Wednesday, October 9, 2013

10/8/2013 letter

Hola todos! 
Alright so I don't know what happened to last weeks email I home it got through! I hope you all enjoyed conference.  It is always something to listen to and then apply. This week was great we are opening, so we have been doing pure contacts.  Basically we had three baptismal dates from contacts,and one from an old investigator! The problem is that two had to go north to work and one had to work Sat. and Sunday so she couldn't come to conference.  To be baptized you have to have three role marks at church basically, so we only have one that remains for the 26 of this month. She is pure gold. The Lord is preparing her so well. She also brought her 8 year old brother to church so we are going to work with him now as well. Her name is Katherin she is like 23, she has had a really rough life.  We contacted her last Friday, over a week ago, and on Tuesday we taught her and put the fetch.  Since that day she has read to Alma decided she didn't understand well enough and has read all the way to 3 Nephi from the beginning again. this was yesterday I believe tomorrow she will finish. She does all the homework we leave her and really wants a new start at life. It is a huge testimony to me that the atonement exist and like President Uchtdorf said we have to Rise Up, all we have to do is Rise up and Take advantage of all we have. Not judge others but only help them. I am so excited to go find more people that the Lord is preparing.  This is His work and His church and we are in the last days.  Now we just need to be the saints.  I love you all and Hope the best for everyone of you!
Love Elder Biesinger

Monday, October 7, 2013

9/30/2013 Letter and Pictures

Hola! so Its a good thing that a picture is worth a thousand words because last week I didn't get to writing this letter because I was sending to many pictures, and not all of them Worked... But to fill you all in from last week!
    The Baptism of Editha! woooo! She was great! I baptized her and my Comp Elder Sheffield Confirmed her.  This is how she wanted it. Her Brother that says he doesn't believe in God came to her baptism, that was good. The story about Editha. So her dad is not in her life at all, her mom got remarried and in May the step dad died. So now it is just Editha and her mom that live at home. Her mom was a less active member and the only member in the whole family. So They wanted to invite family members to the baptism! Well a lot of the family is Evangelical. Her grandma and her aunts said some very ugly things to her.  I guess it was very ugly Edithas mom, Angelinna, said that Editha held it all together until they left, then started balling. Well after the Baptism she got up and bore her testimony, and thanked all for coming. It was very real, and strong. She thanked all those her supported her and thanked Heavenly Father and Jesus for an Answer.  It was really cool, and made the whole thing even better.
But for this week. Well I got transferred. Now I am in the same Zone and only like 20 minutes away. I am in Con Con. it is on the other side of the bay from Quintero. I can see Quintero. I am With Elder Benjamin Cubi he is from Argentina, and is my first Latin Companion. We are opening the area. Con Con is giant, and before only the zone leaders were here. We make four missionaries in the Ward now.  It has been like three months since they had four missionaries. I know it doesn't sound like muck but it makes a big difference.  We don't have many people so we are doing a lot of finding, and just working a lot everyday. Con Con is huge and rich.  There are areas that are richer than a lot of places in the states. (3 car houses BMW status) But its cool we have a Subway, a Papa Johns, a Chilean Walmart and another big store in our area where I can buy root beer!!! :) The problem is entering in houses of wealthy people. We put a fetcha the other day in the street with a lady that has a lot of problem with drugs and everything, we will have to see how it goes with her. Well I love it here and I am doing well I hope everyone is living life to the fullest and is happy!
Love Elder Biesinger


James and his new companion Elder Cubi

Monday, September 23, 2013

Pictures for a letter 9/23/2013

Good times at a Asado (barbeque) James looks great.

Bishop and his two daughter dressed in Chilean dresses doing the La Cueca, a Chilean dance

James enjoying food at a barbeque

Editha with her mom, James, and Elder Sheffield

Editha baptism day

Editha's mom with James, Elder Sheffield , and a RM from the area Francisco

Editha's her mom and friends with Elder Sheffield and Francisco

Eating a shish kabob 

James with Elder Haws, another Elder serving in the ward.

An Almuerzo after doing a service project of pulling weeds the size of small trees

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Pictures from last weeks zone conference and Letter from 9/16/2013

Hey! so this week was WINDY! its like march here! so we are going to fly kites by the ocean today haha.  This week was pretty good! We had the ward activity for the 18 of September, we played games and ate Empanadas y churripan y asados. We talked to a lot of people and had some powerful lessons. We had a lesson with a family that is practicing catholics. Juan y Nancy are the parents, they know a lot, but we really saw that their mode of thinking doesn't function, well everyone but Nancy. Her husband and daughter just were irritated with her because she was being stubborn. We will see how all that goes. We were walking passed an area where people always yell stuff at us, were were in a hurry to get to an appointment so we didn't stop, but a kid yelled at us in English Baptize me! Baptize me please! It was pretty funny because I really dint think he knows what than means. I told him he should go to the church and we can talk there. This week we went out with a youth from the ward, and all of out appointments fell. Which really sucks when you have a member, but he was like hey lets go knock doors. So we did. We knocked on one of our neighbors and we got in, gave her a book and had a powerful lesson.  It was awesome to see the faith of this young kid. Our investigator Editha is going to be baptised this Saturday. I'm excited, she is really ready we taught her the word of wisdom this week. She had a problem with tea and Coffee but dropped it right then and there, really cool. This week is going to be rough to get inside houses with all the parties, but I guess we can always just talk to people in the street. I love you all, and I love the mission. So many times I have felt supported by a force so much greater then mine own. I know the importance of this church and of the scriptures.  It is the greatest treasure there is. Live long and prosper. or in spanish Vive bien y prosperidad. haha 
Love Elder Biesinger
Picture taken 9/16/2013 for Aubrey to say Hi. Thanks for sharing Aubrey:)


September Zone Conference Vina del Mar. The rest of the pictures are from the Zone Conference







Monday, September 9, 2013

9/9/2013 Letter and Pictures

Hey All! So what an awesome week! We had a 2 zone conference in Viña with president! It was awesome. A huge focus on teaching and converting families, because the eternal life you have to be a family to have all the blessings! We have two baptismal dates coming up now! Alfredo, the fisherman, on the 29th and Edita, the pure Gold, on the 21st. We taught Alfredo about the restoration this week and when we got to the part about the Apostasy and how lots of churches were formed. He went off about how the catholic church was the worst of all. He started talking about the Bible and how the catholic church is the whore of the earth..... ha I didn't know what to say, he wanted us to like agree with him and jump on the bus.. we just laughed and went on. The biggest holiday is like their 4th of July but it is the 18th of September and it is huge!!! Like they are already celebrating a little. So there are a lot of drunk people in the streets, and they all have something to say to us. It's awesome. I spoke again yesterday in church, it was cool, it's pretty easy now. I'm not perfect in Spanish but I can talk without problem. I got told last night I'm picking up a Chilean accent finally! We have met a lot of interesting people this week! We will have to see if they progress. I am realizing how important families really are, and really mean. The Eternal Life in the reference section in Spanish says living with your family in the presence of God. Everything is centered in the family and I am praying to find the families! I love mine and am so grateful for them. 

Love Elder Biesinger.
The Chilean Ashley and Josh.  Her name is really Aschly :)

James and an Elder that service in the same ward

This is where they study, love all the little stuff in the picture.

Where James sleeps

Kitchen and where they change and a tiny closet??

Monday, September 2, 2013

9/2/2013 Pictures and Letter

Hello! So this week was pretty crazy but good. I spent a day in viña working in the hills (steep) while my comp was in District leader meetings. We had a mission ward activity or ward mission activity I think. It was cool  my comp and I  made a scavenger hunt from scriptures. Damariz, the reference from the recent convert, came to church she is golden. She was a testigo so we have to reteach her some stuff, but it is cool. She knows a lot, but is willing to change. Awesome! Edita, the 13 year old, is about ready to have a baptismal date, I think. So... funny story/ We were trying to contact some people in this apartment building and we were standing on the second level looking at the address.
We were thinking about where it was. A lady walked out her door while we were there,  we said hello, she looked at us and walked down the stairs saying nothing. I just thought, well okay, but its really kinda normal for that to happen. So we walked up a level, and she went down one. Well all of a sudden we hear "Hey listen the mormons are upstairs (in spanish)" so we are like are you serious? like she yelled it. So, we talked to our person and went down to leave the building, like 1 minute after she yelled. She locked us in, so we couldn't leave the building. I was a little irritated and being me I told my comp to come with me upstairs I wanted to do something. The lady had left her apartment so I decided not to knock on her door, instead I left a note saying Nos dicen mormones pero somos de la Iglesia de JesuCristo De los Santos de los Ultimos dias. :) gracias. Which means You call us mormons, but we are actually from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints :) Thank you. I then stuck it to a Mormon.org card of all things ahaha and put it under her door. I hope next time she decides to yell she says our name right. Well I'm almost out of time this week and I want to send pictures so until next week take care of yourselves! Love you
Love Elder Biesinger


James and Elder Sheffield

They went and saw a cove that was in their area


Monday, August 26, 2013

8/26/2013 Letter

Heo! So things are great here in paradise, Nice and warm and no pulgas or nothing. Not. It is paradise, but it is cold outside at night. The wind gets blowing off the ocean and it is crazy how fast people go inside!  There are a new breed of fleas. I think after awhile they will stop bugging me like in the other area. It is cool though to work and be able to look over at the sunset on the ocean. This ward has got a good mission plan, the mission leader is awesome, and the bishop too. We have a 13 year old girl we are teaching named Edita, she is basically a member.  Her mom is recently coming back to church and Edita told her she wants to be baptized. She is a gem. Pure blessings. We got dropped by a few people this week, all within like 10 minutes, that was fun. We also are teaching this family that is young and a little crazy, they want to listen to 50 cent while we teach and sometimes they want to drink. They need a little work, but we only keep going back because they do their reading, and feel the spirit strong. We will be fixing the issues real soon though. This week I want to say a little something about references. There is a recent convert here who two weeks after her baptism she was in the temple and a month after that had her patriarchal blessing. She was a reference from a member, this convert just gave us a reference, and we are now teaching her and she is golden. He name is Damariz. I know that my dad is going out with the missionaries to teach a family in the ward, and it sounds promising. My point is that missionaries can knock doors, and do contacts for days and we will make very little progress.   As members, if we know someone who would be willing to accept the gospel,  don't doubt to put that in the Lords hands.  This is his work, and it will progress a lot faster with more help, besides who wouldn't want to have eternal life with their family! ha Well yeah I love Chile the mission and even spanish and of course all of you so take care!
Love 
Elder Biesinger

Monday, August 19, 2013

Letter from 8/19/2013 James has a new area and pictures!

Greetings everyone! So I am in Quintero now, look it up it is way cool right on the Ocean! This week was great and full of surprises! Monday night Elder Gonzolaz somehow calls us and quickly says that I am going to get Changed to Quintero, and it came to pass. My comp fell off a cliff, about 20 feet straight down, and nothing happened he didn't even get scratched! He was not paying attention.  We were flying Kites on p day,  we were walking backwards and he fell.  He fell onto  a little hill and was able to just kinda roll down after the fall. Idk how, there was lots of rocks and garbage. I believe angles just carried him down. We told Pablo and Daniel and their family that I was leaving tuesday night, and they started crying it was hard. Pablo told us that three days before he had a dream that we came and told him I was leaving in the very same way sitting at the table and everything, even more crazy is Elder Garcia was there in his dream and there is no way that he could have known Garcia would be there. It was something very amazing and profound. He will be baptized this month. I wished I could be there but it is just how the mission is, I guess. My new area is great. The ward is really focused and works well in missionary work! Well I love you all and hope things are all great!

Love Elder Biesinger

His new Companions name is  Elder Jackson Sheffeild from Ogden Utah.  Don't have a picture yet.


Saying goodbye to Quilpue

With Elder Skaggs and a Family

With Elder Skaggs, Elder Garcia(?) and a family

Goodbye to Elder Skaggs

Hello Quintero

What a great view in Quintero

Monday, August 12, 2013

8/12/2013 Letter

Hey all! 
So this week was the last one of this change, it went pretty good! Elder Gonzolaz, one of the other Elders, finished his mission so his comp Elder Garcia is now with us in a trio. So that means this change (6 weeks) I have had three comps haha wow. Elder Garcia is cool though he is from Ecuador and he has like 18 months in the mission.
      Yesterday I gave another talk. Only this time only me and Elder Skaggs spoke. I spoke second and was followed by a member. I spoke for like ten minutes and it was great everyone was in shock. ha My Spanish is way better yay! I talked about the need for members, and that they need to do their visits (no one does their visits here).  It was great.  I definitely believe I had a lot of help from the spirit to speak that good. I am pretty sure that more people will do their visits now.
      This week we went and visited Franz, the big German guy that isn't married. His sons are all members, and we have a good relationship.  We went in and sat down and were visiting for like two minutes when there is a knock at the door. I felt a weird feeling and then walked in the Jehovah's Witnesses, two older guys dressed funny with weird hats and girly scarves and mustaches haha. The "wife" of Franz is a JW and I guess they are trying to talk to Franz. They didn't greet us but just sat down. Franz introduced us as the Elders, ha, and they asked it they could share something. Well they shared and it was really weird it just didn't feel right, my comp and I just sat listening. Franz was answering questions saying well we believe.... (referring to us, the Mormons) It was awesome to see that he stood with us. The Jw´s shared a message about the Resurrection and talked about how the human body would live forever if we never sinned? There wasn't a feeling of any confirmation of the spirit on that one. They also compared everything scientifically, which had nothing to do with anything they said. Then they said they thought Franz was a smart guy and that only smart intellectual people could know the truth. They gave him a book they said was for smart people and left. On their way out we introduced ourselves and asked their names to be obviously the more courteous ones. The wife never came out and said hi, and they never asked about her or anything, it was really really weird. Well after the left we shared about the resurrection as well, not to destroy what they said, but to fix it. It was amazing the spirit filled the room and Franz at the end said that he loved it when we come because he can always feel the happiness of our message and he always feels better. He totally recognized the spirit. I guess that's what happens when we fast four times in a week and a half. haha
Well all is well I love the mission and I love Chile.
Love Elder Biesinger

Monday, August 5, 2013

8/5/2013 Letter

Hey all
So this week flew by! Almost done with my second change already! Way too fast. So this week we dropped a lot of people, the truth is we are really just focusing on menos activos and three investigators Pablo, Daniel, and Felipe. Felipe is the son (i think) of a menos activo who now goes to church because we are teaching her son. He is very smart and comprehends well. He said he would be baptised and that he will set a date next sunday if he feels it in his heart not just in his head. Its hard to get people to really recognize answers they expect some grand thing to happen. Its the same problem with Pablo and Daniel the are 100 percent ready we just have to get them to realize that and that they don't need to be 1000 percent ready. Pablo and Daniel have become like my brothers. I stopped and taught Daniel my first day here and then I was the first one to invite Pablo to share with us. They have come along way. My comp is doing great I like him, idk what I have said but he is a lightweight wrestler from La Cañada Cali. Idk what is going on here but there is now like a herd of horses that like runs around the upper part of our area. It's super weird people are way scared of them??? I'm just scared of the fleas they carry haha I wish we were aloud to ride on p days. Chileans like to find reasons to party. We were in centro friday night and there were so many drunks one guy we talked to turned out to be kinda drunk and hit my companion not super hard but with force. It was kinda funny. Daniel the drunk came to church again. Its getting frustrating he doesn't learn he had a bottle of whiskey in his jacket the whole time. We gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and sent him on his way. We went for a run this morning. I was dying I can walk really fast up these hills, but running, wow that was rough. I like playing with the soccer ball better, haha I never thought I would say that, but it's true. The search continues we fasted twice this week to be able to find (escogidos) the chosen or prepared, we have been doing okay things are going. I love it here and I'm enjoying myself. I hope everything is good at home and I would love to hear from all of you! Its a high of 66 degrees today yes! I'm just wearing a white shirt! Wahoo
Love Elder Biesinger

His email address is james.biesinger@myldsmail.net 

Monday, July 29, 2013

7/29/2013 Letter and Pictures!

Hey everyone so not a lot of time this week! Just keep on keeping on! I'm going to attach a picture. Its of what i wear every morning when I study. I woke up the other morning and it was 35 degrees inside our house, we had the heater on too. Its crazy! So this week a bunch of Menos Activos came to church that I reactivated! Not a baptism, but it was still way cool! We taught Pablo the Word of Wisdom, he and his family have problems with basically all of it. They said they would commit to live it to their best. A little progress, they are changing. Its way awesome! I think though if Pablo doesn't have a date for baptism next week we are done going by. We can't waste time like that. So many cool spiritual things happen every week here, we will just be knocking doors in apartment buildings or talking to people in the street and they end up needing help. People here are really cool too. I don't remember what it's like for everyone to speak English. I can't imagine it, it's hard to remember which is a good thing. The ward here is doing so much better it's awesome! They have five missionaries out so everyone is focusing and using them as motivation to help us, it's going pretty well. I hope all of you are doing well. This is my favorite time of year in the states! I love reading in the Book of Mormon and seeing all the prophecies and thinking wow, I'm fulfilling a bunch of these right now. It's awesome. Well I love you all!!! Ill do better next week! I'm old now so forgive me. haha

Elder Biesinger! 
An awesome star that is out every night

James comp Elder Skaggs with Pablo and his family

P-Day activity

Orion the Hunter?? You tell me.

Birthday breakfast, French toast with all the fixings

Enjoying breakfast

James Birthday Presents. Awesome stuff!

It's cold in the apartment, this is what he studies in.  He cut the fingers off so he could turn pages:)  Love the sign

James with his  ZL, the ZL returned home on the day this picture was taken.

Four Elders with an awesome couple from the ward.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

7/22/2013 letter

Oh yeah I'm almost 19 that's cool!! haha thanks for the Birthday wishes!!!!




On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 12:37 PM, James Biesinger <james.biesinger@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Two Months is Chile! I Consider my self Chilean now! I Decided I'm even gonna speak Spanish like them now (only the stuff that is missionary appropriate). So this week was even colder I don't remember what warmth is like! I came from the coldest winter in Utah in the last 20 years to here! What's Summer?! All Things are going pretty good I Think I might finally have a Baptism next week if all goes well! 

This week Pablo and Daniel didn't come to Church But we had a Noche de Hogar with them last night at a members house that was awesome. The drunk guy (Daniel) came to church again. It was my responsibility this time. But it was okay the funniest thing happened the day before. Saturday we had a youth conference in our building. All the youth in the stake came and eight of us missionaries taught them a but then we did divisions I took four youth out and we went and did contacts and visited people for an hour or so. It was awesome. When we came back it was the baptism of one of the youth that went out with us. It was the first baptism I have seen as a Missionary it was an experience I can't describe sometimes baptism might be taken too lightly. All the youth then had a testimony meeting. It was a great experience. What was funny was that Daniel the Drunk guy showed up to it somehow. We were outside taking a picture of the youth with Geovane (the baptism kid) in the middle. Well Daniel walked up and got right in front of the camera and posed it was hilarious. I then had to tell him to come back on Sunday because he couldn't be here at that time. It was cool. It seems like things are going well from the pictures! Love you all take care!

Love Elder Biesinger

7/15/2013 letter and pictures

Hello!

So I'm still in the same area! New comp he is the DL he has like a year in the mission, he is from Cali, His name is Elder Skaggs he is pretty cool his spanish is really good I think president told him to only speak spanish to me so its been different but its good we speak English sometimes but for the most part I am just learning! 

So this week was great it didn't rain and it was just way hot the whole time. Its like a Utah spring here. The Andes out in the distance are still so amazing to see I love it. So the drunk guy did come to church again and he was really smelly. 

Last week I told you how Pablo and Daniel went to church well Tuesday we had a lesson with them and Pablo said while at church he felt and now know that The Book of Mormon is true. This was amazing! What is even better is that yesterday at Church his whole family came!! Pablo 16 Daniel 11 Jerko 21 His mom Evelyn 40ish and his "Dad" Christian 38ish and even the baby brother Martin 10 months who was baptized catholic the day before! What! idk what it was still cool! The mom can have her crazy ideas her kids want to progress finally!

So story of the week. Tomorrow is some weird national holiday for Chile founded on some catholic Saint. So no one really works this week so what does that mean? Everyone gets drunk! So yesterday we were trying to find some house numbers and a drunk guy walks passed and tells us just to leave people alone that they don't want us here I looked at him and said hello and asked him if he knew who lived here.(I was hoping he knew because we needed to know) He said no and then walked up to us. He then told us all these crazy ideas about us. We said well those are not true but we can tell you the truth and help you know the truth of all things if you have time later when you aren't busy. (he couldn't stand without stumbling) he was crazy drunk so we just asked if we could talk to him later but it was pointless after letting him ramble about out names and our age and all that we finally got to leave his presence. He walked up the hill a bit and asked a guy(who watched the whole drunk guy thing go down)  if he could tell us who we were looking for he said yeah let me help you out so he went inside got his daughter who lived there because he didn't and she helped us turned out the person we were looking for used to live in her house so we decided to talk to her instead. She loved it. She now has a book and is reading 3 Nephi 11 by the time we come back. It was great to see how Planning works to find the people we are supposed to find without knowing who they are.

Love you all!
Elder Biesinger



James and Elder Stringham

James and Elder Farnsworth