Happy 4th of July (for all you gringos out there)!!‏

I will admit I am legitimately sad about not being able to celebrate the 4th... I love the 4th!! So you all better be grateful and have a wonderful time for me! I won´t be celebrating that wonderful holiday for TWO more years. What a bummer.

Anyways this week was a good week! Although I did come down with a decent cold on Friday and it is still bugging me but I´m suffering through it. Actually I even gave a talk on Sunday! I had to save my voice all Saturday for it cause I was feeling pretty bad and then after church I didn´t really have a voice haha. It´s kinda funny because when someone gets sick every person that we visit has a different reason for why I got sick and how I can fix it. They say I got sick cause there is a lot of smoke in the air, because I don´t wear a scarf sometimes, because I went from our house that was warm to outside where there was a drastic temperature change, I don´t know for all sorts of things they say I got sick. But I still like to try all there advice. Someone told me that taking something called Pectoral would help. It´s like a natural tea. It didn´t impress me too much because it looked like someone went into the forest and grabbed some leafs, twigs, bushes, and flowers and stuck them all in a bag. I was a little doubtful but I put some honey with it like the told me and wow it was quite tasty! No I didn´t instantly get better but it did help with the throat. I think I´m going to make a business by collecting all that stuff and selling it. 

Saturday we were leaving our house and we ran into the first counselor in our ward and he was like, ¨Hey! You know what? We need someone to talk tomorrow, can you give a talk tomorrow?¨ I said, ¨Of course!¨ (just like that) and he asked if I could talk about the scriptures and the importance of them. It was a fitting talk because I finished the Book of Mormon just a month ago and our mission is going to start reading it again on the first of July so it was a good time for me to reflect and wow I noticed such a difference in my attitude and love towards the scriptures. I absolutely love the hour that we have to personally study every morning. I have felt such a difference because I feel the Spirit with me so much more.

We´ve been working a little bit on the house this week, or better said, today. I feel like my mom and all the projects she is doing. We are also trying to refurbish our house because it is a good house but over the years the missionaries have destroyed it. Today we took everything out of our study room and puttied and painted the walls. They look sooo much better (pictures attached). We still have a ton to do but I hope and think I´ll be here for a little which is fine with me!

We are slowly making progress here but nothing especially exciting has happened in the work this week although a new investigator has a baptism date for the 26th so be praying for her! Her name is Janett and is a little blind but such a sweet woman.

Have a fantastic week and an even better 4TH OF JULY!!!!!!!

Love always,

Elder Gunnell

  So here is my attempt to make toffee. They didn´t ever get hard so that was a bummer. Didn´t really taste all that good either. I´ve lost my magic touch.

  I also went to clean behind the stove and fridge. The picture doesn´t capture how gross it was. #ilovemessymissionaries

 another from the kitchen, gross

 This is the natural tea stuff, as you can see, just random stuff from the forest I´m pretty sure.

before

 after

 Before

 after,We´ve got to clean the floor still but the walls look so much better.

Selfies with the new sweaters!! You definitely don´t need to put these on the blog! (But I'm the mom, so I did it anyways)

Happy Father´s Day!!‏

Happy Father´s Day dad!! I´m glad you got to eat some yummy steak and dutch oven potatoes. What I´d do for some dutch oven potatoes... Thanks for being the most wonderful dad out there. Thanks to you I am where I am now. I don´t know how I´ll repay you for that.

So I´m going to start off with what we did last P-day because we wrote early then went and enjoyed our day in Santiago. We met up with Miguel! To go out to lunch and catch up on things. It was a blast to see him again! We went and got some Thai food and man I loved it. It was so tasty. Then went and got some cake and ice cream. We walked around Santiago for a little and Elder Martinez bought a backpack and then we headed home. It was fantastic to be back in my last area! I miss it. I miss all the people and all the huge buildings. But I´m here now so it´s all good. All in all it was probably one of my funnest P-days!! Thank you again Miguel for lunch!

This last week hasn´t been as cold which is nice. In the morning it´s a little chilly and in the night but in the afternoon it gets quite toasty. So no complaints there!

We have been making some serious progress with the ward and we have been gaining their respect little by little. It´s been difficult but a good challenge! There is one member who is elderly and always comes to help us clean the church. Every week actually he goes to clean the entire church, even if he is the only one. He will stay there all day to make sure it´s clean. His name is Custodio Jaque and is a huge example. He also always brings us a little sandwich to eat after we are finished cleaning up. We decided we would do something little for him and for a couple other members that have helped us so we went and got the church keys(we still don´t have a working oven) and made some banana bread! When we took it over to him he got all teary-eyed because we had done something for him and it made him feel really good. I understand why he feels a little bummed sometimes because he has been cleaning the church for who knows how many years but no one ever really notices that it´s clean and no one ever says thank you. It´s the people like him that really deserve something special.

We found a new investigator finally!! She is a sweetheart and has a very sad and long story but is still here and pushing a long. She has four kids ranging from 15 to 30ish. She is almost blind and because of that she has a lot of faith. Our lessons that we have had with her are full of the spirit so we are hoping and praying that she can progress. She has a lot of potential! 

Chile is hosting La Copa America so when they play we have to stay in our house because it gets a little crazy outside. There last game they won 5-0 and man the people were going crazy! We knew the score because they shoot off all sorts of fireworks and gun shots and everyone screams and yells and honk their horns so it is easy to tell when they are winning or losing haha but we have been taking advantage of the time we´ve had in the house to clean the poor thing. It´s still a mess but getting better!!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

Only pics today

 A random pic of our little kitchen. It´s pleasant.

ECLAIRS!!!! It was the first time I had ever made them in my life so they didn´t turn out perfectly like the ones my mom makes but they weren´t too shabby

Meet the Mormons!! and back to baking!‏

Alrighty so the biggest news I´ve got from this week is our Meet the Mormons activity that we did friday! It was a SUCCESS!! It went better than I thought it would! No it wasn´t perfect but it was still wonderful. Thursday evening we went to a less actives house to make the desserts because she makes pastries and other sweet things and has a really big oven and we still don´t have one... Lame. Anyways we went to her house and haha oh man it was so fun! All we did was laugh and make jokes with her and her son (her son is very active and such a good kid, love ´em) we made the desserts a lot fast than if I would have done it alone which was really nice and we didn´t have to waste so much time cooking. We were we kind of ending everything I realized that I still had a ton of cornstarch left and so I didn´t think that they would know of that wierd goo that you can make with water and cornstarch that is like a liquid and a solid at the same time so I made a bowl of that and that got a pretty good kick out of it! They thought I was the weirdest person in the world though and now they call me Elder Crazy (they say it in english but with a funny latin accent which just makes it funnier). 

Then friday we took all the cupcakes to the church early to decorate them and set-up the activity and everything. We were just finishing when everyone started showing up! Actually quite a few people came early to help us get it all ready. Then we started! It was so fun! We didn´t really have time to sit down and watch the movie which was fine with me but I think the majority of the other people there were able to enjoy it! There were some little kids and man were they going crazy, Meet the Mormons isn´t such a friendly movie by the way, and it was so funny! I loved it! I love those little kids. So there were a couple moms that were more worried about their children than the movie but it´s all good. We got pretty decent feedback about the food and the activity in general. I think we gained quite a bit of trust from the ward and from the leaders which is exactly what we needed! I think with that we can start progressing. Oh! About 70-80 people came which was a surprise! All the leaders told us only like 40 or 50 would come but we got almost 80! Hard work pays off. It was soo fun!!

This week we also made eggnog one night when it was really cold and listened to Christmas music! It feels more like Christmas now than it did in December. But it´s still pretty warm in the afternoons, we´ll see how it is in the middle of July though!

Because I finished the Book of Mormon I have been giving the majority of my study time to the Bible well more specifically the New Testament, it has been really rewarding so far! I don´t read it terribly fast but I love reading, for myself, the things that the prophets and the apostles always talk about. I like seeing where they get their material from. It´s amazing to me too that they know the Bible and the Book of Mormon so well! I feel like to ever know a quarter of what they know I have a long way to go. I also realized the importance that the Joseph Smith translations have and much clearer they make the Bible! I will share more as I read it more and more!

Have a wonderful and hot week!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

Transfers, B.o.M FINISHED and Meet the Mormons!!‏

Alrighty well today was our transfer day! And to my surprise my companion got transferred! He had only been here like five weeks and I´ve only been here like two and a half so we thought that we would stay but I guess that´s not what the Lord wanted which is okay! He moved up to Zone Leader which is a perfect position for him! I stayed in my sector and have a new companion! His name is Elder Martinez but don´t let his name fool you because he is also gringo. So I´ve still never had a latino companion.... Bummer. But he is awesome! He´s been here for a year this week! He speaks really really good spanish which is good news because he will be able to help me a lot! I really don´t know our area so I´m a little worried about that but hey that´s what the mission is, a learning process. We will be alright!! I´m a little sad that Elder Ibarra´s and my companionship lasted so little but I enjoyed it!

I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON IN SPÀNISH FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!! I think that is one of the greatest accomplishments that I´ve ever achieved in my life. Maybe it´s really not something all that great but I feel very proud of it. I love to think back when I could barely read a verse in three minutes and when I had to look up everyother word to understand the scripture and how I am now! I am excited to read the first part again because I think I will get a lot more out of it! We as a mission are going to go over our notes that we took and kind of re-read the parts that we liked and then in July we will have five months to read it again!! I have absolutely loved to be able to read the Book of Mormon everyday and to study and learn from it! I know that it has strengthened my testimony and my faith in Christ and that he lives and loves us. It has definitely been a process because I didn´t understand a lot of it and I wasn´t really familiar with it but now I know how powerful it truly is. They are pages of gold for me! During this month I´m going to study the parts of the Book of Mormon that I really liked and also the New Testament. I feel like I need to understand the Bible more so we will see how that goes!

This week we have our Meet the Mormons Movie Night!!!! I am so excited! We are doing it this Friday! We hung up a poster and even made invitations to give to members so that they invite a friend or a neighbor and we have gone around to a lot of less actives to personally invite them! I don´t know how many people will come in a ward so small but I am so excited for it! We´ve been able to get the hype going in the ward which is just what I wanted! I am going to make cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, and cookie dough brownies. We are also going to have some hot chocolate, juices, and some small sandwiches to snack on. I´m hoping it goes well. I´m hoping more than anything that the members and leaders in our ward will see that we are working as missionaries and they will see that we take it seriously and want to help people progress. As for right now not all the members really trust us or want to help so we´ve got to work on gaining their trust. We need to find more ways to serve them so we can show them our love.

This week we had a miracle or two happen! We set a goal of contacts that we were going to make, and this goal was higher than any that we had set for awhile. We reached it and it payed off!! The very last contact we made on Sunday night to complete the goal was an awesome contact and we are going to eat dinner with them this Tuesday! Also this Sunday one of our investigators that was never in his house this week came to church on his own!! And he had been reading the pamphlets we gave him! He has stopped smoking, drinking and going out with his friends and wants to change! What?! Is that crazy?! I think so. We are going to be working with him as much as we can and I think if he truly wants to change that he can make it to baptism!

It´s been a little sketchy in our area lately, the gangsters haven´t been too pleased with each other and have been having some fights lately. A couple have been shot in the last few days but luckily for us we never have any problems! But we are careful and we stay away from some parts in our area when it is getting dark. But everyone tells us that we are okay because the gangsters know why we are here and think that we are children of God. They usually say hi to us and ask us how we are doing and things which is nice! But we definitely don´t try to push the limits and be in places we shouldn´t be when it´s dark! I never carry my camera or money with me so even if they were to try to rob us they would just get some books, pamphlets, and some jolly ranchers so it´s fine by me! Haha

I think that about sums up this week! Hopefully our activity goes well! Don´t forget to pray for the prophet and Elder Perry´s family! Hope you have a wonderful first week of summer!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

 The invitation we made for the Meet the Mormons

A nice sunrise! Full of haze though but still pretty.

​My Book of Mormon progress tracker thing!!