April 26, 2015--Week 10

Hi, I´m on for today.  I´m doing a little bit better but lots of crazy stuff is happening.  How are you guys!  I miss you!  This week has felt a little bit surreal.  One thing that I forgot to tell everyone is that my lisp is completely gone, thanks to learning Spanish!  I´m greatful for the small miracles I´ve seen so far in my mission.

Mom!  To answer your questions:  To get around Santiago, we walk in our sector.  To church, to investigators houses, and to contact.  We ride buses occasionally when we need to go to the office or appt. which seems to be quite a lot lately.  Also, there´s an underground metro system that we use a lot to get to farther places in Santiago.  

Umm  we eat in the members homes for Almuerzo every day. We never eat dinner or cena, because they don't have it!  Sometimes we eat a really late snack with members or investigators.  Like 9 o'clock or 10.  It´s called once (own-seh)  and it´s what they eat instead of dinner. They eat tons of pan.  Tons of chicken.  Tons of carbs.  It's a miracle I'm not gaining weight.  I´m actually looking really good because I´ve been working out super hard.  Getting up early to do insanity and lots of pushups/crossfit.  It´s the most consistantly I´ve ever worked out in my life.

Yeah, the ward members are awesome at helping.  The ward mission leader seems to be really good. I wish we could get more members to join us for lessons, but it doesn´t happen too often.  Everyone is very kind though!  Not cold at all!  

And for weather, it hasn´t gotten too cold.  A few mornings have been a bit brusque, but nothing that good ol´ Elder Nickerl can´t handle.  Plus I have like 4 blankets so that helps!

We´re teaching quite a few people, but it doesn´t seem like anyone wants to progress too much.  I´ll tell you something about the people here in Santiago.  They are all SOOO friendly and super willing to talk.  But you can´t get them to commit to save their life.  And if you can get them to commit to do something (read, pray, go to church), 9 times out of 10 when you check up on them, they haven´t done it.  So in that aspect, the work is very challenging.  

I´m a little worried because some huge changes are happening in my area--and I'm pretty stoked right about them.  And I´m hoping I can be much more motivated and much happier in the upcoming weeks.  I´m really gonna try the hand of the Lord and put my faith in him and try my very hardest to work. Next week is actually transfers but, today, I'm in Las Condes (the sector with the office) and today was actually my transfer: I´M WITH ELDER MILLER!!!!! We´re super, super stoked! So yeah, I´m writing with Elder Miller right now, and shortly after, we will be heading back to Chayavientos B (my sector and Elder Miller´s new sector)!  So we´re going to be working our butts off because I barely know the area and he´s never been there so he doesn´t know it at all, and we´re probably gonna get white washed (when you lose all your contacts and investigators, generally when something like this happens).  But anyways, so Elder Miller is now District Leader in our sector!

Love you! 

Jared

April 13, 2015--Week 8

Hi there everyone!  

Sorry for the late date in which you are receiving the very first of Jared´s group emails as a missionary!  SO.  Everything is pretty dang good.  I have a lot to talk about and little time.  But I´m really enjoying it here in East Santiago, Chile!  The area I´m in is called Chayavientos.  And is a little bit ghetto.  The Spanish spoken here is a dialect called flaite, and is really hard to understand because it´s a lot of euphamisms, phrases, and cut-off words!  It´s pretty awesome though! I´m learning like super ghetto gangster Spanish.  For example:  A common phrase is ¨E`tamos listo pa` la foto!^^  or in normal spanish Estamos listo para la foto.  The frase means We´re ready for the picture.  Like when you die, they put your picture in the obituary photos, so people say Ya I´m ready to die basically.  I don´t know why they say it so much though because they just say it with everything: You wanna go to the store?  Bacan, ya, e`toy listo pa la foto, po loco, vamo`!  which means ¨sweet, yeah, I´m ready for the picture, dude, let´s go¨

So, yeah, that´s one example of many super weird phrases they have here.  There´s tons more.  People here are really funny too.  Like sometimes, you´ll see people sweeping their yards.  But like... Their yard is dirt.  They´re literally sweeping dirt off of dirt.  It´s kind of weird.  And they´re like obsessed with not being in the cold because it´ll getcha sick.  Also, the Hermanas and Abuelitas all love to give you a ton of food, so It´s kind of annoying because If you don´t insist, YES I¨M FULL! They´ll bring you more and more food and get offended if you don´t eat it all.  So yaaaa.   

I recommend everyone listen to the song Each Life That Touches Ours for Good, by Lower Lights.  It's super bacan. 

Also, last Saturday made 2 months out on the mission!!! Yay!  One twelfth done with the mission!  Also, I'mm sorry if my English is super horrendous.  These computers all have Spanish keyboards that are hard to type with!

Oh ya, also, everyone down here calls us Helders.  I´m not really sure why, but they think Elder is pronounced Helder in English so they all say it.  Helder Neeck ros.  Is what they call me -_- 

I´ve been studying spanish like CRAZY.  I get up an hour and a half early to do insanity workout with the missionaries in my pad.  And then I go study spanish for like an hour and draw for another 30 minutes so I can have a little time to relax before I start the day. I really really like learning Spanish even though I´m still pretty bad and don´t understand nada!

And yesterday, my comp and I helped a lady who needed help with pushing her car.  So we literally were running with her car down the road.  2 Elders, full gear white shirt and tie running down the road, we looked pretty beastly because we were going really fast and the truck looked heavy.  But really it was just super easy to push :P

So yeah! That´s an update on me.  I´m lovin´ it here even though I fear for my life every day haha.  It's a really cool experience. 

Love you all a ton and I hope you are well in your respective lives!  Each and every one of you is a super star. Remember that.  ;) 

Love,

Jared

February 11, 2015--Arrival

Hey Mom, 

I made it through the longest day of my life.  Haven´t slept since I left California--22 hours ago.  I made it here to Santiago though and saw Kimber and my buddy Brian Matthews from BYU.  I´m alive. K got to go!

Bye!

Jred