Bautismos!!! (Baptisms)

We had two baptisms this last week and it was a really spiritual
experience. More about that in a bit. This week we had two
intercombios. It was cool but overly stressful for me because I stayed
on both of them. The first one was with one of the Zone leaders and
then the next one was with a missionary who has a little less than two
weeks. It was both ends of the spectrum there but both of them went
really well.

About the baptisms. We had them on Saturday and it was really
stressful because I had to get everyone to the bus and I wasn't with
my companion because we were still on the exchanges and I was with the
new missionary. It all turned out well. The first one who got baptized
was Exequiel. He is fifteen and is super cool. His grandma is a member
who we reactivated and his sister is actually investigating the church
as well and might get baptized. The other is an investigator who we
have been working with for longer than the time I have here in Vilcùn
and she is really smart and knows a lot. I will be sending pictures in
the next email.

We were going to do an activity for thanksgiving and then it started
raining and it kind of flooded a little in Vilcun so we couldn't do
everything how we wanted. We ended up watching a church movie and
eating cookies with the members that did show up to the activity. Also
we had a zone activity today and made Gingerbread houses and did white
elephant gifts. It was really fun. I got a neck pillow.

Anyway the church is true. Jesus lives and loves you and if you have
any questions about that you could ask me but I am sure that their are
missionaries a little closer than I am.

Elder Kelton Miller

There is a lot of thanks to be gave

This week went by really fast. We put so much work into our sector. We
are for sure going to have two more baptisms this Saturday. It is
super great. We have two ends of the baptism spectrum. One of them has
been an investigator for a long time. Like six months. The other has
been an investigator for like four weeks. They are so great. I will
send pictures from the baptism this coming week. It just hasn´t
happened yet so, yeah. I am pretty sure that I am going to be in
Vilcún for a good while. I am really happy to be here. It is wierd to
think of how long I have been out on my mission. It feels like I
haven´t been out for that long.

Where I am is an extension of a ward. This means that usually we meet
by ourselves because there isn´t that many of us but sometimes we go
to the ward. This week was one of those weeks. We got to see the
primary program and it was so beautiful. I really missed my primary
class. They are so awesome. Shout out for them. I am just really happy
for that experience I had to teach primary. Even if I was a crummy
teacher.

Anyway I am really excited to hear from all of you and your
thanksgiving events. As you might have guessed they don´t celebrate
thanksgiving here in chile. So Elder Cox and I are going to have an
activity and make baked potatoes. That is the closest to thanksgiving
dinner we can get to.

Love you all.
Elder Kelton Miller

Just keep working

This week we worked alot. We were able to see lots of miracles through our work. We have two people getting ready to be baptized. I will tell you more about that as it happens. However I will tell you about the experience that we had this last Sunday. Normally we don't have more that 15 or sixteen attend church, however this week we had 21 in church. It is because we have been working really hard with less actives and in getting investigators to church. 

We had an idea to teach about the book of Mormon and challenge the members to read the book of Mormon by the end of the year. So for those of you reading in English there are 531 pages. If you read 12 pages a day you will finish by the end of the year. I hope that you will all commit to follow with this guideline to receive the spiritual blessing.

Also today we found out the exchanges and it turns out that for me there is no change. I am going to stay in Vilcùn with my same companion Elder Cox for the next exchange. He is going to be a district leader too. It will be cool. 

I just want to share really fast a little of my testimony of obedience. I know that when we obey the commandments completely and not ignoring the parts we may have problems with that we will get blessed. In fact we need to obey all of the commandment in order to get the blessing from that commandment. I hope all of you will have a good week and if needed make any changes in your life to be able to receive the blessing.

The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish

This latest week we did a lot of the things we usually do, yell at houses, eat a lot of bread, teach people and have them not go to church. This week we didn't even have half of the members go to church. It was really sad. In other news pride is a bad thing and we should all strive to be humble. A good indicator of whether or not you have pride is whether or not you think you have pride. We did however have a lot of other cool opportunities.  We had interviews with president this week and I got to eat a cookie. It was a real cookie, like the ones that are found in the states.This past Saturday there was a festival of nations and all the gringo missionaries went to represent the states. We had a tent with a bunch of pictures and stuff. We weren't allowed to proselyte but it was good for people to get a little more acquainted with the missionaries.

I was sick for like a day and it was not pleasant but I am over it now and am all the happier to be healthy. It keeps getting hotter here. Today I had a good idea of what the lower degrees of glory will be like. I believe it will be a lot like being crammed into a bus and listening to bad 90´s music. You have a means of transportation and music but it just isn't what you actually want. 

Elder Miller

This is halloween

But actually it wasn't because they don't really celebrate Halloween here in Chile. They do celebrate a little but I didn't really notice anything. This last week has been really cool. It all went by really fast. 

We had an intercambio(interchange) Not really sure how it translates. So for one day I was with a different elder for a day. He is from Argentina and is super animated. It was a cool experience because I got to work in Temuco. Temuco is the third largest city in Chile. Vilcún is about an hour away from Temuco by bus but we go in to temuco for all of our meetings and stuff.

Also we are working with a bunch of people and got a lot of people to go to church this past week.Which is usually the hardest part. We have been doing this thing called a fourty day fast. Which basically is we stop doing some things so that we can be guided by the spirit. We have seen so much more miracles with this fast. For instance, this last sunday we were walking back from lunch from a members house. We usually only eat at one members house but for various reasons we had to eat a different house. We also had an appointment that fell for a really weird reason. So we set up a different appointment. On our way back to the house for our weekly planning (Which we should have already been doing but we had that appointment) we heard someone yell "Elder." We turned to see a couple with a pair of bikes. It turns out that they are members from Santiago. They had just gotten off of the bus and set out to find a house to rent in Vilcún. They had been praying to see elders so that they could find out if there was a church there. We showed them the church and then and introduced them to some of the members from Vilcún so that they could have help finding housing. It is really great because we have few people in Vilcún and none of them have had the experience in how the church actually runs and now we have a couple sealed in the temple moving to vilcún.

We also went bowling as a Zone today. I thought I was okay at bowling but I guess I forgot how.

Elder Miller