Well, it seems that my mission has come to an end a little earlier than I expected. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the church has sent all missionaries home. If they don't have a ton of time left, they are released, and I was put into that category. Oh well. At the least, I was able to enjoy my time serving the Lord and doing his will; I am eternally grateful for what I have experienced in that part of the world. I know that he lives and that he has guided my personal growth as a missionary and servant of the Lord. This has been an experience that I will never forget.

The Uchtdorf's visit was amazing, man. HE gave a seminar about how to teach from the heart but in a very consecrated way. I am 100% sure that that is what the mission needed at the moment. He mentioned his April 2016 talk "Fourth floor, last door." I read it again and it just screams the dude's personality. So, overall it was all worth it.

Sounds good that you are finally heading into spring. March is right around the corner, after all. Enjoy it while I go through my last chilean winter. :)

Elder MacGregor

I really don't have a lot to say this week either, mainly focusing on getting out fo the office when I can, and we found a couple of Bolivians and a Colombian to teach. It'll be a little difficult this week though since I have to deal with a lot of paperwork this week. Turns out that our visa tracking system has been acting up lately, and I was the poor soul who had to fix it all by myself without any real coaching from my predecessors. But, I got it done. At the very least President was proud of me, so that makes it all worth it. I think that maybe because I will need experiences like this to teach my successor as well as I can.

I'm expecting around 9 weeks to teach her and to guide her through a change and whatnot, and then I'm outta here.

I had completely forgotten about MLK day until I couldn't do some of my duties because the church offices were closed. But, I guess it was nice.

Anyway, it's been a while since I really wrote about me, so I'm gonna do that now.

I never fully explained what I do here in the mission office, and that is to help in all of the legal paperwork in immigration for the missionaries. You need to be legal to leave the country, so I allow people to get home. Also, I do the flights and all the periphery things needing to be done with the start and end of a mission. So, the majority of Secretary stress comes from that, more than anything else I do.

This last week though, we received a pair of elder missionaries, the Vests, who will eventually replace me in the work, and I will go somewhere else to finish the mission. So, that'll be a lot of fun, I think. They are great people from Payson Utah, and they are pretty funny people. A little nervous with the start of their new callings, but I'm sure it will all work itself out.

 Here in the mission, it's supposed to super go time right now, with a lot of baptisms happening in the time of the year. But, that's not to bad for me, I think. So it's all alright, I hope. The good thing is that you are kind of following the prophet's idea for this holiday season, that being that we shouldn't overstress ourselves with the holiday season and instead just try to enjoy what we can while we can in a family. So, simpler gifts, simpler activities, is an actual goal you should have for this season.

I think that this time of my mission I won't be too active in the mornings, being in charge of the office and all. But, that's ok I think. I am having some fun with it all, and while my comps are struggling a little bit with the idea of being "stuck in the office and not working," I am ok for now. I went to the temple this last week, so I think I've done more sitting now than in any part of the mission. And hey, I'm working on some office skills in time management, typing (I now mainly do it while looking at the screen and not at the keyboard, so I feel more professional now, and spellchecking is quicker), and some other things to help my future career.

I think though, that my position in the office may do something crazy with me. Since I am in charge of sending missionaries home, supposedly this position I will hold will make it where I end up super distracted with home instead of the mission. I have no personal idea, but I hope that doesn't happen to me. I just have to prepare for the situation if it comes up.

That's the hidden blessing of being here, is that you see all of the mission, and in some ways in the eyes of the president. I've gotten to know my mission pres more in this last week than in the full first year of the mission. And while I have fewer chances to invite people, the few times we've gotten out it's turned out to be a really good experience, so that's pretty dope I think. Lots of people here and the majority are just as receptive as those up in Catemu.

On that note, in Catemu my previous comp is training someone there. That basically means that someone else's first experience of the mission is going to be Catemu. I wish him all the luck in the world. It should harden him up a little bit more, I hope.

This time I'm close to the middle of the New Testament and in the Book of Mormon, so I hope to finish one or the other before the end of the year. It shouldn't take to long, I think I will have some time at the very least.

If I understand correctly, at the end of April, the ward should have 3 active missionaries in the field. The 3 being Me, Megan, and Thomas. That's kind of crazy considering that when I left I was the 10th in the field. 

By the way, I finally succumbed to the inner man and now on the candy calendar, I am on the 23rd. 3 days ago I was on the same day and not eating ahead. I think it just kind of came in out of stress in the office (I don't usually realize it, but there are many times where I am quite literally stressed and my comps need to tell me about how I am stressed so I can calm down). So, that's fun. I can't really explain what exactly are the causes of the stress (church privacy policy), but the good news is that the majority of it is slowly, slowly, going away. I should be fine soon enough since I have fewer stresses and I am adding some techniques to deal with the stress as well.

Also, a neat thing that went on this last week was how I have been in a 4 person companionship for the last week or so. There is a missionary who injured his knee this last week and has had to stay in the office, helping in the paperwork while he recuperates. Since the president didn't want to split our trio into 2 companionships, we instead just made it where we are a companionship of 4 that splits when it needs to. It's been a little crazy at times, but it's fun too.

Love oyu XOXOXOXOX

Yeah, this week we didn't really have much to do. Protests are still a thing going on and we couldn't leave the city because the only bridge is currently with a burning barricade... I'm safe though so don't worry.

Here in Chile people sometimes get upset with me because I insist on eating meat with a fork and knife. They always want you to eat meat with the hands, and not with a fork. Definitely allowed here.

Have fun trying to survive the rain, and see you next week

Love you

XOXOXXOXOXXOX

For me, here in Catemu things have been calm. We are teaching a family in the Southern tiny town called Chagres- it is made up quite literally of just 1 street and a mining plant. It was fun because we helped them plant their backyard for a garden and a lawn that horses can eat. Because the horse is still used on occasion here. THe wife literally could name all 54 inhabitants of Chagres, one by one, so that is a feat I found kind of amazing.

We are also finding a lot of good people and people willing to receive baptismal dates and be baptized, but the repeating obstacle here has been going to church. With the time requirement of being AT church at 10, we have to leave at 9:15, with waking up even before that. For people who are very occupied during the week and Sunday is their only rest day, waking up early is not something they want to deal with at the moment. We've had mild success so far, but I have a lot of faith that the people we've met can be baptized soon. We are working 100% at full thrust for a baptism right now, because the last thing we want after 3 months of work is no baptism. I know we can do it, but it is a huge mountain to climb in 4 weeks.

The best prospect is C-----. She is a 70 year old woman with diabetes, which keeps her from walking sometimes, but is really friendly and her son's girlfriend are very friendly. So, we'll be able to see their growth hopefully.

Thanks for the update! Things are pretty normal over here, even though the city of Santiago is in chaos.  We were going to have an activity this week, but it was canceled with all the stuff that is happening here in Chile. One of the quorum of the 12 (Rasband) called the mission president not to long ago. If the riots keep up for a good long while, we may switch missions to finish the 2 years.

I don't think there will be a primary program here in Catemu, but in my 1st sector there was a program, so I guess only som do it, others no.

Cheers- Elder MacGregor