Live the Gospel in Your Family

Sector- Lo Campino, Quilicura
Companero- Elder Zapata
Carta #41

Wow Mom and Dad thank you for the amazinggg emails!! Dad, thank you for the amazing advise always!!! It's so true that Everyone has their own situation and it is so important to think about the future and prepare for what really comes in the future!!! The really important thing is the family. And these missions are preparing us so much for our families. It has taught us the importance of the Gospel in our lives. And really the best place to live the gospel is in your family. Not in the church but when you apply the principles of the gospel in your family and in your everyday life is when we experience the full joy of the gospel. The full joy of the gospel is being sealed in the temple with your family.  We had a Seventy come last week who told us the mission is so important to prepare us to be fathers and husbands. And Dad thank you for all the advise. Wow now that I'm older I'm finally finding out that you are a really wise man!!! hahahah just kidding, always knew you were!!! 

So crazy that Ollie's graduated 6th grade!! and that Beau and Dallas got their mission calls!!! CRAZY!!!!!!! thats super sick!!!! Brazil is crazy right now because of the world cup!!!  And mexico would be pretty dang sick too!!!

My companions kinda weird...hahaha he's from Argentina, his name is elder Zapata and he doesn't really know much about the mission, he has five months in the mission. It's hard being in a new sector the first time as comp senior. And I don't know anything of the sector and neither does he.  Our numbers were horrrribble but we found a family of 6 and they were married!!!! You never find that!!!!! Everyone just lives with their girlfriends here!!!! it was a miracle!! because we were looking for people allll day. WE were knocking doors alll day and we couldn't find anyone. then at the end of the day I said, alright well not this last door, we got invited in and its a family of 6!!! and the spirit was super strong in the lesson!!! The miracles come after we are tried.  I feel like God was trying my faith and then gave me the blessings of the work we put in trying to find people!

But everythings fine!!! my companions boring, he's not like Elder Wiseman or Elder De Castro hahah! they were sickkk.  It's SUPERRR crazy here in Chile because Chile has won both their games for the world cup and they are going crazy in the streets!  A lot of people have died from partying too crazy haha and every time there's a game we have to be in the house the whole day... so crazyyyy!!!!!!! But Chile's gonna win if the United States doesn't!!! USA is good this year!!! but if not Holland is gonna win!!!!! YEAH hahah

This week will be better.  First time as senior companion but I'll try my hardest, thank you for alll the support and the amazing emails!!!! you guys are so amazing!!! the family is so important!! I think about you guys alll the time!! maybe not as much as Emily but still ;) hahahah

I love you alllll!!!
Love Elder Dirkmaat
Nate

New Sector!

Sector- Lo Campino, Quilicura
Companero- Elder Zapata
Carta #40

This last week in Bauco was good!  I did intercambios with Wes and it was super fun!! He fell on his bike hahaha it was super funny. And he got to know allll of my investigators and he loved it!! It was so weird serving as missionaries with my cousin!! haha But we worked hard and it was definately cool to be able to do in my mission. It was sad saying bye, but I know that this sector will have some people that I will become friends with too, so that really comforts me.

Me and Wes!!!  

We did an intercambio this week! it was swweeet!!

My companions name is Elder Zapata from Argentina. He looks cool!! Idk, I don't really know him!  And I'm back in Santiago after 7 months away from Santiago and now we don't have bikes!! ah that sucks haha my legs are gonna kill me!!!!!!!

My sector is called Lo Campino in Quilicura. It will be good. They had like no investigators when I got here so its going to be a lot of looking for new people. That sucks but it will be a good experience!!!

Lo Campino, Quilicura

Fathers day looked super cool!!! I wish I was there or could have at least called dad!!!hahah  Tell him happy fathers day one day late!!!! He's the best dad ever and always, always gives the bestttt advise!!!! And he is the best example!!! Tell him happy fathers day from his best son ;) hahaha I love you guys!!! Thanks for all the pictures! I'll start sending pictures so much more now!!!!

Saying bye to investigators. haha

The family Escarez

Me and Deborah a recent convert

Oliver's future wife hahah she thought Ollie was cute... 

shes 12! hahah

Love You,

Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Work Harder and Serve More to Love it More!

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Pereira
Carta #39

Wow!!! Looks like your anniversary was fun!! Wow, 23 years together!? Wowwww you guys are soooooo old!! hahah I'm trying to send pictures right now!!! I hope they work!! The problem is that these computers suck and they take like 30 mins to upload pictures! So annoying!!! That's crazy you found that snake in the garage!! haha, It looks pretty big!! 

 
This week was good!! I had some good changes happen this week! This week I've tried to work harder and serve harder because last week I was having a hard time trying to love the mission so I decided to work harder and serve more to be able to love it more. And it really worked!! I can say that as we knocked more doors, and as we were out in the rain allllll night freezing our butts off, when we were able to teach someone the gospel, I was able to love that person more and show them that I wanted the best for them by bringing them the gospel. That's what the people need. They need to know that you, as a missionary really want the best for them and maybe they will open up and listen because you are so sincere in what you want for them!! And that is the key to get them to open their hearts. Its super hard to get someone to know you want the best for them, but when the spirit is there it will testify of that, and as missionaries we can do anything if the spirit is there in the lessons. I love that, and that's what we try to do every lesson. Because we really can't teach if we don't have the spirit!!! 

 
This week was really successful as we started to work harder and to focus more on what we could do for the sector.  We put 6 people with baptismal dates and they are all within the next month so I hope that I can stay in this sector to see their baptisms. And see the change in their life. I know that as we work in the mission it helps us to love it.  Because if were not working, we're not here for the right reasons. I hope that I can keep working hard my whole mission to be able to use the time wisely. I'm almost at 10 months already!! It goes by fast and I hope I can do everything I was sent here to do!!!!!

I have no cool stories this week haah, I don't know why, but we didn't have anything cool happen this week, except for the 6 baptismal dates. Which was a miracle!!!!

I love you family!!!
I'll write you a longer one next time!! I have to send pics!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Dirkmaat

Look for God in Your Life!

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Perira
Carta #38

Wow, looks like you guys had another good week!!  Always surfing!! haha that's good...that's how life should be lived...

What is bobbys internship for? Investing or what? that's cool though that he has work again! And yeah, Dad I got your email! Thank you!! it was good and it totally makes sense. Thank you!!

This week was pretty good!! We had an amazing experience when we were teaching that couple. They want to get baptized but like I already said, no one here in Chile is married and they can't get baptized until they get married. And we went to find the next date they could get married because here in Chile sometimes you have to wait like 4 months, but we found one on the 7th of August!! that was a miracle!!! And we committed them to that date!! They are super nervous because they don't have any money and the dad has been out of work for a really long time!"! but the second miracle was that he found work and started to work this week!! Its' so cool how God helps us in our righteous purposes. They have so much faith knowing so little about the Gospel. They've only received like 2 of the lessons but they are already willing to turn their lives around and get married and make sacrifices to follow God. The dad actually was in prison for a year and left a little while ago. And has told us that he really wants to change his life. In prison he read the whole Bible and studied it everyday and since then he's wanted to get baptized and turn his life around. And we met him, and he decided to follow what we were saying and felt the spirit and has trusted in that!! that is a lot of faith.
Because sometimes we get spiritual confirmations but still it's so hard for us to trust in those confirmations. Because Satan tries to trick us, but we should all be like him and follow what the spirit tells us to do and follow god! 

 
The mission is still hard and everything but I love seeing the miracles!! It shows Gods hand in everything and I hope to keep seeing miracles once I get home. 

 
I hope that you guys always see what God does in your life because that's how we can be happy even when everything's not all perfect and we have problems. We can be grateful for what God has already done in our lives! That is what I need to work on more in the mission, because sometimes I'm just sooo over it and want to go home and stop having to follow dumb rules that I don't understand but I need to look past that and see whats really important. So I hope that I will be better at that when I get back!

I love you guys!!!
I hope you have a great week!
Love,
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Follow God's Plan

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Pereira
Carta #37

Wow! that talk you gave sounds super good!! haha those stories are pretty sick!! I miss going on campouts so much!!! How are the fires? did they all stop? hahah our house didnt burn down!? And bobbys finally back home! That's cool! now he can finally get back into surfing! haha that looks like a sweet fhe at the beach! that's super cool..I miss the beach and surfing ha.

But this week has been cool! Something cool is that Wes is in my District!!! and were gonna do exchanges so he gets to come with me for a day!!! WOO! thats gonna be super sweet!! haha Its so weird seeing him on the mission haha When he got here he was suppeerr nervous and I could tell his first weeks were gonna be superr hard for him ha. And what was the first thing I said to him? Hahah I said dude the mission suuckkss..Your gonna die. Hahaha no just kidding I told him that it sucks at first but you get used to it, and when you start to see the blessings its all worth it. haha And I can call him and everything so its super cool!

This week also we taught marriage and the law of chastity to a couple that has to get married. And there doubt about getting married was they were afraid seeing all the divorces that they don't want to get married if they're just going to divorce anyways. So I testified to them that when they as a couple do what God wants them to do, and make sacrifices to obey the commandments, that their love will be strengthened and they will be more unified and even though they have problems they will be able to pass through them with confidence in god. And those are the blessings we get. And I asked them if they trusted in God, and they said yes of course, and I said then obey his commandments and your marriage will be so blessed. It was super spiritual and they have put goals to get married. I swear my purpose on the mission is like try to convince people to get married and follow god haha because that is the best thing I testify of. So its cool and we hope that they can get married before their baptismal date of the 15th of June so they can get baptized the day after. We´re praying for that!

Oh and we were playing basketball today and one of the missionaries tried to dunk it and his ring got caught on the rim and ripppeedd his finger it was bleeding sooo much and we could see the bone it was sooo disgusting. He had to go to the hospital and everythinggg hah he broke his finger and ripped alll the skin off to the bone soo gross!

I love you guys!!!!
Elder Nate DIrkmaat

English Class Miracle!

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Pereira
Carta #36

Wow!!! Those fires look supperrr sketchy!!! Hopefully they dont get close to our house!!! Are there people in our ward that got their houses destroyed!! that just happened here in viña del mar and sooo many houses got destroyed!! and like the next week it happens where we live!! sketchy!!! haha but every-time there are fires the waves are suupperrr good!! because its offshore winds!!! so that's pretty sweet!! haha Gosh I miss surfing so much!! But thats so cool how bobby got to see Emily!! hahah she was super surprised!! haha she told me that when she saw my car she got soooo home sick!! hahah because we had so much fun times in college with the car!! hahah so funny!!

So I had a pretty funny experience this week! So we were in my house eating lunch, us four missionaries and there's two soccer teams here in Chile that are like super popular called the University of Chile and Colo Colo and Im a fan of the University of Chile. And in front of our house there's a bus stop and there was a group of like 15 colo colo fans that had their flags all their jerseys and were singing the Colo Colo song and everything and all the colo colo fans are super like gangster ghetto hahah So I didn't realize how mad the people actually get here when your from the opposite team before this so I made the stupid decision to put on my University of Chile jersey and walk outside and start chanting University of Chile hahahaha and they got soooo mad and they started to throw rocks and they came up to the gate of our house and like wanted to fight me! so I just closed the door and we stayed there till they left on the bus! hahaha I never realized that they get sooooo mad if your from the other team!! I thought it was just a joke, like it is in the United States hahah but apparently not! It was a good learning experience though!!

But this week we also had a miracle!! We started teaching English classes and we got like 15 people to go every time now!! and from the English classes we are having so much success having people get to know the church and they're actually coming to church!!! And we met this one guy named Eduardo and his wife Diane and they came to the English classes, then they started asking about what we do as missionaries and we gave them a Book of Mormon! and he took it and we asked if we could visit him in like two days. So we went two days later, he let us in, and he told us that he read ALL of 1 Nephi!!!! I was like whhhaattt no one everrr reads! haha and then we taught him the first lesson about the restoration and he understood everything and was telling us how much sense it makes that there's prophets right now in these days because God has always called prophets and we put him with a date to get baptized the 15th of June!!! Him and his wife!! Hes so amazing and it was an answer to my prayers because We have a ton of investigators but none of them have been progressing towards baptism so I was praying for something to happen in their lives or someone that we could find that is prepared to hear the Gospel. And like 3 days later we meet him and he went to church on Sunday and in the Gospel Principle class he was answering alll the questions and everything! it was sweet!!

This experience definitely grew my testimony on how God answers prayers if we have faith and work towards what we´re asking. It has been a good week and we keep on working! I got a little home sick cuz we talked on Sunday but whatever Ill be homesick if I want to as long as I still work hahaha Thanks for the Email and take care of our house so that it doesn't burn down! thats super sketch!!

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

Teaching English

Sector- Batuco, Chile
Companero- Elder Pereira
Carta #35

Wow sounds you guys had a hard time putting that new kitchen sink in!!! hahah but it looks pretty sick!!! where is Digueno Middle School? I don't even know the middle schools at all hahah all I know is that he has to go to LCC or hes gonna be a looooseerr hahah cuz LCC is where its at haha!

Wow mom it sounds like you have a toonnn of responsibilities all the time!! your working and volunteering for everything!! haha how do you do it allll!?

Haha and that sounds like a greaaat day surfing I cant wait till I can surf again haha that's gonna be the best! I miss it so badd the beach is only an hour away, haha maybe ill go for a quick seshhhhh just one ;) hahah

This week has been good! We had a ton of success this week and that was such a miracle!! We started to do English classes because everyone here in Chile wants to learn English!! so we started that up and through that we got like 4 new investigators but we definetely need more people to go to the classes becasue only like 5 go right now. But it was super hard to teach english for the first time because they asked all these questions about the grammar and I never even think when I'm talking english so it was super hard to explain at first but I have started to study more for the classes so that I can explain it better ha. And we go to the ¨fería¨ every saturday and advertise our free English Classes. The feria is like a street fair that seriously everybody goes to! So we are hoping to have more and more people go every week! The other missionaries told us that through their English classes they got like 5 baptisms so I hope that its successful!

This week we had a family home evening with a family that the daughter is only a member and the rest of the family like the missionaries but they don't have any interest in the church or anything. But we got them to do a family home evening with us and it was super cool. We played a game where you put the name of a famous person on your forehead and you have to go guessing who it is and stuff. But then after we shared a message about Heavenly Father. We shared the mormon message "Earthly Father Heavenly Father" which talks about the relationship that heavenly father has with us... and the spirit was there sooo strong and afterwards we all talked about what we thought and we taught what the video was teaching and you could feel the spirit there super strong. After, they agreed to start participating in the lessons and stuff so I hope that we can make progress with this family!!! it was cool because there's like 8 people in the family that arent baptized and they were all there that night which is super hard to do so it was really cool!

We also have an investigator that really wants to get baptized but she is living with her boyfriend and they have two kids together. That is like the biggest problem in Chile is that no one ever wants to get married haha and even people who have been living together for like 20 years dont want to get married. But she really does not want to marry her boyfriend becausae she says that he was always mean to her and stuff but she also doesn't want to leave him. So the situation is super annoying haha We have been trying to convince her to try to make things better to improve the relationship but she is so stubborn and does not want to forgive him for how mean he was in the past. Even though he is trying to be better now. So its super hard but were working on her!! haha that is pretty much what is happening in Batuco!! Its a great sector and we have great investigators!! I hope that you guys have a great week!!!

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