7.30.12

Things here in chile are good. still cold. but getting a tiny bit warmer during the day at least.

its been a good week work-wise actually. we found a lot of good people ready for the gospel. one guy we met named juan quit doing drugs and drinking a few years ago and wants to follow Christ now, so he let us in right away when we knocked on his door, and he wants to learn more and now he has a baptismal date set for aug 25th. but the cool thing is that he came to church yesterday! and after only meeting with him like twice.

also another lady let us in right away after we knocked on her door. she has no eyebrows or hair because shes finishing up with chemo therapy. but she was telling us that while she was in the hospital about a year ago she had a dream where she was in a white hallway and there was an extremely bright light at the end where the lord was and she told him she was ready to serve him now and he said not yet. but soon.

and she was saying that she would go to other churches, but just felt empty still after going there and she wanted to serve the Lord the right way she says, so we answered a bunch of questions she had and left her with a Book of Mormon. i think she will be baptized here soon. Plus she says she wants us to teach her 2 college age kids that are living with her. so we´ve been really blessed this week. and should be seeing results soon. my comp is great and really fun.

and last night he got sick from something he ate and was throwing up all after church, so we stayed home yesterday. but hes feeling better today.

something funny that happened this week was when we were in this one house for the first time teaching this teenage girl with her baby. and we're trying to figure out what we should teach by asking some inspired questions, so i ask "have you ever wondered where we come from or why we're here or where we are going?" and her face lit up and she said "YES, i have wondered that!" so my comp and i were like wow, that was pretty inspired. then she says "ive always wanted to know where you guys are from and what your doing here." *facepalm* she thot i was talking about US when i asked the question lol so me n my comp always have a good laugh about that.

but yeah life is going good. its wierd being on the downhill part of the mission. everyone tells me wow you dont have hardly any time left! haha crazy.

Until December - I love and miss you all!

Elder Jared Philpott

7.23.12

Things here are good. pretty cold still though. but at least it hasnt been raining. but me and my comp both have a cold and nasty cough right now :P but we went and bought some 10 dollar cold medicine with the mission health card that they gave me when i was a district leader. and it seems to work pretty well.

vanessa that got baptized last sunday by nicolas, one of the youth from the ward. and she got confirmed yesterday. which wasnt easy either haha they got to church at the end of sacrament meeting haha but we just did it at the end of sacrament mtg. her parents were inactive. but now they are coming every sunday. so we are passing by their house a lot. they have plans now to go to the temple together. so we`re helping them with that now :) but johana the wife has deppression and its been pretty bad lately. so we gave her a priesthood blessing saturday and sunday she came and told us that she felt tons better, cuz before, she didnt feel like doing ANYTHING but after we left her house she said she started cleaning the whole house and felt like doing a whole bunch of things. so that was a cool thing to hear :) plus they were telling us that in their house a bunch of wierd things happen like the girls` toys move and make noises at night by themselves and they hear footsteps when theres no one in the house. and the dog will get scared and look up and keep barking when theres nothing there. so we decided to change the atmosphere by having family home evenings there and having the family read the sciptures together all the time there.

and it made us realize that the devil will do stuff like that to people and families usually right before something great is about to happen with them, like what happened to joseph smith in the sacred grove just before the gospel was restored to the earth. the same type of things happened in the house of some of my converts in penco before they were baptized.

thats about all thats been going on here. the only (sort of) funny thing that happened this week was that my comp was walking down the stairs in our house the other night and all the sudden on of the steps broke underneath him and he almost fell through but saved himself at the last minute. haha welcome to chile. and then the next night E´Hepworth was walking down the stairs, tired after talking on the phone wth the zone leaders and we hear a loud thud thud thud! and then "im alright!". He had forgotten about the missing step and

almost fell through the gap lol but amazingly saved himself haha so i suppose we better get that fixed...
and also last monday we all went to play soccer with some members of the ward here and my comp was running to make a shot on the goal but missed and kept running and didnt see this big metal light post and only slowed down a tiny bit and then ran into it with his chest so now he has this big purple mark there and it still hurts him sometimes, so were hoping his rib isnt cracked.. but hes a tough guy who did some boxing before the mission actually and has a bunch of stuff to workout that he brought with him, so i decided to take advantage of the situation and start using it a lot too now haha
I love and miss you all tons,
until December,
Elder Jared Philpott

Photos

This is how we like to make toast.....on the heater!

Eduardo, the guy I sold my guitar to.

This is Fredie - I swear he's from another planet.  He comes to every District Meeting.

Elder Hepworth's surprise birthday party.

Aida

Sorry Aryan, I have a new girl friend!

Sorry Jared, Aryan says you can have her.....that's disgusting!!

Vanessa's baptism - with her family

Vanessa's baptism and my new Companion

7.16.12

Well things here in chile are going good now. we had a baptism yesterday. a ten year old girl named vanessa that weve been teaching for awhile. her biggest doubt about getting baptised was her fear of the water. and when she got baptised, her feet came up the first time and she got water in her nose and didnt want to do it again. and was crying but she calmed down after a little bit and did it again successfully. i felt bad for her. but shes an awesome little girl and said she did it because she had a lot of faith in God and that he would take care of her. i could learn a lot from her.

My new companion is great, his name is Elder Benitez. he`s from Paraguay. and hes only been a member of the church for 5 years. his whole family was catholic but got baptised together shortly after meeting the missionaries. hes still learning a lot about church doctrine, but he has a really strong testimony. We work together really well too. The other new elder here is Elder Cruz from La Paz, Bolivia. he is hilarious and a great guy. ha had to learn spanish for the mission cuz where he`s from they speak a native dialect called guarani. its amazing how much more peaceful it is in the house now. i can actually get to bed on time now here haha

now we just got back from playing soccer with some of the members here. it was pretty fun. but its still pretty cold here. but at least the sun has been coming out lately. and today in the evening were going to have a family home evening with a family out in the country it should be pretty fun.

im doing fine. staying warm and dry. haha

we`re working with this one 21 year old girl named javiera. she was the only one of our investigators that came to church sunday. i think she will be getting baptised soon.

other than that life is still pretty normal here.

I love and miss everyone!

Elder Jared Philpott

7.9.12

Well news from here in chile: first of all, we got the phone call this
morning telling us the cambios, and E`Paz and E`Lopez are leaving!!
E`Paz is going to Talca and E`Lopez is going to Andalien which is near
concepcion. So needless to say, the house will be a lot different here
now. But guess what?? my next companioin is another latin! ive lost
count of how many latin comps ive had so far, but at least i can speak
decent spanish now haha actually im really starting to have problems
remembering how to talk english... its gonna be a mess when i get back
haha
the other news is that im now a criminal in chile lol. sort of. what
happened was that i was trying to renew my visa and i have to go to
chillan to do all the paperwork which is like 45 mins away, and so i
got my visa but i forgot to do the last step`and get it registered and
get my new identification card, which i have to do in chillan too. and
so before i know it too many days had passed by and my comp didnt ever
want to go to chillan and went and it was closed one day, and so i got
there this morning and they tell me that the waioting period had
expired so now i have to pay a fine and am under some sort of
survelance and cant leave the region without permision from the FBI
here until the fine arrives.  but the good news is the fine is
reembursable and i only have to leave the region to go to a mission
conference in Talca in a couple weeks so i have to ask permission from
the FBI. so now they have my passport and my identification card and
they gave me a paper instead with my picture and fingerprint and info.
the other news is, i sold my guitar to a member here and bought BONGO
DRUMS!! lol  they`re pretty fun. i sold the guitar cuz i didnt want to
have to pack it to my next sector if i leave, bongos on the other hand
are a lot more portable lol and i sttill see my guitar all the time
whenever i go over to his house. actually i think we`re going to do
something togethr for the talent show thats coming up here haha.
Until December....
Love, Elder Philpott

7.2.12

Chile is good. pretty darn cold and rainy though :P not much happened. the other Elders here had a baptism sunday. but the girl that got baptized only wanted her family and the missionaries at her baptism. so we got to go too. and i was there in the lesson when she decided to get baptized. she passed the interview, but was determined to get baptized the NEXT sunday, so the other elders and a member thats a friend of hers were fasting so that she could get baptized this sunday. and she kept saying no up until saturday night when me n E`Paz went to her house and taught about the restoration. it was pretty cool to see how God answers prayers and how powerful fasts really are.
The only funny thing that happened this week was when me n my comp went to lunch with an old lady from the ward that always gives lunches to the missionaries, and she really loves when we go over there and tell her jokes lol and she laughs the whole lunch at our jokes lol and so we went there on wednesday, and the week before she had an accident and had fallen down in her house so she had recently gotten out of the hospital. and so we werent sure if we should tell her any jokes and make her laugh cuz she was in some pain, but we started eating and no one was saying much and the conversation was boring, so we decide to just tell her a joke anyways, so we tell her this one about a gringo that recently got to the mission and was teaching about the first vision, but confused the words pray (orar) with pee (urinar) and so he said "and when Joseph Smith went into the woods to pee, he said I saw a pillar of light..." lol and then the lady bursted out laughing and started caughing and weezing a lot and my comps like "oh gosh hermana are you alright??" "we killed her!" but she recovered and told us to tell her more jokes haha but it kind of scared me a little bit actually haha
Love,
Elder Philpott