7 Months!!!!

The mission has taken a turn for me in this last cambio. After receiving the latest cambios, hoping that I would be put into any sort of leadership role so as to break the chain of laziness and stagnant pace of my mission, I received a very humbling message that I was not going to change in any way. In fact I stayed as junior comp, with my senior comp being another missionary from the same MTC group as me who is also serving as the District Leader also. His name is Elder Miller, from Independence, Missouri. Something very, very interesting about my new companion is that he was a member of the "restored church" (an off-shoot of the Mormon church who believed in the Apostleship being passed down in the lineage of Joseph Smith rather than ) up until he started having doubts of his church and its authority and was baptized a year and a half ago.

I say the mission has taken a turn for me because of how my mission president had the wisdom to humble me by not giving me what I expected and desired -- a leadership role. I remember what he told me when I first got to the mission field that I would be a leader and felt that this was now my time because in this last cambio almost all of the current leadership finished their missions and went home, leaving the young generation of missionaries to begin receiving these positions. And, admittidly at first, I was upset and dissappointed that I was not included in this rising group of young leaders. But as I pondered it out in my mind I came to the conclusion that I still needed growth and began a very interesting theme of my scripture studies. WHICH ON A SIDE NOTE, I FINALLY FINISHED READING THE BOOK OF MORMON IN SPANISH!!!! But as I finished, I started again really looking to study the principle of ACTION. That great power that we have been given from the creation of the world to ACT and not be ACTED UPON (2 Nep 2:14, 16). I have learned a lot from this theme and am still learning more and more every day how I can, and how God expects us, to ACT for ourselves without being told or directed to do so.

Even though I am still junior comp, and felt like I was slowly fading into the background of lessons or contacts or other parts of my mission, I realize now that it was only like this because I was allowing this title of Junior Companion work me over and become passive rather than acting in my calling and authority to be a missionary -- The same calling as any other missionary out in the field at this point. As I pondered this reality, I broke through this mental block of inactivity and have embraced a much greater role in the companionship regardless of title.

I hope that I can express my love for every one of you and your efforts to stay firm in the faith, and constant followers of our Savior and Redeemer. I know now from looking back, that I wasnt ready or prepared to leave on the mission when I did, but now there is no doubt in me that it is what I needed at this point in my life. I NEEDED TO BECOME CONVERTED. I know that every day my testimony grows more and more every day, and that with that, the power behind my words become stronger and stronger as I live the same principles that I am teaching others to live as the Holy Ghost testifies of these simple doctrinal truths. I have learned that if I boldly testify of what I know to be true, the gospel principles of Christs church remain and lead people to search more and find out for themselves if what these 20 year old kids are saying is true. I HAVE CHANGED MY MISSION, AND THE MISSION HAS CHANGED ME. LET IT CHANGE YOU TOO.

Elder CJ Mundell

Ella la Profunda...

Hey Family,

Once again a pretty quiet week in my sector. I hardly had any time to
work in this week because of having to travel to our Christmas
Conference (which in total took up 2.5 days! Leaving Tuesday night,
Conference Wednesday, Then traveling back to my sector on Thursday!
One of the problems of living in a sector so isolated from the rest of
the mission...) with half the mission, then traveling back and forth
between District meetings and having to help the Hermanas in our
district with baptismal interviews and actually doing the ordinance of
baptism because there wasn´t enough priesthood present to do it. So
our numbers this week definitely suffered due to that and more
importantly our investigators. But Elder Weiss and I have rededicated
ourselves to working determined and diligently solely in our sector
this week, especially to start preparing it for this next cambio where
I´ll be put in the position of leadership -- Something that up until
now I haven´t really experienced at all... There´s a blessing and a
curse to being Comp meynor (I really don´t know how to say that
position in English haha -- young companion??) The blessing is that it
is a stress free life. I just wait for my oportunities to speak and
guide the lesson on to the next point where the other comp picks up
the ball and does the rest. But on the flip side to that I haven´t
learned how to BE the companion in charge. Which worries me for how
this next cambio will be when I´m put in that position. So we have
decided to start from today to give me the chance to do so, 2 days
this week, 3 the next, etc.

This week I had a mini-revelation of how the members can help in the
missionary work without even having to leave to go out on splits with
us! I was reading back through the BoM from what I have read up to
this point and seeing the way that the Lord blessed HIS PEOPLE. When
they were righteous and obedient to the commandments they were called
by the Lord, through the voice of the prophet, "The people of Christ"
or "Zion". They were "blessed abundantly" and many people entered the
waters of baptism. So the thought came to me, that why wouldn´t this
work today also? If the members in this little branch are obedient and
a righteous people, doing all that the Lord has asked of them -- Read,
Pray, Go to church -- why then wouldn´t God bless his work in this
sector upon seeing that his followers are preparing themselves
personally and also to recieve more of his children who are wondering.
If the members are obedient (the missionaries also) the work of
salvation should, and will, grow tremendously because of this promise.
"I the Lord am bound when ye do as I say, but if ye do not what I say,
ye have no promise." D&C 82:10. Sometimes these little things seem so
simple and unimportant, but I know that it is by small and simple
things that great things are brought to pass.

In the spirit of Christmas I would just like to send my best wishes to
everyone. I hope that you enjoy this time of the year to think about
the love of your families, charity for others, having fun with your
new stuff, but most importantly the love that Christ has for us that
came to the Earth and knowingly gave up his own life, suffering all
the pain, and all the criticisms, so that we could one day return with
him and our families if we exercise our faith in this life.

Un embrazo,
Elder Mundell

Anciano Mundell!!!!

Hey friends and family,

Apparrently my mission president thought I needed to get in shape because the sector that I´m in now is pure HILLS! My legs are so HUUUUUUUGE hahaha, that my pants are starting to rip (and at least for now I´m gonna blame it on the walking and not that I´m getting fat). I wish I could tell you more about the place but I still can´t pronounce the name without stumbling over the letters -- Curanilahue. No, but the truth is that I´m really enjoying myself out here and see a lot of future potential work to be done here. And since I know that I´ll be here for AT LEAST another 5 months we´ve hit the ground running trying to find people to teach. 

A little side note... I´ve already had to force myself to eat fish. My 3rd day in my new sector and we got a huge fish almuerzo. It was miserable

My new compañero is named Elder Weiss and is just 1 cambio away from finishing his mission -- I make sure to do a good job of reminding him about how bored he´s going to be in 5 weeks when he´s sitting at home doing nothing.

So I´m running out of time and can´t think of much to say at this point but I need to finish by talking about this family we´re teaching right now.

They´re PASTORS of an Evangelical church here that at first let us in because they wanted to know why everybody calls the Mormons a sect or cult. And after talking to us and answering the question(s) he had for us, he told us to come back another day to keep talking. So we did, and you need to know that this guy is super super animated, just happy and excited non-stop energy -- his kids too. And yesterday we had our 3rd visit with him and explained more about the church and it´s structure and where it comes from and he started using Bible scriptures to tell us how he felt the church of God should be... Turned out he came to the conclusion that everything we were telling him sounded more and more like something he believed to be true. This guy is a absolute stud when it comes to the Bible and absolutely loves reading the Book of Mormon whenever he can.

Bueno, can´t really think right now but just know that I´m doing good -- Still loving it here in Chile (Hills and all)

Hasta proximo,

Elder Mundell

Chau Victoria

We put up the Christmas tree in the house of my Chilean Abuela and I got to put on the star

Hola mis amados fanáticos! Hahaha

Today I got the miserable phone call that I´ll be leaving my favorite first sector - Victoria, Chile. It sucks a little bit just because its RIGHT before Christmas and I was looking forward to spending it with some of my converts, but I knew it was coming... So now I´ll have about 3 weeks to meet the members in my new city and hope that at least one of them has a computer with Skype, so that I can make my Christmas call. It´s hard to think that I´ve already got 5 months on the mission, but thats the way it is when you´re working hard right?! Tonight I´m having my farawell and it literally feels like I´m dying here or something because after making all the phone calls this morning to invite everyone to the Despidida, they all sounded so sad that their missionary is leaving the city. My next sector is another tiny city in the north -- RIGHT NEXT TO THE COAST!!! So I´m at least excited about that.

Elder Overson is also leaving Victoria in a move called a "WHITE WASH" where the sector gets 2 completely new missionaries and start from scratch with the investigators we left and what we have written in our records.

This week we had the best week of teaching lessons since I´ve been together with Elder Overson. We found a woman who mid-way through our first lesson was super excited and ready to be baptized. She believed absolutely everything that we were saying and wants to start coming to church wth her kids this next week (aaaaand I´m leaving today.... Crap! Haha) 

I´m almost certain that I´m going to die in my new sector though, because if there´s anything that I absolutely hate with every ounce of passion of my soul IT´S FISH!!!!!! Can´t stand it. And where am I going? The coast of Chile.... So that´ll be pretty interesting.

 Okay, so the story with "The Gringo". We started taking pictures outside when the owner came out and asked us if we wanted a drink inside. The place is a Bar so Elder Overson was really hesitent and didn´t want it, but I was like "Yeah sure, why not!" and walked inside. Then when we were in there, we got a bottle of Fanta (FOR FREE! Way Cool!) and started talking to the owner and his mom and these 2 drunk Mapuchi dudes (the native indian people here) and I was just joking up a storm with these guys until they asked us if we wanted to drink with them. We told them that we don´t and then I went into the whole missionary introduction mode and taught a lesson! Hahaha I taught a Word of Wisdom lesson in a bar in Chile! How´s that for life experiences?! :D 

For those who don´t know what that is, the Word of Wisdom is the commandment that Mormons live to avoid using substances that damage or hinder our body´s normal capabilities -- like tobacco, alcohol, and yes also tea and coffee, for the purpose of showing respect for our bodies.

Love you guys!

Hasta proximo,

Elder CJ Mundell

Tres Tristes Tigres en un Trigal

Navidad has hit Victoria and the family of our District President

Getting the blood pumping with one of our families in the park

Tres Tristes Tigres en un Trigal... The deadliest spanish tongue twister that all the members make fun of me because I still struggle with it haha

But Hey party people!

As always I hope all is well.

For whatever reason this week has been very interspective and contemplative... I´ve had some really profound thoughts this week, both spiritual and just thoughts in general.

For example the biggest one that hit me was this feeling of people looking up to me as an example and realizing how the mission works in the minds of the members. I can remember my past experiences with missionaries in my home wards, and I guess I could never put it together, but I had a lot of respect and admiration for them. And now its really weird to have those same feelings put on me by other people. I feel like the same person that left on my mission, but obviously it hit me this week that I´m not really. Granted I still act the same, but people have this unconditional and predispositioned respect for me as a missionary. It came down to two possible explanations for this, either Chileans REALLY like to talk, or they want to talk because they feel like I can truly help them change or provide them with spiritual insight that they are looking for. I have no idea if this is making any sense up to now, but it was an experience that kind of hit me by surprise. The way that people can open up to 2 Gringos. Even though I´ve pretty much established myself as the missionary who loves to goof around with the members, at the same time they know that at any moment and when necessary I can supply them with a scriptural thought that fills the room with the spirit and love that their Heavenly Father has for them by sending missionaries to their little city. 

For example I gave my second talk in sacrament meeting this last week and at the start of my talk there were laughs and the members whispering back and forth, but then there was a clear moment where it became dead silent. By the end of my talk there were members who had tears in there eyes and I am confident grew stronger in their faith and felt closer and more loved by their Savior.

I´ll be sure to do something crazy this next week to share something other just just a spiritual thought and don´t think I´ve gotten too missionary on you all ;) haha

Love you all,

Elder CJ Mundell

This picture is HILARIOUS if you can see the face of my companion on the bottom side of the teeter-totter! Haha, let´s just say there´s a slight difference in weight.

Noche de ZUMBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder.... Mundial?

"Thug shots" with our Eagle

Heeeeeyyyyyy,

It´s been a big week here since I last wrote! My name is getting more and more easy to pronounce for the people as more and more qualifying games are being played for the World Cup (Mundial) and Chile keeps kicking butt -- beating England this last Friday! Hahaha. At least 10 times this week when I introcuded myself in contacts the person calls me "Elder Mundial" and we start talking about soccer and how sad it is that Chile´s gonna lose to the United States in the World Cup. But hey, at least my name is helping out the mission work out here!

Also this Sunday was elections for the Presidency so all that has been going on is a BUNCH of fiestas in the streets and communities throughout the area. Trying to get a good night´s sleep with all that going on was pretty impossible... 

BUT, on a related note, I had my first encounter with a Chilean dream revelation/interpretation! The other night I was sleeping and dreaming of mission stuff like being in the middle of a lesson and was sharing scriptures with the investigators and members in all my lessons one scripture in particular -- 4 Nephi 1:11. I have no clue why it was this scripture because I´m not even in that part of my scripture study nor ever used 4th Nefi in my lessons before... but none the less I just remembered this scripture standing out super clear in my mind during the whole night, and when I woke up first thing I did was go and find out what this scripture was that was so profoundly in my mind.    You´ll need to look up the scripture to finish the story, I don´t have mine on me right now to write out what it says, but just trust me when I say it´s a pretty funny endiing.

We came across this "American Truck" sitting outside of the house while we were contacting

I HITCH-HIKED IN CHILE!!!!!!!!

(And not in that <----)

My comp and I also took another adventure out to the new sector that we´re opening and got so incredibly lost! This town isn´t even that big, but we started walking out to a reference house that we recieved who lives out in the couwn-tray! This dude had a road leading to his house that lasted an eternity, going through woods, farms, and just pure nothing. We had been walking for 30 minutes on this road trying to find it when a guy goes driving by in his car and we decided to give up and ask for a ride back into town. Later he told us that he knew the family we were looking for and that if we had kept walking it would have been another 45 minutes until we´d arrive at his house!

Gracias for the support everyone!

PLEASE SHOOT ME AN EMAIL THAT I CAN RESPOND TO!!!! Haha, I want to know whats going on with you all in Gringo-landia (and also who won the World Series)

Les AMO,

Elder CJ Mundell

P.S. -- Oh yeah, I´ve done some missionary stuff too... My comp and I have reactivated two families this week! WOOOO!!!!!!!!!

I FINALLY GOT MY PACKAGE!!!!!! It´d been sitting in the mission office for 3 weeks.... # The pains of living in the southern part of the mission :P

It's been a while... Sorry everyone!!

Christmas time is hitting the missionaries

Teaching investigators got old, so I went for the celebrities! (:

Friends and Family!

Ran into this guy, my old comp from the MTC!

I really hope all is good and well back home and in your mission fields. This week really took a turn for the better and I was able to have a bit more fun with my life out here in the middle of Chile.

But to start things off I want to share my spiritual thought and what little bit of "experience" I have to give as a missionary. The first thing is don´t take the scriptures or your testimony or most importantly your faith, actions, and example to others for granted. Before I started my mission I hadn´t fully read the scriptures (the thing that I will be spending the next 2 years teaching) and now I can hardly put them down or feel like I can´t find an answer to my own problems or the problems of others through inspired scripture verses. Since I have started reading I have found at least one scripture every day that I then can apply in a lesson or just in conversation with my companion or converts or even when contacting in front of someone´s house. The best way, and most effective way, to teach the gospel is through your testimony and relying on the spirit to soften the hearts of those you are speaking with to listen and believe the words we say. I can now say that I LOVE THE BOOK OF MORMON! It has helped me through lessons where I don´t know what to say except share a scripture that affected me and I feel will help the person with whom I´m talking and often helping through their own difficulties because I work A TON with menos activos and it is my job as a missionary to find out their doubts that are keeping them from keeping their covenants with the Lord, and what I have found the common theme to be is problems in the family, problems with the members, and the biggest threat -- a lack of knowledge and testimony of the Book of Mormon. This book cannot be taken lightly as just another thing that makes us different, it is the material for building our foundation on Christ, a foundation that "if centered on Christ man cannot fall." 

Asado = ENORMOUS BAR-B-QUE!!!!!!!

But now the cool things that have happened!

Right now I´m in this really weird stage in my mission where I can´t really speak english OR spanish that great... So this has actually been happining a lot where I´ll be in the middle of a conversation or lesson with someone and I´ll be speaking spanish just fine and then all the sudden my mind just flips a switch and I start talking in english, words normally but sometimes complete sentences -- for a good minute before noticing or my comp gives me a nudge or the person looks completely lost haha

Asado = ENORMOUS BAR-B-QUE!!!!!!!

Also this past week we put together a big halloween party in our iglesia and part of it was a talent show so we missionaries wanted to do a dance as part of it. This dance eventually turned into this giant Zumba class that day and all of us had our shirts untucked, collars unbuttoned, and were totally exhausted as one of the members was teaching us our choreography to the music from the movie Rio.

And last but not least... I made it into the Chilean hospital for the first time. My blood pressure got really really low, I got light headed, and nearly passed out, with feelings of nausia and all that jazz. But on the bright side I had one of the little girls from the Primary say a prayer for me! The Padre Nuestro catholic prayer that she learned in her school hahaha

And me in the hospital. (P.S. -- They gave me a freaking shot in the BUTT!!!! Seriously!) The doctor had worked in the hospital for 30 years and I was his first BUTT SHOT on a Gringo! Woo Hoo!

Hasta Luego,

Elder Mundell

We gave the dog outside and entire birthday cake

It's beginning to look like Christmas!