September 24, 2012

Hola a todos!

I had a great week, and it seems you all did as well! 

I learned this week about patience, about acceptance, about charity. At times It's challenging to have love for those around you- in the contacts, with my companion, etc, but I always push through these tough moments- think positively, serve, smile, etc. -I know I'm a little stronger. Also the scriptures Moroni 7:44-47, and that one scripture in Mateo(?) in the Bible that talks about the beam and moat in your own eye, and not criticizing others, and hypocrisy, and such- those always come to mind when I'm impatient. 

The work, our sector, everything, is really progressing! Juanito and Estefani are both super awesome! We see them each several times a week, outside of church. Estefani, although she has had a lot of experience with the church in general (asados, NDH, etc.) is still relatively new and as such, we just taught her lesson 1-the Restoration. The spirit was super strong, her kids and family listened a little, and she´s reading. Yesterday we also had a dandy lesson with Juanito, the spirit was super strong there as well.  About the atonement. 

Elder Resek from the 70 talked to us this week in conferencia de zona. He touched mainly on themes of Working with the barrio, and the importance of finding, continually, nuevos a enseñar. As misionaries, we actually have some really good investigators and such right now. But our ward is declining in numbers and such, and we can really really help our ward be better- be stronger. We´re also working with some other people who have a lot of potential- Denise, still Teresa, Fransisco, and Enrique. 

It´s funny because me and Elder Mortensen, who lives with us, were talking about Timpanogos this morning. And I am getting a wee tad of exercise. I try to eat healthy at our pension- when I can. Smoothies, and salads, and quantity. 

Love you all a million!!

Perspective is everything, and gratitude is a big step in the right direction. When I write in my journal, I write 10 specific things that I´m grateful for, it´s helped. 

Ps. It´s getting harder to write in English. 

Pss. Im super excited for conterence!

Elder Tasso

September 17, 2012

Howdy!

First off, I had an awesome week, its been rad! 

My new Companero is Elder Camus, de España! Almeria, se llama, its south eastern and on the coast. Its pretty sweet. My spanish is constantly improving, poco a poco, day by day, and this will only help. Especially, more than anything, with the accent barrier. Its ballin. Also, we got robbed! Which was actually fun, eliminated study time and a bit of our day which was a bummer, and we lost some conveniant things, but all in all, we're good. We were a little stupid though, too sure of ourselves. The windows in our pension didn't really function before, but they're good now. Cool! The 18th celebrations here are ballin, had a couple of parties, going to send pics next week. 

The work is taking off! I'm more comfortable in the work. I like my comp.- we work a little differently. Honestly smarter, maybe not as hard though. So I'm going to remedy the "harder" part and continue to enhance the "smarter" part. General, unspecific, but so be it. And the investigator of the week prize goes tooooooo!!!!!!!! Estafani!! She is freaking awesome. We met with her twice on saturday, and sunday she came to church and we brought her to a baptism of some other Elders! Also Juanito finishes with a close second, and is taking off too! Also were teaching Fransisco, a gyptano guy, who really is super prepared. Teresa is progressing, but more slowly. Claudia tambien. This is the most excited about our pool, our investigators, the work, and everything in general I have been yet! 

Soccer rules, we played a TON today, futsal, the whole lot. 

Chandler you are a boss, and your cousin is in my mission! We talked!

Thanks for the letters Amy, Debbie, and Robert! And for all the Prayers and such!

Love you all a million!

Elder Tasso!!!!

September 10, 2012

How are you all doing??!! Hope you´re all really well.

Well I had an awesome week! We´re really seeing progress with all of our investigators. Still the same challenges, but  we´re getting a little better, mostly me. Elder Jones was always a super beast. I saw a huge stride in my language ability this past week. Maybe not even technically my ability, but my confidence. There´s a quote. "Faith has everything to do with attitude, attitude has everything to do with success, and success is contagious." Now that I write that I´m almost one hundred percent sure that the order is mixed up, but they really are interchangeable. This week I´m going to work specifically on my attitude- always maintaining a smile, having faith, perspecitve, and serving. And second- Listening! I got a little better, but still, when I really concentrate, verses semi tuned-out, I can help God´s children much more than otherwise! And when I apply myself, that is, when I listen and concentrate, I understand almost everything!

And I have some news, I completed my first change in the mission! Llevo 6 semanas aqui in Chile! And for that, I´ll actually get a new companion! Elder Jones is off to someplace, we´re not sure where yet, pray for the Coast!!!! (It´s cooler, and nicer there, especially in the coming summer). He´ll be acting as Zone Leader. Should be fun. But anyways,   I´ll miss him, he really is a boss. But I´ll see him in Cali after the mission, and a few times probably before both our tenures here end. But this is a really good thing for me, because he usually did 60-65 percent of the work. The decisions, the comments, the listening, everything. But as I´ll be leading the sector until my new companion gets to know it a little better, I´ll have many more opportunities to communicate, to listen, and to be the leader. This is actually really going to help me, because I´ll HAVE to. Necessity is the mother of invention. Semi-relevant quote. I´ve seen this in my experience with changes. We fall into patterns, and as a greenie for me, BAD patterns of being lazy. But when I´ve gone on changes with other missionaries, I break these patterns and do more and therefore learn more. I´m capable, I just need that boost. And this will that permanent boost. I´ll tell you a little about my new companion when I learn more. 

Investigators! (good ones). Teresa, Claudia, Juanito, Denise, Estafani, and Enrique! The first three we have a lot more time with and therefore have progressed much more. Teresa is seriously an angel, and has the faith and knows the LDM is true. She´s been reading about President Monson in the Liahonas we gave her. Juanito and Claudio are also doing really well too, but haven´t been exceeding diligent in reading. Daily contact on my part can help that. Estafani and Enrique and also super aweomse, we´ve only taught them once and twice each, but we´ll be setting a date with Estafani tonight. Teresa, Juanito, Claudia, and more all came to church yesterday. We visited them all, after, had lessons, that were all really good. 

Also, my companero de la CCM in Provo is coming to Santiago! He was deemed, "healthy" and should get here Wednesday-ish. 

How´s Jared and James doing? And Grandpa Robert?

Also send my thanks and love to all of the relatives, but especially Grandma Susie, for the letters! I just got them both and they were awesome! It was great to hear about family history and the temple.

Love you all and think about you daily.

Elder Spencer Tasso