Unplanned but ok

Illapel Desert.  (Looks like central Utah to me)

Hola familia

Estoy muy bien. I had a great week in my sector. Right now we are working with many people who have progressed and have asisted many times but they dont want to comite themselves to baptism. There is a young man we are teaching named M and we had some great lessons with him this week. He says that he knows that the church is true and that joseph smith was a prophet but we didnt know what his doubt was. This week we had a really spiritual lesson and were able to find out his doubt. he is worried about his future. He wants to be a professional soccer player and he was worried about how the church might affect that and thinking about his family. As I have explained in the past. Here in chile it is really common that people are not marriend they just live together. He is also worried about that compromise to marry. We shared with him about why it is important and how we can have trust in god. He still has been a little worried and unsure about things. he has had a hard time reading the book of mormon so we told him that he really needed to read the book to find out if it is true. It made me think about my life. I like things planned as some of you know. I get pretty stressed about a future unplanned. The mission has changed that a little being that I dont have everything planned. I thought about my life and my worries that I have about my future. After thinking it I realized that I still have a lot of things unplanned and I have no idea what I will do with things like school, family, ect. but I realized that I do know what I will be doing with the little things that are most important. I know that I will be reading the scriptures each day and going to church and the temple each week. I know that I will have a family that supports me. I know that I will be alright if I keep doing what I need to be doing. I hadnt realized this change in me until this moment. As I have learned more about what is most important to me in the world and in life all the other disisions and things dont take up my worries. I just focus on the things I have planned. That is what the gosple can give us if we let it. We can live a life without worries when we focus on obeying the commandments and doing the little things that matter most. Then we can just trust god that all will work out ok as we are obedient. I realize more and more each week that I have learned and am learning so much each day. I love it. Each day I write things in my planner when I feel like I need to write it down in my journal. Then when I have time I write it down. I know that at some point in my life I am going to be so grateful for having written all these experiences down. 

Well today I dont have much time. As a zone leader each week my companion and I have to send a weekly report with the investigators to the assistents and this week it was my turn to do it so there was a lot to do. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love

Elder Hamilton

Back to Work in the Deseret

 Last picture with the office

 On the bus to Illapel

New District in Illapel

Hola familia

Well it is a little wierd having my pday on a monday but I am very happy to be out in the field working in a sector all day. I never realized until I left how much stress I always had in the office with all the extra responsabilities. It was so great and I learned so much from it and now I am so happy to be out in the field. Literally FIELD. I am out in the middle of noware. haha. So I am in a place called Illapel. Yay I always have wanted to go to the north. It isnt very far north but Like you saw in the picture I had to go on the bus for 3 hours and then take another bus for 1.5 hours. So I am a little farther from Viña now. It is a little wierd because I have always been really close to a bigger city and this is a small town in comparasion. I really like it a lot. I am here now as a Zone leader in the zone of Illapel.  The zone of Illapel has 14 missionaries in three little towns, illapel, salamanca, and los vilos. They are all about an hour away from eachother so we have to travel a lot to get places. There are not very many members here in my branch there were 34 people asisting including 6 missionaries. There is a lot of work to do here. This zone has struggled a lot these last few months and we are hoping that we can help the area do better. My companions name is elder Enright he is from colorado. We were in the MTC together and got to the mission at the same time so we knew eachother a little bit before hand. I have always wanted to be with one of the missionaries from my group so I am really excited about that. He is a really great missionary who is really diligent in all he does. I am excited to learn a lot from him. As a zone leader we are in charge of the zone. talking with the district leaders each night and having interchanges with all the missionaries. We are really trying to animate the zone more because that has been difficult for the zone. 

This week I have learned a lot in church and in my studies. This morning I was studying Jesus the Christ about the premortal life with Christ and how 1/3 fought with Satan and the others fought with Christ, at least that is what I always thought, but not everyone else fought with christ some simply just didnt have an opinion and didnt fight on either side. These people also earned life here on the earth. As I read this I thought about how that is not what I want. I dont just want to win life by watching I want to be fighting. I think that in this life just watching isnt an option we must fight or we will loose with satan. Also in my reading in the book of mormon I loved Alma 26:11-12 when Ammon is talking about his strength coming from the lord and not from himself. I have seen diferences in my life when I have relied completely on the lords strength and when I have tried to rely on my strength. Just this week as I left the office I realized how much I have grown to rely on the lord. With all that I had to do in the office I was praying and relying more on him that in anyother time of my life. Now I am striving to keep relying on him because I know that without him we are nothing. 

I am so happy to be out working again. I thought that time would go a little slower and that the days would feel longer but I have been so surprised at how fast time has gone this week. 

I love you all so much. I am glad to hear that all it well. 

Les quiero mucho.

Elder Hamilton

In doing some research(thank goodness for the internet) Tynan's companion's name is Kegan Enright from Colorado Springs. He has a twin in Argentina and a sister in Houston on missions- so never feel sorry for yourself to have one missionary out.  I found his blog, but we had better see if he likes Tynan before I post the address haha.  CH

 Elder Kegan Enright

 View from the bus to Illapel

 Food Fair

 Views in Illapel

 These photo's showed up on Facebook, no idea where they are taken

My son Nathan in Nashville TN sent these pictures today, they are having a huge ice storm

CHURRO!

Hola Familia

This week was a very great week with a bunch of fun different things. First off last saturday I ate a CHURRO yay my first churro since disneyland a year and a half ago. There are always people selling food in the street like churros, empanadas, sopapilla, and other sweets like pie. but it isnt the best to buy from these people becuase who knows how it was cooked and for how long they have been sitting out in the sun. so I have never been able to by a churro even though I was dieing to try one. Finaly we went to a art market and they had a store that sells churros. So I thought that it was ok becuase it was an astablished place haha. It was good and full of dulce de leche in the middle! Then on sunday we had lunch with a gringo family Aka a family that is from the USA. It was cool and in english. We ate Hot dogs and hamburgers with pasta salad and watermellon. It was very american we loved it. And the view from their house was so beautiful. They live in a place called Reñaca which is where all the tourists go. so it is close to the beach. 

In the things more spiritual. We had a very great activity on Saturday night that was a lot of fun. We talked about the family and the importance of the family. Two primary kids got up and bore their testimonies about the family and it was so cute. How grateful I am for a eternal family so that we can be together forever. The world is all lost. It is the only way we can say it. They are lost in sin and lies. We have a great mesage in our lives about how the family can be together forever. It is worth fighting for everything that this brings. I have learned that there are a lot of fights that we have to fight in life but it is all worth it. I remember the pioneers who died going to zion becuase they knew the fight was worth it to be sealed in the temple as a family. I am so grateful for that sealing that my family has that holds us together as long as we keep our covenants. We have been working with a less active endowed member and we have been able to see a lot of progress with him. He talks about when he reads his patriarchal blessing and all of the things that God has for him. He hopes for an eternal family and that is where his goal should be. He has started reading the book of mormon and praying again and has been able to feel the spirit in his life again. We are also working with a family that is reactivating and their 2 daughter are going to be baptized this month. They also are working towards this goal. It doesnt just stop at baptism for anyone we need to do more and we are trying to teach them that. They have really progressed too. The sister has a calling now and the brother has started asisting church for the three hours. It is so awesome to see what this eterna promise does for people so they can come closer to god. 

In my last week in the office I didnt do any of my old responsabilities. I left it all to my companion and he did a great job. I was busy getting things ready for the mission leader counsel that we had yesterday and the president gave me a special responsability that is a little differenet than what a missionary would be doing. I am selling stuff. haha. All my KSL and ebay skills have really come in handy. So like I said a few weeks ago we are closing a lot of areas and houses so we have a lot of stuff that we need to get rid of so I have been taking picture, posting them in a website that is called YAPO and selling them. We have been able to sell a lot of stuff so that has been great. I have liked it. It is really different but it reminds me of mom posting things on ebay or ksl haha. 

It has been a great week. Fast. This week we have changes. ahhhhhhh. I have no idea where I am going but I know that it will be like 9 days until my pday. So i wont be writing again until monday the 16. I am a little nervious about the changes but It will be good. I am also excited for new experiences. I love you all

Les quiero

Elder Hamilton

Renaca

Ward Party

More Vina Beauty

My Beautiful View

 All photos are the view from his apartment or in from of his house. He loves seeing the ocean everyday and the lights at night.

Buenos días a todos

This week was a great week. We are really working on activating endowed members of the church and so we have been passing by many of them in our time. until now we havent been able to teach very many but this week we were able to share a few times with a young man who is endowed and had served a mission. We had two very great lessions with him this week. It is amazing how the spirit can leave someone. it says in the scripture that the spirit will not fight with the people who are not being obedient. it would be such a sad thing to loose that spirit as I have grown to love the spirit so much and rely on it every day of my life. as we go farther and farther from the truth we lose it. But the miracle is that we can repent and come to christ and feel of his spirit again. I have seen so many lives changed in chile. people that have never felt the spirit before and those that have felt the spirit but have forgot of that feeling. the spirit literally has a crucial role in our lives and so we must live to have the spirit. 

Well this will be my last full week in the office. next saturday will be the last time that you have to write on friday which will be good because i know it has been a little more confusing. i have felt like this is a small feeling of what i will have when i leave the mission. i am sad to be leaving the office as i have loved it a lot but I know i need to move on.This week my president shared something about change that i really loved. he talked about how in the scriptures it tells us that God and Christ are perfect and unchanging. That is something that is different about us... We change. In fact it is a difference that is the most important thing of our lives the power of change. it isnt easy and sometimes it isnt wanted but it is crucial to progress. without change we can not repent and we can not progress it would be imposible. so as i go through this change i am looking forward to that. Looking forward as we know is far more important than looking back.

i love you so much. Have a wonderful week. Smile

Elder hamilton