October 27,2012

 

Dad Happy Birthday!!!! You're like 46 or something right? I don't know if it's a good idea for you to go on a canyoneering trip with Brother Murray, you might get hurt.

I got your package mom and dad and family!!!! Ahhhh! Thank you for thinking way ahead of me 

and sending my reese's, oatmeal raisin cookies:):), oreos, others and PUMPKIN!! That was the best thing I've seen in awhile. I can't thank you enough! I had told Elder Anderson about those cookies earlier and when we saw that I got pumpkin he was like you have to make those right now!! So during lunch I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and man were they tasty!

 Wow sooo good. I'm making more tomorrow. They were a little off because I don't have

measuring cups or anything like that so everything I make I am just
eyeballing it but it's worked out pretty well. We gave some cookies to
some of our investigators which I loved because they had never had
cookies with pumpkin in them! So I loved that. Also this week I made
Chocolate chip cookies and some german pancakes which also were so
fantastic to taste again! Yesterday at a Stake activity I was talking
to a Sister missionary who was in Catemu before us and we were talking
about cooking because she would always make brownies for the people
and stuff and I wanted her brownie recipe so I could try it out and it
was just fun talking about cooking and treats with someone. Because
they don't have brown sugar down here her sister sent her brown sugar
so we made a deal that this week for district class she is going to
make chocolate chip cookies with brown sugar(mine didn't have it) and
I'm gonna make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and we are gonna trade
during district class! Haha

We have discovered with the warming of the weather, it is starting to
get very hot, that our house is loaded with spiders. In one night, in
probably 30 minutes we killed ten spiders and this spiders aren't
little harmless spiders. They are big spiders. I don't think I've ever
seen any this size before! I mean they aren't like trantulas but they
are not small by any means!! Also here in Los Andes, the area I am in,
a very common type of spider is the brown reclouse(I don't know how to
spell that) and we killed a couple of them but for now we haven't had
any serious problems! Also I saw my first wild scorpions thank
goodness not in our house.

So when we travel to Santiago we usually take a massive huge tour bus,
sometimes the double decker massive huge tour buses, from Catemu to
Santiago. When we do that we end up in Station Central. This place is
like the Georgia Airport of buses. It's a gigantic mall where all
sorts of buses from other parts of Chile and other countries end up.
There is 100 spots for buses and I honestly don't know how to explain
it other than it is huge and massive and I've never seen so many big
buses in the same area or as many stores packed into one area. From
there we go underground to the metro and depending on where we are
going in Santiago we can either take the metro and walk or we take the
metro then a bus and then walk!

This week we went to Santiago because all the people that are
finishing their missions go to the Temple together. And because the
session was at 5:30 we weren't going to be able to get a bus to bring
us back to Catemu because they end so we had a sleepover in the
apartment of the President's assistants! They weren't there because
they were on splits with other missionaries but it was still fun! This is the view.

This Sunday we had four investigators come to church and a few less
active and that was way exciting! It was the first time for me for
this to happen! I realized how important it is that the ward members
are very nice and welcoming for people who have never assisted before
cause that would be kinda scary and intimidating I think!

This week Elder Anderson has made me in charge of our cellphone so I
have to answer it and make calls which is really good for me!
Sometimes it's hard but it's way good practice and I'm getting better
at it! Also one of the times we went to Santiago this week we weren't
able to sit together cause we got our tickets late and I was sitting
by this girl and I figured it was a good time to practice my spanish
and we ended up talking for the whole two hours! I felt pretty proud
of that haha

Also let Tylee know that I really like her plan of practicing with
Drey so that he doesn't forget me by the time I come home!

I think that wraps it up for this week, I'm doing great and I'm loving
it more and more! I love having good relationships with the people,
that's probably the funnest part. Oh, also this time next week I will
have a new companion! And possibly a new area. I'll find out Saturday
if I am changing sectors or staying but for sure I will have a new
companion haha and mom don't worry because our p-day is like normal so
you will still hear from me!



Love,
Elder Gunnell

October 20,2014

 Today we had a zone activity at the Stake Presidents house.

This week I learned a lot about how much my family has played such a
huge role in my life. We taught a mother of a family that are inactive
and usually she doesn´t like listening and usually keeps herself
occupied when we come by but we stopped by their house out of the blue
and she and only one of her kids was there and we asked if we could
come in and share something with her. She was like yeah sure whatever.
But later on in the lesson she really opened up to us about her and
her families life when they were active in the church and had callings
and how close their family was and how now, things are just a mess. It
was neat because she kind of taught herself why church and being
involved are so important. I talked a little to her about how when the
family is together there something there. Like at Christmas time when
all all the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents are all
together, there is something there and in that time how Satan has no
control. Cause the family is so strong. I think back to the times when
my mom would get up in the early hours of the morning to make
breakfast for our family so we could all read scriptures before I went
to school. And all the Mondays that mom made me stay home instead of
going out and doing something with my friends and the nights that we
would do our little work out thing. Mom, if it wasn´t for all of your
family home evenings growing up I don´t think I would know half the
Book of Mormon stories that I know, I am so grateful for those. These
memories with my family are the memories that I cherish and I wish I
would have spent more time with my family.

There is another little town in our sector called Cerillo, its like a
30 minute bus ride and there are only buses every hour. But we went
our there to find a family and we ended up talking to a family and
neighbors who were all talking in front of their house and one of them
had cancer so we talked to them for while and had another lesson with
them just recently but the really cool thing was that they told us of
one of their neighbors who were having a hard time so we went and
stopped by their house. The daughter of this family had actually been
praying for help and we came by! But her dad can´t talk or move very
well so usaully he lays in bed all day, he can hear and nod his head
and give thumbs up and it´s way cool when he does that! But we shared
with the family and he started to cry a little when we talked about
the gospel, we asked if he wanted a blessing and gave him a blessing.
We left and then had another lesson with them. When we showed up the
mom answered the door and we went in and taught a lesson and they are
committed to be baptized the 9th of november! My explanation of all
this is bad but it was a really cool experience.

In lessons now Elder Anderson will stop talking and I have to take
over and talk so that is some progress for sure with my spanish! I can
understand more and more every single day! I´m getting excited for the
day when I can actually talk with these people and converse and share
my feelings!

I´m very very grateful for Grandpa Burke and his contribution, please
thank grandma Needa for a me a million times.

Love,
Elder Gunnell

P.S. The empanadas are very good(tell grandpa mark) and another big
thing is completos, those are good too!

October 14, 2014

I have 22 months left and my companion has like 19 days! Haha wow oh
well! I'm excited to keep this adventure going!

So yesterday was a day full of traveling because we had to go to
Santiago again and it just didn't work out to write yesterday but here
I am now! I don't have much time though cause we are in a hurry today!

This week has been really cool, we've got to given a lot of blessings
which is scary but at the same time an awesome experience when you
follow the spirit!

This place is gorgeous and it is starting to get hot. But that's okay!

My Spanish is still awful haha but getting better! Everyday I
understand more and I enjoy myself more! I'm really glad to be here
even though I struggle with the language. It will come:)

I got to make bundt cake for an activity which was way fun!

Love,
Elder Gunnell

P.S. Sorry it is so short!

October 6, 2014

This cyber cafe doesn't seem so forgeign anymore now that I kinda know
where I am!

First I need to do some thanking. Mother dearest thank you so much for
teaching me how to cook. Last email you asked if our house was
equipped to cook, my answer is in one of my pictures! Haha but thank
you so much for teaching me how to cook, it is a very useful skill.
Thank you also mom for teaching me how to sew because I had a hole in
one of my pants but don't worry I knew how to fix it! Thank you
grandma carol and grandpa mark for a mini sewing kit you gave me for
christmas! Thank you grandma debbie for the birthday money so I could
buy myself a back pack! Thank you everyone for the emails, pictures,
and support!

I haven't got letters yet because we missed district meeting because
we had to go to the dentist in Santiago for Elder Anderson but our
district leader said there was one for me! Tomorrow we have district
meeting so I will see if there is anything!

This week has been full of more miracles. It is absolutely wonderful
and amazing to see what the Lord can do.

One night we were looking for a house but couldn't find it, we went
down this road for a long time hoping it might be down there but soon
enough there was no houses and we got to the end of the road and there
was just fields all around us so we turned around and on our way back
there was a man outside in the dirt road just looking at the stars so
we stopped to talk to him. After talking to him in the road for a
minute he said he had time so we taught him a lesson. He said how he
wants to stop drinking and smoking and when we told him that there was
a way through Christ that he could completely change that and be
forgiven he was so happy and even got a little teary eyed. He said how
he was waiting for someone to come and just ask him to quit because he
didn't have the courage to do it himself.
It was really neat and a very cool experience.

I'm short on time but I really like conference! It was difficult to
get a ton out of it but I was able to get a little! It is not the same
hearing a translators voice and not the prophets.... But it was still
really good!!

I am glad to hear Alan Blad is getting better. I will keep him and
Hillary in my prayers.

Also I saw a Praxiar plant down here and instantly thought of Kunane
obviously! Hopefully he is enjoying Hawaii. That was like exactly a
year ago! Wow that went by fast.

Oh I forgot to tell you all this a couple of weeks ago! In the CCM I
had to give a talk, in spanish, haha so basically I just read the
whole thing! It wasn't amazing but the latinos said they understood
it! I haven't given one in church yet but I'm sure it will come soon.


Love,
Elder Gunnell

September 29, 2014

How is everyone doing? I hope wonderful!!!

I'll get right to the point. I got my new companion, Elder Anderson,
from Missouri. He is incredible!! He is a great example and an
incredible missionary in general! I'm glad he is my first companion
out in the field. He has set the bar high already. I haven't spoken
english since the last day we were in the mtc because he said that all
we are going to do is talk in spanish so that's all it has been! But
that kind of means that I don't talk too much because I don't know
very much spanish haha but it has helped a ton and I am slowly
learning... Also I am his last companion. Which means I will change
companions in 5 more weeks to finish my 12 week training. Who knows
after that!

I got shipped off to a city called Catemu. It is a little outside of
Llay-Llay. It is a looong way from our mission home. It takes us
nearly 3 hours to get to the north mission home. And I love it!!!!
There are hardly any members at all in our sector and we don't even
have a ward. We have a branch and we have to go to Llay-Llay for
sacrament meeting because that is where our chapel is! It's like a 15
minute bus ride.

I am definitely not in America anymore. It's so different and such an
amazing and new experience! There are dogs out in the street like
crazy. A couple have chased me but I haven't gotten bitten yet. If you
do get bit you have to go into the hospital and get 5 shots and they
say that they do not feel good. So the goal is not to get bit but
hardly anyone does. There are some big german sheperds that will give
you the eye and that's a little scary BUT we have bikes!! So we can
hopefully get away from any danger.

Most areas don't have bikes but because we have a big area and are the
only two missionaries here we have bikes to get around so that is
pretty fun! Right now we have womens bikes haha but on wednesday we
will get bikes for guys!

Our house is actually not too shabby! It's plenty big for our needs!
It's old and doesn't always smell good but I like it! We have hot
water for our showers but we have to light the water heater before we
get in, other than that the water is cold which isn't bad! It's also
safe to drink. We think, niether of us have gotten sick so we assume
it's okay! haha

My spanish is still awful. The understanding as well. Every once in
awhile I can understand what is going on but it's hard. It get's very
frustrating at times too. And usually at some point in every day I
feel like I will never be able to get it then some small miracle will
happen and bring back my confidence! I know I can learn it. It's just
not coming right when I want it because it will come when God wants
it! One of these miracles was Elder Anderson told me to go talk to
this lady that was in the bus on our way home from Llay-Llay or San
Felipe and I actually talked and understood her the whole time! I told
her about the church, showed her a picture of my family and Drey and
me and told her about my family and foster care, and gave her our
number. Also I have been able to understand more things I read in
spanish, everything I study in personal study, etc. Is spanish and I
have been able to understand a lot more. I can now read and understand
the scriptures in spanish!! Which I am very proud of and excited about
because on day 1 I couldn't understand a single sentence in spanish!

Everyday it is incredible to see the miracles that happen. This has
been the coolest thing for me so far. The very first night we were
walking to our house and some young man came and started talking to
us, turns out he is a less active and so we planned a day we could
come talk to him and his family and him and his family are great, one
of my favorites. I will talk about them more later.
Then we had to go to the store that night and another guy stopped us
who wanted to practice his english and then we got an appointment with
him and the next night on the bus a lady(his husband) recognized us by
her husbands description of us and said how they were excited for our
meeting! Another time we were waiting for a bus and an old man got off
and said hola and it turns out he was actually an investigator that we
were looking for early that day!
There are more but wow the Lord puts you in places you need to be.
It's truly amazing.

So an investigator was baptized the saturday before we came and then
was confirmed and given the aaronic priesthood this sunday and that
was really cool! I like him a lot. He's an old man but is very sweet
and it was neat to see how much he loves the Sister missionaries that
were before us in this area and how much the gospel has already
affected him. We visit him often to teach him the lessons again and
about the temple and family history work and such things. We ride the
bus with him to church and stuff it's cool!

The Osses family is a great family and are mostly less active members
but Brother Osses's wife is not baptized but yesterday we commited her
to November 2! That was pretty neat too. We have 3 baptizm dates now,
so that is exciting!

There are a lot of things that are different about this place and this
city but I love it. As we have meet with certain people more and more
I have started to grow a love for them and it makes a difference
because when you love someone you want the best for them. We as
missionaries and as members of this church and should strive to be
like christ who loves everyone and that has helped me a lot because
now I want to learn this terribly hard language for these people, not
for me anymore, I want to share with them my experiences and how it
has blessed my life and how it can bless their lives in so many ways!

A lot of the time I am scared to talk to people but I was reading a
general conference talk and a little one liner stood out to me. It
says, "La fe es el antídoto contra el temor" which means faith is the
antidote against fear. So because I have fear I need to just have
faith. That's it. It's simple. Faith that God will help.

My birthday was absolutely wonderful! The Sister Missionaries gave me
tons of treats and made me a huge card and signed their names and drew
a flag of their country. I got treats from Argentina, Nicuaragua,
Columbia, Chile and a bracelet from columbia also! Hermana Jacobsen
even made me cake and then my teachers gave me treats also, it was a
fantastic day!

Be sure to send me your favorite one liners from General Conference!
And enjoy it cause it's in english! haha


Love always,
Elder Gunnell

From the Mission President

Arrival of Elder Gunnell

 Here attached is a hand written letter from your son, a letter from President Videla, and a picture of him with President and Hermana Videla.He has arrived, received a great trainer for his companion, and has already left out to go and bless the people´s lives here in Chile.

Best Wishes,

Letter from Bayler:

Six weeks in the CCM went by so quick! We are now at the mission home but have not got our new companions yet! I'm excited and nervous, mostly excited though! Part of me opes I get a latino and part of me really doesn't like that idea.  I just really want to learn spanish and FAST.  But I know that I will get a companion that is good for me.

My birthday was an incredible birthday. All the Latino Hermanas made a huge card and some made a card of their own and tons of different treats from Argentina, Columbia, Brazil and Nicaragua.  So I got pretty spoiled.  Then Hermana Doll Made chocolate cookies (I need to get that recipe) and my teachers all gave me a candy bar or something similar.  Also because it was Chile's Independence day on the 18th we had a celebration the day after and had a bunch of activities  and they cooked some amazing food and we played soccer.  Oh how I miss that.  I forgot how much I loved soccer.  Not the high school soccer but real soccer.

Learning spanish thus far has been the hardest thing I've ever done.  And to be honest I am kinda scared to start this whole thing later today and officially tomorrow.  But there is a scripture I really like, it is Alma 17:9-14.  It's when the sons of Mosiah are going to preach the gospel.  In verse 9 it says how through the spirit we will be made instruments in the Lord's hands.  In verse 11 it says if we are patient in our afflictions (in my case, learning Spanish) they will be made instrument in the hands of the Lord, again.  So I know it's possible and I know the Lord didn't call me here without a way to accomplish the things I need to do.  It will happen in the Lords time.

Love Elder Gunnell

September 16, 2014

So a lot of things happened this week.  I will start with the most important and just see where I can get to! I'm sorry if I can't get to all the personal emails I would like to!

The reason we had to do our proselyting and contacting this week(usually it is week 6 of your MTC stay but for us it was week 5) because it is Chile's day of independence on the same day of my birthday! And it is a huge deal! They start celebrating a week early and won't stop their celebration until this Sunday. Nobody goes to work or goes to school and there are just a lot of big events and festivals that go on. So because of that we did our week 6 activities during week 5.

Thursday we got to go contacting, in Santiago there are tons of parks and so they split all the companionship up and sent them off to different parks or sometimes there was a couple of companionship's at a big park.  Some had to get on buses and others just walked. We just walked and we talked to 8 people but 3 did not want to talk to us haha but we actually got names, numbers, and addresses for two people and then handed out some pass along cards to other people we talked to! It felt so good to get out in the real world and talk to real people and realize how atrocious my Spanish is! Haha but it was incredible and at some parts I could not understand them but other parts I could!

Friday was the big day though, we went on splits with missionaries in the West mission!! We all went and got bus/metro cards and got on a bus(we had teachers helping us because the bus system around here is way confusing), walked to the metro jumped on that which was a first for me! Rode on line 5 to the Del Sol station where my companion and I got off and met up with missionaries and went on splits! My companion was Latino from mexico and spoke absolutely no English but honestly it was really fun, and hard, to talk to him but we had a good conversation whenever we weren't talking to people! During this proselyting time we taught 2 lessons, got two contacts, got laughed at(mainly me for my Spanish haha which was totally fine) and talked to a couple of people!

Our first lesson was with a man and the whole set up was pretty cool. We were walking around and my companion said okay lets go to this address and so we walked to the house and were waiting for someone to come to the gate but nobody was home so we were just waiting deciding if we should move on when a man walked down the sidewalk to us with a grocery bag and asked if we were missionaries and we said yes and he asked if we could come and say a prayer for his wife who is in the hospital in a coma. Well it turns out that the house we went to was actually his house and he was just coming back from shopping! So he let us in and we first talked about faith and he told us he has faith that we as missionaries could move mountains if we also had that faith so that was cool that he had that much faith in us then we talked about the importance of prayer and then my companion said a very powerful prayer for this man's wife and afterwards we talked about how God supports us through our trials. It was a very spiritually strong meeting and I can't believe I get to go do that for two years.

The next lesson was not quite the same, haha we went to this older ladies house and I kid you not I think I only understood one word that came out of her mouth the whole entire time! She was straight Chilean which means she dropped all letter "s" and shorted almost every word by not saying the first letter or first part of the word! When we were reading a scripture she read it for us (and i promise i was looking at the right scripture) but I could not understand a single word so afterwards my companion asked if I got any of that and I said no way did I understand that and we both just laughed. He said don't even worry because it will come with time!

When it was time to head back to the CCM my companion and I had to do the whole metro thing by ourselves and we had to get on then keep riding the metro to the end of the line where the rest of the companions were. We went to the Maipu station which is a huge metro station and then once all the missionaries were there we got back on and rode back into Santiago. The metro was a lot of fun because there were a lot of people so we were able to talk to a lot of people and practice our Spanish!

I have been able to understand a lot better though lately because all of our teachers now don't speak English(they don't know how to) and so we have to learn completely in Spanish and it has been a huge help! Sometimes they will even speak their regular speak and with their chileano accents and we don't notice it because we have gotten use to it! Things are coming along!!

This last Sunday we had a surprise for our morning devotional. Elder Ceballos of the first seventy and his wife came in person and spoke to us! Her talk was completely in Spanish and i got a lot out of it surprisingly and his talk was mostly Spanish with a mix of English and his was incredible as well. Also this Sunday was our first Sunday that was all in Spanish and so I have now said goodbye to English sacraments for two years, wish me luck!

We got new hermana's last week and they are all Latinas and are so much fun! They love to laugh at our horrible Spanish and I love it but there are very patient with us and help us a ton. We usually will sit by them at lunch to practice. Hermana Carmiento and Hermana Coronel are some of my favorites!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I wish I had time to thank you all personally but I don't think I will!

Also next week because I am going out in the field I probably won't have a P-day depending on what day their p-day is so I won't be writing for two weeks!

Love always,

Elder Gunnell