New Area!

Hola Familia

I have had a lot of things happen this week!! It was a great week with everything. First off... I changed areas. Now I am in the zone right next to my old zone. I was in Quilpue and now I am in Belloto. They are neighbors. I am with Elder Rodriguez from Argentina. he lived in the usa for 3 years when he was younger so he speaks english really well. He almost has 6 months in his mission. Also I am now a district leader in my area. I am really excited for the opportunity I have to serve the other missionaries. I am a little busier everyday now. When I get home in the night I call all of the missionaries and talk about their day and see if they need anything. Also I lead a meeting that we have every wednesday to get advice in how we can help the investigators more. It has gone well so far and I am learning a lot. I have 6 other missionaries in my district. 4 Elderes and 2 sisters. It will be a great experience to learn and improve. 

Here in my area we have some great people. The ward isnt very big. 60-80 people each week but they are great people who are excited to work. The ward went to the temple on saturday and I had a great experience with that. On friday in lunch we were talking with a couple that was going to go to the temple on saturday. They had papers to write names on to put in the temple for the prayers and told us that we could write some names down. I got filled with such a great spirit and was so happy to have this moment that I could feel the blessings of the temple literally in my life. I was so glad that I could write down some names of people here and of my family. 

The investigators here are really great too. We have one woman here that is going to get baptized in may. When the missionaries started teaching her. She didnt want to do anything to get baptized or join the church or anything. After time while she was reading the book of mormon, praying, and going to church she started to see the blessings and receive her answer. Now she is really excited to be in the church and to be making these changes in her life. I love seeing these changes in the people. We talked about the word of wisdom this week and it was so powerful how with her new found testimony it wasnt hard for her to make the decision to change. It is amazing what the gospel and the spirit can do in the lives of the people. 

On saturday we had the opportunity to go to valparaiso again and help with the fire victims. We were building houses which was pretty cool. This whole city is famous because it litterally is a city that the people just started. It wasnt planned out the people just started building houses. That is something really popular here. The people just take some land and build a house and when there are enough people there the government builds other houses and gives them a house or the land. I know it sounds wierd but it is true. The government gives a lot to the people. So that is why the fire was so big. The government didnt plan the city the people did so their really werent plans for a fire like that. It has happened before and to be honest it will happen again because the people are just building in the same spot without making the needed protections. It is  sad but it is like that a lot in chile. 

I am doing really great and am excited for this next week. Oh and we had interviews yesterday with our president so that is why we have pday today. It went really well. It is always so great to see him and be able to talk to him even if it is just for 10-15 minutes. I am excited for the new calling I have to be a district leader and hope I can help the missionaries do the work better and give the love and support. I love you all so much and hope that you all have a great week. 

I love you

Les amo

Elder Hamilton

 This was a photo on the mission blog. Shows great work being done.

I WAS A MORMAN HELPING HAND!!!

Hola 

Happy Easter to everyone. I love the meaning of this holiday. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves each of us. 

Here we really didnt hear or see anything big for easter. In church this week they really didnt say anything about easter. WE did have a talk about the atonement but that was it. It was really just a long weekend here for work. I hope that you all had a fun weekend and did a lot to remember Christ this week. 

This week was really great I loved it. First because I had a dream come true. I WAS A MORMON HELPING HAND!!!!! I have always wanted to do that but we never do that in utah because every service project it through the church and almost everyone is a member. So I was so happy that I got to do that. We went friday to Valparaiso, where they had the big fire, and helped in a warehouse where they were receiving food, clothes, and other suplies from all over chile and also we helped in the hills clear out some of the rubble.  I was so supprised at how fast they were able to get food and supplies from people from all over chile. We were unloading semi´s full of stuff for these people. It was so crazy because in the hills it was literally like a war zone. There was nothing in these areas with the fires. There were a lot of people there helping, from and not from the church. It was great to go and help out. It is crazy because in this city is famous for its hills and how the houses are just built on top of eachother and that is why so much burned. There arent very many streets, it is more stairs and paths, so the firefighters couldnt get up to the areas where they had the fires. It was sad to see it all but they are working fast to get everything clean so they can start building again. 

Also this week I was really happy because Elias our investigator is progressing a lot more right now. He has been fighting cigarets for some time now but this last week he didnt smoke at all!! So thank you for your prayers. I know that they helped. I sure have learned a lot about patients with him. haha. But I know that god always will answer our prayers in his time not in our time. We are hoping that he will keep going strong with that and that he can keep progressing. He has a goal for baptism for 4th of may. I dont know if I will be here to see him be baptised but I am so happy for this time that I have had to work with him and help him. I really have seen so many miracles and changes in him and his life. He wants this a lot and I am happy that he is working hard to have these blessings. 

I love what I am doing and how much I am learning. We have the posibility to change this week and this time I really think I am going to change areas because I now have been here for almost 6 months but we will see what happens. I love you all so much. Have a great week. 

Les Amo

Elder Hamilton

(He sent a lot of photos of the destruction from the fire.  In many of them you can see the houses that did get did not burn.  The houses are stacked with no way to get to them with water to put out.  Tynan said to me that people are used to disasters and they will just clean it up and build again, probably exactly the same. He also said that people are very eager to help.  According to the Church news no churches were damaged and members were all safe.  CH)

The Ocean!! First time I have seen it for 6 months!

Not on Fire and Tons of Pictures

 Hola Familia

Another week flew by here in chile. The big news here is that their is a huge fire in valparaiso which is close to where I am. Not close as in we might have a fire but close as in we can see the smoke. It is the biggest fire they have had in valpo in their history. Over 1500 houses have been burned and as of last night 33 people have died. It is a really sad thing. Alot of the hills of valparaiso are burned completely and it is still going. It keeps restarting and going farther. So yesterday the men in the ward went after church to help out in the stake in valparaiso. We have just been told to wait and maybe after a few days we will be going to help too. 

This week was good we did a lot of great things. We had a great experience this week with an investigator. I dont know if you remember elias piña. We have been teaching him for a long time now and yes he is still struggling to stop smoking. We stopped teaching him for 2 weeks and then about 2 weeks ago we passed by again and started teaching him. He has a great desire to learn more but he still has doubts and obviously he needs to work on the smoking. But we thought that he hadnt gone to conference but he went to the sunday night session. It was so great and was perfect for what he needed. He said that he loved the choir and the organ and that it was what he was imagining for the church of jesus christ. He really has had a big boost in testimony, he just needs to overcome some other things. one of his doubts was about tithing and it was in this session that they talked about tithing. It was just what he needed and an answer to his prayers. Now he isnt as confused with tithing. He understands the importants of tithing. It was great to see that. We started teaching him like my second week here and are still working with him. But I have seen so many changes with him and how he understands so much more now about the church of jesus christ and his gospel. I love seeing these changes in people. 

We are getting down to the last week and a half of this change and I will have almost 6 months here. We are thinking that I am going to change for that reason. I have loved this area and would love to be here with my companion elder Artiga another change but we will see. 

I love you all so much. It made me happy to hear that you have started reading preach my gospel this week mom. I hope that everyone can read it. I have learned so much about the gospel and church from that manual and I know that it is written for all of us. And I hope that everyone has everything you need for emergencies. We have been talking a lot about that here in our mission and we have seen this week the importance of being ready. I love you!! Study the scriptures everyday. I hate the excuse that we dont have time. We all have at least 5 minutes that we can devote to the lord to study a little. 

Les amo

Elder Hamilton

Zone Conference

 I asked him about his scripture cases. A man in his first area made them for him.

 From the fire in Valperasio

 Beautiful Sunsets 

I also wanted to add this article I found this week. Great to be in the Vina Del Mar Mission

Glorious weather

Chile’s Viña del Mar rewarded for its weather

In a list ranking the best climates in the world, the Chilean resort city of Viña del Mar was top of the table.

Tuesday, April 08, 2014Category: Tourism

Viña del Mar was elected as having the best climate in the world G. Küppers (JordiCubero)/WikiCommons

1

Beating out locations such as Morocco, Barcelona and the Canary Islands, Chilean resort city Viña del Marwas proclaimed as having the best climate for living. In a piece by photographer and writer Ed Darack for Weatherwise Magazine, Viña del Mar was described as being “globally renowned for its white sand beaches” and “absolutely beautiful weather”.

Aside from the sunny days and limited rainfall, Darack also noted that the coastal city is “free from the threat of ferocious cyclonic storms and tornadoes.”

The ranking used a number of criteria, including average high and low temperatures as well as the number of cloudy days, in order to find “humanity’s hypothetical optimal weather place.”

Las Palmas, the largest city in the Canary Islands, came in second followed by Morocco’s northwest coast. Sassari, on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia was next on the list, with Barcelona, Lisbon and San Diego next. 

I love conference

 Pancakes

Conference in English

Hola Familia

This week was great because we had conference. I loved conference so much. I am so happy that we have the opportunity to listen to the prophet and the general athorities every 6 months. I really felt like we got a lot of need advice for the world we live in. I really loved the talk from elder Uchtdorfsunday morning and the talk about gratitude. I have learned a lot about gratitude in my mission. I love looking at all of the good things we have in life. I got to watch it in english with the other english missionaries. I loved hearing the choir. I love the spirit that comes into our lives through the music of the conference. 

As for the people we are teaching. To be honest we couldnt find a lot of people this week. I dont know why but they werent in their houses when we passed or we didnt have time to pass for them. And we had a lot of people tell us that they were going to go to conference but no one came. Everyone always has their escuses but it is hard to see satan working in other people. I knew before my mission that it was going to be hard to watch people make thier own choices. I wish sometimes that I could just give these people my faith. I have so much love for the people here and I understand more than ever that this is the most important message in the world so I just want them to make these choices to follow christ but sometimes they dont want to make these choices. I am really looking forward to working even harder this week to do better. 

I have been focusing my study a lot in the will of god and how we can do the will of god. I am learning more about the changes I need to make so that I can have the will of god control my life. Then in conference there were a lot of great talks about change and how we need to change to be better. We are getting closer and closer to the second coming of the lord and we need to help him with his work. When we do this we have his spirit with us and his blessings. I loved what someone said this week about how when we obey a commandment we will have a blessing yes or yes. And when we disobey a commandment we will lose a blessing. I want to strive all my life to have all of the blessings I can in my life. 

I really enjoy the mission life. It is great to have the spirit everyday and be doing the lords work. I love that I am laughing everyday while I am doing it. I hope that I can do this work the way that the lord wants. I love you all so much. 

Les amo

Elder Hamilton