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

2 letters are better than one!

Hello everyone! Sorry for missing last week. So you get both letters this week.
Thanks for reading! No pictures though :(
Cheryl

March 25

Hola Familia

Esta semana estuvo muy bien. 

Hi everyone I am doing great and am glad to hear that all is well with you guys too. Like I said last week I am writing you on tuesday because we had a conference with president Kahnlein yesterday. It was such a great conference. I love it when we have conferences. They really are so edifying. It was so great to hear from the president about what the general athorities are saying about the missionary work. Like we all know (or maybe just me because I am thinking about this all the time) the general athorities are talking a lot about the missionary work and how we really need to start doing a lot more missionary work. We talked a lot about what we need to do as missionaries to accelerate the work. It really is such an awesome time to be a missionary. I am a member of an army that never has been as big as it is now. I Love what I am doing and really looking forward to work more and sirve harder here in chile. The work and investigators are progressing a little. In our area the work isnt moving very fast right now but we are do what we can to see some progress. The work is hard but it definately is posible in every part of the world. We talked a lot about the acceleration of the work and how that means that we need to be ready and help others be ready for the second coming because we really are in the last days. It is such a blessing to have this inside look at the missionary work right now. You all know that I love everything behind the scenes whether it be in movies, tv, disney, or anything that is good. I have a great opportunity to be a part of this. But dont forget that you all do too. Ryan and megan have been telling me a lot the they have been looking for opportunities to serve and invite others to come to christ. It is all of our responibility. I can promise you that in general conference they are going to talk about that so I invite you all to start doing it now so that you can feel so much better about yourself in two weeks when the prophet says that we need to do more. 

I love what I am doing. I have learned something really important about the mission and life. Well ok I have leard a lot of things really important but something specifically is that in order to teach or invite someone to do something you must have a testimony and act in that testimony. We talk a lot about the development personally that we have to do as missionaries and people and the importance of this with helping others. We are in a mission, or we could also say in life, to change. We have to change that is part of repentance and coming closer to christ if we arent changing for the better we arent staying in place we are changing for the worst. That is why we always need to work to be better missionaries and people. The wife of the president said that for us the mission is the university of life. I have learned so many things and I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve others. I have found that we need to develop ourselves in our mission but we can only do that through serving others. So do service and invite everyone to come unto christ. Sorry this is more like a talk but I think that the most important thing that you can get out of these letters is that I am ok and happy, and that you can learn something from what I am doing. I love something that an apostle said. You dont have these experiences for yourself, write them down. haha Sorry I just keep going. But Know that I love you all so much. I am glad that all is well. 

Les amo muchísimo

Elder Hamilton

March 31

Hola Familia

I hope that your week went well for everyone. 

This week went by so fast for me. I think it was because I had pday on tuesday last week and then the other part of the week went by so fast. It was a good week. We are happy because we found some new people to teach so we will see what happens with them. The first two days we were just contacting people the whole day because no one was in their house when we passed by. So we talked to a lot of people those days. We were then blessed to find new investigators so it was really great. In the conference we had our president told us that Elder Ballard does 20 contacts everyday and that needs to be our standard too so we are trying to do that. We were really happy because Patricia, Orlando´s mom (We baptized orlando like 5 weeks ago), is progressing a little more. This week she prayed in front of us which has always been really hard for her to do. Also she said something really awesome about the book of mormon. We have been working with her and inviting her to read the book for some time. She would always blame it on her daughters that she couldnt read but she started reading in the nights when they are asleep and she said that she can feel a difference. She said that when she reads she gets a feeling of peace and traquility. It is so amazing that we can really receive this power when we read the book of mormon. 

As a mission we just finished reading the book of mormon and I have learned so much from the book of mormon. I know that really I a power in the book of mormon. We really can come closer to god through the book of mormon. I can tell the difference in my day from days that I read and days that I dont. We can learn so much from the book of mormon. I have realized that it really was written for our time. I really loved moroni 8 that talks about faith repentance, baptism, el espiritu santo, and the atonement. Those are the 5 things that we have been focusing on during these three months while we were reading the book of mormon. I never realized how many times it talks about these things and the importance of these steps that we make in this life. Also I loved moroni 10 because he really was talking to us in our day. I know that really the whole book is talking to us but really this last chapter wasn´t read by anyone else back then it was just for us. I love the book of mormon and I am excited to start from the beginning tomorrow as a mission. This time we are focusing on the names of christ, when christ talks, satan, Obedience and prayers. 

I hope that you all have a great week. Use everyday to get ready for conference. I love conference. I have realized that if we can prepare ourselves for conference we can get a lot more out of it. So write down questions, pray, and I know you will find your answers. I love you all so much. I cant believe I have already been here for 9 months. I love what I am doing when I am serving the lord. 

Les Amo

Elder Hamilton

Welcome new companion

 New companion Elder Artiga from Guatemala 

Goodbye to my "son"

Hola Familia Estoy muy bien y feliz aquí en quilpue. 

Hi I am doing great and am happy in quilpue. I didnt change areas so I am still here for 6 more weeks. I will be here for at least 6 months. I am happy because I like this area and the people here a lot so I have always said that If I was in an area for a longer time I would want it to be this area. I have a new companion named Elder Artiga from El Progreso Guatemala. He has one year in his mission. He is a really great missionary and I am so happy to learn from him. I am really happy to have someone who has more time than me. It is great to be training but I am happy to have the opportunity to learn how I can be  a better missionary. He is always happy and laughing so we are always laughing together which also is really great. I have realized that I can stress myself out a little bit sometimes. I think I get it from dad haha I dont know. But I am happy that we are laughing so much. I really have realized a lot in my mission how much god really knows me and knows what is important for me in my life right now. I have had many experiences in my mission where things have happened in my life right when I needed them. He is a great missionary and we are working together really well so I am really happy with this change. My old companion didnt think that he would be changed so he was a little suprised but that is what happens in the mission. 

You asked a little about church on sunday. At church we always have a lot of things to do. People that we need to talk to and we need to show investigators where to go generally. This week we didnt have any investigators but we had some less actives there. Sometimes we have to teach the class for the investigators but right now we have a teacher who generally is here so she has been doing it. I miss the sundays that were just nice and relaxing at church and in the house but I like what I am doing. We also meet with our ward mission leader to plan things. Right now they are doing a lot of changes in the ward leaders so we have to talk to new leaders and plan what we are going to do to work. This ward and the members generally are really great to work with. They want to help and are willing to do it. Sometimes it is hard with work and everything. And everyone lives so far away with hills in between. That is when it is really hard not having cars here in chile. Not for us but even just for the members. They just use buses and things like taxis but it is more difficult to get around it is all by walking. But we try our best to work around it. 

Things are going good here and I am liking it a lot. We are still working with the morales family. I have talked a little about them. Enrique morales is a member but less active for 20+ years. His son was baptized 3 weeks ago and now we are working with his girlfriend. That is one of the most anoying things here in chile. NO ONE IS MARRIED!!! It is so annoying because the people here and maybe in the rest of the world dont think it is important. (Thank you satan) But we are going to teach the gospel and the spirit is going to tell them that it is important. 

I hope you are all doing good and are health. If you heard about the earthquake here it was in the north and I didnt feel anything. And so that you all know. I think that next week my pday will betuesday because we have a zone conference witht the president on monday. Yay I love it when we do stuff with the president. So I think I will talk to you on tuesday. I love you all so much. Thanks for your love support and prays. Be happy and pray. Study the words of the living prophets to get ready for general conference. We only have two weeks. I love conference!!! I love you all. Oh and it is starting to get a little more cold here so I am jealous of you all that are entering into summer SO enjoy it. I love you

Love 

Elder Hamilton