Hola!!! Merry Christmas!!!! I really cannot believe that it is christmas time!!!! In my heart it is Christmas but what i see is completely contrary. Its all good though. So my christmas this year will be a little different than normal. Instead of all of this focus on temporal fun and excitement, i have the opportunity and pleasure to focus 100 percent on the true meaning of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our savior and lord Jesus Christ. I have found that the people here are a little more friendly lately... pretty positive that this is due to the Christmas season. I must take advantage these next few days to find some great investigators while the people are still like this.

This week has been so ´´(Bakán)´´ or in other words cool/awesome! One really important piece of info is that I recieved a call on sat night that i will be leaving Tierras Blancas... Ah so sad! But I am So excited!!! But my experience here has been incredible. In missionary terms, i was born here, and now i am moving on with my mission life. I guess that makes me a teenager now... I have loved getting to know the members, the elders and all the investigators that we have found. I will never forget them. I will also never forget all that i have been able to do here. All that i have learned here will change my life forever. I´m so grateful for the opportunity that i have had to serve here in Tierras Blancas Coquimbo.

Yesterday at church was quite the experience. Elder Saldivar and i had tons of success with investigators coming to church. Just about everyone came which made us happy! Right before the meeting started, our branch president came up to me and said ´´Elder, all of our talks today are from teenagers, perhaps they will not fill up the time, so would you like to play a special musical number?´´ I gladly said yes! So i had about 10 min to think of a song and figure out what i´m going to do. I thought of one of my favorite Christmas hymns... Silent Night. That was the winner. It was kinda my little goodbye musical number and it went great!

Funny Story... So after sacrament meeting and sunday school, it was time for Priesthood class. But this time was a little different because insted of going to priesthood, the primary president came up to me in the hall and told me that the music leader of the primary had not shown up and that they have their Christmas musical program next week. (Mom i know you will appreciate this). She asked me to lead them in practicing the songs for this program. So here i am in front of the whole primary of about 20 kids, singing and leading these childrens hymns. Two of the songs i knew but the third song i had no clue how it went. Lets just say i made of fool of myself in front of all these kids trying to lead and sing this third song haha. I now have a strong appreciation and respect for the Primary Choristers.

We had the opportunity to do some sweet service this week. Marisol asked us to help paint her house so we were over there with our service clothes painting like nobodies business. I have gained a new love for service, in specific painting haha. It was a lot of fun to be able to help someone out and have fun while i´m at it.

I had my 6 month anneversary on Dec 16th!!!! So the other elders in the pension threw me a little suprise party!! Right after planning, they all barged in with a little cake and a candle that was shaped as a 6. It was so great, they all had masks on and were all congratulating me on completing 6 months of my mish! I don´t really know where time has gone, i am already 1/4th done with my mission! AHHH slow down. haha

Well i must go back to my P-day but I want to wish you all a merry merry merry Christmas! It is the best time of the year! Love you all.

I´ll let you know where i´m going in my next Email!!!!

Elder Millard

Mon, December 13, 2010 10:03:11 AM

Coquimbo week 17

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From:	Kenneth Millard ... View Contact
To:	Donna Millard
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Hola!!! Christmas is coming sooner than we know it! Lots of houses have lights and a tree! we are singing tons of Christmas hymns and all the decorations everywhere Its really playing with my mind because on the other side of things, the weather feels like its the middle of july haha. But its all good, it will be a fun new christmas experience. This week was great! We had a lot of success and are working hard. This next week is the last week of the change! Wow where has the time gone?

On Saturday, Johana was baptized along with a family of 4. The baptism was such a great experience! Everything went great and the spirit was so strong. The great part about it was that Matilde and Sergio were able to assist and they said that they loved it! They are now so animated for their baptism. The baptism was at 6 o clock a but as i have come to learn, Chileans are not the most punctual people so the baptism started at 6:20. haha There were some great talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. We organized a great musical number where all the Elders sing the primary song ´´when i´m baptized´´ commonly recognized as ´´i like to look for rainbows, whenever there is rain.´´ Ah! i love that song so much. We had us 4 elders singing it with me on the piano and it turned out great! The baptisms went great! Kinda funny though... the mom´s tunic kept on coming up so she had to get baptized 6 times. Johana is super happy. On sunday they all recieved the Holy Ghost.

This last Sunday i had another opportunity to give a talk. This one went so much better than the last one haha. They are starting to get alot easier because i´m more comfortable with my spanish. Still have a long way to go. I talked about the power of prayer and how it can be a guide for our lives through the impressions of the spirit. I tied that all in with missionary work and how we can pray to know who we can start sharing the gospel with. They I talked about the power of inspired questions and Testimony to be able to share the gospel with these people.

Matilde and Sergio are doing so great! They both assisted the baptism and the next day assisted church. Sergio just barely got back from Valparaiso for cancer treatment. His health is a little unsteady but he is still super animated to learn more about the gospel and to recieve revelation through prayer that this is true. We are thinking that a reasonable day for them to be baptized would be the beginning of january... the 2nd or 3rd.

Well i love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Millard

(Pictures)... My christmas tree for the Pension!!!, Johana´s baptism, and Elder Saldivar taught me how to make some incredible Tortillas!!!! They are seriously Cafe Rio style. Cheap and easy. We also made some hamburger with taco flavoring and salsa to put in the tacos. They were incredible! They don´t eat tacos here, mostly just rice and chicken fish and some pastas. But i love the food here!

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Hola!!! This week has been so great!!! Getting hotter and hotter, which is super wierd considering its Christmas time. Just in case you were all wondering, Yes they do celebrate Christmas here. I walk around at night time looking at all of the Christmas lights on some of the houses. Some of the houses have their Christmas trees up and all of the stores are playing Christmas music (in english for some reason). I Love Christmas so much! Right before every lesson that we have, i insist that we sing a christmas hymn because i just love them so much. And its good to sing a hymn before the lessons to help invite the spirit. Its so cool to hear and sing them in spanish. It gives them a whole different meaning.

The work is going so great! Marisol and Mauro recieved the Holy Ghost yesterday ,on sunday in church, and they are so happy. They both will be great members. Mauro now has desires to serve a mission so lets hope that fire stays lit! That would be awesome! Marisol, as she has said before, has felt the biggest difference in her life from the gospel. She feels even better now that she has the Holy Ghost as her constant companion. I just love missionary work because we get a front row seat to see these people change their lives. It makes it all worth it!

So Maria, the sister of Marisol, asisted her baptism. A couple of days later, she said that she wants to be baptized. This has been a HUGE change as well. Through the course of teaching Marisol, we have seen Maria a few times. During this time, she was Super catholic. Her heart was closed, she did not want anything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ. But after assisting this baptism, she felt something and now has a huge desire to be baptized. We have been teaching her and she is accepting everything. This last Sat, we asked her if she would assist church with us on Sunday. She told us no because she had to go on a little trip with her family. We just promised blessings and we left the rest to the lord. The next day, about 30 min before church started, we left the church to go pick up some investigators that live close. To our suprise, right outside the gate was Maria walking inside to come to church! I was shocked. She was as happy as ever to be there. She was able to see her sister being comfirmed a member of the church and recieve the Holy Ghost. She also assisted all 3 hours which was great! Now that we have taught her our way to pray, she loves to pray because for her its now a conversation with God instead of somthing recited. She has a Fecha for the 19th, the day before changes.

Johana passed her baptisimal interview and she is ready to go for this Saturday at 6 o clock. Johana is so awesome! A 12 year old girl that lives with her 83 year old grandma and takes care of her. Her grandma is a member. She is 100 percent blind and can barely walk. So this last sunday, as we were going to help johana bring her grandma to church, we saw her rolling her down the street in a wheelchair all by herself. Now thats determination! Makes me so happy to see that!

I´m loving my mission more than words can express! Some days are hard, some days are long, but when you look at the big perspective, this work is the most important thing that i could be doing right now! I have seen and experienced grand changes in many peoples lives. The Gospel is true! We are all so blessed.

Love you all!

Elder Millard

More baptisms!

Hola Amigos y Familia!! This week has been Such a great week! I know i say that every week but this week was extraordinarilly great! Time just flies by when you are having fun preaching the gospel. It seems like yesterday that i was writing you the last email! Anyways, lets get to the good stuff!!

So yesterday we had 2 baptisms! One of the best experiences of my mission up to this point! All i can say is wow, the spirit was so strong! Elder Saldivar and i got there a little early to fill up the font with water and for me to choose a musical number to play and sing. Mauro and Marisol arrived about a half hour before the baptism to try on their tunics and get the perfect size. We then waited for them to change so we could take some pictures. The baptism then started. We had 2 talks, one about baptism and the other about the Holy Ghost. After the talks, i had the opportunity to use music yet another time. I chose to play I need thee Every Hour. (Señor te Necesito). During this song, i felt So strongly the presence of the spirit. I felt like i was floating! I really have a strong testimony of the power of music and the power that it has! After the song, Marisol was crying along with a few others in the congregation and you could just feel a peace in the chapel. After the song, Mauro and Marisol walked to the font to recieve the saving ordinance of Baptism. I was a witness for the baptism, and when Marisol looked up at me when she was in the water, she smiled at me and the expressions on her face just showed the pure happiness that she has recieved through the restored gospel. Thats what makes this time all worth it. Moments like this when you see the fruits of your labors in a form of changing someones life. I would not trade experiences like these for anything. After they came up out of the water, i got goosebumps, or should i say people bumps. ha. Ah the spirit was So strong! After they were baptized, we all went back into the chapel. They asked me to give another musical number so i played and sang Where can i Tun For Peace. Afterwards, we asked a few of the incredible members that were present to give their testimonies. This baptism has given me so much more excitement to just find teach and Baptize!

After the baptism, we witnessed a miracle. The sister of Marisol is very catholic. We have tried to teach her many times and every time she is so shut and does not want to listen to us at all. But as i have heard from Elder Salerno, we baptize to baptize. That does have some truth to it. Obviously it is not the sole purpose of the baptism, but from witnessing a baptism, its like a sample from Costco. once you try a little bit, you just want more and more! This was the case with Maria. She told us after the baptism that she wants to be baptized!

This week was thanksgiving! But as i sadly found out from the natives here in Chile, they do not celebrate it. But that did not stop me. Thanksgiving morning, i cooked up some pancakes and some eggs and ate so much food haha. A little bit later, we had a Gynormous lunch. So with the chileans not knowing that it was thanksgiving, i still ate a lot and i am still thankful for everything i have! I´m thankful for all of you back home for you undying support and friendship, for this wonderful opportunity i have right now to serve the lord, and for everything! I wish you all a happy thanksgiving, even though it was a few days ago. Its the thought that counts.

Elder Saldivar and i working super hard/ Owning/´´Sacar el Mugre´´ in Tierras Blancas. We have never had so many lessons with member, and we broke the record that i had for investigators assisting church. We had 6! We are really excited about that. The best part is that they are now starting to have great friends in the church! thats the key. The members are So important!! All of you.

Congrats Mike Tramell on your mission call to Chile! You will love it here! I send my remarks and grievences to you all for the loss of BYU football to the U. Sad story, Oh and Enjoy the Snow!

Well i Love you all so much and hope all is well back at home! Chao

Elder Millard

Falling off the top bunk...

Hola Familia y Amigos!! This last week was So great! Full of fun and excitement... well i guess that is to be expected since i´m on a mission and all! The weather is just getting hotter and hotter. I officiall have my hair tan line back and best of all, i have a missionary tan line on my neck!! I never thought the day would come! Coquimbo is so awesome and i am Loving my time here!

Our investigators are doing Spectacular. Marisol and Mauro both passed their baptismal interviews so its basically a done deal next sunday at 6:00 pm. (chile time of course.) BAPTISMS!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!! Thats what makes it all worth it! Leading someone on the path to eternal life!! They are both So excited and can´t wait for this great step that they are taking.

Joana is doing great as well! We just found out that Joselin and her are good friends from school and Judo. Funny story... so a little while back, Joselin broke Joana´s arm in judo so there was always a little tension there. But in school, they forgave eachother and now are good friends. It works out perfectly because they are both supporting eachother in going to church! Joana is progressing and so far so good for her fecha on the 10th of Dec.

So 2 funny experiences this week that i just have to share! So... i was on interchanges in a place called San Juan. I was with Elder Billanes (our district leader) from Peru. We were walking up this hill on the sidewalk. I was on the outside next to the road and he was on the inside next to the fence. Right next to him was a big wall that went up to his shoulder and above the wall was a fence. On the other side of the fence was a crazy dog that wanted to bite us. He was barking at us and following us along the fence. There are so many dogs in Chile that we basically just ignored him. and since he was behind a fence, we thought that it would not be able to do anything. Bad idea. Right as we were about to walk past the fence, the dog stuck his head through the fence and tried to bite elder Billanes. He got about 2 inches away from his ear!!! But thats not the worst part,.. as the dog lanced foreward, he kicked a big piece of dog poo onto my comps shirt! haha. There were 3 big spots where there was a buch on his shirt and there was also a bunch on his face! He was covered in it! haha. He humbly and quietly said... Elder, we need to go back to the pension. I was dying with laughter. He later stated that plan A for tomorow was to kill that dog haha.

Story no. 2.... Here i was, on that same interchange sleeping over at their place. I got to sleep on the top bunk in the room.. I was sleeping on my side so i was facing the curtain. I had a bad dream so i opened my eyes and to my horror, i saw a Huge spider about a foot from my face!!! I pulled off the covers and i fell right off the bunk bed! I hit my head on the other bunk bed that was in the room and i woke up the other elders haha. My bad! what can i say... i have Arachnaphobia. I was scarred for the rest of the night and i could not sleep haha.

We stopped by the house of Sandra Diaz to give a blessing. She has terminal cancer and has 3 kids to take care of. She has no money, barely any food and is really in a tough situation. We have been trying to help her out but as missionaries we cannot do much with temporal needs. But what we can do is help her with her spiritual needs. That is exactly what we did. She asked for a blessing and she asked me to give the blessing. I have never given a blessing in spanish before!! I was so nervous but i knew that i had the lord on my side and i have the Priesthood. The blessing was great and the lord blessed her with strength and faith throughout these trials, and through her faith, she will be blessed.

Well i am loving it here in Chile, the Lords Vinyard. Elder Saldivar and i are working hard. This is the lords work and i am so blessed to be appart of it. All of you back at home can be appart of this work as well! I cannot stress enough how important the members are to this work. We can all do our part! Love you all and i pray for you often!

Love Elder Millard

A crowded pension

Hola!!! Como Estái Po.... Thats basically how they say hi here haha. Anyways... This week was Great!! The first week of changes so there are tons of new fun things to look forward to. Elder Saldivar and i are working harder than ever here in Tierras Blancas. Loving my time here! Its great, now that i´ve been here for about 3 months, i fortunately know my way around so its a blessing not to get lost anymore haha. We had tons of success this week! I have never, in my mission up to this point, had more lessons with a member present. Its so key to have a member in the lessons because they gain friendships and it makes the biggest difference! Us missionaries leave areas but the members stay so its So important to have these lessons with members.

This change, since Coquimbo is so awesome, President Gillespie has sent 2 new missionaries up here so now we have 14 missionaries in this zone. As of right now, they did not have a place for these 2 new missionaries to stay so since our pension is the biggest in the zone, they are staying here with us! haha. Now it is Super packed in our pension! Its so much fun to have more missionaries here though. the cool part is that 2 of them are fresh out of the MTC. I suddenly feel extraordinarilly experienced ha! Its fun to see, through them, how i felt my first week in Chile. They are all great elders and we are having a blast! One is Elder Petersen from Spanish Fork Utah. Its great, everyone calls Utah ´´la fabrica´´. In spanish its the factory, or in other words, where they pump out missionaries! The other is Elder Wittle from Utah as well.

So Marisol, the mom of Joselin is doing So great!!! Wow but really, if you all could only have seen her before, and if you could see her now, you would not believe the difference! She is So excited to get baptized and so excited that she is finally happy. A lot of lame things have happened to her in her life but she is finding peace through the gospel and it is a joy to see! She has her interview this saturday and gets baptized the 28th of Nov.

Mauro as well is really excited for his baptism. He has the same date as Marisol, the 28th of Nov. and is progressing toward that date. The problem with Mauro is that it is So hard to find that kid haha, Its unreal how many times we try and find him and he is not there! But he is still coming to church and is still progressing and still has desires to follow Christ´s example and be baptized.

We had a great experience this week with putting another baptisimal date with a girl named Yoana. So there is a member named Mario that loves to help us. The family that he home teaches is not all members. So Mario invited us to come over to their house and teach them a little bit about the Book of Mormon because they had a few questions about it. The members that are there have not gone to church for about 2 years. But after the first lesson that we had with them, the members and this little girl Yoana were really interested in going to church this last sunday. So sunday rolled around and here they were. This old lady that has not come for 2 years and this little girls that this was her first time ever in a church. This sunday was special because it was the Primary Program. (Mom i thought you might appreciate this. It was so cute... yeah i just said the c word.) haha anyways, the program was great, the songs were great and Yoana loved it. We stopped by their house the same day at 7:30 and we talked a little bit about baptism. We asked her if she would like to be baptized and she gladly said Yes! We congratulated her and put a date for the 10th of Dec.

Ah I´m loving my mission so much! Chile is sweet and the people are great! Love you all! Cuidate mucho!

Elder Millard

Prayer is great

Hola!!!! So today is officially the last day of the change. We found out on Sat if we are staying or going and who our comps are going to be. So on Sat night, at precisely 10:26, we get a call from the zone leaders telling us the news! and here it is!! I´m.... Staying here another change with Elder Saldivar!!! I´m super excited to stay here another 6 weeks and to Rock Tierras Blancas with Elder Saldivar. This change in the pension, i was living with Elder Mackay from California and Elder Salerno from Argentina! They were so much fun and Elder Salerno is staying here for another change (my running companion), so that will be nice!

So as you know, my comp is from Mexico. This week i have learned first hand about some of the food the Mexicans eat. One gem is called Ahi! This stuff is incredible, in small portions of course. But, if you put too much, i am here to testify that your mouth will be on fire and you will have tears running down your face! haha He also showed me what a real tortilla is supposed to taste like! I feel sorry for the tortillas back in the U.S. because they are dwarfed in comparison to these amazing tortillas!

I am loving coquimbo so much!! This place is amazing and i am seriously enjoying every minute of it! I´m learning so much from my comp and we work well together. This week was a little bit different. For some reason, quite a few of the appointments that we had fell through so here we were, Saturday night, not knowing exactly what to do. It was a little late, we have been walking all day, we have been getting rejected all day... We decided to go to a quiet place and offer a prayer to guide us to a house that would let us in and that would accept the gospel. So we offered the prayer and we waited for a little bit. We both felt that we should go to this certain street. The first house on the street, we knocked the door. What do you know, we found a mom named Yisela and her little baby. We talked for a little bit at her door and she was So receptive! At first she asked if we could come back another time when her whole family was here. We said of course but we asked if we could sing a short hymn, leave a blessing on the house and leave... She accepted so we entered the house and started talking a little bit. After the hymn that we sang (Families can be together forever), she had tons of questions for us. We kept talking and gave her a Book of Mormon. She accepted to read it and pray about it. We then left a blessing on the house in the form of a prayer and were out of there. After the lesson, Elder Saldivar and i were So Excited!! A true answer to our prayers!

Funny story...so right after the lesson with Yisela, my comp was thinking and he said that he swears that he had seen her before. He thought for a little bit and then remembered that he had knocked her door before in one of his last areas in his mission, Valparaiso!!! So crazy, she just barely moved here from there and here we are, talking to the same lady that he talked to in his last area!!!

Marisol, the mom of Joselin is doing so well! The only problem is that she has to work so much. Its hard to find time for us to go teach her. But when we do teach her, she shows us every time that she is so excited and preparing for her baptism. This really is such an amazing story! You all should have seen Marisol about 2 months ago. She did not want to listen to us, and she did not seem happy. After we finally had the chance to talk to her, it was truly incredible how the spirit changed her and how she now has desires to change and be baptized. One of the lessons this week, she explained to us the story of how she was before and how she is now. She started crying expressing the change that she has felt! The Gospel is incredible!!

We found a few news this week so we are going to start working with them! One is called Jaime. He is a reference of one of the members in the ward. We visited him and he had so many questions about the church. A few of the members in his family are members and he has visited many churches searching for the truth. We gave him a Book of Mormon (the most powerful tool in the conversion) and he commited to read it and pray about it. We are also still working with a boy named mauro. He is going to be baptized for sure, its just a matter of finding him in his house haha. The problem with Mauro is that he is super shy and does not have very many friends. Pres Gillespie once said that in the first months while someone is investigating the church, in many cases, a friend in the church is more important than the doctrine. So that is the responsibility falls on of all of us members, to be friends with others in the church and uphold eachother.

Oh and a special shoutout to my Lil Sister Sheri!!!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!! She is now 18 and i can´t believe it!

Love you all!

Elder Millard

talking in my sleep in Spanish

Hola!!! This week has been a great one! Second to last week in this change! Where has time gone? It seems like yesterday that i went to go pick up Elder Saldivar in the ´´Terminal de Bus´´ or bus station. I am really loving my time here in Coquimbo! About 1 hour ago, i was in ´´El Centro´´ in Coquimbo and we saw a Huge cruise line and a ton of tourists! We decided to go talk to a few of them and it was so wierd doing contacts in English haha! After this, it hit me even more that i am actually 5000 miles away from home in Chile!! I still find it hard to believe.

This last P-day, we went to the Cruz in Coquimbo! it was So awesome and had an amazing view! Inside the cruz itself is super Catholic and it was kinda wierd to be in a place with statues of Cardinals and Popes everywhere, but, obviously it was a great experience. I just can´t get enough of this place.

My comp was telling me the other day as we were leaving the pension for the day... he said ´´ Elder Millard, did you know that you talk in your sleep?´´ haha i said ¨´yeah i´ve heard that i´ve done it a couple of times.´´ Elder saldivar said ´´ Well, guess what, you were talking in your sleep in spanish!´´ haha Yeah!!! Thats pretty cool haha.

We had an amazing experience with an investigator named Marisol (the mom of Joselin). She has always been a little timid about this whole baptism experience and was not sure if she really wanted to go through with it. So Elder Saldivar and i decided to do a tour of the church and teach her a little bit of what we do, about baptism, and the restoration. So on Sat, she showed up right on time and we started the tour. We showed her some of the rooms where we do classes, we showed her some of the paintings that are in the church and explain a little bit about them. The paintings are great teaching tools. We then showed her the baptisimal font and she felt really good! We were sure to do everything we can to have the spirit testify to her of the validity of our message. We then went into the chapel and i played a little hymn arrangement to bring the spirit. After the tour, we talked and asked some inspired questions. After it was over we asked her to give the closing prayer. She stated that she is So grateful for this step in her life that she is going to take and asked for our Heavenly Fathers help with the preperation for her baptism. Miracles!! At first she was not sure, now she is excited and feels comfortable about coming to church. The next day, on sunday, of course she was there and she is now progressing and well on her way to her baptism on the 14th.

From being here in Tierras Blancas, i have really seen some hard situations. I have learned a lot of how things really are in the real world. All i can say to everyone is to Count your Blessings!!! The Lord really has blessed us all so much and we Really do have so much to be thankful for!

Oh and for halloween, we were Missionaries. Chile addopted the tradition of halloween about 10 years ago so on sunday, there were tons of little chileans running around everywhere in their costumes. Here they say ´´dulce o travesura´´. a little different from trick or treat but the same idea right? ha

We need a special Shoutout to my two big sisters Steph and Tiff!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!

Love you all! Chao

Elder Millard

An earthquake

Hola!!! Como estai po... yeah Chileans speak a little different. ha. This week was absolutely amazing!! A week full of hard work and Great experiences! So Elder Solerno, (the Argentine Elder living in our pension) and I have been running basically every morning. I always feel so much better after a good exercise. A lot of the time we run to the Beach, which is amazing by the way! Every time we drive to coquimbo, we see this big ole hill, almost a mountain and we heard that there was a Virgin Maria statue on top of this hill. So this week, Elder Solerno and i decided to wake up a little early and go run and climb this hill! It was quite the experience and my legs are feeling the Aftermath now. Its kinda funny though, We ran to the side of the mountain, which was pretty hard to get up. lots of plants and bushes to get across. Anyways, once we were almost to the top, we look to the side, and there is a nicely grooved trail meant for walking! haha. The weather is getting warmer and we are now starting to wear just white shirts. Loving it here in Coquimbo!

So this week, we have found lots of new investigators. There are two little kids in the family of Alejandra that are now interested and now have a baptisimal date for the 14th of Nov. Their names are Catalina and Kevin. We recieved a couple references from a guy in our ward named Mario. He is So awesome and does So much for us! We have a baptisimal date for one of them named Mauro, and we are working on a date for Alan. We found a new named Jonathan that has a baptisimal date. So we now have 7 with a ´´fecha Bautismal´´ (baptisimal date).

We had the Opportunity to go on splits with the Assistants to the president. Elder Heap and Elder Playtez. They are Incredible missionaries and they helped us out so much! I was with Elder Playtez from honduras. After being with them, i´m more excited to work harder and better. I learned so much about how to be a better teacher, and a few little things that i can improve.

So here i was Saturday night writing in my journal. Next thing i know, Everything around me started to shake and my chair felt like a massage chair. I felt my first Earthquake ever! it was actually really cool! Not very big but it was still powerful!

I am now dreaming in spanish a little bit!! The people in my dreams that are of a latin descent speak spanish and the Gringos speak English. I guess thats a good sign that i´m now dreaming in spanish! My comp Elder Saldivar is helping me out a lot with the language. He´s great!

This last sunday we had a district conference in Coquimbo. Everyone in the coquimbo district had to come down to Llano so there were a lot of people here. We had Pres Gillespie and Hna Gillespie here along with our Area presidency. The conference was great! I had the opportunity to be in the choir. Lets just say that a grand majority of the Chilean culture does not have singing as part of their genes. But it was fun to be in a Choir again!

Vive Chile! Love you all! Chao

Elder Millard.

Week 9...another great week

Hola!!! This last week went by too fast! It was definitely a great one though! I have officially been here just as long as i was in the MTC haha. Thats wierd to think about. Things are going Great here in Coquimbo and in specific Tierras Blancas. Elder Saldivar and I are working super hard and having some success. He is a great companion and is very patient. There is definitely no companionship that will be exactly the same, and in specific, this companionship is So different from my last. haha I have already learned something unique from both of them.

This week, i had the opportunity to go in interchanges with the zone leaders in La Parte Alta. I went with Elder Sebreros and we had a great day. This place is so cool, right by the ocean, Huge cliffs and rocks, Really steep, the coquimbo cross on top of the hill, colorful houses everywhere... it is beautiful. Best of all, i learned so much from Elder Sebreros. I´m starting to feel more comfortable with teaching lessons. It really just comes with practice. At first, that was one of my biggest fears but now i´m a little more comfortable with it.

So this last week was my first BAPTISM!!! Such a great experience! So it was Sat at 5:30. We say five thirty so people will be there by 6:30 haha. Lets just say that the Chileans are not the most punctual people you will ever see. haha Anyways, We got there at about five to help joselin find a tunica (clothes) that will fit. Her whole family came as well. Her mom that has a fecha for the 7th of Nov, and her two sisters. We also had a couple other investigators show up as well. We took some pictures outside then we started the meeting. There were a couple of talks, one on baptism, the other on the Holy Ghost. Then i had the opportunity to give a musical number. I played and sang ´´where can i turn for peace´´. After the song, Joselin and i were the first ones to walk out of the chapel into the baptisimal faunt. Everyone followed. She was so excited, yet nervous at the same time. I walked into the faunt and the mirrors were all fogged up so i had to wait for a little bit while they went to go get a little squeegy to wipe off the fog. After the mirror was all clear, we were ready to go. They announced Joselin´s name and then she walked in. The water was nice and warm and it came up to her shoulders. I was focusing on speaking slow and clear and with power. Started with her full name which is 4 names, then did the prayer in spanish. Right after, there she went into the water. I made sure she was submerged all the way, she basically touched the floor ha. when she came up out of the water, it was a powerful moment. I felt so good and so excited for her. The spirit was so strong as it always is at baptisms. After the baptism, we talked to the investigators that came and they loved it. They felt good and they now have more enthusiams and excitement for the gospel. Joselin´s little sister, 7 years old, said,¨´´ i want to be baptized´´. From being on a mission, my understanding of the importance of baptism has become more clear. It is the gate by which ye should enter. I loved my first baptism experience.

This week we had the uniqe opportunity to bless a house. Oscar, a guy a little on the wierd side, said that he has been seeing some wierd things happen in his house, so he asked us if we could go over and leave a blessing in the house. I have never blessed a house before so that was cool.

So here i am, saturday at lunch, eating at the ward mission leaders house. Our ward mission leader is amazing by the way. He is completely blind, and walks around with a cane, but he is still a devoted servant and magnifies his calling. So many members here are great examples to me of magnifying their calling and the importance of doing it. Right after we were done eating, he asked us ´´so has pres Valencia asked you elders to give a talk tomorow at church?´´ we said no... and you know what that means, he is going to ask two of us to give a talk. Yup you guessed it, he asked me and Elder Mackay. My first talk in church on my mission. I was pretty nervous because i have never given a talk in spanish before, and with 0 preperation. So sunday rolls around and i have little bullet points to talk about. I talked about how all of us have the calling to do missionary work. I talked for about 8 min then it was over. Phew!! glad thats over with haha. It was good practice. It was kinda funny though. I was too tall for the pulpit so i had to bend over the whole talk. haha

I love you all! Until next week.

Elder Millard