(click on any photo to enlarge)
Elder Runyan
7/18/2016
Love,
7/11/2016
1. Pictures of the Baptism! Matías
is the smaller blonde one and Vicente has black hair! The other person in white
is Presidente Silva from here in Lebu.
6/28/2016
6/20/2016
Well
I just wanted to say that I am grateful for all of your help. I guess I would
have been home on Wednesday had I not extended my mission. I love you all so
much and I know that the Lord knows His plan for me. Pray for me that I will
finish strong and that I will never give up. Pray so that I can keep moving
forward. Pray to help the miracles come. I know that they are coming. I am
really excited for this, my last cambio.
“Lebuuuuuuuu!”
Well
I hope that you know that I am doing great! I love you all and hope that you
are all well! I LOVE YOU!!
5/16/2016
So
I am now in Lebu, sector Lebu. My companion is Elder Washburn and I am also a
zone leader. I'll be sure to send you all of my pictures from when I said bye
to the office and from when I got here to Lebu.
Pictures: Elder Washburn and I. We had already lived in the same house when we were in
Lagunillas. He really great. This zone is going to rock it this cambio.
A picture of Glenda and her friend Maria. They are really awesome. Elder
Miller tells me that she's doing well.
And a picture of Shirley with us. This was my last Sunday in San Pedro.
We are going to go to leadership council meeting in Concepción on Wednesday so I'll be seeing everyone from the office again.
5/07/2016
4/23/2016
4/16/2016
So
other than that I don't really have any pictures to send you. I'm sorry. I
really need to take my camera around with me more often. I am just scared that
I'll lose it - haha.
WHAT?!?!
Yeah,
he had to go to court. The church sent a lawyer to help him and he was set free
after spending the night detained with orders to leave the country as soon as
possible. 
Anyways,
that's not even the craziest part of everything. Elder Davenport, as I told you
last cambio was training. Training lasts for two transfers and most people in
this mission only train once. But Elder Davenport is training again! He is
training and whitewashing a sector again! Whitewash is where they change out
both companions instead of just one.
Entonces
para empezar hemos tenido una semana bastante buena. No sé si les gustaría que
les escribiera en inglés o en castellano pero me gusta mucho más el hablar en
español. Creo que me entenderán ¿o no? Haha
3/5/2016
This week has been really great
besides the news from President Bluth. We have had a lot of exchanges this week
and I have been able to work a whole lot in San Pedro and see a lot of fruits.
I asked the lady that takes pictures of the new missionaries to take one of me haha. She did! Here it is!
This is us from the last Locura
Well I hope that everything is going well. Sorry that Rachel had to go through that, that is horrible. Thank you all so much for being faithful in writing me each week! It means a lot to me! I LOVE YOU ALL!
2/6/2016
This week has been really busy. First
of all, we have been preparing for the next transfer and preparing a whole
bunch of things to give to each missionary. Lots of new and crazy transfers are
gonna happen so it's going to be a little different next week (cambios are on
the 9th). 
Also I did receive my driver's
license last week! I forgot to mention it! Thanks for making that laminated
version of my patriarchal blessing; I love it! I'm also having to learn to
drive a stick because the assistant's truck is manual but it's going pretty
well.
Also, if you could send the shoes as fast as you can, I'd be very grateful! They should last me the 5 months I have left - haha. Thank you so much! (photos of current shoes on 1/9/2016 letter below)
1/30/2016
1/23/2016
Should I?
1/2/2016
I feel that I have been growing a lot
spiritually these last few weeks. It is a bit difficult because in the office
we aren't always doing spiritual things, like booking houses, check cell
phones, making lists, copying things, computer design. Most are non-spiritual
things, however I have come to treasure, to a certain extent, the small time
that we do have to be spiritual. The few minutes of scripture study we get, the
time we have to go proselyting, church meetings. All of these are very sacred
to me. I would challenge all of you to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon
each and every day. I don't care if you're trying to finish the New Testament,
D&C, etc. Modern prophets have told us that we need to study the Book of
Mormon every day.
12/19/2015
2. I am in charge of all of the Baptismal Records. I have to obtain the written form of every person that gets baptized and put it into the system. I have to make sure that the numbers for baptisms is correct and that every single form is complete.
12/14/2015
12/07/2015
“Conferencia
de la Navidad”
We are doing really well. But I was sick on Monday and we couldn't
leave the house and on Tuesday I had a medical appointment in Concepción which
took the entire day in travel but other than that my comp and I are working
really hard in order to find and keep the investigators that we have.
I suppose that you would want some
pictures since I haven't sent any lately (last week the computer was broken so
that's not my fault. So here ya go!
They have to close the ciber right now so I'll finish my email despues! CHAO! I guess that's about it for now. I'll be keeping you all informed on what's happening, especially with Christmas coming and everything. Thank you all so much for all of your letters! It really keeps me going! I LOVE YOU ALL!!
CHAO
Elder Runyan
11/16/2015
11/9/2015
"Los Alamos Week 5?"
Also one cool thing. In the mission just about every house has a map of the sector. That is, just about every house except Los Álamos! So we worked to be able to put together a cool map. It actually turned out quite nice. I think that it will be a very valuable tool for the work in this sector for all of the future missionaries (including myself!) So I'll be sending a picture of that as well! We made it in 3D (well kind of) It 's going to have a lot of pinpoints and we are going to sectorize it to be able to work more fully with the members (teaching investigators in their houses, etc.). So we a going to have a very efficient plan.
Also, so as you guys know, we've been a
little dry with people coming to church. It's been really rough and I believe
that it is because we haven't been working with the members as much as we
should be doing. This week our focus is going to be finding and teaching
them in the member's houses. I think that it the best to get people to feel
comfortable with going to church. Having a friend, who invites you to church in
their house is a lot more comfortable than two mormon missionaries that come
knocking on your door and tell you to come to church haha. I really think that
this week will be something very special. It's going to be awesome!
11/2/2015
"HELOHOWARIU!"
We did have Halloween here but it is definitely not the same
thing that it is in Utah -haha. It is the Evangelical Church organization day or something like that so they had a big march screaming "Los Álamos for Jesus!" in the street -haha. November 1st is Día de todos los santos (all saints day) here so it's like the day of the dead. Everyone goes to the cemetery and pays tributes to the dead and everyone else has a bunch of little food stands like a carnival outside to make money :)
That's awesome that you guys had a good Halloween! Thanks for making a pumpkin for me! Homestar Runner haha that's awesome! Sorry for not having any pictures this week. I need to take a lot more. Don't worry I'll have a lot more pictures this week! Kristi's braces are coming off -Whooo! Haha that's really cool. 
To answer Rachel's question, we do our own laundry here. We always have planning sessions each night and every Sunday we have weekly planning. We are fairly responsible for what we do but there are a lot of things that put a cork in our plans so we always need to have a backup.
I haven't gotten my package yet, it's still in the mission office so I'm going to have to wait a little longer. That's crazy that dad has four callings. I'm basically the Elder's Quorum president here so that's fun as well haha.
Click here for [Josh's Audio] 2 Nov 2015
10/26/2015
Also look at this video here:
10/13/2015
HEY! How's it going everyone!?! This
last week I've been here with Elder Ormeño in Los Álamos. Elder Ormeño has 17
months in the mission and he has been here in this sector for one cambio
(transfer). He's really cool and we have been getting along great! We are going
to have a lot of success in this sector I can feel it. Los Álamos is a really
good sector, not quite as big or as city as Lagunillas was but it's really
good. There are a lot of good people here in the sector. This sector was a
Sister Missionary sector about 4 months ago until they switched all of the
Hermanas out for the Elders in Curanilahue. So just about everyone has spoken
with the Mormonas haha. Los Álamos is a branch of about 45-50 members I believe.
It's a small capilla (not as small as tijeral) but the members are really
good!
I'm really excited about this cambio.
This is the first time that I'm going to be in a house with only Latin
roommates. Elder Paco is training Elder Ramos right now in our house. In my
district I've got the Hermanas from Curanilahue with Hermana Antay and Hermana
Naranjo, I also have the Elders from Lebu Elder Dominguez and Elder Machado,
also that Zone Leaders are in my district Elder Sanders and Elder Snyder. It's
kinda funny doing our daily verification asking the Zone Leaders for their
numbers and then they ask me for mine haha. But that's the district.
10/05/2015
Wow, I don't really know much else to
say. I am very grateful for the opportunity that the Lord gave me to be here in
Chile helping and serving these people. I am really excited for this coming
cambio. It's going to be great! I learned a lot this conference about trusting
in the Lord. I suppose I have been proud lately and haven't given time to trust
in the Lord. I have thought that missionary work was my responsibility instead
of understanding that the Lord's hand is in this work. The song that was sung
in the last session really hit me hard.
So we found a lot of really good
people this week! It was pretty cool. I believe that this week I have learned
more than anything to seek the Lord's inspiration. It been a little difficult
(as always haha) but it has really been nice to know that the Lord is aware of
our personal circumstances and is really trying to make us better people. That
is the whole point isn't it? Getting better.
I was really sad to see that Emily got hurt! It looks really bad! I'm so sorry that happened! If you haven't yet, please seek a priesthood blessing in order to get better!
Mom! Your purse... no! That is really horrible. I'm so sorry. That must be really hard. Sounds like it was a rough week for you guys. Well just so you guys know, you're have company- haha.
The good part of all of this is that General Conference is this Saturday. What better help than the help of God's called and chosen servants. I believe that this weekend is going to be revelation weekend. I really want you guys to look for revelation this weekend as you listen to the Apostles and Prophets. The Lord allows us to receive heavenly inspiration if we are in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset. Saturday and Sunday are the right times, General Conference is the right place, and personal sincere prayer with an open mind is the right mindset. If you will do all these things, I promise you that you will know that which you ought to do within the first hour of conference. Interesting huh? Try it, try it and you may, try it and you may I say.... Haha that's not Elder Runyan that's Dr. Seuss but still it's a good mindset. The principle is the same which Christ said in John.
"DIECIOCHITO"
So this week was the Dieciocho!
(Chile's Independence Day) So just so you know, I've got a lot of pictures for
you, so watch out I'm going to be send a few emails to be able to fit them all
together.
Sorry if these are in a weird
format the computer here is a little weird. You're going to have to open it in
the Photo Viewer and just select that as the default opener Sorry!
So for Mom :
Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated. D&C 88:124
9/17/2015
So this week was very interesting. Basically I just wanted to say that I
have really felt my faith grow this week and I am really excited for
what is coming. The Lord is surely aware of us. He knows when we're
close. When we are close to reaching our goals he is right there
cheering trying to let us know that we are almost there. That is why we
must be in tune with the Holy Spirit. When we feel that, when we really
sense the presence of our Father in Heaven we know exactly what we need
to do. Something for me this week just clicked. Like I knew what I have
to do. I need not worry for I know that ''the Lord giveth no
commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for
them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.''.
Really cool that realization.
So this week if you can't tell has
been pretty awesome! I know right! Sandra, Jeremy Giuseppe, and Lucas were all
baptized this week! My companion was able to baptize all three of the kids and
Sandra wanted Nicolas to baptize her (he's the hermanamiento for the jóvenes).
It was such a cool experience.
President Bluth was planning on coming to the baptism but he called us too late because we had the baptism at 10:00 am on Saturday. He came to Sacrament Meeting afterwards in order to see the confirmation. It was really cool! I've never baptized a family before! They are so awesome. They told us that they were watching General Conference all day after church and Lucas and Jeremy went to the Stake General Priesthood meeting. Pretty awesome right? I'm so proud of them! They've changed a lot! They are progressing super-fast!
My comp had the opportunity to baptize and I'm real proud of him as well. It's been really cool with him. He's has a lot of excitement as well!
Well I don't really know what else
to say about my week. It's been really cool and we have a lot planned for this
week (a full planeamiento semanal) so I'll send you that as well haha. We're
trying to work a lot better with our planning so that we're prepared for just
about anything. I really think that the Savior is blessing us for our efforts
that we've been trying to make this last cambio and we are going to be working
really hard in order to get the rest of those fruits this coming cambio! WHOOO!
I'm really excited. Just like Dad says, I'm there in that groove where I know
what's going
on and I'm really excited here in
Lagunillas with my hijito!
8/17/2015
(Josh's English Audio ..... Coming Soon)
8/3/2015
"DUDEZ!"
Well I'm not going to lie, this week was pretty awesome! We found a new family of four last Monday (right after I talked to you guys). They are seriously super prepared! I'm not lying! We put baptismal dates with them and we were able to visit them four times this week! Their names are Sandra, Lucas, Jeremy, and Gisepe. They are so cool! We've already taught them The Restoration, Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon and they are reading them all! We visited them with a member twice and it was awesome! They already have fellowship and they all came to church and had a wonderful experience! They do the prayers in every appointment that we have with them! It is seriously an answer to our prayers. This Sunday was Fast Sunday and we were fasting that they would be able to come to church and have a good experience and they did! I am sooo excited for them can you tell? They're a miracle! We're baptizing this month! WHOOO!
7/27/2015
"This Week 2.0!"
So I decided that I would try something different this week. I wanted to try to send you guys a voice recording because I thought that it would be something nifty for you guys to be able to hear my voice. I talk in Spanish so that you guys can't use Google Translate haha.
7/20/2015
"Dis Week!"
So this week has been pretty awesome. My "son" (the Elder that I am
training) is awesome! his name is Elder Davenport. He's from Idaho and
just barely graduated from High School so he's from the Class of 2015.
We've been working really hard this week to be able to find new
investigators and we've seen a lot of miracles. He's a really hard
worker and we've been working really hard together. He understands
Spanish! I'm not even kidding, it's insane, he understands almost
everything that they are saying! I remember that I didn't even begin to
understand anything until the end of the first month of my mission. It's
really awesome being able to train here in the mission. It's a really
different experience instead of having a missionary that's older than
you in the mission. He's been doing really well and I'm really proud of
him! That's my son!!! Haha I'll be putting some pictures in the email.
7/13/2015
"Woww"
So first of all, I want to apologize for not being able to write to you guys last week. We were in Concepción all day on Monday and we thought that we were going to be able to write when we got back to our sector but our bus got back really late and we had to ask permission to write after P-Day hours. That's why we couldn't write you so much. Sorry! I still love you guys!
1.
Javier got baptized on Saturday!!!! It was so cool! I'll be sending you
guys some pictures so you can see. He's a little more timid and didn't
want the whole ward to come to his baptism so we only invited a few
people. It was a really spiritual experience, he's an awesome guy and I'm excited for him! We also got another "Semana of Excellence" this week because we got all of the other
requirements too. WHOO! Elder Hill goes home strong! That's all I wanted
and it was really cool for Elder Hill to be in the water baptizing his
last day in the mission.
6/29/2015
"Hello from down under-meaning Chilé not Australia"
6/22/2015
"Bautismo!!!"
We nailed it this week. Sebastian's
baptism 3 investigators and 279 contacts -BOOM! We've got all kinds of animo up
in here! Haha it's been pretty sweet. Makes you feel good about yourself (even
though everything we did was due to the help of God) But I feel good. We worked
hard this week. I realized that we were working far below our potential. We
began to talk to everyone, and by everyone I mean everyone. Every person that
crossed paths with us. 140 contacts is actually really easy when you begin to
do that. We found so many more people due to that! It feels good working
harder!
6/15/2015
"QWERTY"
6/08/2015
"Lagunillas"
Hey hey hey!!! Lagunillas baby! Haha So I'm here in Lagunillas with Elder Hill (I'll send y'all a photo of him) haha. This sector is really close to the ocean (too bad we can't swim). It's a pretty sweet sector, not gonna lie. It's fairly big to say the least. My first few days here have costed me a little bit to get used to how much we walk (distance wise). In comparison to Tijeral, it's like 50 times bigger haha. We have a lot of good people here in the ward and a lot of good investigators. Elder Hill and I hope to be able to baptize three people before Elder Hill goes home. It's a good meta I think. So we're heading towards that real quickly!
It's really different living with
four missionaries in the same house again. It's a lot more fun haha. Elder
Cahill and Elder Washburn are here in the same casa as me. So there's four
gringos here (4 gringoes on the 4th of July what?!?!) haha it's gonna be pretty
sick I'm thinking.
Well I don't really know what else
to tell you guys. It's been a good week and we're working hard. I'm gonna send
some photos to you guys to let y'all know what's up.
Also on my birthday, after we
did internet, Branch Tijeral all came together for a Family Home Evening to
celebrate my birthday! Hermana Franco (the lady that was there during your
skype call) she made me a birthday cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me
in English (they teach everyone here how to sing happy birthday in English) it was
so awesome! I love those guys there in Tijeral! I'll send you some photos. We
actually video taped them singing to me in English so hopefully I'll be able to
send you that.
Oh yeah! Before I forget! Yesterday
in church I presented myself as the new missionary in the ward (Elder Roonyahn)
and there was a Hermana in the ward that asked me if I had a family member
that had served in Resistencia Argentina (a Hermana) and I said yes! Sarah
apparantly was ''born'' when this hermana was about to go home. She remembered
the name haha I'll try to get her name before the next email so Sarah can
remember her. haha small world.
Well That's all I got this week. I'm gonna have to let y'all go. But I'm gonna be attatching a few photos if you don't mind of some of my favorite people.
"Tijeral Tijeral"
5/18/2015
"Dis Week"
"Well, well, well..."
"Mother's Day eh?"
4/27/2015
"Dis Week"
4/20/2015
"Hello Transfers"
3. Also, we finally found our
investigator who wants to be baptized but it's really hard for her to get to
church due to her job, toddler, and family. We're going to find a way to get
her to church, sí o sí.
I love hearing about all of your
experiences you are having. It really helps me keep going to know that you guys
are all plugging along haha. I love you all and I'm really grateful for the
example that you give me. Keep moving along. One talk that I loved from General
Conference was “Stay by the Tree” by Kevin W. Pearson. It's really awesome. I
would suggest that you all listen to it again.
Chao!
"Hand Written Birthday Letter attachments --
Happy Birthday Dad and Kristi !"
4/6/2015
"Letter Home Today"
(and answers to Birthday questions)
"Re: Tijeral and the Two Elders"
See
you on the flip side!
Élder
Beautiful
3/23/2015
"Week/Semana Number 38? I don't even know, I looked at Mom's email...haha"
Hey, hey, hey! Well guess what! I
got sick this week! I know, really cool right? Not really. I felt pretty gross
for a while. I have a testimony of ibuprofen! We worked our butts off this
week. On Monday I got really sick and we only contacted 4 people and the
mission doctor told me to go to bed around 7:30. I felt a lot better on Tuesday
and we contacted Tijeral 5 times over haha. Usually we have about 100
contacts weekly and that's a fairly high number but this week we had 175!
Getting sick inspired me or something. I thought if I die, I die tracting! Haha, no it wasn't that bad at all. I just applied D&C 28:16 which says:
Thank you so much for each of your
emails! I love reading about your lives. But hey we'll be getting to see each
other on Skype fairly pronto so we can get excited for that!
"Week...."
To answer a few questions.... my comp
has about 20 months in the mission already. He has two transfers left after
this one with me. He's been in Tijeral one transfer more than I have. I have
not had any problems with my card cause it's technically a checking card so I
don't think it'll have any problems. I do get Nick's letters as well. Our
leaders here are really good. I really enjoy working with them.
She said that the Bible is better
and was perfectly happy with her limited understanding of their non-divinely
inspired translation of the Bible. Oh well. To every man his own.
3/9/2015
"Cambio....Kinda"
3/2/2015
"8 Months, eh"
"Letter Home, Week 4 or something in Tijeral"
Two. I don't know what happened this
week but nobody wanted us in their houses. Sure, we taught people,
outside of their houses, standing up the whole time. Haha, so we've been standing
up a lot these past few days. We even entered two houses, both of which had a
multitude of chairs available and the owners just wanted us to talk to them
standing up. It's weird doing it that way because it's really hard to hint
''Hey can we sit down'' unless you do like the awkward half-sit and you make a
weird face until they feel awkward enough to tell you to take a seat. That
strategy usually works but two dudes this week didn't catch the hint haha! I
don't know, but at least it wasn't quite as hot this week. However this coming
week is supposed to be one of the hottest weeks of the summer, so pray for a
nice lazyboy for Elder Runyan.
Three. Well a lot of our
investigators have been slipping away from us. This week we realized that we have only been able to visit 4 more than once. (My English felt weird there) So
we've been trying to visit all of the investigators this week to no avail. Many
of them we have had to kill as investigators (stop visiting them) but so far
we've basically begun to strain out of our pool of investigation.
2/16/2015
"Another Day, Another Peso"
So this week was pretty dang fun. I got to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting and also the Gospel
Principles Class right after. So that was pretty stellar. Haha I was pretty tired after all that winging it. No, that's a joke. I prepared a little. I gave my talk on Llegando a ser Santos (de los Últimos Días). And our class was on La Libertad de Escoger, Albedrío (The Freedom of Choice, Agency)
None of our investigators made it to
church :( We will be working really hard this week so that we can get as many as possible in church next Sunday. Monica did read the Plan of Salvation and the
Restoration. She really enjoyed reading it out loud by the grave of her son. It
really helped her knowing that she would be able to see her son again. Some of
her Evengelical friends told her that after this life we won't recognize
anyone, that we would all be brothers and sisters and we won't be fathers,
mothers and the such. Pretty lame sus creencias eh?
That's one thing that I've learned.
How messed up some peoples ideas are. The people that actually read the
Bible are really smart. The people that go to their church and just listen to
their Pastor and never actually read are like a bunch of sheep running off of a
cliff. It's much easier to teach people who are willing to accept that they
don't know everything. We have to find a person that is somehow in between
these two. Lots of people that read the Bible a lot think that they already
know everything and aren't humble enough too seek more information concerning
God (not always but often). The people that go to church will not believe that
anyone knows more than their pastor. They basically believe that Salvation
comes in and through listening to their pastor and then through Jesus. (Not all
but many) The trick here is humility. Being humble means that we are willing to
accept things that we may not know. Being teachable. If you want to learn, you
need a teacher. If you want your teacher to teach you, you have to listen. If
you want to be able to apply that which you have learned, you have to be humble
enough to submit to the fact that you don't know everything.
That is what I wanted to share with
y'all this fine morning. Also one thing. They added a few
more rules in the which I am no longer allowed to email you and wait for a
response in a chat-like setting through my email.
2/09/2015
Also last week I forgot! You guys need to read The Fourth Missionary by Lawrence E. Corbridge. It's really good!
“Tijeral" (Elder Runyan's new area)
So we're here in Tijeral. It's
really small, haha. Laja was huge, and Tijeral…. I've basically contacted the
entire city in one week haha. But we're doing good here. When I arrived we had
no investigators at all. My comp seemed a bit discouraged but we found 8 new
investigators this week and put 4 fechas bautismales. None of the new ones came
to church last week (we're in a Branch) (also fun fact - the Branch President
was baptized exactly two years ago today) but we had 3 inactive members come
that we worked with last week. We had 34 in church this week which is really
good. All of this was because we fasted on fast Sunday. Not gonna lie, every time
I've fasted in the mission I've seen miracles happen. So I challenge y'all with
a fast, I know it's not fun, but try it. 24 hours without food or water. Also
it's most important that you pay your fast offering using the amount of money
that you would have used for those meals. Otherwise all you were was anorexic
for a day instead of sacrificing something.
Anyway we found a golden
investigator! Her name's Monica and she's awesome! We found her yesterday. Her
sons had been baptized a while back but are inactive now. One of them passed
away recently. It's a really sad story and she's been suffering a lot, she had
us all crying (even my comp). We were teaching the Restoration and then out of
nowhere I felt that I should invite her to be baptized. She was crying and I
felt that baptism didn't quite fit the theme but I tied it into the Spirit.
I told her that God loves her, that he too had lost a Son. I told her
that the love of God is made manifest in the Spirit, that we feel God's love
through it. Only the Spirit can give peace of mind. Only the Spirit can mend a
broken heart. I told her that the same Spirit which she was feeling in that
very moment can be with her forever. The Gift of the Holy Ghost could be hers,
all her guilt would be washed away through the ordinance of Baptism.
“Goodbye Laja"
So this week has been an interesting
one. First of all we Baptized Clara WHoo!!!! But...1) I forgot to bring my
camera to upload the photos and 2) she didn't get confirmed on Sunday. It was
the weirdest freak thing. So she was baptized on Saturday in the morning and it
was really awesome. I took a lot of pictures. On Sunday she came early and was
there for the Relief Society meeting and Sunday School, but she get's up to go
to the bathroom and takes off and we couldn't find her. So she wasn't confirmed. But there was still hope because we had a sacrament meeting in San Rosendo.
She said that she was coming. We went to her house and visited her and she was
all ready to leave when the mother of her grandson came and tried to take him
away from her. So she's going to be confirmed next week when I'm not
here. 
Also, I'm getting transferred from
Laja, after 6 months. I leave tomorrow morning!
My new companion will be Elder Valderrama (a Chilean). I will be
in Tijeral, which is a really small town with a small branch. Pretty nuts, eh?
We'll be the only missionaries in that sector. Hopefully we have lunches every
week or the mission will have to give us more money, haha. It'll be a bit
different, but I'm excited to see a change.
Well I'm guessing that I'll be there
for Mother's Day so maybe you'll be able to see what it's like.
Joke! I brought my camera! I'm uploading the pictures to DropBox so you can see 'em, some of them are kinda dumb, haha.
I'm sure that I'll have a lot more news to tell you guys next week! It'll be a change and hopefully the time will go by a little slower for a little bit! I'll send you some more pictures next week! I've gotta say goodbye to everyone right now here in Laja :(
To Dad (my thoughts about the Sunday School lesson):
“Weekly Letter A Little Late"
So some bad news - Clara didn't pass
her interview. The Second Counselor of the mission came and interviewed her and
she's fine now, she's going to be baptized on Saturday before I leave Laja! So
that's pretty cool.
So this week was pretty sick! We had
115 people in church yesterday! That's an all-time record for Barrio Laja! So
that was pretty cool. We also had a little branch across the river in San
Rosendo with as many less active members we could find from 4:00-7:00 pm all
over San Rosendo. Their attendance counts as Laja because they are in the Laja
boundaries and don't have a San Rosendo Branch but if we keep finding more and
more people we might have a branch and 2 missionaries for just San Rosendo! so
109+6 in San Rosendo = 115
1/05/2015
“Hey, Hey, Hey !"
And then we have Juan Bautista (now we've got just about the whole Bible haha)
So both of those experiences
were awesome. They both came to church on Sunday to be confirmed! Juan scared
us because we always have to go get him to bring him to church because he never
knows what day or what time it is. We showed up and he wasn't there! We were
like "noo!" He has to be confirmed! And then we get a call from the other Elders
saying "Hey, Maria's here, and Juan Bautista!" Haha! He came all by himself from
like 10 miles away! He remembered what day it was!
12/22/2014
“Christmas - This Week!"
12/15/2014
12/08/2014
“This Week"
11/24/2014
“Okie Dokie"
11/17/2014
So this week was pretty nuts, first of all, I was attacked by a loca (she's seriously nuts). They had emergency cambios (transfers) with my sector and I learned Spanish.
Okay, first of all la loca. So
there's a crazy lady here in the sector and we've heard stories of her
attacking the missionaries if they don't say Hi to her when she says Hi to
them. She doesn't do anything if you say Hi, if not, she wants you head. So there
were some flaites (punk teenagers) saying hello behind us, which is really
annoying because they yell swears in English to try to make the gringos mad.
And my comp and I just kept walking. Then, as we get out there on the beach I
heard like a rock fall behind us and I thought, these weenies are throwing
rocks at us! But I just kept walking because as missionaries we have the "Samuel
the Lamanite" effect. Then I hear someone from a boat yell, "Elder, Look
out for the Loca!" So I'm spinning around trying to find her and she
somehow pops out of the ground like a groundhog on my left and grabs my neck
and starts shaking me yelling ¿¡Me escuchaste!? Now this lady is like 90 pounds
of pop rocks shaking my neck and out of nowhere she backs off and smacks me
upside the head! Now luckily I had taken a bit of Ibuprofen cause I had a
nersty headache that morning so I didn't feel it too bad. My comp had no idea
what to do! (me neither) I told her that I was sorry and just didn't hear her.
Then she tried to kick me in... in the spot, but I dodged it luckily and she
stormed off more heated than my burnt skin from Saturday playing futbol. All
the flaites recorded it (sorry I couldn't get them to pass is on to me) and one
of my investigators and his family saw it as well. She must've said Hi and we
didn't hear her because of the flaites.
Also we found a lot of news this
week. We found an 84 year old man named Juan Bautista, John the Baptist in English. I thought that He
didn't understand much of what we taught him because he seems to have hearing
and remembering issues but he's actually awesome! We put a baptism date with
him and later we taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. He's
always been super evangelical so usually this subject of another book is rough
for them. But when we showed it to him he was like. Hey! I've seen that book! I
have read that before! And we were like, "really!?". And he said that he'd been looking
for our church for over twenty years that had this book to be baptized. Nuts
eh? 84 years old, lives like 10 miles from the church and is going to walk
every Sunday! He doesn't even know how to dial our number on his old nokia
phone! Haha. We also made quite a few more fechas with some people as well.
One
challenge for you guys this week is to give up something, sacrifice something
that maybe you really don't want to. Be it selfishness or addictive behaviors
or maybe simply the way in which you act toward someone else. Give it up. For
at least a week. If you do it you will be blessed. One thing that I learned on
the Mission is how to Fast. Do an honest Fast. Sacrifice not only food, water,
and other necessities but also your time, your money in a fast offering, your
thoughts, your prayers, your behavior, and this time do it for someone else. Do
it for someone you love. The first and second greatest commandments are to love
with all your heart, soul, mind, and body. We are not here to obey the
commandments, the commandments are here to make us happy, the fast is a
commandment. Try it. If you don't feel like you can do it alone, ask someone to
share it with you. I promise you that you will not regret doing it.
“ New Comp and All "
11/03/2014
P.S. We finally got a ward mission
leader! Yay! It's super helpful and he just got back from his mish so yeah, it’s
awesome!
10/20/2014
“The First Baptism!"
So this week was pretty sick! So we
had the baptism of José on Tuesday and we were able to take pictures as
well (I'll attach some)! It was really cool being able to baptize him! He and
his wife made the minuta or the program and they both wanted to share their
testimonies at the end. It was awesome to see someone that didn't seem to have
a testimony at all, testify of his conversion. He said that as he went under the
water (which happened to be freezing cold because the hot water was broken and
we had to use cold to fill it up faster) he saw a light and could feel that he
was taking a step that would change his life forever. It's so awesome to see
someone with such an incredibly powerful testimony because of what I'm teaching.
We also confirmed him with the Holy Ghost then and there because he recently found a job
opportunity and didn't know if he'd be there the next Sunday (you can do that
with permission from the Bishop). He's an awesome guy and I'm super happy for
him! 
This week was pretty awesome. I plan on answering some questions as well. We do have a few new investigators (or at least new to me because there are of few that my comp had before I came and I hadn't been in their houses). Also...102 Days! Wow. It really doesn't feel like I've been here that long. Hopefully I've learned enough Spanish to be able to communicate clearly haha. Also Diego is 15, Paulo is 14, and Sebastian is 12. They are doing pretty well but their fecha bautismal fell through because they couldn't go to church (except Diego he could already be baptized but we wanna do it all all together), so hopefully they can make it for two more weeks! Elder Mundell is really funny. He's a cool guy. Also, thank you so much for all of the pictures! I love to see you guys!
So this week was pretty sick, not gonna lie!
Weather around here has actually been really nice this week. It's springtime and the sun is really strong here so Imma be flipping tan. The food also has been pretty good. This morning we ate churrascos, the size of my head.
10/06/2014
PREVIOUS LETTERS (From Newest to Oldest)
9/22/2014
There is a picture of the youth
dancing the cueca. We had a lot of food and investigators come so that was
good!
Say Congrats to Emily for me!
My comp fell asleep in his typical morning get up while I was showering and I took a picture so you could see it.
Well I've got to go now, I just want to say that I love you all! Thank you all so much for writing me! I wish that I could answer all of your questions! Happy 77th to Grandma and Grandpa! Tell everyone I love them And I'll be sure to find a way to send you all that video!
You guys got a truck?! I'm sure Emily just hates it doesn't she? Well I guess that's cool. Just tell her not to wreck it before I get back. From the pictures I saw, it looks like an automatic.
So this week is the Dieciocho de Septiembre, Which is their independence day. Apparently Elder Hendricks says it's bigger than the Fourth of July in the U.S. and Bigger than Christmas down here (not than the U.S.) So basically we have P day on that day. Today we are only allowed to write and buy groceries. So it's a huge deal and that truck would fit in just dandy down here because every car in Chile is decorated like that for the Dieciocho.
So yeah, it had like 5 kittens and
then ate the placenta. So that was lovely but we had a really spiritual lesson
and we are trying to help the father quit smoking.
9/08/2014
We don´t have a terrible problem
with fleas here. There's a few that I've seen but I wouldn't call it a problem.
I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures with myself in them this week! I promise
I'll get some for next!
8/25/2014
8/12/2014
8/6/2014
Also I found another picture of Sarah in the CCM! There was apparently a lot of rain there too...
Pretty Cool eh? I got a video of Elder Golden playing a medley of some hymns that he made up all by himself, it's sick! (To Grandparents: this means "awesome") It is seriously one the coolest hymns medleys I've ever heard! I was told that I was allowed to use DropBox so I set one up and I invited you all to come and look at the video. It's going to take a little while to finish uploading so hopefully it's done soon!
Here's a picture of my companion looking like a goon:
Haha I don't know why but this picture makes me laugh every time! Haha. Elder Sheffield is a cool kid! He was Prom King at Pleasant Grove High School. Haha he's a funny dude. Emily should marry him. Then we could be brothers! He doesn't wear glasses he's just wearing it for the picture. He's like 6'5.
July 30, 2014
"New week"
Not a great picture but this darn cat wouldn't stop looking at a mosquito.
I really like my district! We are super chill with one another and we are all really good friends. I'm going to jump off real fast to see if I can chat with you guys!
July 23, 2014
July 16, 2014
July 9, 2014
Here's a pic with Elder Golden (from my district) with the glass I broke when I pushed the handle and the door was locked.
f
July 2, 2014
#seriousselfie
7/25/2016
Last Letter
So
this will probably be my last letter home. Next week we will probably get a few
minutes just to send you any information that you might have missed.
This
week has been amazing. We spent a lot of time working on Caroline's baptism.
She got baptized in the end but it was really cool. Everything worked out okay
in the end haha. There are always a lot
of complications when it comes to a baptism. If you don't have a plan and a
backup plan for everything something will always go wrong (opposition of
course). But in the end it was really beautiful. I'll be attaching pictures
below.
Alejandro
is going to be baptized this weekend. He was really sick this week and wasn't
going to be able to come to church. We offered him a blessing and he said that
he felt better in a flash. He came to church and is committed to be baptized.
He is so cool. He teaches me more things than I teach him haha. I'll try to
send pictures of Alejandro's baptism but I don't know how much time I will have
next week.
Other
than those, things we have been working really hard here in the zone. If you
don't know, the goal for the entire mission is that each companionship can
baptize one person a month. It is a high standard and is fairly difficult to
achieve. This month we have 6 companionships in our zone. We made a goal as a
zone to achieve 8 baptisms in the month of July. Do you want to know how many
people are going to be baptized? 12. 12 people are getting baptized! It is a
miracle!!! This has been the best hard-working zone I've ever been in! I am so
happy for all of these people and all of these missionaries. I am so happy and
grateful for all of the missionaries in our zone. They are so awesome!
Okay
well, I just wanted to thank you all for your emails. They mean a lot to me.
You guys are so awesome!!! Thank you all so much!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Runyan
Photos: Caroline's Baptism
7/18/2016
Emily’s Mission Call
Okay so just to let all of you know;
I need to know for sure when I am going to need to do the Skype. I don't know
when you are going to be home this week so I'm going to need a time and a day
to be able to be ready. I got permission
so everything’s okay.
Anyways, this week has been a week
full of miracles. "A", our investigator who has been coming to church for
a couple of months now, called us on Wednesday to set up an appointment. We
went and he began to talk about his desires to be baptized. I felt prompted to
challenge him to be baptized on the 30th of July and he said yes! He is really
sure and I am so excited that he is making this great choice. He is so cool.
Also, this weekend we are going to
have a baptism as well. Caroline is going to be baptized on Saturday at 4:30.
It is going to be great as well. I'll be
sure to send you all pictures of those upcoming events.
We had a zone activity today on the
beach here in Lebu. We invited the zone and had a really good time (without
getting wet of course). It was really cool. I'll send you some picture in this
email.
Well not much else went down as far
as I am aware. Thank you all so much for all of your letters and support. You
have all been writing me for more than two years now. You guys are the best
family ever!
I love you all so much! Make sure you
get me that Skype time so that I can see Emily open her mission call! I'm so
excited!!!
Love,7/11/2016
No sé ni qué poner aquí en
este espacio
Hey everyone! Thank you all so much
for all of your letters! They really mean a lot to me! You guys are so great! I
am really grateful for all of your love and prayers.
I don't really know much of what I
should say here. I have so much stuff that I would love to say but in
person.
So to let you all know about our
investigators. Caroline has a baptismal date set for the 23 of July. She is 9
years old and her mom is a member. She's really good and I am sure that she
will do it that day. So that is going to be awesome! Please pray for her! You
guys are so great! I love you!
I can't really believe that I only
have 3 more weeks left to be here in Chile. It's been a really great
experience. I am so glad that I came. Thank you to everyone who has helped with
my mission. I am very grateful for this opportunity. Thank you so much.
I feel as though my letters have
been getting shorter and shorter every time I write haha. I just wanted to let
you all know how much I love you and appreciate all that you have done and are
doing for me.
I
wanted to quickly share this scripture:
"And
they began from that time forth to call on his name; therefore God conversed
with men, and made known unto them the plan of redemption, which had been
prepared from the foundation of the world; and this he made known unto them according
to their faith and repentance and their holy works." - Alma 12:30
How does God make his plans known
unto us? According to our faith, repentance and holy works. I have seen this a
whole lot in my mission. How did I learn how to be a missionary? How does one
learn the doctrine of Christ and the part that baptism plays in the plan of
God? How did I learn it? Faith,
repentance and holy works.
I have faith that God is
preparing someone to receive the restored gospel, I exercise that faith by
study and by prayer, I cannot lose faith in my investigators, I believe so much
that someone is ready to go into the waters of baptism that God himself is
convinced. He makes the miracle happen. This is how my testimony grows. It is
strengthened as I have faith and receive revelation.
I must repent. I must repent
day after day after day. I recognize what I haven't done correctly. I make
changes in my everyday behavior. As I repent of the old mistakes I have made,
God will show me "a more excellent way" (1 Corinthians 12:31)
Repentance is like that booster. When I run out of gas and I barely running on
fumes, God strengthens me with His grace to be able to do things beyond me.
Repentance allows God's grace into our lives.
Holy Works. I think that holy
works means to do things that will make you holy. "Ye shall be holy: for I
the Lord your God am holy." (Leviticus 19:2) We will be holy, but I don't
think it will happen as we sit on the couch, on our phone, or in bed waiting
for it to happen. We must go about doing holy works. You can probably think of
a lot of holy things we do in the church or even in our homes. As we do those
holy things (Taking the Sacrament, holding Family Home Evening, daily scripture
study and prayer, etc.), we are doing holy works.
Those
three things are the keys to knowing the plan of God. Don't forget to do them!
They reveal the plan of God! Nobody in their right mind would say, “no I don't
really want to know about God's plan for me.” No! God can reveal so many
important things if we let Him. Let us be humble enough to say God knows better
than I do. He does! I know so.
Thanks you all so much for all of
your help. You guys are so great! I love you all so much!!!
Love,
Elder
Runyan
7/04/2016
Matías and Vicente got
baptized!
So
this week was really awesome! Vicente and Matías were baptized on Saturday and
it was really great. I got to baptize and confirm Vicente. And Matías was baptized and confirmed by the
Branch President. It was a really cool experience. I will attach
pictures!
We
also had 3 investigators in church on Sunday. Matías and Vicente's dad showed
up. We're going to be working with him a bit this week. The second person was "G". He is an 11 year-old kid who hasn't been baptized for his fear of
water. He's really smart and I think that he has mostly gotten over his fear of
water. He opened up a lot to us this week because all of the past missionaries
had been pressuring him into baptism so much that he didn't ever want to go to
church anymore. He seems to be really confident so we are going to work with
him as well. "A" came as always and we are going to plan an interview
with him this week so that he can decide if he's ready or not for baptism (he
totally is).
There
is a 9 year-old girl named Caroline that is the daughter of the daughter of
Elder Smith's dad's converts. She said yesterday that she wants to be baptized,
she's already came to church twice. There are a whole lot of people that the
Lord has put in our path!
Our
zone seems to be doing really well. We achieved 2 baptisms this week which
means that we are ahead of schedule on baptisms for the month of July with many
baptisms to come. I think that we will obliterate the goal of 8 this month.
DOPE!
I
can't believe that Emily sent in her mission papers! I'm so excited for her!
That is going to be so cool! You are going to have to tell me in written form
because I have no way to hear the audio in the Cyber where I do internet! Send
me a photocopy of her mission call! That would be so dope! WHOOOO!!! I'm so
excited!
Wow
you guys are so interesting. I love you all so much. I hope that you have the best week! Tell me
immediately when she gets it! I'm so excited!
I
love you all so much! I'll be sending a bunch of pictures!
I LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Runyan
PS:
I saw the fireworks video! That was awesome!
I will totally ask about skyping for
Emily’s mission call. That would be really cool!
6/28/2016
“La
Sarna”
Wow
this last week has gone by really quickly. They changed our P-Day to Tuesday
because Monday was a national holiday here in Chilé and it was better to find
people on the Holiday. So I'm writing you! Woohoooo!
Haha
so just to let you all know M. and V. are going to be baptized on
Saturday. We're getting everything ready for their baptism. It is going to be
great!
My
companion and I have a goal of baptizing 3 more people this month of July. I
really think that there are a lot of people ready to be baptized this month. I
am really excited for the rest of this cambio (transfer).
I'm
sorry that I don't have a picture of my companion. I am really bad sorry!
Wow!
That is so cool that Emily submitted all of her mission papers! That's crazy! I
am so excited for her! I can't wait to see where she goes! You guys are so
great. You are the dopest family ever!
Elder
Smith's family lives like 40 min from Disneyland and we could go visit them. I
would like to be able to talk to his dad about Lebu. That'd be dope!
And of course I am going to bring my
ukulele! ¡Por supuesto!
Also
just so you know I am not going to be able to speak well when I get home. You
probably will not be able to understand me when I get back nor will I be able
to understand you when you speak quickly. So practice patience haha.
I
am really excited. I feel like the
mission is really coming together. We are going to have a lot of éxito! WOOHOOHOOHOOHOOOOOOO!
I
love you all so much for all that you are doing! You are awesome!
Love,
Elder Runyan
“The
Last Transfer”
So
today in the morning, Elder Washburn took off really early to get to
Concepción. He will be flying home tomorrow. Elder Washburn and I got to the
mission together so that was kind of weird. It was a little bit sad but this
cambio is going to be great.
My
new companion is going to be Elder Smith. We will be the zone leaders here in
Lebu. Elder Smith's Dad served in Lebu about 25 years ago. He established the
branch basically - so that is pretty cool. We are going to have a lot of
success this transfer.
To
answers questions, I know all of the missionaries in the mission - so yes I
know Elder Stevenson and Elder Woodfield haha. Also, about my check card I will
probably want to take a few souvenirs home with me so I would need a bit of
money to buy those. Thank you so much! You don't know how grateful I am!
So
M and V came to church again this week. This is the third time
they've gone and they are really excited to get baptized! We are really happy
for them. They really like church a lot. A also came to church. He is
doing well but his progress is still pretty slow. He needs to make a decision
to be baptized. He loves church and knows that the Book of Mormon is true and
everything but he says he needs to be more prepared. We will be working with
him on that.
Also
we aren't teaching Jefe Rulo haha. He is a character that comes to all of our
zone meetings and talks to us about tons of things. He needs a bit of help and
he lives in Los Álamos so we aren't teaching him (yet ;)
 |
| Elder Washburn and I this morning |
Attached
below I have the pictures of when Elder Washburn is leaving. He was a really
good comp. I am gonna miss him.
 |
| As he was packing up to take off :( |
 |
| Right before he left |
I
LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! You have helped me so much. I can't believe that this
experience is coming to an end. It has been so great.
Pray that I will take
advantage of these last six weeks here in Lebu.
I love you!
Elder Runyan
#iloveyou
6/13/2016
“Lebuuuuuuuu!”
Hey I have some pictures of the house here in Lebu! I'll be sending
them ahora si es posible!
So this week, just to explain it really quick. We got M and V in church with their mom who is less active. They are so dope. They are for sure getting baptized I am sure of it! A also came this week and he seems to be getting a lot better. I think he will also be baptized.
I have been keeping my luggage in really good condition. I have been really careful to not damage it. It is really good and sturdy which is the best part. I am really grateful for that. I think that they will be just fine for Emily! My camera is about the same as the luggage. A lot of the paint has fallen off but it works good as new!
I made them smaller because they wouldn't have fit if I used all of the big pictures. So there you have it!
Haha ALSO BIG NEWS I GOT MY PACKAGE WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME THANK YOU SO MUCH I LOVE YOUUUU!!!!!!!!
So this week, just to explain it really quick. We got M and V in church with their mom who is less active. They are so dope. They are for sure getting baptized I am sure of it! A also came this week and he seems to be getting a lot better. I think he will also be baptized. I have been keeping my luggage in really good condition. I have been really careful to not damage it. It is really good and sturdy which is the best part. I am really grateful for that. I think that they will be just fine for Emily! My camera is about the same as the luggage. A lot of the paint has fallen off but it works good as new!
For dad I really like the part in Mosíah 27 which says.
"And now it came to pass that Alma began from this time forward to teach the people, and those who were with Alma at the time the angel appeared unto them, traveling round about through all the land, publishing to all the people the things which they had heard and seen, and preaching the word of God in much tribulation, being greatly persecuted by those who were unbelievers, being smitten by many of them. But notwithstanding all this, they did impart much consolation to the church, confirming their faith, and exhorting them with long-suffering and much travail to keep the commandments of God. And four of them were the sons of Mosiah; and their names were Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and Himni; these were the names of the sons of Mosiah. And they traveled throughout all the land of Zarahemla, and among all the people who were under the reign of king Mosiah, zealously striving to repair all the injuries which they had done to the church, confessing all their sins, and publishing all the things which they had seen, and explaining the prophecies and the scriptures to all who desired to hear them. And thus they were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer. And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth." Mosiah 27:32-37
I think that we focus a whole lot on the conversion but we don't focus much on the results that come from conversion. How do we know if we have been truly converted? Read what Alma and the sons of Mosiah did.
Anyway, just a quick thought :)
Well thank you all so much for all that you are doing! I love you all so much and thank you for all of your prayers and support. I hope that you are all doing okay! Tell everyone that I said hi!
Love,
Love,
Elder Runyan
P.S. This is a picture of me with Jefe Rulo.
Enjoy :)
6/6/2016
“Heyjeirei”
Hey
jei rei! (That's how you pronounce hey in English, Spanish, and Portuguese
haha)
Anyways,
so this week was pretty awesome. We had four investigators in church on Sunday
and we found a ton of new investigators. We found 18 new investigators this
week. God has been blessing us a ton. It turned out to be a really good week for us so I'm
really grateful.
Also
just so you know there are some missionaries that are going to Concepcion today
and they will be picking up my package and I will get it tomorrow YAY! Thank
you so much! I love you allsito!
So
we did an awesome teaching practice at the church on Saturday. We got a ton of
returned missionaries, recent converts and less active members to the practice
and they pretended to be investigators. The zone really learned a lot. It was a
really good learning experience. I really enjoyed it and I think that we are
going to progress a lot as a zone.
I
think that Lebu is one the best areas I have had here in the mission. I am
really loving it here. It is a lot of fun and there are so many good people
here in this sector. I have been really blessed to be here. I have been able to
progress a lot spiritually here and I am really grateful to be in a sector as
awesome as this one.
Well
I hope that all of you are doing really well. It seems that you are doing great
but I really am praying that everything will be okay with you all.
I
love you all so much! I'm sorry that I couldn't send any pictures but I will
try to send them to you next week!
I LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Runyan
Here is a link of the street view of
the chapel here in Lebu :)
5/30/2016
“Week
100”
Wow,
I had no idea that it was already week 100! That's pretty nuts.
Anyway, this week was pretty good.
We didn't see all of the results that we would have liked but all in all it has
been a really good week.
We
have an investigator who is a mason. His name is Alejandro. He is really good and
has been coming to church regularly for a few weeks now. We have talked to him
about baptism but he says that he is not ready. We're still working on him, if
you could keep him in your prayers that would be great! We also have an
investigator named Cati. Her best friend is a member that is waiting for her
mission call. She actually did not come to church last week because she didn't
wake up :( but she's definitely going to come this week. Please keep them in
your prayers!
I
have been loving the mission a lot. We have a lot of plans to be able to help
the zone out. We are going to practice teaching as a zone here in Lebu (Our
sector). Usually when the missionaries practice teaching, one or two
missionaries pretend to be investigators and the others try to teach them
according to their "needs". This time what we are going to do
differently is invite a member (recent converts, returned missionaries,
preparing missionaries) as well as investigators, real investigators.
Afterwards we will have them evaluate the teaching of the missionaries but we
aren't going to make it that easy. This way we will be able to see how the zone
is teaching, what we need to do to be able to teach them, etc.
I
did not receive my package. It didn't get here before the zone conference. But
I was able to see Elder Miller. He came down and they fixed some stuff in our
house.
 |
| The back windows |
 |
| More from back windows |
So
basically in the hierarchy of the mission, you could say that a missionary
reports to his/her district leader, the district leader reports to the zone
leader, and the zone leader reports to the assistants. We have to record all of
the key indicators of the zone and make plans for our zone. We have goals and
we are in charge of making sure the zone is obedient, working, and happy. We
work by example. It is great being able to serve a zone like this one. The zone
is really cool! We are really excited for everyone and I believe that we will
have a lot of success in June.
I'm
also going to be twenty one years old this week so that's new.
 |
| Lebu |
 |
| The front windows |
5/23/2016
“LEBUation”
Hey
everybody. This week has been a really good week. This was one of the weeks
where I feel I have worked the hardest in my mission. I felt really good. I
already know the sector. I know where I am going and I feel confident with
myself and with my investigators.
We
were working as hard as we could as a zone to be able to achieve our goals for
lessons with members present. It turned out really well. When I mean well, I
mean that there was a lot of opposition to be able to do that. Our goal for the
week was 12. That is a lot, probably more than I have ever gotten in a week in
my mission so far. We ended the week with 10 which is the standard of
excellence for missionaries. We had an average of 4 lessons with member planned
for every single day but a lot of our appointments/members fell. We should have
had at least twenty but there was a lot of opposition. But in the end we feel
like we worked very hard. We are planning to be able to get even more next
week.
We
challenged the zone to get the same number of lessons with a member. I was very
impressed by the missionaries in our zone. They are working very hard even with
all of the opposition that we all saw this week. I think that they now know
their potential and will strive to achieve it.
I
should probably be receiving the birthday package this week hopefully. We have
a zone conference this Thursday and we should be able to get it there.
Also
to get things straight, I was in the zone of Lebu. Lebu as a city is not very
big. Lebu (zone) consists of Lebu, Cañete, Curanilahue and Los Álamos. Lebu
(sector) is just Lebu and a small pueblo called Santa Rosa.
Well
I hope that you know that I am doing great! I love you all and hope that you
are all well! I LOVE YOU!!
Love,
Elder Runyan
5/16/2016
Hey
everyone! So this week has been really different! You know why?!?! Because I am
no longer in the office!
 |
|
Lebu: My New Sector I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty dope! |
 |
|
Another picture of my sector This place rocks |
So
I don't really know what to tell you other than send you a million pictures
haha. Va a ser bueno.
This
week has been pretty great but I know that next week is going to be better. We
are going to be focusing on having lots of lessons with a member present.
 |
| Elder Washburn and I |
 |
| Glenda & Her friend, Maria |
 |
| Shirley with Elder Miller and I |
 |
| Last Day in the Office in San Pedro |
We are going to go to leadership council meeting in Concepción on Wednesday so I'll be seeing everyone from the office again.
Happy Birthday Mom! I LOVE YOU SO
MUCH!
Thank you so much for all that you
do! You are the best mom ever!
I love you all so much! I hope that
you are all well!
I hope that you all have the best
week! Thank you so much! LOVE YOU!!
Elder Runyan
5/07/2016
“Eskaip”
Hello!
My letter is going to be in English yay! Haha
I
hope that you all enjoyed my Spanish letter last week haha. That was a lot of
fun.
So down to the nitty gritty.
President told us that this Skype is going to be an hour long instead of 40
minutes WHOO! Haha it's going to be great. So I probably am going to have to
set up a time to be able to talk to all of you!
We
were planning on skyping with you at 5:00pm our time (Chile) so I am guessing
that would be around 2:00pm your time. I'll try to do it a little bit later (+-
30min) so you can all go to your church meetings without having to stress about
getting home on time and everything.
 |
| Dang Good Mexican Ice Cream. This one is Nutella and Banana |
Also
I have some news. I am no longer going to be in the office! I am actually
training my replacement right now (well not right now I mean it's P-Day,
c'mon). So this is the last day I am going to be writing on Saturday. So just
so you know that I won't write you next Saturday. I will write you on the
following Monday (May 16). Just so you don't freak out or anything. They
haven't told me where I am going to go nor who my companion is going to be but
I am definitely leaving. I'll make sure you get all of the pictures from that
as well :)
 |
| Me with the Paleta Mexicana |
Also
another thing. Elder Sheffield was talking to me and he said that he is going
to go to BYU. He said that he would like to be roommates. I don't know what you
guys had planned but I thought that it would be a good idea. Just something to
think about, He said that he will be living in La Rivera.
Glenda
is doing really well. She actually went to an investigator party that the
Gospel Principles teacher threw to get to know all of the investigators and we
are going to see her today. I'm not going to be here to see her baptized or
anything but she's doing really awesome. She's so cool. Progressing a ton. I'll
send you pictures and everything. Keep her in your prayers!
 |
| Elder Clark: He is replacing me as Historiador |
I
am really excited to Skype with you guys tomorrow! I hope that you are all
ready for an entire hour with me haha. Too much Elder Runyan for one hour
haha.
Pictures!
Well I guess that is all folks, I
will be seeing you all tomorrow! Come with any questions you might have! This
is the last time that I will do Skype for the rest of my mission!
I love you all!
Elder Runyan
4/30/2016
“Carta
en Español”
Quisiera
tratar una cosa que nunca he hecho antes. ¡Escribir una carta totalmente en
español! Jaja me voy a divertir mucho.
Así
que primeramente deben saber que esta semana ha sido muy muy buena. Hemos
tenido mucho tiempo en el sector para poder trabajar y hemos podido involucrar
mucho a los miembros. Tenemos algunas metas muy altas y parece que las vamos a
lograr.
También
vamos a ir hoy a un bautismo en Boca Sur con Glenda, nuestra investigadora,
para que vea cómo es un bautismo mormón jaja. Está progresando muy rápidamente
y estamos muy animados por ella. Muchas gracias todos por sus oraciones. ¡Nos
ayudan mucho! Ella es el enfoque nuestro de la semana que viene, así que ¡sigan
orando por ella!
Espero
que no se enojen conmigo por haberles escrito en español, pensé que sería
genial. ¡Los quiero mucho!
De
todos modos quisiera comentar un poco de lo que me mando papá. Un pensamiento
mío de la experiencia que tuvo Enós. Para nosotros es un ejemplo de la oración,
pero creo que muchas veces nos enfocamos demasiado en la duración o el número
de oraciones que hacemos y no en la calidad. ¿Cuándo fue la última vez que
pedimos algo seriamente? Cuando la necesidad del corazón verdaderamente se
manifieste, cuando dejamos de decir, gracias por... te pido... en el nombre de
Jesucristo, Amén, y comenzamos a conversar, abrir el corazón, orar. Eso es
cuando el Espíritu Santo nos habla. Eso es la diferencia entre decir oraciones
y orar. Yo digo 100 oraciones al día, ¿pero si no oro verdaderamente? ¿Estoy
cumpliendo con el mandamiento de: "[Orar] siempre para que salgas
triunfante; sí, para que venzas a Satanás y te libres de las manos de los
siervos de Satanás que apoyan su obra." ? -DyC 10:5. Cuándo fue la última
que mi alma "tuvo hambre"? Si están hambrientes, pidan que Dios los
llene, les prometo que lo hará.
Translation of above paragraph: Anyway I want to comment a little of
what Dad sent me. A thought on Enos. For us it is an example of
prayer, but I think sometimes we focus too much on the duration or the number
of prayers we say and not quality. When was the last time you asked for
something serious? When the heart truly need appears, when we say, thank you
for ... I ask ... in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen, and we started talking,
open your heart, pray. That's when the Holy Spirit speaks to us. That's the difference
between saying prayers and pray. I say 100 prayers a day, but are there really
gold? Am I fulfilling the commandment to "[pray] always, that you may come
off conqueror; yea, that you may overcome Satan and you free from the hands of
the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." ? -D&C 10:5. When was the
last that my soul "was hungry"? If you are hungered, ask God to
fill, I promise it will.
Para
ser franco, no tengo fotos para ustedes. No saqué ninguna. ¡Lo siento! ¡Los amo
pero soy más malo para tomar fotos! ¡Discúlpenme! ¡Estoy muy agradecido por
todo lo que ustedes hacen, las cartas, al amor, las oraciones, todo!
Para
hacer el Skype, no estoy muy seguro a qué hora se va a hacer. Aún nos falta una
semana para planificar así que les puedo decir el próximo sábado.
No
tengo idea lo que va a pasar en los cambios (sí el 10 de Mayo). Antes,
Presidente Bluth se lo decía a uno cuando se iba pero el nuevo Presidente hace
los cambios un poco diferente. No sé lo que va a pasar, me voy, me quedo, todo
para mi está bien. Donde el Señor me ponga, allí estaré.
Tengo
la ropa suficiente para el invierno así que no se preocupen mucho. Si necesito
algo en especial les digo.
¡Les
quiero muchísimo! Espero que tengan la mejor semana. ¡Son héroes para mi!
Estaré informandoles acerca de cualquier cosa que pase. ¡Los quiero! ¡Adios!
Élder Runyan
4/23/2016
“Subject”
Hey everyone!
I
hope that you are all doing well. It looks to me like you have all been really
busy this last week and right now haha. I hope you are all well and
happy.
This
week has been definitely interesting. There have been a lot of things to do for
us as well. On Thursday we went to Curanilahue to go install an alarm system
for some of the sister missionaries. It was about an hour and a half away from
Concepción, so that was fun. We went in
the mission van. Also yesterday we had to do something similar and fix the
alarm system for the sisters in Santa Juana which is about an hour away from
Concepción. So we have been having a lot of fun in the car this week haha. Not
really, but a lot of time to ourselves which was actually kind of nice.
 |
| In President's House on Elder Chavez's Birthday |
This
week has been a little difficult but it has been a learning experience. I can't
even believe that it is already Saturday. It seems like last Saturday was two
days ago. The time is passing very quickly for me. It seems pretty crazy that I
am getting really close to the two year mark. I am trying my best to use my
time that I have left wisely. I hate getting to the house and not having been
able to teach anyone the entire day. That is what motivates me to keep moving
forward. Keep pushing and never giving up. That is what I want to have given at
the end of my mission. I want to have given it all.
Well
it looks like you guys have asked a few questions so I'll take a minute to
answer some of them.
We
don't really teach Glenda in English. Teaching in English is really, really
hard. I am so used to teaching people in Spanish that when I teach in English
it sounds like a broken translation with a Latin accent. That's what a lot of
people have told me and it makes it really difficult. That's why we just teach
her in Spanish. She is progressing a lot. She came to church last week and the
week before. So she has already been to church twice. She is really great and
we have a lot of hope for her. So please be praying for her! She needs help to
be able to go to church and be baptized!
I
am pretty sure that there wasn't an earthquake in Chile, I did hear that there
was one in Ecuador that was pretty grave. Elder Rueda's family lives there but
they are all fine so that's really good. Also our sector is one of the weirdest
sectors I have been in. There are so many people here that speak English, we
aren't the only North Americans and there are so many cars that people don't
even use taxis or buses. It is really strange and you have to work slightly
differently.
I
have no idea what is going to happen to me in the transfers. There are so many
things that people have told me about what they think is going to happen and
really nobody has any idea except President Wilhelm. I just hope that I'll be
given many opportunities to guide people to Christ and that is all that really
matters.
Also
for a birthday package I am happy for anything. You all know me and know what I
like so I trust you with that responsibility. Haha make it something good! I
love you all so much, I hope that you know that.
Thank
you all for your many prayers, you don't know how much it helps. I love you!
Have the greatest week!
Love, Elder Runyan4/16/2016
“So Cool”
So this week was pretty great, and
as promised... I HAVE PICTURES!!!
So the woman from the United
States was baptized on Saturday! She is really great and progressed so
much. It really was a miracle to be able to be here for her baptism.
I
don't really know how much time I have left in the office. Usually the office
Elders stay for about six months but I am a special case. (Elder Runyan has been in the Office since Dec. 14th which is 4 months)
1. One is that I will be finishing
my mission within two transfers of this upcoming one.
2. Two is that generally
missionaries stay with their companion for up to two transfers, it's not very
likely for one to stay with the same companion for 3.
So I don't know what is going to
happen with me in this next transfer. Anyways here's pictures!
 |
| Getting Ready for the Game |
 |
| After the Game... |
We
played soccer today with the office Elders of the other mission. So that was
pretty fun this morning. There is a chapel here in Concepción (Talcahuano) that
has a huge indoor gym (indoor because it is starting to get a little cold down
here). It was really cool. I have been there before but I can't remember if I
had sent any pictures or not haha.
 |
Lots of rain in Chilé
|
Also last week we found this really
cool lady. She is from Ecuador and she speaks English - haha what
are the odds? She is really good as well. She came to church last week and she
really liked it. She is progressing very quickly and we are really excited for
her. It is a little bit funny how a lot of the words in Spanish are very
relative to geography. In Chile they say a lot of commonly used words differently than
in other places like Ecuador. A lot of Latin missionaries tell me that for
about a week or two they cannot understand a whole lot of what everyone is
saying in Chile. Not that they don't understand the general idea but the vocabulary for
lots of common items is different. I am hoping that people can understand my Chilean Spanish when I get back haha.
Well I hope that everything is going
well for all of you. I love you all so much! Keep praying for me! Pray for
Glenda as well!
Well I hope that you have the best
week!
Elder Runyan
4/9/2016
“Milagros”
“Miracles”
Hey
everyone! This week has been incredible! CUALQUIER MILAGRO! So just so you all
know. The lady from Idaho that we have been teaching is going to be baptized
today! It is really a miracle. She is so ready! This week has been pretty
awesome just for that! We have also found a lot of new investigators this week
that are really cool as well. Needless to say, the Lord is helping us a ton. We
could not have done it by ourselves. He helped us in our moment of need.
We
were actually going to have to go to Temuco for most of this week but when we
asked President if we could stay, he said, "es necesario que trabajen en
el sector". WHOO!! And that same
week miracles started to happen. It has
been a great week. Please pray so that she can be baptized and I'll be sure to
send the pictures next week.
This
week we also did exchanges with the zone leaders – I went with one zone leader and my
companion went with the other.
 |
| Church to watch Conference in |
Well
General Conference was pretty great. We watched most of it in English. I really
enjoyed the Spirit that was there.
I
hope you all have really good birthdays this weekend. I'm sorry that I don't have a whole
lot of specific information for you but next week I’ll send a lot of
pictures!
I LOVE YOU ALL! Thank you so much
for all you do!
Elder Runyan
4/2/2016
“Locura”
So
this week was another locura! Just to tell you, it was a pretty crazy one.
Wait for it……. We went to jail!
Wait for it……. We went to jail!
WHAT?!?!
I know, right?! By saying we went to
jail -- my companion and I weren't detained or anything like that; but a
missionary went to jail and we had to stay there in the cell with him for like
12 hours. He was one of the ones finishing his mission, and accidentally had
left a bullet in his carry-on bag. The carabineros (police) showed up and took
him to jail! It happened just 10 minutes before the new missionaries were to arrive
and we were supposed to be helping getting everything done with them! We had to
drive like an hour outside of our mission (with President's permission of
course) to go be in jail with him. They had to detain him until they received
an answer from fiscal as to whether or not he would be set free or go to
court.
Yeah,
he had to go to court. The church sent a lawyer to help him and he was set free
after spending the night detained with orders to leave the country as soon as
possible.
Pretty nuts huh?
Anyways,
that's not even the craziest part of everything. Elder Davenport, as I told you
last cambio was training. Training lasts for two transfers and most people in
this mission only train once. But Elder Davenport is training again! He is
training and whitewashing a sector again! Whitewash is where they change out
both companions instead of just one.
There
has been so much stuff going on these last few days. I can't even tell you
everything that is going down but it's all crazy.
You
may want to know that they didn't change anyone in the office. They changed
just about everything else but not us haha. Elder Miller and I are still
together and the assistants are the same as well.
To
answer your questions, Temuco is about 4-5 hours away from the mission office.
I also got all of the pictures you sent last week! Thank you so much. I love it
when you send pictures!
Well
I'm sorry that I don't have that much to tell you this week. I hope you like
the pictures from jail haha!
I LOVE YOU!
-Elder Runyan
3/26/2016
“Temuco”
So
this week we had an Area Seventy come to our mission. His name is Élder Di
Giovanni. We had two big conferences with him and the entire mission. One in
the North (Los Ángeles) and one in the South (Temuco). I had never been to
Temuco before then haha. I have always been in the northern part of the
mission. So we were there. I actually didn't get to spend a lot of time with
him. We were making lunches for the 200 missionaries while he was giving his
talk. (We stayed the night in Temuco).
So
we have had very little time in San Pedro this week. We have had 2 ½ hours so
far (since Monday) so that's never fun. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to
take any pictures this week. I'll be sure to get better at that.
I'm
sorry I don't really have much more to tell you. That was our whole week. This
Tuesday we have transfers. I'm sure you all know the craziness that entails
haha. So we will definitely be busy this coming week.
To answer Dad and Mom's questions:
San Pedro is different from any other sector I have been in.
1. Almost everyone has doorbells, we
don't really have to yell ¡Álo!
2. Lots of people here have more
money, they are a lot more educated and as a general rule have strange beliefs
due to their "knowledge" (lots of atheists and Catholics in
comparison to any other sector in the mission).
3. Nobody is afraid to say “no”. In
other sectors some people would give us their phone number and a return
appointment just to not offend us. Here, when people don't want to talk to us
they just say "No estoy interesado".
President
Bluth has just started his first round of chemotherapy. It will be like that
for 3 to six months depending on his progress. He has been released as a mission
president and most likely will not return to the mission.
I
hope you are all okay. If you get your hands on a copy of Preach My Gospel you
ought to read it. Practicing being a missionary, studying like a missionary,
and becoming a missionary right now is the best preparation you could ask for.
If you get the chance as well watch Elder Bednar's talk 'Becoming a
Missionary'. It's really good.
I
hope you have the best week. I LOVE YOU ALL!
Chao!
Elder Runyan
3/19/2016
“La
Semana Pasada”
 |
| My Comp and I with a guy that came to the office that was baptized in Lota by Elder Cahill and speaks English |
Well
how's it going? It's been pretty good down here. We've been having a good day
today and so far it has been a good week. I hope that you are all doing really
well and can feel the love that I have for each and every one of you.
So
to answer your questioncitas Mike Jones said that there will be a spot for me
when I get back. Also President Wilhelm is very different from President Bluth
but he's been good. There have been a lot of changes made but they have all
been good ones. He is going to be here in the mission until they call a new
Mission President in July (when they usually call all of the new Mission
Presidents). So I will be one of the few people to have more than 2 mission
Presidents. We have also been able to have a little bit more time in San Pedro
so that has been really nice. There hasn't really been anything too out of the
ordinary so I'll spend a little more time answering what you guys are saying
this week.
My
companion and I have been getting along really great. He is a very good person,
always willing to help. I really couldn't ask for a better companion. We have
been doing really good. Working really hard and seeing a whole lot of results.
There has been a whole lot of opposition but we have been able to pull through.
It's really been great getting to know San Pedro and the office. It has been a
learning experience for me, even when I don't like being in the office I have
learned some things. The best way to be a positive person is to eliminate every
negative word/phrase from your vocabulary. That's what makes the
difference.
There
have been a lot of changes with everything going on, a whole lot of extra stuff
that we have to do in the office but we are helping in little ways. I think
that the Lord knows what He is doing with us. Sacrifice brings forth the
blessings of Heaven and I feel that sacrifice is a big part of being in the
office haha.
Well
I hope that you are all doing really well. Know that I love you all! Hope you
have a great week!
Pensamiento Espiritual para la
semana: DyC 4 (spiritual thought for the week - D&C, section
4)
Elder Runyan
P.S. I'll try to send some more
pictures by next week!
3/12/2016
“This
Weekation”
Well
just so you know this week wasn't anything special. We had to go down to Los
Ángeles (for a couple of days) to help with the Zone Conferences down there
this week and we have had almost 0 time to work in San Pedro.
We do have some pictures to send you
guys WHOOWHOHOWHOH!!!!OOOO!!!! Haha
[Excerpt from Elder Kelton Miller's blog elderkeltonmiller.blogspot.com : The reason for this zone conference is because we got a new interim mission president. His name is Presidente Wilhelm. He is really smart. He was a mission president twice before. Both times different missions here in Chilé. He was also an area seventy. He is from the south part of Chilé and he is also a convert to the church. He was baptized when he was 32. We have been really busy here in the office helping him get up to speed on what’s going on in the mission.]
[Excerpt from Elder Kelton Miller's blog elderkeltonmiller.blogspot.com : The reason for this zone conference is because we got a new interim mission president. His name is Presidente Wilhelm. He is really smart. He was a mission president twice before. Both times different missions here in Chilé. He was also an area seventy. He is from the south part of Chilé and he is also a convert to the church. He was baptized when he was 32. We have been really busy here in the office helping him get up to speed on what’s going on in the mission.]
I
have been doing great. There are little stresses here and there but all in all
everything is going really well. My companion and I are getting along really
well and we are working really hard in the small sections of time that we get
to work in our sector.
I
absolutely love the time that I get to work in San Pedro. I am really learning
to love the people and the mission. I feel that I am the best prepared
missionary I have ever been. We are working as hard as we can and that is what
keeps me happy. The Lord is helping us a lot through a lot of small and simple
things.
My
companion told me the same thing; that his mom and you had been able to
communicate. I thought that was really funny because he's always been telling
us that his mom must be a little upset because he never sends pictures J
Thank
you so much! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am praying for you always!
Love,
Elder Runyancito3/5/2016
“Wow”
So this week has been a little bit
crazy and kind of a roller coaster. So we found out that President Bluth has a
tumor in his throat. It is cancerous. We do not know what is going to happen.
For now we will have an interim President. As a mission we would like every
single family to be able to send us a picture. We would like a picture of the
family or perhaps each of you with a piece of paper that says "In Spanish
Fork we pray for you", please keep him in your prayers. You can send that
email to oficinacelestial@gmail.com.
We want him to know that we are all aware of him. He has been the best example
to me. Please send that if you can.
 |
| Me and Elder Miller |
We have been doing a lot of Church
Tours lately. There are a lot of people that have interest in getting to know
the church buildings. We've found a lot of good people that way. I feel like we
are working more effectively. It has been really great with my companion Elder
Miller.
This morning we went to a Paletas
Mexicanas place that sells expensive ice cream that were delicious. It was the best Ice cream I've ever had. They messed up on my order so
I got double! The Lord really is aware of us and makes us happy in little ways
haha. I'll attach the pictures.
Thank you all so much for supporting
me in my decision to extend. You are all awesome! Thank you so much! I love
you!
Elder
Runyan
2/27/2016
“Hey
everyone, lots of news”
First off, I want to let you all know
that I am extending my mission. I have prayed and thought about it for a long
time. This week I spoke with President Bluth and he actually suggested that I
do it.
Just so you know what the process was,
I will let you know that I have been thinking about it for a long time. Not
only thinking but pondering and praying and searching for an answer. For a long
time, nothing seemed clear to me, all a blur of what I thought were my desires
mixed with the Lord's Will mixed with what the circumstances were (schooling,
work, etc.). This week was perhaps the first time that I asked in faith,
according to Moroni's promise:
"And when ye shall receive
these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in
the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a
sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the
truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost." (Moroni 10:4)
Sincere heart and real intent. The first
of these two is the desire, the desire to do God's Will, the desire to know, my
desires to serve God. Real intent is the action of my faith. I will extend or I
will not, putting aside all of the things that I want and doing whatsoever
thing He asketh of me. I felt a calm come over me. A calm that said,
"it is not against my will that you stay". In the moment of response
I knew that the answer had come not because I willed it to come, not because
it's a pretty notion, but because the Lord knew that I would act immediately.
The very next morning without delay I spoke with President and asked his
opinion. He told me that he was very supportive of an extension. I changed my
termination date. I will now be leaving on the second of August.
"Even so faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith,
and I have works:
shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my
faith by my works.
Thou believest that there is one
God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that
faith without works is dead?" (James 2:17-20)
I really hope that you are
supportive of my decision to extend. I cannot tell you how much love I have for
the Lord and the opportunity that I have had to serve Him. I love my mission. I
have been changed for the better and love the Lord for giving me this
opportunity to serve Him.
So as for that I hope you can
understand. I love you all deeply. I cannot
express how grateful I am for your support and strength that I feel as you
write me.
Also some other news, President
Bluth is not going to be here for a while. He has gone to Salt Lake City to
receive medical attention. He left yesterday afternoon. Meanwhile his
counselors will be in charge of the mission together with the APs.
To respond to your questions, I was
able to see the foot doctor and he told me that I will need to use plantillas
or insoles I suppose is the English word. I have been hearing just fine, I have
had no problems so far and don't seem to be missing anything. I am so sorry
that I forgot to bring my camera this week. We just went to a church here in
Concepción to play soccer with the other office Elders from the other mission
(Misión Concepción). We took some picture but the other mission's elders have
them.
Elder Bednar went to Argentina this
week and spoke with all of the missionaries from the South America South Area
together with the Area Presidency. It was the greatest discussion I have ever
seen. Probably one of the most impactful things I have ever seen in my life. It
changed the way I teach, the way I work, and the way I live. He talked about so
many different topics all of which pertained greatly to our present
circumstances.
I would tell you a whole lot more
but you can see a lot of cool things that he explains here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxsvqx75a-0&list=PLD13183059E0F4E80&index=7
I hope you all have the best week! I
love you all so much! You are all in my prayers!
Love,
Elder
Runyan
2/20/2016
“This
Week”
So this week was pretty cool. We were
able to have an investigator in church and we had a really spiritual lesson
with her. She is really great. Elder Miller and I have been working hard to
find new people and work with the members and we've seen a lot of
success.
The ward here is really great. They
are working so well with our investigators and helping us in every possible
way. I am really grateful for them and the things that they are doing. The Lord
is really helping us out with some awesome members even though we aren't always
in the sector.
Other than that, the week has been
pretty normal, I did an intercambio (companion exchange) with Elder Page, a new
missionary, on Thursday which was a lot of fun. There are a lot of people here
in San Pedro that are ready for us to find them. I am really enjoying my
mission so far, I love it so much.
I have seriously considered extending my
mission, I don't really know whether or not it would be a good idea. I would
love to have more time here but I don't know if it is a possibility for me.
Please let me know what you guys think. I'd like to know your opinion.
Well I Love you all so much. Thank
you for all that you are doing!
I
LOVE YOU!
Elder
Runyan
2/13/2016
“La Locura”
So this week was one of the craziest
that I have had here in the office. I've attached a picture of La Locura, or
our schedule for the first four days of this week. We got to go to bed around
2am for a couple of days and had to wake up at 5am as well. Yay! Haha, it was
really tiring but it was good.
There were a ton of new missionaries (33 in
total) so there are also a lot of new trainers. Elder Davenport (my trainee) is
training! I have a grandson in the mission! Haha I'll attach a photo so you can
see the three generations.
So that was fun.
Also, my new companion is Elder
Miller. He is from Smithfield, Utah. He has about 6 months on the mission and
he's doing very well at knowing all of the things that he has to do.
I've been able to drive here in
Chile as well. I drove for the first time here on Sunday. It's not that bad
really, the only thing is that when people want to get in front of you they
turn on the blinker and merge at the same time even when there's no room, haha.
So I've got a lot of pictures to send to you! Whooo!
We will be getting mail on Monday
probably so I should be getting my shoes by then. I've been walking a little
crooked so I'm going to go to the foot guy to get some insoles buenos. That
should keep me on my feet a little longer.
I attached a PDF version of the
Publisher file so you can see it! :)
Link to Mission Rule Book created by Elder Runyan
Link to Mission Rule Book created by Elder Runyan
All
of the members have been helping our investigator gringa so much. They are
amazing. She's going to come with us to a baptism today that the sister
missionaries are having. So that's going to be great.
Here's
some pictures of the office Elders with Presidente and stuff in the airport.
There's the new Elders, Elder Hatch (black hair) is the new AP and the blonde
one is Elder Miller my new companion!
I asked the lady that takes pictures of the new missionaries to take one of me haha. She did! Here it is!
This is us from the last Locura
Well I hope that everything is going well. Sorry that Rachel had to go through that, that is horrible. Thank you all so much for being faithful in writing me each week! It means a lot to me! I LOVE YOU ALL!
THANK YOU!
Chaito
Love,
Chaito
Love,
Elder Runyan
“San Pedro”
Hey everyone!
 |
| What happens when my companion drives |
So I designed a mission rule book. It
basically looks the same as the missionary handbook but it has the rules of the
mission in it. I'll go ahead and send you the publisher file so you can see
it.
Also I did receive my driver's
license last week! I forgot to mention it! Thanks for making that laminated
version of my patriarchal blessing; I love it! I'm also having to learn to
drive a stick because the assistant's truck is manual but it's going pretty
well.  |
| What happens when I drive - haha |
So our investigator from Idaho came
to church on Sunday as well and had a great time. The members here in San Pedro
are really great, one of the best wards I've seen. So the work is going really
well and we are finding a lot of new people as well.
So due to cambios, we already know
that my companion Elder Rueda is going to be leaving and we don't know who's
going to replace him, so this upcoming week I will have a new companion :(.
Haha but changes are good so I'm excited to be working with him.
 |
| Lunch with President in Fina Estampa |
We were able to have interviews with
President Bluth this Wednesday as well. I really love being able to talk with
him. He is an amazing man.
I am very excited and love this work.
I know that God directs it. Thank you all so much for helping me and supporting
me in all that you do. Have a great week! I love you all so much. Keep me up to
date with all that you are doing! LOVE YOU!
Elder Runyan
“Wow”
So I suppose I hadn't really thought
about anything that was going on at home until today, haha. It's kinda funny the way that happens. I get
really focused on the mission and I've even stopped thinking about a lot of
stuff that goes on.
But hey this week I have pictures! We
went to Playa Blanca this morning in Lota. So we got some pictures.
Here's
the office on the beach:
So that was pretty cool this morning.
This Friday we had Consejo de Liderazgo so we were all pretty busy and for a few
days we were in the office for a large chunk of time. But other than that it
was all fairly routine.
So our investigator from Idaho is
progressing very, very well. She came to church on Sunday and I translated for
her. Luckily San Pedro is one of the only sectors with lots of English-speaking
members. She felt awesome and we got a member to take her all around San Pedro
to see all of the cool things. She feels really great and we are really excited
for her.
I really enjoy being able to write
you all. You have all been a big support to me on my mission. This has been one
of the best experiences of my life. Please keep doing what you are doing. You
have no idea of the impact that it will have on your life as you do so
now.
I'm sorry if some of my letters
aren't quite as specific as you would like. As I said, I have been trying my
best to focus on these 5 months I have left. It really is a short time. I
really want to be able to do my best here in San Pedro. Please pray for me. I
need your prayers.
Thank you all so much for what you
are doing! I LOVE YOU!!
Elder Runyan
P.S. Tell my friends to write me. I
have no idea what they're doing other than what you tell me haha.
Que tierno jaja1/23/2016
“Guess what?”
So this
week was actually really good. First of all, thank you all for writing me, it
really means a lot to me. Something really interesting happened this
week. We went to Líder to do our
shopping after internet on Saturday and there was a lady who didn't know any
Spanish trying to talk to a store clerk. She approached us and told us that she
is from Idaho and had just barely moved here with her husband. We made an
appointment with her and we invited one of the Senior Missionary couples to go with
us, Elder and Sister Lee from Utah. It was amazing. They showed us all of these
videos of The District and they just look so easy in English and here we are
giving a lesson in English and the Spirit was super strong. It was a really
cool experience.
Also one
thing that you may find interesting is that our mission stopped counting
contacts. We used to count the number of people that we talked to. The rule was
that it would only count as a contact if you invite the person to meet with you
on a specific occasion. That would be one. Basically it was a way of showing
the amount of work that someone was doing. If you have 0 lessons with a member
present, 0 new investigators, and 0 progressing investigators but you had more
than 200 contacts a week, that meant that you were working hard (not
effectively, but hard). More than anything, it is to make sure that people are
working and talking with everyone they can.
The best
thing about all of this is that finally our mission has gotten to the point
where we don't have to count. We don't contact just because someone knows our
numbers. We aren't contacting just to contact. We are inviting others to come
unto Christ and be perfected in Him. We are beginning to understand the Why
instead of the What. Why we contact, Why we knock on doors. It is a huge
turning point in the mission. Anyways, I just thought you would like to know
that.
This week
has actually been really good. We have found a lot of investigators and have
been teaching a lot of lessons with members present. I think we've figured out
the "groove" for San Pedro so we are doing really well.
I am so
sorry for not being able to send you pictures this week. My camera battery died
and I always forget to charge the battery at night. I'll try my best to get a
lot of good ones this week!
I would
really suggest that all of you see the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast that they
aired on Wednesday. It was really good and very practical for us as
missionaries. It really helped me understand what I can do better as a
missionary, and I hope that it will be that way for you as well.
Well
thank you all so much for everything that you are doing. I hope you can send me
those shoes pretty quickly. Mine are
okay however I think I'm going to need those new ones pretty soon.
Also, the reason that the end of the
month is busier than the first is because everyone calls me just about every
five minutes asking for more minutes to call investigators. I'm in charge of
all that. We also don't have as much money at the end of the month.
And I got the ecclesiastical endorsement as well!
Hope that answered your
question!
Thank you so much! I love you!
Elder Runyan
1/16/2016
“Hey”
Hey everybody.
This week was Elder Woods' Birthday so we ate
lunch in President's house. I know right? So that was pretty cool. Here's a
picture:
Other than that this week has been
pretty normal.
Haven't gotten my license yet but I'm sure it will get here.
I LOVE YOU ALL! DON'T FORGET
IT!
I hope you all had a great week!
Thank you so much.
I Love You!
Elder Runyan
1/9/2016
“This week has been….”
Awesome! Hey guys just writing a
letter to let you all know that I love you! Thank you all so much for being
there for me. All of you have been a great help for me on my mission. Thank you
so much. You have no idea what my
mission has meant for me.
This week has been really good. There has been a lot less stress since all of
the stuff that we have to do is over (until the end of January). We have had a
lot more time to study and prepare our sector. We have been able to focus more
on our investigators, so that really helped us.
Sometimes there are things that
really consume our time in the office. Sometimes there are big projects that we
have to do, or there may be a bunch of little projects, but we are almost
always busy. But the best part of the day is when we are able to leave the
office and go work in San Pedro. Even though the sun is blazing outside and we
feel tired, I always feel great working as a missionary. The office work doesn't
really let you feel like a normal missionary but the sector does. So
awesome!
Anyways it looks to me like you all
had a good week so far.
Haha I loved dad's picture of the
Super 8 and the Alfajor. Haha those are really common here. It kinda makes me
laugh that he brought those all the way from Chile but that's really cool!
It's so great being able to teach the
Book of Mormon. I also really liked some of the quotes on the Book of Mormon
that you can find here per chapter: http://gospeldoctrine.com/
Also just so you guys know, I haven't gotten my Driver's License in the mail yet so that worries me a little. Also, I took a lot of pictures of my worse pair of shoes so you can see them and check if they can send me new ones!
As a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon together before the next General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We made a bookmark with the calendar to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days. I'll try to attach a picture of it to send to you guys as well!
As a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon together before the next General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We made a bookmark with the calendar to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days. I'll try to attach a picture of it to send to you guys as well!
That's front and Back
So today we are in 2 Nephi Chapter 3,
hopefully you all can read the Book of Mormon before the next General
Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Cool Right? I designed one that was a
little different, not so much a bookmark but I liked it as well. Should I
attach it?
Should I?
I'm gonna - haha
I thought it was cool. But anyways,
Thank you so much for writing me! I know that it's hard to do; so thank you all
so much for what you are doing! You really are shaping the future of the Church
and me! I LOVE YOU ALL FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Love,
Elder Runyan1/2/2016
“New Year’s Week”
So as you probably all know, we are now in the year of 2016. It's really crazy how quickly the time has passed by. It has been really interesting being able to do the things that I have done this year. I really hope you enjoyed your last moments of 2015.
So as you probably all know, we are now in the year of 2016. It's really crazy how quickly the time has passed by. It has been really interesting being able to do the things that I have done this year. I really hope you enjoyed your last moments of 2015.
On Tuesday we had Consejo de Liderazgo (Leadership Council Meeting) with all of the district, zone, and sister trainer leaders. Just so you know, that is probably the most tiresome thing I have ever done. There were a million people asking me to do them favors. So that was a lot of fun.
On Thursday it was New Year’s Eve and we stayed up to watch the fireworks that go off at midnight. In the morning we did a zone activity and we all went to the river Bio-Bio and played American football and lots of other games. Everyone got a lot of sun so you can all imagine just a bunch of red gringos walking around today haha.
On Thursday it was New Year’s Eve and we stayed up to watch the fireworks that go off at midnight. In the morning we did a zone activity and we all went to the river Bio-Bio and played American football and lots of other games. Everyone got a lot of sun so you can all imagine just a bunch of red gringos walking around today haha.
 |
| Christmas Eve at President Bluth's House |
Well, basically that is pretty much
it. We have a few really good investigators but none of them have a baptismal
date so far. We are also working really hard to find some new investigators as
well so if you could all be praying to help us find people, we would be really
thankful.
To answer some of your questions: I'm
not really sure what they're going to do. Generally they keep the office crew
in the same sector for six months. Knowing that I only have six months left is
a little strange as well because in the Mission Presidents’ Handbook it
suggests that missionaries should not finish their missions in the office. So I
have no idea what is going to happen. Perhaps I finish here, perhaps they send
me off after only three transfers.
Honestly, I haven't really thought
about what I am going to do when I get back. I have tried to keep myself 100%
focused on my service. I did have staying on campus as one of my plans. Of
course I would love to have my old job back!
I feel that I have been growing a lot
spiritually these last few weeks. It is a bit difficult because in the office
we aren't always doing spiritual things, like booking houses, check cell
phones, making lists, copying things, computer design. Most are non-spiritual
things, however I have come to treasure, to a certain extent, the small time
that we do have to be spiritual. The few minutes of scripture study we get, the
time we have to go proselyting, church meetings. All of these are very sacred
to me. I would challenge all of you to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon
each and every day. I don't care if you're trying to finish the New Testament,
D&C, etc. Modern prophets have told us that we need to study the Book of
Mormon every day.
"And again, believe that ye must
repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask
in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all
these things see that ye do them."
- Mosiah 4:10
- Mosiah 4:10
I'll
be sending some pictures so don't you worry haha. I hope that you all have the
best week. Know that I love you and that at any moment there is someone that is
praying for you!
I LOVE YOU!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Runyan
12/26/2015
“Hey”
So yesterday I got to Skype with you
all! That was so cool! Thanks for being the best family ever! You guys are going to have to forgive
me because I totally left my camera in the house today! I'm sorry! We were in a
bit of a hurry and I forgot it. But luckily we have a really high quality
scanner in the office and I was able to scan in Rachel's letter!
I never really know what I'm going to
say whenever we do Skype. I've only done it three times so you can't really
blame me. I would have loved to have spoken a little more with each of you. You
are all so different than when I left! That is so crazy how quickly the time
has passed.
Thank you all so much for the
package. It wasn't opened at all so I know that everything got here (it was
packed up to the brim haha). I loved all of the gifts! That tie was really
awesome. Everyone wants it... haha. I do have pictures of me and my presents
but I forgot my camera.... So you'll have to wait another week (again really
sorry).
I'm so glad I was able to talk with
you all. This is my second Christmas in Chile (my last one) so I was really
happy to see that you are all well and happy. Keep being happy. Don't allow
little things to bother you. Be happy. Do those things that really make you
happy, in the end you will find out that the best things in life aren't bought
with money. I hope you had a fantastic Christmas and I hope that you have an
incredible New Year! Keep being the best family ever.
Love you all so much!
Elder Runyan
12/19/2015
“The
Office Week 1”
So this week was insane just to let
you know. First of all, transfers are usually on Tuesday, right? Well, they had
me come up here on Sunday night. All of the missionaries that are going home
needed to be taken to the house and shipped off so they could have interviews
with the President and stay in the hotel for their last night. I basically said
goodbye to everyone in Los Álamos real quick and then Chao.
Basically
what we did is called "La Locura" (the craziness)!
Its nuts! For about three days we
didn't get more than 6 hours of sleep.
So Mission Historian --- I'm
guessing that you will all want to know what that is, haha.
Basically I have a few jobs.
 |
| Me!! Some lady gave us Christmas cookies but didn't want to receive the Gospel - But it's the 1st time ever someone gave me cookies on the street - haha! |
1. I have to make sure that all of the cell phones in the mission are working well. There are some new couple missionaries that arrived and they are getting Smartphones so I have to get them their new phone numbers and their phones all ready and everything for them. I am also in charge of all the minutes used, we have a plan of minutes for every missionary and it all depends on their assignment. I also can add minutes onto phones if people ask me.
2. I am in charge of all of the Baptismal Records. I have to obtain the written form of every person that gets baptized and put it into the system. I have to make sure that the numbers for baptisms is correct and that every single form is complete.
 |
| My Comp Elder Rueda with his Christmas cookies! He's from Ecuador. He speaks English fluently. He was a foreign exchange student in California |
3. I am also in charge of all of the
references in the mission. I send and receive references to and from other
missions. I suppose in English they're called referrals? But I do all of
that.
4. I am also in charge of
all technology. I have to make sure everything is always working.
5. I also still do missionary work in
San Pedro (the richest sector in the entire mission). We work in the office
from about 8:30am to 5:30pm and afterwards we work in our sector. We are still
expected to obtain the same results and we are working hard to find a lot of
people right now. People here are a lot like the people in the States. There
are very few people that are receptive, but those that are receptive are
awesome. So I'm really excited to work here.
 |
| Elder Cupello - He was Asst to Pres & in my District when I 1st became District Leader He finished his Mission & went home Tuesday |
My companion's name is Elder Rueda. I
already knew him before I got here. This is the same Zone I was in while I was
in Lagunillas. So I escaped for 10 weeks, no mas haha.
So this is going to be a little
different having P-Days on Saturday. Also just to let you guys know, Christmas
is next week. So I probably ought to tell you all a little bit of info about
what time and everything to Skype.
So what we had planned was to Skype
around 4:00 pm Chilean time.
Just so you know, we are only going to have 40 minutes just like the last time. If you have any specific questions that you would like me to answer live, you should write them down so that you don't forget haha. If you guys have any questions let me know!
Well, I love you all. Thank you so much for doing all that you do.
I LOVE YOU!!!
Elder RunyanI LOVE YOU!!!
12/14/2015
“La
Locura!”
Hey so I actually only have like
five minutes to be able to write you guys. Just so you know I've actually been
transferred to a new sector... San Pedro! I got a call from President on
Saturday and he asked me to be the Mission Historian; so here I am. They are
actually going to be training me today and officially my P-Day will be changed
to Saturday. So I will finish writing you all on Saturday. Sorry that I can't
really write any more than that! I LOVE YOU!!! Have the best day! I'll be
telling you all about it on Saturday!
Elder Runyancito
12/07/2015
 |
| I made homemade Trail Mix! How intuitive of me |
So guess what is going to go down
this week. We have a huge mission Christmas Conference! We are all going to
meet in Angol (the biggest chapel in the mission) as a mission and do skits,
talks, videos, etc. It's going to be awesome! I should be able to get your
package WHOOHOO!!! haha.
So that is going to be pretty
amazing! Also our investigator, Ivan, came to church on Sunday WHOOOO!! I know
right!?! We are really excited for him!
 |
| How they bake bread in Chile! They put fire underneath or inside & let the heat bake it! |
I think we have learned a lot about
doing the best that we can to help these people keep their commitments. That is
the hardest thing, finding people that keep their commitments. So we are doing
really well!
 |
| Selfie of the house in the woods! |
They have to close the ciber right now so I'll finish my email despues! CHAO! I guess that's about it for now. I'll be keeping you all informed on what's happening, especially with Christmas coming and everything. Thank you all so much for all of your letters! It really keeps me going! I LOVE YOU ALL!!
CHAO
Elder Runyan
11/30/2015
“This
Week…”
Hey everyone! Just so you all know
the Church is putting out a new initiative called “A Savior is Born”. You can
all find the link here:
They've given us a lot of pass-along
cards to share the video with everyone. So you all should share it on your
social networks. It is really good and it is trying to help people know why the
Savior was born. So keep that in mind!
So I heard that Grandpa Brady passed
away. It is always sad when something like this happens. He
truly was a great man. He always tried to include everyone, going out of his
way to make sure that everyone felt included. I really am going to miss him. I
see him almost like an apostle. However sad it may be, we, as Latter-Day Saints
know where he is and what he is doing. The Lord has called him to another
place. We will miss him. But we know ''nevertheless, I know in whom [we] have
trusted.'' -2 Nephi 4:19
The Lord has need of him on the other
side. It was his time. The Lord has called him and he has hearkened to that
sacred call. When you feel saddened, allow your hearts to rejoice in the
scriptures.
-2 Nephi 4:15-16 Nephi, shortly after the death of his
beloved father Lehi says:
15 And upon these I write the
things of my soul, and many of the scriptures which are engraven upon the
plates of brass. For my soul delighteth in the scriptures, and my heart
pondereth them, and writeth them for the learning and the profit of my
children.
16 Behold, my soul delighteth in the things of
the Lord; and my heart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen
and heard.
If you haven't read that chapter
please read it this week. I have grown to adore the Book of Mormon, especially
the writings of Nephi. Please heed his counsel and 'liken the scriptures unto
you'.
This week was really good. We worked
very hard to be able to speak with everyone and I know that the Lord will bless
us for our labors. We had a District Conference on Saturday and Sunday in Lebu
(like a stake conference but with a district) So all of that made it really
hard for the zone as far as investigators in church go.
Also my companion and I have been
sick this week. However we are working hard and can feel the strength of the
Lord in each step we take.
I know that this is the work of the
Lord. He knows what He is doing. Allow Him to mold you and shape you according
to His design. You will find that He can make you more beautiful that you can
ever imagine. Trust God, and know that he lives. May we all be able to say as
does Paul the Apostle:
- 2 Timothy 4:7-8
7
I have fought a good fight, I
have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
I love you all! Find strength in the
scriptures! Have the best week! I LOVE YOU!!!!
Elder Runyan
11/23/2015
“Cast
not away, therefore, your confidence”
-Hebrews 10:32-39
32
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were
illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;
33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used.
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
This scripture has been a great help
to me. I actually just read it the other day (in Spanish). It reminds me that I need to have more faith
as I continue in this work. It has not been easy so far. I'm afraid it never
will be, haha. However, I know in whom I have trusted and there is no way I can
deny that which I have so liberally received. Our God is a God of miracles and
I know that as I trust in Him and in His revelation there is nothing that I
cannot do.
It really is a beautiful scripture.
This week we had more than eight people committed to come to church on Sunday. This
week we actually did it right. We got members in with our lessons to invite
these people. Members that went to go pick them up in their houses so that they
would have a friend to go to church with them. We taught them the doctrine very
well. We really could feel the Spirit testify of our words to them in each
lesson. We found many new investigators and had committed each one and... Well
needless to say, none of them showed up.
We are working very hard. We have been increasing our spirituality. The power of the lessons we teach has truly been felt. There is not much else that could have been done. In the end it all comes down to the agency of each person.
We are working very hard. We have been increasing our spirituality. The power of the lessons we teach has truly been felt. There is not much else that could have been done. In the end it all comes down to the agency of each person.
We have been planning well and I
really think that we are becoming the kind of missionaries that the Lord would
like us to be. That is what really matters. If you can feel the Spirit testify
of your words and you are working hard and using your time wisely. That is when
you have success. Nothing that we are doing is in vain.
I'm very sorry that I forgot my camera
this week. We played a game of soccer (I haven't played soccer in almost 10
months haha) this morning and I forgot my camera after packing all of my
clothes to change into.
It really has been a great week. We
found a lot of new investigators and have been feeling the Spirit more and more
frequently. Thank you all so much for what you are doing. Your prayers are really
helping us become better missionaries and find the elect of God.
I sincerely love to read all of your
letters! Thank you so much for faithfully writing me every single week! You
guys are too awesome! Thank you so much x10000000000!
Yes, we are going to have a cambio (transfer) right before Christmas. They actually did that so the
missionaries that would have gone home the 29th of December could be with their
families on Christmas Day instead of arriving between Christmas and New Year’s
day. So this cambio is only going to be four weeks long. But the next cambio is
going to be eight weeks! Haha, lots of stuff going on down here in Concepción
Sur.
But thank you all so much for
everything that you are doing! I LOVE YOU!!!
Have
the best week!
Elder
Runyan
“Cambitos”
So today we got the cambios (transfers)
DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN!
...
I'm staying here with Elder Ormeño - another
cambio whooooo!!! But the thing is that this cambio is a short cambio. It's
going to be four weeks instead of six. Pretty nuts right? The following cambio
is going to be 8 weeks in total. So we’ve got a lot of weird stuff going
on.
I'm still a District Leader here in
Lebu. They changed a few of the people in my district but mostly everyone has
stayed the same in the Zone.
I was able to do a baptismal
interview for one of the investigators in Cañete this week so that was really
cool! Her name is Catalina and she is going to get baptized this Saturday.
Baptismal interviews are always cool to do. You really get to see how the
gospel has changed people's lives.
This week we had Branch Conference
(Conferencia de Rama) here in Los Álamos. A lot of members showed up! Usually
there are about 45 members in Sacrament Meeting but this week there were more
than 71+. So that was pretty cool. A bunch of people renewing their covenants.
So far in the sector there has been a
lot of opposition. It has been difficult to find people, stay in contact with
people, and get them to church. But the good news is that when there is a lot
of opposition, we are about to find a gold mine of awesome investigators. The
days when you don't feel like going out to work are precisely the days when you
find an incredible family of 5 that wants to come to church! We are going to be
working really hard in order to use our time to its greatest capacity. We are
going to be working like machines (machines with the spirit to guide us) this
week. We are preparing the upcoming cambio so there is no time to waste!
I am very grateful for all of the
letters that you guys are always sending me. You are so diligent in writing and
it always makes my day (or my P-Day to be more specific haha).
Just so you guys know Chilé does not
celebrate Thanksgiving. So there aren't any celebrations of any kind and us
gringos go out to work like any other day.
ALSO!!!! I GOT MY PACKAGE!!!! THANK
YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING THAT TO ME!!!! I really needed those pants and candy is
always a sweet surprise…cachai (you know?). THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH. I LOVE YOU!!!!
Also, to answer Dad's question, I
cannot ask family members nor friends to participate with me in group fasts.
It's in the Missionary Handbook - so sorry. Thank you so much though. I know
that you guys are always praying for me and it really strengthens me! Thank you
so much for your constant prayers. The branch is doing a lot better. The
members are very willing to help in the work so it has been a real blessing to
be in this branch.
Sorry that I don't have any pictures
to send you guys this week. I haven't really taken any haha. I should probably
get better on that (note to self and I suppose that to my family as well haha)
Thanks so much for being the best family in the world! I don't know where I'd
be without you guys! (Well I suppose still in the pre-mortal life haha)
I LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE THE BEST WEEK!
CHAOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
Elder Runyan (da best Elder)
maomenonomah (Chilean
for “more or less”)11/9/2015
 |
| Barbecue with 4 North Americans |
So this week was pretty interesting.
On Thursday I did a companion exchange with the Zone Leaders in Cañete, we were
in a house of pure gringos haha it was pretty fun. I'll send you guys some
pictures! I arrived on the day that they were going to have a barbecue for
lunch (que lucky right?) so that was pretty awesome. I haven't really spoken in
English for a long time so that was pretty good, ya know.... practicing my English
haha.
 |
| El Mapa ! |
 |
| My district! Last District meeting before transfer! NOOO! |
Kristi's braces are off! WOW! You
are so old! She really does look a lot older... Stay my little sister! I LOVE
YOU!
Emily sounds like she's really
excited for this MDT (Mountain Daylight Time?(haha, no she already told me what
it stands for)) thing. Sounds like a lot of work but if you feel that you
should do it, Go for it! I think it would be a great experience. Be smart, seek
advice from other people to perform to your best abilities! I LOVE YOU
Rachel's going to dances now... Hmm.
que weird. Also para que sepas es: Yo te escribí jaja. I LOVE YOU!
Wow thank you so much guys for
writing me every week. It really means a lot to me. I didn't make a voice
recording this week! Sorry! I thought writing would be okay! (just kidding I
actually was going to but I forgot and I'm already in the Ciber! AHHH)
Haha. Thank you guys so much I'll be
attaching the pictures to this email! I LOVE YOU!!!
Elder Runyan
"HELOHOWARIU!"
Okay so this week I made another voice
recording- YAY! So I actually describe pretty well what went down this week.
We actually didn't have any investigators in church :( But
it's going to be an awesome upcoming week! We are really excited, we are going
to be working as hard as ever. This last week was fairly difficult because I
was sick for most of the week. But I am getting better! I was able to work a lot
better on Friday and Saturday. This week we are going to be focusing in on new
investigators. We have very few investigators right now (but they are really
good ones) however we really need to expand our teaching pool. So that's what
we are going to focus on this week.
We did have Halloween here but it is definitely not the same
thing that it is in Utah -haha. It is the Evangelical Church organization day or something like that so they had a big march screaming "Los Álamos for Jesus!" in the street -haha. November 1st is Día de todos los santos (all saints day) here so it's like the day of the dead. Everyone goes to the cemetery and pays tributes to the dead and everyone else has a bunch of little food stands like a carnival outside to make money :)
That's awesome that you guys had a good Halloween! Thanks for making a pumpkin for me! Homestar Runner haha that's awesome! Sorry for not having any pictures this week. I need to take a lot more. Don't worry I'll have a lot more pictures this week! Kristi's braces are coming off -Whooo! Haha that's really cool. 
To answer Rachel's question, we do our own laundry here. We always have planning sessions each night and every Sunday we have weekly planning. We are fairly responsible for what we do but there are a lot of things that put a cork in our plans so we always need to have a backup.I haven't gotten my package yet, it's still in the mission office so I'm going to have to wait a little longer. That's crazy that dad has four callings. I'm basically the Elder's Quorum president here so that's fun as well haha.
I love all of the pictures you guys are sending! Thank you
so much for all of your love and support! Keep being awesome! If I haven't been
able to answer all of your questions forgive me! THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I LOVE
YOU!!!
Elder RunyanClick here for [Josh's Audio] 2 Nov 2015
10/26/2015
"This week was ...."
Wow, I actually didn't know that I
had already hit the 2/3rds mark. Wow haha, I'm so old. Also I have
not gotten that package yet. That does not mean that it hasn't arrived yet in
the office but that no one has gone between Lebu and Concepción yet to fetch it
for me. I believe that it is already there. We are going to have a Zone
conference with President Bluth the second week of November so I should be able
to receive it then.
10/19/2015
This week was fairly interesting. I
made a recording for you all to listen to! Whoo! It basically explains all that
happened in the week so that I would have a little more time to be able to talk
to all of you and answer your questions! Yay me! Haha
So about some of your questions...
 |
| Concepcion Temple Rendering |
Also, I haven't taken any pictures of
the new house yet! Sorry! You know how bad I am for remembering things!
I'll be
sure to do them this week! Don't y'all worry nothin'! Haha
 |
| Elder Gonzales |
Elder Ormeño and I
are getting along great. He is a really good companion and I am really grateful
to be able to have him here in Los Álamos. We are all latinos (I suppose
besides me haha) in the house so it's all Spanish (1-Columbia, 1-Bolivia, 1-Chile, 1-Me). They always ask me for help
with their English but I will explain that in the voice recording.
I have no idea about the pumpkin
carving for me haha. Whatever you guys think would best fit! I wanna see what
you guys choose haha!
The Temple groundbreaking ceremony was two
Saturdays ago! It already happened. I bet you could go and see all of the
footage from the event. It was really cool. President Bluth was able to shovel
some dirt with the Golden Shovel haha. It was pretty cool. The Choir was
chosen from stakes among the region and some of the members from Lagunillas
were in the Choir. It was really cool to say Hey, I know that guy! haha.
 |
| Groundbreaking Ceremony |
Click here for Link to Temple Groundbreaking Ceremony
It has really been a good week. I hope you guys enjoy the audio file that I'm going to attach! I LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE THE BEST WEEK!
Elder RunyanIt has really been a good week. I hope you guys enjoy the audio file that I'm going to attach! I LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE THE BEST WEEK!
"Los Alamos - Week
2"
So this week has been pretty interesting. We actually had four people with baptismal dates. One of them is Javier, he is a very interesting person. He's one of those guys that has a lot of weird friends as a grown up. But he is really good. We found him on Monday and put a date with him al tiro. My companion and I had been praying to find guidance as where to tract that afternoon. The both of us had felt impressed to contact at 7:00 pm but we didn't know where to go. So right before our P-Day was over (before 6:00 pm) we prayed and both felt impressed to go down a street called Pasaje 4. It was raining and when we got there we found that it was a really tiny street, there were only 7 or 8 houses on the entire street! Okay so we contact all of the houses and nobody lets us in. So we're sitting there in the rain thinking "well now what do we do". We said a quick prayer in the street and felt like we should contact a house on the corner that technically had a address for a perpendicular street but the house touched Pasaje 4. Yeah vamos. So we yell ÁLO! and he comes out and says "come on in!" It was a miracle. The only lame part about this story is that he didn't come to church on Sunday. :P
So this week has been pretty interesting. We actually had four people with baptismal dates. One of them is Javier, he is a very interesting person. He's one of those guys that has a lot of weird friends as a grown up. But he is really good. We found him on Monday and put a date with him al tiro. My companion and I had been praying to find guidance as where to tract that afternoon. The both of us had felt impressed to contact at 7:00 pm but we didn't know where to go. So right before our P-Day was over (before 6:00 pm) we prayed and both felt impressed to go down a street called Pasaje 4. It was raining and when we got there we found that it was a really tiny street, there were only 7 or 8 houses on the entire street! Okay so we contact all of the houses and nobody lets us in. So we're sitting there in the rain thinking "well now what do we do". We said a quick prayer in the street and felt like we should contact a house on the corner that technically had a address for a perpendicular street but the house touched Pasaje 4. Yeah vamos. So we yell ÁLO! and he comes out and says "come on in!" It was a miracle. The only lame part about this story is that he didn't come to church on Sunday. :P
Haha but really it was a pretty good
week. That family of four that I had told you guys about is really good. They
actually had baptismal dates for the 14th of November, their fechas fell
because they didn't come to church. We still haven't figured out why.
Maria Luisa, our most possible for
this month didn't come either. She's actually a twin and her sister is a
member. We thought for a good two hours that our investigator had come and not
her sister, haha. But that's pretty cool.
We've been doing well. Elder Ormeño
and I are getting along really well and I am really excited for the miracles
that we are going to be seeing this week.
29 And because he hath done
this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased?
Behold I say unto you, Nay;
neither have angels ceased to minister unto the
children of men
37 Behold I say unto you, Nay;
for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and
it is by faith that angels
appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these
things have ceased wo be unto
the children of men, for it is because of unbelief,
and all is vain
- Moroni 7:29,37
Also, today we had a Zone Activity
at the Beach in Lebu. It was pretty sick! I took a bunch of photos so don't worry I'll be sending them in a quick flash! Our Zone is one of the smaller
Zones in the Mission. There are only two district leaders. It's kinda nice
being in a small Zone and seeing all of the miracles in this tiny Zone. I
really love it down here! I'll be sending you all some pictures!
Thank you so much for writing me! I really appreciate your support and love! You guys are really awesome!
I LOVE YOU! So sorry that Rachel and Kristi are sick! Keep on praying every
day, night, afternoon, meal, morning, whenever you can. Make sure that you are
praying! I LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE THE BEST WEEK! CHAO!
Also look at this video here:
It's the Ad for the Concepción Temple Groundbreaking Ceremony! WHOO!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/86n2qfbzc6bv2z2/Templo%20de%20Concepci%C3%B3n%203.0.wmv?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/86n2qfbzc6bv2z2/Templo%20de%20Concepci%C3%B3n%203.0.wmv?dl=0
ELDER RUNYAN
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
"This Week in Los Alamos"
 |
| Saying Goodbye to my converts in Lagunillas |
HEY! How's it going everyone!?! This
last week I've been here with Elder Ormeño in Los Álamos. Elder Ormeño has 17
months in the mission and he has been here in this sector for one cambio
(transfer). He's really cool and we have been getting along great! We are going
to have a lot of success in this sector I can feel it. Los Álamos is a really
good sector, not quite as big or as city as Lagunillas was but it's really
good. There are a lot of good people here in the sector. This sector was a
Sister Missionary sector about 4 months ago until they switched all of the
Hermanas out for the Elders in Curanilahue. So just about everyone has spoken
with the Mormonas haha. Los Álamos is a branch of about 45-50 members I believe.
It's a small capilla (not as small as tijeral) but the members are really
good!  |
| Me and My New Companion Elder Ormeno |
I'm really excited about this cambio.
This is the first time that I'm going to be in a house with only Latin
roommates. Elder Paco is training Elder Ramos right now in our house. In my
district I've got the Hermanas from Curanilahue with Hermana Antay and Hermana
Naranjo, I also have the Elders from Lebu Elder Dominguez and Elder Machado,
also that Zone Leaders are in my district Elder Sanders and Elder Snyder. It's
kinda funny doing our daily verification asking the Zone Leaders for their
numbers and then they ask me for mine haha. But that's the district.
We had an investigator in church on
Sunday, her name is Maria Luisa. She is really good. She actually bore here
testimony about how she knew that this was the church that was closest to God.
She still isn't sure about getting baptized, she has a problem with trusting
people, especially organizations, but I'm sure that she already feels the
truthfulness of this message. Asi que oren para estas personas! Por
favor!
I'm really excited for this cambio.
I'm certain that we are going to have a lot of success together Elder Ormeño
and I!
Thank you so much for sending me
those things! I am really grateful! You guys are too awesome! I LOVE YOU ALL!
Send pictures! I'll be attaching some so don't y'all worry!
Elder Runyan
"General Conference, Cambios, etc"
 |
| My Zone in Lagunillas ... Headed to a new zone now |
So guess what? This week has been
very interesting! First of all General Conference!!! WHOOO!!! That was a really
awesome conference. I really enjoyed Elder Haynie's talk about the Atonement
and the way it works, it was really simple and had a lot of application for me
right now. I loved Sister Carole Stephens talk about the little girl that
wouldn't put her seat belt on. Elder Holland, Pres. Uchtdorf....... just everyone's was
really good. These conferences are filled with so much revelation that you can
continue for six months until the next one haha. I found a great love for the new
Apostles and I could feel their sincerity as they spoke and bore testimony.
Very good conference. That's all I can say right now.
Also, as well, I am
no longer going to be in Lagunillas :( But! I'm going to Los Álamos! It's in
the Zone of Lebu and I'm going to be there with Elder Ormeño! I'm pretty
stoked! Elder Davenport is going to stay here with Elder Miranda. Both of our
comps are from Santiago! We are going to baptize a full! I'm pretty excited! I
am going to continue to serve as District Leader in Lebu - so yeah!
1. How firm a foundation, ye
Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his
excellent word!
What more can he say than to you
he hath said,
Who unto the Savior, who unto the
Savior,
Who unto the Savior for refuge
have fled?
|
4. When through the deep waters I
call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not
thee o'er flow,
For I will be with thee, thy
troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee, and sanctify
to thee,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest
distress.
|
2. In ev'ry condition--in
sickness, in health,
In poverty's vale or abounding in
wealth,
At home or abroad, on the land or
the sea--
As thy days may demand, as thy
days may demand,
As thy days may demand, so thy succor
shall be.
|
7. The soul that on Jesus hath
leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to
his foes;
That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, I'll never,
no never,
I'll never, no never, no never
forsake!
|
3. Fear not, I am with thee; oh,
be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still
give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, upheld by
my righteous,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent
hand.
|
Really cool eh? I really enjoyed
that. More than anything, I learned that I need to trust in the Lord and love
Him. I really have had a desire to strengthen my love for others, it has been
hard but where love is, God is there also.
Emily, I am really sorry about your
ankle. I hope that you recover quickly without any lasting damage. Please
remember to keep the commandments. Even though you are around a great crowd at
BYU, I know that wickedness still abounds. Choose righteously even when doing so may
make you appear lame, or boring. Do read the scriptures, Do be happy, Do love
everyone the way God loves them. Be happy, Do the little things every day that
bring you joy.
Thank you guys so much for all that
you are doing for me. I could really use those pants right now with the socks if
that wouldn't be too much of a problem! Thank you so much!
Please read this talk when you have
a little time during family night if at all possible:
It's really good. So read it! Ha ha
I love you all and wish I could
speak with you more about how things are going. I know that you don't always
tell me everything that's going on, but trust in the Lord, hold on to the iron
rod, tighten your grip says Elder Hales! Continue to love the gospel. I LOVE
YOU ALL!
Elder Runyan
9/28/2015
"Another Week, Another…I don’t know – ha ha"
 |
| Tri-Zone Activity (Las tres Zonas) |
I was really sad to see that Emily got hurt! It looks really bad! I'm so sorry that happened! If you haven't yet, please seek a priesthood blessing in order to get better!
Mom! Your purse... no! That is really horrible. I'm so sorry. That must be really hard. Sounds like it was a rough week for you guys. Well just so you guys know, you're have company- haha. 
The good part of all of this is that General Conference is this Saturday. What better help than the help of God's called and chosen servants. I believe that this weekend is going to be revelation weekend. I really want you guys to look for revelation this weekend as you listen to the Apostles and Prophets. The Lord allows us to receive heavenly inspiration if we are in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset. Saturday and Sunday are the right times, General Conference is the right place, and personal sincere prayer with an open mind is the right mindset. If you will do all these things, I promise you that you will know that which you ought to do within the first hour of conference. Interesting huh? Try it, try it and you may, try it and you may I say.... Haha that's not Elder Runyan that's Dr. Seuss but still it's a good mindset. The principle is the same which Christ said in John.
I really love all of you and I am grateful for your presence in my life. Continue to do the small things every day to become more and more like the Savior.
Love you!
Elder Runyan
P.S. We had a big Tri-Zone activity
today and it was really cool. Here's a few photos for proof haha.
9/21/2015
"DIECIOCHITO"
So this week was the Dieciocho!
(Chile's Independence Day) So just so you know, I've got a lot of pictures for
you, so watch out I'm going to be send a few emails to be able to fit them all
together.
¡Así que prepárense!
The Live Band and the Cueca for the Ward Activity:
The Live Band and the Cueca for the Ward Activity:
Sorry if these are in a weird
format the computer here is a little weird. You're going to have to open it in
the Photo Viewer and just select that as the default opener Sorry! So for Mom :
My Health is a lot better now. I'm feeling a lot better. Just have to eat more slowly haha. I sent a picture
of my suit pants tag so that should be enough hopefully. Elder Kerby should
still be in the CCM until next transfer right? The Dieciocho was pretty cool.
There were no empanadas surprisingly enough in the ward activity or
anything.
For Dad:
The Earthquake and the Tsunami
didn't reach at all down here. We felt the earthquake a little and there was a
bunch of notifications of Tsunami Alert and everyone was supposed to evacuate
but that didn't happen haha. Everyone was fine, not one destruction down here
at all. Just a quick scare. I have been feeling better this week. We still
haven't gotten anybody in church. It's been difficult but I know that it is
going to be a lot better. Our district baptized two people last weekend so
that's pretty awesome! We had P-Day on the 18th and we had to be home at 8:00pm
to avoid drunk people haha.
I'm so sorry that I ran out of time.
The computers here are slow and uploading pictures takes a while sometimes! I
had a good week and am looking forward to a great one! My comp and I are
getting along better and I am excited for the miracles we are going to see!
Keep praying for us and writing! I really love to hear from you guys! I read
every single email!
 |
| ha ha |
 |
| Having a little fun |
I LOVE YOU GUYS! CHAO PESCAO!
LOVE, ELDER RUNYAN
9/17/2015
"Tsunami... de Bautismos"
Hey
Everyone! I'm writing all of you to let you all know that I am safe!
They gave us permission to write and say that we were fine! Last night
around 8:00 pm there was a huge tsunami alert and everyone was
evacuating. It was pretty nuts. Us missionaries had to go to the chapel
and spend the night there haha. Nothing happened but it was pretty
hectic for a little while there!
KNOW THAT I'M FINE! I LOVE YOU ALL!
Talk to you guys on Mondaym I'll be telling you all about it!
See you guys next week! I LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Runyan
9/14/2015
"The Dieciocho eh?"
So guess what. Nobody came! :P Pretty lame huh? We didn't have quite as
many people committed to church as we had last week but still it's never
fun to not have anybody in church. I suppose that this was suppose to
happen to keep me from getting prideful huh? Haha. But other than that, this week was pretty good. We found a lot of good people that will be
able to be baptized. Lots of really good people that need an extra nudge
to be able to get to the church building. But hopefully during the
Dieciocho (the biggest celebration here in Chile) we should be able to
get a lot of people to come to the church. We are going to be having a
big ward activity on Friday (the Dieciocho) so it should be pretty cool.
Sadly, free food get's more people in church than Sacrament meeting
haha. Should be pretty cool though.
Just so
you guys know, our District is killing it this month! Both pairs of
Hermanas are going to baptize this coming weekend! Now all Elder
Davenport and I need is to baptize Nataly and our entire district will
have baptized this month! So that's pretty awesome eh?
Also, just
so you guys know, today wasn't a normal P-Day. Our P-Day is going to be
on the 18th for the Holidays. Today they gave us a little time to be
able to write our families and go grocery shopping. We have to be home
early on the 18th so I should have time to write in my journal! I'm not
that great about writing in my journal but I'm making a personal goal to
be able to write in it more often.
I've been a
little sick lately, nothing to worry about, just feeling a little down
on energy but don't worry, I'm still all pilas! (Pilas meaning batteries)
It's been a little tough but I'm still riding on that Spiritual Energy.
Please continue to pray for me. Thank you all so much for what you are
already doing for me. You guys really are helping me to continue
forward. Every email, every prayer, is really what is helping me to keep
going even when I feel like giving up. Know that the mission isn't
easy, but it is definitely worth it. One of the miracles this week was
that every single one of my converts was in the Sacrament Meeting.
Javier, Sebastian, Sandra, Jeremy, Lucas, and Giuseppe. Really cool to
be able to see all of them renew their baptismal covenants.
This
experience has been immeasurable. I am really grateful for the humbling
and trying experiences that have caused me to become a greater person.
More than anything, my goal is to become a missionary. I don't just want
to go on a mission. This experience has changed me for the better. My
understanding has increased and I have been able to understand the truly
beautiful and worthwhile things in this life. Treasure the moments in
which you have been able to serve someone else. ''When you are in the
service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your
God.''
For dad I would like to send you a link to this talk:
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/teaching-with-the-power-and-authority-of-god?lang=eng
It's really good. Para que sepas. :)
Anyways
I probably ought to get going. Let me know if there is anything that I
can do for you guys. Keep writing me! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Love,
Elder Runyan
9/07/2015
"Hey, Hey, Hey"
Well this week was....interesting. What happened is we committed 11
people to church and guess how many of them came?! Zero. :P Pretty lame
but hey, what can you do? We basically recommitted all of them on
Saturday Night, and a few of them on Sunday morning before church. But
nobody. I feel like we did our best and it all adds up to agency, doesn't
it?
But enough about me! How's your week been!?
Sounds like you guys had a lot of awesome stuff going on! Emily is in
college and loving it. Rachel and Kristi are having fun in school now.
My companion got a package from his girlfriend haha. Lots of stuff huh?
To answer some of your questions. We have made a lot of goals as a Zone and as a District. As a Zone we plan to baptize 14 people and as a district we plan to baptize 4. Elder Woods and Elder Cupello (The Asistants to the President) Baptized on Saturday so we're one fourth of the way there! We've got a lot of potential to be able to have every companionship baptize this month in our district (and zone) so that is what I mean when I say we are close to acheiving our goals. As a District Leader I'm basically on the phone from 10:00 to 10:35 every day. I have to call four other sectors and report/ask for their numbers (Contacts, Baptimal Dates, Lessons with Member, etc.) So a lot of phone time. I got to do an exchange with the APs to interview Raquel and that was really cool. My hijo got to be on the intercambio as well so we both learned a lot, pretty awesome.
To answer some of your questions. We have made a lot of goals as a Zone and as a District. As a Zone we plan to baptize 14 people and as a district we plan to baptize 4. Elder Woods and Elder Cupello (The Asistants to the President) Baptized on Saturday so we're one fourth of the way there! We've got a lot of potential to be able to have every companionship baptize this month in our district (and zone) so that is what I mean when I say we are close to acheiving our goals. As a District Leader I'm basically on the phone from 10:00 to 10:35 every day. I have to call four other sectors and report/ask for their numbers (Contacts, Baptimal Dates, Lessons with Member, etc.) So a lot of phone time. I got to do an exchange with the APs to interview Raquel and that was really cool. My hijo got to be on the intercambio as well so we both learned a lot, pretty awesome.
As far as what is expected, or the norms of excellence you might say are the following:
1 Converso Por Compañerismo Cada mes
140 Contactos Misionales
3 Fechas Bautismales
3 Investigadores en la Capilla.
That is what excellence would be. To acheive una Semana de Excelencia you have to do all of those things.
Also
for Christmas...Hmmm? Nike Socks, A lot of them would be awesome (black
please). They are really the best kinds of socks you can wear. More
than anything those would be awesome. Also, something weird, there's a
translation of the Bible called 'Da Jesus Book' Just look at it and
think about sending it to me haha.
But that's
about all I've got for right now. Let me know if there is anything I can
do for you! Try to help others as much as you can this week!
I LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Rhoonjahn
8/31/2015
"Woah"
 |
| Mission Zone in Lagunillas, Chile |
Anyways you guys are
probably wondering what it's like being a District Leader eh? I have no
idea what I'm doing haha. I'm just joking I have some idea but it's been
a lot of fun and it is something different to spice up my work ya know?
I have four Hermanas in my District, as well as the two Assistants. It's been a lot of fun. I had my first District
meeting on Thursday. A little different trying to teach things a lot of
these people already know, you've gotta make it fun and you have to
apply it to them, especially through teaching practices. It's a little
difficult but I think I'm getting the hang of it. It's Different having to be
that guy that makes all of the phone calls every night but hey what can
ya do? Haha I also get to do the baptismal interviews for all of the
investigators in my district (excluding my own). So I'm really looking
forward to that. Elder Woods and Elder Cupello are baptizing this week
so I'll get to interview.
Mom asked about my companion: My comp is 18 years old
(which means he graduated with Emily) He turned 18 in April so he's one
of the youngest in the mission haha. He's really cool though. Very good
missionary. I've been really impressed with him.
Excuse me if this letter doesn't have any g's or c's because this keyboard is a little broken.
To
answer Mom's question about the Subaru, to me I'm fine with anything.
Whatever you guys think would be the best option. I wouldn't mind
selling it. I'm pretty sure they sent me here so that I would learn to
walk. As of right now I don't see the need of a car (however I am 1000's
of miles away so I wouldn't know entirely)
Emily
is in college. That's weird. Just goes to show how elderly I'm becoming
(as Mom and Dad make that little laugh that is just a little bit of air
out the nose and a half smile, and then another one because they
realize the lame pun of Elder in the word elderly) I suppose that I saw
this coming. That fact that many of you would be growing older during
these short two years. Strange to think that I've got fourteen months
now. Kinda weird eh?
Well I didn't take any
pictures so you'll have to forgive me! Sorry. Know that I love you guys
and I took a lot of time writing this letter. Thanks for all that you
guys do! I'll be sending you guys a voice message next week. ¡Así que
prepárense!
Have a great week. Have a great Family Home Evening! I LOVE YOU!
ELDER RUNYAN
LA IGELSIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
8/24/2015
"Dis Week"
 |
| Josh's Humor |
President Bluth was planning on coming to the baptism but he called us too late because we had the baptism at 10:00 am on Saturday. He came to Sacrament Meeting afterwards in order to see the confirmation. It was really cool! I've never baptized a family before! They are so awesome. They told us that they were watching General Conference all day after church and Lucas and Jeremy went to the Stake General Priesthood meeting. Pretty awesome right? I'm so proud of them! They've changed a lot! They are progressing super-fast!
My comp had the opportunity to baptize and I'm real proud of him as well. It's been really cool with him. He's has a lot of excitement as well!
Today was cambios.... So I guess I
ought to tell you my cambio huh? Haha I'm going to be District Leader now! I'm
still training Elder Davenport and our entire house has the same missionaries
but now Elder Cahill and I are District Leaders (Elder Cahill lives with us). I
now have in my district, the Assistants to the President, The Hermanas
Capacitadoras, the Sector of La Marina (also Hermanas), and Elder Davenport and
I -Yayy! haha We're going to kill it this cambio, I'm super excited!
Today Elder Hendricks and Elder
Letelier finished their missions. I got to say goodbye to them and take some
pictures in the office before they left today. Elder Hendricks gave me a tie
and Elder Letelier gave me the pictures of Lisbeth's baptism! So I'll send
those to you guys as well.
Well I don't really know what else
to say about my week. It's been really cool and we have a lot planned for this
week (a full planeamiento semanal) so I'll send you that as well haha. We're
trying to work a lot better with our planning so that we're prepared for just
about anything. I really think that the Savior is blessing us for our efforts
that we've been trying to make this last cambio and we are going to be working
really hard in order to get the rest of those fruits this coming cambio! WHOOO!
I'm really excited. Just like Dad says, I'm there in that groove where I know
what's goingon and I'm really excited here in
Lagunillas with my hijito!
Know that I am doing just fine and
am really excited for that which is coming. Thank you all for your prayers and
support. They really do help! Don't stop! I love you all! Thanks for your
thoughts!
Love,
Elder Runyan!
8/17/2015
"Sandra’s Getting Baptized!"
WHOOOOO! So guess what!!?!? Sandra
and her family are going to get baptized this week! We are super excited for
them! They came to church this week and had an awesome experience.
One thing I do know, is that there
has been opposition. Yesterday she told us that they had been having a lot of
doubts. Lots of people telling them that they shouldn't be baptized and things
like that. She said that it had been really hard but when she woke up on Sunday
morning she said that it was different. She said that all of the talks during
sacrament meeting were directed toward her and that she knew that this was
where she needed to be. We showed them the Joseph Smith movie as well and she
was crying the whole time. She said that she's 100% committed to be baptized.
That was probably one of the best lessons I've ever had in the mission. It is
so cool to be able to see the fruits of our labors.
I don't know if I told you guys but
Elder Hill and I actually contacted Lucas that day of the big game, Chile vs.
Argentina. He gave us an address and we passed by and let us in right away.
Every contact is worth it. Every one of them. That is why we have more desire
than ever to speak with everyone. It has been a real blessing to see these
miracles here in the mission.
My comp has been getting really good
with the language. He is seriously super prepared when it comes to Spanish. He
is a really good missionary and has a desire to always do his best.
I have really seen the blessings of
Fasting and Praying lately. We fasted and prayed that this family would be able
to be baptized and that's exactly what's happening. Please continue to pray and
fast for them. I love you so much! Thank you guys for all of your prayers! They
really mean a lot!
Emily -Happy Birthday on Sunday!!!
You are so OLD! Wow! That's so weird that you are going to be leaving home….Yuck.
Emily, I love you. Thank you so much
for what you are doing. Have a great birthday! I LOVE YOU!
Hasta la próxima semana!
Con cariño,
Elder Beautiful
8/10/2015
"Sick Week! Literally!"
So this week we were all sick... :( :P Pretty
lame eh? Our entire house was sick and we had to stay inside for a long while.
We still were a little stubborn and went to our appointments with our
progressing investigators but yeah…. Kinda lame though!
Hey I attached a new little voice
message (2) for you guys, I thought it would be a little something something
for you guys to hear my voice (in English and Spanish this time haha) It's
about 10 min long so hopefully that'll tide you over until next week
haha.
Well this week Sandra and her entire
family came!!! WHOOOOO!!! They are sooo cool! I'm not even kidding. They
originally had a baptismal date for the 29th of August but they are progressing
so much we changed it for the 22nd! They are so prepared! We've basically
taught them everything that they need to know for baptism and more and we still
have two weeks until their baptism! They are seriously an answer to our
prayers. Lucas is 16 almost 17 and he came to church in a suit! I didn't even
come to church in a suit until I was on the mission! Haha. And Jeremy is 14 and he's really funny. Gisepe is 9 and is the funniest kid ever. He doesn't have a filter and it
makes me laugh sometimes. They are all reading, praying, and coming to church.
Two days ago we installed Gospel Library on their phones and they are reading
the General Conference talks! WHAT?!? I know, right? So awesome!
So pretty awesome for being sick the
entire week eh? haha
I heard Emily had a lot of fun up
there in Wyoming so that's pretty cool. As well as Kristi went to Walmart with
Mom on Monday WHOOOOOO! Haha - that made me laugh… Kristi keep it up haha. So Rachel turned sixteen or something... WHAT!!?!?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAWG!!!
That's nuts that you're so dang old. Just imagine me; I'm like 50 now...almost
ya know.
Also I cannot see anything that you
put on Google Drive. The mission email is blocked from Google Drive so it'd be
better if you just continued to send it over email. Just a little heads
up.
Well that's what I've got for you
guys this week! Just know that I love you and I'm always thinking about
you! Read the scripture that I talk about in the voice recording! It's
really good.
“That we might always have His
Spirit to be with us.” Think about that and do all that you can to be able to
have His Spirit to be with you always. Keep your works in tune with your words.
Don't just say Amen to the Sacramental prayers if you don't plan on having His
Spirit to be with you always. Don't say amen if you know that you aren't going
to read your scriptures, or pray. Don't say amen unless you know and plan to be
better. When you say amen you are saying Así sea (or let it be/ I agree). When
you say amen you plan to read your scriptures every day. When you say amen you
will always have a small prayer in your mind. When you say amen you promise
that you will avoid any manner of behavior that would dull your sensibility to
the Spirit of the Lord.
Keep it up you guys. ¡Nunca se
rindan! Los quiero muchísimo!
Chao pescado!
Elder Beautiful
(Josh's Spanish Audio Link)(Josh's English Audio ..... Coming Soon)
8/3/2015
"DUDEZ!"
Well I'm not going to lie, this week was pretty awesome! We found a new family of four last Monday (right after I talked to you guys). They are seriously super prepared! I'm not lying! We put baptismal dates with them and we were able to visit them four times this week! Their names are Sandra, Lucas, Jeremy, and Gisepe. They are so cool! We've already taught them The Restoration, Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Book of Mormon and they are reading them all! We visited them with a member twice and it was awesome! They already have fellowship and they all came to church and had a wonderful experience! They do the prayers in every appointment that we have with them! It is seriously an answer to our prayers. This Sunday was Fast Sunday and we were fasting that they would be able to come to church and have a good experience and they did! I am sooo excited for them can you tell? They're a miracle! We're baptizing this month! WHOOO!
So
more on a normal note, what's up y'all? haha. That's nuts that Rachel is
going to be 16 years old this week. When I left you were only 14 dude, what happened? Just don't crash or break anything please! Stay off the
sidewalks everyone!
You cheated! Mom!?! C`mon!
you gotta learn Spanish! You guys know that every day I'm here in Chilé, I
lose a part of my English ability! We have got to be able to
communicate! haha just kidding.
Emily
apparently is going to be working at BYU and living there at the same
time... Wow! That's pretty nuts. I've been here for 13 months and
it feels like I've been gone a lot longer.
Dad, I actually had listened to that talk on Sunday morning haha (Elder Holland: The First Great Commandment - Oct. 2012). What a
coincidence, eh? That's pretty cool huh? Our Gospel Principles class was
on Work and Personal Responsibility. It was really good what was said.
God has a much greater image of what we can become than we do. It's
really cool to know that God, knowing full well that we have to progress
according to our will (He cannot force us to do anything). He asks us to
work. Why? What happens when people don't accept our work? What happens
when everything we've done seems to just go down the tubes? We are
learning. We have a much grander
potential than we realize. We are His sons and daughters. And as such, it
is our responsibility to Feed His Sheep. Levantémonos los unos a los
otros. Seámosle fieles. Pretty neat eh? haha
Elder Valdivia is already home and he sent me an email! Haha he's so cool, I love that guy.
Guys - keep working hard. Keep doing what you know you should be doing. If you
don't feel good about doing something, don't do it. Follow the Spirit.
He will guide you if you let Him.
Thanks so
much for everything you guys are doing! I love you! Let me know if there
is anything that you would like me to do differently in my emails
(perhaps once a week, a voice message or something no sé)
But I hope you have a great week you guys! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! Keep me up to date on everything!
CHAAAUUUU!
Love, Elder Beautiful
7/27/2015
"This Week 2.0!"
So I decided that I would try something different this week. I wanted to try to send you guys a voice recording because I thought that it would be something nifty for you guys to be able to hear my voice. I talk in Spanish so that you guys can't use Google Translate haha.
This
week was pretty sweet though. We've been working really hard and
getting a lot better at teaching. We've been practicing a lot with the
extra hour that we have for companionship study during my companion's
training. So it's been really cool.
I don't
really know what to say. Javier and Sebastian came with shirts and ties
and everything on Sunday! Also, President came to church with us. It was
really cool. Michael came but Nataly didn't :( But it's alright. We'll be
having a lot more people in church this week.
I
honestly love the mission you guys. I feel like I have been able to
grow a lot as a person and I'm just a lot happier. I know what I need to
do in order to be happy.
That's about all I've got this week you guys. Hopefully you guys enjoy the voice recording.
One
thing that I would suggest this week would be to study the Atonement.
We get so caught up in the ''testimony'' of other things. Joseph Smith
being a prophet, Thomas S. Monson, God and Christ existing. I want you
guys to think about Christ and what He did for you. Why do we have the
church? Why do we have prophets? Why was the gospel restored? All of
these are so that we can take advantage of Christ's Atonement. We have
church to participate in the Sacrament, a sacred covenant with our
Father. It was restored to have the authority to baptize as did Jesus
Christ. We have prophets so that we can know of His will for us.
This is the church of Jesus Christ. We are members of that Church, and
as such, ours is the responsibility to represent Him, always.
Well that's it! Love you guys! Have a great week!
"Dis Week!"
So
this week we were able to see Michael in church. His wife was going to
come but she had to take care of Michael's little brother. We're going
to be working with them a lot so that they can be ready to be baptized
on the 1st of August. We're really excited for them so please if you
guys could pray for them that would be awesome!
Also
one thing that I found out... Remember my investigator in Tijeral named
Lisbeth? She got baptized on Saturday!!! I know right?!?! That's really
awesome! I'm really happy for her! It's really cool to know that some
of yours labors weren't in vain. So long as we are doing our part, we
need not fear that which does or does not come to pass. It is really
neat being able to see miracles happening in these people's lives.
Well
I don't really know what else I ought to say. I didn't get to read any
of your letters so I hope y'all are doing well! Keep making goals and
fulfilling them! I can't stress the importance of setting and achieving
goals in our lives. I've been able to see miracles happen due to the
goals we set in our lives, especially this last week.
Well
just know that I love you guys so much and I am always praying for you
guys! I hope that you guys have a great week there in Lake Powell.
Sounds really awesome! Have a lot of fun!!!
Love you!!!
Elder Runyan
"Woww"
So first of all, I want to apologize for not being able to write to you guys last week. We were in Concepción all day on Monday and we thought that we were going to be able to write when we got back to our sector but our bus got back really late and we had to ask permission to write after P-Day hours. That's why we couldn't write you so much. Sorry! I still love you guys!
This week has been a lot of big news! I don't even know where to begin.
1.
Javier got baptized on Saturday!!!! It was so cool! I'll be sending you
guys some pictures so you can see. He's a little more timid and didn't
want the whole ward to come to his baptism so we only invited a few
people. It was a really spiritual experience, he's an awesome guy and I'm excited for him! We also got another "Semana of Excellence" this week because we got all of the other
requirements too. WHOO! Elder Hill goes home strong! That's all I wanted
and it was really cool for Elder Hill to be in the water baptizing his
last day in the mission. 
2. Elder Hill just
left. I'm actually writing you guys from the mission office right now.
He just took off to do his last goodbye to the mission with the President. I
also got to see all of my other companions that are leaving right now. I also got to see Elder Valdivia and Elder Valderrama here before they left. It was really cool being able to see them off like
that.
3. So President called me last week and
said that I'm going to train!!! That's really nuts. My companion will be
getting here on Wednesday so I'll be in a trio with Elder Cahill and
his companion today and tomorrow. So I'm going to have my first
companion that's younger than me in the mission. All of my comps are
going to be gone before I finish training him because Elder Letelier and
Elder Hendricks leaves next cambio. Also, something really cool, Elder
Letelier called me and told me that Lisbeth is going to get baptized on
Saturday!!! I'm so happy for her!!! Fruits of our labors is really
awesome to see.
I have really been seeing the
Lord's hand these last couple of weeks and I am really grateful for the
opportunity that I have to be a missionary here in this mission. I am
very glad that the Lord sent me here to Lagunillas and be able to have
this time with all of these people. People are telling me that I have a
Spaniard accent, so I feel like the Spanish is coming along just
greatly!
Guys, I love the mission. Sometimes
the mission doesn't love me, but it really has helped me a lot as a
person. I recommend it to anyone.
Emily, thank you so much for doing it! I love you! Keep reading it! You are porfiada pero te quiero mucho!
Rachel, keep preparing for the mission. It will be a great help for the rest of
your life! I'm really excited to talk to you after the mission! I love
you!
Kristi, I love how much you tell me that
you love me and miss me. I was able to read all of the Dear Elder letters you
guys sent and I am really grateful! Thank you so much!!!
I have got to go now! I love you Guys!!! See you guys next week! I'll tell you all about it!
Love, Elder Runyan
6/29/2015
"Hello from down under-meaning Chilé not Australia"
Well this week was pretty awesome!
Because I got my package!!! I know right, and I ate it all (just kidding)!
Thank you so much you guys!!! I'm so happy and fat now!!!
Haha, this was an interesting week
that we've had here in Lagunillas. First of all, we had a General Authority
come and speak to us on Thursday. Elder Gonzalez talked to our mission about
the things that we need to do in order to improve as missionaries in our
specific mission. It was really good. I got a lot out of our time with him.
Also I got to see some of my old companions!!! I saw Elder Hendricks, Letelier,
and Valderrama! It was pretty cool! I got to talk on the bus ride with Elder
Hendricks for a long time (3 hour bus ride “whoo” because we had the conference
in Los Angeles) So that was pretty nifty.
I don't really know what to say now.
This week, other than the conference, was fairly normal so I don't have a lot
to say haha. Also I'm completing a year this week... Whoa. That's really fast.
I've just realized it so I don't even know what to think. It really doesn't
seem like I've been here for a year. I have learned a lot of things but I am
excited for this next year. Everybody says that the second year goes a lot
faster and I really hope it's not haha. But I am really grateful for my second
year ¡Que sea aún mejor! Haha
I am really proud of you guys. I can
see your progression as I've been writing y'all from here in Chilé. Keep on
doing the things that you guys know you need to do. I love you all and hope the
best for you. I don't have a whole lot more to say. Hopefully the next week
I'll be sending you guys some baptismal photos eh?
Well I'm gonna let you all go. Know
that I love you guys and am always praying for you. It's really cool to hear
all of the things that are going on over there in Utah.
HUMP DAY!!! haha I love you mom!
Love you Dad! Love you all! Emily, I'm so proud of you! Kristi, keep dancing
your heart out! Rachel, have fun at EFY!
Love you all! Later Skaters!
Elder Runyan
"Bautismo!!!"
WHOOOOO!!! We baptized on
Saturday!!!!!!! Sebastian was baptized!!!
Elder Hill performed the baptism
(because he dies this cambio) so that was pretty sweet I'll be attaching some
pictures for you guys! I've got a lot of cool things to show you guys because
we're using the church computer this time (no viruses!!!). I know right!!! I'm
kinda excited right now if you can't tell haha.
One thing that you guys should know,
there's a thing in the mission called La Semana de Excelencia (Week of Excellence)
and you get a little certificate. It's supposed to make people more excited
(it's working) but we got it last week!!! The Semana de excelencia consists of:
1 Baptism
3 Investigators in church
and 140+ contacts
We nailed it this week. Sebastian's
baptism 3 investigators and 279 contacts -BOOM! We've got all kinds of animo up
in here! Haha it's been pretty sweet. Makes you feel good about yourself (even
though everything we did was due to the help of God) But I feel good. We worked
hard this week. I realized that we were working far below our potential. We
began to talk to everyone, and by everyone I mean everyone. Every person that
crossed paths with us. 140 contacts is actually really easy when you begin to
do that. We found so many more people due to that! It feels good working
harder! 
Also something really cool. We have
an investigator with a baptismal date for the 4th of July! He's awesome and he
has almost all of the lessons and the church attendance he needs. He's super
prepared and we're really excited to be able to baptize him on Elder Hill's
favorite day of the year!
Needless to say we're seeing
miracles! Pretty sweet eh?
Also Mom! I got you your letter! I'm
sending it to you today WhooHOO!!
Also now I feel really bad because I
haven't written Dad anything for Father's Day... I'll be getting you something
next week don't worry!
Q & A: We didn't have a Mamita
in Tijeral, and Yes I saw all of your pictures, those were awesome! Keep sending
more! Things are going pretty awesome here in Lagunillas. It's a really awesome
sector.
Actually we had a Ward Talent show
on Friday and I sang Demons by Imagine Dragons with the Ukulele on stage (maybe
you could find the video on Facebook or something because some people were
filming) It was a great activity. The ward here in Lagunillas is awesome.
Everyone cares for each other and they plan things out really well. We also got
a new ward mission leader (he lives across the street from us and is super
cool) so that's pretty sick!
This coming week we are going
to have a mission conference and a seventy is going to speak to us on becoming
more spiritual (we took some surveys according to our missions and their going
to address the topics that frequently surged). So we're gonna be pretty
spiritually high right now!
About J's dad... J is a great
guy and I'm glad he's going to get to serve in the same mission as his dad. His
family will be together forever. That is the best part about being a mormon (LDS). Sí
o sí (means surely, like saying yes or yes, meaning no isn't an option)
estaremos juntos para siempre si es que guardemos nuestros compromisos con
Nuestro Padre Celestial.
You guys are really awesome. Keep
being perseverantes ¡no se rindan!
Eso es todo lo que tengo para esta
semana. Ojalá que tengan una buena semana! Los quiero muchísimo! Happy Father's
Day Dad!!! Work hard you will be happier as you do so!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Elder Runyan
6/15/2015
"QWERTY"
So I'm here in Concepción in a ciber
with viruses so I'm not gonna try to send y'all any photos because I don't want
to lose 'em all haha. It's weird just being here in Conce on P-Day. It's a
bigger city you know and I'm used to Tijeral and everything haha.
Just to answer a few questions (I
feel bad because sometimes I forget to answer all of them)
1. Can't send any pictures this
week, nor your letter Mom (ciber viruses). I feel like a terrible son... I'm so sorry! I love you Mom!!!
2. I did receive the English
scriptures about two weeks ago and forgot to tell everyone (I really need to
write down the things I'm gonna say before I come to these cibers) Thank you so
Much!!! I love them!!!
3. Also we do have a Mamita here in
Lagunillas that does our laundry. She does it really well as well as she sews
our clothes that need mending. We pay her every month but she's a really
awesome lady, haha, she makes me laugh!
4. It is getting a bit chillier here
in Chile (Ba dum TSS) But I'm fine with what I've got. There has been a lot of
Elders that have died (finished their missions) in this sector so if I need anything
extra it's not hard to find. We have wood and gas stoves so we never pass a
whole lot of cold. It actually hasn't been raining a ton here thanks to a
prayer Elder Hill and I had, haha (we prayed that it wouldn't rain until Elder
Hill died) Just like when Enoch prayed and it didn't rain for 3 years haha.
5. Yes we do pay for the hour of
internet on P-Day in the cibers (It's really hard to trust the cibers though
because many times they can have viruses so you just gotta be careful)
To answer Dad's question: The
mission is a lot different than I had expected it to be. When you get on that
plane you think that automatically the mission is going to be the spiritual
experience of a lifetime for the fact that you now have a "name tag". The name tag does not give you any more spirituality than you had before. That's what I now
understand. I understand that the mission is full of life-changing spiritual
experiences, but it is not the most spiritual I've felt in my life just because
I'm a missionary. If you want to feel the spirit you have to create a spiritual
environment. I'm gonna be honest - a lot of times it is hard to feel the spirit in-between being a bunch of immature missionaries and the Chilean culture. We
pray multiple times a day, we read the scriptures every day, we do what
missionaries do and even then sometimes it is difficult. I have to be ready to
feel it. Going through the motions, going through the mission does not cut it.
You have to work, you give every meager ounce of energy you can compose. You
really pray. You feast upon the words of Christ. You cannot let anything
distract you from the reason you're here in the first place. You still have fun. The
mission is supposed to still be fun and I honestly love it.
Keep moving forward. That's the
purpose of life, isn't it?
I love you all. We have a baptism
this week on the 20th! His name is Sebastian. He's thirteen and awesome haha.
Please keep him in your prayers! Elder Hill and I are gonna kill it here in
Lagunillas!
I love you! If I didn't answer all
of your questions forgive me! I'm only human! I want the best for you! Have a
great week!
Love,
Elder Runyan
"Lagunillas"
Hey hey hey!!! Lagunillas baby! Haha So I'm here in Lagunillas with Elder Hill (I'll send y'all a photo of him) haha. This sector is really close to the ocean (too bad we can't swim). It's a pretty sweet sector, not gonna lie. It's fairly big to say the least. My first few days here have costed me a little bit to get used to how much we walk (distance wise). In comparison to Tijeral, it's like 50 times bigger haha. We have a lot of good people here in the ward and a lot of good investigators. Elder Hill and I hope to be able to baptize three people before Elder Hill goes home. It's a good meta I think. So we're heading towards that real quickly!
It's really different living with
four missionaries in the same house again. It's a lot more fun haha. Elder
Cahill and Elder Washburn are here in the same casa as me. So there's four
gringos here (4 gringoes on the 4th of July what?!?!) haha it's gonna be pretty
sick I'm thinking.
Elder Letelier had a consejo with
President on Thursday so he actually came and stayed the night here in Lagunillas
with us and 5 other missionaries that came from down south. Pretty weird like
long time no see (two days) jaja. Haha I'm gonna be able to see all of my comps
before they die because we're gonna have a mission conference in June Before
Elder Valdivia. Hill, and Valderrama die (then one cambio after that Elder
Hendricks and Letelier :( Hahah
Well I don't really know what else
to tell you guys. It's been a good week and we're working hard. I'm gonna send
some photos to you guys to let y'all know what's up.
Also on my birthday, after we
did internet, Branch Tijeral all came together for a Family Home Evening to
celebrate my birthday! Hermana Franco (the lady that was there during your
skype call) she made me a birthday cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me
in English (they teach everyone here how to sing happy birthday in English) it was
so awesome! I love those guys there in Tijeral! I'll send you some photos. We
actually video taped them singing to me in English so hopefully I'll be able to
send you that.
Sorry if I've been skimping a little
on the whole information via email, I've had a lot of stuff on my mind lately.
But I'm fine! Don't worry!
Oh yeah! Before I forget! Yesterday
in church I presented myself as the new missionary in the ward (Elder Roonyahn)
and there was a Hermana in the ward that asked me if I had a family member
that had served in Resistencia Argentina (a Hermana) and I said yes! Sarah
apparantly was ''born'' when this hermana was about to go home. She remembered
the name haha I'll try to get her name before the next email so Sarah can
remember her. haha small world. Well That's all I got this week. I'm gonna have to let y'all go. But I'm gonna be attatching a few photos if you don't mind of some of my favorite people.
Hasta la vista baby!
Elder Rhoonjahn
6/01/2015
"Me Cambian"6/01/2015
Looks like I'm
heading out of Tijeral. I'm going to Lagunillas and my companion is going to be
Elder Hill. My comp, Elder Letelier is going to stay with Elder Tanke. Their
shutting down Tijeral and they're going to move Tijeral to Renaico and travel
every other day to Tijeral. That's how it was a year ago and it's technically a
lot cheaper for the mission.
Also I'm twenty now. I don't know why, but I'm really tranquil right
now. It's probably because I've matured a whole lot since yesterday when I was a
teenager - haha.
Mom, don't feel bad about sending me
a package on time. I'm happy to get any package at any time. Thank you so much
for supporting me and helping me in every moment. I feel even worse that I
haven't gotten to send you your letter for Mother's Day and your birthday. I
had it all done and after I heard the cambios I forgot about everything and
left to do internet! For now I hope it suffices to have you look up a poem that
I thoroughly enjoy about Mothers. It's called ''A Mom is a Person'' or something
like that (if it's not mom, it's mother I think). I like it and I think you will
as well.
I just want to thank all of you for
all that you do for me. You guys are awesome and I am really grateful for your
love and support. It's really weird to think about how quickly time passes. I
hope to be able to use it wisely. Don't waste time please. It's the only thing
you have to spend.
I don't really know what more to say
haha. I love you guys even when I write few words jaja. Emily's already
graduated and you guys are going to be in summer. Take advantage of your free
time (when you have any). Go to the temple. When Payson's done you will be able
to go more often. Set apart a time every week to go to the temple, even if just
to look from outside. Every week. Don't fail on me. Please do it, I promise you
will be more in tune to the Spirit if you do. If you don't do it, tell me so I
can tell you off (haha just kidding). But seriously do it. I love you all. Keep
loving each other. Keep vouching for one another.
Love, Elder Runyan
P.S. Kristi I really enjoyed the
quote that you sent me. I wrote it down in my little quote book I have.
It really is true. Thank you for sending me that. You don't know how much I
needed it. I love you!
5/25/2015"Tijeral Tijeral"
So this week has been a little weird. I don't know why, it
was fairly normal but it just felt kinda backwards. I don't know how to describe
it.
Anyways, thanks for all of your letters. I sincerely enjoy
reading each of them to be able to know what's all going on up there in Utah
(or as the Chileans say Jootah (The ''J'' sound is a mix between sh and y)) The
Payson Temple looks amazing!!! I'm really excited to be able to go there when I
return!
Emily, I can imagine how excited/scared you are about your
graduation. It's nuts to think that you almost have 18 years. What's even more
weird is to think that I'm almost 20 (yikes!) It's okay you guys, I still have
the mind of a 12 year-old so I'm not quite ancient yet. Emily, don't worry
about growing up. Ask mom and dad, you learn much more about life by living it.
For these 11 months that I've got in the mission I have learned so much more
about life than I ever imagined.
As for Rachel... Work hard, Play hard. The good thing is
that you're going on a mission so I don't have to worry about you thinking
about marraige for a good 5 years...whew. Try to help others, lose yourself in
their service, especially your family. If you do that you'll turn out just
fine. The
richest people in the world are the people that give the most. That's true spiritually
as well as temporally.
Kristi. Chile doesn't celebrate Memorial Day but on
Wednesday everyone here had the day off for some reason (Arturo Prat or
something) Haha. Yes I have been trying my best to do your challenges.
Sometimes I can't watch the videos you send me but I still love that you send
them to me. I promise to do your challenge this week. So be ready for the
answer okay? Thanks for always sending me something to brighten up my day. Read
the scriptures every day!
I don't know why but I'm all about
words today. We had a new investigator in church this week that a member
brought. Our other ones didn't show... :( We could have helped them prepare
better but we didn't. We didn't try as hard as we ought to have done. I don't
know, I suppose I got a little lazy and forgot why I'm here. I never want to
forget it again.
I have a feeling that I'm going to be leaving Tijeral next week. It'll be different but I suppose it's a way to get us fresh again. President already told me in an interview that I would probably be leaving this cambio. Haha I suppose the mission isn't just roses and daisies (I already knew that but I've become more thoughtful about it this week haha)
I have a feeling that I'm going to be leaving Tijeral next week. It'll be different but I suppose it's a way to get us fresh again. President already told me in an interview that I would probably be leaving this cambio. Haha I suppose the mission isn't just roses and daisies (I already knew that but I've become more thoughtful about it this week haha)
This was a good week I learned a lot and loved a lot. That's
what we need right? A little more education and a lot more love in the world?
Haha I love you guys more that you can know. You are all incredible examples to
me. Don't Stop Believin', Know that I'm okay and almost twenty (actually the
next time we talk I'll be twenty what?!?!)
Stay Classy Spanish Fork.
Elder Beautiful5/18/2015
"Dis Week"
Dis week was pretty sick. First of
all, we had two investigators in church (WHAT?!?!) I know right? Pretty gnarly!
Lisbeth came as well as Nico (he's fifteen and used to come to church a lot
about a year ago but never was baptized). So to say the least, we're killing
it!
It's really weird to think that
Emily will be graduating soon. Wow, You guys are already doing the graduation
photos... By the way I like the one with Emily holding the post and the one
where she's leaning on the truck the most. It's still nuts, but hey, I'm almost
twenty now so I've still got two years on her!
Also Elder Boyer is in the same Zone
as me. I have one cambio more than him. He got to Los Angeles when I had six
weeks there and came with me to Angol. His house was burned down as well last
week (Sunday morning on Mother's day) but they're all fine. They didn't
lose a whole lot of stuff. They left the fire going and BOOM. So Los Sauces
(his sector) has to go live in Purén until they find something better.
Also there is a video By Jeffrey R.
Holland called the Other Prodigal Son. It's really good. It talks all
about what you guys are saying. That is one of my favorite parables. For me it
has become really hard trying to love everyone. I have noticed that with my
converts in Laja, I truly desired the best for them, I had godly love for them.
I see a lot of people that I don't love every day. That's the difference. I
love my converts, and they're my converts because I love them. So that's what
I'm trying to work on this week.
Mom, I feel so bad, but I haven't
finished your letter. :( I'm really sorry. It's been a bit hectic this week as
well and I haven't found a lot of time to be able to write you what I want to.
I promise that it'll get to you this next Monday, okay?
Well that's all I've got for you
guys this week. Be sure to check in on Tijeral Five O this following Monday! I
love you guys so much. If you could pray to help me love these people better
that would be awesome. Keep saying your prayers and reading the Book of Mormon.
HAGS :)
Elder Beautiful
5/11/2015"Well, well, well..."
Well we just had Skype this week
(yesterday). So I don't really know what to tell you guys now haha. Basically
nothing had changed since then.
It was really awesome to be able to
see you guys! I love the Skype conversations in the mission. Those are the
kinds of things that keeps one going through the next six months. So for the
next time we do Skype, you guys need to all be wearing mustaches okay?
There's a lot of things that are
better to ask face to face but if any of you have questions for me, just send
'em to me and I'll be trying my best to answer all of them.
Sooo....yeah I'm drawing a blank right now so I should
probably send you guys a picture of my comp and I right?
Alrighty then it's now attached. I
just barely took that here in the ciber (where you pay money to use the
internet).
Read the Book of Mormon every
day.
¡Arrepentíos! ¡Arrepetíos! ¡Extremos
de la tierra! (Repent ye, repent ye, all ye ends of the earth!) Just joking haha
But really, thanks for all that
you guys are doing. I know that there's a lot more that's going on but keep me
informed. Know that I'm fine and that the Lord is there to help you. I love
you.
Chao! Love you!
Elder Beautiful
5/4/2015"Mother's Day eh?"
So this week we had Stake
Conference. It was really sick. We had a Seventy and the Temple President from
Santiago come speak to us. It was really cool seeing how awesome General Authorities
are.
About Mother's Day, we were planning
to so Skype around 6:00 pm here so around 2:00 I think your time.
Also no pictures this week. My comp
told me not to send any of him yet because he wants to meet you guys face to
face - haha.
You guys seriously do so many things
every week, it’s nuts. It seems like you're all so busy with all the pictures
and everything!
Also, thanks to Emily, Rachel and
Kristi for sending me letters! I love knowing how you guys are doing personally
and not just what Mom and Dad send me every week (but still very appreciative
of Mom's and Dad's weekly letters and thoughts you have for me. I love all of them!)
The blessings of the Temple are
really amazing. The Temple President from Santiago served in Chile in 1966 when
there were only three chapels in all of Chile. Now the Angol Stake Center is
one of the biggest Chapels in South America where in 1966 there wasn't even a
Branch. Also the fact that they have a temple in Santiago and are building
another one in Concepción (even though nobody knows when).
One thing I would suggest during the
Skype is that you write down questions that you want to ask me beforehand so
that we aren't just sitting there looking good.
About 32 people on average attend
church in Tijeral to answer your questions. It's been hard to find Lisbeth this
week but we'll find her haha. We haven't gone to Mininco in a while either so
we'll be going sometime this week.
Well I don't have a whole lot more
to say until Sunday! See you guys then! Love You!
Elder Beautiful
So this week was pretty awesome! Our
investigator came to church! I'm SO EXCITED! First investigator in church here
in Tijeral! You guys have no idea how stressful Sundays are having to call and
look for all of your investigators and coordinating with members to help you
bring them all and then hoping they arrive on time, haha. Lisbeth came! I'm so
excited! She's gonna get baptized! Haha to answer your question she's from
Tijeral.
Oh and we had cambios on Tuesday,
Elder Valderrama se fue y llegó Elder Letelier - Haha ,. Elder Letelier is really cool. He plays just
about every instrument there is. He plays piano for all of the conferences
because he plays so well. He also plays guitar incredibly well (too bad we
don't have a guitar in the house, but we do have my ukulele!) It's been really
good with him. He is basically fluent in English, he doesn't talk to me in
English but he understands everything I say perfectly. He knows a lot of funny
words in English, he always surprises me with jokes that only work in English.
Elder Letelier is from Viña del Mar (Chile). He has 20 months in the mission
and is pretty sure that this will be his last sector.
We've been doing really well. When I
heard about the volcano I thought: ''Uh oh there's gonna be a lot of worried
Moms in Utah'' haha. The volcano Calbuco
is about 5 hours south or so from here. It's actually located in the Osorno
mission. The day after we were walking outside and my comp said, ''Where is all
this smoke coming from? Is there a fire?'' Nope there was ash in the sky. It
actually didn't affect us at all. The sky was all grey for about 10 hours or so
but that was it. Other missionaries probably had other experiences down south
but we didn't get anything more than a dusty sky.
Also, before you send me anything,
this would be awesome. There is a translation of the Bible called ''Da Jesus
Book'' If you could find a way to send that to me that would be awesome, just
saying. It's the most accurate translation of the Bible haha. At least read it
online for me because it'll make you laugh - haha. (It's just a funny translation of the New Testament in Hawaiian Pidgin)
Also the mission wants us to set up
a time to Skype with our families this week and next. So what time would be
best for all of you? My comp wants to get to know you guys and talk in English
so you have even more to look forward to haha.
Well I don't have a whole lot more
to tell y'all. So my turn to ask questions!
1. How's Emily feel about graduation?
2. What's Rachel planning on doing in school?
3. How's junior high with Kristi? (That's so weird)
4. What time are we going to Skype?
Haha I'm going to let you guys go.
Love you all! I hope you have an amazing week. See you guys on Mother's
Day! Live from Tijeral! haha
Chao!
Elder Runyan4/20/2015
"Hello Transfers"
So this week we have transfers.
Basically a lot of things happened this week but I'm not going to be able to
tell you all of them.
1. My comp (Elder Valderrama) is being
transferred to Los Angeles (again) and my New Comp is going to be Elder
Letelier (un chileno). So that's the biggest cambio. I will also be staying in
Tijeral, so that's good!
2. We had a conference with Elder
Oaks! He came to Santiago and spoke to four different missions from there via
webcam. It was really cool. He said that just about all of us will never again
be full-time missionaries. Then he said that because this is the only chance
that we will get we must “BE FULL-TIME MISSIONARIES”. It was an awesome
experience. It would have been cool to see him in person but he could see all
of us, he knew I was there- haha.
My Buds from the mish, I got to see at the Conference
 |
| The last agenda of Elder Mundell before he goes home |
3. Also, we finally found our
investigator who wants to be baptized but it's really hard for her to get to
church due to her job, toddler, and family. We're going to find a way to get
her to church, sí o sí.
4. We went to Mininco again! We went
with a few members that already knew the sector and found some members there
that used to travel to Angol to go to church. We found them and taught them the
Restoration and contacted a lot more people. Mininco is actually bigger than
Tijeral. I think Tijeral has about 3000 people and Mininco has about 5.500
people. It is cool to basically be opening a new sector (it's not quite open
yet but the Stake President wants to start a branch there).
So that's all that’s going on here.
I really enjoyed all of your letters! Everyone wrote me except Kristi! AAAHH!
She always writes me. What happened!?
For some of your questions:
Mininco is about 25-30 minutes away
by bus, 500 pesos for the trip so 1000 pesos en total. (about $0.81 /
$1.62 roundtrip)
Also zipper-ties or regular - I'm
cool with anything haha. I love both. Regular
ties you can fold up and pack easier but zipper-ties are zipper-ties, you can't
beat it haha.
Also if you could send me my retainer
I would enjoy it. Straight teeth in the long run is better. Pain is weakness
leaving the body haha.
Yes! The Crayola twistables! They're
awesome for marking scriptures!
 |
| My Comp fell asleep |
Read the Book of Mormon as a family.
Please, it really will help you.
Keep being awesome you guys. I know
you aren't telling me everything that goes on but I know that as you keep doing
that which will allow you to come closer to Christ, you will be fine.
I love you! Have a great week! Write
me!
Chao!
Elder Beautiful
4/13/2015"Hand Written Birthday Letter attachments --
Happy Birthday Dad and Kristi !"
So this week was pretty interesting. First of all on Friday we went to
Mininco to try to work over there. Mininco is a small town like Tijeral but
about 20 minutes east. We were granted permission to go there and it's actually
larger than Tijeral! Also everyone there was super nice! I was fairly
surprised. Here in Tijeral a lot of people talk and confide solely in their
pastors. Their pastors tell them all kinds of weird things about Mormons so a
lot of people will slam their door in our faces. It's something that I'm really
used to now but when we went to Mininco these people had never talked to Mormons
before! It was really weird everyone was like ''Yeah come on in!'' Nobody in
Mininco has pastors that talk trash about us because they've never seen
missionaries over there. 80% of these people had never seen a Gringo! It was
sick! I felt like the first missionaries of the church because nobody knows
what a Mormon is and they have no bias from their pastors! Haha not gonna lie
it was a cool experience, we taught 3 families in one day.
That's about how many new
families we get in a week in Tijeral. The problem is that they live pretty far
away from the chapel in Tijeral. That's the big downside. But we'll find
someone. Stake Presidency has told us that if we can find and baptize two
families in Mininco they could start a group (not quite a branch but they could
congregate in Mininco). It's a really cool prospect!
Also we've been trying to get better at teaching. It's a little hard to
change your teaching habits when you've used them for all of your mission but I
think we're getting better! We should be able to baptize a lot more if we allow
the Spirit to teach instead of us.
I'm gonna send this first half of my letter that has my Birthday letter
to Dad and the second half of it will have Kristi's letter.
But this week was pretty nifty to say the least. To answers some of your
questions:
I can get Oreos here. When I first arrived
I couldn't but now they're in all of the big supermarkets. They have mint,
birthday cake and double stuff. So you don't have to worry about the Oreos
haha.
I want to let you guys know that I really do enjoy the mission. It is
the best experience that I've had in my life. I am learning so much from the
scriptures as well as other people. I have been able to bless the lives of many
people and I still have so much to look forward to. I am really grateful for an
opportunity to serve here in Chile.
We taught Lesson 1 (the Restoration) really quickly yesterday. We did it
in such a way that our investigator would actually read and pray. Also quicker
lessons are easier to pay attention to haha. We also have learned of an awesome
way to get people to read the Book of Mormon. I can't tell you what it is
because it takes a long time but I want you guys to put more importance and
effort into your personal scripture study.
Keep being awesome you guys. You all give my strength here in Chile.
Keep doing what you need to do. You know what you need to do.
I love you all. Have a great week! See you
later!
Elder Runyan4/6/2015
"Letter Home Today"
(and answers to Birthday questions)
So this is my letter home right after
General Conference Weekend! This week was pretty awesome especially with
General Conference and everything! On Friday the Assistants came to our sector
and we did splits with them. We had 248 contacts this week (everyone in Tijeral
twice, I actually have no idea how many people actually live there but we
contacted a lot haha) As well as having the Conference. We went to the Stake
Center in Angol (I've heard that it's one of the biggest in South America) and
I was able to watch it in English with all of the gringos here as well haha. We
watched all of the Spanish talks in Spanish however.
3/30/2015
One of
my favorite talks was by Elder Bednar. I really enjoy his dissection of the
scriptures. He takes one verse of the Book of Mormon and expands it through all
of eternity. It is incredible his reliance on the word of God. I realized the
importance of reading the scriptures daily as being a large part of our daily
worship. I cannot remember who it was but they spoke on enduring to the end. He
said that enduring to the end is not just hanging in there. It is continually
being and becoming made whole through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That one really stuck out to me. As well as the fact that Eternal Matrimony is
essential to gain exaltation in the highest kingdom of glory haha ;) Just be
sure that Emily doesn't take that advice until after I return from my mission.
If you get engaged before I get back you'd better have an
apostle for a fiancé. I don't really mean that but I kinda do.
Also
one awesome thing. It's Dad's and Kristi's Birthdays this week! I actually had
something that I had written and was going to send to each of you via email,
but I actually forgot to bring my notebook to take pictures of it to send to
you. So on your birthdays you're going to have to pretend you got an incredible
letter from Elder Runyan and wait until next Monday (I'll write it down so that
I don't forget).
Anyways I probably ought to answer all of your questions before I
run out of time!
-- In
Tijeral the baptizing is done by anyone that the investigator wants (a medida
que tenga el sacerdocio aaronico en el oficio de presbítero) So probably Branch
President or a missionary I would guess. When I said it looks like we won't
have a baptism this cambio is because we don't have anyone that has
enough attendance to church to be able to be baptized before the next
transfer which is the 21st of April. I would suppose that I will not
be transferred but who knows?
Answers
to Birthday questions:
1) The address on my account is correct
but I don't know about the things that I had put in my cart so you can just
toss them out. I've thought about it and I would rather have a triple and a
bible (Black leather) than a quad and I suppose that a scripture case,
something simple to keep the dust off would be nice as well.
2) I cannot have an electric blanket pad
or anything of the sort. That's a mission rule now because electricity is the
most expensive form of calentation (is that a word for making heat in english?).
I very much enjoy Kool Aid as well as popcorn. I can buy just about all types
of candy except Almond Joy, and 100 Grand. I can get Skittles and Cadbury mini
eggs! (I found them the other day, really expensive but worth it!) Pictures are
always awesome as well as perhaps a belt seeing as though I've only got two and
one of them has bling. Socks as well (nike black crew socks are actually the
best). Ties are classic so keep 'em coming! I also cannot find Beef Jerky here
so that as well haha. I can buy medicines and the mission pays for them so you
don't need to worry about things like that.
3) The Twistable Crayola Crayons are
essential. I really like my scriptures to be pretty. Other than that I think
I'm set!
I am so
grateful or all of you guys. Thanks for all that you do! I've never heard
Echále ganas before but I'll probably start using it haha. Thanks for everyone
that sends me letters. I really do read them all with my limited time! Have an
awesome birthday you two! See you all next week on Chile - Mission Life 2015!
Élder Runyan
"Re: Tijeral and the Two Elders"
Well this week was fairly interesting. We have gotten much
better at contacting every person we see. Some people aren't used to having
missionaries talk to them in every occasion possible but we're getting a lot
better at working. It's been neat seeing that in some way we are having an
impact here, that in some future day we will have been the ones to set the
foundation for missionary work.
The new
standard of excellence for the mission is 140 contacts each week. It used to be
120 but President Bluth felt it necessary to elevate the standard. That means
20 contacts every day. It actually isn't all that difficult to do. You just
have to talk to every person you see. Be it that we are rejected or not, our
responsibility is to open our mouths.
We had
a few fechas bautismales. One to be exact. Her name is Lisabeth (pronounced
Leez-Bet). She's actually really good! She's the cousin of the Branch
President's wife! She came with us to a Family Home Evening we had in the
Church and she wants to be baptized. She didn't come to church last week
because she was working from 4-12 at night and her baby kept her up til 3 am.
There's a saying here. El Primo de Satanás es Sábanas (Satan's cousin is bed
sheets). It's funnier in Spanish because it kinda rhymes. But it's true! People
don't come to church because they're sleeping! arrgh. Looks like this cambio we
won't have a baptism :( But we're going strong for the next one!
I love
hearing about all of you and what up with you! Thank you so much for all of
your letters every week. I know it's hard to find time but I really appreciate
it. Also chuta, my birthday is coming up. Woah. That's really fast. I'm gonna be
20! That's weird. Anyways I do have a little confession to make... I kinda lost
my English scriptures in the CCM (MTC). Yeah. I have two sets of Spanish
scriptures and a Libro de Mormón, and a English paperback BOM. But no English
Scriptures. I have no idea how I lost them but it was the last week and I
couldn't find them anywhere!
I know they're really heavy to send so I don't want to ask
for them unless you can find a way to get them to me easily.
Actually
I think there is an easier way! You can log on to my LDS account in the LDS store and buy them online! They come from Santiago and shipping is free for
missionaries as far as I'm aware. You would need the address of the mission
home and viola! I don't know if I would like a quad or a triple and a bible. But
I do like the new sleek style of the 2013 scriptures. But if you could look
into that it, would be awesome!
I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time this week! I love all
of your letters and wish I could respond personally to all of them.
For Dad: Watch or listen to the BYU address of David A Bednar called "Living Water" or
something like that! Thanks Grandma and Kristi for writing me! I love you
all
See
you on the flip side!
P.S. Also I uploaded
two pictures to DropBox of me and my comp looking all Flaite. (We found the hat
in a member’s house and I had a photo shoot) Chao!
3/23/2015
"Week/Semana Number 38? I don't even know, I looked at Mom's email...haha"
Hey, hey, hey! Well guess what! I
got sick this week! I know, really cool right? Not really. I felt pretty gross
for a while. I have a testimony of ibuprofen! We worked our butts off this
week. On Monday I got really sick and we only contacted 4 people and the
mission doctor told me to go to bed around 7:30. I felt a lot better on Tuesday
and we contacted Tijeral 5 times over haha. Usually we have about 100
contacts weekly and that's a fairly high number but this week we had 175!
Getting sick inspired me or something. I thought if I die, I die tracting! Haha, no it wasn't that bad at all. I just applied D&C 28:16 which says:
16 And thou must open thy mouth at
all times, declaring my gospel with the sound of rejoicing. Amen
We're doing good. We put a few
baptismal dates with 3 people. The problem is that it's always 3 different
people than before. We can't keep our investigators. Something about Tijeral.
We've begun implementing opposition in our teachings. The investigators have to
know that Satan doesn't want them to be baptized. We've begun a new teaching
method called Jaque Mate (Checkmate) that calls for an elevated emphasis on
baptism. In our contacts we mention baptism so that the people cannot
misinterpret our purpose as missionaries. Many people believe that we are here
solely to Preach the Word of God. Share the Gospel and the Bible. Nope were
here to convert you to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "Mormonism", as our ancestors called it, is the only true and everlasting gospel. We have
prophets, we have authority, we have revealed scripture and guidance from God
that sets us apart from any other religious denomination! 1800 years of
darkness, calamity and worry and we escaped! Thanks to our merciful God who
showed us His way through His servant Joseph Smith! I have gained a greater
testimony of the prophet this week if you haven't noticed. These people have no
idea that every other church on this globe has in some way been swindled. They
have to know that! That is why we are trying to perfect our teaching ability.
2 Nephi 25:28:
28 And now behold, my people, ye are
a stiffnecked people; wherefore, I have spoken plainly unto you, that ye
cannot misunderstand. And the words which I have spoken shall stand as a
testimony against you; for they are sufficient to teach any man the right way;
for the right way is to believe in Christ and deny him not; for by denying him
ye also deny the prophets and the law.
We have to be better. This is why we
are here. All of us, big or small know that this is the true church of God.
There is no other. This is the exact same church that Jesus Christ established
on the earth before His ascension to celestial glory.
Knowing all of these things we have
to know, automatically, that the commandments which the Lord God has given us
are for our benefit. No matter what happens to us, it is for our benefit!
In D&C 121 it states:
5 If thou art called to pass
through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in
perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;
6 If thou art accused with all
manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee
from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with
a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine
offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to
thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us?
O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be
thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies
prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;
7 And if thou shouldst be cast
into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed
upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire
against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather
blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if
the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my
son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy
good.
8 The Son of Man hath
descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, hold on thy way,
and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they
cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less;
therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and
ever.
We need not fear. Fear is the
opposite of faith. Don't ever give up you guys. Keep on keeping on.
Jacob 6:12
12 O be wise; what can I say more?
Wisdom is to follow that gospel of
Jesus Christ. It is the most wholly intelligent thing that we can do. We know
that we are promised ''an hundredfold'' for all that we have in our power to
give up. You or I cannot give up those odds. It is a trade of a penny for a
dollar, a dollar for 100. It is an incredibly logical gospel. Given by an
All-Knowing, All-Seeing, All-Loving Father in Heaven. We have the capacity in
each one of us to become as He is! Don't throw that away in some dark corner or
at the bottom of a bottle. Don't give away your agency to that miserable
Lucifer, fallen Son of the Morning. He tries to promise that which he does not
even own.
Our life is hard. But it is only as
hard as it needs to be.
Also I would like to thank Grandpa
Runyan for the package that he sent me! I love it. The only problem is that I'm trying to
drop a few pounds - haha! But thank you so much !!!
Also I would advise you all to
search more talks from General Authorities. It's an easy thing to listen to a
talk every now and then. It has become a strength to me and I know it'll be one
for you.
Also I was not sick from the chicken
feet because I ate that almost two weeks ago. ¡Para que sepan!
Thank you so much for each of your
emails! I love reading about your lives. But hey we'll be getting to see each
other on Skype fairly pronto so we can get excited for that!
Also General Conference!!!!
WHOOOO!!
Well gotta space. Love you all. Keep
on telling me what you've learned lately! It helps me keep on going!
Chao!
Élder Runyan
3/16/2015"Week...."
So this week was fairly normal. We
had a zone activity today and we went to the Cantera here in Angol. I got to
play football (american football) so that was pretty cool. I haven't played
anything american for 8 months - haha. Anyways we are having a bit of trouble
keeping all of the investigators that we've gotten. I don't know what it is
about Tijeral, but every time we find someone, put a baptismal date the first
appointment, we never see them again! I have no idea. De todos los
investigadores que hemos encontrado en estos dos cambio solamente hemos podido
mantener dos o tres casas en las cuales hemos podido enseñar mas que 1 o 2
veces. It's a bit discouraging but we've just gotta get these guys that we've got on
the progression train so that we aren't just dando jugo (giving juice or just
talking for talks sake).
Some of the pictures that I uploaded
are of the zone activity and a sick Instagram lunch photo.
#chickensogoodfrommyheadtomy #feet
Also we had an opportunity to speak
with a Testigo de Jehovah. They really think they know a whole lot. She was
trying really hard to convince me that the Bible was the word of God after we
had already established that it was. I was like ''Yes the Bible is the word of
God. I already know that, yes. Okay. Yes I know.'' She didn't get it. I told
her that when Jesus said that Eternal Life is to know God the Eternal Father and
Jesus whom He sent, meant that we ought to read their words to get to know them
right? Then I said if you only read half of His words; Do you arrive at Eternal
Life or at Half? This was all after explaining what the BOM was. I
said, if you don't read both of them (the Bible and the BOM) you don't get
there. Then I read to her 2 Nephi 33
10 And now, my beloved brethren, and
also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in
Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall
believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of
Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should
do good.
11 And if they are not the
words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great
glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face
to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to
write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.
She said that the Bible is better
and was perfectly happy with her limited understanding of their non-divinely
inspired translation of the Bible. Oh well. To every man his own.
Anyways that's the highlight of the
week. We're working really hard to do a lot of contacting in our District. we
have done 120 contacts each week for a good while now. That's a lot if you
don't know. But we've been a lot more tired lately which is a good thing - haha.
Well I gotta go know, I'll be
talking to you guys next week!
Love you!
- Elder Beautiful
P.S. When you guys send me something
again I was wondering if you could send me a big pack (like 30 or something) of
the Twistable Crayons. I use them to mark my scriptures and my red one broke :(
Also I'm running out of color schemes.
Gracias!
3/9/2015
"Cambio....Kinda"
Well this week (today) we had
cambios (transfers) but my comp and I are still here in Tijeral! Actually not a
single missionary in our district changed so not much of a cambio but I've got
6 more weeks with Elder Valderrama! Haha we've been getting along really well
these past few weeks. So we've both got another six weeks to squeeze a baptism
out of Tijeral so keep on prayin'! I know that there's a baptism out there just
waiting to be found. We've been seeing more and more investigators due to
member involvement en la obra misional. Fruits of our labors! Yeah! It's cool
to see the members getting more and more excited to share the gospel. Haha the
only thing is that we have got to keep them on this high of putting their
shoulders to the wheel.
Sadly, we did not have any
investigators in church this week but we did have an attendance of 40 members!
We're getting better on the whole coming to church thing! Now one of those
forty was me and one of them was my comp, but 40! Whoo! So we're getting
somewhere!
So what you said about the Jehovah's
Witnesses haha. There are a ton of them here in Chile. I don't know. But
seriously they've knocked on our door more than a few times. The funny thing is
that they're scared of us. They knocked on the door last Thursday and I open
the door in my proselyting clothes. A grown man of about 60 years looks at my name tag and reaches into his bag saying, ''Hello young man, we're the Jehovah's
Witnesses. You're probably familiar with us but I'm sure you're busy so I'm
just going to leave you with our little magazine okay?'' I accepted and he went
on his way. He didn't even try to share a message with me. Also after reading
the little pamphlet he gave me I understood why they're so scared. They profess
to take all of their doctrine from the Bible (actually they're version of the
Bible that's not entirely the word of God) but they don't even believe half of
what it says. They don't believe in fasting (every scripture in relation to the
law of the fast is missing, besides Jesus's fast) As well as they think that
the only thing Jesus saved us from is physical death. Also they believe that
Jehovah is God the Father. They know that we know the Bible haha. After reading
they're little magazine I felt gross. Even more gross in knowing that they are
a separation from our church! The Adventists as well are a separation from us
but they know the Bible! They actually are the closest to the truth!
Anyways, a little spiel about the
Testigos. But it was a great week. I began to open my mouth. After having read
Tad R. Callister's "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary". I have tried to find
opportunities to open my mouth to every person I see. We have 124 contacts
(telling people that we're missionaries and that we share a message of Jesus
Christ) instead of 75 or so usually. D&C 28:16
Anyways don't worry about your
emails. You guys give me inspiration just by telling me how life goes on. There
is a life after the mission, haha. Also about my shoes... haha, I’ve murdered the
laces so I just keep buying new ones because on every corner here you can buy
shoelaces (fun fact). But the pair I use most often are beginning to get torn up
a little on the inside heel part, when it becomes a problem, I'll let you
know!
Also go and watch Jeffrey R.
Holland's "Remember Lot's Wife". It's really good! As well as his "How do I Love
Thee?"
Keep up the good work y'all. Prepare yourself spiritually to be ready to share. That's my
challenge to you. As we consecrate ourselves, we
become so much happier. Don't let your pride, laziness, or doubt get in the
way. Just do it. Change happens in the matter of an instant! Change now! Don't
change back! Do it now! Don't just start, do it!
Love you all.
Elder Runyan3/2/2015
"8 Months, eh"
Wow. So Today I have 8 months in the
mission. That's pretty nuts. It feels like the time has gone by really fast but
in the moment it seems to pass by slow. Also I wanted to thank Dad for sending
me that quick note. I feel like we could all use a little booster with words
such as that but I feel like you knew exactly what you needed to say. I really
enjoyed that.
Nothing bad happened this week.
President came for our interviews if I didn't tell you. Our house was super
clean so Hermana Bluth gave us homemade oreo cookies (you have no idea how much
I enjoyed that)! Seriously, chilean food is maumenonomá (mas o menos no mas
[so-so]). Not that I'm complaining but people here aren't fat because the food
is delicious. People here are fat because they eat 6 servings for lunchtime. It
is nothing like Mexican food if you're wondering. I have never seen a tortilla until today and I bought 20. Anyways there is a Papa John's here. I've had it
twice and it made me sick both times(totally worth it).
So nothing bad happened this week. I
just happened to come to a realization. Being here in Tijeral we've only
contacted approximately 600 people. Out of those 600 people about 20 of them
are investigators, and of the 20 investigators we have 5 with which he have
passed by more than once. Almost none of them are progressing (coming to
church). I have not had a single investigator enter the church building since
I've arrived. We go outside for more than 8 hours knocking on doors and not one
has led to a baptism. What is that saying. Maybe we need to work harder on
knocking more doors every day, or perhaps we ought to change our strategy. I
decided, along with my companion, that we were going to do our best to set the
building blocks of missionary work in the short time we have left. If I an not
going to have a baptism here, it doesn't matter. What matters to me right now
is that we make a difference. We are planning to change the entire way that the
members have previously been working. Verification's, planning meetings, family
home evening planned by the missionaries. Every day we are going to visit a
member to teach them how to give referrals. How to help the missionaries,
breaking outside of their bubble and sharing with their friends.
Being a missionary, I love to
teach. Don't get me wrong knocking on doors in the summer sun is something I
love as well, I do enjoy contacting, but a contact does not always work. With
Tijeral being a small town and all, every single person has spoken with a
missionary if they've been here within the past 30 years. Every sector is
different. We need to teach. It is incredibly easy to slam the door on a Mormon
because they've done it since they were children. It is much harder to shut the
door on a friend, on a relative, on the truth that they would be able to know
had they only given the time once in their lives to listen to the missionaries.
This way, people will have a lot more knowledge about what they are shutting
the door on.
We believe that through the
Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and
ordinances of the Gospel. I believe that! Do you? These people don't get it. We
talk to people and ask them if they've ever heard about the Book of Mormon.
They say yes. Some even say that they've read it. We ask them what it's about
and they say ''The life of Joseph Smith'' or ''The Joseph Smith you worship''.
They don't get it! Every single person needs to understand good and well what
they are doing to be able to be judged correctly. These people need a chance to
truly understand these things. Comprehension is much better that counting the
amount of people you've talked to. Informing the people.
Anyways that's my little shpiel(is
that a real word?). Tell Emily that I'm really proud of her! That's so awesome!
Keep it up sis! Our interviews went really well. President Bluth is an amazing
person. He has the spirit with him 24/7. That's how I wish to be. Do you know
how much better this world would be if every single Latter-Day Saint was worthy
of the companionship of the Holy Ghost 24/7? 16 million humans like the
stripling warriors? It's an awesome thought.
Watch that this week. As a family if
you can. If not watch it or listen to it on your own. It is very special to
me.
Hope that all of you have a great
week. Keep being good. Pay your tithing. Fast and pray. Search the answers in
the Scriptures. I cannot tell you how important these three things are. Try it,
try it, and you may. Try it and you may I say. Hehe
Have a great week all of you. You're
in my prayers and will never cease to be as long as I live. Be humble.
Elder Runyan
2/23/2015"Letter Home, Week 4 or something in Tijeral"
Well, well, well. Pozo, pozo, pozo.
That means like a "water well" like the kind Jesus was by when he spoke with the Samaritan woman. Anyways, this week was pretty... I don't know...., different? It's
hard to describe. It was just a little rough for us this week.
One, President Bluth is going to
come to each of our houses and interview us while his wife
inspects the
cleanliness of the house (uh oh) and we were trying to make sure that the house
was clean so on Friday night I was sweeping super hard because there's a weird
dust thing in our house that happens to be really stubborn, and as I was doing
so the aluminum broom I was using snaps in half and with my forward pressure in
the direction opposite it happens to clamp down on the meat of my finger,
taking out a nice chunk from my left, middle finger and leaving blood all over
the house (so much for sweeping). Don't worry, it was nothing serious. It just
happened to bleed a lot really fast. I cleaned it all out and got a few
bandaids on it and it's fine now. Only hurts me when I snap my fingers. It's
mostly healed over now. But that was a lovely addition to our clean
house.
 |
| We got to use bikes this week |
Two. I don't know what happened this
week but nobody wanted us in their houses. Sure, we taught people,
outside of their houses, standing up the whole time. Haha, so we've been standing
up a lot these past few days. We even entered two houses, both of which had a
multitude of chairs available and the owners just wanted us to talk to them
standing up. It's weird doing it that way because it's really hard to hint
''Hey can we sit down'' unless you do like the awkward half-sit and you make a
weird face until they feel awkward enough to tell you to take a seat. That
strategy usually works but two dudes this week didn't catch the hint haha! I
don't know, but at least it wasn't quite as hot this week. However this coming
week is supposed to be one of the hottest weeks of the summer, so pray for a
nice lazyboy for Elder Runyan. Three. Well a lot of our
investigators have been slipping away from us. This week we realized that we have only been able to visit 4 more than once. (My English felt weird there) So
we've been trying to visit all of the investigators this week to no avail. Many
of them we have had to kill as investigators (stop visiting them) but so far
we've basically begun to strain out of our pool of investigation.
If you can't tell, I have been
trying to use words larger and longer than usual. I do this because in my spare
moments in which I have the ability to speak in English, I have begun to lose a
sense of sophistication in my vocabulary. I use a lot of slang. Short words
that I don't even pronounce well due to my lack of English practice. It has
become my desire to obtain a greater vocabulary and a better pronunciation
before I return home. I do this so that I might greater be understood by my
fellow man. Haha I try so hard to speak this way but it only lasts for so long.
But seriously, having had to grow accustomed to the terrible pronunciation of
the Chileans and their way of speech, as well as not having been able to speak
more clearly or having had opportunities to speak in my mother language, I have
begun to lose a sense of education, one might say. To be able to be clearly
understood. Don't worry I still talk like a twelve year-old. It's funny because
I realize how badly I talk in English. I don't even need to pronounce half of
the words because I know that the other Gringos understand me because they too
have had to grow accustomed to this singing that the Chileans do.
Anyways we were able to put a fecha
bautismal with a new investigator named Hector. He has had a lot of problems in
his life. It was weird. Instead of teaching him the Restoration, Plan of
Salvation, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We started out talking about the Word
of Wisdom. He doesn't know anything about Joseph Smith, the Bible (besides that
Jesus is our Savior) or the Gospel. We taught him that this really would be
able to help him. He accepted to come with us to church on Sunday and we put a
baptismal date with him. He's a very humble guy and I'm really excited for him
and the decision that he has made.
Well I'm gonna let you guys know.
This week I was reading the Book of Mormon out loud (to learn Spanish and better
my pronunciation) I came across Alma 42:31 que dice:
31 Y ahora bien, oh hijo mío, eres llamado
por Dios para predicar la palabra a este pueblo. Ve, hijo mío; declara la
palabra con verdad y con circunspección, para que lleves almas al
arrepentimiento, a fin de que el gran plan de misericordia pueda reclamarlas. Y
Dios te conceda según mis palabras. Amén.
(English)
31 And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen.
Me gustó bastante esta escritura: Yo
sé que ésta fue revelación de Dios y que Él me ha mandado que esté aquí, en
Tijeral.
Les quiero mucho. Sepan eso. Que
tengan una buena semana! Hasta que nos volvamos a ver!
Con cariño,
Elder Hermoso
Elder Hermoso
2/16/2015
"Another Day, Another Peso"
So this week was pretty dang fun. I got to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting and also the Gospel
Principles Class right after. So that was pretty stellar. Haha I was pretty tired after all that winging it. No, that's a joke. I prepared a little. I gave my talk on Llegando a ser Santos (de los Últimos Días). And our class was on La Libertad de Escoger, Albedrío (The Freedom of Choice, Agency)
None of our investigators made it to
church :( We will be working really hard this week so that we can get as many as possible in church next Sunday. Monica did read the Plan of Salvation and the
Restoration. She really enjoyed reading it out loud by the grave of her son. It
really helped her knowing that she would be able to see her son again. Some of
her Evengelical friends told her that after this life we won't recognize
anyone, that we would all be brothers and sisters and we won't be fathers,
mothers and the such. Pretty lame sus creencias eh? That's one thing that I've learned.
How messed up some peoples ideas are. The people that actually read the
Bible are really smart. The people that go to their church and just listen to
their Pastor and never actually read are like a bunch of sheep running off of a
cliff. It's much easier to teach people who are willing to accept that they
don't know everything. We have to find a person that is somehow in between
these two. Lots of people that read the Bible a lot think that they already
know everything and aren't humble enough too seek more information concerning
God (not always but often). The people that go to church will not believe that
anyone knows more than their pastor. They basically believe that Salvation
comes in and through listening to their pastor and then through Jesus. (Not all
but many) The trick here is humility. Being humble means that we are willing to
accept things that we may not know. Being teachable. If you want to learn, you
need a teacher. If you want your teacher to teach you, you have to listen. If
you want to be able to apply that which you have learned, you have to be humble
enough to submit to the fact that you don't know everything.
I would like to tell
you guys of an experience that helped humble me a tad bit.
One time , if Dad remembers this
story, he had lent me his car (the Scion) and my friends and I went out doing
who knows what in Payson. Afterwards we stopped by a gas station so that I could
fill up the gas that I had used in Dad's car because I didn't feel good if I
didn't put back in what I had taken out.
Right after filling up a little. I
hop back in the car and... Nothing. The battery was dead. Seriously? I was like
''Who is going to give us a jump when it's like midnight and I have no
jumper cables?'' And in that very moment of thinking that, Dad calls me. He
asks if we were alright and needed any help. Dad you were guided in the Spirit
to know exactly when to call me. Thanks for being in tune. Unfortunately, I let
my pride get the best of me. I didn't want any help. I wanted to make it back
on my own. I said No. A few minutes later after talking to some of my friends, I
called you back a bit sheepishly and asked if you could come and help us. Thank
you for being in tune with the Spirit even though I wasn't.
For my sisters or anyone else this may help. Listen to your
parents. They only want the best for you. If you ever get a call. Be humble
enough to ask for help. Your parents love you and will always help you. Your
Father in Heaven is there for you as well. If we are humble.
That is what I wanted to share with
y'all this fine morning. Also one thing. They added a few
more rules in the which I am no longer allowed to email you and wait for a
response in a chat-like setting through my email.
Know that I love you. Even though
I'm 1000's of miles away I am pulling for you and praying for you every morning
and night. Don't give up. Listen Better, Learn Better. I LOVE YOU!
Elder Beautiful
2/09/2015
“This Week - Tijeral"
Well this week has been pretty
interesting. We had 37 people in church this week so that was pretty awesome.
We put 5 baptismal dates with five different people this week so that was
pretty cool as well (besides the fact that none of them got to church) but we
also had 5 less-active members in church as well, so we're doing something!
Also, I uploaded some sick selfies on DropBox #sexyselfie #sillyselfie #seriousselfie #superselfie
in that order ;)
This week we did a lot of walking.
Yep - there was one day where we didn't sit down from 3pm to 10pm. That was fun
:) I'm sorry but I don't have a terribly large amount of time! We just got some
news of some new rules and there's a lot of them and it took a while to read.
You guys are awesome for emailing me every week and doing all of these things
for me. My package wasn't smashed! The Pop-Tarts (Thank you so much) were a little
flat but they tasted amazing!
We've been getting along better as a
companionship. The companionship inventory each week helps us work out our
problems. After seeing the new rules for the mission and everything we've been
getting better at keeping all of the rules. My comp was a little discouraged at
first but now he's been cheering up, haha. Monica is going to read The Plan of
Salvation when she goes to her son's grave today so she's progressing! She
couldn't come to church this week but she'll come the next. I know she's going
to get baptized! It's something you can just tell in the first lesson. She's
getting baptized, pray so that it'll be sooner rather than later!
Here's the link to Hank Smith's “Breaking Up With the World”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5lvcYVtewo
Watch it! (Monday - Family Home Evening)
That's about all I've got time to say.
Mom, I'm feeling awesome, better than I've ever felt! I'm feeling better and better each day. If there's ever anything you need to worry about, I'll tell you. Know that I am in the Lord's hands. You are amazing. Take care of the girls. They love you.
I'll send you some more info about
Tijeral next week!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Elder Runyan
2/02/2015“Tijeral" (Elder Runyan's new area)
Hey, hey, hey how's it going y'all?
Just being a missionary in Tijeral. That rhymed haha.
So we're here in Tijeral. It's
really small, haha. Laja was huge, and Tijeral…. I've basically contacted the
entire city in one week haha. But we're doing good here. When I arrived we had
no investigators at all. My comp seemed a bit discouraged but we found 8 new
investigators this week and put 4 fechas bautismales. None of the new ones came
to church last week (we're in a Branch) (also fun fact - the Branch President
was baptized exactly two years ago today) but we had 3 inactive members come
that we worked with last week. We had 34 in church this week which is really
good. All of this was because we fasted on fast Sunday. Not gonna lie, every time
I've fasted in the mission I've seen miracles happen. So I challenge y'all with
a fast, I know it's not fun, but try it. 24 hours without food or water. Also
it's most important that you pay your fast offering using the amount of money
that you would have used for those meals. Otherwise all you were was anorexic
for a day instead of sacrificing something.
Also something I learned this week
in D&C 4 that is good. I think of it as a checklist. Heart, might, mind,
and strength. Sometimes we think that when we are keeping the commandments
we're good. If we're worthy to enter the kingdom of God, we're good. That's not
the case. We can be completely worthy to enter the Celestial Kingdom by only
serving with all our might and strength. But we won't get in. Like in the
parable of the Ten Virgins (virgins- meaning those who are pure and worthy)
only five made it in. They were all worthy to come in, but they hadn't prepared
their hearts and their minds. We have to give our heart to God.
Not do his will because we
"ought" to, but because we want to. Maybe we want to watch a movie we
shouldn't but we don't do it because we ought not to. It's something really
hard to learn. The change that comes through Christ isn't a change in behavior
but in character. We become good people, not because we do good things, but we
have an inner good. Of all the people I've ever met in my life, with all of the
knowledge or education they may have. The people with whom I am most impressed
are the people that are truly good. I stole that from President Uchtdorf but I
feel the same way.
Anyway we found a golden
investigator! Her name's Monica and she's awesome! We found her yesterday. Her
sons had been baptized a while back but are inactive now. One of them passed
away recently. It's a really sad story and she's been suffering a lot, she had
us all crying (even my comp). We were teaching the Restoration and then out of
nowhere I felt that I should invite her to be baptized. She was crying and I
felt that baptism didn't quite fit the theme but I tied it into the Spirit.
I told her that God loves her, that he too had lost a Son. I told her
that the love of God is made manifest in the Spirit, that we feel God's love
through it. Only the Spirit can give peace of mind. Only the Spirit can mend a
broken heart. I told her that the same Spirit which she was feeling in that
very moment can be with her forever. The Gift of the Holy Ghost could be hers,
all her guilt would be washed away through the ordinance of Baptism.
That was honestly one of the most
Spiritual Experiences of my life. She's an awesome investigator and I'm excited
for her decision to be baptized.
Thanks for listening to me go off
but I hope you learned something! I put some pictures of Tijeral and my comp in
DropBox.
Chao Pescado! (ask Rachel what that
means)
Elder Rhoonjahn
P.S. I saw DropBox! I love the pictures! And it's about the same kind
of internet connection here as in Laja. We traveled 45 minutes to get
here.
1/26/2015“Goodbye Laja"
So this week has been an interesting
one. First of all we Baptized Clara WHoo!!!! But...1) I forgot to bring my
camera to upload the photos and 2) she didn't get confirmed on Sunday. It was
the weirdest freak thing. So she was baptized on Saturday in the morning and it
was really awesome. I took a lot of pictures. On Sunday she came early and was
there for the Relief Society meeting and Sunday School, but she get's up to go
to the bathroom and takes off and we couldn't find her. So she wasn't confirmed. But there was still hope because we had a sacrament meeting in San Rosendo.
She said that she was coming. We went to her house and visited her and she was
all ready to leave when the mother of her grandson came and tried to take him
away from her. So she's going to be confirmed next week when I'm not
here. Also, I'm getting transferred from
Laja, after 6 months. I leave tomorrow morning!
My new companion will be Elder Valderrama (a Chilean). I will be
in Tijeral, which is a really small town with a small branch. Pretty nuts, eh?
We'll be the only missionaries in that sector. Hopefully we have lunches every
week or the mission will have to give us more money, haha. It'll be a bit
different, but I'm excited to see a change.
Well other than that, we didn't do a
whole lot. We were really focused on the baptism and saying goodbye to everyone because we all knew I was leaving. Hopefully, Tijeral will be left better than
when I found it. I have no idea how long I'll be there but I'm sure that I'll
get to work! Hopefully it's not as hot there, eh?
Well I'm guessing that I'll be there
for Mother's Day so maybe you'll be able to see what it's like.Joke! I brought my camera! I'm uploading the pictures to DropBox so you can see 'em, some of them are kinda dumb, haha.
I'm sure that I'll have a lot more news to tell you guys next week! It'll be a change and hopefully the time will go by a little slower for a little bit! I'll send you some more pictures next week! I've gotta say goodbye to everyone right now here in Laja :(
LOVE YOU! Have a great week!
¡Buena suerte en todo!
- Elder Runyan
To Dad (my thoughts about the Sunday School lesson):
In "Jesus the Christ", what I really
enjoy is when it talks about the 40 day fast. It talks about the temptation not
being hunger, fame, etc. But more when the devil says: ''If thou art the Son of
God''. It's a challenge of authority. Jesus was literally the Son of God. He had
all authority and power to do whatever He wanted. But His everlasting example,
that which is much harder to resist than hunger, fame, fortune, and every
worldly thing. It's ''not my will, but Thine be done''.
The one thing that God gave us, our agency, is exactly what he asks of us. The one thing that we don't want to give. For Abraham, it was his son. For the Apostles, it was their entire lives. But for us, what will it be? What will I never give up? It's really a soul-searching question. Because we know immediately what it is. This thing, whatever it may be, is technically our agency. So I have one challenge for you, and for whomever you might choose to share this with. Take the one thing that is the most Ungodly thing in your life, and give it up. It is not easy, it's not even close to easy. But you will be happier. I promise you that. As soon as you give it up and every day afterwards, you will feel so much better. In D&C 25 something it says to leave behind the things of this world and seek ye for things of a better. IT'S BETTER. I Promise.
The one thing that God gave us, our agency, is exactly what he asks of us. The one thing that we don't want to give. For Abraham, it was his son. For the Apostles, it was their entire lives. But for us, what will it be? What will I never give up? It's really a soul-searching question. Because we know immediately what it is. This thing, whatever it may be, is technically our agency. So I have one challenge for you, and for whomever you might choose to share this with. Take the one thing that is the most Ungodly thing in your life, and give it up. It is not easy, it's not even close to easy. But you will be happier. I promise you that. As soon as you give it up and every day afterwards, you will feel so much better. In D&C 25 something it says to leave behind the things of this world and seek ye for things of a better. IT'S BETTER. I Promise.
Spiritual Thoughts By Joshua Runyan
1/21/2015“Weekly Letter A Little Late"
So I wasn't able to write you guys
on Monday because we had an entire mission activity! We all went to Traiguen
which is basically a Scout Camp and had a ton of games and fun and we all
watched "Meet the Mormons". It was really fun and exciting!
So some bad news - Clara didn't pass
her interview. The Second Counselor of the mission came and interviewed her and
she's fine now, she's going to be baptized on Saturday before I leave Laja! So
that's pretty cool.
The other Elders in our Sector had
two baptisms on Saturday so that was cool to be a part of that in helping plan
everything because all of our ward leaders are out on holiday instead of being
in Laja.
We had a lot of cool things happen
this week. We found a golden investigator. She's the ex-daughter-in-law of Clara and is
the first investigator I've seen in my mission that Accepted a baptismal date
in the first lesson, read and completely understood the pamphlet of El
Evangelio de Jesucristo and prayed about it and is sure she wants to be
baptized, understood the Plan of Salvation and committed to come to church
without us having to challenge her. And she is still letting us come to her house for
the 1 hour that she has in-between her two jobs where she wakes up at six, gets
home for an hour at 4 and leaves again at 5 until midnight and only has Sundays
off. We taught her La Restauración and she said she believes it and we gave her
a Book of Mormon and she started reading it in the ten minutes she had before
going to work. She prays every night to know the truth and is always one step
ahead of us while we teach the lessons! She's crazy occupied all of the time
and lets us teach her when she could have a nap in between her two jobs instead. It's
awesome! Her name's Andrea.
So that's pretty much what happened
this week. I've uploaded the pictures I took to Dropbox. Forgive me for not
being able to email you guys on Monday!
See you guys next week! I'll have a
lot of news because Clara is getting baptized and there's also Cambios. So I'm
99% sure I'm leaving Laja because I've been here for almost 6 months!
See you guys on the flipside! I Love
you all! Did Dad go iPhone? Keep being awesome!
Elder Runyan
P.S. I Got the packages! THANK YOU
SO MUCH! THEY'RE SO COOL! I LOVE THE LITTLE AMMON! TELL EVERYONE THANKS THAT
CHIPPED IN! Everything was in ship shape! I loved it! Thank you so much!
1/12/2015
“Letter Home"
I guess didn't get
uploaded the pictures. That's not english order that sentence. (Translation: My photos from last week didn't get uploaded).
Yeah okay
question time (also fun fact here when they say cuestion without the s with the Chilean accent, it means thingymajigger).
The blog is great! It's really cool
mom. Thanks for putting all of your work into that! The family I showed it to loved it. I just
translated it out loud because I forgot about the translation button haha. I
didn't get the email about Ashley's mission call until today, but that's
awesome! Also being here in Laja for this much time is a little weird haha. I
know the sector the best so everyone asks me where things are (which is good
cause I know this place like the back of my hand). I feel like I live here now
being here for so long.
I have no idea how "Chilean" I speak,
I should probably listen to what I am saying. :) and yes I do get Nick's
emails.
So besides those things, not a bunch
too out of the ordinary happened this week. I uploaded all of the pictures to
Dropbox. I have a video that I want to send to you guys but I actually have
worse internet speeds today because we're in a lousy ciber. But when I
do send the video, you have to see it! It's a goofy video but there's a story behind it. There
is a lady in Los Angeles Stake who's the choir director. Instead of leading the
music with her hands she does it with her shoulders and lets her hands go free
and wild! Haha, it's the funniest thing ever because she's entirely serious! We
did a little video where the four of us are in the house doing what she does as
she directs the music.
So our baptismal date on the 17th is
Clara. She's 80 years old and really funny! She told us she likes church but
always sleeps after the Sacrament :) . But she's really good. She understands
everything and is trying to help us find more people to teach. She will be
baptized on Saturday. We have a few other dates but they aren't that sure...
We're working on that but should be good soon!
If you guys have time, listen
to "Breaking Up with the World" By Hank Smith. There's a video on YouTube from
Education Week if I'm correct. But it is really good! Watch it tonight for
Family Night if you can! Also, listen again to the most recent General
Conference talk by Richard G. Scott. Those are two really good ones that I
would advise you to listen to. I'm uploading in DropBox "Stay in the Lifeboat" by
Brad Wilcox. Make Emily and Rachel listen to it before family night :) .
We actually watched The Saratov
Approach today again because the two newer Elders hadn't seen it. What a
Kawinkadink! haha
Well that's about all I've got this
week! Next week you'll see the baptisms of Clara and the other Elders in Laja
are baptizing too!
Know that I love you and want you to
be happy!
Read your scriptures every day!
(that's not a joke...if I found out you missed a day before I get back you'll be
sorry :)
See you all on the flip side, I
should get my package tomorrow if I'm not mistaken!
Love YOU!
Elder Runyan
Elder Runyan
 |
| I burned a tie to mark my 6 months in the mission |
 |
| Juan's house |
 |
| Lomito Sureño (aka Giant Churrascos the size of my head) |
“Hey, Hey, Hey !"
How's it going eh? Sorry if I didn't
write a terrible amount last week. I couldn't think of a whole lot more to tell
you guys, haha 40 minutes was sufficient aapparently(even though I feel like I could have talked for 3 hours). But we had a good New Years! Even though we
beat you guys by like 4 hours, haha!
So today we ate at Lomito Sureño
(aka Giant Churrascos the size of my head) I'll send you guys a picture of what
loveliness it was! And I got a few pictures of some things as well. One thing
that we did was on the 2nd of January. I burned a tie to mark my 6 months in the
mission. It happened to be a Broncos tie that I'm not allowed to wear that
Elder Lowe gave me. I have a video but I won't be able to send it to you guys: (
But I have pictures!
Also another picture is what Juan
Bautista's house looks like. He built it himself in like a year. He said it was so that
he could have peace and quiet away (like 10 feet) from his family haha. And
another picture is a stopsign that is supposed to say Pare, which means stop
(Alto is not correct) but someone painted a S on the R so it says Pase which
means Head on in Good Looking! (that's a rough translation).
So that's the view from Chile that you saw me! I showed the blog to the family with whom we had dinner on New Years
Eve! So yeah pretty nifty eh? Also the money I just took out of the ATM, I
haven't bought anything with it yet (except a snickers bar and some scripture
markers and flipping Dr. Pepper that I found in the foreign section of
Jumbo!).
So everyone here drinks a ton a
soda. Always, it is never water, It's always juice or bebida. Also it's always
CocaCola or Pepsi. To be honest I don't even like it anymore. I've had way too
much in the last 6 months haha. But I found Dr. Pepper in cans in the foreign
foods aisle in Jumbo, (if Lider is like Walmart I'd say it's like Target or
something). They taste like home haha. I bought 4 cans.
Hey where's Ashley going on her
mission?!?! You guys never told me!
Also I have some good songs that I
want you guys to listen to. So my favorites to listen to are by The Lower
Lights, a Hymnal Revival (especially If You Could Hie to Kolob on the banjo)
And promise me you'll listen to Blind by Nashville Tribute Band Feat. Alex Boyé
and pay attention to the words. Also one that just makes me happy to listen to
is called John's Song by Nashville Tribute Band. You'll love it, haha.
We didn't baptize anyone this week
but we've got a few fechas for the 17th and 24th. The next Cambios are the 27th
of January. I get to spend a lot of time with my new converts usually but we
try to focus more on those that are preparing for baptism.
Also I have noticed that this week
I've gotten worse. I'm starting to speak more and more Chilean every day. I
have almost completely stopped pronouncing my S's and instead of ado or ada, I
say ao or á Like saying porfiado which means stubborn, I say porfiáo or porfiá.
Also people talk like they're singing as well. So if you're annoyed, you start
out high pitched and end low even if it's just one word. Also I've been saying
poh at the end of my words. If you say Yapoh! but with the singing voice it
means your annoyed and you want them to stop what they're doing.
Haha, so sorry I ran out of time! I
love you guys! See you all on the flip side! The Church is still true!
-Elder Beautiful!
-Elder Beautiful!
12/26/2014
“Whoo!"
So this week was pretty awesome
being able to talk with you guys! Also the fact that we had two baptisms this
week as well makes it even more awesome! I'm going to attach the photos of the
baptisms.
Maria (quick fact: everyone and their dog is named Maria)
Maria (quick fact: everyone and their dog is named Maria)
And then we have Juan Bautista (now we've got just about the whole Bible haha)
Also, about his baptism, both Elder
Valdivia and I had to go in the water and help him because he has a bad knee.
We had to use a chair too because he can't lean backwards. Haha, he's a freaking funny man. I can't tell you what he does in the emails. I'll have to tell you after the mission but it was unforgettable !
So they were both confirmed on
Sunday and we finally got Pamela to come to church! The first time ever! So it
was a pretty awesome week with Christmas, talking to you all, and having their baptism!
Well the next time that you guys
Skype with me, I'll be in another Sector (not Laja) but it should be sweet. I'll
almost have a year in the mission when we Skype next, weird. Time has gone by
super quick for me. Like I've already got six months in the mission. I'm no
longer a newbie. Also being able to speak in Spanish and all.
Hope you guys learned a little bit
about the culture here and what goes on with the language and stuff. Hopefully
Dad can help you guys translate the stuff that I was saying. There's a lot of
words here that aren't in Mexico (I've tried to email Collin and we both don't
even know what the other one is saying).
So yeah it was a pretty awesome this
week!
I have one thing I'm gonna have you
guys watch/listen. It's called "Stay in the Lifeboat" by Brad Wilcox.
It is really good. It talks about what you 'can do' for keeping the commandments
not what you think you 'can't do'. It's really good. I don't know how long it is
(45 minutes maybe?) But watch it/listen to it. It's really good and I would
advise you to do so.
Well that's just about all I've got
for this week. I hope you guys are satisfied with what you learned from our
Skype! Also you should start pointing with your lips so I don't feel weird when
I get home. It's really fun! Haha. Well hope that you guys have a Happy New
Year! I'll tell you all about the next week!
Pray. Read. Study. Try. Live.
Be.
First six things I want you to do
before we see each other on Mother's day!
Love Elder Rhoonjahn
12/22/2014
So I'm gonna see you guys on
Christmas day! Pretty epic eh? That's gonna be pretty sweet, won't it? Haha. So
I'm gonna give you the what's up with all of the stuff that's gonna go down.
First of all I'm only going to have
40 minutes to talk to y'all. That's the rule for the mission. Also we're
probably going to talk to you in one of my convert's houses or a members
(we still haven't figured out all of the details) To be honest I have no idea
what time we're going to do it. My comp wanted to do it at 6:00 pm here which
would be about 2:00 pm for you guys way over there. Cause his family is +2
hours ahead of us. So that's all I know about the time in which we're going to
do it. I'm fairly certain that the internet speed will be fine especially if we
do it with the 2 companionships separated. Me and my comp would do it at the
same time in the same house with an internet speed of 6 mbps and the other
elders would do it somewhere else with the same internet speed. It should be
fine, they said that on Mother's Day they did the four elders at the same house
and it was fine for speed and everything (just the kids were noisy between
everyone).
I would suggest the Xbox so that I
can see all of you while we Skype :) So that's going to be pretty cool.
Today, right now, is just a half P-day
so we only have time to write our families and do groceries so I don't have a
lot of time to email you guys but we'll be able to see each other on Thursday
so I ain't even mad. :)
I took pictures of my Christmas
Letter for my person to Mom so that she could put it on the tree to make sure
that it gets to you guys by Christmas.
Pretty cool eh? To have this
opportunity to talk to you guys and tell you what I'm doing. I speak Spanish
now so that's something different about me! Haha. Also I am really happy what I
am doing right now. To answer Rachel's question about if I could be anywhere in
the world right now for an hour...I'd be here, and no I didn't see the Emoticons.
You guys will probably get a whole lot information on Christmas day from me
being able to ask questions live and all.
Well one thing cool to tell you guys
before I go was that Diego received the Priesthood this week and was called to
be Teacher's Quorum President. He also was able to pass me the Sacrament which
was really cool. Maria is getting baptized this Wednesday the 24th and I'm
going to baptize her (with permission) so that's pretty nifty as well! Juan
Bautista is going to be baptized on Saturday but we haven't figured out all of
the details yet :) So a pretty awesome week coming up! I'll tell you how her
baptism goes on Thursday! Be prepared with questions that you wanna ask me so
that you don't forget em!
Well that's about all of the time
that I have this week. I'll see you all on Christmas day! Sorry we have to
email so early today and I couldn't get all of you guys that are
procrastinators... Haha just kidding. Love you all! See you soon!
Pictures as well! One of Elder Hendricks, me, and his
trainer at the Mission Christmas Devotional! The other of a cloud that was cool
lookin'.
12/15/2014
So this week has been pretty nuts!
As a mission on Wednesday, we all got together to have our mission Christmas
thingy so I got to see Elder Hendricks again! Also we got to do a whole lot of
fun things as a mission like sing songs and stuff like that. Also tomorrow we
have cambios (transfers) but guess what, all of us from Laja are staying! I'm
gonna be with Elder Valdivia for a another six weeks and here in Laja for six
months! Pretty nuts eh? I'm gonna be here for Christmas! Also we've been
getting a lot of good investigators lately. President told me that out of every
31 new investigators that you find one of them will be baptized. That means
that if you want to baptize one person every month, then you have to find a new
investigator every day. So we've been working hard looking for 'em!
Also about the Christmas Letter. I'm
almost done with it! It should get there before Christmas, I think! So keep
being prepared! This Christmas what's going to go down is that we have our half
P-Day the 22nd where I will be able to email you guys and tell you what's going
to go down with the Skyping and buy groceries. Then on the 24th it's a normal
proselyting day but we get to have dinner with a family, we aren't allowed to
walk home. Then 25th is a complete P-Day We're going to go Skype with you guys
for 40 minutes and that's about it cause everyone will be doing Christmasey
things and we go back home. Same thing for the New Year but without Skyping you
guys! I am not sure at exactly what time I will be able to Skype with you guys
but be prepared because I'll probably be calling you guys right
beforehand.
Our investigators are progressing
awesomely! I'm going to be able to be here for their baptisms! Maria, la polola
(girlfriend) of Juanito is going to be baptized on the 27th, if not earlier
like the 24th! She's already got 6 attendances to the chapel and all we're
waiting on is authorization from her mom (she's 17)! So that's pretty cool as
well, and we have Juan Bautista that is also getting prepped to be baptized this
month! It's gonna be an awesome month!
Also you guys, I've been studying the
heck out of the Bible recently because there are so many people here that
believe the Bible to be the End all, Be all, of the world. One of our
investigators started to try to find discrepancies between the Book of Mormon
and the Bible (Which doesn't really work because the Bible isn't always
translated correctly) but we noticed that a few of his findings had been pulled
from the internet or some other source (because we saw things that are solely
evident in the English translation of the Book of Mormon). So I found tons of
evidences in the Bible of the promises of Joseph's seed vs the House of Judah.
There are remarkable details that can be found in the bible and various records
of modern-day prophets. We aren't there to Bible bash this guy because we have
found the answers to all of his questions thus far as well as evidences
necessary between the Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph.
But I honestly
think that this guy can get baptized. We've been studying the Bible in English
and Spanish and all over the place. Haha - it's really interesting to see the
way the Lord will put stuff before us, but not simply giving us the information
but asking us to look for ourselves. But seriously this has really opened my
eyes as well as the eyes of a lot of our investigators to what their own Bibles
says! The Bible is the word of God, The Book of Mormon as well. Keep on studying
these things! Study them, use cross-references, dictionaries, everything that
you guys can find! It's awesome when you get so deep in the scriptures, it's
hard to get yourself out! Haha
I'm looking forward to seeing all of
you guys on Christmas day! We'll have a lot to talk about! We're trying to get
the fastest internet connection possible so hopefully that works out!
Thanks so much for all that you guys
have done for me! See you guys on the flip side! I Love YOU!
Elder Runyan
Whoo. This week has been pretty
normal. Except that we bought a baby Christmas Tree! We're gonna decorate it to
death and I'll send you a foto when we're done! Also another announcement, I
don't have any pictures to send you guys this week... Sorry :( I totally forgot
to bring my camera with me all week! But it's been really cool. Diego's baptism
has helped bring his family a little closer to the church. I think that due to
that they will be baptized pretty soon! Also we has 5 investigators in church
this week even though there were a lot fewer members this week. It was really
cool! Maria, the Girlfriend of Juanito is going to be baptized on the 20th with
her parents permission (she's 17) She's awesome though. She's been to church 5
times and she goes by herself even when her boyfriend has to work so that's
awesome! Also Juan Bautista was able to come. We paid a Colectivo driver a
little extra to help us go get him so that was awesome as well!
Also to answer a few questions I
would love a little missionary help book! Also that little book that you sent
me was the perfect size! Thank you so much! Also that is perfectly fine if the
Patriarch wants to see my Patriarchal Blessing he has all my permission. Also
It'll be pretty neat to be able to talk to you guys on Christmas eh? I shared a
video with Rachel so I want her to share it with you all!
Also something that was really
awesome to hear was about Rachel's Patriarchal Blessing! You guys have no idea
how happy I am for her. Tell her how awesome she is and if she ever needs
advice, look there first. This is really cool to be able to see you guys
progressing on the other side of the planet. Although we may not be together
for Christmas we are together in the Gospel. Which, si se dan cuenta, nos sella
por toda la eternidad como familias. No tenemos que preocuparnos porque sabemos
de la veracidad de estas cosas. Estoy muy agradecido por tener esta oportunidad
de poder predicar el evangelio a todas las personas! Gracias por ser fuerte!
Sean felices! Tengan la vista de la eternidad! Les quiero mucho! Hasta que nos
volvamos a ver! Les voy a ver por la Navidad! No usen (Google Translate!)
Chao!
Con cariño
- Elder Runyan
12/01/2014
“Heckofaweek"
So this week was
pretty nifty. So Diego finally got baptized, his mom gave us permission and it
was awesome. Satan hates baptisms so a lot of things go wrong with the church
and the setup but it was still awesome. I'll attach some pictures!
Also I figured that
you'd like to know my schedule and basically what I do everyday since I get a
lot of questions about stuff like that.
7 am Wake up, pray,
exercise for 30 min
7:30 Eat Breakfast,
Shower, get all ready for the day.
8:30 Personal Study,
30 min of Preach My Gospel,
15 of Book of Mormon, and 15 of anything else
(Bible, Jesus the Christ, etc.)
15 of Book of Mormon, and 15 of anything else
(Bible, Jesus the Christ, etc.)
9:30 Companionship
study and Planning, Plan the day,
call members and get firm appointments,
call members and get firm appointments,
share
what we learned in personal study, etc.
11 am Go out & work,
go to appointments/contact people
1:30 pm, Lunch in a
members house for an hour
3:00 Language Study,
learn Spanish
4 pm Work
9:30-9:45 pm Return to
the house, give our numbers, fill
out the registers
out the registers
10 pm Eat dinner,
write in journal study get ready for bed
11 Pray and Sleep
So yeah that's
basically it, we don't eat dinner because it wastes time and lunch is huge and
always later in the day. There's a lot of stuff
that I would like to say to you guys that I can't because I don't have a lot of
time. I'm going to send you some letters for Christmas.
Also we didn't do
anything for Thanksgiving, I forgot it was Thanksgiving until like 10 at night
when Elder Lowe was like, It was Thanksgiving today.
Sounds like you guys
had an awesome trip for Thanksgiving! That's really cool that you got to do all
of those things! I feel a little sad looking at the pictures because all of the
girls look so much older! Kristi already looks like she's got 3 extra years!
Stop growing okay you guys (you too dad you're already tall enough)
Also to see Nick leave
is awesome, there are times when I miss what I did, as I reflect on what I was
doing with all of you before the mission. But seriously there's no place that
I'd rather be in the world than here. I love the work even though sometimes it
goes fruitless. We watch usually a church movie every Pday and sometimes there
is a guy that is talking in Spanish and I can understand him! It's so cool to
be able to do that!
Also that was rough
for me sending the pictures of me and my friends. I was like man I miss those
times. But I know that these times are better!
I've dropped weight
since summer began, it's now cause I sweat so much that I'm just drying up like
a raisin (how do you spell that, all of the English words all look weird to me
now!)
I'm pretty sure that
the robbery was like a one time thing in the mission, there are a lot of
missionaries here that have been here for like 23 months and have never seen
one. It just really depends in where you are.
Also as I'm trying to
write letters in any spare time that I have I've realized that it is super hard
to write personal letters, I never know how to start it and I can never focus
enough to be able to keep on track, also I begin to write in Spanish as I talk
to my companion between sentences.
I always feel a bit
rushed having to email you all and read everything in one hour tops. But at
least we'll have time to talk for at least 45 minutes on Christmas day!
I've been doing really
good recently, it's been really cool to see people progress without us, that's
the idea though, we want to put them on an escalator, not carry them up the
stairs.
Also funny story,
Elder Mundell sometimes has to take really strong sleeping pills, we had Stake
Conference on Sunday (Awesome Conference) and we slept in the Zone Leader's
house, like on the floor really uncomfortable so he took it. Haha he's nuts!
Like seriously he was super high and doesn't remember anything that next day!
Haha he doesn't take them often because its super strong but it was freaking
funny, I have videos that I'll show you in 1 year and a half, k?
Really great week I
feel. Also we had a fast last week and oh my gosh it helped us so much this
week! Like miracles galore finding people and baptizing! So try fasting! Girls
pay your own fast offerings! That's how you finish! Otherwise you just starve!
Pretty lame to not eat for nothing!
Tell me all about it
Rachel! It's gonna be a sweet experience! Hey we're doing a fast on Saturday
night for fast Sunday! You could do it too! we'd all be fasting and it'd be
sweet!
Well I'm already out
of time! I'll probably tell you when I send you all the letters in the
following week so prepárense!
¡Hasta que nos volvamos
a ver!
Elder Runyan Loves
you! Ciao!
11/24/2014
“Okie Dokie"
Wow what a
flipping week, this week was pretty nuts as well as like the fastest
week I've had in the mish. First of all we were robbed last Monday
night, we left the window open cause it was like 80 degrees here and
some barnacle head snooped in the windows and stole all our speakers,
iPods, wallets, and phones. Luckily nothing of mine was left out in the
open so I still have everything but for the other Elders it kinda sucks.
We also don't have a phone to contact people so for this past week it's
been really hard to keep appointments but we've still had success.
So
because Diego has been attending church for a good three months now we
can baptize him without needing to be 16. So he's going to be baptized
on the 29th of November. Almost all of our other investigators got sick
on Sunday so almost nobody showed up but we still had 81 people which is
amazing for Laja the ward is finally getting excited and help the
missionaries! The work is a thousand times faster if the members help.
Also Juan Bautista couldn't make it to church in the morning so we set
up a mini sacrament meeting in San Rosendo and went to his house, he
hiked up a huge hill for thirty minutes to make it. It was sick! He's
the awesomest 83 year-old ever! He even had other pastors from his own
church that went to his house and he told them to their faces that he
likes the Mormons better! Ha! He's so awesome, he's getting baptized on
the 13th of December!
Also we did an English
class to bring more people in the church and give them a tour as well.
It went really well, we found three new investigators and had an awesome
lesson, Elder Mundell and I taught.
Elder
Lowe is from Logan, Utah. Our church starts at 10:00 am with the
Sacrament Meeting at the end at 11:50 because nobody shows up until that
time. Also I GOT MY PACKAGE about a week ago! super awesome! I loved
everything inside. But, looks like somebody stole my flippin Oreo's and
Pop Tarts! When I saw the picture I was a little bummed. Oh well,
everything else arrived just fine!
My comp and
I are getting along fine. Also I have no problems anymore speaking the
language. So it's pretty sweet right now. Good investigators and great
moments! Sunday was a bit of a bummer at first but we're having a great
time here!
To answer Emily's question, one of
the biggest things I've learned here on the mission is humility. I'm not
going to say that I am humble because I am not. Mostly what it is, is
trusting in God. That's my favorite synonym for Faith. Stop doing what
you are doing and start doing what the Lord wants you to do. Stop being
selfish, stop taking offense, cosas así. It's really hard to learn and I
know that I am always going to be learning more but I know that the
Lord has a plan, for me and that the only way to live up to my potential
would be to do His will.
I love talking to
you guys and wish that I had more time to talk to you but I don't :( but
I'll have plenty of time to talk on Christmas in the summer heat!
Also
I'm super excited to have Nick head out on his mish. To be honest it is
super hard. But, its never something that you will regret. Even if you
ask people who have fallen away from the church after the mish they'll
tell you that it was awesome.
If you guys have
you should watch the video The Refiner's Fire, it's an awesome Mormon
Message. Good luck up there in Colorado, I wish you guys could see this
place. It's so beautiful up here.
But until next time, See you on the flip side.
Love you, Elder Runyan
P.S. Pics are me and my comp right before lunch in San Rosendo. And our English class ad I made.
11/17/2014
So this week was pretty nuts, first of all, I was attacked by a loca (she's seriously nuts). They had emergency cambios (transfers) with my sector and I learned Spanish.
 |
| Laja |
I know right...nuts! I've heard a few
stories about this lady and I didn't really believe all of them. Also, apparently
she was the one throwing the rocks at us as well. So basically what I am
trying to say is that I am pretty smooth with the women.
Also one of the Elder's in our casa
got changed for another gringo so now we have three gringos in the casa again. The new guy's name is Elder Lowe, he has the same amount of time as me in the
mission. We went on an intercambio together and we both could understand and
teach everything. I could totes be senior comp.
 |
| Tree of Life |
Diego is also a special case.
Because it seems that his family doesn't want to wake up to go to church and
he's been attending for more than 3 months. We can baptize him even though he's
not sixteen. So we're trying to get him family as well but he already basically
has a calling (not official because he's not baptized yet).
But also spiritually, I am feeling
better, sometimes it's a bit rough. Not being able to speak your mind or
understand the needs of an investigator. But now I really feel that the Lord has
blessed me to overcome my struggles. It's really cool being able to have the
exact same church on the other side of the world in a different language. The
organization of the universe itself should be evidence enough to testify of God's
orderly attributes.
I hope that you guys listened or watched that talk that I left with you guys last week. It's called "Of Souls,
Symbols and Sacraments" By Jeffrey R. Holland during a BYU Devotional. It
is really good for helping you realize how important being pure really
is.
Well folks, that's just about all I can write at this time. Until we see each other again. It's really nuts to
think how fast time has gone by since I got to the MTC. We already only have
one more month to Christmas and that's nuts. But until next week, Keep it up,
Don't you quit. There is someone out there that believes in you, in fact there
are many. "You are not your own, you are bought with a price."
 |
| Zone Conference |
I love you
all and hope the best for all of you. I love hearing from each of you. Don't be
dumb. - Jacob (Oh be wise.... what more can I say?)
Hasta luego
Elder Beautiful (just something
funny to write at the end)
11/10/2014
So one thing that's different about
this cambio (transfer) is that I have a new comp! Elder Valdivia is from Trudjillo Peru
and has been 16 months in the mission. It's kinda weird being the one that has
to show everybody around and tell them who our investigators are and all. It's
like I'm senior comp for Laja and he's senior comp in the Mish. Really cool
though. I feel that my Spanish has improved having to always talk in Spanish
now. To be honest, I always spoke in English with Elder Hendricks. Right now I
feel fluent. There are a few specific words that are just vocabulary that I
don't know but now I feel like I could talk to anybody about anything. Really
cool being able to do that. In my last few letters, I suppose that it sounded
like I wanted to train someone. Really all I meant was that I wouldn't mind
training and I think that I would be ready for it. Elder Valdivia is really
cool when he teaches. He makes it sound very simple in the way that he explains
it. It's very cool to see the different effect it has on several of our
investigators that he's met already. I'll attach some photos of him at the end
of this letter. Also another thing cool is that he plays piano. We finally have
piano in church! Usually we just had a Hermana that can't even sing go up
there hum a few notes really slow and everyone sounds like they're dying
because there are like 5 people in the ward that actually can sing, half that
don't know the tune and make up their own and the other half that knows it but
are always off and don't have rhythm. So that's really cool (the piano), also every hymn
here is sung super slow. Like imagine the slowest hymns you've ever had to sing
and cut it in half (haha). I love 'em though.
About the package: I haven't
gotten it yet but don't worry. We have Zone Conference with President and that's when all of the packages will arrive in our Zone, Usually those that came in
the last week were more due to cambios. So I'm pretty excited for that too.
It's a little weird thinking about Christmas when around here all it's been is
really freaking hot. Like seriously, we're always sweating up a storm while
we're contacting in the Spring heat, I can't even imagine Summer let alone
Christmas in the middle of it (haha). Also, Dad needs to practice his Spanish
before then so that we can talk in Spanish over Skype on Christmas day! Haha - So
that's your meta for the next month or so, practice all of your Spanish para
que puedas entenderme, no te preocupa ni puedo hablar rápido y todavía yo tengo
que practicar (so you can understand me, do not worry, I can not talk fast and I have yet to practice).
Also, Rachel got her permit and Emily got a job, eh? That's pretty freaking sweet! Tell Emily to work hard and have
fun! Tell people to get off the
sidewalks cause we have a blonde driver on the road! HAHA
Tell Kristi that it ain't that bad
being a cripple. Trust me I know. Just no sports really. That's the part that
sucks the most. But you can still eat ice cream, right? That's that most
important part ya know!
Kristi told me about the lost dog you had. Here
there's a ton of dogs in the street. Most of them are mutts but they're usually
pretty cool. There's a few that are weenies and if you pick up rock they run
away.
Sounds like Dad's talk was pretty
sick! I'm fairly certain that it was sick! I love hearing all of the things
that he's preparing for. We recently por fin got a new Ward Mission Leader.
He's really awesome. He got back from the Mish the day I got to the MTC. He's
like 27 but he really is an amazing teacher. He teaches our Gospel Essentials
Class for our investigators and recent converts. It is really cool to see the
way he teaches as well. He reminds me of dad when he teaches but in Spanish -haha.
Well I'm almost out of time for this
week. Sorry I didn't have a lot of time to write last week. We had to do a lot
of Checklists with the mission office but we still only had one hour of
internet. Also this week I want you all to listen to "Of Souls, Symbols,
and Sacraments" by Jeffrey R. Holland. One the greatest talks I've ever
heard. It really explains Chastity well and what we are really fighting for.
It's like an hour long but you have to listen to the whole thing. It's from a
BYU Devotional and it’s seriously awesome. Go and listen to it!
Emily and Rachel: About getting your Patriarchal blessings. Emily, you're almost out of High School and starting college and I know
that you know that right about now you could use a guide, a spiritual guide
for your life to help you make decisions. Rachel, you're just starting High
School but it's the exact same thing. You cannot walk blindly without a
personal spiritual guide directly from your Father in Heaven and written to you to never be erased. You need that. I know you do and if you understand
that, you will do everything you can to get it. I love you all and I hope you
guys know that.
I'm going to end it there. Just know
that I love you all and pray for you morning and night. Keep it up. Don't quit,
the path to the tree of life is rough sometimes but it is worth every
step.
Until next week I love you
guys
- Elder Beautiful
Pictures! My comp, view from the hermana junia's house, and graffiti
11/03/2014
“ Cambios ! "
10/27/2014
“So Interesting Week"
Okay so this week has been a bit of
a blur. We contacted a ton on Nov 1st, which is like Memorial Day here and we
did a bunch of Splits with the youth. So by myself, I contacted around 50 people, pretty good eh?
Anyways, this letter is gonna be short because I don't have a lot of time
(sorry :( )
So cambios (changes):
my trainer is leaving to Lebu by
the beach and everyone else in our house is staying. My new comp is gonna be
Elder Valdivia. He's gonna be District leader. He hasn't gotten here yet, but
we'll meet each other tomorrow.
Oh my gosh, I am trying to type fast so that I can send
you what's up with me. We had a lot of contacts this week, and we got a few
good lessons in. Luciana the daughter of Jose and Sara is going to be
baptized. She's nine but she's got a lot of problems with going under the
water. She flips out really bad so we're working with that. Giovanny (Colectivo
driver) and Maryorieth (his gf) had an
awesome lesson and a baptismal date, but they didn't come to church. So that
kinda stinks... but other than that, I am really happy. I love the mission and
the spirit that I get to have at all times, so long as I am obeying mission
rules.
I am so sorry that I didn't have
enough time to say all of the things that I wanted to! I saw all of the videos
and pictures in Dropbox! So awesome. Thanks so much you guys! Also, tell dad
good luck on his talk and lesson!
Next week I will have a lot more to
tell you all! I'll send you guys more, I promise! ¡Para siempre Dios esté con
ustedes! (God be with you)
I love you all! Have a fantastic
week. Keep writing me I'll write you back, but not today because I don't have
time. Bye bye!
Elder Beautiful
10/27/2014
So this week was a bit interesting.
The Colectivo driver brought his girlfriend to the lesson (they don't live
together whoohoo!). They are both really awesome and have a lot of questions
(which is good because those are usually the ones that progress) and we put a
baptismal date with them! So pretty sick eh?
Also by the way, Chileans say “po”
like Canadians say eh?. Like ¿Como Está? Comes out ¿Como Estaipo? And
Bieeeeeeenpo ¿y Ú-tedpo? They really emphasize small words. So like when you
say ¡Qué bueno! You say it como ¡Qué Bueeeeeeeeeeennnnno(po/puh)! Also, never
pronounce an ''s'' if you wanna sound Chilean, haha. Also, if a word ends in
ado, ido, o edo, they say ao, io, eo, so saying ¿Como ha estado? Which is
translated in formal as “How have you (formal) been?” It comes out ¿Comuetao? And
Nos vemos meaning “see you later” is Novemuh. So it's a bit hard to get used to
because Mexicans like in the CCM talk super slow, even the natives from other
districts were super easy to understand. So if I come back talking like a
Chilean, have fun trying to understand me - haha!
So
it turns out we found the drunk guy that wanted us to change his life when he
was sober. And he legit wants to talk to us and he seems like he could be
really good - haha. Funny how things work!
Villa
Laja, where we were, is like just a step down from a gated community. So it’s not
a rough part of town, just that drunk dude.
Also
about my next companion. I have no idea who it's going to be. I could legitly
train a greenie but I honestly don't know. Also, most likely, I think I will
stay in Laja but there's still the possibility that I go. So who knows!
Also,
Chile does celebrate Halloween! It's kinda weird here though. Like it's very
similar but because there are a lot of Catholic and Evangelical old people,
they think it's a satanic thing. So most people go to the cemetery afterwards
on November 1st for El día de los Santos. And a lot of people just call
Halloween the Springtime Festival - So yeah.
Also,
I promised pictures, so I busted out my filters and took some selfies. Also, I
am a little sunburnt because we played Volleyball behind the church on Saturday
and it was like 86 degrees Fahrenheit. So those'll be attached.
Also,
thanks Dad for the letters! I love your spiritual insight for the week! It
helps a lot to see the blessings of being out here!
We
were able to watch the Saratov Approach this morning. That was a great movie!
We're allowed to watch it as a mission, so that was awesome!
As
you will see in the pictures I sent, that we have a lot of pamphlets. There's
like six along with preparing to enter the temple. So I made a big folleto (pamphlet) Spiral
book to help me teach to go along with the White Board I made. They work
wonderfully! You'll see in the pictures!
One
thing that I'd like you all to pray for is that we can teach Pamela and her
family. We've been trying to find her and we've made appointments and we can't
find her. Diego, her son, is always there, he's awesome and comes to church.
But they need lessons! We haven't been able to teach them in a month!
Another challenge - Try fasting……Like
don't just starve yourself; feed your
spirit. To be honest, the times in which I felt the Spirit the most was when I
was fasting.
About
the pictures: One is the book I made and
stuff. Another is peanut butter I found which is like impossible in Chile, and then
my ukulele, and Elder Escudero in an Anonymous mask.
A
lot happened this week and I wish I could remember all I wanted to tell y'all!
Next week I'll write down something to tell you every day for a good story time,
haha. Anyways, keep it real. And I might get your package tomorrow because we
have district meeting in LA and that's when we get packages. So cross your fingers!
Also,
don't worry about long emails! I have to upload things and I can read during
that amount of time! I can also print
emails. I Love hearing from you guys! The dogs are so
huge! You are awesome! I love you!
Anyways, See you later
Alllligator!
- Elder Runyan
“Freaking Learning Spanish"
10/13/2014
So this week
was really interesting. About 2-3 weeks ago I got just about able to understand
everything people say if I pay attention. So I was at that point and was still
having trouble with the whole speaking part. I could usually get my message
across and everything. But this week, holy poop, it clicked. I have no
idea what I did differently, but it clicked! So I read in the BoM out loud every
day and now I'm in Alma 1. But, like holy bellybutton lint, it clicked! I can
understand basically everything and I can say almost whatever I want. People
understand me!
We did an intercambio this week with the Zone Leaders. Elder
Williams came to Laja with me and Elder Hendricks went to Los Angeles with
Elder Medina. So basically I was the dude that had to show him around
everywhere and plan out the day and take charge of the lessons. It was really
cool that I was able to rise up to this opportunity. Elder W. said that
my Spanish was incredibly good for the amount of time that I have in the Mish
(he's got another greenie he lives with that has been struggling). So feeling
pretty good about the Spanish!
Also, President Bluth came by Laja to check
out the house that same day too; right after he took us out to lunch. So we had a pretty eventful day!
Elder Hendricks is still my
companion, but not for long. We have cambios on November 4th and because I only
have 12 weeks to be trained, it will end right there. So it's like a 90% chance I
stay in Laja and he leaves. So yeah, hopefully by then I'll be comfortable
enough to train someone. Which would be rough but there are quite a few here
that train immediately!
So we found a bunch of new
investigators this week. We found like 4 on Wednesday and like 5 more throughout
the week. Really cool, also we put like 4 fechas bautismal with half of
them.
But we also got some bad news this
week. Apparently, our super recent convert is having family problems. (I'm not
going to go into a lot of detail but it's really rough and it's a bit hard to
figure out what to do). Elder Hendricks and I and his wife fasted and I think
that it has helped a lot but we still need to find out what's really going
on.
So other than that, we have been really successful. This week we had a lot of success contacting and finding new
awesome investigators. It really is a lot easier to teach when the two of you
both can answer, testify, and teach on the same page. Right now I'm working on my
Chilean accent. A lot of people have told me that I could pass off for a
Chilean. So if I can speak like them, then I'll be able to get people to talk to
us more... haha (people here are kinda racist :)). Like, not necessarily that they
hate us... it's just that they wouldn't let us in their house.
Also funny story > We met a colectivo
driver that is really interested (we put a baptism date with him and his
girlfriend yesterday in the church) and who live separately! Lots of people here
live together. And he saved us by picking us up from really far away where
a drunk dude (at like 6 pm) was crying asking us to help him change his life
(which he did, forgot, and did again about 10 times). So having a
colectivo driver friend is awesome. He took us what would have cost about 6
dollars and about 5 miles for free. He's an awesome dude. And he and his woman
tienen fechas!
So this week has been pretty
good. It has been awesome to be able to hear from all of you! All three of my
sisters wrote me this week! Even if you don't have a lot of time, just send me
something small so that I know you know I exist... haha.
Oh! Before I forget! I found that
stuff that you smell and it's like menthol and you can breathe! The Thailand
stuff! Yeah, I bought one with a bunch of refills so I can use it forever! Also, I
am feeling a lot better. That video that you guys have was about 3 weeks old. Doing email in Los Angeles is faster because the internet there is like 100 times faster, literally. So uploading another video would be awesome. I'll try to do it my
next opportunity!
Also, don't want to sound super girly, but I found a song that's really spiritual and makes me cry nearly every time.
I think that it's called "loneliest walk" by David something (Osmond maybe) . You
can probably find it. But it's really good.
Well that's just about all I've got
for this week. I try to type really fast to get all of my info across so if
there are a few errors, know that I'm a perfectionist when I have time. Pretty
nuts though that I've almost got 4 months in the mish. Seems like yesterday I
was getting on the plane to Texas with all the other scared kids. haha
But I'm
feeling confident. Confident about my teaching abilities so far. (We teach the
Evangelio of Jesucristo the most) So I'm pretty good at that. Second most is The Restoration and Third is just talking about the Book of Mormon and fourth is the Plan of Salvation. The Plan of Salvation is rough because it takes a long time
to do the whole thing and it's difficult without the other two. But we
found a way to make a spiral book of all of the pamphlets which would be
awesome for teaching. So I'll send you all a picture when I make it!
Sorry I gotta run and pictures (I
didn't take any) because we worked a lot this week and being busy makes weird
experiences a little less available. Tell Grandma that she's in my
prayers every night!
My Challenge this week to you is that you
talk to God. Talk to Him like you would your Dad. He is your Dad. Tell Him your
problems. Laugh at yourself in your prayers because you know that you've made
mistakes. Tell Him you love Him. Tell Him that you want to be better. Even if
you don't want to be better tell Him that you want to want to be better. Ask
Him to help you with something new and specific each time you pray. Don't
repeat that which you usually do. This time, let it be different. Let Him know
that you care enough to listen. Listen and ask to be able to listen. If you
don't feel anything, ask to feel something. God answers prayers in marvelous
ways and if we truly love Him, we will talk to Him. But most importantly, we
will listen. As simple as a conversation is for us, we sometimes forget that God
wants us to talk to Him as well.
Well I have got to go, so I'll see
all of y'all next week. Just know that I love you! ¡Les quiero! ¡Tengan una
buena semana! ¡Su Padre Celestial les ama mas que ustedes puedan
imaginar!
¡Hasta la proxima semana! ¡Oren mas
que nada!
- Elder Runyan
10/13/2014
“The First Baptism!" So this week was pretty sick! So we
had the baptism of José on Tuesday and we were able to take pictures as
well (I'll attach some)! It was really cool being able to baptize him! He and
his wife made the minuta or the program and they both wanted to share their
testimonies at the end. It was awesome to see someone that didn't seem to have
a testimony at all, testify of his conversion. He said that as he went under the
water (which happened to be freezing cold because the hot water was broken and
we had to use cold to fill it up faster) he saw a light and could feel that he
was taking a step that would change his life forever. It's so awesome to see
someone with such an incredibly powerful testimony because of what I'm teaching.
We also confirmed him with the Holy Ghost then and there because he recently found a job
opportunity and didn't know if he'd be there the next Sunday (you can do that
with permission from the Bishop). He's an awesome guy and I'm super happy for
him! This week was pretty awesome. I plan on answering some questions as well. We do have a few new investigators (or at least new to me because there are of few that my comp had before I came and I hadn't been in their houses). Also...102 Days! Wow. It really doesn't feel like I've been here that long. Hopefully I've learned enough Spanish to be able to communicate clearly haha. Also Diego is 15, Paulo is 14, and Sebastian is 12. They are doing pretty well but their fecha bautismal fell through because they couldn't go to church (except Diego he could already be baptized but we wanna do it all all together), so hopefully they can make it for two more weeks! Elder Mundell is really funny. He's a cool guy. Also, thank you so much for all of the pictures! I love to see you guys!
So this week was pretty sick, not gonna lie!
Weather around here has actually been really nice this week. It's springtime and the sun is really strong here so Imma be flipping tan. The food also has been pretty good. This morning we ate churrascos, the size of my head.
Yeah pretty awesome right. People
here freaking love avocado. That's only half of the churrasco in the picture. I could barely finish
it. This wasn't a member's house; this was a restaurant.
Also, I usually exercise every day, my comp not so much. This last week though I've been a little sick so not this week. :P
Also, I usually exercise every day, my comp not so much. This last week though I've been a little sick so not this week. :P
For Emily, Rachel and Kristi > I just
wanted to say keep doing the small things. Keep reading your scriptures, keep
praying. Not just as a family, but personally. You guys have phones! You can
read whenever you want! Keep doing it! Don't stop. Because the second you stop, you lose your defense. You lose your ability to withstand as much because you
just starved your spirit! Feed the Wolf that you want to win! The Spiritual
wolf!
Also this week we have to paint the
house, I forgot to take a picture but everything is moved to the center of
the house to paint. We don't have a lot of time in the house so we only paint in the mornings and right before we go to bed. I'll send you pictures of it when it's all done! We had to paint it cause there's mold in the house!
Anyway, I gotta go now! Just know
that I love you! Dad, I'm really grateful for your spiritual insights and lessons
that you teach me every week! You're an awesome teacher!
I've thought about that, and we
actually have a song that we listen to that talks about that. I think that it's
called "You May Still Remember Me" by Sam Payne. He tells the story of Hosea and
Gomer and relates it to himself. It's really good (not necessarily the song, but
the way he feels about it).
Thanks Mom for keeping me up to date
on everything that I'm missing! And the stories of what you learned this week!
I heard the iPhone 6 is out so that's neat. Also Robin Williams... I'm sad
he's gone. Tell Emily to write me! She forgot her favorite sibling!
Thanks for everything that you guys
do! I love you! I'm super excited for the package! I'll tell you the moment it
arrives! The following Monday! Haha thanks for everything! Keep it all up! Pray
for yourself too!
- Love, Elder Runyan
Video: Tour of my apartment
(Sorry - I've been sick this week)
10/06/2014
So this week we had a miracle! José actually got fired from his job (that's not the miracle) but we went and
visited him afterwards (this is the guy who said that he didn't really believe
in Joseph Smith) and we asked him what he was thinking about. He said, "you
know what, I want to be baptized." This took us by surprise and we asked him what
day and he said one week from today which was a Tuesday. So we're going to have
a baptism tomorrow! He told us that he really wasn't trying hard earlier and
that he truly wanted to repent by leaving everything behind! We have been
visiting him every day since Tuesday and he has been reading more chapters in
the Book of Mormon every day than I have. Also, I'm going to get to baptize him!
To answer Dad's question, missionaries are only allowed to baptize the investigators during training (to get us excited) or during our last transfer (as a going away
gift). Every other time, we want a worthy ward member to baptize the person. Because there have been many times when people would only get baptized for the missionaries and become
inactive as soon as they aren't the new guy anymore. But if they have a person
in the ward that they remember as the one to baptize them, they will more
likely stay active. Inactivity rate is high. Last Sunday, we had 73 people in
church which is a higher number than usual. But on the member records, those who
should attend Barrio Laja should be nearly 250. Diego and Sebastian are
doing pretty good. We want to get their mom to church but she was sick last
week and then it was conference. Diego is like the best YM in Chile though, he does
everything and loves church (just needs to be baptized, but we want to do the
whole family together).
A Few more answers: We have drink mix that we use all the time but, yes, I would enjoy microwave popcorn, idk if you can get it down here or not, I haven't looked for it. but Gum would be awesome! Nights have been a lot warmer! All my clothes are fine! One of my shirts ripped and is useless but other than that my shoes are tanks! Elder Mundell has 16 months in the mish and just barely got to Laja.
Conference!! It was
really good! The three of us gringo's watched it in English unless the speaker
was speaking in Spanish. Probably my favorite talks were President Uchtdorf's
in Priesthood Session (like dad said) or Jörg Klebingat's about the 6 points to
strengthen our spiritual confidence before God on Saturday afternoon.
Also, if you guys have time, listen to "The Prophet and The Plates" by Brad
Wilcox. It's awesome. There is a lot by him that are awesome. We listen to his
talks all the time.
Also, no pictures this week... :( sorry
I didn't think to take any, don't worry next week I'll have a ton
(Baptism!!!)
But this week was really awesome. Nearly 10 hours of only English really wore out my Spanish. I did not think in
Spanish at all this weekend... But spiritual edification is a little more
important!
It was also cool to know that we
were all watching Conference at the same time! Here the morning session starts
at 1:00 pm and afternoon at 5:00 and priesthood at 9:00 so we didn't get a ton
of sleep. (we had to set up everything because the Bishopric was working). I
love the conference notes you sent, those are awesome! I wish I made notes that cool. It makes it really easy to learn visually and to find a talk you liked.
Entonces really awesome week!
Anyways, that's about it. I'll be sure
to take tons of photos for next week. I love hearing from you all! You are all
in my prayers!
Tell my sisters to get their
Patriarchal Blessings. Conference is great but remember that it's "general". Your
Patriarchal Blessing is for you and you only. That's all. Please do it.
The atonement can
honestly restore you all the way back from any sin that you can commit. But it
will not give you back the time you wasted. As Alma says,''Do not procrastinate
the day of your [benefit]''. To be honest, the longer that you procrastinate, it only hurts yourself. Time is valuable. You are valuable and to procrastinate
that which can only help you is like swimming in the middle of the ocean and
just waiting to feel like jumping back in the boat. As M. Russell Ballard said,
if you have fallen off the boat, get the freak back in it, you weenies. Something
like that. Read that talk though.
Please, I'm begging you. I know that you have
time. If you do not have time, you will make time for it if it is truly
something that is important for you. Read your scriptures, say your prayers,
but do something. Faith is not simply believing. We need to ACT. Faith is an
action word. If something is true and if you truly mean to act on
the answer you might receive, you will know. That means, even if you don't
know, pray, pray and then do. Do it. Don't put off happiness.
Time is the only
thing we don't know how much of that we have. Be early. The early bird gets
the worm. The second mouse will eventually get the cheese but then he's also
got to sniff a dead mouse as he eats it, yum (not). Okay I'm kinda running out
of things to say but what I'm really trying to say is DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I'm
really sorry if that seems like cyber-bullying. But just do it. Please.
Sorry I've gotta go right now but
that's what I want you to know. Pray for José. He needs a job as well. But
also allow the words that you heard two or one day ago fill your heart until it
changes your life!
Keep being awesome and emailing! I
love hearing what's going on. Even if you don't feel like it's important like a
Abe Lincoln Shaped potato chip. I wanna hear it! Keep on Keeping on.
Love You all!
- Elder Runyan who's getting a weird tan line cause he always has a collar!
9/29/2014
“El Bautismo!"
So this week was pretty awesome! We
had the baptism of Trini! I'll attach a picture! It was awesome. We had
three of our other investigators show up as well so that's awesome. They're
Diego, Paulo, and Sebastian. They are all brothers and were ancient
investigators of some missionaries before us until they had to move. Their mom, as well, is super awesome too. They said that they've still been reading their
scriptures since like 3 months ago so that's awesome as well! I'm excited too
because the only time we are able to actually go into the water to baptize
people is during our training and like the last cambio of your mission. So I'm
super excited for them! Diego is awesome. He's probably better than all of the
member young men in Chile, he goes to all activities and church by himself if
he has to.
Also Elder Montecinos left in the
last cambio and Elder Mundell is the new guy in the house. I'll attach a picture
of him as well. Elder Montecinos was really cool but Elder Mundell is cool
also. We had cambios on Tuesday, so I only have like 5 weeks left of my
training. Some people have to train like immediately after their own, so yeah.
That would be a little rough, but I'm sure if the Lord asked me, I could do it!
Haha
I can understand everything that people say. Sometimes I have to focus
real hard especially if they mumble a lot (a lot of people have this problem)
but I can understand just about everything. Not quite as confident with my
speaking ability but I can get what I want to say across and that's the
important part (not as important as the spirit!) To be honest, I really think
that I have progressed a lot spiritually. I've realized how much of a huge blessing it is being able to read and understand Spanish. Three months ago when I was back at home I
never would have thought that I would have been able for 1) to understand Chileans, and for 2) to be able to talk, and laugh, and share the gospel with
them. We had a fantastic Fast Sunday yesterday and 73 people came (and it didn't
rain). It was awesome! Everyone shared their testimonies and I believe that the
ward is growing closer. That has been a big problem here, the ward is a bit
cliquey like they don't have a lot of unity. But Fast Sunday always helps that
(and the baptism!) Haha
When I write you guys and I use a Spanish word, I start typing in Spanish and have to undo it! haha ... freaking brain.
Okay so conference. We are going to
be able to watch conference live with a translator but I believe for the
English speaking missionaries, we'll be able to go into the Bishop's office and
watch it in English. Nobody can stand not hearing their actual voices when they
can see them. I'm that way as well. Live at the capilla.
So as for our studies, to be honest, I
always study the BoM out loud in Spanish and then I read Preach My Gospel in Spanish on whatever subject that I feel my investigators may need or something
that I need to work on. (not out loud), I also try to read in Jesus the Christ
as well, if I still have time. But Predicad Mi Evangelio is seriously awesome.
If you're ever bored of studying the Canonical Gospels or even if you aren't
reading PMG. It's awesome. It not only helps my investigators, it helps me as well.
Also I love reading your long letters so don't worry about it. I can read
faster than I can type anyways.
The truck looks awesome. I'm sure
that Emily is dying, haha. Congrats to Rachel for taking Region! Whoo!
Yes, I would love a snuggie! And a
hula doll. And I'd like a little leather book thing and also Sheffy showed me this
hair gel/paste called Morrocan Surf paste or algo así. There's also like Axe
Hair paste if you can't find it. It's not like a gel, it's in like a cylinder
and I love it. My hair looks fabulous.
I'm so sorry that I don't have more
time! Just want you all to know that I love you! Keep being awesome! You are
all in my prayers! Keep praying! Study the Awesome book! (The BoM not like the
Good Book like the Bible!)
See you all next week! Love all of
your letters! Tell Nick to email me! Chao!
9/22/2014
So this week was my first cambio en
la misión! And it was also the Dieciocho de Septiembre! So a lot of stuff went
down this week and I'm going to try to explain all of it as well as answer your
questions. So Dieciocho was really crazy, we weren't allowed to proselyte
really as well as we had to be at home by 6:00 to clean and stay away from the
drunk people. It was basically a P-day without being able to buy anything and
do internet. We only ever have an hour for internet so there is no way I'll be
able to get to talk to you all longer except on Mother's Day and Christmas. We
went to the Laja parade thing. It kinda sucked. American parades are fun, exciting, colorful, happy with candy and here it had all the
schools in Laja march in their school uniforms for like 2 hours and then they
danced the cueca (you can look that up its fairly popular here, it's actually their national dance) So that was kinda boring but then the next day we had
our ward activity.
Also Trini's family came to church!
Her dad is going to baptize her on Saturday Whoohoo! Hermana Junia (picture from last week) is one of the
hermana's that feeds us and she also owns the land that the church used to use
for a branch in San Rosendo.
Chile does have a higher cost of living than in
Utah. Everything is probably 20% more expensive for normal stuff and for
American stuff it's like 100% more expensive (like Dr. Pepper and candy).
The
way we email is we go to a Cyber (Ciber) which is basically a place where
people go on the internet for like 1 dollar an hour.
I really tried to send you guys a
video this week that I made of me walking around the house for a tour with my
comp and Elder Montecinos. (He leaves for Angol tomorrow) and Elder Escudero
(staying in Laja with us) but I'll have to find a way to get in onto dropbox. The internet is really slow in these places so it's a little rough.
We were waiting this morning for the
call as to who would be leaving and who would be staying, Elder Montecinos
already had 6 months in Laja so he was definitely leaving. He is being replaced
by Elder Mundell and we'll meet them tomorrow. Also we now have the Zone
Leaders in our District with my comp as DL.
Packages: I would love to get like a
snuggie, that honestly would be awesome! Also like a little leather book that I
could keep in my pocket to write down some of my thoughts. (not pirate ship
names).
Also Ties are cool, like one each of
the girls picked out or something. a Hawaiian bobble doll thing, pictures of
you all, the usual.
Toothpaste is the same here, I used
my umbrella like 5 times but it's stopped raining since then.
I would have sent the video in which
I give a tour of the house with everyone and show off my ukulele but I'll have
to see what I can do next week. I know you would have liked to have seen
it!
Say Congrats to Emily for me!
My comp fell asleep in his typical morning get up while I was showering and I took a picture so you could see it.
Well I've got to go now, I just want to say that I love you all! Thank you all so much for writing me! I wish that I could answer all of your questions! Happy 77th to Grandma and Grandpa! Tell everyone I love them And I'll be sure to find a way to send you all that video!
I LOVE YOU! Keep being strong in the
Lord! Never stop reading your scriptures!
- Elder Rhoonjahn From the United
States
9/15/2014
“Dieciocho de Septiembre" & "Truck"You guys got a truck?! I'm sure Emily just hates it doesn't she? Well I guess that's cool. Just tell her not to wreck it before I get back. From the pictures I saw, it looks like an automatic.
So this week is the Dieciocho de Septiembre, Which is their independence day. Apparently Elder Hendricks says it's bigger than the Fourth of July in the U.S. and Bigger than Christmas down here (not than the U.S.) So basically we have P day on that day. Today we are only allowed to write and buy groceries. So it's a huge deal and that truck would fit in just dandy down here because every car in Chile is decorated like that for the Dieciocho.
So this week was a bit of an
interesting one. First of all, we went to Concepcion for "Return and Report". Then
on Tuesday, we had District meeting in Los Angeles. Wednesday I got to go on an
intercambio (exchange) with one of the Zone leaders in Los Angeles, Elder Katchske. He's
really cool, Also when we went to go to a lesson he leans over to me and says,
"just so you know, these guys are a little weird" and as soon as we
say "Hi" the Hermana says, "The cat is giving birth!"
Here's a picture:
Here's a picture:
Also Saturday was the international
worldwide LDS Church day of service so we headed up to LA and slept in the ZL's
house on Friday and we cleaned a graveyard in LA on Saturday, after jugando la
pelota ya know. Graveyards here are all like mini sepulcher's and kinda creepy.
Also I got so some sweet pics of
San Rosendo. It is actually really pretty and super cool looking. I have a
picture of the view from The house of Hermana Junia.
But yeah pretty sweet! Her
house is super hard to get to, but the view is awesome. The picture doesn't do it
justice.
We were able to see José this
week and we're trying really hard to help him gain a testimony because he's
having a rough time with that. Also Trini's dad wants to baptize her but
apparently not enough to come to church with her (she comes every week with her
sister). So we'll work on that. But this week was really busy and we didn't have
a whole lot of time with our other investigators because José left
yesterday for another 2 weeks for work and we had to visit him while we could.
We also traveled to Los Angeles like 6 times and back which is like an hour every time and
2000 pesos so that sucked a lot of our time.
There is a talk that I would like
you all to watch/listen to. It's by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is
Sufficient". It's really good! BTW, I bought a sweet Ukulele and it's
awesome which you probably saw on my records.
So if you guys do send anything,
just know that I love Snicker's, 100Grand's. Also, like last night, I realized
that I want like a little Hawaiian doll that like wobbles with a ukulele. So if
you find something like that that would be awesome. Really random, but I really
want one and I don't know why.
Well that's all I've got for this
week. Keep up the good work everyone! Don't crash that truck! You too Rachel!
Don't crash the truck! I love you all and love to hear from each of you. Sorry
that I don't have enough time to email each of you individually. Know that I'm
praying for you! Keep being strong! And know that I'm safe! Seriously, nothing
happens in Laja. haha
- The Ukulele playin' Elder Rhoojahn
How's it going everyone! So First of
all I would like to get my friends emails forwarded to me cause I don't think
I'm getting most of them. And if you could send them my letters as well, because I don't have tons of time to send 'em all. Basically I'm too lazy to do
so.. haha.
So to begin I'm in Concepción right
now. We had to come back for "return and report" with the Mission President. It
was basically a conference with the Mission President. But it was cool. But that also means that I don't have something to connect my camera to the computer so no pictures this week... :( We
learned about Joseph Smith and why he had enough faith to receive the First
Vision.
But I'm going to start off with some
of the questions you asked. I heard Emily's performance was genial! (great!) Also it seems as
though none of our Fechas have been kept. :( The three flaites didn't come to
church so we have to move that at least a week. José’s wife is going to
Argentina because she wants a vacation by herself and get away from the kids. So she's putting off her and her husband's eternal
salvation for a trip. Needless to say we're a little upset. And seriously, so
far, it seems nobody disciplines their kids here. Like they teach them how to
do things but they don't tell them not to do something. For instance, if a
child starts screaming, they give them whatever they want. So kids just run
around screaming all the time and it really bugs us especially during the
Sacrament.
Our schedule is wake up at 7:00 am
and be in the house from 9:30-9:45 it's half an hour later than the rest of the
world because nobody wakes up till like 11 am. Everybody is either eating or
sleeping so contacting before 4 and after 8:30-9:00 is very difficult. Also
being the only white guys within like 50 miles, everyone likes to talk to us
and make gringo jokes. They act like it's
the first time they've seen a gringo. Also, all they know to say in English is “Hello”,
“What is your name”, and “Bye Bye”. So everyone likes to try to talk to us in
English and if we respond, all they do
is sit there and giggle.
Didn't get to try any sushi this
week but we went to Domino's today in Conce.
Pretty crappy for Domino's, but it’s the most American food I've had in
a long while. We wanted to get Trinidad (the 8 yr old girl) baptized on the 13th but we wanted
her dad to do it. He's not active and was baptized but didn't have the
priesthood yet, he wants to be the one to baptize her but apparently not enough
to go to church once. So we moved her date to the 20th, hopefully he tries to
come. We do go on splits sometimes, Usually not with the jovenes because
they're ¨busy¨ but we have two recentl RMs that come, as well as the Bishop and
1st counselor. One of the RMs is the Elder's Quorum President and the other is
the Seminary teacher. They are very helpful because they know how to work.
This week's been a little rough but it's not supposed to be easy.
I really do love the mission. I've
been reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Spanish to improve my accent and
learn to be fluent. Gordon B. Hinckley gave a promise that if you read the
entire Book of Mormon out loud in your mission language you will be fluent, I'm
in 2 Nefi 9. So the language and my accent is improving, the ZL told me its
hard to tell I'm a gringo when I speak so thats good! I really do love the
mission! We eat Lunch Everyday at a members house, There is enough that they
only have to feed one set of missionaries a month.
I'm Super grateful for all of the
help I've had getting out here! I love you all! I know that the Lord loves us
and gracias a el podemos recibir la vida eterna! I don't have time sorry! Know
that I love you and I love to hear from every one of you! Don't worry about the
length! I love it! Keep on keeping on!
Love you Mom! Love you Dad! Love you
All!
- Elder Rhoonjahn
9/01/2014
“3 Fast Sundays”
So guess what? Last week was my 3rd
Fast Sunday in the mission, weird eh? That´s like 1/8 of all my Fast Sundays
left. Time is going by really quickly here. I mean it´s already Pday! We got
another baptismal fecha esta semana with Alberto who is friends with the two jovenes (teenagers) that I said are trying to change their lives. So that´s pretty awesome. This is a picture of everyone in the Centro
third of the mission with Elder Zeballos. It's not incredible quality but it's
there!
There is this Sushi place that just opened up here in Laja so we're
going to try that today. This week we did a lot of walking, mostly because we
were out of money and couldn't take a colectivo. So I slept pretty well. We got
more money today so that was nice actually being able to buy stuff. The
language is coming along pretty well. I can mostly understand people unless
they are like proto-chilean and forget to open their mouth when they talk. Not
even natives understand them. I can basically say whatever I need to say and
get the message across even if I can't say it perfectly. Elder Hendricks says
my spanish is awesome for how long I've been here. He said that he couldn't
understand anything until lke three months in the field. So I think I'm alright
with the language.
Here's a picture of my bed and my
comp: (Elder Hendricks)
I think that I'm pretty much good
with everything for now. If you ever send me any packages or anything I think
you know me well enough to know what to send ;) I think I'm pretty good as far
as equipment goes for Chile. I really love it here, it's a little dirty and we
walk uphill both ways but it's great. I love to see how all of you guys are
doing! It sounds like Emily's talk was awesome! I had to give a talk in Spanish
for like 5-10 mins on my second Sunday here, So that was a bit rough but I think
that it went well.
I have one favor to ask of you guys,
Watch "Missionary Work and the Atonement " It is one of my
favorite church videos I've ever seen. As well as all of the new Life of Christ
bible videos (there are hundreds) those are awesome as well. Tell Nick I'm
freaking excited that we're going to be able to speak Spanish together!
Everyone will be able to understand everyone except for Dale haha. Also you can
just attach the pictures in the emails you send. I save all of them on my flash
drive!
Also pray for my investigators. The couple you asked about don't want to get married because of the benefits that she
gets from the government as a single mother. They're waiting to buy a new house
with the money she's getting but I'm really hoping that they will keep the
Lord's commandments and see the blessings that come! Also pray for José that he will keep the Word of Wisdom as he's away on business.
Also something funny happened on
Saturday haha. We ran out of appointments around nine and nobody will answer
doors after that so we went to Centro and tried to see if we could talk to
anybody that was out and about. And we found a drunk dude that really wanted to
talk about the Holy Ghost. Turns out that he's Evangelical and actually knows the bible really well especially for a drunk dude. My comp told him that if he
wanted to feel the Spirit he needed to stop drinking to which he replied
"I only drink water" as he took another swig of beer. Then he takes
his hand the way Spock transfers thoughts and puts it on my comps head and says
"I am going to bless you" and then proceeds to ask God to bless this
man because he is meant for great things! Then he hugged him and told him that
he loved him almost as much as God loves him. haha I couldn't stop laughing. But we gave him a pass along card. He probably won't remember and will
have to investigate the church (you never know) haha.
Well that's basically all of the
time that I have today. But that's what happened this week. Also I saw my first
iPhone in Chile, one of the menos activos had a 5s (haha). I don't have enough
time to email Rachel, Emily or Kristi but tell them I love them! I'm super
excited for them!
Love you Mom!
Love you Dad!
8/25/2014
“Letter Home”
Well this is my letter home for this
week, this week went by pretty fast because we got 5 baptismal fechas! Heck
yeah we did! So our first is the husband of a
recent convert and he´s super funny and a really cool guy, he has a few
problems with Word of Wisdom but not too much. Second We got two jovenes
(teenagers) that want to change their lives.They are both 19 years old and one came to church with
us yesterday too! As well as this couple who are super ready to be baptized but they aren´t married and have a kid. The
third/fourth is the lady who we had previously but I don´t think that she wants to
make the commitment of baptism and doesn´t want to go to church so that sucks.
The final one is an eight year old girl named Trinidad of a less active family.
We technically don´t get to count her because she´s 8 years old but if it were
not for us, she wouldn't be getting baptized. Phew, busy week! I don´t think
that I´ve been more tired in my life. But we´re doing good! I finally bought
some groceries today which I´ve been needing to do but we didn´t get to go last
week because of the activity.
Also I put in a picture of a dino eating my head
in San Rosendo. San Rosendo is basically a part of Laja across the River, There
was a park there with dinos, I went there with Elder Montecinos on an exchange
because it was Sunday and we usually do splits then. We have a Mamita that
washes our clothes and stuff. The picture of The Jake the Dog graffiti was
something a member did, (he´s a little less active but an incredible artist) We
got him to church these last two weeks, His name is Juanito and he´s an awesome
guy. he just need´s to go to church! The dog with the foot on it was a
handicapped dog that was freaking out until Elder Hendricks touch it with his foot
and it froze like that.
Elder Zeballos from the Seventy came and spoke to us on
Tuesday last week as well as President Bluth and those are the pictures with
them. Also the food here is almost always Rice with Chicken, so it´s usually
alright, they just give you like the biggest helpings I´ve ever seen. The
language is getting better as well. I can mostly understand most people, some
though not even the Chileans know what they´re saying haha. We get 100,000
Chilean pesos a month, which is a little under 200 American dollars, this month
I got less because I will only be here for like a half month so I got 66000.
Also HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY EMILY!!! YOU¨RE 17! YOU´RE so OLD! I´m so excited
for you though! Love High school! Sorry I don´t have a lot of time otherwise I
would have put it into your own separate email. I´m going to send you guys
Birthday letters like Physical letter okay? Elder Hendricks said it take like
up to two weeks to get there if it´s just a paper letter. LOVE YOU EMILY! KEEP
BEING AWESOME!
I´m going to have to take some more pictures to answer some of
Mom´s questions but you´ll have to wait until next week! Sorry I forgot to take a picture of where I sleep! Also, yes, I´m pretty sure that the heaters used here are safe because they are the same ones that the church uses.
My hearing has been good and I can get a haircut pretty much anywhere I want, cause there’s tons of places to cut hair.
We are like the only house in Laja that doesn´t have a stove to keep us warm. so it´s usually pretty cold. Also only the Church actually has carpet so that´s nice. I am uploading a picture of the Bishop playing Age of Empires with the Jovenes while he was waiting for us in the church. Haha, I thought you´d like that. Dad, I think you´d get along really well the the Bishop here. He´s a lot like you. His house is pretty small but he´s got the sickest TV setup I´ve seen here with surround sound and blu-ray and a flatscreen, haha.
All of you keep
writing me, Rachel was the only sister this week! Haha I understand you´re all
busy! I have been getting all of the pictures you guys are sending too! I love
them! Thanks for the donuts in the CCM Dad, I´m so sorry things have just been
so busy I forgot to thank you! I´ve gotta go but you all remember I love you!
Rachel and Emily keep working on you patriarchal blessings! I´m gonna get you
all something for each birthday I´ve missed and bring them with me when I come
home! LOVE YOU ALL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY! KEEP BEING A SOLDIER!
Keep being amazing!
- Love Elder Runyan! Love YOU ALL!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!
8/18/2014
“First Week in Chile!”
Well this was my first week in
Chile! Pretty cool eh? The Chileans talk so fast and so unclear. My
Companion, Elder Hendricks (Like Jimi Hendrix) is basically fluent and I can
understand him perfectly because he talks slower (still fast) and more proper.
But seriously, I can only catch certain words unless they´re nice to me and
speak clearer. Well we spent a night in a hotel on Tuesday that was really nice
but the next day we got our comps and headed off to work! I put quite a few
more pictures in the dropbox folder that you can look at if you still have the
link. One of them is our Zone doing yoga today and my comp ¨just being there
and relaxing¨ it was great. We play soccer on Saturdays and I almost broke my
wrist I think. Don´t worry I´m joking. We played soccer today as well for Pday.
We work crazy hard though. Quite a bit harder than we did in the CCM, haha. But
we are actually helping real people now. We have one baptismal date for two
weeks from now so that´s cool. There is also a family and a few others and less
actives that came to church with us on Sunday so that was awesome. Here they
have meals a bit weird. So most people have breakfast and it´s normal sized.
Then we have lunch which is crazy huge around 2:00 pm. It´s nuts. I have never
finished one. My comp always finishes all of them but I never can. There was a
twelve year old girl that ate twice as much as me two days ago. Then people
here have what they call Once, it´s basically dinner but we as missionaries
aren´t allowed to eat it mostly because it wastes time and we have such a huge
late lunch. Also they have dinner around 8:30 or 9:00. So Chileans eat a lot,
talk crazy unclear and fast, and a lot of them don´t come to church. which is
one of the biggest problems here in Chile. Elder Sheffield is in my zone so I
get to see him at least once every week so that´s cool. I don´t have a lot of
time today so I´m trying to do this as fast as I can. Oh also there is a ton of dogs here, not even kidding. If I took a picture of every dog that I see
in one day there would probably be like 100 pictures or so. Tons of strays and
some are mean but if you pick up a rock they'll run away. Also we have to yell "Hallo" outside everyone´s gates here for them to come to the door. My comp says
we are in the worst house in the Los Angeles Norte area so there's that, we
don't have heaters and I usually go to bed with four blankets and my sweatsuit
haha but it´s getting warmer as we head into summer! Also it hasn´t rained here
like at all since I´ve been here so that's cool. I´m in the sector of Los Angeles
Norte called Laja. Elder Sheffield is in Jumbel which apparently has the nicest
house in the mission haha. Anyways I love you all! Thanks so much for being there for me! Keep being awesome and tell the girls to think about their Patriarchal blessings!
LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD. AND MAYBE THE OTHER THREE :)haha
Oh and also my Companion and I are the
same age. He´s from Highland and went to American Fork High School. He´s been
here almost a year. He´s a great guy, he played soccer in High School. Los
Angeles has a Mall that's crazy huge. And also everything here costs a little
more than it would in the US. A 10000 peso bill which is a little less than $20 and doesn't go very far. Anyways I love you all and I will talk to you later.
Hopefully we have another Baptism or Menos Activo come to Church! Keep up the
good work. We got to give a blessing to a man who has had three strokes and is
bedridden. His son smokes pot and wants to change his life so were talking to
him, his wife struggles with depression but is very religious and has a lot of
faith. But I know that the Gospel will bless this family. I love you all! Love
you Mom, Keep being awesome! Tell grandpa I´m praying for him! (I have a pillow
btw)
The picture with the tall buildings
is from the Mission Home where we ate lunch on Wednesday I think, The Kayaks
were at a race at Laguna Laja on Sunday. Love Yáll!
- Elder Roonjahn! As the Chilenos
call me haha!
“In Chile”
Well I´m in Chile Concepcion right
now so that´s pretty cool. That´s basically all the time that I have to write
you guys right now so until next P-Day! I love you all!
Your favorite Elder Runyan!
8/11/2014
“Leaving Today”
Well I´m leaving the CCM forever
today. Kinda stinks because my district has been my best friends. Still I´m
excited to be able to go out into the field already! I don´t know if I´ll be
able to email you guys after I land or anything but I´m pretty sure I at least
get to tell you that I made it there safely. I fly out to Santiago at 8:25 pm
and from there fly to Concepcion at 9:25 am. So wish me some sleep! I love you
guys! The next time I
write you I´ll be on the other side of the world where the toilets flush
clockwise. Can´t wait to see you on Christmas! I love you guys! 6% Finished,
haha weird eh? I´ll tell you how everything goes, but until then, ¡Adios y
vaya con Dios!
The Elder That loves you all!
8/6/2014
“Rachel’s Birthday”
I have all of my flight plans already, got 'em yesterday. I leave around like 8:25 pm Monday Night to Santiago. I will get there around 4:00 am-ish and my next flight to Concepción leaves that Tuesday morning and it's an hour long flight. I really like my District here, I'm really gonna miss them but I am way excited to actually help legit people and not have classes all day. The spirit here is super strong too. I've have the opportunity to give a few blessings as I was here and it is an awesome experience. Just gotta practice that in Spanish haha.
I love seeing people from home here! It's like a little part of home I get to see! Austin (Kaustin/Kenny) from my volleyball team is here as well so it's super cool seeing him! Tell Rachel that I going to get her a gift! I'm not quite sure as of yet but I'll find something in Chile that she'll love but she'll have to wait a year or two :)
The dogs are so big!!!! I can't believe it! I can't wait to Skype you guys on Christmas and see them! Tell Kristi that braces aren't that bad but she needs to remember to brush her teeth haha!
Here's a pic:
Pretty Cool eh? I got a video of Elder Golden playing a medley of some hymns that he made up all by himself, it's sick! (To Grandparents: this means "awesome") It is seriously one the coolest hymns medleys I've ever heard! I was told that I was allowed to use DropBox so I set one up and I invited you all to come and look at the video. It's going to take a little while to finish uploading so hopefully it's done soon! Here's a picture of my companion looking like a goon:
Haha I don't know why but this picture makes me laugh every time! Haha. Elder Sheffield is a cool kid! He was Prom King at Pleasant Grove High School. Haha he's a funny dude. Emily should marry him. Then we could be brothers! He doesn't wear glasses he's just wearing it for the picture. He's like 6'5.
I'm super excited for all of you! I wish I could be there for Rachel's birthday but there's no place I'd rather be! Tell Emily and Rachel to think a bit more about their Patriarchal Blessings. Mine has been a huge help in my life and gives me hope for the future. Don't put it off. It's a blessing in your life that you will frequently use and cherish.
Mom, Thank you so much for all that you do! I know you don't get enough praise for what you do! You're an awesome Mother and I love You!
Thanks for being the great Mom that you are! I hope that you know that your efforts are not in vain! You are the greatest Mother anyone could ask for!
I will be able to email the day I leave I think so that'll be cool! Sheffy and I are leaving on the same flight as the Hermanas in our district so that's cool too! Looking forward to seeing Jensen here today! Thanks again for being so awesome! Keep being the greatest Mom in the world! Dont ever forget that!
Sheffy, The Hermanas and I are the only ones going to Chile on our Missions. The Hail/rainstorm was on friday I believe. I have all my paperwork and I get my boarding pass on Friday
I have to go now! It was great talking to you guys and I'll see you on Monday! Have Fun on your birthday Rachel! I love you all! Keep writing letters! I love hearing what you guys have to say!
- Love you all again!
- The Sexiest Elder Since Sliced Sexy
That also happened to lose 3 more pounds this week
Who will soon have a sweet six pack
(This email is different because we caught him
online ---We got to chat back and forth.
So this a compilation of his response emails)
online ---We got to chat back and forth.
So this a compilation of his response emails)
"New week"
(Re: when Josh leaves CCM) 1 week before August 12th. They will give my flight itinerary and everything; I will most likely leave August 11 on a 9 hour flight to Santiago and either an 8 hour bus ride to Concepcion or another flight. One of the Hermana's in our district is going to Antofagasta which is like the exact same distance from Santiago but north and has to take a bus. They will most likely let me call you in the airport. If not, you will be getting emails that day.
My Teacher says my Spanish is really good and I'm good at speaking quickly but I need to learn more words :) You can send me as many pictures as you please, I love them! I love seeing all of them! I found the apostrophe on this dang keyboard if you haven't noticed! I'm going to clean my room today and I'll take a picture so that you can see what our rooms look like next week!
-- Tell Grandma I loved her Email!
If anyone asks, tell them the mission is wonderful! The CCM is cool but I am super excited to help legit people
Camera's great, we're only allowed to take pictures on P-Day I want to give you more pictures but I'd rather send you some of my entire district when we all take our pictures!
I do core every other day high intensity short workouts and upper body also every other day, legs we use when we play soccer or volleyball every day so I don't quite worry about those :) I lost about 10 pounds in three weeks so pretty good eh?
It's cool to see my selfish talents turn into something that can be able to be used to help others come unto Christ. I have had dreams in Spanish mixed with English. When I don't know a Spanish word all of the sudden someone will say that word in English so I guess that's baby steps haha. Please read the emails that I sent all of the girls, there are a lot of things in there that I would like you to think about as well. Be sure to let everyone know that I love them! Tell the Grandparents as well! I love you all!
Later Skater,
- The #1 Elder Runyan
"Wow 4 weeks"
That went by pretty quick especially this last week! I am super happy to hear from all of you! The dogs look so huge and it's only been a month! Apparently the Mexicans had some sort of party a few days ago, they were seriously blasting the Macarena and fireworks all night long so that was great. So apparently also some other district in our branch found a kitten and I got a picture of it (it pooped something like 3 times its size in their classroom)
Here's a picture:
Our class stole a classroom from the district that just left on Monday and it's way better. Our old one was super small and smelled funny and this one is twice as big and has a 65" HDTV and a huge whiteboard. Makes it way easier to learn.
Here's a picture I took this morning......Yup.
It's been really cool as our district we go around every night and say something that we really like about each person, we do one person a night.
I really like my district! We are super chill with one another and we are all really good friends. I'm going to jump off real fast to see if I can chat with you guys!
I've gotten a bit tan since I've gotten here because we play soccer like 90% of the time! My stomach has been fine. Not really sick just a cough every once in a while so I'm great! My breathing and allergies have been actually amazing, I have not had any problems at all here. I only have a problem when a mosquito flies up my nose. Like what the heck mosquito. The mosquitos here never bite either as well, they’re everywhere but I haven’t gotten a single bite. (Re: Nick Henrie’s mission call) Yeah Nick emailed me too! I'm super excited for him, I gave him a few tips about the CCM
This is going to be my final letter for you all this week. I don't have a whole lot of time left so I'll try to make this short and maybe chat with y'all a little more.
I want you all to know how much I love you! I know that God loves you! He will always help you so long as you sincerely ask. It amazes me so much how He knows each of us perfectly and He still chooses to forgive us! How great is our God!
Please know where you can turn for peace, know that God does not move and will always be right where you left Him. I know that if we ever have any struggles in our life He will be there suffering the exact same thing, but He will pick us up! He was bruised for our iniquities and carries us through our sorrows even now! I love him so much.
We were able to watch another Talk by Elder Holland Given at the Provo MTC in January of 2013, go watch it. It changed the way I viewed my mission.
I love you all so much and wish I had more time to talk with you but I shouldn't be selfish!
Please follow Christ's example!
I love you all one more time!
- The #1 Elder Runyan
July 23, 2014
"Late getting the email sent this week"
I've been trickling emails throughout the day so I don't know exactly what time I'll be writing you later or so but I'll try to answer some things with the time I've got left. It's felt like it has gone by pretty fast so far. In less than a week I'll have already done like 1/24 of my mission. That's crazy fast. The first day here was the longest day of my life but now the days seem like they go by way too quickly. Pretty cool though that I will still have 23 months to teach the people of Chile! I thought about how you prepare for your lessons and I found a cool scripture D&C 42:12 go and read it. After all we can do the spirit is the one who teaches not us. As a missionary I have a special privilege to have the spirit teach me the language as I speak it and I know that if you have the spirit of the lord or El Espíritu Santo en nuestras vidas y corazónes podemos testificar con el poder de Dios siempre. I know all of these things and Most of all that He Lives! I am quoting the testimony of the witnesses of the Book of Mormon but I know that he lives and when we believe in Him in all that we do we will surely be blessed for whatever comes our way. If you ever have any questions about something you want me to study or think about just tell me! I love to hear them! Also praying in Spanish has made it so that I have to translate into English every time I pray. Haha pretty cool I'm still going to send you and Mom an Email so see ya thenJuly 16, 2014
"Los Preguntas"
I know you guys probably have a lot of questions. Mostly probably about me breaking the door and how the CCM is. The door isn't going to be a problem. They've already fixed it so no worries :) Anyway my companion is 6 ft 5 in Named Elder Sheffield from Pleasant Grove Utah. My Laundry is fine so you don't have to worry. The CCM is awesome. We already taught our first investigator and he ends up being our night teacher so that was cool and our new investigators are both of our teachers playing different roles. Elder Sheffield and I were the only ones to get Susie to commit to be baptized on the first visit in our district so that's cool. P-day is all day on Wednesday and I can choose any time from 8:30 to 5:00 to email. I also have to do laundry, cleaning, etc. We went to the Mexico City Temple today. Didn't get to do a session because they have to fix the Temple :( the visitors center was cool though I have a bunch of pictures to send you guys but I cant find the best way to do it because the email will only allow me to do like 1 or 2 pictures. I may just upload them to my google drive for this LDS mail account and then you can log in and see them or something. I think were allowed to use drop box as well so you may have to set that up for me if I cant figure it out.
I don't have a whole lot of time right now because I plan on emailing you guys later around 3:30- 4:00 or so again ;) Ill see if I can send those pictures then!
Adios!
- The numberest-onest missionary in the CCM
P.S. I can't do any extra punctuation because these Mexican keyboards are messed!
Don't get to go back to the temple, only go once :( still it was pretty cool I'm trying to send pics through this email cause google drive doesn't work. My Envelope says that my departure date is August 12th but most missionaries leave 1-2 days earlier. The spirit is super strong here. I know that even the placement of my roommates is there for a reason (Ill have to tell you some other time) I saw the Blog this morning, Looks cool! I didn't have time to look at it thoroughly but it looked sweet! Elotes are the best thing ever! I love that corn! Our food here is mostly Mexican.... not like good Mexican but Mexican. Even the Natives think that the food is bad so its not just us. Tuesdays are Pizza days and we get huge slices of Costco Pizza so those days are good but most days are only halfway decent. The food was quite a bit better before like the 200+ new missionaries showed up so...... the weeks are becoming shorter. This P-Day doesn't feel the same as last P-day because the whole week before was soooo long and we were all exhausted. Don't worry about it though... Just think about it I am already done with 2% of my mission so you dont have to wait that long! I feel as if with my Spanish knowledge I could definitely go out into Chile and be okay because people that have been here for 6 weeks and didnt know Spanish before can hardly pray in Spanish let alone teach. :P oh well still love it here! Ill have to show you a picture of my room after I clean it all up cause I don't want you to see how dirty it was before we got to clean it today ;) Spanish really isn't that hard of a language, all you have to do is memorize the conjugations of all the tenses and then you need to know vocab just to understand. Speaking will come naturally by the Holy Ghost! I really want to be able to give a blessing in complete Spanish before I leave here!
Here is a picture of my district at the Mexico City Temple:
Left to right is Elders Buckner, Hovenden, Nelson (DL), Monson 6'5" Wall, Hermanas Ramasch and Russin, Golden Abplanalp, Stern, Me, Elder Sheffield Also 6'5"
That is the best picture of the Temple I could get. We cant go because all the foundations are sliding and they have to fix them until like January.
I have some pictures of the Streets of Mexico but they're not really good so you can probably look up better ones of the federal district of mexico or the CCM. Its really cool here but I really just want to be doing something for real and not pretending you know. I know that times are rough with whatever we are doing. I know its rough at work and at home and in Mexico but I know that if we sincerely ask God to help us he will. 2 Days ago we talked about specific prayer. Pray specifically for the things you need and so long as its righteous the Lord Will bless you if you have faith in Him. Don't just pray for your family or a general problem, pray specifically for those you care about with their specific needs and wants. Pray for those you wish the Lord to bless with a knowledge of His gospel I definitely know that that is a righteous cause!
There is a quote by Bruce R. McConkie that goes along the line of:
"There will son come a day where I will feel the marks and His hands and wet His feet with my tears, But I shall know no more then than I know now that He is my Savior, the Only Begotten of the Father and that only through His atoning blood we can be saved."
I love that quote so much (Coach Wyatt gave it to me) and I have that same testimony to you all. Jesus is the Christ and that He is the one we must look to for Salvation! How much he loves each and every one of us and how unworthy we are! Please find some time this week to thank your Savior. I know that you will be blessed.
I love you all and wish I could email you longer but there is work that needs to be done!
I love you all again!
- This guy (two thumbs pointed toward self)
------------------
No ideas on iPads or anything! Be sure to tell Nick that I'm super excited for him to receive his mission call! Tell him that its totally worth it! I love YOU!
I have three more minutes left... Wish Emily good luck from me! Tell her and Kristi I love them! (I already told Rachel) :) See you next week! Tell Dad I love him! :)
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Quick Note: There is a website that you can use to send me stuff called mydearmissionary.com or something like that and you can do same day delivery in mexico. You can like send me those twistable crayola crayon things that are awesome for marking scriptures or like pop tarts or tide to go and stuff so you should definitely send stuff through that. Like you can send doughnuts made the same day! Just so you can think about it. (Tide to go would be awesome) I LOVE YOU ALL
Elder Joshua Runyan
District 9DJuly 9, 2014
"1st P-Day!"
Well this is to the whole familia, sorry but I don´t have a lot of time to email you all. The Fourth here was awesome! The comedor made all of us apple pie and dress all of the tables in red white and blue! We all sang the national anthem and I felt the most American I´ve ever felt before! The food here is decent and we get Costco Pizza on Tuesdays so thats pretty legit. We got to teach our first investigator. That's supposed to have quotes around it but this Spanish keyboard is messed especially because of the ñ button. We taught our fist investigator in all Spanish. I'm telling you I've learned more Spanish in one week here than I did in three years of Spanish! The gift of tongues is real. On Sunday we got to hear a talk by Elder Holland at the Provo MTC and honestly it was the best talk I´ve ever heard in my life. He talked about Preach my Gospel, His Mission, and also Peter when he was called to be a missionary it was given at least 2 years ago because the age was 19. Honestly I get chills thinking about it it was that good. You all should find it and watch not even joking it is so amazing! When you find it please send me a transcript so I can read it okay! Got to give my first blessing to my companion Elder Sheffield as a blessing of comfort because we were advised to do so. Give blessings is one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve ever had and was so cool! The spirit spoke through my mouth and it was incredible. I can communicate with most of the nativos down here pretty well so the Spanish Is coming along pretty well! I plan on emailing you for 30 minutes now and then coming back to see if you´ve responded around 3:30-4:00pm my time so like 2:30- 3:00 your time. Sorry about the bad typing and such but I can´t figure out this keyboard! Haha honestly this has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. There is a saying here that is like this: The days are long but the weeks are short. This is absolutely true! Thursday was honestly the longest day of my life, it felt like a week long but This week has gone by so quick! It´s Wednesday so that means new missionaries! 150 of em or so which is the biggest influx this MTC has had ever. The MTC is called the Centro de Capitacion Misional so CCM for short.
Gotta end sometime so know that I love and Miss you All!
-The bestest elder ever
P.S. Have a few pics for y'all´
Guess who that Hermana on the right is! That picture is hanging on the wall in our building.
More pics to come! See ya'll around 2:30- 3:00 your time!
P.P.S Write back por favor, + if we get on at the same time we can almost chat ;)
Yes that`s it ! Yes I did see all of your emails and loved them! The only problem is that I only have so much time to read all of them and its hard to remember all of them when I'm trying to tell y'all whats going on. Thanks for Elder Hollands talk you really should read and watch the address. I also forgot to mention that I shattered a window here in the CCM here
Here’s the program that we use
Here's a pic with Elder Golden (from my district) with the glass I broke when I pushed the handle and the door was locked.
July 2, 2014
"What’s with the suits"
Rode to Texas and then over here to Mexico. Mexico looks awesome everywhere. Got to talk to a guy on the plane about the church! Handed him a Book of Mormon and he read it for a while and gave it back. He liked the testimonies of the witnesses but wasn't interested in the church and gave back the Book of Mormon. He asked me Whats with the suits? I told him that it shows who we are, we are witnesses of Christ! I don't have a lot of time. My p-days are on Wednesday! See ya in a week!
-The bestest Elder ever
a
a
#seriousselfie
