Playing Tourist

Well I´ve got to say sorry because I will be cutting this email a little short because I didn´t get a around to writing a lot this last week. 

So this week I was asked to teach our district class on Wednesday. I was a little nervous because what do I have to tell missionaries that have been out here for a whole lot more time than me? I was glad the subject was something that I have a little knowledge about. I taught about Family History. I did a little research last week and I was working on my little booklet that we have that´s called ¨My Family¨. In my class I shared a story about Francis Wilson Gunnell (his story can be found on familysearch and I thought it was super cool) and I shared some things about Grandpa Burke. Overall I think it went pretty well. I talked decently enough in spanish that I´m pretty sure they understood me! Haha

We have an investigator whose name is Oscar. He is very intelligent and is always ready to learn more. He has a baptismal date for the 26th of this month. But this week he cancelled on us three times and we haven´t really been able to talk to him very much. He came to church so I think everything is okay. We have taught him all the lessons and he understands it all so he would be ready for his baptism but I´m afraid he doesn´t have a testimony. He knows it all but I don´t know if he has truly recieved an answer. I´m afraid to baptize someone if they still lack their own testimony so we will see what´s up this week!

What we really need here is to find more people to teach. We have basically been teaching the same people and they aren´t progressing. It´s kind of disheartening sometimes but we are gooing to try some new things this week hopefully!

That´s about it for this week. We have transfers this upcoming week and a trip to the temple with the mission which I´m very excited about! Have a fantastic week.

Happy birthday shout out to Wolford!

Over and out,

Elder Gunnell

 This was sweet! Miguel (Elders Quorum Pres.) told us a few places to go check out yesterday so that´s what we did today. We went and toured some of the older parts of Santiago and it was so pretty. All the streets and plants and apartments with little sandwich shops and bakeries. I loved it. He also told us to go get some ice cream in this little shop pictured above. Turns out it is one of the top 25 ice cream parlors in the world. Or so they say. But I´d agree, it was delicious. I tried Raspberry mint with Chocolate Avellana. I have no idea what avellana means in english but it was wonderful!

 So to start off this P-day we went to a place called Santa Lucia. It´s like a hill in downtown Santiago that has like a castle built on it, pretty neat.

 A view from above.

 This is a panorama of our area, all we have are buildings, a little different than Catemu.

 A little park that is half way up the hill. A picture from the ¨summit¨. It´s not a very big hill but still cool.

The waterfall that is in the park.

 Waterfall again, this time you can see the ¨summit¨.

 

 I wanted to get a selfie with me and my area, but the sun was in my eyes so this is what you get... Sorry

Then I needed to cut my hair so we talked to a member and they said there was a nice little place around the corner from where they lived. I don´t know if we went to the right place but I am so glad we went. This little old man owns this little hair dressing shop. He is 85 years old and still going strong. He has been doing hair for 57 years and we just had a great time together, there was no way I could leave without taking a photo. Funnest and funniest hair cut of my life. This old man is a legend in my book. Thank you Octavio.

This reminded ​me of Harney´s Peak in South Dakota, but it wasn´t nearly as cool as South Dakota. But I had a nice little session of reminiscing (I have no idea how to spell that).

We made some cinnamon rolls with the Elders Quorom President, Miguel(he`s awesome), and man were they tasty. As always

Also with Miguel we made soft tacos! Oh how I miss mexican food. I`d do anything for a Beto`s burrito...

A Growing Testimony

This week I have really been able to see growth in my testimony. For the last week and a half we had really been focusing on General Conference. We did it in quite a few different ways but after each lesson I felt my testimony get a little bit more firm. To some people we taught the Restoration and how God has always called prophets because he loves his children, we talked about the power and authority that the prophets had, then we would explain how God has once again called a prophet and that he has the exact same power and authority. With others we watched the video ¨He Lives¨ and we would talk about the truthfulness of Christ´s life and that he truly lives. Sometimes we would talk about the relationship between Christ´s live and what the prophets if the Book of Mormon foretold hundreds of years before and how they truly had the Spirit of God with them to be able to prophesy of things like that and that we were prophets called by God. We sometimes would share a quote from President Monson that my companion found that says, ¨... I assure you that the Chrch is in good hands... Our Savior, Jesus Christ, whom we follow, whom we serve, is ever at the helm.¨ If Christ came to the Earth and if he died of us and if he rose from the grave then surely he guides and directs this church so that his sheep can come unto him and participate in his love. And I do know that he did come to Earth, that he did die for us, that he did rise from the grave and that he lives. I know that he is literally at the helm of this church and just like what Elder Neil L. Anderson quoted from President Monson yesterday, ¨We watch him open doors we cannot open, we see miracles we could not imagine.¨ He is there and is doing His work in His own time through His servants.

I´ve been happily surprised to feel my testimony deepen on these few things that I mentioned. As I watched conference I kept these things in mind and it was the first time I really got into Conference and understood the importance of their messages. I am so grateful that we get to hear inspired messages from our Church leaders every six months.

In the mission I have been constantly chasing something, there hasn´t ever been a time, up to now, when I have been able to just sit back and relax. For example, I used to be chasing the language (not that I speak perfect spanish). I use to say that the mission would be easy when I could understand what people said to me or it would be easy when I could talk fluently enough to manage myself out on the streets. Now I know that that is not necessarily true. Yes maybe I can understand people now but other hard things have come and more are still to come. I´ve learned to be grateful for the hard things that pass. There is a song we always listen to that says, ¨give me mountains to climb because I know it´s taking me higher.¨ There will always be mountains in my mission and in our lives but when a mountain comes that looks too high to climb do we ever stop to look at the view and see how high we already are? And see the progress we´ve made to get to where we are now at?

I say all this because the last couple of weeks have not been easy and the mountain I was trying to climb seemed to just get bigger and bigger. But during this Conference I got to thinking about where I was six months ago and where I am now. Six months ago I was struggling to understand just two things from each conference speaker. I was honestly thinking, though I wouldn´t have admitted it at the time, that I would never learn or understand spanish and that I would never be able to be a real missionary (to name two things). But as I thought about this during this conference I saw that I was able to climb those mountains and that knowledge gave me hope and motivation that I can climb this mountain that I am currently climbing and I can make it to the tops of those that come.

We didn´t do anything terribly exciting for Easter although I did make and eat hard boiled eggs so that counts for something. I mad dog food (muddie buddies for anyone who does not belong to my odd but wonderful family) and a peanut butter bar to share with those at Conference.

There were a number of talks I really liked but I´ll share some of my favorite lines! They might not be word for word but are more or less what I got out of the line:

President Eyring´s first talk: By fasting we will have greater ability to recieve personal revelation and we will be stronger when temptation comes.

Elder L. Tom Perry: The older I get the more I realize that the family is the center of life, that it is the key to happiness.

Elder Bednar(sat. in the afternoon): Christ overcame, overcomes, and always will overcome the worldly fears if we edify ourselves on his rock.

Wilford W. Anderson: I can teach you to dance, but you have to hear the music.

Elder Cook: I loved when he said at the end of his talk that he knows the Lord´s voice.

Elder Ballard(in the Priesthood session): His whole talk was incredible but he asked a couple questions and I think we would all do good by asking ourselves the same questions.

Rosemary M Wixom: ¨You´re not so much in the dark as you think¨ and ¨Come, we want you in whatever stage you are at, we´ll meet you there.¨

Jose A. Teixiera: Make time to set aside our mobile devices. It will enrich and broaden our view of life.

Gérald Causse: Never tire of discovering and redescovering the truthfulness of the gospel.

Brent H. Nielson: We are all prodigal sons. We all fall short and we all need God´s love. He watches, hopes for, and waits for us.

Elder Holland: Need I say more? It was a beautifully powerful talk.

President Uchtdorf: Grace is the gift of God to us. Obeying his commandments is the act of reaching out our hands to recieve the gift of grace.

Kevin W. Pearson: The Book of Mormon is key to spiritual survival. Cling to truth. Study the Book of Mormon every day, every day, every day. Don´t be distracted and decieved. The great and spacious building is filled with people who seem to have it all.

Those a just a few points that stood out to me! Also it was really cool to see Elder Zeballos in Conference because he came to the MTC when we were all there and we gave him a hug and talked with him then he came for our Christmas thing we did so we have been able to see him and interact with him and then he showed up in Conference! So that was pretty cool!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! A nice big shout out to Marshall for winning the egg throwing contest this year. I didn´t hear anything about a wheel-barrel race so did we give that tradition up after only one year? Bummer... 

Oh! It was about a year ago when I opened my call!! Crazy don´t you think?

Thank you for you letters! We´ll talk next week!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

Well we are heading around the corner for General Conference!!! Woohoo!! I am so excited to listen to the Prophet and his apostles. I am even more excited to understand what they are saying this time around since the last time I didn´t really catch much! Haha but I´ve been trying to read and listen to their talks since they gave them and I really liked them! 

This week was a little bit better! We are getting to know more people and how to manage our time a little better. But it is still really really really slow in the morning and the afternoon because no one is in their houses. We have gone to just about every building in our area I´m pretty sure so I think the people at the receptions are getting a little tired of us so we´ve got to start calling people and planning lessons over the phone which is definitely a hit and miss kind of tactic but we will see how it goes this week!

This last Saturday we had a service project in the city Curacaví. I think there was three zones of missionaries that went and the Young Adults from all around Santiago. There was a huge old field with tons and tons of garbage so we left our house at 7, got working around 9:30, at lunch at 2, worked again, then got home at about 6. We basically cleared the whole entire field of garbage. It shocked me how much we did. When we first pulled in I had no hope that we would be able to make the place look good again. But at the end of the day, I was shocked to see how clean it looked. Now we just gotta get the people to stop throwing their trash away there. It was actually pretty fun and a change to our normal routine. 

We actually found a family this week!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got a reference through email which is a little weird because it had never happened to us before. We decided to go to the building and see if we could have some luck and talk to the person. We talked to the mom and she said to call later that night to talk to the daughter who was who we were looking for. I called later that night and was able to talk to the daughter. Turns out she was born in Florida because her parents lived there and so she learned English as her native language, it was super weird talking to someone in English over the phone. Anyways she has lived here for a long time and speaks super good Spanish but is losing her English. She was in contact with a member awhile back who said he was going to send missionaries to her house so they could practice English with her and teach her a little bit more about his gospel. We got to know the whole family and are going back to their house today! I don´t know if she just wants free English lessons or if we will be able to make progress with them! Hopefully the latter.

As you might know the church came out with a new video for Easter, I´m excited to use the video because it is very pretty and helps us realize that Christ did live and still lives today. We have been able to have some pretty powerful lessons with the video so far and hope to be able to utilize it in a good way and help some people to progress! Also don´t forget to share the video with everyone!

Dad I am extremely jealous of you trip to Moab and that was just mean to send me a picture of your bike next to the sign of my very favorite trail in Moab. I hope you know that when I get back I would like to re-learn how to mountain bike very quick and head to Moab in the fall. So put that on your calendar. Haha

That´s it for this week! Please love every second of conference and send me your favorite one liners and quotes!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

P.S. For those of you that asked, I could use some Mapleine because they don´t sell that here and so when I run out I won´t be able to make yummy syrup or the cream for my cinnamon rolls...:)

I wanna send pics of the families from Catemu.

 Maria Paz

 Second counselor Jose Luis, Angelina and their two kids

 President Gonzales

 Adela and her aunt and cousin

 Juana and Christian. Not present: Manuel the baby and Victor the dad

 Carolina, Martina and Alexia

 Anna, Cecilia and Patricio (Pato Salsa)

 Patricio, Brian and Claudia

 Susana and Yuri

 This is Liduina and her daughter

Slow Days, Fast Weeks

That´s how I feel it´s been the last two weeks. Elder Bennett use to tell me that all the time and I feel it is very true! 

I still can´t get my head around the fact that I am in the city but I still love it. Well I like the being in the city part, doing missionary work is a little bit harder. We don´t get lost and I love being able to know the streets and the names so that we can help other lost people out haha

We´ve been working super hard this week with the President of the Elder´s quorum, he is an awesome guy(he is actually moving to Utah this November, at least those are the plans for now), we have had his help and quite a bit of help from other people in the ward. 

We were able to figure out a baptism date for one of the investigators that the Sisters had. He has been coming to church for three months, reads the manuals for the classes, the Book of Mormon, understands it all but I think he lacks a firm answer or a testimony that the things are true. We are going to go to General Conference with the date in mind so we can see if he feels like it is the right time for him.

Speaking of General Conference, I am stoked! Hopefully I´ll be able to catch a couple more things in Spanish this time. We are really focusing on prophets in our lessons so that we can help our investigators feel that we have guidance in these days and that they can know for themselves when they come to the General Conference sessions.

Yesterday five investigators came to church which was fantastic! We are working with them and getting married because they can´t have a baptism date until they are married obviously.. So we will see how it goes. 

Nothing extremely exciting happened this week but we are making progress! We aren´t the best teachers(under statement) but we are learning which is the important thing and it´s a very fun learning process. 

Thank you for the emails and letting me know how everything is going! I´ll talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

You will not believe what I found!!!!!!!!!!! I love Santiago!!!!!!!!!!!

Project number two! Just some blueberry muffins, they don´t look super pretty but taste amazing.

Just a dumb sunset pic with some broken glass from a building, no they didn´t let us in their apartment.

We survived!!‏

I guess that shouldn´t be too much of a shocker but we made it! A whole week in downtown Santiago.I´m not really sure where to start! 

I´ll say that it wasn´t has hard as I thought it was going to be, I think because of your prayers. Thank you so very much. The spanish came easier than I had thought it would the talking and the understanding. I still catch myself making a lot of mistakes but they understand me and I can understand them. I may not be the best teacher, that´s an understatement, but I know I´ve been called by a prophet to be here so I know I can do some good.

We definitely had to figure out the ropes here but it isn´t as hard to manage the streets and our area as I thought it would be once you have the names down it´s okay! And there are millions of people here so you just gotta ask one of them and they usually help out! 

We didn´t have the highest numbers this week but we were able to meet quite a few members and some of the investigators and a couple recent converts which is somewhat of progress! This week we will definitely be more efficient.

A couple of really cool things did happen while we were getting our bearings though! I have seen God´s hands in our work this week and I know he puts us where we need to be. We were trying to find a members apartment and we were down below so we pressed the doorbell/intercom sort of thing of his apartment to see if he was home, or better said, to see if it was even the right apartment. We were patiently waiting when two women came up to us. They told us that they were from Antofogosta and had come to Santiago to receive better medical attention because one of the women has a pretty serious problem with her eye and brain and they said they saw us from a little ways a way and came a runnin´ they asked if we could give her a blessing and we said of course! But the problem was that was where they were staying wouldn´t let us in the building so we gave them the address of the church so that they could come to the church and receive a blessing. They came and were able to receive it.

Another time we were walking past a park so we decided to go see if we couldn´t do a couple contacts. We saw this 20 year old guy or so like three different times kinda chilling on his bike in the park and I kept getting a feeling we should talk to him. Finally the third time we saw him he was sitting underneath a tree on the side of the path with his bike next to him. So I went to talk to him, he had actually just got into Santiago that Tuesday(a day after us) and we were able to talk to him we were actually able to bare a little bit of testimony about why we are in our church and missionaries and it was super cool because he is like this really punk kid but he said thank you to us so many times like thank you guys for coming and talking to me and telling me all those things I don´t know why but I really feel good right now and I´m glad you guys came over. He even gave us his number so that we could meet up again! 

While we were talking to him another lady came up to us and said how she had just moved from Peru and is a member and wanted to know where the church was so that she could come! That day we were really where we needed to be I believe even though we didn´t do a whole lot like lessons and things we were still able to help quite a few people out.

This week I decided I was going to try walking around with just a brand new Book of Mormon, like the ones we give out, usually I have my backpack that has my folder with important papers, my Book of Mormon, little pamphlets, sometimes my camera, and just things that I might need. But I wanted to try just going about with a Book of Mormon. I was a little scared because my BoM is all marked and I have the scriptures that I like with tabs and others that have tabs too to help me out in certain situations. It has actually gone really well! I did it for like three days and I think I will keep doing it. I like to do it here because everyone has a backpack and tons of people are in shirts and ties and so there isn´t a ton that really really sets us apart besides our plaque, well and that we say hi to people, but I´m hoping that made people can see the Book of Mormon and maybe ask a couple questions. 

I actually had a pretty cool experience by carrying the it around because I was able to give it to a member that had stopped going to church for over 7 years. We were past a museum and there was a man on a bench and we walked past him and said hi and whatever but then I was like nah I´m gonna talk to him. We got talking and after awhile he told us that he is a member and a high priest and use to be very active. He had lost is Book of Mormon when he and his wife went their separate ways and has never read since because of that. At the end of the conversation I gave him the book I was carrying around with a little marker in a place I wanted him to read and then he asked which ward we are in and told us that we will see him in our ward one day. I hope that comes true.

I think that is all for today! It´s about all I have time for I think so thank you for the prayers! Thank you for the support! Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Gunnell

Drastic Change

Drastic, such a good word choice Elder Gunnell, looks like my english isn´t quite as bad as I thought it was. :)

So I am surely convinced that I had the most drastic and big change this transfer. Keep in mind that I was in my little town, Catemu, without stop lights and a couple stop signs, hardly any cars and just a whole bunch of small houses. Wanna know where I am now? I am in the HEART of Santiago!! And it is the most FANTASTIC thing in the world. Haha it is sooooo sweet here. I mean I have been here for like a couple hours but it is still so cool. When I say the heart of Santiago I mean right in the dead center. We live right by the Plaza de Armas which is the biggest plaza in Santiago. All the government buildings are here too. I don´t know how it will be to work here as a missionary because all we have in our area are departments and so we can´t go knock on doors to make contacts or things like that because the gaurds down below won´t let you in unless you are visiting someone specifically and if that someone says it is okay. So the Sister missionaries who were here before said that we will do a lot of contacts in the parks and plazas but it is still hard because most the people that are out and about are from different countries so it is super rare to find someone and then actually start teaching them, but I have faith! 

I am almost certain that we will get lost for sure but there are millions of people around so we can just ask and ask and ask until we find our apartment again or something. Oh! My companion! My companion is Elder Richards from Las Vegas, we were actually in the same district in the MTC! Which is pretty neat! I think it was daring of the President to send two somewhat new missionaries to a new area that neither of us knew but that just makes it all the more exciting! Haha we are going to learn a lot I think because (since we are still somewhat young to this whole mission thing) we both don´t speak amazing spanish and we have always had an older companion who could do all the talking or take charge in the lessons and now we just got eachother. I am wayy excited to see how it goes! I am certain it will be hard but I think I am ready for a challenge... I hope.

When ended up getting the apartment just fine from the Mission home. We took a taxi and he dropped of us like a block from the apartment building. We were struggling a little bit with our suitcases and there was this big black guy near and he was like, ¨Hey what´s up man?!¨ in English and just grabbed two of Elder Richards´s suitcases and asked where we needed to go. He told us he was from Haiti and had lived a lot of his life in the US and now here. I asked if he spoke spanish and he said, ¨yes very well¨. I was like, ¨maybe you could help me out cause my spanish isn´t too good.¨ Then he asked, ¨Well are you trying your best?¨ I said yes and he said, ¨if you are trying your best you have nothing to worry about, you will be fine. That´s all you can do is do you best and it will come.¨ Then we got to our building he shook our hands and left. It was a good little reminder because as much as I am excited, I´m a little nervous/scared too but I know that God is right by my side.

This last week was a super busy week with the activity we had. It was one of the best church funcioned activities I have seen in a loooong time. I am pretty sure there was around 100 people there and that is more than we ever have a church. It was a huge hit with all the dances from the countries, the presentations, and the food! It was killer trying to make all that food... Making that many cinnamon rolls and homemade rolls takes FOREVER especially when you have such a small oven, kitchen, and so little bowls, pans, etc. The branch helped out a lot because a lot of people lended me pans so I could cook everything. I was super glad it all turned out good and the people like it all! I have got to say thanks again mom for the recipes and teaching me to cook. The mission is making a little recipe book soon so I will send you a couple of recipes from there so you can make a couple Chilean dishes!

It was soo very hard to say goodbye to the members of that branch and to Adela, and Carolina and her two little girls, and all the people that we have spent time with. I can honestly say I love them. I really do hope the best for them. I met some of the strongest most faithful people there in Catemu and Llay-Llay and they will forever be examples to me. All day Sunday we went and took pictures and said bye to everyone. It was sad and a couple people cried. I´m going to try to send little notes here and there to some people.

I would send some pictures of where I am at but there aren´t any USB ports in this internet cafe so I´ll try to get them to you another time. If you want to look up my apartment building we live on the corner of the street Teatinos with the street Rosa(s) I don´t remember if there is an ¨s¨ or not. 

Tonight we are going to try to meet up with the Bishop(weird I have a bishop again, not a Branch President) and the Mission leader of the ward and if they can´t today I think we will try to meet some of the recent converts and basically just kind of get our bearings here in the middle of this massive city.

Let Trevor and Tylyn know that I wish I could be there and that I hope everything goes well!!

Love,

Elder Gunnell

 Cultural activity!!! It was a blast and soo fun! The relief society went crazy on the Brazil stand. 

 In our stand we had the poster Elder Bennett made and some balloons than I made 166 cinnamon rolls, 125+ rolls, and a huge `ol thing of homemade chicken noodle soup. It was way fun to say the least!

The Brazilean dish. Dinner and a show!

We also celebrated Elder Bennett`s and Martina`s birthdays with homemade apple pies and ice cream!

I ate bunny for the first time this week too! The table is a table that the brazilean lady made for her husband it`s pretty

Two Things I never thought I would do on my

Mission:

March 2, 2015

1. Understand Portuguese.

2. Be in charge of making the deserts of a wedding.

Before I get into those I want to share a little about a fun little family home evening we had last Monday! We taught a family that are less active but we visit them a lot(they have the little boy that looks a like Drey but with black hair) anyways we had a really good activity about the atonement of Christ and then I taught them how to make homemade personal ice cream! Haha it was such a blast and they loved it! We finally got Christain (12 years old) to come to church again with us yesterday so that was really good!

Now to explain the understanding portugese thing. We had contacted a man when we were trying to find a house. He said that we could come by another day so Tuesday we stopped by their house and a woman came to the door. We said we were looking for Jaime and she said okay hold on a minute, but she said it with a super thick accent. So when she went to get him Elder Bennett was like dude she has got to be from Brazil. I had no idea, I just knew it was spanish with some sort of accent. Later on we got to know all of the family. Well the three of them Jaime(dad), Liduina(mom) and Luna(daughter). The mom is actually from Brazil and speaks hardly any spanish. We talked to her more than anyone else that day and I can tell you that the gift of tongues is real. I have a hard time understanding spanish and I have never once studied portugese but somehow we could understand her and could answer her questions and everything! Who knew we would find someone from Brazil in this little town of Catemu?! Tonight she is going to make us food from Brazil and I am going to make something the US to share!

Now for number two. I don´t remember what day but I think it was like Tuesday or Wednesday. One of the sisters in our Branch called me and said there was a problem with the wedding of two people in our branch and that a lot of the plans failed so she asked if I could be in charge of making all the deserts for the wedding. I gladly said I would love to do it:) So I made a huge ´ol list of the things I needed and then went and got them. I spent that whole day cooking, it took me longer than I thought but I finished in time!! It was a blast! And I felt pretty good when all was finished and set up looking pretty! Haha anyways I made 60 strawberry shortcake cupcakes, 48 salted caramel chocolate cupcakes, 3 pans of cookie dough brownies(the people are in love with brownies here), 3 chocolate fudge strawberry cakes, and like 80 or so sugar cookies. It was fantastic. Then some members came in a car to pick us and everything up and then when we got to the church(where the marriage was at) I was able to help the chef guy finish off making the dinner part of things! So all in all that was a way busy and fun day! The bummer was that we had to leave at 9 at night and they started at 8:30 so we actually didn´t get to eat anything! I was hoping that everything tasted good! But a couple people at church told me the things were tasty so I guess all went well!

A little update on the family that was coming to church and everything, Nelson, Cecilia and Patricio. They are alright. They don´t want to commit to anything and I scared to get out of their comfort zone which I understand but I want their wonderful family to have what my family has, an eternal family. So I will not give up on them. We are going to do more service for them tomorrow morning. I´m hoping that one day they will be able to feel our love enough and realize that all we want is the best for them and the best thing they can do is make covenants with God and take a step of faith outside of their comfort zone so that they can receive so many more blessings.

Thank you for all your support and love! Also a big huge shout out for Court and her call to Mexico! 

Love,

Elder Gunnell

P.S. This next Monday we have transfers! I don´t know if I will stay or go but whatever happens I know it will be good for me!