Week 11 Slowly getting Warmer

Hello everybody! :)

Sounds like from this week, it was pretty great at home! Here in Chilly?? Yeah, well its Chile. Hahahaha So saying its Chilly still in Chile, not getting Chilly, but it is Chilly. We only have like one or two more days worth of firewood, but we are seeing how long we can make it last, before we have to suffer the cold until it warms up completely! It is slowly getting warmer though! :)

This past week has been pretty sweet! We went out contacting on Tuesday, because I told Elder Walker I wanted to have that experience, and I thought it was great! We met three new people who we want to hopefully go back and teach! 

One lady her name is Silvia, her and her family just moved here. I am hoping we can go back and help them move in, but we'll see, when we went back to follow up on them, her husband says they were to busy to talk to us, which is usually just the nice way for saying "Go away we don't want to hear what you have to say" which was kinda a bummer, but hopefully we will go and talk to them again! 

We also met a man named David, who was doing some tile work outside his house, so we started to talk to him a little bit, and we asked if we could come back later, he said for sure! They are evangelical or however you spell it... But each time we have gone back, they are sitting there in front of the window, and when they see us come, they look at us, then turn around and don't answer the door, so yet again another bummer.

The third person, I still don't know her name, because it is something super crazy! But she runs a shop outside of her house, where you can buy bread, drinks, or other little household daily needs. We started to talk to her (she was a reference) and we found out that her mom is a menos activo. But she said they are really busy with the little shop, so when ever we are over there, to stop inside and leave a little message with her. So I think she is the best we met from the other day! We will probably go talk to her tonight, when we go drop off our laundry.

Wednesday we had District meeting, and I suggested that we do something more with contacting, because we don't ever do it. So I got a new goal made for our district and that was 30 hours total of contacting in a week, each companionship to do 10 hours. I don't think we will make it, because we are so busy with all the other stuff, so we are going to need to drop that goal down a little bit... :/

After District Meeting we started our Inner Cambios. I went with Elder Gubler and Elder Nielson went with Elder Walker. It was a crazy day. Their Sector is so much bigger then ours. It was super cool to see it though, one cool experience, we went out and were contacting and one door Elder Gubler knocked on the door and said "Good Luck" we heard some noise in the house and saw smoke from the chimney so we knew they were home. This lady came to the window and was scowling, we smiled and waved and then she came to the door. When she opened up, she definitely wasn´t happy but I started out the whole schpeil of "Hi we are missionaries.. of the... ummmm  Church of. uhh Jesus Christ. ufff Saints....." she ended up finishing what I had to say, and we were both really confused. She knew who we were! She ended up explaining that she was a member of the church, had moved to this house 15 years ago, and hadn't gone to church since! So we kept on talking to her, and they set up something for the other missionaries to go back to her this Wednesday, and by the time we left, we had her laughing and smiling! It was super cool!! :)

That was pretty much all the exciting news from this week, not a ton really happened! It has been a super slow week, and I am sure this next week will be even slower! 

Conference on Saturday, I am SOOO excited! We were planning on watching it in English at the Stake center with all the Gringo missionaries, but then our ward is now broadcasting it there for the first time. So we want to support them. So on Saturday we are watching it all in Spanish, and then Sunday in English. So I am gonna need that Ensign pretty fast after it comes out. 

Sounds like the Womans Conference was pretty exciting! Oh yeah, something else happened! On Saturday we went back and finished the wood at that ladies house, it took us 5 hours, but we got it all done. By the end I had the biggest knot in my back that has been building up for the past couple weeks, and poor Elder Walkers hands were all blistered up super badly! Then that night, we cleaned the church with the Chaipul family and the bishop while Mamita Chaipul was at the womans conference. 

With conference we get to watch it live! So we will be watching it at 1-3pm 5-7pm and priesthood at 9-11pm! Woot! That means we get to go to bed late Saturday night!! Just kidding... That means less sleep... :/ and same times for Sunday!

Well, this is my last email at the age of 18... Next Monday I will be 19! Where did the last year go?? I remember just a couple months ago I was still a senior at Murray High. Now I am a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ. Could you possibly do me a favor and throw up a status on Facebook and say it is my birthday, and tell people to email me?? That would be sweet! :) 

I Love you all so much! Have an awesome week! 

Love, 

Elder Connor Gordon Holt

This is Chile. The River is Shaped like a U and the inside of the U of Rahue Alto and it goes up higher.  On the other side of the U is Osorno!

Next to the river were some Cows, they wouldn't let me get very close, but I tried ! So I couldn't give them the Book of Mormon...:/

Dragon Ball Z pic: When being a Missionary, we have the Power of a Super Saiyan

The VooDoo Doll of our District Leader Elder Gubler, who was sacrificed on the inner Cambrio with the Zone Leader the other day.

Week 10 Un Trunkie Semana de Fiestas

Well well well, Hello Family (in a tipsie drunk kinda way)

How was your last week...? :) 

Mine, DEFINITELY was a FIESTA! 

First off... Bummer the Y lost the Holy War. Again... But still, BLUE UNTIL I'M DEAD! :)

We pretty much did NO work once Wednesday hit.... It was the Independence of Chile, and since apparently all the Drunks are out on the 18th of September we are not *Allowed* to go out and work! Unless we have something set up prior to going out and working on the 18th, 19th, or 20th. So we had tres days of fiestas! :) 

I don't know what Chicken picture you are talking about... It must of been from Wednesday though, we went over to the Chaipuls, who live on a small part of the campa (country) in our sector, so that is where all the country pictures come from! We went and had a big lunch with their family and the bishop's family. Which in total consisted of like.... 11 of us I believe! It was pretty sweet! We ate Lots of Pork and some Chicken as well, we barbecued it, but it definitely wasn't an American BBQ because we are in Chile, obviously, but they didn't have any of our good BBQ sauce, but it was still pretty dang good! When after the prayer was offered my plate was stacked with three different HUGE pieces of meat, which was a big meal! The 11 of us were all stuffed around a table probably meant for 5-6 at most... So it was super crammed but it was super fun! Then after that, we went and took naps back at the house, well... Elder Walker napped, while Elder Holt cleaned Mold. We decided we were gonna move rooms, to a warmer room, because our room has a broken window so it is always super cold during the night and when we crawl out of bed. So we moved rooms to a MUCH smaller room that had mold on the ceiling and a little on the walls, so I scrubbed for two hours and cleaned it up! :) I figure I am pretty good at cleaning mold, although I only got half of the room! 

Then on Thursday, we had a Ward party for the Holiday! Now, you are probably thinking that it was something like our Ward Christmas party and what not... Nope. Not at all. In Utah the ward Christmas Party usually consists of Dinner and maybe a little singing and is over in an hour and a half two hours max. Here, we left our house at 9:30 in the morning and helped set up, we got there set up and people started to show up at 10. Then because lunch wasn't served until later, we went over to Mamita's and had lunch with Elder Carlile, and Elder Barney. (Mamita is kinda inactive and thinks anything besides sacrament is dumb) So we were there and had a pretty big lunch. Then by the time we got back over to the Ward, food was starting to get served over there. We weren't going to sit down because we had to go into Osorno, and have Interviews with the President in like a half hour, but we ended up being forced into sitting down, so I was planning on just having a glass of soda, but then all of a sudden a HUGE piece of pork was placed in front of me. So here I go again... Eating even more food. By the time I had finished it, we made a break for the door, and took off and found a collectivo to get down town! 

Oh yeah, I haven't told you about collectivos yet! They are like Taxi's, we have to pay $450 pesos per person which is just under a dollar in the US. People here in Chile are lazy and don't want to work, so they choose their own schedule, but renting the car, and then paying the fee at the end of the day. They keep all the money they earn from giving people rides! 

Anyways, so we rode into Osorno and went to the Mission home, and it was super sweet! We had questions ready to talk to President Rappleye about, and something oool about him, is he started the church in the Dominican Republic and now this next cambio, there is a missionary from the Dominican Republic coming to our mission, and he knows his grand parents! I thought that was super cool! While Elder Walker was in there I talked with Sister Rappleye and she taught me how to sew. I told her I already knew how to do a button, so she told me how to fix a himm. (however you spell it) but what I really needed was how to fix a seem, because the seem under my left pocket on one of the pairs on my pants and my suit pants has started to come apart. But we had a nice conversation, and at the end, when our whole district was there because Elder Walker and I both took like 45 minutes when interviews should only be like 15 minutes Sister Rappleye gave me a card and a loaf of Banana bread and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me! So that was cool! 

After the interviews we went back over to the church, (in relaxing clothes) and then the parties were still going on! We played Basketball, Ping Pong, Karaoke, ate more... and it was just a super fun day! At the end of the day, when we were helping clean up, the bishops daughter was still playing music, and the Harlem shake came on, and I started dancing! So we took our plates in our hands downstairs, and then when we came back up, everyone was sitting at the table, and said we were gonna do a Harlem shake! So I gave my camera to the bishops daughter, and we did a HARLEM SHAKE! It was So awesome! Brought me back to last winter when Erik and I were so hooked on them! :) (I definitely pulled the "tool" move and did push ups...) Then to finish off the day, there was Fireworks! They started at 9 in downtown Osorno (The only place in Chile to light fireworks for the holiday) and we noticed the time was 9:03 and we were still at the church, so we Ran over to the other guys sector and met up with the other elders, and watched a good 20 minutes of fireworks! It was super awesome! Made me think of the 4th! I am going back there on Wednesday when I go on an inner cambio (splits) with the District Leader to take a picture of the scene because it will show all of Osorno! Super Excited! 

Then on Friday we went over to the other Elders around 1030 and made shish-kabobs outside their house, it was awesome! We made enough so we could all have one of pork and pineapple. (I am the BIGGEST idiot for never eating BBQ pineapple before the mission, it is AMAZING) then we made like 40 of pork, green peppers, sausage. Then when it was finally time to eat, there was the shish-kabobs, LOTS of soda, (Chileans REALLY like Soda) ummm and lots of other food. I hate saying No when people offer me food, because I feel like it will offend them, so they just kept offering me food, I ended up eating three shish-kabobs, two salads, like 3 glasses of soda, and a big sausage... We were ALL so Full around 2:45 when we left, and all of us Rolled All the way back down the street to our house, where Elder Walker went right to bed, and I fought the drowsiness and cleaned the other half of the room, and put my bed in there, then fell asleep for 15 minutes before we left to go pick up our laundry. 

Anyways, that was the just of our week. It was super fun! and filled with LOTS of food! :) 

Now to answer questions.

 First off the Crazy Cat lady is named Ruth, she lives with her Son Christian who is 19 and is the Biggest Nerd I have ever seen, but I love them both! Ruth's husband was super abusive, and ended up leaving her, she only has like 5 teeth, she has 4 cats (that stink up the house) and a bird named Anderson. The only reason I call her the cat lady is because the cats make her house smell, but she really is crazy. When the two little cats try and go outside she screams something in Spanish that is like (THE DOGS WILL EAT YOU!!!) but she is in Love with Elder Walker, and so when we get here to come to church, she always sits by us! 

What is your username for dropbox? I got on mine last week, but I think yours may have more memory?? Not sure... 

That drawing does look like me! ;) It looks WAY good though, when I thought about it, we have a really artistic family on the Hales side! But if you want it to look more like me, it needs some more abs... ;) But the pecs are about what mine look like now! ;) LOL by the way, every time you say LOL I still think of what you first thought it meant.. Lots of Love... :D

Wow... Robbie is already home?!?!?! Where does the time go! Not only that. But I have been in Chile for a Month! Feels like I left home last week! Not over 70 days ago.. so Crazy! 

The wood burning stove is only at members houses, sometimes they have some gas stuff, we have a gas stove, but it is hooked up to the gas we use to heat up our shower as well.. So we don't use it that much, but I bought eggs today! :)

Something you guys should try and find in the States is a thing called "Manjar" it is like peanut butter and tastes AMAZING it is a caramel cream kinda stuff, and is WAY good! :)

Um, if you could possibly send a package before December with one small thing. A Fabric Pen, and a list of all the Missionaries in the ward, and their address? That would be Awesome! Then I can send this tie out! 

We don't do much tracting in the Sector I am in now, because our thoughts are "Why baptize someone into failure?" Our leaders of the church are not very good. But that was something that we talked to the president about. So we are focusing a lot on reactivating, with finding new people through members here in Camino Real.

Scriptures?? Well, you are way past me! I am only in 1 Nephi 13 in English, but this past week I whipped out the Liahona from 2010 May conference, I never realized how AMAZING these are, Elder Bednar said in a devo in the MTC that if you don't know what the prophets are saying today, its like not knowing what is in the Book of Mormon, they talk, and it is modern rev. There have been some amazing things in this edition, that have answered some of my prayers! 

Super funny about Brother Schafer, but as I said before BLUE TILL I'M DEAD!

Dad, of course I am Loving it out here! :) 

Some things about Osorno, well it is located in Chile, and is Super Cold, but it is starting to warm up. The people are Super nice, and Love me and Elder Walker, so we get lots of benefits like food. My companion played Basketball before the mission he is 6'5 and my district leader wants to try out for the BYU team he is 6'8. 

Okay, I think that is everything. With the hour of all my time. I Love you all, and you are in my prayers! Hope everything back home is Amazing as ever!

From the South Pole,

Elder Holt

The room of Mold...That's what I did in two hours,but it is now where we are sleeping

This was at the ward party. The flag behind us is now in our new room!

Yes, I am in Chile, and I Do wear Chilean Clothes!

P.S. Mom I Love you! :) 

Week 9 Preparations for the party

Hello my Fans from Home,

That was kinda fun to say... :) How are things? From the sounds of all the emails, things are going great! :) 

To answer your questions:

First, if you think the mold is bad, the stuff in the bathroom isn't as bad as on our ceiling in our rooms, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is some in the kitchen. The new findings in the bathroom are the mushrooms that grow in all sorts of different places on the floor! :) That is fun stuff! Maybe we'll fry em and eat em for once one night! (just kidding don't have a heart attack...) and there is a window in there that is always open because it is broken I think.

Mamita? No we don't pay her, it is her calling I think? I think maybe the church might pay her? I know they pay her for the Missionaries that live in the house on their property. The missionaries who live on their Property are Elder Carlisle and Elder Barney.

I think you must have sent it to the Mission Office, that is where all the mail goes. The whole Casilla 7-0 address is the office I think. But of course I will enjoy my B-day... because its on a P-day!! :) (Perfect)

So the guys we live with, their names are Elder Nielson (short one) Elder Goobler (tall one) and the hermanas in our district are Hermana Florez and Hermana Sumaran.

So this past week has... Hmmmm well it went by slow and fast. On the daily super slow, but when I look back at it, no idea where it went! 

On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we couldn't be out when it was dark, because things were suppose to get sketchy. Like 30 years ago there was a dictator here in Chile that overthrew the government and so every year, the first night, everyone riots and the people who support the dictator fight the people who don't support him. Why? Good question, I still don't even know. Then the second night, everyone gets Drunk. Party! So we would work all that we could during the day, and then at night, we came back and partied early (by going to bed super early.) Although Tuesday night neither Elder Walker or I slept very much because well. Let me explain, that day we were walking on the far side of the sector and an less active member's dog started to follow us, and ended up following us all the way home. NONE of the other dogs liked this and barked at us the entire day. We figured once we went inside, it would leave! Nope. It was there an hour later, when we went to Once with the Chaipuls who live on the compound, (farm land) and EVERY dog barked. SO Loud! One dog started and it started the chain for every other dog to know a new dog was hitting up their territory. So after Once, we went back home, and Negra (we found out the name at the Chaipuls home) followed us. We named the dog Oso which is Bear in English cause it was big! It was a dog a little bigger than Becky and looked just like Becky but with shaggy hair. SUPER friendly so I loved it! But the dog followed us home that night, and we went to bed, and the dogs that live on our street weren't happy. Every time Negra moved that night, the dogs came running down the street barking, and the walls of the houses are super thin, so we kept waking up all night long.... Anyways, Negra was still there in the morning and followed the other Elders to District meeting, when we showed up, she was sitting outside the doors at the church. After we left, she was still there and followed us to Mamita's for lunch. We were going to give her a piece of Pan (bread) to eat, but we found out that Mamita's daughter chased Negra away. We thought Negra was lost forever and felt bad, because she wasn't ours. But we found out on Saturday, that somehow she made it the twenty minute walk to the other side of the sector back to her house. Thank Goodness! 

Then lets see.... On Thursday we did some service for the Chaipul family, it was a party I guess, it was raining and we cleaned up their yard of trash so they can build a new chicken coop or something like that.

Friday, we did more service in the after noon, Since everyone uses firewood, we went to Ruth's house (The crazy cat lady) and helped her son Christian move a huge pile of wood to their wood shed and stack it. That took like a half hour, then we went over to the family Supovida and did the same thing, this time just Elder Walker and I, but the wood pile was like twice the size, so it took like an hour and a half. Our backs were dead after, and our shirts were super dirty! Then once we were done there we went over to the Chaipuls and hauled the trash from the day before to street so it could be taken for trash on Saturday. Then we had Once with the family, which was sweet! And then Camilla (one of their daughters) made me eat a lemon. We put salt on it which was a different thing I had never tried before. Not my favorite but it was not bad! 

Saturday, we went over to the church and helped the Youth make Empanadas for two hours, so they could sell them to people to raise money for a Temple trip up to Santiago the first week of October! That was fun because we listened to lots of English Music from our High school days... (so long ago.) ;) But we were happy with it! After, we went to a less active member who I had never seen before at church, she had a wood pile that was bigger then either of the piles on Friday, but there we had to chop it all. It was us, and an Old man in the ward. The Old man amazed me. When he chopped he made it look like a butter knife and butter. It took me a while to get use to it, but once I figured out what "Fuerza" which means Strength meant. Then I used all my strength and sooner than later my chops were going into a harder butter but becoming like the old man's chops. It was pretty sweet! When I got tired, I started to think that I was Wolverine, and would get the muscles like him... ;) It took us a good 3 hours and we only got 1/3 of the pile done. So we are going back some other Saturday to finish, hopefully more people show up. After we were done with our labor, hot and tired. We received a glass. Then she brought out a bottle of water, which we found out happened to be carbonated water. I found out very quickly that many people enjoy Carbonated water... It was pretty hard to get down, and because she offered me a second glass and I didn't want to offend her, I chugged it down real fast! 

But that was pretty much our week! That is super crazy to hear about the two boys, But we now know they are in a better place, and this kid is for sure jealous. 

I am not positive about the sleeping bag. I will have to look harder. But it is maybe a little bigger than Smith's. It isn't too big of a store. I definitely don't want to get a used one, because it could have fleas.

I Love hearing from the real world, it is one of my highlights of the week! :) SO yes, don't stop writing me! :)

I Love you guys,

From the South Pole,

Elder Holt

P.S.

What is the Walker's nephews name??

How is Brother Jacbosen doing??

There are Hawks EVERYWHERE HERE.

In the next package, could you send me two flash drives? 

On one with only church music like motab and what not. and on the other put on music from LotR, Star wars, Tron, Inception, Harry Potter, Halo, Fable. Ask Brandon to do it when you get a chance, thanks! 

The mushrooms from our bathroom

I did the Lemon Challenge

Reflections of Heaven

Week 8 Two Months Down (Shoot)

Hello Family and Friends,

How are things up North?? Where it is only beginning to get cold?? Here, yes to answer your question, it is cold. The picture from last week was taken in the two hour period we saw the sun, past that we have only seen the sun like maybe one other time for maybe like 5 minutes or so. In the mornings when we crawl out of bed it is FREEZING, until we get our fire started, then within the hour we will be warm. So we all kinda work out while someone makes the fire, I guess that the shower that doesn't get super hot kinda helps us get warm as well. I haven't bought a jacket yet, but I am sure that on Thursday when I hope to buy it from a local Farmers market kinda place for super cheap, that it will help me with the warmth. 

A little bit about Chile, yes, it is Gorgeous, but right now it is still technically winter, it doesn't become spring until September 29th. Yesterday was Day light savings, so yet again I lost another hour of sleep, when I come home to Utah, I am going to gain like 7 hours, it will be AWESOME! It also pretty much Rains every single day! The rain isn't like Utah or Mexico rain, it rains semi hard all day and the wind picks it up and soaks you. I hear its like three times as bad in the winter...

My Companion, I can't believe I forgot to tell you about him last week, ha just kidding, I did't have a lot of time so I was rushing it. Um, he is Super cool! I Love the kid! His name is Elder Connor Walker, and he is from Provo Utah. He graduated in 2012 and is taller then me, so yes, that would be him in that picture with me and the president! Speaking of, you should put that picture and the letter on the blog if you haven't already! 

I didn't end up playing in sacrament (thank goodness) I am still practicing to though...

Our House? Well, I walked in and it had a funny smell, but I found out that it was Mold, hahaha there is mold everywhere, the bath room where we shower is disgusting, there is mold on the ceiling where I sleep, but I love the little house, it has LOTS of things broken, from a previous elder the cambio (transfer) before us. He had some anger issues and when he would get mad, he would take it out on the house, so many of the windows and door handles are broken... But it does its purpose and keeps us warm (when the fire is going) 

I called her a mamacita last week, which is what we called them in the CCM thinking that is what they are called, I learned last week. That is NOT what they are called. I think I knew that when I emailed you but I wrote mamacita, they are a mamita (little mother) where as mamacita is (sexy mama) yeah... Not a mamacita hahahaha ;) But we eat with mamita and papito every day except Monday (p-day) and Sunday (members day) and it is kinda like a calling for them to feed us lunch (but in Chile is pretty much dinner, it is the biggest meal) and then we have once with a member usually most nights and we have our own breakfast. It is pretty nice, I mean you thought I was going to have to cook while I was out here... ;) The most I do is poor milk on my cereal in the morning. Then even better, there is another mamita, who is called to do our Laundry, we have one who does our Garments, and another who does the rest of the clothes. So pretty much, on P-day we just party it up. I Love it here! Oh and the mamita that feeds us has done it for 13 years.

No, you can't throw away my Matè because I will drink it all within the first week when I get home, here. We are not aloud to drink Matè... Or play soccer. So I will drink it all when I get home, but I drink Ecco and Herbal Tea instead with all the members, when they all drink their Matè. Ecco is okay to drink, because it is what we give to people who drink Coffee becoming a member of the church, they can`t drink coffee anymore, so we give em Ecco. It is made from cereal, and it tastes like that one cereal you use to buy along time ago made in those big bags like marshmallow maties that is called "something puffs" and looks like little sea shells, do you remember the name?? It is driving me crazy... 

Past that, not much has really happened this week, although I did have a sweet bonding experience with some of the members. One of the youth is learning to play the piano, so when we were at their house for Once Elder Walker told them I play. So her mom wanted me to show them that I play, and so we went to the piano, and her and I played that really simple duet piece where the person places the 4 chords on the lower keys and the person on the higher keys plays with one hand the little melody. (Don't know how to explain it over email...) 

Then the other experience was on Friday night, Elder Walker and I attended a Stake Youth activity to support our ward and talk with the girl who I played piano with friend (new investigator) Each ward`s youth made a video message, and was judged, the winning ward received 20mil ($40.00). Our message was super long and I didn't understand, but I did understand most of them. But there was a message from another ward that was all on Celestial Marriage and repenting of your sins to be worthy. It was Super cool, and boy did the Spirit hit me up and confirm to me that one day I REALLY want to be Sealed for Eternity with my Wife in the Temple. :) 

Oh and today! When we went to Lider to buy our food, I weighed myself, and I found out I weigh 73,000 kg which is about 161 lbs. Sweet! I have gained 6 lbs in 2 months! I have NEVER weighed this much! I don't know if that is from the food or from the 70 push ups/sit ups every morning... I mean, I can see that coming along as well... ;) 

Anyways I think that is about all I have this week. I Love you all, and hope things are going well for you! :) 

Love Always, 

Elder Holt 

p.s.

What was the decision about Syria and USA going to War?! and in my thinking it is a lot harder to understand the Chileans over the Mexicans because they speak SOOO FAST and they Mumble a lot more! But I am starting to catch more words! :)

Me and my Mamita

Our home

I found a new friend named Wilbur. (Actually this was really hard to get, he kept running everywhere.)

My district, the other two elders live with us. Me, Elder Walker, Elder Nielson, Elder Goobler, Hermana Florez, and Hermana Sumaran.

He made it to Chile, letter from the Mission Pres.

Dear Family of Elder Holt,
We are pleased to inform that your son has arrived safe and sound and smiling to the Chile Osorno Mission.  It was a pleasure for us to greet your son upon his arrival and feel his desire to serve.  Enclosed is a picture that we took with him shortly after his arrival. Your son's address during his time in the mission will be:
 Mission Chile Osorno  
 Elder  Connor Holt
 Casilla 7-0
 Osorno, Chile
  Sister Rappleye and I love our missionaries and are truly happy to have the opportunity to work with your son.  We appreciate your willingness to share him with us as he works as a missionary and ambassador for the Lord in Chile.  Sharing the gospel with these deserving children of our Father in Heaven will certainly bring great joy and satisfaction to him, and to you as well.  Thank you so much for helping him get to this point.
  Please write him regularly–at least once a week.  Your love, interest, and support will be of great help to him.  Should there be any emergency or if you desire information regarding any urgent situation, please feel free to contact the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City rather than go to the expense of phoning the mission here in Chile. 
  The missionary work is progressing rapidly here in southern Chile, and I hope that you will share in his exciting mission experience as he writes to you weekly and keeps you informed of his challenges and achievements and experiences.
Sincerely,
President John E. Rappleye
Chile Osorno Mission

President and Sister Rappleye, Elder Holt and his trainer, Elder Walker

Week Seven Chile is Chilly

Hello Family and Friends de la fabrica,

¿Qué es la fabrica? Well, la fabrica is what you call a factory. It is what people say I am from, every time I tell someone I am from Utah. Hahaha :)

First Off... I LOVE IT HERE! This was where I was meant to serve! It is Amazing! The people are sooo cool! The buildings are sweet! Our house is... well.... yeah. We'll get to that later! 

Yes, the coat does have a jacket on the inside! But I wear them both when I go outside! But when I am at the house I just wear my thermal top and my pjs. So I need to get a jacket, because the jacket on the inside of my coat is huge! But I am very thankful for it, because the rain jacket they gave to us here is pretty sweet I guess, but it isn't for warmth at all! 

That's sweet about Josh! Since Jeff got welcomed by Elder Thomas Rodreguis (butchered that name) but that is way cool that they both got to see each other!! 

P day is obviously Monday, and it will probably be more like this of me writing you in the afternoon, because at least for the next 12 weeks we come in the morning and print off the letters and then come back and write later in the day, because we only have an hour to write every day. They just changed the rule a week before we got to Chile, you use to only be able to write for 45 minutes and only the president and your family, but now it is your president and your family and then everyone else in an hour, so my fingers are hurting because I am typing super fast! But don't worry, Family is ALWAYS first! 

Sounds like Jen had a fun birthday! I was thinking about her the other day, must have been her birthday! 

Okay... Drum roll please...

I am in Chile....

Hahahaha just kiddding! I am in Chile, but I am still in Osorno! :) I am on the other side of Osorno is a place called Rahue, I am serving in the Camino Real ward which translates into "the real way" yeah, what can I say? Its the best ward! 

My Trainers name is Elder Walker, he is super cool! Love the guy, and guess what... His name is Connor! See that??  "OR" he spells it the right way as well! He is such a sweet guy! Him and I are super similar!! 

The people here are Awesome! I Love them! They are so nice! Probably only because I am a Gringo, but if that's what it means to be a gringo... I Love it! :) 

Um the meals here are pretty different, we eat a little breakfast, then we study until Lunch, where we go to our Mamacita's house, (Little Mother) where we eat lunch with Mamacita, Papacito, Elder Carlise, and Elder Barney. It is one of my Favorite times of the day because her food is so good! I always take seconds, because if no one does, she gets upset and complains that no one liked her food. Then at night time we usually teach a member and have what is called "Once" which pretty much means bread and whatever. So it could be meat or jelly or yeah... I LOVE IT! Also, I met my best friend. It is called Echo,  I hear it is up in the states, but now I can drink coffee without drinking coffee! It tastes just like it! Oh yeah.... We can't have Matè... :((( But that is okay we can have herbal tea! So I am okay with my Echo and Herbal Tea. 

Cool experience from last night! We were teaching a member, and well... Okay, I was trying to catch what was being said, since it is pretty hard... But at the end of the lesson, I was told to give the family a scripture, so I whipped out my English Book of Mormon and looked up a scripture then pulled out my Spanish scriptures. I said a small prayer in my heart that the scripture I would choose would help the man and his trials. So when I had flipped through half of the Book of Mormon I stopped at what I think is Alma 26:12 (I am pretty sure) then I had him read it, and then I read Philippians 4:13 and bore my testimony that I knew Christ is always here to help us, and that we can do anything through Christ! I know that to be a fact! That is how I communicate with people (and LOTS of Sign Language) but I know that through Christ our Message will touch their hearts, and that is EXACTLY what it did last night, he told Elder Walker, that I Must have the Spirit with me, because I couldn't understand a thing going on the entire time they talked, and I had touched his family with just what they needed to hear! It was AWESOME! The Church IS True! I Love it so much!

I am So glad to be down here! I kinda forget that I have a family during the week, even only being here a week, I feel like this is my home... If I am not home in two years... Well, I'll be in Chile! ;) 

Oh yeah, and the music thing? Well I dunno about any rule... But I had to fill out a music paper thing, and then when Elder Walker found out I could play the piano (even a little bit) He told me I am going to be playing the piano for the sacrament... (here is your cliche thing) "Mom why did I stop playing piano?!" Ha its okay I practice every day pretty much even if its for like 5 or 10 minutes. 

Um also I am in a ward, and there are about 70 that are active, but with the baby blessing, yesterday we had about 80! 

I Love you all! 

Peace out from Chile for another week,

Elder Holt

This is the farm outside our house

A bird named Anderson. Named after an elder who baptized the crazy cat's son (more on that later)