My sector EXPLODED... Literally!

You´ll never believe what happened... There was a huge explosion and fire that lasted all night and the following day in the supermarket next door to the church. But to the surprise to us and the people watching the giant flames tear down this huge store, the church was untouched. Hooopefully we can use that as some spiritual "firepower" to prove that this is Christ´s true church...

The amazing things just keep on happening here in my little pueblo. This sunday we had all 3 of the women that I talked about in my last email come to the church and are super excited about their baptisms! We even had an even cooler experience happen with Maria (the abuelita with 93 years). We went out to go look for Lorena, another one of the women who is being baptised the 22nd, but after calling her we found out that she was already on her way and didnt need to worry about going to get her. So instead we climbed up the biggest hill in our sector to go to the house of the member who had been helping us teach the lessons to Maria. But she had had a change of heart and didn´t feel like going to get Maria in her car because she didn´t think she understood everything we had been teaching her and that we shouldn´t baptize her this week. But after talking a little sense into her, we got her to drive us to the house of Maria, but she said that if she wasn´t ready to leave right when she knocked the door that "Too bad, so sad". We found out that she was still sleeping when we drove by so we left.. then at the start of the 2nd hour of church, MARIA JUST SHOWED UP! This 93 year old woman knows the importance of the church so much that she woke up and walked from her house to the church (about a mile and a half -- with giant hills) just to be there. When we asked her about if she still wanted to be baptized this weekend, she pretty much told us "Well DUH!" Hahahaha, so we have her this weekend and Lorena and Sandra the 22nd. And we have even more planned for March now, which include a family of 6 with 3 sons who could possibly serve missions, and a young couple who is going to have their first child in 4 months.

My sector has taken a drastic change for the better and we are finding a TON of great great people.

And since today was P-Day, I went to Concepcion and blew a good chunk of my christmas money on the missionary essentials --- Shoes (brown ones of course to rock the Latin style) and ties.... Lots and lots of ties haha

Elder Mundell

Miracles happen as a result of Faith!

My Comp is a STUUUUUD!!!!!! Hahahaha, Or at least we just work really well together. This week we found SO MANY good investigators! 2 brothers, Felipe (17) and Diego (20), that 1 is "Atheist" and the other is a very faithful, level headed guy who doesnt go to any church! We were in a spirit-packed lesson when my comp asked the "Atheist" brother, Felipe, to pray and ask God if: 1) He existed, and 2) If he could be forgiven for his sins that he has committed in his life up to this point. He knelt down and offered the best prayer I have ever heard an investigator offer and then afterwards when we asked how he felt, he went from saying that he never felt anything from praying, "that he thought he was just talking to air," to now he felt a physical change in his being -- like he felt loved and happy. AND THE BEST PART IS...... He likes to play Basketball!!!!! Which means I finally have someone to play with and he said hes going to invite his friends one night to play basketball at the church -- MORE YOUNG INVESTIGATORS!!!! AND NO MORE FÚTBOL!!! 

-- MIRACLE # 1

This led me to thinking of a talk from Elder Holland (The Ministry of Angels) that I had recently listened to that day, and a scripture that he used and I later read in my personal study of the Book of Mormon -- Moroni 7:36-38. Which says that if Miracles happen as a result of ones faith, and there will always continue to be miracles on the earth so long as we have the faith. That if miracles have stopped, it is only because our faith has stopped. So looks like Elder Miller and I have got the faith!

We have been working very, very hard to progress with one investigator over the past month and have just been hitting a brick wall every time. But this Saturday there was a Dance that the youth were putting on at the church that night to raise money for EFY -- With the theme "80s Night"! I dont know why, but my comp and I suddenly got the idea to invite her to the dance, and lo and behold SHE LOVES 80s MUSIC! Who woulda thought! So she went, we did a tour of the chapel, and she loved it! She couldnt come to church this Sunday but has committed to come every Sunday following and looks to be preparing to be baptized the 22nd of Feb!

-- MIRACLE #2

In our hunt for more investigators that could progress, my comp and I decided to go through the Area Book and look for old investigators in the sector that we were going to contact that day. We came across one name, called the phone number, and she told us to come by the next day. We went and had an incredible lesson with her about the Restoration and she has committed also to start coming to church starting this next Sunday! The even more amazing part of this story is that she told us how the missionaries that she knew 3 years before had passed by 2 times, and each time was at a moment in her life where she needed help and peace in her life. This was the 3rd visit that she has had with missionaries and in the same way it was at a crucial time in her life. She told us how just 2 weeks before she had had a dream that the missionaries passed by her house with 2 bags of clothes and told her to choose out whatever fits. What could that mean??? BAPTISIMAL CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!!! Hahahaha, obviously we are taking it one step at a time, but she is another awesome investigator who we were blessed to find in this past week!

-- MIRACLE #3

All is good in the Hood

Elder Mundell

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!