Feliz Navidad and a Nuevo Año!

That title was lame. Ain't going to lie.

Painting a school
for a service project.

Anyways, this was a rather uneventful week lesson wise. Everyone had plans for the holidays, and all of the people we did try visiting had family or someone over so we really didn´t get in. At all.

So I talked with my Family on the 24th (fantastic!) and after that we visited the Cisterna´s family for a Christmas Eve dinner. We had really good roast beef with mashed potatoes. They wanted to make sure that we were well fed for the holidays, so they cooked us up something. Love that family!

Thursday, I had already opened my presents on the 23rd so I could say thanks to my family in person for the awesome star trek shirt and missionary supplies that they sent me, so there wasn´t anything under the Christmas tree  However... Christmas dinner... Holy fetch it was amazing! We got together with the Mancilla family (Maca for anyone that remembers) and had Pollo Relleno (Refilled Chicken, I have no idea what it could be in English, they basically filled Chicken with an assortment of meats and other goodies and baked it.) It was absolutely fantastic! Maca taught me how to do Helado Frito (Fried Ice cream)... That stuff is amazing...

The chapel´s sprinkler system broke
 coming home from the service project.
(Saturday, forgot to put that in the letter)

Friday was kind of slow. Lot of walking around, a ton of time trying to find citas. We did get a chance to get into Cata´s house and talk to her dad, who is less active right now. I´ve been getting to know him rather well and I can definitely say that he is really cool. We got into a couple of really cool conversations about planes and engineering topics. I still wonder why he isn´t active... But we are working with him on that.

Saturday was slow again. We only got into one house, but it was mostly just looking for people to teach.

Sunday is our last Sunday where church starts at 11, and we are going to be switching over to the 9 o clock schedule next week... that´s going to be a lot of fun getting up even earlier...

Monday, my comp bought himself some really, really cool new year gifts. There is a store here that sells packs of Rubik Cubes, and my comp bought a pack of a 2x2, a 3x3, a 4x4, and a 5x5 rubiks cube... Dude, that was amazing! They are Shin sho (I think that´s what they were called) competition cubes, and a lot better than the original 3x3 by Rubik's. That was the highlight of that day, the rest of it we spent looking for people, again.

 My comp got into a paint fight while
painting another house. (Tuesday)

Tuesday, fireworks! Only listening to them... We had to be inside when they started to fire those off... That was kind of sad, but the explosions sounded amazing!

Anyways, love you all! Cya in 12!

Elder Faber

So, my comp got engaged.

So we got new agendas! (Finally) and I left my old one in the house... so let´s see how well I remember the week

First of all we have had plenty of service. We helped a guy named Rafa give gifts to over 600 kids at an activity that he organized, by himself, with his own money. And this activity was not cheap. He hired the police and the fire station to come over and give kids rides and let them wear official helmets and such like that! I was in charge of keeping the juice container refilled. Luckily it wasn´t that hot, and it rained during the middle of the activity as well... But we had a really good turn out, and a lot of happy kids.

Then we had another service project... We went to a school that specializes with kids with Down Syndrome, so they needed help getting everything set up, and keeping the peace with the toys and Santa lause. I helped set up the sound system (well, tried before the guy they hired came and took over. He was surprised that I was plugging everything in the right places) and then we helped pass out gifts for each one of the kids. It was a really cool activity. And we got a photo with Santa! 

I also learned how to make Pan de Pascua. that stuff... It´s gross unless if it is made perfectly (which I have seen someone do once in my entire mission). It´s Chilean (mejor dicho, South American) Christmas bread that is basically fruit cake. While we were making it, I met a return missionary who just got back from Brazil and completely forgot Spanish. Pure Portuguese. She could understand Spanish, but could not speak it if her life depended on it. Luckily Spanish and Portuguese are so close together I could understand(ish) and have a conversation.

David and Ignacio got their baptismal interviews, and they both passed with beautiful and amazing colors! They are both set and ready to go for the 4th of January, and Ignacio has asked me to baptise him! Those two were seriously prepared. The Lord does give people miracles, even in Condell.

We had a ward activity last night, the youth put together a dinner activity for the entire ward, and they put me in charge of making the ensalada (it would be salad in English, however the way they do it here is ENTIRELY different than how we do it in the states. Here salad is lettuce drowned in oil and lemons...). That was dumb, because I ended up cutting my finger pretty bad with this strange leaf maker blade thingy... That was fun.

Now to explain the subject line. My comp got a really large, really perfumed package from his girlfriend yesterday. we opened it up, and it was filled with chocolate and a small black box. We opened the small black box, and we found two rings with a note that said "Will you marry me?". He already had a promise ring that he gave her, but these rings were a completely different story. Pure titanium with a small diamond with an engraving that says "I love only you" and "I love you". Dude, that happened... All of us in the house basically died. I still make fun of him for it.

Love you guys a lot! Sorry I can´t remember what days all of this happened, but that´s about it!

Elder Faber

On Christmas Eve we were able to Skype with Joshua.  It was an amazing experience to have as a family.  My thanks to the member who let Joshua use her laptop!

Cambios!

December 17 email ~



Guess what? Im still in Condell! But Fernelius thinks for not much longer...

Omar's Baptism

Anyways, fun week. Even after the accident with my knee last week, I've been going about a little sick... I've been heavily medicated the past couple of days to work, but still happy! Aint no reason on earth to be depressed!

Thursday we had a really fun Family Home Evening with the Sevedra family. They are kind of half active half inactive, so we've been working to keep them on the "active" side. But we had a fun baptism lesson, because Elder Figueroa worked in Chemistry before the mission, so he gave us some chemicals so we can show what baptism does to us. It was pretty fun. then I made French toast for everyone! (yes, i did cook)

Friday, we spent most of the day in the Temple. Recently, the temple has been doing a christmas concert, so if we have an investigator or a menos activo we can go with them, so we brought the cousin of a member that's an investigator. It was an interesting concert... Kind of. However, I managed to find Elder Prada! that was an emotional encounter. I almost cried. Miss that kid.

Saturday we had a conference as a mission. We did service in the morning, met up in the chapel, and we watched Princess Bride as a mission! That was hilarious. Then the Pres gave us as Christmas presents book marks with real leaves from the Sacred Grove in New York! Im not going to forget that gift.

Sunday we went back to the temple with David. Met up with some of the Elders in my old zones. That was pretty cool too.

Monday we finished up all the lessons with David. He's progressed a lot, and now wants Elder Fernelius to baptise him.

Tuesday, I finally met some new people that my comp was teaching but we never managed to find. There's a really cool investigator that had a baptismal date that has a lot of war stories. Other than that, did a lot of contacting.

Today we went shopping! And that's about it. I couldn't play soccer because of my knee, so I read the book of mormon the entire time.

Love you guys lots!
Cya in 13!

Elder Faber

Joshua and his mission "dad" Elder Nichols - who leaves for home in a couple of weeks.

Joshua's looking forward to opening his
Christmas package. :)

Fun Week!

December 10 email ~

Santiago Temple

So, this week was super busy, and super crazy. Let me explain

Thursday we went to the temple. That was super fun, they had too many priesthood holders to do ordinations and baptisms that Elder Cascante and I were permitted to do a session! That was really cool, I went in and got some answers to questions that I had. The temple is a really, really fun place to get revelation, relaxation, and lots of answers.

Friday made me change my opinion about everything about what a mother is. To keep their identities secret for right now, we had a cita with a couple of less actives, and about half way through the lesson the mother broke down and started to cry. It surprised us at first, then we found out why. Her kids (except for a couple of beautiful exceptions) only go to her for money. They rarely ever let her see her grand kids, and they have just been abusing her emotionally for a really long time. We shared some scriptures about the atonement, but it really changed my perspective about how I want to treat my parents as they get older. Parents spend more than half their lives raising kids, developing bonds, and love them with all their hearts. Even when we make mistakes they will love us more than we can imagine. I think it would be a good idea to return the favor. Here´s a special shout out to my parents! Love you guys a lot!

Saturday we did a thing called a ¨cosechón¨ where other missionaries from your zone swarm your sector and do contacts. They did that to our sector this week, and I got paired with my Zone Leader Elder Kimbal. It was really fun, we did a lot of contacts with El es la Dadiva (he is the gift). We got a couple of good references and we´ve got a couple of citas set.

Sunday was fun. We have a menos activo Hno Flores that basically has the Bible and the Book of Mormon memorized. We have no idea why he is inactive, but he gives fantastic lessons. We talked about the Priesthood, and why it was necessary that Jesus was baptized, and how Jesus got the Priesthood from God even though he was from the Lineage of Juda and wasn´t supposed to get it. He also taught me an interesting quote that I liked, it goes ¨No tenga miedo a dudar, porque la duda es la puerta para exploración¨ (Don´t be afraid to doubt, because doubt is the door to exploration)

Monday we started out the week really good. We had David, who told us that he received a super cool answer to his prayer about baptism. He told us that when he prayed in the morning to know if he needed to be baptized, he was completely filled with the Spirit. He said that it was one of the most happiest, awesome experiences in his life. Love that kid. He´s set for his date on the 5 of Jan. We also had lunch with the Bradfords (from Mapleton) and that was a lot of fun, because my comp and Elder Figueroa at the same time screamed at them that I was super good with computers. So what ended up happening is that we got a ride over to the office so I could fix some printers... That was fun.

Tuesday we helped out our other fetcha Ignacio, because he had some doubts about going to church. He doesn´t want to get baptized, move, and get lazy and not go to church because David isn´t there. Good reasons, because we did explain to him what happens after baptism and the importance of going to church. We managed to help him with his doubts, and he learned all ten commandments in less than 10 minutes (that was super cool).

Today... Well, our pday is super short today because of a conference that we will have on Saturday. To say the least, we played soccer. A lot of it. It was super fun until I screwed up my knee. Don´t worry (Mom! Cough cough) because I can still move it.

Other than that, still healthy, haven´t been shot, and still going strong!

Love you guys!

Elder Faber

Joshua and Elder Fernelius at a Chinese Restaurant.

Sooo.....

December 3rd email~

Its hot... Really hot...

This week it got up 95....

I miss snow, really, really bad.

But! It was an alright week!

Thursday not much happened. We had a good lesson with David about his baptism (NEXT MONTH!!!) and he told us that he still hasn't received an answer yet about him being ready or not, but we're working with him to help him figure that out.

Friday we taught Maca (Katana lady) and we had a really good discussion about Nephi and when his bow broke. His brothers whined and complained and Nephi stood strong. Then we taught Cata's mom (a member in the ward that speaks English almost perfectly) about Genealogía because she got a calling the last Sunday. I offered to help her out with any computer issues that she might have using the Family Search engine.

Saturday we had a TON of service... A lot of members decided to get a lot of projects done because of a nationwide television program called "Teleton". Everyone basically gets the day off so that way they can watch this program that is funded to help out kids in need. So we painted a house basically. That was fun. My companion painted himself instead of the walls

Sunday was pretty bad in the chapel... Because of Teleton no one came  our attendance dropped from about 60 - 70 to 40 in a week.

Monday we had a fantastic lesson with David about his baptism (again, but this time with a hitch) we taught with the baptismal questions that the bishop asks during the baptismal interview, and when he answered all of the questions... Goodness, that kid is prepared... He answered yes on everything and bore a really strong testimony. I really wish we could baptize this kid earlier.

Tuesday we spent the entire day in the center of Santiago... My comp got his results back from the doctors from the tests they did to figure out why he's in pain. Out of three tests, he tested negative on everything, which is a good/bad thing. Good because he doesn't have a parasite, bacteria, or a worm, but now we don't know why he's been suffering for the past couple of months. While we were out I bought a new scripture case to support my bible better because my bag is tearing the shiz out of that thing  I really can't afford to buy a new one.

TODAY WAS AWESOME. As a zone we went to a zoo! And watched a live water show (I completely forgot what it is called in English) with a penguin and sea lions!!! That was awesome. It really made me wonder how much time it takes to train one of those to do a show. Now I'm here, and its about 93 degrees outside.... I'm a living waterfall, I'll just say that.

Love you all!!!

Elder Faber

So,,,, Not Much Happened.

“El servicio hace que miremos a lo que tenemos a nuestro alrededor, y no hacia nuestro interior. El servicio

nos impulsa a considerar las necesidades de otras personas antes que las nuestras. El servicio justo es la

expresión de la verdadera caridad tal como el Señor lo mostró.”

This week... Well to say the least, much stuff really didn't happen.

I lead the sector on Thursday, and most of our lessons fell through, so we did a lot of contacting. However our appointment with David was really good and we taught him about Thomas S Monson, so he can get an idea on who he is and why the prophet is super important in our days. 

Friday, we were supposed to have a conference with Elder Evans again to talk about the "Pilot Plan" that only 4 missions were doing in South America (Santiago West and South, and two more in Argentina), but it was cancelled when the First Presidency said that the Pilot plan that we were a part of is now going to be applied to every mission in South America, and are going to try to expand it to other countries. Yeah, not much happened there either. 

Saturday, well, no one was answering their doors, and all of our citas fell, so we went to a member's house that is preparing to go to the temple, and to share with her mother (who we just got a calling for this week!) who was inactive at the time. They served us Cinnamon Rolls (almost died of happiness) and then I had another episode of vertigo... That was fun, we couldn't leave for at least an hour until I could get my senses back. Then the phone call to the mission nurse was fun too, she yelled at me for about 15 minutes asking why I didn't call her after the second incident.

Sunday, David went to church! However the rest of the people we were teaching and most of the ward weren't there... I'm afraid if we baptize him he'll be more active than the entire ward... Then during the night, my comp started to have severe stomach pains that kept him up all night. 

Monday we visited the menos activa that threatened me with the Katana. Her name is Macarena (like the song) and we had a good discussion with her about what she's reading in the book of Mormon. AND SHE PROMISED TO COME TO CHURCH SUNDAY!!! Finals ended and she thinks she'll be able to make it this week. 

Tuesday was a nightmare. The pains that Fernelius was feeling finally killed all of his animo. We did intersector divs and my comp and Figueroa went to the hospital until about 4 in the morning... We all woke up tired today.

Wednesday, well, they were having a sell at a store here on all soccer gear, so we decided to try it out. I tried buying some decent field cleats for the large field next to our house, however the guy tried ripping me off by raising the price by 30 bucks... :P Instead of doing that, I went and bought some decent soccer socks for cheap (without getting ripped off)

That's my week! Love you all! 

Elder Faber

Joshua and Elder Cascante

New Sector, New Way to Eat Lunch

Joshua and Elder Figueroa painting a cart that will be used
to hand out toys to kids in need.

So this week was interesting (as always)

Thursday, I can't really explain a lot what happened in my sector, but I did divisions in the sector right next to me. I had a really scarry contact that thought that he was Jehova and that he threw back missionaries with his faith by raising his arm... I can't really remember what happened, but I do remember running my legs off.

Friday... hehe, we had a really fun cita with one of our investigators named Liliana. There's a word here in Chile called "palo". The first time I heard someone use that word, they described it as "Jeffery R Holland punishment". Why did I mention that? Because that's basically what we did. She said that she had a revelation that God told her that she didn't need to be baptised and that nothing is going to happen after this life. I'll just say that we read a good amount out of 2 Nephi 31 and the New Testament. However, it worked! She showed up and it seemed like she was still happy with us! We managed to get back to her house on monday and she still let us in.

Saturday was a good day. We didnt get any lessons because of the amount of servicio that we had, but I went back to Nocedal for the baptism of Valentina! That was a good baptism. Apparently the ward had put a massive emphasis on this baptism, but when we got there, guess what? No one from the ward showed up... HOWEVER. The Henriquez family went all out and invited their entire family! We had over 60 people show up, and only 5 were members. That was a good day, I passed out at least 10 the Resturacion pamphlets... Good day.

Sunday... Lunch... That was a fun, scary lunch... What happened? Well the member gave us a ton of food, and I realized that I wasn't going to be able to eat all of it. So I politely told her that I couldn't finish it. That was a mistake... She got super mad, went into the house (we were eating outside because she didn't have a man in the house) and came back 30 seconds later with a freaking Katana! She sat in front of me, watched me eat until I ate every single bite...

Monday. David and Ignacio. Those two guys are perfect (se que ustedes han unido con este grupo, entonces no voy a hablar mal jaja, no se precupe, trato a decir solo buenas cosas) we taught them a really cool lesson, and they said that they are still working on trying to get answers. David already has a testimony that the church is true, and Ignacio is working on it. We got him caught up with the missionary discussions so we can teach him and David at the same time. Now that we have the support of their parents and also from the President (ya!) we can baptize them a month early! HAHA

Tuesday, well Elder Fernelius accidentally cooked something really bad (it was a really weird pancake that looked like a stake of all things...) so we basically had to stay inside while he recovered. So we went to the chapel so we can get some secretary work and rescate work done. Then I had a thought. We have a computer there that is "broken" (so says the chilean tech support) so I decided to fix it. And that is exactly what I did. Yep! I am awesome.

Today was great! We put together teams and did a little "Fifa" as sectors. We got together as a house and wore our Colo Colo jerseys! To give you an idea, that's chile's ghetto team. It was a good game, even though we lost.

That's about it! Love you all!

Elder Faber

Apostles and Trains

So... This week was super interesting. Especially today, hence the subject line.

So we have a super fantastic Investigator named David that we have been teaching. This guy is FANTASTIC, BEYOND MENTION. We found out recently that the lessons that we teach him, he goes and teaches his best friend, and when we invited David to church, he brought Ignacio (the friend) TO FREAKING CHURCH! HOW COOL IS THAT!? We managed to teach Ignacio before Mutual last night and we placed a baptismal date with him for the 4 of January!!!

Speaking of investigators, Valentina from my last sector will be baptised by her dad this Saturday!!! I'm super stoked. I really hope it all turns out well. Photos to come!

Also speaking of awesome things.... I SHOOK ELDER NELSONS HAND. I SHOOK HIS HAND! And he said my name wrong... Every single General Authority I have met (Elder Nelson and Elder Rasband) have said my name wrong. I told my comp about it and he told me "Even Abram had his name changed to Abraham". So, I guess I'm going with "Fa-bear" for the rest of my life now. It has been decided. he talked about some really cool things, such as the gathering of the 12 tribes of Israel, how the Americas are the lands of inheritance for the seed of Joseph, and the origin of the word from Hebrew which means "I exist". I thought that was super cool.

So about the sector, it is really tiny, but there is a lot of potential. I still don't know ti completely, but I'm getting there.

TRAINS!!! PDAY TODAY WAS AMAZING. So first we went to a museum about the world, the origin, the different types of climates and animals in Chile, and a whole bunch of other different things. One word to describe it is "BACON!!!" Took a lot of photos there, but the best part is the FREAKING OUTDOOR TRAIN MUSEUM THAT WE FOUND!!!

Joshua's District with a Sea Whale Skeleton

It was filled of just awesome... awesome machines.... I almost had a heart attack. I counted all of the photos that I took, and it was about 100, but I'm not going to send all of those to you guys today, sorry. Ill just send the best 

Love you all! Thanks for the support!

Elder Faber

Joshua and a stuffed penguin.

October 29 and November 5

October 29 email

Whats up?

Well, this week has been interesting, let me tell you all why...

Thursday we had a cool lesson with Pedro Lieva. We´re helping him with his english because he´s going to have a job interview for a restuarant in Sweden! So we are helping him improve his English for this interview. Hes super talented though, he speaks Spanish and French almost fluently. He loves food, and you can tell through his cooking (You can literally taste the love) We also did a bunch of campo contacting that day as well. Met a cool dude that had a lot of doubts about the bible but knows god exists. His name is Victor, and he was super happy when we told him we were giving him a book of Mormon for free! We´re going back today, Ill let you know how it turns out.

Friday, we went contacting in the blocks of Ochogabvia again. Theres a lot of people there that have never seen missionaries before, so being out there and just teaching people is super fun. People just stop judging if they have never heard of the mormons before haha

Saturday, we did a service project for a member (needed help with her garden) and Hermano Altermirano comes out with his iPad mini and tells us he needs to show us something. It was a video clip from the show "Pawn Stars" on History channel. Oh, that clip was holarious! There was a guy that was trying to sell a Book of Mormon from the 1850´s. Goodness, some people dont know much about our church... The lady who put the price on the book told the main guy "This is the most valuable book that I have ever priced for you". yeah lady! You got that right! That book has your salvation written all over in it!

Sunday, we found a new way to do contacting. Because Chile doesnt have Air Conditioning units, everyone goes outside to the parks to chill and drink a ton of alcohol. So we decided to take advantage of that! Haha, Dueñas just looks over to me and says, "Im going to teach that punk over there a lesson!" So we did! We taught the entire restauration. After we said our goodbyes we realized that was suprisingly fun! so we started going over to groups of people in the parks and just teach them about the gospel.

Monday, another hot day. We go out to go park contacting and no one was there. I guess they probably learned haha. I also got to meet the "Punk" of Nocedal. Just this kid named Thomas that all of the missionaries hate. He doesnt get along with anyone, and tries to irritate the missionaries as hard as he possibly can. The only thing that has never happened in that sector is a gaming missionary. Once I started talking to him, we could not get him to quiet down... Holy cow. Im the only missionary in existance that has managed to talk to him. I got him to commit to going to church, but let´s see how that turns out.

Yesterday was crazy. Lots of divs... Elder Anderson got his info back from the doctors for his back, and he has a ton of preherinas in his spine. He only has about 5 months left on his mission, but he might get sent home super early, never to come back. He spent the day under house arrest and talking with the President to figure out what he should do. I feel so bad for that kid.

well, that just sums up the week! Love you all! Keep up the good work!

Elder Faber

November 5 email 

Joshua and his new companion, Elder Fernelius.

Well... Here I am. In a new sector. I was in Nocedal for about 3 months, and now I'm in a sector called Condell. To give you an idea, it is the smallest sector in the entire mission. Better said, its the smallest sector in South America. You can walk about 7 minutes slowly from one border to the other border, and it takes less than 30 minutes to walk around the perimeter... Seriously, its small.

So the past couple of days I have doing a ton of farewells. It was super saddening to leave everyone that I had just started developing relationships with. I really hope that everything will go well there. I have a baptismal date on the 15 of this month, so I will be heading over there to see that happen. I'm seriously going to miss the people in that sector.

But! For Halloween, we went trick or treating! That was super fun. Only a few people actually answered their doors, but it was still super fun. But there were a couple of sketchy cars on the road so we had to sprint home at around 10.

Other than that, I will miss everyone

Love,

Elder Faber

The Bishop who took such great care of him.

The excellent chef's from Nocedal.

The Week of Pleasant Surprises

So this week was interesting to say the least. I can definately tell my Spanish is getting a lot better, but I still lack a TON. However I learned how to say sniper the other day, that was pretty cool (francotirador)

 Miguel and Jorge with Joshua

Thursday not much happened, did Divs with Elder Saldivia and we taught a couple of lessons to Margarita, and she got to know the members a little bit better in the ward, shes having some problems right now because recently she had been diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. Not fatal (as far as we know) but it is still bugging her a bit.

Friday, I did divs again (due to some complications in our schedule, I got to go on divs with Saldivia 3 times this week) and we taught some really good lessons. People for some reason, instead of asking to teach, if you just start teaching at the door they get super interested and ask if we can come back. So we taught this fun old lady named Gloria Gomez, and she invited us back next week. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and she mentioned that her son is a member. So well have to talk to him too when we get the chance. (However I know he has got this sick looking Yamaha in front of his house)

Saturday and Sunday we had a TON of meetings... This week was stake conference and we needed to be there for EVERY session. They had some interesting talks, but we could not find anyone on Saturday to teach. Things got better on Sunday because we ran into Margas, a man that Dueñas and Miller had reactivated and got him to commit to come to church. And also, a member family invited us over for ice cream! That was delicious...

Monday was weird to say the least. We went to the new area that just opened up and went to find some new investigators. We get to an apartment and the first door we knock on a little kid comes out and says "Come in! Come in!". We thought, ok! And walked in because we had thought we found some members that just moved in and liked the missionaries.

We were dead wrong. We walk into the house and the kids mom gave us a look like we were seriously not supposed to be there. Trying not to yell, she asked us who we were, what we are doing, and stuff like that. We had no idea what to do, so we answered all of her questions and then we began to start teaching the Restoration, mainly because my brain had stopped working in fear so I just did what any other missionary under pressure would do. Just teach. She really opened up after that and invited us to come back! She told us before we left that her son has a tendency to let random strangers in the house because that is what he thinks is the nice thing to do.

Tuesday... Wow, I finally got into Leo's house... He is a FANTASTIC MAN! He was loaded with a ton of questions, he knows why we are there, just a perfect investigator. We could teach the entire first lesson by answering the questions he asks us. "do you guys have the authority to baptise?" "so are you telling me that if I find out that the book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a true prophet?" just a really, really smart man. He took Bible classes with the Evangelico church and didn't like it, because he found some verses that contradict the Church's doctrine and the teachers couldn't answer it for him. So far he likes all of the answers we have given him. We then challenged him to read Nephi, to start from the beginning. "You know what you two, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to read all I can about this Nephi fellow, and then I'm going to read all 4 of his books before your next visit." We explained that the last two were different nephis, but he didn't care. he still told us that he will read 1, 2, 3, and 4th nephi before we get back next Monday.

Today, well, we've been exploring the mall, that's all. Ive been loosing so much weight in this sector I had to buy another pair of pants that fit because the other pair that I bought 3 months ago was slipping as I was walking. Ill keep them just in case if I start gaining again...

Anyways, love you all! Until next week!

Elder Faber

Unexpected Email.

I LOVE surprise emails from members of the area where Joshua is serving.  It makes my day to know that Joshua is healthy and happy.  This came yesterday.

Un placer saludarle , soy el Obispo Leon aqui estamos compartiendo un rico almuerzo con Elder Faber enviamos unas fotos para q disfruten tienen un hijo excelente y especial gracias por darnos la oportunidad de conocerle saludos para ustedes les amamos

This is the message through Google Translate.

A pleasure to greet him, I am the Bishop Leon are here sharing a meal with Elder Faber q sent some pictures to enjoy and have excellent special son thanks for giving us the opportunity to meet you love you greetings

Joshua  sent a basic translation with his next email. While Google translate is a helpful tool, it doesn't convey the message well.

so he wrote that he's sharing a fantastic lunch with us, you guys have a really good son, and he wants to thank you guys for the oportunity that you have given him to meet me. Then he said that he loves you guys.

October 8 and 15 emails.

Conference weekend was a severe blow to all of our lessons... Because the stake center is so far from our sector we literally have to stay there the entire day. If we wanted to go back, it would take about 20 minutes to wait for a bus, and then getting there takes about an additional 20 minutes. And seeing as no one really is feeding us, we have to pay for all of our lunches, which means that we literally have no money.

Oh conference... How do I miss English... President banned us from having our "greengo rooms" because a lot of stake presidents complained about all of the missionaries going into a room and "segregating themselves" from the ward. Listening to conference with just dubs is the worst thing on the planet. Conference itself is amazing, but when it's in a language that you are still learning dubbed by guys with insanely boring voices your brain shuts off. HOWEVER! We went to the chapel and downloaded all of the talks in English and we're having conference weekend every night! (it's like Star Trek reruns, but better!)

Haha, fun experience, we were walking through a park to get to our next cita when all of a sudden, we hear a very familiar song. We both turn around and see two insanely drunk drunkards singing the US athem. I looked over at Duenas and he said "Let's go talk to these fools". We went over there and had a super funny conversation. He went on about how rich the people are in the states, how he could take us both on in a fight in box... Their names where Jugo (juice in english) and Miguel.

We visited the Henriquez family and shared the "because of him" video that the church made about the Atonement. You guys seriously have to look it up. We had a super spiritual experience with them, and talked about Jesus and what he did for us. Pedro then told us that he needed that, and that he's planning on going to church so he can prepare himself to be worthy enough to baptize his daughter.

Service wise, we the other week helped one of our investigators, named Lily. She's really, really crazy and super stubborn. She knows the church is true but she really doesn't give a darn about us. Anyways, she did not tell us what the activity that she was setting up was, which was pretty weird. So we helped set up chairs, a really small platform and curtains to prevent people from looking in. We finally finished and asked her, "so what is all of this for?" When she answered, I wanted to burn the entire building down. "I'm going to do a strip club to earn money so I don't get kicked out of the house!"

I was so glad no one saw us running from that horrid place... We're probably going to hear about it when we visit her again.

We've been helping an ex bishop move into our ward. He bought a really crappy house, and now he's renovating it, but Chilean style. Which means the very first thing, before taking down the walls, painting, doing necessary repairs to the house, they immediately installed tile... After taking down walls and such, that tile has already been destroyed. And it was super expensive too. But we've been helping out with that.

We're working with a bunch of people in the apartment buildings plant a garden. It looks so bad out there, that a garden might actually look nice! We took out rocks and weeds (I couldn't help out with the weeds, but I did what I could). Hopefully it goes well.

Hehe, today we took a menos activo and showed him how to play basketball. He's American, born in the states, but has Chilean parents, so probably the only person that I will teach on my mission that speaks English fluently. Super antisocial, does not get along with ANYBODY, except me! So yesterday we told him, "we are coming over to your house tomorrow at 7 to play ball, be ready". He was super hesitant, told us he would be sleeping because he goes to bed at 6 in the morning and wakes up at around 4 in the afternoon. So we showed up today at 7! He hated us for the first hour, but he came around.

To finish, our bishop is super amazing... He went to the only place in Santiago (super far from the house, about 2 hours by subway) that sells greengo food, and brought us Cinnabon... Oh my gosh I love that man.

Hope it goes well for you guys!

Lots of love,

Elder Faber

If you missed Joshua telling about a dog named Tank who waits and watches out for the Elder's, this picture has Tank in it.

CHURCH! WE HAD A FANTASTIC WEEK! We had a lot of people show up! We managed to increase the attendence from 45 to 75 in 2 weeks! Most of the people there were our menos activo and investigator families, but THEY HAD A FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE!!! Timo Teo, the drunk that drives around a lot, showed up suprisingly... That was weird, but really cool. We took him to see the bishop, and they had a long discussion about how hes going to make goals to change his life and attend church more. He looks at us and sees how happy we are, and he told us that he wants to try the same thing. Then the Henriquez family showed up too, and Pablo (the dad) got along really well with the Elders Quorum. Natalia and her family really enjoyed church too, they said they liked how our church has activities and programs for every age group. Were thinking about putting a baptismal date this week. Hopefully it works out.

So we had Zone conference this week on Monday. That was super cool, they talked a lot about talking with everyone and the Cost of Disipleship.

This week we basically starved. Lunches fell through again. But we did a lot of service in the times that we were supposed to have lunch. I think my goal to loose weight on the mission is slowly starting to become a reality!

We went over to an investigator's house this week to eat food. Shes from Peru, and really loves to cook for us. So this week she cooked good food from Peru, and it was really good. Then she brought out this massive pepper that looked like an apple called "recoto". Dang.... I made the massive mistake and took a whole bunch of it because I thought it wasnt going to be super spicy. WRONG! I couldnt feel my tongue for a couple of hours.

Not a lot happened. We took up the advice from the conference and we talked to as many people as we possibly could and just taught. It was a lot more fun than we thought it would be. We were talking to a bunch of just punk kids and one of them said that he would come to church if Dueñas gave him his tie. So he did! Hopefully he keeps his end of the deal.

Photos!

Love you all! Thanks for the support!

Elder Faber

Joshua with Martin (a boy who speaks more like an adult).
The recto pepper

Joshua's mission newsletter came yesterday. I can't read Spanish, but I always look for the pictures they have of missionaries providing service at the end of the newsletter. I watch for pics of Joshua, yesterday my perseverance was rewarded. Funny how a mom can see small pictures and still pick out her child. I believe this was from the service project where they moved beer from one place to another. Don't know for sure, because I can't read Spanish. Joshua is in the top pic third from the left. His companion is fifth from the left.