Week 14

 This week was super good. I didnt even know there was an earthquake until we went to a members home and it was on the news. We didnt feel anything in the area where we are at. I was a little sad, I kind of want to experience an earthquake but I dont want our house to break or anything, maybe just a small one. It has been really hot during the day still. My companion and I bought some hats for some protection but now people think we are Jehovahs Witnesses, because there is a JW church in our sector and all of their members wear hats like the ones we bought. My companion and I watched this video on the LDS website by Elder Bednar titled Being an Agent to Act and it was super good. He talked about how our main purpose here in mortality is to learn, and we learn in such a way here that we couldnt have learned in premortality. The lessons here prepare us for eternity. We progress step by step, a little bit at a time.

     We set baptism dates for this family we are teaching and they attended Sacrament Meeting with us which shows they are committed as of right now. Also during Sacrament Meeting this week there was this kid who could not sit down, he just kept running around the chapel. His mom gave him cookies to try and keep him quite, he took the cookies and then started going around asking everyone if they wanted one, which is really cool of him to do, but it was still super distracting. 

      Another question someone asked me in English "What time is your name?" I tried so hard not to laugh. They also call me John Wayne because of the hat I have.

       Thats so crazy that Trump won! Im glad Im here for the next two years. I dont know if I will come back to the US. 

       Hope everyone is doing well!

Les Amo!

Week 13

    The President changed a rule this week regarding P day, we used to be able to leave the mission because it is so small but now we cant which bummed a lot of people out because there isnt a whole lot of cool places to go in the mission, and my companion and I were planning on going on a hike in the mountains but we will find other things to do. How was Halloween? What was everyones costume? There were actually quite a few people here that dressed up and were Trick or Treating. I saw a really good costume of Edward Scissorhands. My companion and I dressed up as missionaries but there werent very many people that liked our costumes. We found another house of people from Haiti and they are super cool and nice. Also one of our investigators quite smoking and is really wanting to change. There is this less active family that we visit and try to teach but they have a young son and two chickens so there is a lot of distraction and we havent been able to have a very good lesson yet. Let me know who wins the election.

Les Amo! 

Week 12

The weather has changed back to being super hot, I think I prefer the cold. Most of our investigators are progressing pretty well but there is this one who has a hard time getting motivated to go to church. We found this house full of Haitians and only one of them can speak spanish, but they were super friendly. Today for P-day we had a zone activity, we cooked french toast and watched Kung Fu Panda. also everyone asks me, Trump or Clinton? and I say neither, I dont think they are very interested in the election but it is just something they associate with me because Im from the US. Also, Here are some more pictures.

Week 11

  Not much happened this week but it did rain for the first time and it has been pretty cold the past couple of days. There is a lot of new snow in the mountains that we can see from our house. We had divisions this week and I had to direct my sector because my companion was from a different sector and didnt know where people lived. It was a little scary but I think I did alright.

     Today for P-day we went to an area more for tourism, we went to a catholic cathedral called Catedral Metropolitana which was really cool. We also went to a museum. There were quite a few people from the US at the museum. 

     We have a couple investigators right now that are progressing really well, but we have a ton of less active members that we are trying to reactivate. Also another drunk guy tried talking me in English, it was pretty fun, but then he started talking in Spanish and I have learned that it is impossible to understand a drunk Chilean.

Love you all!

Week 10

Hola!

     This week was good, the days go by really fast. I was finally able to buy some fruit this week which made me really happy. We usually buy most things at these street fairs they have every Tuesday and Friday, Its really cool. Also the other day we were contacting and this dog started following us and kept biting our ankles, it was really annoying. It got distracted by another dog so we ran around a corner to lose it, but then like 10 minutes later we came around another corner and there it was! so it followed us a little while longer but then it got bored with us. Last night we went to the house of a guy named Claudio who is  a recent convert and we were able to share a short message with him. There was also a soccer game on TV that we watched with him for a little bit, it was The University of Chile versus Peru. Then as we were walking home we heard cheering come from like 3 or 4 houses around us, that let us know that Chile scored a goal.

     Today for P-day we went to this little restaurant called Corbatas and bought a 50cm long Completos which is just a hot dog. It was massive, I was able to eat the whole thing but right now I dont feel so good. I cant tell yet if I am going to lose weight or gain weight because we always eat a super big lunch but most days thats all we eat.

      I feel I am progressing in the language, I can understand a lot but it is talking that I need to work on. I am able to do more than share my testimony in lessons and I can have somewhat of a conversation with someone, but I am not too worried, I think it just takes time. That is about all that happened this week with me, I hope you all are doing good.

Love you!​​

Week 9

Sorry I didnt write yesterday, I didnt have anytime, and right now I only have a couple of minutes so it will be short. I was able to watch the Saturday sessions of General Conference in English but the rest were in Spanish, but I was able to understand about half of what they said. I really liked Elder Cornish s talk, He talked about how we often compare ourselves to others when the only person we need to compare to is ourselves, and the only opinion that should matter to us is Gods.

     Yesterday for P-day about 10 missionaries and I got to go the home of the mission president and watch Star Wars 7 and eat pizza, it was awesome! 

     I will write more next week, Love you all!

Week 8

Hola!

     Another good week! I am progressing in the Spanish very slowly, but it is coming. We are teaching a few investigators and have baptism dates for two of them, I hope we can help them be fully prepared for baptism. My companion and I are getting along really well. He has these numchucks that he bought here that he likes to twirl around every now and then, it is pretty funny. The food is OK here, I havent gotten sick yet or eaten anything gross. Yesterday we had cow heart and noodles with a lot of bread. It is pretty hot during the day but around 6 it starts to cool off, I am super tired by the end of each day which is good. we typically have around 4 or 5 lessons each day, I am able to participate more in the lessons. I will be able to watch General Conference this weekend at the Stake Center but I dont know if they will have it available in English or not. I am going to try and buy an adaptor for my camera today so I can send some pictures. I hope everthing is going well at home.

Love you all!

Week 7

 I made it through my first week! It is definitely a lot better than being in the MTC because we are actually teaching real people. I am able to understand most of what some people say but I have no idea what little kids or old people say. The 18th of September was Independence Day for Chile, everyone was out and about, and they fly these little kites and they are able to get them super high in the air.

      The food is good but I haven´t been having a lot of fruit or vegetables and they drink soda with every meal, mostly coke. They also like carbonated water. The people are really nice, a lot of people say "Hello, how are you?" or "whats up" in English when they see me but that is about all they know in English. Also no one can pronounce Ebert, they all say it like "ever". 

      We walk almost everywhere but we have to take the bus to go to the store or other places outside our zone, I don't mind the walking but it gets super hot during the day and it is probably going to just keep getting hotter because their summer is during our winter. Our schedule is shifted one hour, we wake up at 7:30 and go to sleep at 11:30 because everyone is awake and doing stuff later at night when it is cooler. The nights go by super fast, it is like I close my eyes and the alarm goes off immediately, but I have been sleeping good and have energy each day.

       We are teaching a couple of people right now... or my companion is teaching, the most I am able to do is bear my testimony or offer a prayer. One man we are teaching is from Haiti, his name is Loucith. He is very mellow. Another man who we are teaching is in his 80's and the other day he was showing us this scrap book of his life and at the very end there was a picture of Obama and his family along with a note from Michelle Obama to this man. The note was in English so he couldn't understand what it said so we translated it for him. I think his son works for the US government or something  so that is how he got that note. There is this other family who are members that we visit often, Their home is one room, probably 20 square feet, very humble, but they are so happy and content with what they have. They have two small kids, Evan and Mizza who are super cute and love it when we come over.

        There were probably 30 people at church this past Sunday, they were all super welcoming, and the Bishop is way cool. One of the main things we are doing is trying to bring the less active back to church.

        I am loving the work so far and my companion and I are getting along fine. 

     Love you all!

Week 6

 I made it everyone! We flew out of Mexico at 8:30 pm and got to Santiago at 6:30 in the morning. I only got like 2 hours of sleep on the plane. It was really cold when we got off of the plane, probably around 45 degrees. It gets cold at night but then gets pretty hot during the day. Once we arrived we went to a church building that is in our mission and had an orientation and met our mission president. It is President and Sister Gwilliam, they are really nice. There are about 180 missionaries in my mission and this is the second smallest mission in the world, I like it though because all of the missionaries become really close friends. 

      There is this dog that hangs around the church that the missionaries named Dude and he follows the missionaries around and protects them, its pretty sweet. He was playing around with a brick in the parking lot when we arrived, it was really fun to watch. My companion is Elder De Leòn and he is from Guatamala, he doesn´t speak a lot of English but Im kind of glad he doesnt because I feel like I will learn faster with him. He has been out serving for a year and a half so he is a pro. We live in a small house with two other Elders who speak English which is nice. We dont have to go to bed until 11 or wake up until 7:30 because most people sleep in later here and apparently they have day light savings like every month or so which is funny. After we dropped off my bags at the house we started proselyting, I wasnt very nervous, I just say what I know how to say and let my companion do the rest. The spanish isnt that much faster here but they use a lot of different words than what I learned in Mexico and they use a lot of slang. We walk and use public transportation to get around, which is a little crazy sometimes. We went to the temple today which was really cool and it was cool to see more of the city. I hope everyone is doing well and I will try to get more pictures.

     Nos Vemos!

Week 5

Hey everyone!

I will be leaving for Santiago, Chile next Monday, our flight leaves at 8:25 p.m. so we will probably get to Santiago around 4 or 5 in the morning. Im not too excited about that, hopefully our mission president will let us sleep for awhile when we get there. Im kind of sad to be getting a new companion, we have become good friends, and our whole district has become really close, but it is O.K because almost all of us are serving in the Santiago South Mission. And I think that my mission is the second smallest mission in the world so we will probably see each other often.

     This week was really good, but Im done sitting in classes, I want to get out and start doing stuff. Yesterday we listened to a Devotional that was being brodcasted from the Provo MTC, and it was Elder Christofferson who spoke! It was nice to hear him speak again, he gave a really good talk and he was super funny. 

      Last P-Day we played Ultimate Frisbee for like two hours, it was really fun except we all got sunburnt. And there was another big fiesta going on outside the wall of the MTC, we could hear guitars, trumpets, drums, and fireworks going off. It was awesome.

      I love hearing from all of you and I hope things are going well back home, I will try to get some pictures of Chile that I can send next week.

Love you all!

Week 4

Hola everyone

Another week down, and it has almost been a month! thats crazy! I am still really enjoying the MTC but I am ready to go to Chile even though I dont know nearly enough Spanish as I should. One exciting thing that happened this week was that I got really sick, It only lasted for about a day and a half. It was some sort of stomach flu that has been going around. I was too sick to go to class so my companion and I just stayed in our home and I slept for most of the day. The next day my companion and I were teaching a lesson to our teacher for practice and she asked how I was feeling. I said "Estoy mujer" She and my companion started laughing really hard and it took me a minute to realize I just said I am a woman, what I meant to say was "Estoy mejor" which means I am better, it was pretty funny.

     The spanish is still coming along well, I am starting to forget how to spell some words in english. and the spell check for the computer is set to Spanish so everything I type is underlined in read and I cant tell what words I actually spelled incorrectly. I have been re-reading the book of mormon and Im in Alma, reading about the nephites and lamanites really makes me want to go back to some ruins like we did in Cancun Mexico, We should all go again after my mission. Sorry I dont have a lot of pictures, there is not a lot of interesting stuff in the MTC. Once I get to Chile I will be sure to send some more.

Love you all

Week 3

Hey everyone! It has been another awesome week. The weather is good but it rains most days in the afternoon. Nothing too crazy happened this week but President Tenerio who is the president of the CCM spoke and it was such a good talk, he was super funny. We still play soccer everyday, I think Ive played it more these past 4 weeks than I have my entire life. I dont have much to say this week other than I really want to be in Chile right now. I still havent received an email from Jeff and Jen so someone should tell them to write me. I love you all and I will try to get more pictures to send next week.

Week 2

Hey everyone! Ive made it another week in the CCM, the days are going by really fast now which is nice. I really enjoy reading all your emails so keep em coming, but I dont have Jeff, Jens, Brian or Erins email, so if one of you could send me theirs or just tell them to email me that would be great.

This past week has been awesome, I definately feel Im improving in my Spanish but it is still a little hard for me to fully understand what other people say when they speak. In one of our district devotionals this week one of the sisters was assigned to give a spiritual thought and she read a poem titled ''the Race'' I think, but it was a really cool poem, It was about a boy who was running in a race but he tripped and fell multiple times, but each time he got back up and kept going, He finished the race in last place but the crowd cheered as if he got first, this really helped me understand that even though we fall, all that matters is that we get back up and keep trying. Another real cool experience I had this week was when me and my companion were teaching the fake investigator, it was the last day we had to teach this particular investigator so we decided that we should give her the baptism invitation, so we did and she said yes, I got so happy when she agreed, and then I bore my testimony in spanish as best I could, I felt the spirit so strongly while bearing my testimony which was really weird because I didnt think I would until I was teaching actual investigators. Even though the investigator wasnt real the feelings were real and I have never felt that joy I felt when she accepted to be baptized.

     We also learned about TRC this week which is where REAL people who are nonmembers get to come into the CCM and we get to teach them. This freaked me out a little bit because I dont want to say something wrong and offend them or something like that. But I think it will be OK. 

     The past few nights, there has been a party going on right outside the CCM wall, and it goes until like 3 in the morning.

     Yesterday, we had a class about stress as a missionary and how to manage it, but I havent been very stressed out yet. It helps a lot to have fun companions that I get along with. We also had a Devotional last night and Elder Helaman Mantejo from the seventy came and spoke. He gave a really awesome talk, the devotionals have been my favorite part of the CCM so far. 

     Thats about all that I can remember that happened this week, all the days blur into one because each day is so similar.

      I love you all so much, and I hope to hear about all the things that are happening while Im gone.

Week 1

Hey everyone! I made it safely to the MTC or CCM in Spanish, please email me if you already havent so I can add you to my email contacts. Anyways the CCM has been great, my roommates are awesome, their names are Elder Hair and Elder Hendrix and my companion is Elder Burnett. Two of them are from Utah and the other one is from Texas. Elder Hair is really funny, and super tall. My companion sings a lot, I still love him but Im pretty sure there is a scripture that says there is a time and a place for everything. Now I know what Curtis meant when he said the first week feels like a month, the days are going by faster and faster though. I already broke one of my belts I didnt think I would gain weight that fast. Speaking of which the food is really good, and I havent had to use any Tums yet so that is good. Spanish is coming along pretty good, it is hard and we have to study a lot but I definitely have felt the influence of the Gift of Tongues. I have seen Curtis a few times and I saw Tyler yesterday. Its wierd being in here and not knowing anything that is going on in the world, but I think that is for the best. This past Sunday was fast Sunday and I think it was the first time I had fasted for 24 hours but it was pretty amazing, my companion and I also blessed the sacrament in spanish which was really cool. Also, we watched Meet the Mormons Sunday evening, it was so funny when they announced that we were going to be watching it because everyone started cheering and clapping. Its hard to remember what things happened on what day because each day is so similar it just all blends together, but one day we listened to a talk by Elder Bednar and it was an incredible talk, he talked about how a testimony is not enough, we need to be converted to Christ and God and if we are truly converted we cannot fall. Prayer is a big part of my schedule, we have personal prayer and companionship prayer all throughout the day, we wake up around 6.15, shower and then do personal study in a classroom from 7 to 7.45. eat breakfast, gym time, more classes, lunch more classes, dinner, then planning. We teach an investigator everyday, not a real one, its just role play thankfully, but the feelings we feel when we are teaching are real which is important. Every Tuesday we have a devotional and yesterday Elder Anderson was speaking at the Provo MTC but it was being broadcasted to MTCs around the world, and one thing that I have been noticing is the testimonies of the apostles, they use the word witness, so next time you listen to a talk by a general authority pay special attention to their testimony. Wednesdays are my P day so that is when I get to read and write emails, and today we are going to the temple which im really excited for. The two things I would like but dont necessarily need are nike sports socks for gym and a new belt. Well, I only have an hour to write and read emails and my time is almost up, I wish I could keep writing. I think I am going to do just a family email so I can write all of you at once. I love all you guys and Im excited to hear what has been happening outside the 10 foot walls of the CCM. Hasta Luego!

Called to Serve in the Santiago South, Chile Mission

 God Speed!

Setting Apart

Tonight Colby was set apart by President Evans as a full-time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Here are some photos of the wonderful evening.