Lovin' life...

Familia!

Shout out to Hal Waldo. Halsy, I wish I could write you a real email, but its against mission rules sorry love. Just know that I LOVE hearing from you...you write just like you talk and it always brings a huge smile to my face to hear from you. I know you are an incredible missionary and I really want to have the passion and love for the mission that you have.

Shout out to Katie! Jerusalem looks like PERFECTION. You and your stylish clothing that you stole from my closet...it´s okay because I wear your ensemble sweatpants to bed every night here. Bwah ha ha ha! You look so happy and I´m sure you´re learning and experiencing a ton. Make sure you write to me dangit!

SHout out to the extended fam who donated money to the mission. President sends his gratitude and LOVE and I do too. That will help a lot of people! Love you all!

Mikey and Ash..WRITE ME! HOw the heck is little baby!!!!???? I can´t believe you´ll be parents a month from now. Mikey, read genesis 49.20. I DIED laughing and then thought you´d like it.

Normal week. What am I saying? No week is normal here. This cambio has been hard to get in touch with people because Christmas, New Years, and now the second round of presidencial elections are upon us. Everyone has to vote where they were born, so nobody is home...just one of the frustrations. But never fear! We´ve been meeting a LOAD of families where the parents are actually married. Unless you served down here or are Chileno, you don´t understand how rare that is...

Something really special happened this week. Found out that none other than the brother of my Seminary teacher, brother Hemming, baptised my companion...Hna. Aponte. She´s awesome and I love the little blessings and tender mercies that the Lord gives!

BRAU. It happened. Sunday was going along just fine, until the Bishop stood up and said..and now, Hermana Bourne will speak to us for 20 minutes...looked at me...smiled...silence. Alrighty! I´ll speak to these people for twenty minutes in a foreign language...GOOD! The bishop is hilarious. We are really close to his family and I´m sure he just relished calling me up like that.

This week, we found out that one of our investigators (David, brother of Juanito) had his birthday and his mom didn´t do anything because she was drunk. We ran right over there with a box of ice cream and some pitiful balloons and sang our little hearts out to him. He is possibly the cutest thing in the entire world. He turned 10 and Juanito is 13. They know this message is true and have defended it amongst their friends. We´re making sure they come to church for three months before baptising them just to make sure they are really sure. so that means I probably won´t get to be at the baptism which I´m sad about. I love these chichos. It was so fun to have a little impromptu birthday party for David...cutie pie.

I don´t think I´ve really described Osorno. Just mix Alaska with Idaho. There you go. Done.

Family, I know this letter is super lame, but your letters to me were just as lame. So lets just call a truce this week and promise to be better the next one. I love you all!
Hna Bourne

JOEY BOURNE'S CHRISTMAS LETTER FROM EM! 
Joe,
I´m sorry I took so long to write this letter! Merry Christmas! I think the only thing I want to let you know is that when all is said and done in life, although it doesnt appear like it now, the only thing that matters is the gospel (and included in that is the family). Having a testimony of this gospel is the only way to have a really happy and deeply fulfilling life. You have incredible parents that have left examples to follow. I know that if we follow in the footsteps of Christ and give our lives to Him, He will make so much more out of us than we can. I want to challenge you at the beginning of this next year to really think about where you want to be in 50 years...You have SO much potential to do SO much good and I know you can and will choose that which is good! You are the best Joe! Keep developing your talents, but more importantly, develop those things of eternal worth! I love you and Merry Christmas!
Em