My New Companion is Elder Larsen

Hey family, Sorry it's a bit late for writing. Today has been a really long day. We had a zone activity today and made chicken and all kinds of good stuff...and I will have to send the pictures next week because I don´t have my cable with me. I will send them next week for sure...with pictures of my new companion. Sam seems to be living the party life while it lasts. From here on out, everyone gets boring and normal. It's very hard sometimes. But hey, the fun part is at least now you can do what you want. You can study and become successful handsome, funny, married, sexy, and awesome or you can...be a homeless guy, who drinks, has black hands, and a dog with missing hair and fleas...SUCH GREAT CHOICES! I am sure you'll go with the first...as for me I have the choice of...what I will eat tomorrow and who we will go visit. How cool it is that Grandma and Grandpa Burge came out. Sounds like you're all having fun! I forgot to write to Krista...she wrote me. Oops...I need to do that now.... I love lamb So, I SHOULDN´T know combios...but I found out a few things.I am staying here, and will be District leader for another combio. I will be with Elder Larsen. He was in Villarrica with me. He is the guy who posed as a pastor from another church. IT WILL BE THE BOMB....it will be a deep doctrine fest! I already was called to the job yesterday and I went to fix them up...the President and His wife, and well lets just say he is a very happy man right now with all his computers working. Praise be to God because I was praying the entire way there and I am sure it's thanks to him that I was able to get it all worked out. We will be having a baptism this Thursday. I will send lots of pictures! Its been so cool to prepare her. Things here are going well...I will be ok. Just gotta keep praying well, reading, and studying well...When I do anything that is slightly wrong I feel bad and have to repent. It's so hard sometimes. God wants me to be...just about perfect. He won´t let me go wrong....he will put up a fight first. Thanks for all your help...and prayers. I love you all very much and I am grateful for the family I have. I like the pictures...Sam looks really quite good in a suit. Take care for now, Love Ben

Cony is a miracle and gift from God!!

Hey Family good to hear from you all. I really had a good time on Skype. It was cool to see you all. I think it's funny that Silas gets teared up a bit. Soon enough, it will be Dec. I don´t know what I will do when we get to that point. You were watching me after we Skyped? Seriously? Wow, how weird...The ringtone on our cell phone is some guys singing do bap do bap do bap. It's really weird. Thanks for the compliment on my Spanish. I try to speak it as well as I can. That's so cool that Julie Workman's son got his call. It is really fun to be on a mission. It can be a bit stressful at times, but hey what can´t be stressful? Here in the mission I will not be going to Lider de Zona. I have a different call...I will be the Mission Tech. It's so funny. President told me in an interview with him Wednesday. Sorry to hear that Mom is stressed out. It can be hard finishing up the school year. But hey, at least you´ll be happy to take a little break. It's so weird that Sam will be done with school. Things in the family are moving really quick. Sam is done with school, and I am almost done with the mission. Silas and Kayleigh are growing up....it's so weird to see it all happening. I am glad to hear that your new friends (we are bird sitting) bite...and I bet they bite hard, too. I always wanted to know what it was like to have a big bird like that. I bet it would be very hard to handle. I always afraid to get one, because I don´t know how much time they really need. I am happy with Fezz. He is my beloved bird. I haven´t bought new shoes yet. I haven´t had time to go down and look at them. It's a bit hard to find time to do it. So...I will get it done...soon. Cony is a mircle and gift from God. I asked her if we could visit, because I had never seen her before in church. She came to church with Nino, the daughter of the Stake President, and she has attended seminary for 4 years and is now in institute. She has attended for all the those years, but could never be baptised, because her mom said no. But now she can...and on the 31st she will be baptised!!! We had her interview yesterday. THIS IS SWEET!!!! That's about all I have going on...maybe this week will be more interesting. CAMBIOS!!!! I will talk to you all next week. I love you all so much. I know you all are protected. If I can help with anything from here let me know. Take care! Love Ben

I need to buy new shoes

Hey Family! Lets start with Skype...Sunday (tomorrow) at 8 pm my time I will be logged in. It will be so cool! I think that we do tract in our sleep because we have done it again! I can´t believe it...it's so weird. I don´t know what to do about it...freaky stuff. We found out that an elder once lived here and well, he did something like that...he started hitting the walls at 1 in the morning, and his companion thought he was possessed. He freak´d out and started screaming... This week has been very...interesting. We had a girl show up and want to be baptised and now she has the date for the 26 of May...the combio is almost over and I can´t believe it. I helped President with internet and I watched him do a business deal with the company over the phone and got 15 Mbps of speed for 45 dollars a month in an area where they shouldn´t have gotten it for that cheap...it was so funny! The Promethian board is so sick! I love them so much...makes teaching really easy with the computer. I am glad to see mom is the teacher 2.0. I can´t believe Sam had a concert! That is so crazy....he must be getting really good! I am sure by now he is far past my ablitily to play. What luck! Sounds like my guitar had a lot of stress on its mind. Haha, that's a bummer....oh well. Carola and her husband, His name is actually Christian (we found that out the other day...) are doing ok....they still have problems with the whole desire thing. It's a bit hard....but they´ll get there. As for Muriel, her dad has now said that he denies that this is the true church. A man, sealed...and was once Branch President, says that it's not true. It's so bad....he just likes to be a bit hardheaded sometimes. God will change that! And Cony! That miricle girl! She is doing amazing and will BE BAPTISED on the 26 of THIS MONTH! It's amazing! My Testimony is strong...just sometimes things are just hard and my faith lowers. Or, I find or read something that sends me for a loop. Then It comes all back to prayer. I pray about it...and I get my witness again. I know it's true...but like Paul says...The Spirit is willingly, but the body is weak. I am going nuts in the house...because my companion plays the same song over and over again...and I don´t have a Mp3 or anything, so I can´t change the song....I am GOING TO DIE! He has been acting really funny lately....he got his blessing right and well it talks about him needing to get stuff done now, because there won´t be much time in his life to do it. So now he is all freak´d out. Poor thing.... It's been crazy...a lot of revelation lately. I found a talk by a 70 called the Quest for Spirtual Knowledge in the 2007 June Ensign. It's really good, and has parts of my blessing in it! It's by an Elder Wood. Tell everyone Hi for me! I love them all. I love you all very much too....I will see you tomorrow. For you information I need to buy new shoes because...well both of my shoes have holes in them now. I have my boots for the rain still. So I will be buying shoes I believe. Until we see each other again! Love Ben

WHAT UNITY!! We were teaching in our sleep!!

SKYPE - I will be online with Skype Sunday at 8 my time here. I will be in the house of the stake President! Haha, oh what fun. Can´t wait to hear from you all. It will be the same as last year. And if there are any problems...we will be ok because Si or Si we will Skype it up! Well, well, well...look who it is. How are you all doing? I´m doing good, sitting here in Lider writing my email to you all. It's been a weird, difficult week. There wasn´t nearly as much wood chopping going on but a bit...I got to go to the house of the sisters yesterday and give a blessing to Hermana Kitto who has been sick lately. We got to their house and found out that they didn´t have a fire going nor chopped wood to make one, so we chopped the wood, and made the fire. But, it died on them. ¡Que FOME! Oh well...I think we will go chop more wood for them tomorrow or more during the week. I also got a special assignment from President to come to his house and set up wireless internet. Pray for me...it's been a while! I love you all so much! Your emails mean the world to me...makes me happy to know you're all well and doing good things. I am so grateful to have you as my family! I really am...I love you all. I am glad to hear that Sam got the guitar fixed...how does it sound? I haven´t had a whole lot of time to play the guitar this week. It's been full of planning, working with the members, meetings, and planning for my class for the district. It's been hard, and I only hope that I am not made Zone Leader, because I would just die! I can barely take on one distirct let alone a whole zone. Wow, Sam is getting ready to get done with school...what a weird thought. It sucks that I can´t be there with him to see him sweating bullets about what he will do now. It's time to make the choices that will count for life. But, drinking isn´t going to help...sorry to hear that a lot of people started drinking. It can be stressful when all around you is sin. Staying strong will only come by prayer, scripture reading, and going to church. I know that it can be hard, and the invitation to drink with them will come as well. Stay strong, because it's a place you DON´T want to go. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Wow, 22 years of marriage...that is something to be proud of! I can´t believe that time really flies like that. One day, I will be married and I will have my 22 anniversary...and you will say...wow how time flies. Haha. Things here have been really good...the other night I woke up to find that WHILE sleeping my companion and I had a conversation. I woke up about 3 am, because I heard myself talking, and when I got up I heard my companion answering me back! It was the weirdest thing ever! I found out that he had been dreaming that we were teaching in his dream to someone and for that reason we were practicing teaching in our dreams. WHAT UNITY! We have some really good people here...the family of Carola and Marcelo! They are amazing...they are catholic. But they both agreed to pray to know if their baptisms there in that church were valid. They have gained so much trust in us. They even gave us cake. As well, we have Muriel. She has a date for the 26th of May to be baptised. But...her dad who is a less active member still needs to go to the bishop to set up the whole repentence thing...so he can baptise his daughter. It's a bit hard but...it's coming. Hermano Jaime is the funniest guy ever! He always comes out to teach with us, and all the time he talks about funny experiences he has had and about dreams he has dreamnt. The people here seem to be very willing to talk to us...but just about all of them feel they are too old to change their religion, or they feel they can´t, because they are all catholic in the family....it's the hard part about up here. But the great part is that all of them ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND the importance of going to church and praying and many of them do it! I feel good...at times I feel a bit bad...I feel that my testimony goes up and down. I don´t know why...but I know this is the true church! And it's that very single point that keeps me going. I can never deny that fact. It's funny because it talks about my testimony in my blessing...but it says that it will be undeniable. Well...so I am still looking for that day! Haha....