The one with the changes to my everyday life

Hola Hola everybody! i hope you all have been well its me again reporting to you all live from Santiago Chile where everything is hot and sunny. So this week has been a week of a lot of ups and downs and a lot of growth for me. It's so crazy how much one can learn in the mission in just one week. Im sure my missionary buddies could attest to that. But no everythings been well just working hard and trying to make the most of this time that i have. This time is so short and so sacred, Im trying to use it the best i can. 

So this week...

We have a training session with the council of missionary work which boradcasted to all the missionaries around the world and on this council includes 3 of the 12 apostles. Elder Oaks, Bednar and Nielsen. Including others as well. But we recievd further instruction on how we can better the missionary work that we are doing to help others recieve this gospel and grow closer to our Savior. A few things that have changed for us is our everyday schedule of how we do things. So far in my mission ive had a very strict schedule as to when i study my language that im using, when i study with my companion, when i eat lunch and when i eat dinner. But the changes that took place allow us to have more flexibility and allow us to decide when we would like to do the following things depending on our daily schedule and appointments we have with others. Another thing had to do with  numbers that we report to our leaders everyweek and i absolutely love the changes because it allows us to decide how we want to do things to best lead the work that we're doing and how we want to do it. very awesome.

that was the biggest thing i got this week, all is well and things are going okay down here in Chile. I love and miss you all very much. until next time,

your favorite chile missionary

Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts about chile:

1. Chileans say "si Dios quire" to answer everytime you want them to do something for you which literally just translates to "if God wants" haha

2. The mail system in Chile is terrible, you have to go to a postal service place to do anything, they dont have mailboxes here for people to recieve stuff at their houses

3. Latinos call us Gringos because in Spanish American War when we were fighting the Mexicans could only understand when the captains would say "Green, GO!" and so they nicknamed us Gringos..and there you have it

That one with finally hitting 100 degrees everyday

Hola everybody hope everyone is well and that you all had a great week this past week!!! SO down here not gunna lie not much has happened this past week. Just working like normal and trying to bring more people to Christ through my example and my efforts. SO onto the week...

We have one investigator named Sofia and she is super awesome and she has a total testimony of everything that we've taught her and she is just getting so ready for her baptism on the 5th of February. That has been the exciting part of the week for us haha. Everyone is on vacation here and everyone is at the beach so its been kind of hard to find new people to teach or set up appointments to visit people. We've just been offering our sertvice in everyway that we can and trying to serve the people the best we can. 

Sorry there isnt much to report this week, just kind of same old same old but nevetheless learning a lot each and every day and doing my best to serve the Lord and His children. 

I love all of you so very much and i hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts about chile:

1: it is ridiculously difficult to send a package from Chile to the United States, 1st world country yeah right...

2: Tax doesnt exist...actually joke it does but its automatyically included in the price so the price you see on everythign is what you will spend, kind of nice actually.

3: Chileans love to talk about how hot it is, never have talked so much about the weather before in my life

The one with the Latino Joseph Smith and the dog attack

Hola Hola everyone! I hope all is well in the great USA. As the holidays have passed all seems chill back at home. Many of you are probably wondering about my cubject bar and dont worry all will be revealed in good time. All that is important to remember is that we are well in Chile, doing the Lord's work and living a whole lot of experiences.

So onto the week,

this past week was the end of the 6 weeks that we have and every 6 weeks we have the option of having changes in companion or area but for me and Elder Jacobsen, we changed...nothing hahaha so no news on that front we're just working and living same old same old.

So onto the latino Joseph Smith, on sunday we got a call from a member in our ward asking if we could come over and talk to this 10 year old boy as fast as possible and at first we were a bit caught off guard and we wanted to know what was the urgency to get to this 10 year old kid. well we got there and we walked in to find little Benjamin, he is 10 and he had 7 questions that only the missionaries would be able to answer (we're basically a wikipedia when it comes to the Gospel or anythign about God haha) and so he kindly asked us to sit down, we began with a prayer and he began with his questions. I thought theyd be easy, 7 questions from a 10 year old, we'll be done in 10 minutes. man was i wrong, we were asked more profound questions about God, the after life, the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how he could receive an answer from God than by the majority of the other investigators we talked to in their 50s hahaha. But with help from the Spirit and a lot of studying we were able to answer every question he had and we are going to began teaching him so he can have the option to be baptized if he feels ready. This kid could be the domino that begins the slavation of his little brother, his mother and a lot of his family. I look forward to what Benjamin has in store for us. 

ANd as far as the dog thing, i dont know what happened, we entered this alley way where a member lived and when we got there this dog began to jump at us and a few times nipped at my forearm or my shoes as i tried to kick him off and he ended up backing me out of the alley way only to later be eventually rescued by the member we were trying to visit, my comp meanwhile was enjoying the show....but all is well i made it out without a scratch but just a tad traumatized hahaha. 

so that was my week, hope ya'll liked it and there will be more funny stories to come im sure haha. i love you all and have a great week

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. Dogs do have the ability to back down missionaries out of an alleyway

2. old ladies find great enjoyment from hitting on the missionaries

3. drunk chileans love to hug the missionaries as they pass them on the street because they think thats what Jesus would do apparently...

the one with the first week of the 2017

Hola Hola como estamos??? i hope that you are all well and im sending my best to everyone from here in caloroso Santiago. As you are all bundled up we are in the hottest part of the year and t I've never wished for winter so much in my life. But other than that all is good down here just working hard and serving the people in any way i can. 

On to the week...

SO when i said that i've been serving in everyway i can i truly do mean it. This past week has been all about service for me. This past week i have been doing manual labor is peoples backyards/ranch thingy, ive been teaching english to people everyway tuesday night and the past couple days ive been teaching math to a few struggles members of the church who need it to get a job. AND on top of all of that im teaching the Gospel and helping others come unto Christ and to know more about Him. SO yeah ive had my hands full this week haha. 

As far as the work is going, we hit a slow season since we baptized all of our genuine investiagtors so we've just been trying to find more people to teach and we have been having some success. Im not going to write about all of them but one experience that i had this week is that we went to go visit this family that hasnt gone to church in quite some time and one of the older daughters whos 20 nasked us if we could teach her math, and i said only if you go to church on sunday. and she went, she took her other sisters and one of those sisters brought a friend and that friend loved it so much that at the end of church she came up to us and told us she wants to get baptized. Yeah how amazing is that. She felt the spirit so strongly and she knew this was the truth that she wants to get baptized as soon as she can, but first we have to teach her and make sure she knows the importance of baptism and the covenant shes making with Heavenly Father. If all goes well she will get baptized the 22 of January. What an awesome experience. 

Well thats about it just working hard, serving the people and trying to be more like our Savior Jesus Christ, day by day. I love you all and i challenge you all to look for ways to serve those around you, not for the attention or the accolades but because you know thats what Christ would do. Have a great week!

Until next time,

Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. So apparently its lady bug season here and they are EVERYWHERE, and one thing i didnt know before is that at least Chilean Ladybugs bite HARD. Never thought id suffer a death by ladybugs

2. Apparently i look old enought to have an 18 year old son because when i met this one older lady at her door she saw me and Elder Jacobsen and asked if she was my son and that he looked just like me, she had to be smoking something...

3. A popular dessert here for missionaries to be given is apparently half a watermelon and its considered a disgrace if you dont finish it all, forgive me for not having the water capacity in my stomach...

The one with the start of 2017!!!

Hola Todos!!! Feliz Año Nuevo!!!! I hope you all had a great new years with fun and safety as well! As we come to the start of a new year and i begin my full year of which i will be in my mission i think alot about the traditions of New Years and what it means to me. Its the opportunity to start anew, to become better, to set goals and to actually strive to accomplish them. This year will be one of the most different years of my entire life, but im excited to see what this year has in store for me. I challange you all to think about what you want to accomplish this year, where do you want to see yourself as youre counting down the seconds to 2018, write them down, and actually strive to cross them off. Alright my speech is at the close, now onto the week...

SO nothing too exciting hap`pened this week until the New Years, just a normal week of workign with people and having everyday different experiences. SO lets talk abotu what one does here in Chile for New Years. So my comp and I went over to a family's house for a New Years dinner, it was great except nobody eats dinner here until like 10:30 and since we have to be in the house by 10 we basically ate dinner just us two while everyone else watched us haha. then we went back to the apartment where we moved the couch to the window of our third story apartment and we waited until Midnight when fireworks lit up the sky, people shoot up fireworks from all over santiago and the best were from this mountain that is pretty close to where we are. and on top of that, everyone lights up paper like chinese-ish lanterns and lift them up in the sky, it was like that scene in Tangled, it was so awesome, i was tempted to start belting Tangled music hahaha. then we put vanilla icecream with ginger ale and made like a traditional new years drink here in Chile but i dont remember what its called. it was pretty bomb. 

so thats basically all for this week, i wish you all an amazng 2017 with so much joy and prosperity. Until next week from Chile.

Elder Carlos Cabrera

Facts of the week:

1. its actually really hard to launch up lanterns in the sky on New Years, could very easily get caught on powerlines or fly up into apartment complexes, you can imagine the danger possibilities

2. Im pretty sure Chile has way less firework regulations than the states because some little kids could have very well bombed a small village with how much explsoves they were dealing with

3. In Chile people dont kiss at midnight, they hug...it made for a much more comfortable night for me and my companion hahaha