Becoming Perfected in Christ

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Perira
Carta #34

Hey Family!!

Dad thank you for that encouraging email!! its true, if we didnt have the knowledge that eternal families could be together after this life, it would be hard to fully love the people because there would be a limit. And that is one of the greatest messages that we bring to people as missionaries. Many people just think day to day about life and day to day things and earthly things all day and this cannot bring you complete happiness ever. Because if your mind is caught up in daily responsibilities and your happiness relies on the money you have, and the things that you have then you will never have complete happiness because you will never be able to obtain all the money in the world. And you will always have a desire for more and more. But if we put our faith in the one person that is perfect, omnipotent, and has a perfect love for us then we can have happiness because we can know that he will give us the happiness when we do what he wants us to because he is a perfect god and does not lie. So that is why it is so important to know on what thing we have faith in. Because its impossible to have unbreakable faith in something thats not perfect and all powerful and loving towards us. We can only have that kind of faith because we know he loves us, and we know that he wants the best for us. And we know that he will come through with our promises. So that means when we are doing all we can, and a trial comes around or a difficulty, we can know that its what God wants for us. And we will be able to overcome because we will not ask when trials come around, ¨why me?´ or ¨what did I do to deserve this?¨ we will ask questions like ¨what does god want me to learn?¨and ¨what do I need to improve?¨ And we can trust that he will help us overcome them as we pray to him for comfort and help. And we will receive help from the grace of christ which is the mercy and the love of Christ that we can access at all times. Because he will be there to push us forward and to help us take that extra step when we feel like we cant walk any further. Like the story of the pioneers when they were crossing the plains with their handcarts and they felt like they couldnt go any further. They prayed for help from God and suddenly they felt as if their handcarts were being carried. And they looked back and there was no one.

The Temple

Before my mission I hardly ever focused on religious things and all that stuff. Probably because I didnt have that many trials when I was at home hahaha but here on the mission I have learned how to have happiness even when everything isnt alright. And I have learned to trust in what God wants for me is better than what I have now. And I know its a long hard and difficult process to be able to progress and become more like christ but we have to do it and we have to always progress. And we will be able to eventually become perfected in Christ through his atonement and Grace. And That is everyones goal. Because if we are not perfected in him we will not be able to reign in the celestial kingdom by the side of jesus christ and heavenly father unless we are perfected in him and unless we have done all the ordanances is this life. So we are all going to have to go through a lot of stretching to be able to arrive at that point. And its going to be hard but we need to keep our faith!

These past weeks have been so hard on the mission and the mission continues to be hard but I can also see the miracles of change in other peoples lives and my own growth. And I love being able to see the change in peoples lives and the happiness that it brings to their lives. Sometimes I feel like I am not helping all that much because I dont have very many baptisms and a lot of the time people feel the spirit want to change, but they just dont. And it brings me down sometimes but I can know that I did my part. But when the people do change is really when the miracles happen and they can see the happiness in their lives.

I'm so glad that I got an extra call with you this week! haha that was the good part about getting bit by a spider!!! hahah I hope that you guys have a great week and are excited to Skype on the 11th!

Wwooo! That ramp that you guys built looks so sick!! why dont you make it into a halfpipe and put it in the backyard? that would be so much sicker!! haha

I love all you guys!!
Love,
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Spider Bites!!!!!

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Pereira
Carta #33

So this week has been super super stressful and a ton of things have happened that are just out of the question weird.

So on Tuesday during the night I got bit by a spider in three places and the spider was a venomous spider I have no idea what kind but the bites were like bigger than a baseball and they hurt so bad and they were colored like black and blue. But the worst part is that I woke up in the morning and they itched sooooo bad and then I went to go to the shower and they were huuuugeee all swollen and all bright RED and just disgusting like so so swollen so we had to go the hospital in Santiago right away. And I had to show the bites to like 9 people, it was so great. haha no but they injected me with some stuff and I passed out from being injected (like always) and then they gave me like 9 million pills to take and all this craaapp and we have had to travel in bus to santiago like 6 times this week to go get checked up and stuff. AH it SUCKED because it takes like 1 hour in bus there and 1 hour back and we have to go in metro and all that crapppppppp.

AH we didn't even get to work this week because of that! It was so horrible and the worst part was it hurt to sit, to walk, to do anything because the bites were seriously soooo freaking swollen and huge and they itched and hurt sooo bad hah!!!

And then I had to do exchanges two days in a row and I didn't know until like 5 mins before so I wasn't even prepared and I didn't have any clean clothes to wear and it was just a horrible week... ha. And I'm super discouraged this week because of all that's happened and I don't know, I'm struggling!!! I don't know how I'm going to finish the week after all this crap that's happened, hah!

I don't have anything spiritual to say because we didn't work or anything and I didn't really have spiritual experiences because I was just stressed out the whole week ha. Some weeks you just wanna die on your mission!

But I got your package!! I love the pictures and the stickers!! I havent been able to listen to the cd yet because I need a cd player ha. But it was cool and I use the Cholula alll the time! haha

Looks like you guys are SHREDDING it up on the ramp!!!!!!!  haha that looks sick! I cant wait to get home and skate it!!

I love you guys!!
Love, Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Charity

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Pereira
Carta #32

Hello Family!!

I saw that skatepark!!! obviously, we live across the street from it!!! hahah  It was funny, the other day there were some kids that were trying to drop in so I went over and did it and taught them how to do it!! But its not like I can just go over there alll the time and skate!!! ha

Are you serious!? bobby is just alll over the place now! He doesn't want to surf for a little bit? and relax? Well I guess life gets really different after the mission and you have to grow up! hah

The sector here in Batuco is so much different than my last sector and in many ways wayyy worse haha but the work is good here!  Like the fact that we are starting winter and our shower doesn't work and we have to take a shower in cold water!!!! and that its freeeeezing in the morning and night now hah!!  Also, there's only like 35 members in the branch and its super disorganized so its super hard to work with the ward in the missionary work!!!  But the good thing is that we have a ton of investigators that are really good and are progressing really good towards baptism. The most spiritual part of our week was when we taught this whole family of 7 and they were telling us of all the problems that they were having as a family like a bunch of stupid arguments and the kids not getting along and all the stupid family drama. So we watched the mormon message called "Lasting Love", in Spanish its "Amor Duradero" I think that's what its called.  It shows a husband that takes care of his wife that is really badly disabled and talks about the love we should have for our family. Then we shared Moroni 7: 40 -47 with them and talked about charity. I know I talk about charity a lot but I really think that it is the most important attribute of Christ.  Because if we have charity then we can have alll the other attributes of Christ and with charity we will build lasting relationships and we will always be happy!!  When we taught them the spirit was there so strong as I bore my testimony about charity and shared with them how much it would help their lives. It was a super cool lesson and I think it really helped them to learn how to love one another and to always try to have love and charity for their family. Like I say were supposed to have charity for everyone in the world which is really hard but we can at least start with the people that are closest to us and our family.  I love being able to bare my testimony to people and help them feel that these things are true. And I'm so grateful for my testimony!!

Our Investigators

That camp-out you guys went on looks super sick!! That is one of the things I miss the most is going on camp-outs with all the young men haah!!  Camping was so fun and there are so many memories that we all have from those camp-outs. Especially the one where we canoed for 50 miles haah!!  That's one of the callings I want is to work with the young men so we can do siiiick stuff! haha

I love you Guys!!!
Thank you for sending the package!!!

love,
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Serve to Love

Sector- Batuco, Chile

Companero- Elder Pereira

Carta #31

Family!! Hello!!!!

Haha!! Yeah, the earthquake was pretty huge up in the north and effected a ton of people!!! There have been a few earthquakes here where we are but they're only like 6.4 haha!! but its pretty cool to feel all these earthquakes and tremors. They haven't effected anything where we are yet. And the tsunami in the north never came so thats good!!! Here in Chile it's pretty normal to have earthquakes like that!! haha It was pretty cool one night there was a hugggee one that shook our house so much!! And everyone just went outside like running haha but it didn't go for too long. If it would have gotten any stronger it probably would've been pretty bad!!! ahaha But it was so cool to feel the whole earth shaking so strongly it was weird!!

Well today was changes and I got changed out of my sector in San Felipe...It sucksss I didn't want to get changed!!! And now I'm in a sector called Batuco. Its in the country also and we have bikes, but its pretty ugly and theres like nothinggggg here hahah!! And the members don't give us food so we have to make all our own food everyday. Its pretty hard! I have a companion named Elder Pereira he is from Uruguay. I dont know if he's cool yet because I just became companions with him like 20 mins ago!! haha hopefully he's cool!! Because my last two companions were pretty cool!! Elder Wiseman goes home today and he was super happy on the bus ride over there!! My new companion finally isn't superrr old in the mission haha he has like 1 year. So thats better!! I don't have to deal with people on the verge of going home!!

Map of Batuco

My New Sector

Batuco in the Winter

Haha!! Sounds like all you guys liked General Conference!! It was pretty cool!! I loved Thomas S. Monson's talk on the first and great commandment which is loving God and your neighbor. That was super super good and its something that all of us need in our lives. And really, if we have those attributes then almost everything else comes along with those attributes. Like if we really love God then we will obey His commandments and do what He wants us to do. And If we love our neighbor then we will want to serve people and serve everyone around us. I loved that! I heard a quote this week that was pretty cool from my companion Elder Wiseman ¨You dont serve people after you love them. You serve people and then you love them.¨ I love that quote!! Its so good and so applicable to all of us. That through serving other people we learn to love the people we serve and we learn to love God as we do that in the process. Conference is always super good and sweet to always hear the words of the prophets!!!

I downloaded like 5 talks from Grandpa Simpson on my ipod and I always listen to them!! theyre super good!! and I never realized how much of a boss he was until after he died!! haha it sucks!! but its cool listening to the talks because he mentions his son Steve in one of them, hahah its cool!!! The talks are so great and I learn so much from listening to all the talks by the apostles and by the prophets and general authorities.

I hope that you alll loved general conference and learned something from it!!!! I hope that you all are doing well!!!

I love you ALLL!!!
Love,

Elder Dirkmaat