Faith in God!

Sector- San Filipe
Companero- Elder Wiseman
Carta #28

Mommmy!!!! and Daddy!!! hahaha, I don't have a whole lot of time because we went to Santiago this p-day to pick up my companions passport!! hah, but alright here it goes.  Sounds like you guys had a spectacular week! that'd be swweet if you could send me those Mark Abernathy CD'S!!!  Haha, and Dad what you said about us saying I know these things are true and everything and how its hard to be able to say that because its not like we can see God and stuff but I read this book this week during my personal study and its called Lectures On Faith by Joseph Smith.  It used to be in the Doctrine and Covenants but they took it out in like the 70's because they decided it was too deep doctrine haha, I don't know.  But that book explains what Faith is and what power we have when we truly have real faith in God.  It explains it so so so good and it made me realize how powerful the faith that we have is. It was through the faith that God and Jesus Christ have that they can do ALL the miracles they are able to do. And it is through the faith that we have that we do ANY action.  All action comes through faith in something.  And I swear you will learn so much about how powerful faith is if you read that book. It's only like 80 pages long and it breaks it up and shows how important faith in God is so important as the base principle of salvation. READ IT!!! hahah

This week was really cool!!! We are teaching this couple and they are so so so good!! The couple that has a kid and they're like 19 years old.  This week we taught them the Law of Chastity. We knew it was going to be a hard one because they're 19 and already have a kid but we taught it all and after they were all unsure. They really want to get baptized and really want to change their lives but at this moment they were like, that's a lot to ask. They were like, I have no idea if we can get married right now because we're so young and we don't have very much money at all.  But I felt the strongest impression to share my testimony on the law of Chastity.  I shared about how my experience of keeping the law of chastity has blessed my relationship that I have with Emily so much.  And that through keeping it we have such a stronger love. I shared that personal experience only because I felt like I needed to and they both really felt the spirit and were able to understand the blessings that they could have if they obey the law of chastity.   I told them that when they put their relationship in the hands of God and trusted in God to help them, if they kept his commandments they would grow in their love and their family would be so much happier because I have been able to experience that.  Leaving home and Emily was the hardest thing for me ever but now that I'm here growing.  I can see the blessings it's brought to every aspect of my life.  I knew like nothing about the Gospel before and I knew nothing about how it made someone happy.  I always just did the things. But now I see the blessings that I have from putting God's commandments first.  And putting mine and Emily's relationship in the hands of God has been the best decision that we have made.  Because we can both see how this is already blessing our relationship and how it will in the future. I have grown to be so much more grateful for my family and grown to trust in God.  I DID NOT know how to trust in God before.  But I really can trust in God now because I KNOW that He blesses us.  Especially when we make sacrifices.  He knows us perfectly and he knows the sacrifices we all make.  He promises us 100x more blessings in heaven when we make these sacrifices.  I have learned so much, and to be able to testify and share those things with someone so that they could have the happiness of keeping the commandments was so amazing. They came to church again and they hope to get married really soon!!! I can already see how much happier they are as a couple from deciding to change the way they were living before. 

 
That was the coolest experience of my week and a great testimony of how I learned!!! And Mom, I know I always complain to you about how hard it is. It's because it's hard and there's those weeks where its SO hard!!! But the blessings are so much more!!!  I am dying like 50% of the time on the mish!!!  But It's through the trials and hardships we grow so I'll just have to deal with it hahaah!!

Id like to say something I've learned about the mission:

I would not give up the experiences I have had and will have for a million dollars

But I would not pay a cent to do it again.  

Hahahahaha, that's what I think about the mission.

I love you Guys! 

Dad I love your ramblings!! They're good!!
BTW I'm so glad Ollie is learning how to surf because that's the ONLY way he´ll get anywhere in life..hahah

I love you BYEEEE!!!
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Listen to the Spirit!

Sector- San Filipe
Companero- Elder Wiseman
Carta- #27

Hahah, Dad that book sounds sick!!! Its called the Rise of Superman? You should send me that book!! I want to read It! That's sick how you can teach the deacons quorum relating it to things they like.

 
This week has been so hard and challenging!! It has been so hot and I've been discouraged this week at times and so happy at times!! the missions weird and it maks you feel like your bipolar!! However we did have so many miracles this week!! So we were in this small town called Curimon and we were just doing contacts and stuff like 6 weeks ago, and we just decided to go walk to this area where there were hardly any houses there were houses like every 100 yards or so.  And this woman is just walking by so I decide to contact her and she tells us that she was baptized like 5 years ago but hasn't gone to church for like 3 years. So we set up an appointment to go back like 2 days later but she lives like 30 min walk down a dirt road to nowhere so we didnt have time the other day to go by. And then 6 weeks pass by and I just always remember that contact and just get promptings that we should go visit her but we always have so many people to visit and it would be so far out of the way. But then finally this week I told my companion I always have promptings we should go visit her so we walk allllllll the way out there and get to her house and she lets us in. We have a super good lesson with her!  And we found out that she left going to church because one of the sisters used to be super mean to her and would say that she couldn't come to church unless she wore a skirt, and she didn't have a skirt. But the lesson was super good and we committed her to going to church again. She showed up on Sunday!!! WOOO!!! that's super rare because its so hard to get people to go to church on Sunday!!!! we have like 15 investigators that we teach and commit and maybe like 3 of them go if we're lucky!!!!!   She showed up and saw all her friends again and is super happy to be at church!!!  I learned that I really should follow those promptings form the spirit!! 

Oh, and something funny this week, we started teaching this homeless guy. he's like a super intelligent guy and stuff but he's stuck on the streets because of bad mistakes. I contacted him once and he told me he wants to change. So we always teach him and stuff and he loves it! We gave him a white shirt to go to church and we also gave him blankets and stuff because at night it gets cold now. He's started to stop drinking alcohol too. But we have to bring him to church so we go wake him up every morning on Sunday to bring him to church. And we always have to find him somewhere in the plaza. But yesterday we went to wake him up and I walk up to him and I yell in his face like despiertete!!! hahaha and The guy looks up and it was a different homeless guy and he starts getting alll mad!!!! 

That's what has happened this week. The work is going good. I hope you guys are all good too!!! I love you guys have a great week!!!!

Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Become Truly Converted

Sector- San Filipe, Chile

Companero- Elder Wiseman

Carta #26

haha sickkk!!  Dad seems like he is 10 times cooler now because now he goes and buys Ollie airsoft guns and he admits to repenting for buying a Prius hahahaha!!  WOW, its a miracle!!!!  Its all about them big trucks!!!  hahah thats sick that in your class you used a bunch of surf vids to teach the gospel haha!!  Thats how you get to the heart of the young men in San Diego.  I wish we could do that here!!! that'd be sick!!  And no, I have the same companion from Utah!! He's cool! He goes home in 5 weeks!!!  And he's getting married 2 months after he gets home! Wow fast!!  

This week was a really good week for us because I really feel like we helped our investigators become so much closer to baptism!! We had a Seventy come and talk to us, he's the president of the missionary department.  He came and gave a really good speach about what our purpose really is as missionaries.  He talked a lot about how missionaries a lot of times (at least here in Chile) baptize people after they're done with all the lessons but really they are not ready for baptism.  They are just focused on getting them baptized as fast as they can. But its our job as missionaries to keep the people in the church and to help them come unto repentence.  And that is really our main purpose is to help the people come unto repentence and want to follow Christ for the rest of their lives.  If they are not committed to following christ for the rest of their lives and not committed to trying to becoming as much like christ as they possibly can then they are not ready for baptism.  He emphasized this a lot because in chile there are SO many inactives.  There are technically more than 1000 people that our baptized just in our ward and 130 go to church and are active.  It is a huge problem with the people going inactive here in chile.  So I have made it a goal not to try to get as many baptisms as I can but to really have my converts stay in the church and have them really prepared to take on this super sacred covenant!!! Its not about just baptizing because if they get baptized and they become inactive, the scriptures say it would have been better if they would have never know me.  So it would be better for them not to baptize them if theyre not ready!! haah thats what I learned this week about the work!! I am trying to be the best missionary I can becuase its a short time out here and I have a lotttttt left!!! haahah And now that Ive seen how important it is to try to have all the attributes of christ, Ive been trying to compare what I can improve, and wooooowwww Im pretty bad!!! but Im working on it! hahah We had a family come to church this sunday they have three kids and theyre super good!! ITs so hard to get people to church here so when they showed up we were super excited!! We hope to be able to baptize them the 16th!!! We have a lot of investigators preparing for baptism and I realllyyy hope they can progress!!! 

We are working a lot in this small town called Curimon outside of San Felipe and we have to take a taxi there everyday but almost alll our investigators are there.  The weather is FINALLY starting to get a little bit colder!! here is supposed to be soooo cold in the winter so I hope I stay here until the winter so that I can see the snow!!! On our P day next week I think we might be going to this place called portillo and its like a ski resort.  ITs super beautiful Ive seen pictures so that will be sweet!!! I hope that alll of you are doing well! I miss you all! i only have a girls mission left to go!!!!!!

I love you all!!!

Love, 

Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Preacher Nate Dogg on Charity

Sector- San Filipe

Companero- Elder Wiseman

Carta #25

What uppp family...

WOW, mom is going to workk!! hahah cool!! Sorry that you're sick dad, I was sick for like 2 weeks hahah!! but we didn't stop working. It sucked because I had a fever and it was like 100 degrees outside hahah!! So that was sucky for a while but now I'm better!

I'm staying in this sector for another change!!!!! SICK, I love this sector!! I'm With Elder Wiseman again and he finishes his mission this change so I'm ¨killing¨ my second companion. I've had 3 companions and I'm killing 2 of them! I'm always with people who are sooo old in the mission!!! But I think that after this I will be put with someone my time in the mission I hope! It's starting to cool down a little bit now! Finally! haha!! I have six months in the mission now... that's sick... I only have 18 months left (the mission of a girl haha!!). It's not as overwhelming anymore! I've gained like 15 pounds on the mish because here they only eat completos, which are hot dogs with a ton of stuff on it and churrascos, which are hamburgers but worse for you... And when you ask for water they give you Coca Cola, it sucks... I decided this morning to try to get rid of some of that weight... went running and I DIED hahah!! But were going to go running every morning now haha!! I'm determined because Emily said in her letter that my cheeks are getting fat...sooo that was the end, its not acceptable anymore hahaah!!

We had some pretty funny stories from this week... We found this young couple, they're only like 20 years old and the girl is pregnant. We taught them and they're super good, the guy is so funny haha!! They invited us to their baby shower and we went cuz we bought a gift and stuff. We walk in and there's like 30 people there and they ALL look at us soooo weird because were dressed all nice and I'm blonde and stuff haah!! Then they start playing a game and its like charades and they all say, put the blonde in! Put the blonde in the middle!! hahah!! And allll these crazy old ladies were chanting all these inappropriate phrases and stuff so it was a little weird hahah, But that was good cuz he was super happy we went... It was a little bit weird though, we were only there like 10 mins hahah!!

The biggest lesson that I learned this week was on charity and what charity really is. I learned that charity is so applicable to everything. It is whatever makes us become like Jesus Christ and become like God which is what we try to do. We try to progress and become as best we can through this life so that we can eventually make it to the point where we are like our Heavenly Father and have everything He has. And the most important thing that He has is charity. And that's the pure love for every single person no matter what they do, no matter if they're the sons of Satan or if they just hate God, he still loves them with a pure and unending love in every way. I think that it's almost impossible for us to get to that point, to love every single person like that in this life but we should try to do it for everyone that we care about and for every relationship that we have. Charity is so important for every relationship. I never realized how important charity was before this week. Charity is accepting someones differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings. Having patience with someone who has let us down, or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weaknesses and be willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of eachother. What is more important to have in a relationship than all of that? That is the pure love of Christ. And If we can learn to love as many people as we can like that we will be blessed ourselves and we will bless the lives of every single person around us. This is the biggest attribute that Christ has, that almost everyone doesn't have. And I'm pretty sure no one has it perfectly in this life. We need to always strive to be the best we can, and love everyone that is important or close to us like that. When we remember those things, all of our relationships will be blessed. I am so grateful for the lessons that we have learned and for the growth I'm doing. It's super super hard everyday but I can see the blessings after I pass through the trials.

I hope you guys liked preacher Nate Dogg. And I hope you all have a wonderful week. I'll be back next Monday for more!

I love you guys!!!
Have a great week fam!

Love,
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

God's Plan of HAPPINESS

Sector- San Filipe

Companero- Elder Wiseman

Carta- #24

Hey family!!! 

I'm glad Ollie and Sophia liked the letters so much!!! They took forever to get there!!! haha.  But they look like they liked them from the pictures haha!  Mommmmm, Bobby told me he still wakes up at 6 and does scripture study ahahah!   Is he really stilll that addicted to the mission!? WOW! Haaha. That's good that he's still keeping that up!!  I'm proud of him!! haha.  Sounds like Valentines Day was good for you guys too hahah!!   Dad is soooo romanticc hahah.  Wow, that sucks that it was cold and foggy...  last Valentines Day it was foggy too!! but not at night so that was good!!  

This week for us was a little bit slow and was pretty hard!!  I had to do exchanges twice this week so I wasn't in the sector that much but I was able to learn a lot from the zone leaders about how to have success in the mission haha!   This week was soooo slow I don't even know why.   We hardly had any lessons this week and we were doing contacts the whole time!!  But we have like 4 investigators right now that are progressing and reading the Book of Mormon and have testimonies that it's true so I hope that they can make it to church this next week.  The hardest thing for us is to get our investigators to church, so we are really working on that everyday.  And trying to include in our lessons the importance of going to church and learning more about Christ and renewing the covenants we made.  So that has been something we have really been focusing on!  

This week was so hard for me!  I dont know why, but Satan was trying to tempt me so much this week...  He was putting in my thoughts stuff like: I dont even know if the Book of Mormon is true and that's why people don't want to progress and come to church and Why am I on the mission when I don't even know that much about this gospel and I'm not a scripture genius like my companion.  And stuff like that making me feel like I was just a horrible missionary haha!!   But then at stake conference there were some realllyy good talks that really helped me.  There were talks about always looking for the evidences of your faith and always looking for the evidences of the truthfulness.  And I just prayed so much this week to be able to overcome these thoughts and I feel like those talks helped me so much and encouraged me to work really hard the last two days of the week.  

One thing that I've learned on the mission is that this life is all about progressing in our knowlege and testimony.  And progressing to become as much like Jesus Christ as we can so that we can eventually have everything that God has.  And when God puts challenges in front of us it is an opportunity to grow.  You really have two choices when you have challenges.  You can choose to ask; why is this happening to me and why do I deserve this when I was doing everything right and try to go against Gods will, or you can accept Gods will and know that He's a loving Heavenly Father and know that he has a plan of HAPPINESS for you not sadness and all he wants is the best so you can accept the challenge and choose to come out on top every time by trusting in God.  I hope that I can always apply that in my life because its easy to say it but its harder to apply it when something bad happens!! I am so grateful that this mission has helped me progress and that I am able to grow my knowledge and love for the gospel in every way.  There's days where it's just so hard and you want to give up but when you remember that God has given you this responsibility and trusts you with it you can remember that he will always be there on your right and left!! So never give up! haha.  

I love you guys and I'm grateful that you can show me so much support always, in everything I do and especially on the mission because it would be so hard without it. haha!!  

I love you guys!! I hope you have a great week!

Love, Elder Dirkmaat

Trust in The Lord

Sector- San Filipe

Companero- Elder Wiseman

Carta# 23

Hey family!

Wow!  You guys talk about vegetarian eating and health in every single letter!! hahah, you guys are so obsessed!! I hope its working!! haha 

This week has been kinda hard...  I've been sick all week and I do'nt even know how I got sick!! At first I had the WORST allergies with my eyes watering and my nose running alll day! haha and then it just turned into like a cold where I have a sore throat so I went to the doctor and they gave me medication for a sinus infection, antibiotics and they gave me codine to take hahaha so Im just drunk every day. hahah just kidding!!  Its been a hard week with the sickness especially because its been so hot this week!!!  But im still pushing forward! 

We had some cool experiences this week.  There we were, just walking in the street one day and this guy comes up to us and he's like...  you guys mormons? And I thought he was going to be super mean and start saying bad stuff but he said:  Oh good! Come to my house, lets talk for a little bit!! So we got to his house and he had like six guitars and my companion plays the guitar like a boss so he played it and he like loves us now and we always have good lessons with him hahah!!   His problem is he drinks a lot but Im sure that he can get over that!  

The biggest blessing and miracle that we saw this week was soooo crazyyy!! So we were teaching this family that has been investigators for like 4 years!!! And they cant get baptized cuz they're not married.  And they're not married because with the weird laws here they would'nt be able to get help from the government to live if they were married and stuff so that's why they do'nt do it.  But we were teaching them and we got the prompting to promise them that if they got married and starting preparing for baptism that God would provide for their needs and that everything would be alright.  And that they need to have faith in God!! That is a super big jump of faith for them! They were doubtful and didn't want to commit to getting baptized but they said they would go to church again and would pray for a solution.  So then like 3 weeks pass by and the husband goes to the bank and tries to like take out a loan to buy a house and he finds out that he had a bank account that he didn't know about that has a bunncchchhh of money in it and he hasn't touched the bank account since 1994 hahah!!  So now he's super super happy and they are so much better off!  I hope they will get baptized soon!! Isn't that the craziest though! How God comes through on everything!!!  I know that as long as we are doing everything we can and we are doing what God wants us to do.  We will always be happy.  Because that is what God promises.  He is a loving Heavenly Father and He wants the best for His kids.  He promises us so many blessings if we just trust in Him everyday.  Sometimes its hard for us to trust in Him and have faith in Him.  but I know that if we are doing everything we can for Him we will always be blesseed and happy.  That's one of the biggest things Iv'e learned!!! 

I love you family!! I hope that you have a great week!! I want to know how Bobbys doing!? When does Sara get home and is he still waiting for her? I hope so!!

Love you guys!!!!

Elder Dirkmaat

The Power of Forgiveness

Sector- San Filipe
Companero- Elder Wiseman
Carta #22

Hello Familia,

Hahaha dad there's absolutely no chance of me staying in shape on the mission and eating well, so impossible!! Here they do not drink water with any meal, every single lunch its just coca cola and if we go to a members house and ask for water they bring out coca cola. And when we're thirsty we go to the street stores and they don't sell water they only sell water with gas and sodas hahah it sucks! And the only thing that Chilean restaurants sell are completos which are hot-dogs but with more stuff (worse for you) And Churrascos which are like hamburgers with a bunch of guacamole inside hahah everything's so bad for you! But I try to do my workouts as best as I can even though I'm dead at 7:30 every morning! So yeah I'll probably die when I surf again and workout with you again hahah!!   

Ollie looks like suchhh a shredder in that pic with that siiick board!! hahah I'm so proud of him!! thats my boy ;) How big is it? I'm gonna use it so much when I'm home on like the closeout days so that I can just drop in and pull FAAATTTT AIR 360's hahaha!!!   Don't worry dad I'm not gonna live in Utah... Emilys so excited to live in CA and Bobby's gonna live there too so it all works out hahah.

Mom! I don't have Jaren's email!! Someone has to give it to me!!! cuz I want to email him! I know he's going to Chile and were gonna convert everyone here together hahah!!!

This week has been good!  It was cool because we had to go get my visa so we got to go to the realll downtown of Santiago and its pretty cool looking!  There was like a two hour wait to get my visa so we just went and toured everything, it was sweet!! We saw the biggest cathedral in Chile and we went in and it was soooo creepy hahah! and everyone was staring at us because we have our plaques and our uniform and everything... all the nuns were so weirded out haha!   

The work this week was also good...  the best experience that I had this week was probably a Family Home Evening that we had with a family that has not been to church in like 3 years all because the dad had problems with one of the members and decided to leave.  So we shared a message on forgiveness.  We watched the Mormon Message with them about the Dad that had his wife and 2 kids killed in an accident because of a drunk driver and how through the atonement and the power of Christ he could forgive the drunk driver and how he could finally overcome his problems after he finally forgave the kid that killed half of his family.  That message really touched his heart and the dad was bearing his testimony by the end that he knows the church is true and stuff, it was super spiritual. Then the family told me later that the next morning the dad woke up early before everyone and made everyone breakfast and sat everyone at the table for breakfast and he pulled out the Liahona Magazine and taught his whole family a message from the Liahona! The family was just super super happy that he was finally returning to his old self.  The family is super good and I hope that they decide to go to church regularly again.  We´ll continue to teach them and everything.  So that was the best thing that happened this week, we hope to baptize Diego on the 23rd of February and that will be rewarding because it will be my first baptism where I was the one that found him and saw him go through every process and every change!  I hope that he can make it to baptism, it will be cool to see the changes he went through because he used to not care at all about religion or anything because he's on the verge of being a professional soccer player and everything.  But now he can see why its important!!!

I hope that you guys have another good week!!!  I love you guys!  Miss you guys!

Love,
Elder Dirkmaat