December 23, 2013 Rudolf:)

Dearest family, friends, and loved ones!

Well. I love you!:) Merry Christmas, how are you? What was something unexpected that happened to you today? Did you see a funny hat? How is your health? Hmmm.... :)

Will you pray for Elder Graham´s family? 

Today. Basketball at the church? "Want to come Albert, dearest neighbor? Well we´ll pick you up!! You teach P.E. , played for the Catholic university! Ballin´:) Hey how´d it go reading the BoM?! Ok, half the chapter, not too shabby, questions??! Well, keep reading! 

"Alex Lopez, you are a ninja playing futsal, you must know that. We´re stoked that you enjoyed church, want to meet with us more, AND just read the whole darn BoM, who doesn´t?? Little by little. Keep listening to my good comp., and your good friends Benjamin Ribas and Gabriel Lobos. They´re good kids. 

We give a church tour to Patricio and Franco. Franco wants to sing at Juliard! You got it bro! Patricio teaches us a little of Budishm in the church. We sit Indian style on the carpet. 

Random people on the street. FRIENDS and FAMILY! If you can find a flight, arrive here by friday at 8:00 pm, I will PERSONALY reserve you a seat at our Family home Evening and we WILL eat cookies, learn of Christ, and play games togethor with the best branch in the world. 

Highlight of the week? Last night. 10:45 PM. So Elder Graham, will you count MAC? Thanks..... 

Singing. ¨Whhaaa???:) no me diga! ¨

Pizarro family. 2nd best family ever! Noche de Luz, Noche de paz, Reina ya, gran solaz.....

"We love you missionaries!!!! ;) Son los mejores!! Take this simpre offering of Chocolate Chip cookies gorilla poops, and brownies!!!!!!!"     (Jaw Drops. We sing to Alberto and wife next door. The spirit is felt.)

Es bueno estar aquí;)

I´m grateful for music. SUPER grateful. Primary program, primary songs. ¨I want to be a missionary now!! ¨ Check. ¨I am a Child of God. ¨ Double Check;) We sing ¨Biansícos¨ (Carols) with the ward to less actives and investigatores. God knows and loves his Children, because in addition to those planned, we run into 2,3,4,5 unplanned! :)

Mision Christmas Party. I read this scripture! With emphasis, practicing 9 times! I wear my best red tie, (borrowed). I almost* forget to smile:) I meet Hna Nelson- "HEY your brother home taught me at BYU!"

 6 For unto us a ^achild is ^bborn, unto us a ^cson is given: and the^dgovernment shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, ^eCounsellor, The ^fmighty ^gGod, The ^heverlastingFather, The Prince of ⁱPeace.

I testify of Christ! He is a perfect, loving, jumping, inviting, listensing, perfect being. He speaks spanish, English, and Portugues better than I. He is the Son of God, OUR savior and redeemer. The BoM, the whole world testifies of these truths. He died for us. He healed the high preist´s ear that led him to his death. He forgives me. Merry Christmas! I love you all. 

 10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

 11 And behold, I am the ^alight and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter ^bcup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in ^ctaking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the ^dwill of the Father in all things from the beginning.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos?v=2919740155001&cid=HPFR122013274&im=true

Elder Tasso

December 16, 2013 Christmas

Futbol at the Farm, only the Sisters can score. Hna Middlestedt (my District) had 2 Goals!!! Nuts!!! 

Slow down, and mind that cow. Dodge the pies! The horse is docile, don´t freak out.  Ahhhhh, and he kicks the ball in the river AGAIN!!!! That´s ok, we´ll just fish her out. Highlight reel, Hna Periera, with Paraguyan/Brazilian blood, shoots it at my FACE. No way José, not here. Get out of town. Want Hamburgers???! Can you say ¨Wow, Sister Guzman cooks REAL well? Service orientacion award is split between E. Christensen y Alfaro for this OFF the HOOK activity and Sister Guzman, for hosting it in her home. Zone activity or familiy reunion at sundance/powder mtn? Thanks, thanks, thanks again to our radical ZL. Planning ninjas they are. 

P.S. We ALMOST win the leg race, and water baloon toss. 

Elder Graham, want to pray to find investigatores, for a miracle, and to have ¨once,¨ because we are CLEAN out of food in the house? ¨Hagámoslo¨

1 Hour later. 

Elderes come to the church ASAP if you want 18 plates of food and to Hang out with Presidente Barreiros. Uhhhhhhh... PADRE CELESTIAL 

God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

Who wants a steak? Scuse me, a STAKE. Melipilla will be a Stake in 18 months, thanks to the good efforts and tithes of the good members here. BOYS PAY UP! That means we need male tithe payers:)

Miracles and cat fights to come. Satan will fight, but CANNOT win. 

All you need is love AND obedience. AND investigatores. Remember Isidora from Primo de Rivera? Veronica, her dear mother will be bapitized!!! She says, ¨In a year and a half¨ I´ll be a missionary! Miracles happen. Patricia, less active from Santiago is in the REactivation process (Family home Evening power) and her kids are excited about the gospel. 

Preidente Barreiros a Elder Tasso a su mamá Dice- ¨Your mother should be very proud of you, you play very well, you have a gift, thank you for your music.¨ I feel special inside. 

Pops- Chile is pretty ethnic. It´s economy grows at a 5.5% right now, the most in the world, i do believe. Therefore sometimes we eat Chinese food. 

I testify Jesus is my savior. I´m grateful for him this christmas season. Someone so so perfect died, and lived for me. 

E. Tasso

December 9, 2013 CHRISTmas:)

This past week we had success as we did FhEs with the members. 

Last night we shared a nice christmas message/LdM pitch with Tamara and Alejandra, two friends of the Silva Jara family. Sister Susanna and Brother Harold are pretty darn great. It´s been great working with them, since my old sector, en Clara Estrella. 

We ate something very very delicious, apple crunch, from Sister Castillo in another FhE with the Reyes family. They´re cool, less active, but we see that Dillon and maybe Johann, their son could be missionaries in the future. ¨Hey THEY could be missionares, we gotta help them serve the mission!!!!¨ says Elder Graham. 

Highlight of the week? Get this choir action! The oh so dandy Maldonado family, (oh so creative) prepared with the district missionares ¨The Restoration¨ in MUSIC!  With video shots of us in action ¨hey howdy, how´s it going, neat-o, that´s your child, is it not!!?¨ Shots of the restoration, and shots Christ movies. 

As we sang I felt so so so strongly the spirit. I´m singing, filled with light. Does my throat hurt, my chest explode? Is that the spirit or do I have a case of out-of-practice vocal chords? Definitely both. Both for sure. 

I´m grateful for Christ. For the BoM. How does one express the light that is felt from reading that book:)??

We´d really love your prayers for Rosario. Saturday she felt like she wanted to get baptized, but for SOME reason, she likes the sisters more than us. That´s ok with me,. ok, I understand, they are much prettier, but sadly they can´t teach her, they have their own investigatores. So if you could pray so Rosario has the desire to come unto Christ, through us, to be open to Elder Graham and I, that would be spectacular. 

Benny face congrats with your right foot shots! Keep that up! Hryum good job with you grades and juggling, with soccer! Anna tell me how the ACT goes! Steve face, hows it going? How´s ralphie? Have you gone skiing?!:)

Tyler, thanks for the Banana, Orange, Apple comparison. I was able to share it with Elder Graham in a hard moment, and in a FhE with a newly active sister. Did they cry? Maybe. It helped, thanks!

Dad, have you thought about having a foreign exchange student come to live with the fam before? Maybe from France, could help out Anna with her french?:)

Elder Tasso

December 2, 2013 Greetings from Melipilla

We´re working with Street vendor Mauricio. He´s really funny, they both know PRETTY well the BoM. Their kids are both members. Jesus likes to fight, we´ve been praying that he´ll fight well, AND with sportsmanship. Daniel, their other son (MA) we picked up for church Sunday, and we´re going to go running with him in this really cool country loop Wednesday! They give us free Sopaipillas, which are hot and delicious.  We had a great lesson with his family yesterday. They both want to be baptized, but don´t want to get married. "Did John the baptist ever ask Jesus about his marriage?" In truth we need your prayers so that Mauricio can stop smoking and drinking, so she can feel comfortable with him as a husband. That´s the real doubt. As we read the BoM with them yesterday all of these doubts and solutions came out at the same time:) Thanks for your prayers!

Elder Gram and is a spanish machine. I feel like we finally got a good system down. He says something in English/spanish and I repeat it for him in Spanish, and then he does. I tyed weight watchers, and it worked for me:)

I´m playing the piano for the primary program, it´s awesome, there is an AMAZING spirit that carries those hymns. It makes me so so happy to be able to play and learn them!!! I never got to learn very many! 

We´ve got an awesome choir presentation coming up, this SATURDAY! As misionaries and as a district, we´ll be SINGING the restauracion, with hymns themed for the 1st vision, God is our loving heavenly father, etc, combined with a video presentation of us misionaries working. It´s PRETTY exciting stuff! 

Yesterday as we practiced I felt really really grateful for music. The zone was there, and I felt a strong desire to really get to know all of them, talk with them. I had a great conversacion with Elder Gutierrez about his burns, which before, I had never ventured to inquire from where they came. I testify that Music, AND hugs bring people togethor. 

I´m grateful that God sent me here, because this branch is really creative. They organized, as a district, skits from every branch. Our´s did 3 Nephi 11, an what´s neat, is that Brother HAROLD SILVA from Ochagavia before, was JESUS. As I watched I felt ¨Wow. We have such an amazing opportunity to work WITH this branch. They really know what they´re doing. Shoot Elder Tasso, we´ve got to have a lot of FHE with the members and their friends and neighbors.¨

Today we played futbol.... in the grass!!!! That made me happy, it´s a lot easier, to run, to play, to pass, in the grass:)

Mom face, you got 5 on the "wow your mom is really young, fit, athletic, beautiful," count. Mom and Anna, it´s true, you ARE really fit, beautiful, and athletic! 

Mom thanks for the package! Treats, nuts, fruit, and socks!! All was in great need, thanks! :)

The Book of Mormon is so so so very true. I just finished it, and started it again. 

 8  Y además os exhorto, hermanos míos, a que no neguéis los^adones de Dios, porque son muchos, y vienen del mismo Dios. Y hay ^bdiversas maneras de administrar estos dones, pero es el mismo Dios que obra todas las cosas en todo; y se dan a los hombres por las manifestaciones del Espíritu de Dios para beneficiarlos.

I testify that God loves every one of his children. We ARE all difierent! It´s good to be different! God gives us lots of gifts, and lots of different ways to administer them. 

I love you all, as does Christ our savior. 

Elder Tasso! 

November 25, 2013

Family, friends, and future children. THE FOLLOWING IS A TESTAMENT TO HOW WONDERFUL OUR HEAVENLY FATHER IS. 

This week was pretty pretty dandy. Lets be honest. 

Elder Graham is a beast. From California, Victorville. He´s PRETTY darn good at football and basketball, loves his family, is the 1st misionary out of his brothers. How dope is that?! Right?? He´s from the ghetto-ish, which is good, because Chile has been a relatively easy adjustment for him. Ha, that was honest.

We´re progressing well with the espanISH! Hey Elder Graham, ¨Como se dice I walk?! To walk? To learn..... ¨ All day every day. Pretty dandy. I LOVE that big guy. Which is good becuase if i didn´t, haha, he could beat me up. 

So today when I locked the keys in the church, it was pretty classic when Elder Cuesta and Elder Harrision Climbed the roof to try and get in. That´s pretty logical right?¿?? Sometimes we just need to climb a roof!! 

We´re working with Melina, she was going to have an interview, but had a bummer experience with a church employee. She´s a wee tad shy, but loves the gospel. Loves the BoM, and knows it is true. So were working with her to understand more of the BoM, to gain confidence, to help her understand the Plan of Salvacion. Please pray for her so that she can open up to us AND come to Christ. 

As well as new investigadores, we´re looking, we need a big happy new family! 

President Barreiros is just a fan of White Wash, because it forces us to become stronger. Our sector is really great because we´ve got ALMOST ALL OF THE LEADERS in the Branch and District!!! 

We walk around with our feet here. It´s cool! I´ll be in divisiones with bikes, so I´m happy. It´s actually like city, but CLOSE BY to the country.... so yes, we still recieve country points. 

Mom face, I keep track of how many people say you look really young and pretty. You got 3 this week!

Benny, hyrum, stevey, anna I love you! If you do something for 10000 hours, you will perfect that. Wise words from Elder Graham. Good job in soccer and eveerything! 

Elder Tasso

November 18, 2013 Best Week Eva!!

I rode a bicycle today. I saw vineyards. We rode a bus for an hour and a half! Everything that I am, is inside of me or in my hands! That means I had changes!

As I was making those last minute calls last night to Saed, to Hno Gregorio, to those who I didn´t get to say goodbye to, I truly felt.... filled with gratitud for my time in Primo de Rivera. We took some pretty dandy fotos, check them out!

Patricio ís alright. Thursday we got a pretty jarring call from him, it helped me to come to reality. He had told us earlier "I really don´t have anything to eat." So we made arrangemente to get him food from the bishops store house sunday. He called us that thursday, "Hey when I need help, I need it now!!" 

I thought, shoot what do we do? That night we ended going to church, I think the Lord led us there, Obispo Valdes helped us with the arrangements for the Bishops store house, and for meanwhile, we went to the local Ekono and bought 10.000 pesos worth of food to bring him. It felt so so good to arrive to his house, to feel the gratitud from him:)  He was sick for 3 days this week, including the weekend! Sadly, he asked us not to pick him up for church Sunday.  Sunday night, we went over to his home and saw with him John Tanner. All of the sacrifices that he gave inspire me so much to give of myself. That guys really great, he´s got a long rode ahead of him until baptism, but I know with all of my heart that he WILL make it there. 

My new sector is melipilla III, I will be Training, doing a white wash, and helping out my district as DL. I´m excited, a little nervous to white wash, Ive never done that before, but should be fun! I´ll seeing some great cinema tomorow in the temple, and am truly truly excited for that! 

I´m grateful for the opportunity to be in the fields, (campo...), to learn portuegues, I´ve been reading the BoM in port., to share the 1st vision, that´s always a spiritual kick:), to maybe ride a bike more!!!!! To feel the spirit of the temple, to have a new start with a new ward, to make some amazing relationships, friends, converts, in this new and potentially last branch! 

Today in the bus some pretty girls cornerd us and started talking to us. Not gonna lie, it was pretty uncomfortable in the beginning. Good thing we´ve got companions and the restauracion, right?! So we totally shared about the BoM and one of them ended having a lot of true intent! I testify that people love the truth. Want the truth. 

Pray that we can be lead to an amazing new family through the good members of melepilla! 

https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/jesus-teaches-that-we-must-become-as-little-children?cid=HPFR111513159&lang=eng

I love chile and all you of!

Elder Tasso

November 11, 2013 ALMOST Stress free!!:)

Another dandy week has passed.

I'm truly grateful for the Book of Mormon. I've found so much shelter from obstacles in that book. Have you every considered waking up early to study it??? Cause...... It might be worth it:)

It's ever so intriguing the see the progression of the Espinace family. Genesis, will be confirmed. God knows when... ha, keep her in your prayers as we've seen challenges with those durn cigarettes between her baptism and confirmation.

We WILL be addressed by the one and only Elder Holland tomorrow!!! And boy are we.... grateful, ha, excited. Scared? Maybe a wee tad yes:)

I was sitting in Sacament meeting, sourounded by Leandro (recent convert), Alejandro, (less active), Elder Hasler was with Marco (an Investigator), Isidora's whole family came to see her confirmation, Felipe, A 13 year old boy I had taught piano lessons was at church..... I feel I can't express the love I felt for those people in that moment. The peace, the.... confort I felt in sacrament meeting with everyone there. I'm so very extraordinarily grateful for the opportunity I've had to see the spiritual development of these my brothers and sisters. To be a small instrument in the masters hands. It's DOPE to be worthy to be an instrument to the power of God, to be a witness.

After Lunch yesterday we felt the powerful impresion to go see Marcelo and his family. He goes into rehab for a year tomorrow. Initially he was the reference, but his dear dear mother I find is the one who will continue to benefit from the Gospel. As we taught him, his brother and his family, Aidez, his grandmother..... Marcelo needs the atonement. Ha. Thanks Eisten. He'll do great with the BoM in rehab.

Patricio Madrid deserves a Gold Star. We're going to go skydiving with him in utah one day. He witnessed the Baptism of Gabriela, and thought, Hey I'd like a new name as well! The name of Christ! He was intrigued about the concept of being born again, taking a new name upon himself, etc.  "I don't give a durn about my lungs, but i want to quit smoking to be baptized!"

Got any adivce for me? I'll take it, and maybe apply it;) ha

With Love,

Elder Tasso

November 4, 2013 Halloween, Isidora

Halloween was a real thrill!!! 

"Hey pato!! Patricio amigo mio! How´d it sound to you if you picked you up with a member a little bit before?! Ahhh ya, lets do it! Well, we did. 

Patricio is progressing, slowl  but surely. He´s really talkative, which is just dandy. It was so good, and so so funny to see him dancing at the halloween party. He went to town, more or less, with the food, little hand sandwiches, limon pies, etc. Lots of Soda! It was good to see this 52 year old Chilean war lietunent get out of his house, dance (not WITH his wife, veronica, she refused, haha....), but he did his best to woo her to the dance floor but to no avail. 

Veronica was befriended by all of the good sisters there, in her non expressive way I know she was very grateful for the experience. 

We had a really long long lesson with her husband Patricio Saturday! I sat there thinking, ¨wow!! From where is this pacience, this willingness to listen coming from?¨ As we had been there for a while already, and she had left to buy in the street market. 

When she finally returned, she started to cook, she´s just starting to listen to us, and we felt the impresion to offer her a blessing. She acepted and it was given. I know that they´ve felt very grateful to have company, to have a friend! He´ll be batpized the 24th, but needs lots of help with alchohol and cigerettes. Keep up the prayers! 

Isidora got baptized yesterday! Her family has an internet cafe close to our deparment, we go there a lot. One day, while there, we felt the impresión to talk with them, show them fotos of the fam., and such! They accepted to listen to the missionares and from there everything began! 

Yesterday after her baptism, in a fireside we had with the stake with P. Barrieros, she came up to me and said ¨Thanks..... Thanks for baptizing me....¨ Reserved, maybe a little shy, but very firm in what she does. Her brother Nico and mom, Veronica, are reading the BoM as well. 

Veronica wants to swim with dolphins. That´s her dream! (Veronica Espinace, mama de valentina and Genesis). Lets do it, eh?! She´s also a pretty darn good missionary. If you can make time, you´re all invited to our missionary picnic at church in front with the grass! 

Carlos was a texan for Haloween!!! With a big mustache. 

It was cool to see him yesterday literally convince Jasmine, his daughter, and Charlie, her boyfriend to come with us to the fireside! He´s still not  a member, but everyone thinks he is. He´ll be baptized the 17th..... although he still doesn´t know it.... hahah;))(()()()))))(((

I think the best testimony of this gospel that I have, are the photos of you guys. I show them to érbody, and they say, wow! Pretty please, may I read the BoM? or just get baptized??!! or go to the temple?! hahaha. 

Elder Hasler IS THE BEST COMPANION EVERRRRRRR

Love you all!!!!! 

Elder Tasso