Week 14- Chi-chi-chi Le-le-le

To start things off, I need to brag about how awesome it is to be living, working, and serving here in Chile. Por lo menos, it´s at least 10x better than any other mission... granted there may be some biased in that judgement. I´ve got the greatest people and spiritually speaking, the most "prepared" sector in all of the mission. Everyone believes in God which saves me the confusion of trying to help people realize that there really is a god. But on top of that, there´s families galore in Victoria who have found faults and flaws in their churches beliefs and are looking for the truth. The only thing that I have to do is not have the fear to talk to everyone. Which more and more is becoming less and less of a problem. I´ve come to realize that if I truly love this work as much as I always say I do, there´s nothing more that I am asked to do and actually want to do than to share it. At times I feel lazy and tired and days where in all honesty I don´t want anything more than my watero (a little bed heater that uses boiled water) and sleep all day. But the more that I read the scriptures and then share what I learned from reading each day with our less active members, investigators, and contacts through testimony and simple gospel centered conversations the more I feel a pure love of this gospel and the people I have been called to share it with.

The truth is that before my mission I never read the Book of Mormon... I went to church and lived like a normal mormon is taught to live, but I never really put the thought into reading the one book that seperated me from everyone else. I´ve always wanted to serve a mission because well thats just what mormons do. I wish I would have done it sooner but since the beginning of my mission 3 months ago, I started reading and studying the Book of Mormon and my faith and testimony of its devine truth has grown immensely. I´m in the middle of Alma right now and hope to finish it by October 20th (the end of this next cambio, in English first before I finish it in Spanish by Christmas). But this growth in desire has opened up my mind to understanding and feeling more strongly than ever before in my life the influence of the Holy Ghost.

There´s not much more I want to say this week about my experiences here or the funny things that have happened, but rather use this weeks letter to encourage anyone who hasn´t or even those who have, to read the book of mormon and pray about it. I know that it will bless and change the life of anyone who reads it.

Con todo amor,

Elder Mundell

Week 13

Hola! Familia y Amigos!

I´m beeming right now on my mission! Every day just gets more and more cheestoso and I´m having more and more success as missionary and with the members. I´m more confident and comfortable than ever with my abilities and they are still growing by leaps and bounds every few days. This week I dont have a whole lot to say other than I am truly finding my groove and what I want to be as a missionary. I feel so much love for the people and the Lord and want to share it with everybody here! Contacting is no longer a fear, but rather 2 hours of my day that I anticipate and look forward to eagerly every day. For the oportunity to share more and talk with the people of Victoria. Now begins the hunt for more investigators, and my companion and I have the faith that we will find them.

This week I had another and presumably my last baptismal "first"... This baptism marked my first converso that I had taught and prepared all the way from the first lesson to the end. She and her daughter were baptized in a rather odd, even gross way though... haha. The Wednesday before was that big Fiesta and apparently the Rama had used the baptismal font to thaw the frozen chicken. So we did our best to clean it out and still there was chicken grease when we filled the font. So the only solution we could come up with was to walk in first before our converts (Daisy y Javi) and splash around the water so that they couldn´t tell how gross the water was. They will never know! Muahaha

Also, our Zone of Victoria is also breaking records down here. This month we will have 18 baptisms -- The 3rd most in the history of the Chile Concepcion Sur Mision. Heyo! Granted, its not all about the baptisms and moreso the people making this great step in their life, but its still a pretty awesome mark.

Hasta Proximo,

Elder Mündell

Week 12

To start off this letter, just know that right now theres a giant fiesta going on at the church today and a ton of food, games, and dances because 18 de september is the national holiday of Chile so its a gigantic celebration here. We actually got out P-day changed to Wednesday so that we could fully enjoy the festivities! Empanadas galore, These things called sopaipillas, and whatever carne you could dream of. Funny thing about all this is that yesterday we had a zone meeting where our zone leaders told us that we were going to FAST this day! They were saying that if we wanted to have miracles happen here and baptize the 18 people that we set the goal to baptize, we needed to make a serious sacrifice... like giving up everything good in this mission -- THE FOOD!!!!! Then after like 10 minutes of all the missionaries testifying how this seemed like a great idea (while I was sitting in my chair like CRAP IM GOING TO STARVE) they told us that it was just a joke and to enjoy our 18!

This week I had MY first baptism, in the sense that I actually was the one to baptize the girl. I felt so cool in all white and then realized that, Ah shoot I dont know the baptismal prayer in Spanish! So my comp taught me the prayer like 5 minutes before I was going into the fount... I got down there into position ready to baptize and totally forgot the prayer. All of it. My mind went completely blank and this 12 year old girl, Josefina, had to wisper the words into my ear hahaha... hows that for a baptism?! But I was so happy to be doing it, and the entire night I just had a huge grin on my face.

This week I also got my new comp (mi madre), se llama Elder Overson. And as if my missionary family couldnt be any more confusing... hes the hijo of Elder Tengberg. I`ll need to draw a picture of my missionary family tree and send it next week because it is the craziest thing. And now Im thrown into the role of teaching him about my sector which I still hardly know while he trains me. Needless to say its been pretty stressful the past week, with struggling to find more investigators to teach.

And obviously I need to throw in something about how my language skills are doing... Im a lot better. I can speak more or less without pausing and having to think so much about my words and now it just sort of flows out of my mouth. Next will come the vocabulary, now that I have the grammar down for the most part! Wooo-Hooo!!!

This weekend I have another Baptism of a mom and her daughter who are SUUUUUUPER awesome!!!

Thats all Ive got for now... Hasta proxima semana!

CHAO, VIVA CHILE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELDER MUNDELL

Week 11

This week was really great for a missionary! Really I just want to say that obviously I´m still improving on the spanish, my teaching ability, and my scriptural knowledge, but THIS WEEK IS ALL ABOUT FUNNY STORIES

First things first.

This week there was a man who after going to church with his family for 15 years and not ever being baptized just out of the blue one day decided that he would do it. He had his interview and was definitely ready and knew all about the questions for his baptism and was baptized the next day. But who did it? This gringo father who had come down to Chile for a week for the wedding of his son to a Chilena. He didn´t speak a word of Spanish but spoke through his super strong testimony and great spirit and love for this gospel. It was something really cool to see this man baptized and also the man who did it.

So that´s the cool missionary story, but now here come the bromas of Missionary life.

1) We played football in the street at night after going to a wedding for a missionary who returned to marry a Chilena

2) I MADE IT IN THE CHILEAN NEWSPAPER!!! FOTO AND ALL!!!! For winning a basketball tournament

Ah Crap! Haha I forgot my agenda with all the stories written down I´ll have to write them in my email next week... My memory stinks since coming out on a mission 

But hey, In all reality I´m loving this work. This next week we´re baptizing an entire family of 4 with a 3 year old daughter who will be baptized later. Then next week I have a family of 3! Today marks the end of my 1st Cambio so tomorrow I get my new companion. 

Sorry for the lame letter, next one will be better.

Hasta opróxima semana,

Elder Mundell

Week 10

This week was nuts, not really in the good sense that it should be on a mission though... Unfortunately my trainer got sent home and I am now an orphan with no Padre. After finding out, I then was asked by my mission president to give a blessing of comfort for him but really struggled to get out the words because I was just in tears. He was given one day to pack and say his last goodbye´s to all the people that have become really close with him here and then left the next day. He was a great missionary.

I did however get a really sick orange tie out of the deal, but that still can´t make up for losing a missionary. The branch, the members, and all of our investigators were absolutely devistated and now I have the hardest job in the world of trying to fill in his shoes.

As a result, I have now broken a missionary record and become a Zone Leader just 5 weeks into my mission because my new companions are the zone leaders... Ipso Facto ZONE LEADER MUNDELL!!! Hahaha

I had the funniest experience since being out on a mission happen just a few days ago where we were eating lunch at this old lady´s house and not really much was happenning... but then her phone rang and it was this SUUUUUUPER gangster rap song for her ring tone and I couldn´t hold in my laughter and just started cracking up!

My investigator of gold is giving me a lot of troubles trying to baptize her because she keeps on missing going to church because of little things that keep happenning saturday or sunday night that she can´t go on sunday. That´s probably the most frustrating thing for me right now is just that... but other than that I think that everythings going just about as good as it could be. The language is coming along great-ish and I´ve got a ton of animo to go out and teach.

Today we also had return and report and I got to see all my friends from the MTC!

The effects of not keeping a journal are showing! I don´t remember much from the week any more and time is just flying by.

Until next week,

Elder Mundell