Week 31 and 32

First i didn`t write last week, and now i don`t have my camera to send pitures...Sorry ive been slacking on my emails these past two weeks!

We had changes last week and my new companion is Elder Rawlinson from Surprise Arizona. He`s a cool guy and he has almost a year in the mission. 

These past 2 weeks have been CRAZY hot. Well, at least they`ve been crazy hot for what i`m used to. It`s been like 80 degrees and humid every day, and when you`re walking outside all the time it gets pretty uncomfortable. I don`t know how missionaries that always have this hot of a climate do it!

One thing that was super fun this week is we had a water balloon fight and a games night with the branch. It turned out really good and there were like 15 people there so a good turn out too! The down side is my companion threw a water balloon and broke a window in the church so that kind of sucks.

My favorite experience of this week was when we visited a less active members house named Maria Nelly, we found out she hadn`t been going to church because she had been very sick. She hadn`t been doing anything for a long time because her lungs/back/side hurts to do anything, including walking. She lives about 2 miles from the church and she told us it was impossible for her. When we were at her house, we helped her clean her house, repair a couple things, and we gave her a preisthood blessing. We left and we didn`t hear from her for about 5 days. The next sunday, we went to church about 45 minutes before it started, and she was already there! She said she had been feeling much better, and had done a lot of things in the past few days because her health had been better, and she even felt good enough to walk the entire distance to church and back.  

More stuff happended but i don`t have too much time to write! those were the highlights anyways! Pictures to come next week

L8ter Sk8ters

Elder Polock

Week 30

This week the branch president was in Santiago, the Sunday school teacher was gone, and the people who were going to give talks didn`t show up, so we did EVERYTHING at church this Sunday! My companion and I came early to unlock the church, clean, set up chairs, etc. We both set up and blessed the sacrament, my companion led the sacrament meeting, I was the chorister, we both gave talks, taught the classes of the adults and the Sunday school, led priesthood meeting, planned activities, collected, input and deposited tithing, and locked up/cleaned/put away the chairs again. It was the busiest Sunday of my life. It`s definitely a lot different than being in a gigantic ward!

It`s okay though because the president will be here next Sunday and things will be running smoothly again!

One awesome thing that happened this week was the president had been searching for a sister in the ward to be the first counselor in the relief society for a while now, and just a couple days ago an inactive member (Lady in her 40`s who was already relief society president) Called us and told us she had been inactive for about 10 years but wants to return and she will attending church again and will do everything to be an active member again. We passed by her house, intending to teach her something, but she ended up teaching herself! Haha it was awesome because she told us her problems and before we could try to help her she came up with solutions and goals and everything on the spot. It was a really spiritual experience to know the Lord will always prepare a way. We needed a sister ready to be first counselor, and she showed up and called us at the perfect time.

This pday, we went to a place called Saltos Del Rio Petroveli. It was an awesome place with volcanoes, waterfalls, rapids, forest, cliffs, kayaking, water rafting, etc. We took a bus with like 10 elders and 6 sisters and spent the day there exploring! That`s why I'm

emailing so late too.

That`s all folks

<3

Elder Pollock


 

Week 29

Happy New years!!!

New years here in Chile is almost exactly the same in the States so there´s not too much to tell! We ate dinner with some members, played some games, and then we went home and watched the fireworks from our backyard! It was a good 15 minute firework show and we could see it perfectly from our house.

This was a much harder week to work because everyone was drinking and having family parties and stuff so it was almost impossible to talk to people in the streets or knock doors, so basically all we did this week was visit a lot of members and a couple investigators. I was kind of disappointed that we weren´t in the street too much, because its always fun to talk to the drunk people here! Hahah one day we were walking in the street and a drunk guy tried to convince us to trade our boat (a random boat that was on the beach that was definitely not ours) For his silver plated mermaid statue. He ALMOST convinced us to accept his offer, but he was happy to receive a mormon.org card and keep the statue. 

We have a part member family that we´re teaching where the Moms a member, but the husband and the daughter aren't. The daughter Katalina is preparing for her baptism, and we´re working with the Dad and we hope to have him join her! It would be awesome for them both to be baptized on the same day.

Here´s some pictures of the barbeque we had for New years and Fireworks.

Week 27 & 28

I didn`t have time last week to write a letter so this is both weeks in one!

For Christmas we did a TON of things! We had a Christmas Reunion with the Mission where we had super good food, candy, dessert, we performed super funny plays/skits that we`ve been practicing as zones, we played secret Santa, and afterwards we went to the central plaza of Puerto Montt and sung Christmas carols, In Spanish and English! Haha it was a super fun day and it was also awesome to catch up with some old friends from the mission! I even ran into a girl I knew from BYU Provo who was in my English class! Allyson Smoot!

Besides the Mission Christmas party, we had a branch Christmas party with our small branch in Calbuco. My companion and I did ANOTHER skit/play thing haha. 

Last p-day, we had permission to watch the movie Elf with like 14 other missionaries and so we did that! We watched it with the voices in Spanish, and it`s awesome because I understood almost all of it! I`m surprised how fast I learned Spanish. I can`t speak it as good as I can understand it, but I'm getting there! I can understand 90-95% of the conversations in Spanish now.

We spent Christmas eve with a family who was recently converted, and they bought us matching ties, a picture frame with a picture of us at the branch Christmas party, and some other stuff! We also ate dinner at their house and had a good time there! 

For Christmas Day, we took a boat to another island like 30 minutes away to spend the day over there with some other members and their family. The island was super small and it reminded me of the TV series LOST! haha but it was so pretty over there. 

The day after Christmas, I got to Skype my family! It was awesome to get to talk to them over Skype, because I have only written them by email for the past 6 months. I`m excited for next time on Mothers day!

Anyways, that`s all the fun stuff we did over these two weeks with the Christmas Holiday, but we also did a ton of work too and focused on the true meaning of Christmas. During this month of December, we had tons of success in the mission work. we had investigators in the church every Sunday, we had about 5 investigators at the Christmas party, we taught lots of lessons and met a lot of cool people that are interested in the church. 

I love this time of the year because families are together, having a good time, and it`s a perfect time of the year, especially with new years coming up, to make goals and change your life for the better. I have a ton of new year resolutions so i have my work laid out for me in 2015!

Stay classy,

Elder Pollock

Week 26

Hey this week i got my Christmas package from my Family! It was so awesome and refreshing to have some American candy like pez, laffy taffy, lindor truffles, tootsies rolls, etc. Also, we didn`t have any christmas decorations in our house, but now we do! I also pictures, music, ties, seattle sounders soccer jersey, missionary stuff, etc! It was a super great present! I have all this stuff in our living room right now haha

This week we taught a lot of people, and i have a lot of hope for one family of 3 in particular. The daughter just turned 8 and wants to be bpatized, and the dad isn`t a member, but the Mom is. We have been teaching the Dad, and he`s going to be thinking about getting baptized with his daughter! I think we started teaching them at the perfect time, because they are definitely a faimly ready for the gospel. It`s really fun to teach them too, because we have to adapt our teaching style to an 8 year old level!

Our branch here in Calbuco is super tiny. We have about 30 active members! My companion is the first counselor of the branch and i`m the secretary, so i get to do all the fun tithing stuff... Hahah but it`s way different being in such a small branch. There`s positives and negatives, but it`s pretty cool because everyone knows everyone, and all the members are super nice!

I hope you all have an awesome Christmas! 

If anyone has any questions about the church, the book of mormon, or why i`m here in Chile for 2 years, shoot me an Email! Jordan.pollock@myldsmail.net

Elder Pollock

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Week 25

I ran out of time this week to write a big mass email because this computer i´m using sucks! haha but to be breif, i changed zones to Calbuco, which is an island and it´s super sick! I´m sure you guys already saw the photos. I took a bus from Valdivia to Osorno, Osorno to Puerto Montt, and Puerto Montt to Calbuco. Like 6 hours of traveling in total.

The good thing is that there´s not much to tell this week anyways because my companion was super sick for the past week! He slept all day and didn´t eat barely anything. Luckily, he´s all better now and we were able to do stuff this sunday. It was fun to have a sick companion because i got to read a lot and sleep a lot too haha. It was a nice break.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy the photos!

Have an awesome Christmas!

Elder Pollock

This is the view we have everyday! It´s awesome

 

 

We are on an island named Calbuco. I circled it on the map

Week 24

Changes! My companion is staying here in Valdivia, but I'm going to Calbuco! Calbuco is apparently a small island and a small town south of Valdivia. I`m super excited because I've heard it`s super pretty down there! Also, Elder Gonzalez is going to be my companion and this is going to be his last 6 weeks in the mission! He`s from Santiago and only speaks Spanish so my Spanish is definitely going to improve a lot faster because I'll be forced to speak it all the time. I`m super excited!

After all this time of being in Chile and speaking Spanish, I realized MY DREAMS ARE IN SPANISH!! It`s so funny. I never thought that would happen ha-ha.

On another note, we did like 12 or 13 hours of service this week. We helped some members paint their house, which took like 7 hours, then we helped people haul a bunch of firewood for about 3 hours and then helped an old lady with her yard for a couple hours. It`s always fun to give service like that here in the mission because it`s a nice change in the routine.

This week we taught a lot of people, and I'm super sad to be leaving Valdivia because we have a lot of investigators that I believe are going to be baptized soon. We have Peter and Aly, Benjamin and Nicole, Victor, Ximena, Daniella, Sebastian, Francisco, Javier, Heladio, and more. A lottt of investigators. It`s ok though, i hope there will be even more people waitng for me in Calbuco!

This week for p-day, we hiked a small mountain by our house, it was pretty relaxing because that`s what i always used to do back home, Hiking! Also, there area was almost the same as Seattle so it felt exactly like home. Here`s a couple pictures from that hike and more!

Everything`s great down here in Chile, thanks for your support everyone! I`m glad to be down here sharing the gospel and the Book of Mormon because i know it`s true and can help everyone. 

Byeeee

Elder Pollock




They don`t sell milk by the gallon here, it sucks! It comes in boxes and tastes weird.

 Also, here`s the coke section of the grocery store. Chileans love their coke. Seriously though, they drink it like every day