Jack - August 5

1.

Well, this is the last week, I am 99% done with the mission. It´s been a wild ride, two years have flown by and a lifetime has passed by. This week was pretty fun. I went on exchanges with an elder who arrived with me to the mission, so that was pretty fun. We had a good time remembering our arrival to the mission and commenting about everything that had happened up until now. We also talked about some pretty trunky things, so it was really fun hahaha. We did get a lot of work done too, don´t worry. 

This week we had a baptism! It was awesome! What a better way to end the mission than to have a baptism on your last Saturday and a confirmation on your last Sunday. It was great, and we were able to feel the spirit really strong during the ordinances. 

Today, to end it all off well, we went to visit the burial site of Omner Pratt, who was the son of Parley P Pratt, who was the first missionary in Chile, and all of South America, who also happens to be one of my ancestors. So it was a rather cool way to end the mission.

Well, this is it. Week 99. last email from the mission. I´ll send one more when I get home just to make it to 100.

Have a great week everyone, I´ll see you soon!!!!!!!!!!

Jack - July 29

2

Only 2, how crazy? And this´ll be the last full week of missionary work, next week I´ll have a day to visit people on Thursday, then on Friday, I´ll be flying home. 

I´m not gonna lie, I´m excited, and maybe a little impatient. But that´s ok, we are just giving it everything here in Valparaíso, we´ve had a lot of days of a lot of street and house contacts, but this week we´ve managed to find 4 more people that we can teach regularly and can progress towards baptism, so we´re very content with our work. That said, I am tired. Just completely exhausted; part from just being in the mission for so long and part because we´ve been going up and down and up and down and up and down again all of the hills in our area. 

Jack - July 23

3...(2)...(1)....

Wow, it just keeps getting closer. This week went really well. It was a lot of hard work, but that´s good. I´m proud to say I´ve been working hard all week, I´m not ´trunky´ as they say. Though I am really excited, I´m giving it my all before I go home. 

This week felt really normal, it wasn´t long, it wasn´t short, it was just normal. But it did feel like I´d already been in this area for a month, so that was interesting. We´re doing our best to find new people to teach, we´re teaching just about everyone we talk to, but it´s pretty tough to have a return appointment that doesn´t fall through. We are pretty excited though because this Saturday we should have a baptism!!! 

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing great! I can´t wait to see everyone again!

Jack - July 15

4 more weeks! We´re almost there! And now everything is going by so much slower too hahaha. Oh, what torture.

Anyways, I also got transferred this past week. That was unexpected, but basically, some elder that was going to go to the area I´m in now broke his ankle, so I´m basically here to "fill in" so that they don´t close the area in the meantime. But it's ok, it seems like a pretty good area. I´m in Valparaíso again, but this time I´m actually in the city, and boy are there a lot of hills. A LOT. I´m already a thin guy but right now I see myself coming home a skeleton hahaha. These hills are huge. And very exhausting. 

It is good to be in the field again. The transition from the office to the field is super weird, but I´m getting used to it already. I was going to send some pictures of my new area, but I forgot my camera cable, so I'll have to send them next week.

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well. I´ll see you soon!

Hills!

Jack - July 6

5. more. weeks.

Hey everyone, this week was interesting. On Tuesday we had a solar eclipse here in Chile!!! It was awesome, here in Viña we were able to see it at 92%, which was awesome to see, it was so cool. So that was awesome. 

We also had another leadership conference this week in the mission, I didn´t get to participate much, but it was cool to take pictures and stuff. 

This next week I´m finally moving on from being registrador, now I´ll just be the Housing Coordinator, so I´m hoping things go a little more smoothly now. This next week we have transfers, so it´ll be pretty busy, but I´m pretty much ready. It´s been a rough transfer. 

I´ll see you guys soon!

Jack - June 29

Well, we had a rather busy week, it was pretty fun.

I was out of the office for most of the week moving some missionaries into new houses and apartments and going around fixing things in other houses. In one of the houses, the mission used to use one of the rooms as a storage area, but it was really just filled with a lot of trash. So I also spent a day just going through and throwing away most of the junk that was in there. 

So, there´s not a lot to report on this week, but it was entertaining to be driving around moving furniture and fixing things all week.

Jack - June 22

7 semanas más

Hey everyone, how´s everything going? I hope it´s been a great week.

My week here was pretty standard, just same old stuff again. We did have a visit from the Area President, Elder Benjamin de Hoyos, and his wife, which was pretty cool. They gave a lot of motivation and excitement for the work to a lot of the missionaries, so it was a cool visit. They did obviously share on very mission-related topics, which was good. Conferences like this though do always leave me feeling a little lost, not knowing how to apply the counsel given, because I don´t have a lot of opportunity to work like a normal missionary. But the applications that I can find are always very rewarding. 

This next week should be pretty interesting (and a little trunky).

Most of the week I think I´ll be out of the office going back and forth transporting things from old houses to new ones, so that should be a nice change of pace. However this week we also have another Mission Leadership Council and well, that´s when they give out what they call 'trunky papers', which are a series of papers designed to help a returning missionary to set goals for life after the mission, and well, this time I´ll be the one receiving them. So I´m excited for that.

Time is really flying by. Looking back on the mission is a weird feeling, it´s a mix of thinking that it just flew by super fast, while also realizing that I´ve been here a loooonnnnng time. Somehow those two feelings seem to mix together. 

I hope everyone has a great week! I´ll see you soon!

Jack - June 15

Hola como les va?

This week was interesting, real busy and rather stressful, but at the same time, it´s good to be busy. Time is flying by. I´m not that trunky, mostly because I´m so busy, but I am really excited. I feel that there´s a lot that life has to offer and I´m excited to jump right in. I just hope to bring with me all of the good things I´ve learned in the mission and be able to apply them well to everything that comes afterward.

Basically, I spent the whole week juggling responsibilities of being Housing Coordinator and Registrador. It´s a lot of work, I feel like if I focus on one thing I´m behind on three other things, so it´s a great learning opportunity for me. 

Everything went well with the baptism last week, it was a really great experience, it really all came together at the last minute but it ended up being wonderful. Tomorrow will be the confirmation.

Other than that, I feel like there´s not much to say...

I´ll see you in 8 weeks! 

Jack - June 8

OK

Well.

That was unexpected.

Darn it. Oh well, anyways, many things have happened since the last time I wrote to you. This transfer I started out as the Housing Coordinator/Monkey- (office monkey is the one who sets medical appointments and updates the blog and stuff)- while also training the new secretary. Then my responsibilities as Monkey were passed off to an elder who´s in the office for his last transfer because of his bad back. Then this week we received news that Elder Pigott had to go home to get a knee surgery, so President assigned me to learn how to be Registrador (stuff with baptism records, numbers, materials, phones) in one day, to be able to also fulfill that position this change and then train the new registrador next change. So, well, I´ll end my mission in the office. With a lot of work hahaha. But at least it´ll keep me busy and make the time fly by. 

So anyways I am now officially Housing Coordinator/Registrador/Secretary Trainer.

I basically have to plan for three different office responsibilities.

Next transfer I will be Housing Coordinator/Monkey/Registrador Trainer

This should be fun.

Anyways, we´re pretty excited this week because we have a baptism tomorrow! Wooooooo!

Jack - June 1

Hola como están?

This week was stressful!!! Bueno, it always is during the week of changes. I thought it would be better though because I´m not the secretary anymore but no haha, it was a lot more because I have to help the new secretary learn the job while also working on all of the housing responsibilities I´m now in charge of. Either way, here we are at the end of the week and all is well. 

This transfer should be quite different though, now that I´ll have other responsibilities too. So I´m hoping to just enjoy that and not stress myself out too much.

Today has been awesome because we found a place to go bowling! It was a ton of fun, it´s been so long since I´ve been bowling.

Anyways, other than that, there´s not a lot of news this week. I hope everyone is doing well though!