept seeing things and feeling weird things! But after the blessing all the father could talk about was God and the blessing that he has received and that he wants to be baptized in the near future and now we are going to try and pass by and teach him.  The bikes are still my worst enemy...This past week we had interviews with he president which we have every 3 months.  It didn't go so well.  My companion has been really disobedient.  I'm still new and wasn't really sure how to handle it.  I just tried to motivate him as best as possible and keep it a secret for the time being.   Well, we had the interview and I entered not planning on talking about this with president.. but during the meeting I felt the really strong impression to talk about it so I did.  It was pretty awkward for a few days.  The president called and said that  we would finish out these next 2 weeks before the actual companion change of the mission.  I will probably be staying here again for the next change which is awesome:)  I love it here and I know pretty much all of the people and have developed relationships with them!  The other big thing this week was our baptism yesterday!  We baptized the son of Roman and Karol! It was so crazy spiritual!  The mom of Karol came... she is Catholic and wanted nothing to do with our church...Benjamin invited her and she attended.   Well, lets just say that she was in tears and all she could talk about was how spiritual the experience was and how beautiful our church is and this path that Benjamin is taking and how she felt so calm and peaceful!  Its so amazing how the spirit works in people!  we wiil be passing by her house soon as well to begin teaching her, hopefully! :)   I definitely learned some really good lessons for myself and for my mission!  Its such a good opportunity to be here and I'm really enjoying it!

My Little Brother Braden Entered the MTC Today!

My little brother went into the MTC in Provo today to begin his mission.  He will leave for the Guadalajara, Mexico mission in 6 weeks.  Good luck Braden and I am very proud of you!

Missionary Service Project

"Attacking the Sector!"

I have gained about 10 pounds since I arrived here!  The food is good and they feed us till we want to throw up!  It sucks and is really good at the same time!  The last p day we all got together (elder huatatapayro, elder dykstra, elder de castro, elder zuniga, elder estiva, elder chinga and me) and cooked a giant Peruvian lunch at the house of the zone leaders.  It was delicious! Our bikes are still cursed!  Both of the tires of my bike needed to be replaced, and the seat broke and we had to replace it.  Mine is also making weird sounds when I use it and on my companion's bike, the handle bars are broken so they spin around a little as we are going down the road.   These bikes are awful! We went to a city called LLay LLay on Saturday!  We went to help the 4 sister missionies in something called Attacking the Sector!  It's where a whole bunch of missionaries go to one area and work for a couple
of hours to help motivate people to come to the conferences or things like that!  It was awesome! And the city is beautifull! If you guys get a chance look it up!  The weather here is crazy!  It's so warm during the day here already and it's just the first month of spring!  We had a really good week this past week!

I'm Pretty Sure God Doesn't Want Me to Have a Bike!

The newest bikers in the Chile Santiago North mission.

We went to Santiago this past week for entre
vistas which was really cool!  I got to pass Alcantara where i stayed in the MTC and after we went to the CCM to buy a couple of things and I got to see all my teachers and talk with them!  It was way cool!  We received bikes this past wee! and lets just say... I'm pretty sure God doesn't want me to have a bike! hahaha   The first day we received them it was raining and absolutely freezing and we had to ride them to a family's house for lunch and they live about 30 minutes away on bikes.  We arrived freezing and numb.  After we had to ride the bikes home in the same weather.  The next morning we woke up and the bike tire was flat on my bike.  So we had to go and take it to the repair shop.  After we headed to lunch.  Then on the way back from lunch I was riding in the street and the pedal and circle things that change switches when you switch gears and such, fell off in the middle of the road! hahaha   It was hilarious!  After this we took it to the same repair shop and they fixed it, and then that night the stupid seat broke!! hahaha   I have terrible luck with bikes.  We were both sick the next day with really bad sore throats so we chilled in the house until the end of the day for an appointment.    We decided that we wanted to start eating more healthy foods so we bought bananas and yogurts and a bunch of other fruit and have been eating really healthy foods in the morning after we run for a while.  Maybe this will improve my luck with my bike riding!

Dog Days in San Felipe!

Elder King and new companion Elder Chinga.

The week went by EXTREMELY fast.  I didn't even realize that it was already Monday!   We have a lot of investigators!  Roman and Karol, Nicolas, the family Inostroza, the family Gonzolez, Jurid!  We HAD Ximena but a crazy thing happened. Okay, so here's the story.  We were walking in the street when a lady with her son called us over to talk to us and she was crying.. crying really hard. She proceeded to tell us that she had lost her dog and they were trying to find it!  She showed us pictures of the dog,  it was small and had white paws.  We told her that we would search for it as we went to our investigators houses.  My companion and I headed to the house of a member, and then with the member to the house of Ximena!  Well, as we entered the house her youngest son greeted us and said, "Hey!  Look at the newest member of our family!" and proceeded to show us a small dog with white paws!  My companion and I looked at each other thinking the same thing.. We talked normal with her for a little while and then brought up the subject of the dog... We told her  the story of what happened and that we think this dog is the dog.. (also before this she told us she bought the dog, then a couple of minutes later she told us that she lied.. that she had found the dog in the street!) Well, she got angry with us!  It was so weird!  She kept saying that it was impossible for a dog this size to walk all the way down to to where she lives.  She was so angry with us over and the dog and we said that it was her decision and that we wanted to talk with the woman who owned the dog (Jurid) to ask for more pictures to verify the dog, but we wouldn't tell her that we had found the dog yet because we didn't want to cause problems... So we left the house with the youngest son screaming that the dog was his and that he wasn't going to return it, and Ximena saying that the dog was hers because she "found it".  After we left the house we went to the house of Jurid and asked for some pictures of the missing dog and had her send the pictures to our phone.. without telling her that we had found the dog.  We left her house and returned to the house of Ximena.  We showed her the pictures and verified the dog was actually the other person's missing dog and after this the son (Ignacio) proceeded to scream and yell even more and say that the dog was his and "what am I going to have after this? Nothing!"   We told them that the decision was theirs and that we would call them in the morning to verify.  Ximena said she would pray about the decision.  We returned the next day, and they decided to return the dog, but were PISSED about it!  Ximena told my companion that he wasn't allowed to return to their house but that I COULD return to their house? (Why him and not me.. I have no idea!)  After this little conversation we left and talked with Jurid.. who we came to find out was from a part member family and that her ex husband was a member and that we could come by and teach her!!!! So we lost Ximena.. but gained Jurid!  So it was a crazy day...  but I feel we did the right thing!  I feel sad about Ximena but at the same time happy we did the right thing and that we found Jurid!  I believe it was the Lord's plan that Ximena found the dog and that she was our investigator too!  It was a crazy, but really good day!  My companion received a call from Ximena's other son Juan, who was a missionary.   Juan proceeded to tell my companion that he was interrupting the Lord's work and that what he did was wrong and all this.. my companion just listened and then said sorry and hung up.  Hahaha, it was hilarious!  Interrupting the work? How is doing the right thing interrupting the work?   Other than this though, the week was really good and really normal! :)  

Adios Elder Chung :( But, I'm Staying in San Felipe!

Myriam's baptism on July 27, 2013. 

Hey guys! Things are really good!  The first baptism was really good! She was happy and the baptism went smoothly:)  Elder Chung did the baptism, and it was his very last one of his mission!  It was terribly sad to leave my first companion... this morning was way difficult. We got along so well and had a good relationship with the people here!  But life and the mission moves on!  My new companion is Elder Chinga from Ecuador.  He is awesome!  He was our zone leader before this transfer and I knew him pretty well so it's not just a random new person that I have to try and develop a relationship with! And yes,  I get to stay here in San Felipe!  It's become my second home :)  It's really so nice! haha I love it here.  The people are so nice and the town is so peaceful and quiet! and I love the food! hahaha Yeah its so true!  Elder Chung was a cook before his mission and cooked us some really amazing and big peruvian dishes!! Plus we have lunch every day with members!  I've learned very quickly to eat everything whether I like it or not.. because after lunch there really isn't time to eat, so the more I can eat at lunch the better I will feel during the day.  I've leanred to love tomatoes and different types of eggs and rice.  They have rice with everything here!   If anyone can, you should sign up for a date to have the missionaries of the area to have dinner or lunch with you!!  I know from experience how nice it is to have actual good, cooked food instead of having to eat fast food every day.

Oh and a funny story!  We were walking down the street the other day and my companion tells me to contact this person that was walking towards us!  I started to talk to him about his family and work and stuff.. but he was acting really weird.  Finally at the end we asked if we could come by his house and talk with him some more and he was silent for a moment and finally said, "ummm.. no I don't like to talk or share with North Americans."  It was silent for a moment, and finally my companion responded and said "que racista!" (how/that's racist) and we walked away hahahahaha it was hilarious!  I wasn't quite sure what to do... good thing Elder Chung was there!  But, yeah things are really good here and the people and ward are doing great :)

Good Things Happening in San Felipe

The weather is crazy here!  The last few days have been FREEZING!!!!!!! but we are managing and things are going really well! :)  Having a latino companion and living with other latinos is really discouraging sometimes... because they only have to focus on the doctrine.  I have to focus on the doctrine, learning the culture here, learning about these people(where they live what they do what they like to talk about their families, etc) Spanish( normal Spanish and Chilean Spanish).   Lots of stuff!  Haha, but it's cool and I really enjoy it :) y si yo puedo hablar muy bueno en espanol. lo es muy facil actualmente. yo tengo que hablar y pensar cada dia en solamente espanol entonces estoy aprendiendo muy rapido. cuando hablo, yo puedo decir que you quiero decir sin dificultades usualmente. :)   But it is very hard to type in Spanish, so I'm going to type the rest in English for the sake of time.  Next Monday will be transfers so my companion will be heading home and I will be receiving a new companion!   My companion now believes that I will be staying here in San Felipe and my new companion will move here with me!  That would be kinda cool since I already know a lot of the people and the bishopric and investigators!  Plus I keep getting told how lucky I am to start here in San Felipe because the Spanish is much slower and easier to understand and learn!  The work is going pretty good here! My Spanish is coming and I can speak pretty easily now.  The words come to mind really quickly but my accent and the conjugations are not always correct... but it will come with time.  I have a good study routine that I have found that works really well.  The people and other missionaries keep telling me and Elder Dykstra that we are leagues ahead of where missionaries usually are at this point in their missions.  That's always a really good confidence booster!!  We also have a baptism this Saturday for Myrian!  My companion says I will be the one doing the baptism so that will be really cool! We did have noche hogar (family home evening) in the house of Cheril (Myriam's daughter)  it was really cool.  Lots of good food and investigators of the other missionaries come which was also really awesome!   All in all things are going really well here and the language and doctrine are coming along!

 Fine Dining Companions!

Shrimp and mushroom ravioli and Arizona fruit soda on the back porch.  Awesome!!!

The Past Week!

Enjoying a burger in Los Andes.

In-grown Toe Nail Surgery!

Things were pretty crazy this week!  First I'll start off by talking about my toe surgery!   We arrived to the doctors office to find that a lot of the doctors don't have the stuff that you need for your surgery so they write you a list with their signatures and you go to the nearest pharmacy and buy all the stuff yourself! Haha it's pretty funny... but we bought the numbing medicine, the needles and syringe and the cleaning medicine and returned.  He injected my toe in 2 places with the numbing medicine and then started to pull the nail out of my skin (only the right side or part of it, not the whole nail, but it was the part that was stuck in my skin).   Let's just say that the numbing medicine was HORRIBLE and I could feel everything except just a little less that normal.  It was terrible... but he cut the right side of the nail off and then wrapped it up and sent me home and I had to rest for the next few days.   The medical system is so different here!  The only really nice thing about it was the doctor who did the surgery is our branch president!  The bad thing about this is that he is a heart doctor.. not a foot doctor!  The more I think about it the more I realize that he probably has never done this before and never studied or anything to do this!  Crazy!  We also had zone conference this week which was pretty awesome!! Really long, but really helpful :)    The work is awesome!  We have 2 with a baptismal date! (Ximena and Myrian) Ximena is great and really wants to be baptized but .... smokes alot!!! We have been trying to help her to quit but its really difficult. The other day we bought nicotine gum for her (which is freaking expensive here!) and made this little cigarette case with pictures of Jesus and scriptures and such haha its pretty cool!  Hopefully this will help her!  Next is Myrian.  She is the mom of a recent convert in the ward.  In two weeks we will have companion changes.. I'm not sure what's going to happen.  I know I will be changed for sure because my companion will be going home!  But I might be staying here in San Felipe or headed to a different sector... but I will be finding out soon!   My last day here could be the 28th,  which is the day that we have out baptisms!!  All in all things are going really well here and I'm improving each and every day!

San Felipe Blues

Four hard-working elders walking the farm roads of El Llano.

The internet is slow here and yeah the rats are interesting... but funny!  The exterminators came this week.  You asked about how long my companion has been out?  I am actually his last companion :) He goes home the 28th of this month! The work is pretty good! We have some progressing investigators right now.   Myriam, Ximena, Roman and Carol.  They are all awesome and really fun to teach and we have 2 baptisms the 28th of this month on our last day in this area :)
Thanks for sending me the books! It's annoying how the mail works so slow here.  I still haven't recieved the package with my drivers license in it.   It's been a good month or more for that stupid package.   Thanks for sharing that information from the lesson last Sunday.  I've really been struggling with confidence this past week and that was exactly what I needed to hear!  Another prayer answered :)   I have an ingrown toe nail that is really infected and hurts when I walk for a while.  So I had to be on antibiotics and inflammatory medicine along with this cream stuff!  Today I ahve to have the nail cut out!  I might only be here for one transfer and this is the last area of my companion, so not sure what's going to happen... things will be fine!

Colo Colo Soccer Fan and Rats..Big Rats!

Elder King and Elder Chung sporting Colo Colo soccer jerseys!

Things are awesome here!  The weather is a good mix between cold and warm, but I'm getting used to it so I don't really notice it anymore.... The days are crazy!  We get up at 7:30 in the morning,   exercise and then have an hour to shower and have breakfast and get changed.  After that we have personal study for 1 hour, then companion for about an hour and a half to 2 hours, then language study, then after that we head to a members house every single day for lunch, then out to work!  We usually have between 2 to 4 scheduled lessons a day and then just contacting and knocking doors!  We have 2 areas, the first is is San Felipe, and the second is out even further in the farm country.  The town is called El Llano!  It's way cool but it is ALOT of walking, and the work is good but hard!  Somedays we will knock the doors of an entire street and not have a single person answer, and other days we will be invited in or be able to schedule appointments for others days with entire streets.  It's really hit or miss!  But the lessons are good and my companion pushes me really hard to improve.    We will be mid-lesson and he will just stop talking/teaching and just look at me:) hahaha and he won't talk, so I have to!  I hated it at first... but now I really like it and it's getting to the point where I will interrupt and say things on my own!!   I use Grandpa's coat almost every single day :) it fits perfect and keeps me really warm!  This week was crazy because we have giant rats in our house that keep eating our food and sneaking into the house!!  We had to throw away most of our food... and then deep clean the entire house and order an exterminator for this next week!  The creepy part about it was the other night I was in the middle of my personal night prayer and the other elders had just turned the music off and started to do the same and then we kept hearing these squeaking noises.... we all finished our prayers and continued to listen to them and looking at each other like what in the world!  We listened closely and heard at least 5 or more rats running around in the ceiling just above all of our beds!  It was gross but pretty awesome too!  By the way,  I bought a new back pack and a soccer jersey to match my companion!  It's for the soccer team Colo Colo.  Haha it's white and pretty sweet! But things are really good here!

1st Area: San Felipe !

Elder King with new companion/trainer Elder Chung from Peru. 

I am in Los Andes!  Somewhat.. it's a town called San Felipe!  It's awesome :) It's a smaller town.  My companion and trainer is again way awesome!  His name is Elder Chung.  He is from Peru, but knows English really well!  I was asked how my Spanish was in my meeting with the president and how I would feel about having a companion who's native language is Spanish but knows pretty good English, and I welcomed the challenge!   He is extremely sarcastic and hilarious!  We get along really well :)   The apartment we live in is more of a house!  We share it with 2 other missionaries!  One from Logan, Utah and the other from Peru as well!  We all are really good friends already! Our house is nothing extremely fancy but not poor either!  We have what we need except... it doesn't have heating!!! So we have to use portable heaters.   Only one can be used at once because it uses too much electricity so it flips the fuse when we have the lights on and the two heaters on... so during personal study in the morning we have to keep switching off having the heater on in our room!   The earthquake last week was AWESOME!  We only felt the after shocks of it and the others were a little scared but I was over flowing with excitement!  They all looked at me so funny!   I had to explain that we don't have anything like this in Utah.  The work is EXTREMELY hard both mentally and physically!  I come home every day completely exhausted from trying to translate everything and the miles and miles that we walk each day.  Check out the giant hot dog!!!  They are called Italianos and they are amazing!  It's a foot long hot dog with avocado, mayo, ketchup, and a spicy sauce that I love.  Easily my favorite food down here by far!

Enjoying an Italiano hot dog.  My favorite food in Chile!

Last Week in the Chile M.T.C.!

A group picture of all of the elders and sister missionaries staying at the mission house called Alcantra with the mission couple Brother and Sister Gilbert on the left side front row.  Elder Jordan King is on the back row, second from the right.

Hey guys!   Yeah, the weeks and days are flying by!  It seems like just yesterday that we were just arriving and now we only have a week left!  We have so much going on this week that it will fly by as well and before we know it we will be in the field!  I also found out that empenadas are amazing!!! It's a really popular food down here in Chile!  Its like a really amazingly good hot pocket!  This week for one of our classes we get to go ride the metro and learn about how to use it!  When we do that we will head into the heart of Santiago!  We got our new roommates!  They are awesome!  Elder Medina from Argentina and Elder Condor from Peru.  They are hilarious!  We have lots of fun hanging around and talking with them!  We went contacting twice this week.  It is much easier than we thought once we relax and just talk to people, and now I'm excited to be able to do it a lot more!   Since we go into the field on Tuesday next week and p days in the field are on Monday, you guys won't hear from me till the week after next week...  but love and miss you guys sooo much!!!  Things are great here and I love it:)

Week 4: Pero Nosotros Son Gringos de Utah! Nosotros No Sabamos Frio!

New Spanish Scriptures!

  We only have 2 weeks left in the MTC!  This week we move up into Spanish only for the remainder or our stay in the MTC, and the investigators are really difficult so we have to work pretty hard with them!   The weather is amazing here!   Usually not a cloud in the sky and it feels about 60 degrees or so.  Haha we love the weather!   Everybody else is cold though... pero nosotros son gringos de Utah! nosotros no sabamos frio!  Everybody thinks the house we are staying in is haunted!  The cold water keeps getting turned off somehow.  The knobs to turn it off are pretty difficult to get to and nobody is owning up to turning it off.  A few weeks ago, a girl couldn't sleep for like a week because she said she felt a "presence"watching her the entire time.  It was way creepy! I bought some scriptures in Spanish, and a Spanish hymn book, and today I bought a Libro de Mormon book so I can keep that one in its own case.  The books are weird here! They don't have quads. The Bible is separate and the b.o.m., pearl, and D&C are in a triple combo!  My new case is way cool though! It has a llama on it :) hahaha  I'll send a picture home!  Oh, and today during our P day we got insulted for the first time!!  It was awesome!  As we walked past, this guy yells in perfect English, which was weird... but he yelled, ¨Go back to Utah!¨ hahaha...We all just laughed because it was pretty funny!   Love you all and miss you guys!! Can't wait to hear from you and talk to you again next week :) Things are amazing here and I love every minute of this experience!  -Elder ¨ Rey ¨

Week 3 : King Kong!

Elder King "Kong" and Elder Bennett with their Latino companions from their district.

Things are going really well here.  The Latinos love to talk to me and they also call me King Kong since I'm so giant here!   I'm literally taller than everybody here including all the teachers and all the missionaries!  It's pretty sweet :) I definitely stand out!  We just switched out the last group of Latinos for the new group.  I loved them and it really sucked to see them go, but this new group is also amazing!   I get along with the Latinos well and they love me!  Haha... probably has to do with my last name.  They always yell "Elder Rey!"(Rey means king in Spanish!)   They love it!  They are amazing people and the love they have for the gospel and the things they have had to give up to become missionaries is insane.  One of our new roommates,  Elder Monrroy, had to chose between his house or the mission.  His dad is not LDS and didn't want him to go, so he kicked him out of the house when he decided to go on the mission. He is such an example to me of the pure love of Christ and the sacrifices we all make.  We got all new teachers this week!  They are very tough but still way good!  We are learning a lot!  These teachers focus more on the basics of language structure and then the more advanced teaching tactics!  My testimony and love for the gospel grows every day!  I never was to motivated to do a lot of things before, but here, I'm so motivated each and every day to learn the gospel and teach people!  It's so nice!  It makes getting up early so much easier! Sundays are the best day since everything is in English, so we can just relax and pay attention to the message :)  

Week 2 News from Chile!

Traveling each day from the mission home to the language training center on the mission bus!

From Elder King's week 2 email message:

The schedule is so busy here the days fly by!  We didn't even realize what day it was this week till it was Sunday and that it was over!  There really is no free time.. but i love it :) The schedule is awesome I seeing myself progress each day and that makes it even better!  We got to go through the temple this last Wednesday!  IT WAS AMAZING :)  Soooo different than the temples back home... maybe half the size? But it was amazing.  One of the latino elders I'm really close with asked me to be his escort which was very amazing and humbling!  Almost all of the latinos here have never been through the temple.. I had no idea you were allowed to be a missionary and go through all the stuff we have to do without the temple endowments.  But it was amazing to see their faces!  District leader is still awesome!  Its a lot more stress having to watch out for all of them, myself, and prepare more lessons than the 3 that I already have to prepare each day... but it helps me grow a lot and I love the extra responsibility.  My testimony grows each and every day and I have grown to love the people and the gospel here more than I even thought possible!  The blessings I've received from teaching and with the gift of tongues is amazing as well.   Scripture for you guys is  1 Nephi 5: 8.  Think about it with me and my soon to be missionary little brother Braden in mind. 

1st P-Day Email! - with pictures:)

Finally made it to Chile!  Elder King at the mission home in Santiago.  He loves the MTC experience.  Information from his first p-day email:
Hey guys!!!! this place is amazing!  i dont have much time so im just going to randomly say as much as possible so i dont run out of time! we only have 30minutes to write.... we are the first group ever to stay in EL Cantera    which is the name of the mission home we are staying at!   there are like 40 of us in the house and its was big! and very pretty!!   there are alot of latinos and latinas and they are so awesome!!! they are amazed at us haha we stand out quite a bit!   me and the three others,  two of them you met at the airport in utah, are our own district! and.... Im the District Leader :)  its a lot of responsibility but really awesome and really a big blessing to be!  i have to teach sunday school on sundays to my disctrict which isnt too bad since there is only 4 of us, but its still a little scary but way good to learn!  ive got a new found confidence since coming to the mtc!  im alwasy answering questions, always participating in front of everybody and always volunteering! plus... on sunday i was the first and 1 of 3 americans or gringos and we get called sometimes haha  but i was the first one to bear my testimoney   and i did it in spanish! haha it was way cool!  the spanish is getting there.... its still very hard to communicate with the people here.. we can only pick out words here and there in the sentences and then guess what the person was saying! they didnt really teach us sentence structure so our spanish is very rough when we answer back but its understandable so it works!!   we are learning though and greatly improving each day, we can all now bear our testimonies and pray and give basic lessons plus ask the more commoon questoins and introductions and such!  its very nice to be able to talk to people though!   Chile is amazing! extremely modern and extremely busy!

First Companion!

First email from Chile:  May 8, 2013:

Hey guys they gave us a little time to email our families before we start going with everything here soon, things are pretty crazy here haha the drivers are TERRIBLE. we{ve almost got into crashes mutliple times it seems like but the drivers just act normal like it happens like this everyday haha the weather is amazing, no wind, no cold air, no bugs and no clouds.  just really warm and sunny weather.   The mtc in directly across from the temple but that housing is for the locals and those that are advanced in spanish, me and the rest of the north americans(we are the first ones ever to be here in this house) are staying in the mission home, there is a picture of it when you search about the mission on the internet.  We started a little of the language today and got all the books we will be needing for the work.  A lot of information haha  but my companion, elder bennett, (the one from morgan) is really awesome   we get along well so far!   have to go now for dinner and some big fireside thing with all the people staying at the house.. there are i think 29 sister missionarys and 11 elders haha we are outnumbered... Miss you guys and hope to hear from ya soon!  Love ya all

Elder Bennett is the elder on the left.  Elder Osbourn is on the right.  They flew to Chile together on May 7, 2013.

Mission Departure Date

May 7, 2013:  Saying goodbye at the SLC airport.  Jordan flies to Chile MTC at 1:00 p.m. We are smiling on the outside...