pictrues from week 1 in Vina

50 years of Missionaries in Chile

Hola Hola!! So this was my first week in Viña and I absolutely LOVE it. It is better than I thought it would be. From the exciting city feeling, to the breathtaking views of the tall buildings and the ocean, to the beautiful sunsets, to the nicest pension I have ever seen in the middle of downtown Viña, to the great ward that i´m in... I think I can get used to it here. There are over 200 members in the ward, (my first ward in my whole mission, I have only had branches,) so this will be something different. The members are great. We have some powerful leaders here! My area is the center of the mission, so I am always at the office, and I always see president Gillespie. I am seriously so Blessed to be here right now! I have been nothing but grateful these last week. I am so excited to tell you all about how the week went!

On Saturday, it was the celebration of 50 years of missionary work here in Chile! Only the privileged in the mission had the opportunity to go down to Santiago and participate in the marvelous event. My zone was one of the privileged! We all got to go down to Santiago, to a big soccer stadium, where they held this monumental event. There were so many missionaries there from viña, Santiago, concepción, and Rancagua. We all got to sit together because we were planned to be part of the program. We waited in the hot sun all day until 7 o clock rolled around and it started. The area presidency of Chile was there to speak to us. They gave some great talks! Then the real show started. There were over 3000 young men and women participating with dancing, acting and singing. It was such a memorable event. It is incredible to think that only 50 years back, there were no members of the church in the whole nation of Chile. Two missionaries and a few others were sent to start from the nothing. They converted one heart at a time, one family at a time, until now, the lord´s restored gospel has been taken to all the land. Now, 50 years later, look at how far we have come. I looked at all the members in the stadium and thought of all the hundreds of thousands of members that were not present, and I was amazed. It made me remember of what Joseph smith said about the progress of this work in these days. He said:

“The Standard of Truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame. But the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and dependent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, until the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah will say, ‘The work is done.'”

This work is true, and I am privileged to be a part of it.

We had our first zone class this last Tuesday. Elder Stevens and I were quite creative with some of the things that we did in the class. Everyone left so excited (Animado) (Animo) to work. I have been thinking a lot on what I could do to help the zone with their enthusiasm and excitement for the work. The idea came into my head that I could compose a zone song. So on Monday night, I took a few minutes to compose a zone song. I was surprised how it turned out! At the end of the zone meeting, I taught the zone our new song, and it pumped everyone up! We will singing it at the end of each zone meeting to keep the Animo up! This is going to be a great change!!! The zone consists of 14 elders, including us and the office elders. One of my old comps, Elder Saldivar, from Mexico, is in the zone.

We have few investigators right now. But that is about to change. Elder Stevens and I have a goal to find a family of 5, and baptize them. We have been praying for it in every prayer, and we are being so obedient, that the lord will be obligated to bless us. We are talking to everyone and doing everything we know how to do in order to have success here in Viña. It’s a different game here. Instead of knocking doors, we have to ring the doorbell, where there is a speaker and they talk to you through their phone inside. We are full of huge apartment buildings and it is quite the adventure!

I love my comp Elder Stevens. He is a STUD. He is from Holliday Utah, and he really likes to have a good time and laugh. He finishes the mission at the end of this year, so I might be the one that kills him on the mission! These will be some very exciting 2 months ahead.

I love you all so much!

Que les vaya bien!!

Chao

Elder Millard

New adventures!

Hola Hola!! Wow, this week was a great one!! So many exciting things happened. First of all, I have to announce the results of the changes this week. On Saturday morning, right after I finished my morning prayers, the phone rang. I run over there to see who it is, and the screen says, President Gillespie. Elder Young picked it up, and right away, he hands me the phone and says, he wants to talk to you. President said, “Hello Elder Millard, how are you doing. Elder, I want you to serve as a Zone Leader for Viña Centro. Your companion will be Elder Stevens.” Then he gave me some great advice. I am so excited for my new assignment as Zone Leader. It will definitely stretch me but I’m grateful for this opportunity to serve and learn a lot. Viña Centro is the headquarters of the mission. I will be right next to Pres Gillespie, so he will have to keep an eye on me. Ha. This is one of the best zones in the whole mission, so I cannot wait to go there and baptize. My time has come to an end at Canihuante, but I cannot wait for my new change. Elder Young is going to be training. His kid is going to be born in a diamond mine. He will be born into a place with lots of miracles and prepared children of God.

So our investigators are doing great. Erica just amazes me. She has had to stop: smoking, drinking tea, drinking coffee and a few other commandments… and she has been resisting temptation. This last week, it was her son’s birthday, so they had the whole family there. When their whole family gets together, the whole house is full of beer, cigarettes, tea, and coffee. She told us that everyone in her family was offering her a smoke, everyone was trying to make her drink, and everyone was doing it. Can you imagine, living a whole life participating with your family in all these things, and liking it, and then as of two weeks, you cannot consume these things any more. On top of that, everyone inviting you to+ how tough. But she pulled through, and did not participate in any of that. She has an incredible will power, and really wants to be baptized. We found out this week that Erica is actually famous in Ovalle. She is very well known as a singer. So after she gets baptized on the 29^th of October, she will be a fountain of references. When she found out that I was leaving, she came up to me with tears in her eyes, and took my hand to shake it, and said with all the sincerity in the world, “Elder, thank you so much. Thank you for all your patience with me, and thank you for helping me come to Jesus Christ. I will never forget you. Thank you so much for giving me the gospel.” Moments like these are what make the mission worth it. All those days knocking doors in the hot sun, the tired legs, the long days, are all worth it for moments like this. Seeing the sincere gratitude of someone that has found Jesus Christ in their lives. This is why I love my mission. I have the power and the privilege to give this hope to everyone, all my brothers and sisters here in Chile.

We are also working a lot with Luis and Juani. We have not been able to share with them very much this week because Juani was rushed to the hospital with symptoms of meningitis. We have been trying to share with their dad for the longest time but every time we refer to anything about the gospel to him, he shouts out, “No No No, you guys are teaching my kids, I have my own beliefs, I wish you would respect that.” But he is such a great guy, one of the funniest men I have ever met. As of right now, we do have a great relationship and he loves when we come over. Yesterday night, we went to go visit the family, but only the dad was there. We sat down and talked to him. We very smoothly led the conversation into a gospel subject. We let it into Christ and his earthly ministry then had a great conversation about the great apostasy. We were in, we finally were having a lesson with him, and he was surprisingly interested. We shared many passages from the Bible, and helped him realize the importance of the restored Gospel. This lesson was a miracle. His heart was finally opened, and the spirit touched him. We gave him the DVD the Restoration, and he promised us he would watch it. MIRACLES.

I love you all so much. Thank you so much for all the prayers and support.

Chao,

Elder Millard

Conference in Chile

Hola Hola!! This was a great week here in Canihuante. I absolutely loved conference. Here we are still seeing miracles every day. Happy Birthday Steve! Sounds like you had some fun surprises. Hope you had a great day!! Dad, I could not stop laughing after seeing the outfit that you wore to Priesthood conference!! Classic, I approve! The pink shirt with the BYU tie just go together flawlessly. All my companions laughed too. Sorry mom for encouraging him haha. Well let´s get started with the miracles in this part of Zion, Canihuante Chile.

Even though I could not be home for this “candy” general Conference, we definitely had our fair share of treats for all of us missionaries. The whole zone, all 14 of us gringos, got to see the conference together in English. We were all crammed into the primary room. Conference was absolutely incredible! This one was special for me because there were various talks that really got to me. It´s distinct watching conference for me as a missionary because I have a deeper understanding of the importance of these things than I did before the mission. Before, I did not take conference very seriously. It was something nice to watch; Some of the talks were really good and uplifting, but I never understood the importance of conference. I now know that what we hear in conference is ultimately important to us for these days. What we hear in conference are commandments that the Lord requires us to live now. It is the doctrine of our day. Through all this confusion in the world, we all have the privilege of listening to a living Prophet of God that is in direct communication with our eternal God. How great of a blessing that is for all of us. May we apply what we learn. I love watching conference then going out to be a missionary again. I just experienced one of the sweet fruits of the gospel, and now I can go and share it with others.

Erica´s mom surprisingly could not come down on the expected date to Ovalle, so Erica decided to postpone her baptismal date until her mom can be there. Her mom is expected to arrive the end of October. She is going through a lot of changes in her life. She needs to stop doing some things that she is accustomed to doing her whole life in order to live the commandments of God. She really needs your prayers. She has all the desires in the world to change her life, but she needs some extra help, prayer. Erica´s daughter was baptized about 5 years ago with her husband. Now they are separated and her daughter is inactive. But I have faith that through seeing her mom take these steps, it will help her remember and come back.

This is the last week of the change, so the next letter will have the results of what the Lord wants for me these next 6 weeks!

Love you all!

Chao,

Elder Millard

Buena Choro, the chilean way of saying hello. I love hearing nothing but great news from home each week! The new room is coming along great, I love to see you guys painting as well. The most popular service that we do as missionaries here in Chile is painting. Maddi, I could not believe my eyes when I saw those homecoming pictures. Your date was one lucky guy! This week has been one of my favorite weeks of the whole mission so far. It has been so full of miracles and fun.

This last Saturday, our branch had our celebration for the 18th. We all got together, ate lots of meat, played lots of typical chilean games, had cueca music, and just had a blast. We had 4 investigators there. Very successful activity.

On Friday, Mauricio was baptized. His whole family was there, which was incredible because they have not been to church for a long long time. They came up to us after the baptism and told us thaty they want to come back to church. I played and sang I stand all amazed for the musical number. Mauricio Cortes, the Young mens president baptized him. I love baptisms because you feel the spirit so strong. We had a few investigators there that are now thirsty for baptism.

Let me tell you about the miracle of Erica. We have not been Abel to find her for the last few days. We have not been able to get Ahold of her or anything. Next thing you know, on Saturday, she called us and asked us what Atonement means. She was apparently Reading the book of Mormon all afternoon! We were so excited to hear that she was Reading so much. Erica is one of my favorite investigators because she is really intelligent, is always super super happy, and is a proffessional Singer. Incredible voice! She kinda reminds me of all my sisters!! Maybe thats why there is that connection there. So on Sunday, Elder Young and I had the opportunity to teach the Gospel Principles class. It was on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. We had lots of investigators attend, including Erica and Daisi. We asked Erica during the lesson, “Erica, how did you feel when you came into the churhc for the first time?” She then went off and explained that she felt something that she has never felt in her life. It was an undescribable peace and a warm feeling. She then told us that she felt something special when she was Reading the book of Mormon yesterday. We have been helping her to try feel ready to be baptized for the longest time. She told us that after Reading the book of M ormon all day yesterday, and praying to God that he would answer her prayer through the Holy Ghost, she recieved an answer to her prayer. After recieving the answer, she knew that she was ready to be baptized. So she told us all in the class, as a surprise, that she has made the decisión to get baptized the 8th of October. She put her own baptisimal date! When we Heard that in the class, we were so surprised and so so happy!! God has answered her prayers and she is now sure that this is what she wants to do. She does not have any support from her family, actually, they all think she is crazy. But she is strong and said that she will endure to the end. She has always told us that she did not want to be baptized then just go innactive right after. She wanted to be sure. And She is now sure, bec ause God has answered her prayer!! Erica will be such a great member! Definitely a future relief society president!. I could not stop saying, WOW, the whole day! I do not know what we did to deserve such a miracle! Now I understand why it says so many times in the scriptures that the Holy Ghost is the teacher. He is the teacher, and we as missionaries are the listeners.

Daisi said something this week that gives us even more of a tesimony that the Lord is in this work. She told us that ever since we have arrived at her house, she has seen the biggest difference in her life. She confronts all of the hard situation with more calm, because she has this new perspective of the góspel. She told us that she feels happier, and feels like every aspect of her life has gotten better! She told us that she KNOWS that these things are true. Now she just needs to get married so she can get baptized. The Holy Ghost, the comforter, is real. He testifies of truth, Comforts us in times of trouble, guides us, and is the third member of the Godhead. By feeling the presence of the Holy Ghost, it is the closest thing that we have to being in the presence of God in this life. I have seen uncountable testimonies of this in my mission. Even the most hardened hearts can be softened by the whisperings of the spirit.

There are so many miracles to write and so Little time! I love you all!

Elder Millard

some shots in Ovalle

September 2011 in Ovalle All this food was part of Independence Day Celebrations. Yummy!

Some scenes in Ovalle 2011. Good work Elder Millard!

Chilean Independence Day

Hola Hola!! How is the fam holding up after the BYU Utah tragedy? I´m just glad I’m on the mission right now so I don´t have to deal with that. It’s been kind of crazy here in Chile these last few days, because of the 18^th of September. The 18^th is always crazy here. I could not write on Monday because everything was closed. We had a capacitation on Tuesday, so here I am on Wednesday. Let´s get started on all the adventures of the week!

On Sunday, we had little hope of a good attendance at church. Everyone leaves to their little farmland villages to meet up with the family. We, Elder Young and I had the opportunity to give a talk to the whole 15 people that were there. After church was done, we went to go eat a huge BBQ with a family. I love the 18^th weekend because the whole week, everywhere you go, you can always smell a delicious BBQ going on. Everyone cooks tons of meet this time of the year. Everywhere you go, you see Chilean flags waving in the wind. All the little kids with their families are flying Kites, and playing with tops and marbles on the street. It really is a fun time to be in Chile. Elder Young and I like to stop for a couple of minutes to try and throw the tops with the kids that are playing on the streets. They are a lot better than we are. They all laugh at us when we make an attempt at spinning them like they do with the top and string. Its a lot of fun because then all the kids think the missionaries are cool and they have a good perception of us. The only bad part about the 18^th is that everyone is drunk and nobody wants to listen to the missionaries. But we kept going and going, and we ended up finding at least 1 new investigator, and teaching some quality lessons. Its hard because everyone is gone or busy partying. This has been a really fun week though with an exciting and energetic environment.

This last week, we had the privilege of going to a conference in Coquimbo to hear Elder Corbridge speak to us. He is a member of the quorum of the 70 and President of area Chile. All I need to say is that he is a powerful man. When he speaks, people listen. We all learned so much valuable information that will help us all so much as missionaries. The basic theme of the conference was “the most important thing.” We came to the conclusion that we should focus more on receiving the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost when we teach our investigators. The most important thing is the Atonement, and through the atonement, we can receive all these things with Eternal Life. In our lessons, we should refer to it, teach to it, repeat it, and help them understand at least this; that they can receive a remission of their sins, and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, which is the most precious gift that Our Heavenly Father can give to one in this life, by repenting and being baptized. This is our message, that the authority to accomplish all these things is on the earth again. I´m still trying to contemplate all the incredible things he taught us.

Mauricio is getting baptized this Friday at 6. He is an eternal investigator that is finally ready to get baptized. We are excited for him and he is super excited as well!

I love you all! Until next week!

Elder Millard

More miracles

Hola Hola!! Como estáis po! It’s so great to hear that everything is so great back at home! There was some crazy news this week! Everyone is getting engaged haha. The house looks soo weird! I love it though! Can´t wait to see the finished product. Wow I cannot believe how fast time is flying. Your summer and my winter is almost over! But here in Ovalle, during the day, it still feels like summer. This was such a great week! Let´s get started.

We had our mission conference this week in… are you ready for this… Coquimbo!!! It was so weird going back to the place of my birth! I got to see the Coquimbo cross again, be with my fellow Coquimbanos, and just cruise around my old stomping grounds. The conference went great. We learned a lot about being prepared. I will definitely work on that more. It is so important to be prepared, because if you are prepared, ye shall not fear. The whole mission is getting portable DVD players so we can study the preach my gospel dvds during companionship study. It will be a great resource and a great way to learn and practice. The next day after the conference, President Gillespie did something super cool. He came to Ovalle, and did a fireside for all of the investigators and recent converts. We had a couple of investigators there, and they absolutely loved it. President Gillespie is a powerful man!

Our investigators are doing incredible!! Maria and Pablo, the ones that have had problems with the word of wisdom, finally have got the determination to quit. They made the goal to stop smoking, drinking and drinking tea, today!! So, when they are successful in dropping these addictions, they will be able to be baptized on the 27^th of this month. I´m so happy for them. It was like a spark that went off inside of them. They suddenly have so much enthusiasm to live the word of wisdom and be baptized. Our prayers have been answered!

Elder Petersen and I have come to the conclusion that God often times puts certain types of people for specific companionships. For example, Elder Alvarez and I were teaching a ton of Evangelists. Now, Elder Petersen and I have found tons and tons of teenagers and young un-married couples. We are teaching three couples that are living together, that need to get married in order to get baptized. We are also working with 4 stud teenagers, all guys 16-18 years old.

Spiritual experience: So, here we were working this last Tuesday. Our appointment fell through, and our backup plan was to do tours of the church for an hour to find new investigators. When we got to the church, there were not very many people on the street. We both looked at each other, and decided that it would be better to go contact in another area. We both felt like we should go into the rich neighborhood right next to the church. In this neighborhood lives Ruben, the kid that i´m teaching how to play the piano. So we walk over there and start knocking doors and talking to everyone. In the rich neighborhoods, we seem to get a lot more rejections. But its where we felt the lord wanted us to be. We knocked about 12 houses, and either they were not there, or we got turned down. On the 13^th house, we yell “Alo” and a teenager walks out. He was a way cool guy. He came over, shook our hand and started talking to us for a while. His name is Leo. We found out that he was good friends with Ruben, and that he was really interested in the church. He already has a Book of Mormon and has read it a little, and he told us that he wants to meet with us. So we set up an appointment with him and Ruben to have a lesson in the church. He was really excited about it. And obviously we were too! When we walked away after having set up the appointment, Elder Petersen and I were super excited! We gave one of the biggest high five/ hug combos I ever seen. So the day rolls around when we have the appointment to meet with them in the church. When they come in, we do a quick little tour of the church, we sang an opening song on the piano, then started the lesson. We taught him about the restoration of the church, using a lock and key as an object lesson. He was so into it! He had so many great questions and was very excited about the whole thing. When the time came to talk about the book of Mormon, he told us something that absolutely caught me off guard. He said “Elders, I have already read the Book of Mormon, I have pondered it in my heart, and have prayed to God to know if it is true. God has answered my prayer, and I know with a certainty that these things are true.” After hearing this, my smile was from ear to ear. We testified also of the divinity and truth of the Book of Mormon, and of the veracity of this message that we shared. We invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. The Diamonds out there, and the Lord will guide us to them, if we have faith, and if we listen to his voice.

Well that’s all for this week! I love you all!

Cuidense Arto!

Elder Millard

FAITH

Hola Hola!! Its so great to hear that everything is so great back at home! That St. Geezy trip sounds like it was a blast! Sheri, thank goodness you are safe! That is so crazy that happened! It seems like you and cars are not getting along very well. Maddi, good luck with your volleyball tryouts this week! I know you will do great! Atta boy rob, busting out the fast offerings! There will be plenty more where that came from! Haha, good times. My winter is feeling more like a summer here in Ovalle. It is super hot during the day! I´m totally rocking the short sleeves again. My arms have missed the sun. In the night, it still gets a little cold. This change is just flying right by! This week in particular was a great one! I´m going to share a few great experiences that I’ve had these last few days. Let’s get started.

President Gillespie wanted us to focus on a Christ-like attribute in particular that we could work on developing. I chose to work on my faith. I have seen a big change in our success from just having a little more faith. Faith has more to do with just believing that things will come to pass. It is controlling our bodies, our minds and our hearts, focusing on what the lord wants us to do. If we have a thought that is contrary to what the lord wants, our faith is compromised. So I have been focusing a lot on that. Controlling my mind, my desires, and my will, and giving it all to the lord and his work. Its incredible how often we use our mind unconstructively. A lot of times, I would be day dreaming when I could be going through a lesson or a contact in my head. I could be letting my mind wander instead of going through what I learned in my personal study in the morning. Our mind is such a powerful instrument! I have seen incredible results from controlling my mind and showing more faith to the lord.

This last Friday, we were talking to every single person that we passed by. In one instance, we were passing by this teenager. He looked like a hard core punk. Normally we would not talk to those people because we have had some bad experiences with the type. But we told the lord we would talk to everyone! So we stop him and start talking to him and surprisingly he was a really nice guy! He was super interested in what we had to say to him. He does not have any religion in specific. They all say that they are Catholic, but in their own way. We started talking about the Book of Mormon. Our mission has these really cool cards that you can give to people that have a bunch of soul searching questions. He chose to answer the question, “Why do I have to get baptized?” He then started to explain that he is not baptized and he is very interested in learning more about it. Wow, this was quite the surprise. You really cannot judge people from just looking at them. You never know what they have been through or what they want. We invited him to come play basketball with us the next day. He is a huge basketball fan, and he was pretty excited to play against two tall gringos. The Lord really puts people in our path, we just need to have the faith necessary to act and talk to them, even if they don´t look like the type.

We did a sick tour this week with a Carabinero (police man). He is the 3^rd chilean that I have seen on my mission that is actually taller than me! He was the nicest guy in the world! The thing is, he is training to be a carabinero here in Ovalle, and he won´t have too much time to listen to us. He´s sick though; someday he will find the gospel and accept it.

A lot of our baptismal dates are falling through! Maria, Pablo and Felipe are all having big problems with the word of wisdom. They say that they are not too willing to let those things go because they always drink and smoke with their friends. And Maria said that every time she tries to drop tea, she gets super sick. They are all severely addicted to 3 tea, smoking and drinking. We are doing everything we can to help them get over them, but ultimately it is up to them to make the decision. Manuel, our other baptismal date is getting ready to move this next Sunday. Elder Petersen and I are working hard, trying to find the diamonds in the midst of all the rocks.

Love you all!

Que estén bien! Chao po!

Elder Millard