Everyone,

I have arrived as a missionary.  I now am the proud owner of a Jody Dress, the one thing that I swore to myself that I´d never, ever wear.  My humility has reached a point where I can proudly walk from door to door in a red potatoe dress made of 100% polyester and smile. 

Those penguins last week were hilarious! I am in the weirdest place on earth...we got to a point on our walk where we could see cows, flamengos, penguins, and the ocean....

Mom and dad, the address is the exact same...you have to send stuff to Osorno and then in our monthly mail, I´ll get whatever you sent me! 

Casilla 7-0

Osorno, Chile

A bunch of happy birthdays go out to basically EVERYONE! I can´t remember everyone, I´m sorry but I know we got Grandpa, Pete, Dave Spaff, Tom Fox, LUZ...man, I´m bad...who else?......MOM and SOPHIE! 

Sophie, you are going to be SO great on Sunday singing.  Make sure you record everthing on a chip that I can put in my camera so I can just watch it from there...if it´s on cd or anything else, I can´t.  Sophie and mom and Katie and Ash B, I have something for you guys, but mail is really difficult from down here, especially after the earthquake...flights are far and few between, so I´ll send them later but know that I didn´t forget about birthdays or anything.

Speaking of the earthquake...We are one of the only southern parts of Chile that didn´t get hit by anything. Even Osorno and Puerto Mont have felt some aftershocks that knocked missionaries out of bed. There was ¨¨supposedly¨supposed to be a tsunami here, but nothing happened.  I know that the devastation is just horrible...my district leader´s (chilean) family lost everything...house and all...but he´s doing great...he´s just a quality guy.  Please keep praying for Chile. 

Mom wanted an overview of Punta Arenas...hmmmm...take southern provo and move it to the bottom of the world...add penguins and volcanos.  That´s about where I am.  My comp and I received this big letter from the kids in seminary from her stake in California that was HILARIOUS.  It was full of questions like ¨have you seen any ancient ruins?¨or ¨can you feel the Spirits of the ancient inhabitants of the area?¨ or ¨do you have running water?¨or ¨are there sharks down there?¨.  We are living in this super normal neighborhood with people with jobs and kids that go to the university...everyone here has cars and the ward feels like I´m at home. 

 I absolutely ADORE my ward. Our bishop is this 32 year old convert who served a mission 10 months after his conversion...married this awesome Columbian and his job is to fly rich tourists to Antarctica and wine and dine them.  Our mission leader is just solid and the ward members we SO great about welcoming all of our investigators to church this Sunday. 

We´ve got a few baptisms in the works, but my favorite is Martin. He is the son of a less active who is 9.  The second time we went over there he shouted ¨I´m going to church this Sunday!¨and he went all by himself...then the next time, we had challenged him to pray about Joseph Smith and he told us that he received a really warm happy feeling and he knows that Joseph was a prophet.  Then he brought his less active mother and non member father to church and they were just smothered in love by the members.  We visited them later that night and he had bought me and McClellan little gloves.  We almost started crying.  There is a reason we get baptised at 8...these kids are just so pure and unadulterated and willing and open to hear and do God´s will.  No wonder Christ wants us to become like little children....I want to be more like that.

ps, jac! Thank you for writing me.. the family sounds great and you are darling to write!

Family, I just love you and love to hear from you every week. I think my emails are getting lamer and lamer..I know.  I can´t help it.  My life is down here now and my worries and joys are down here now and I have problems speaking English- let alone writing out everything that I´m experiencing and doing in 30 minutes.  But know that I pray for you and love you and everyone in my district has seen the giant family picture and knows all of you :).

Mom and dad: still like to hear from you two the best! Thanks for your love and support and thoughts and jazz.

Mikey and Ashb and baby:  Got the baby announcement! SO adorable, throw me a bone and write me some updates!!!

Jamesy: whatever is going on, I just love you and know your life will turn out beautiful

Katie: you sound like you´re learning so much and changing in so many ways! Put your newfound knowledge to WORK and go get em! LOVE YOU!

Sophie: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You are a decade old! Wow, I love you more than you´ll ever know.  You´ll have a present coming in like a few months.

Bette and Bubba: Love you both SO much.  Keep going to church...its the only way to be happy.  I love you both and am glad you´re both doing well! Love from the bottom of the world!

Gma and Gpa: you are both so wonderful! thank you for everything. I LOVE the calendar and its so nice to get a little taste of home every once in a while. Send the family my love at the next party!

 

Welp, thats all I got. Lame, I know.  The pictures are of me in my Jody Dress and me and McClellan in the plaza in Punta Arenas.  Dad, we WILL go to Torres del Paine while we´re here.  You have to go through Puerto Natales to get there...but I´m sure you already have it figured out. LOVE YOU ALL!