February 11, 2013

Hey folks!

Hope everyone up there is enjoying the large amounts of snow and coldness. It is nice
and toasty here. We are eating watermelon (with toasted flour, a weird Chilean thing
that is okay) and peaches and blackberries almost daily. Lots of fruit, lots of sweat, and
lots of talking to people. We are still really building that good investigator pool here,
trying to find those people that really have good desires. We are getting lots of
possibilities but everyone seems to be hiding in the mountains from the Talca heat or at
the beach. Everyone has fled Talca Centro and only the Mormons are left…

We have had a pretty not interesting week. Elder Ulibarri is losing his weirdness touch.
We found some good people--a lot of new missionaries are in the zone that got here
this cambio. Lots of people fresh from the MTC. It is weird. It doesn’t feel long ago that
that was me, but I hope I was never as clueless as these guys. There is this Mexican
missionary in Cancha Rayada now who still doesn’t understand the Chileans--even
though he already spoke Spanish. That should give you some idea of the language
down here. These crazy Chileans.

Had a minicambio this week--Elder G. from Jardin del Valle came up with me to work in
our sector. We really worked hard, and I really had to push him to be animated and
obedient. We studied together our missionary purpose and what it means to be a
successful missionary. He has been feeling pretty disanimated, so I really worked hard
with him to study diligence and how to effectively use time, and, as we do so, how we
can really feel more joy and satisfaction in our work. It was kinda a depressing and hard
two days and made me extra thankful for Elder U when he got back. Also very nervous
for my next companion-- the time with Elder Ulibarri has been almost too good to be
true.

We are working hard and doing lots of good things here. Hopefully this thing in Conce
goes well with this week. I feel like I am reaching a new phase in my mission where I
have seen most everything and experienced a lot and now am just constantly looking
for more ways to be more obedient and develop myself better and qualify myself better.
I think that that really comes with the realization of the power we have in our calls and
the power we have to touch people’s lives. We have talked with lots of people this week
who have been very rude to us, some who have been very nice to us, and some who
couldn’t care less. But we are finding those few that are truly interested in knowing the
truth for themselves. It’s always nice to find those people, but even few of those people
really progress in the gospel because they are not willing to guard their compromises.
Keep commitments, I mean- in Spanish it’s “guardar compromisos.”

I have been being more bold and friendly and loving with people this week. Yesterday
we were doing some contacts between lessons and this Catholic guy opened his door
and we introduced ourselves. He wouldn’t shake our hands which is really rude,
especially to Chileans, but just stood there listening to us, shaking his head no. He
waited until Elder Ulibarri stopped talking, then said ¨"Son plasticos" or that we are
plastics. I have only ever heard that term in Mean Girls so I was kinda offended, and
then he slammed the door. I rang this poor guy´s doorbell again. He answered it again,

all mad, and we bore some powerful testimony to this man and told him he should be
more like Christ and not slam doors in people´s faces. But then he did it again. Oh well.

We are having fun here and learning a lot! It is really cool to see the change that
obedience and diligently searching ways to improve makes in the work!
Have a great week! Say hi to all the Duke people and Allie and the Jacobs for me! I also
don’t remember if I mentioned I got a letter from Cody--good guy.

Love you all!
Elder Brown