Hola Familia 

¡Una semana muy buena! (A week very good)

I am doing good here in chile! Thank you for all of the birthday emails. I had a great birthday different but great. It isn´t like I ever did anything really huge for my birthday anyway. I will let you know what I did in a minute. About mail... I just sent out some letters to some people. And receiving... Nothing I dont have another zone conference for I think 2 weeks so I will get other mail then. I think your other box should get here by then mom. 

For my birthday my companion woke me up at 3:30 in the morning singing happy birthday with a little cake (a cake that is in a wraper and you can by in the stores here, But dont get me wrong they are actually really good and only like 50 cents) and a candle. In the morning nothing to exciting we had church and then lunch. We picked up the lunch from the sister and took it to the apartment because they had to leave for family stuff but I actually liked that better haha. We bought icecream and had that with more mini cakes. We had study time like always and then got out to work. It was going good a little frustrating because no one was home. My companion always asks why the missionary manuel (little white book with all the rules) says that saturdays and sundays are the best days to find people in there houses because they never are. But it was good. We had just watched a video called the district for our studies, they actually showed it on byu tv one time, and it showed a bunch of missionaries bearing their testimonies and giving words of encouragement so I was like "ok Lets go!" and then we had appointments fall through and no one was home but something that one of the elders said stuck with me. He said when you feel like you cant go any farther and you keep going a little father that is when the miracles and blessings come. Well thats how I was feeling, no not really that bad, but then we had two great lessions with investagators that are progressing. In both lessions I could feel the spirit so strong and I know that they could too! One is named jonathon, he is like 22 and living with his girlfriend he has a lot of interest and expecially after this last lession I felt like he is understanding more of the gospel and the importance of it in his life. After we had a lession with Jose, he is 34 and MARRIED (YAY!!). His brother died a little bit ago and actually his friend died this last week so he has a lot of interest in the plan of salvation. He too is starting to recognize the spirit in his life. He said that Everytime we visit he feels different and there is a feeling of peace and joy in his house. And at the end of the lession my companion said that It was my birthday and he gave me a jar of nutella. haha It was so nice.

I think this week I realized most the importance of reading and praying about the book of mormon. When we come in contact with people in the street and they say that they have a copy of the book of mormon of have heard about the church we always ask If they have read and prayed about the book of mormon. I have yet to hear someone say yes. We give people this ability to know and if people wont do it they will not know. It is amazing. We have this great promise for us in the book of mormon that when we will pray about the book we will recieve an answer. I know that if we pray we will get an answer. Sometimes it wont be the answer we may expect or want but we will get an answer. That is why I can have such confidence in telling people that they can read and know.

I love you all so much. Thanks for your prayers and support. 

Te amo 

Elder Hamilton

Patriotic Elder

His District

Things here are going good. This week has been better than last week which was great. I just decided that I need to be patient with myself. And try to do all that I can do without getting overwhelmed like I was close to being last sunday. But Things are good. It was great because throughout the week I saw so many answers to my prayers. Just little things but when you look for them they are there. 

We are working with some investagators right now and they are progressing some more then others and all of them a little slowly. One of them is eliza. She is older and has a daughter that is inactive in the church. Her husband died 3 years ago I think so we have been talking a lot about the plan of salvation with her. This last week we talked to her about after this life and the temple. It was so great because we were able to explain to her where her husband is and how she can see him again and be with him forever. I have such a strong testamony of the temple from when I would try and go each week with olivia to do baptisms and when I got to go through the temple and did that each week leading up to my mission. It was great to be able to help another person with my testamony. That is really a lot of missionary teaching, is bearing testamony of what I know to be true. I know that we are able to receive so many blessings from the temple in our lives and we are able to help other people in their lives too. Go to the temple even if it is just to walk around or sit outside, that is one of my favorite things to do on sunday (shout out for olivia). There is a peace that is all around and in the temple that cant be found anywhere else in the world. It truly is the most peaceful and yes "the happiest place on earth." 

Since I got that little disney plug in my letter I will answer the question that I have been asked by some people. No I am not dying because I haven´t been able to go to disneyland. I still love it and each time the truck with the gas (remember that there are gas trucks that drive arround and play childrens music like ice cream trucks in the us) drives by and plays its a small world I always smile. Haha. 

There really isn´t too much to say this week. We had a training meeting in my ward that me and my companion did on wednesday that went really well. There werent too many people there, like 20, but we got 8 references from it so that is great. We also had stake conference yesterday which was really great, including hearing from the president and his wife. And today we had a district activity where we played basketball and through a football around and had pizza. It was nice to take a break from futbol, soccer, because we do play that a lot down here. 

There is a talk from general conference that I would encourage everyone to read because It is fantastic. It is called "choose eternal life" and it is in the sunday afternoon session in october 2011 and it is by Randall Bennett. It is a really great talk that I read this morning in my study. 

I love you all so much and hope things are going good for everyone in your lives. 

Have a great week. 

Te amo

Elder Hamilton

Photos of his area

I finally found some pictures of Tynan from a zone conference so there are a lot this week.
Also I was online today when I got his mail and was able to respond to his frustration of church attendance and have put that response below.  Our family feels very strongly that it is not about the numbers, but about truly converting the person and bringing them to Christ forever.  Cheryl

Hola Madre

This week was ok. Im not going to lie it was dificult but who is supprised that I said a mission was hard. It really was yesterday that was the hardest. I was frustrated because no investigators came to church which means that the people were were hoping to baptise this month cant be baptised this month, people never want to talk to us (ok never is to strong of a word), and more things were frustrating me. So then I started thinking about maybe I am not doing something right maybe I dont know the language well enough, maybe I am not trying hard enough. I was getting really down on myself and worried that I wasnt doing a good job. I prayed a ton for help, the spirit, peace, and knowledge that I can do this and I am doing a good job. We dont like to and are not supposed to count success by numbers of baptisms but the number is still there and in reality that is part of inviting others to come unto christ. During this time we were walking around from house to house contacting different people. Every time I talked to someone and started to compartir my testimony I got a strong feeling of the spirit. Then we actually got into someones house. YAY!! We started to teach this couple about the restauracion. They are evangelical and dont really want a change. The sister started talking about these things that she "knew" about the church which of course were not correct like jose smith wrote the book of mormon and the book of mormon is about jose smith. We just told them that we want to explain the truth and answer their questions. It was really great because they actually listened. You always have the people that say all this things against you but dont listen or let you give a response so it was nice to have people that listened. After this lesson I realized that while yes baptism is part of inviting others to come unto christ there are 5 things in this process to come unto christ. Faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. So when I am bearing testamony or talking about the church of jesus christ I am trying to build their faith then that will lead them to do other things. If they chose not to have an open heart to listen to the message I cant do anything about that but I can do my job which starts with building other peoples faith. Of course I want to baptise because that is part of the goal of bringing others to christ but I know that I will have that oportunity. 

Now for the answers to your questions.

Sundays we have a meeting at 8:30 with the priesthood leaders. and church is from 10-1 Yes we study the same things everyone else does. After church we go to lunch and have studies for 3 hours and then we go out and find and teach. 

ANd yes the time finally came when I got my package and letters. We had zone meeting which this was my second and we got them their. I have also had one meeting with the president. I am in the zone vina west.  I got dear elders from the following people, denise, carlene, val, and ryan and megan. And I got a letter from erin. So now you know that I got your letter. We only get mail one time every month. 

Oh I am back to just me and my companion and just one area Elder gutierez who is from argentina has a new companion in his area. 

I love you all so much 

Te amo 

Elder Hamilton

My response, which he was able to read- The other thing you need to remember Tynan is that baptism is a covenant which should be kept and not broken. You want people to be ready and committed to be baptized, not just someone who is interested. Them not coming to church is a sign they are not ready. They are better off not making that covenant until they are truly ready. Then they will stay active members of the church. I know it is hard, and you probably get a lot of pressure from the mission about your numbers, but just love the people and be patient with them and that is how they will be ready. Hopefully your ward will friend these people too.

His Zone

Here are a few pictures that Tynan sent.
This was his pre conference feast
And with his 2 companions

Hola Familia 

Conference was AMAZING. I loved every minute of it. This was my favorite conference ever. Posible because I am already on such a spiritual high, being on a mission, so having a whole weekend to hear the words of the prophets was awesome. I watched it at our stake center. I got to watch the whole thing in english which was a huge help. I think I would have understood it generally in spanish but not enough to take notes and really apprieciate it in total. I would love a copy of the ensign next month though to go through and mark and reread. I absolutly loved the talk by Elder Monson. Im not sure exactly why I think a lot of it was his emotion and sincerity. But all of the talks were so good and there were so many talks that were, as we call them, "cutting talks" because they cut down on obedience and working hard. It was awesome. I was blessed and so happy to be able to watch music and the spoken word. I loved seeing the choir again!. The pictures of Utah only made me happy not sad at all. I really loved the pictures of temple square and the conference center. I love going up and walking around there. Something else I realized with conference is how it really is world wide. I really realized how far I am from conference. I always was just an hour away but now I see that we really are one world wide church that has the oportunity to unite every 6 months. And Almost all of the prayers in conference prayed for the missionaries and I realized something that you always say mom, There are so many people praying for the missionaries. ANd I promise you I have never felt the power of prayers, mine and others, in my life before. Prayer works and we all receive the blessings from prayer. Thanks for your prayers for me. I am praying for you everyday. 

Today we have a activity de zona and the zone leaders said that we are getting mail today. YAY!!!! finally and they said that there is a lot so I believe I am getting my mail today so I will let you all know how that goes next week and what I get. I am not really near the mountains I cant see them. I am really close to vina del mar central. Like a 10 minute drive. I have felt 3 or 4 earthquakes. Not big and always while I am sleeping in the morning I will wake up to the world shaking. 

As for the work. I have two comps right now. My companion elder abarca and my district leader elder gutierez. My district leader is with us because his companion went home and so until he gets another companion, if he does before the next change in 4 weeks, he is with us. We know he is going to be with us for at least one week other than that we dont know anything. We are working in both of our areas because his is right next door. So our investagator pool just doubled which is nice. We were hoping on having people at conference but we dont think that happened unfortunately. We had two baptismal dates for the 26th of october but they didnt asist so we have to move them back. They are both from menos active families and both have like 17 years. We are finding more people to teach. Sometimes it is hard becuase they say they can only be taught one day a week so they cant progress very fast. WE are praying and fasting and hoping for 2 baptisms in esperanza, my area and the word for HOPE in spanish. I am loving being able to talk to the people here more. It is great to get to know the members more and talk to them during lunch. And when we are on the bus I am about to turn to the person sitting next to me and talk to them for a little bit. The people here are great. It is really different, just the customes and the situations and other things, but I like it a lot. 

I am learning more every day about my self, the work, the church, and my life. This is such an awesome experience that I am having and I am so blessed to be able to have it. I hope you all were able to watch conference. Expecially sunday morning. I thought it was so interesting how all of the talks had something in common an idea or a scripture or something. Go and reread them I am so excited to do that too.

It was interesting because of the time change it felt wierd because I am used to waking up and watching the first session. But the times were 1-3 5-7 and 9-11. Late night out on saturday night!!! As close as we missionaries can get to a late night out, going to conference. But I wouldnt change anything because I loved it. 

I love you all so much.

Te amo 

Elder Hamilton

Blessed to see Ocean

HI Family

This week was really great. The time flew by, like every week I guess. I am still in esperanza with my same companion which I am really happy about. It has been fun to get to know him more and we are working together really well so it will be good to have another transfer with him. And I am really happy to still have my views of the ocean and the city. especially at night when the sun goes down. It is so beautiful. And we are actually teaching people now so that would have been hard to leave right when we are really starting to teach people. No I havent gotten any other mail yet. Ari´s was normal mail not dear elder. I am sure that they have everything at the office but I just havent gotten it yet. I think because it was transfers they waited a week or two because people were going to be moving areas. I have an interview with the president tomorrow so maybe then. I cant believe tomorrowis October. September was gone before it started I feel like and now I have been in chile longer than in mexico which is a huge thing that I am so happy about. 

You asked about blessings from obedience and I definately have felt the blessings. Nothing huge but even just the oportunity to feel the spirit and feel so close to our savior all day is a blessing I love so much. I wrote in my journal the other day, yes I am writing, that I never want to get used to the feeling of having the spirit with me all the time on my mission because that is one of the greatest parts. Also I feel the blessing of spanish in my life a lot. I am doing much better with the language still have a lot to learn especially vocab wise but even the people who have been here for 1 year have to look things up sometimes. But I am able to talk a lot more without thinking to much about it and I understand even more. I am working on talking more to members people in the street and my companion for practice. Our goal for this transfer is to speak total spanish all the time and have 2 baptisms. I am a quiet person sometimes so I am trying to talk more haha. We also have found more and more people to teach which is deffinately a blessing in my live and mission. So we have a lot hope for some of the people we are teaching so we will see what happens.

The rules really arent to hard to keep. We just keep doing our best and try to keep them all. The hardest are only having one hour for lunch, because the members sometimes like to talk a lot and eat slow, and not being able to go into houses with just women. Now dont worry we never break this rule but the elders here before us did so all the members think that it is ok and we have to explain that it isnt ok and it is against the rules. ANd It is difficult with investigadors because they dont understand either but it is a rule for a reason and I totally understand. Just like the other rules I have felt blessings from keeping this rule. 

For contacts we contact on the street and some doors. THe ward unfortunatly doesnt do much we are working with the word council to have them help more with refrences but they always just say they dont know anyone. We receive some every week though which is good. 

Things are great here. I still am loving it more and more everyday. This is the true church I have no doubt. I know that everyone is able to know that for themselves. This work is so important. It is wierd and sometimes difficult to have the feeling that I am doing something successful when people around me are not to happy or excited to talk to us. But like I said I can feel the spirit the whole time and It is such a blessing in my life. I am so excited for conference this week and I hope everyone listens and watches our leaders and prophets teach us. 

I love you all so much. 

Be safe in all you do and pray always, I promise you it works.

Te amo 

Elder Hamilton