May 18, 2015

What A WEEK, ha it honestly seems like time doesn't function the same for me as it does the rest of the world. It's a little stressful, but oh well! So, the Training is coming along great! My comp is really a good Elder and is learning to talk to the people in lots of situations. It's helped me a lot to be able to see what I really can do. But thank goodness for the support of God. I understand a lot more of what is said when they glory not in their own strength, but in the Strength of their God. With out that strength I'd be fried. 

(finally we had a small tremor, so the fears of the "Big one" can be hushed a little :(  )

Also it has been really foggy, like all week. Normally all the morning until like 3 in the afternoon, maximum visibility is 2 blocks and in the morning its like half a block. ha Super Humid. 

We had a good week Edgardo and his wife Maria came to church. Edgardo if all keeps going well, will be baptized the last Sunday of the month, as well as his wife "if she receives her answer". So, lots of Prayers and faith that they can keep progressing. Also Mirza, Claudios mom, will be married on July 21st.  So, I'm thinking maybe the Baptism on the 24th? ;) haha 

But, really we have been seeing lots of miracles, and the hand of God helping us a lot in the work here. I just pray that it will keep on going well. We have been trying hard. 

Ha this week we were walking and a drunk guy stopped us in the street to talk. He was a friendly drunk, so I decided to stop.  Maybe we would be able to help him. ha He told us that we were good people, so he liked us. But, that his brother was Bad, so he was going to shoot him. hahaha I'm pretty sure that he was serious in his drunken stupor. He was covered in wine. (boxed wine the preferred drink of street alcoholics in Chile) But he asked us to please help him get to his house.  We helped him stumble to his house and talked with him a bit. The majority of Chileans are not really dark skinned, most are pretty white. Auturo this man is one of them, he explained how his family is a family of gypsies from Hungry; and all the story if was pretty interesting. In the end I almost had him convinced that we were going to go with him to throw his pistol in the ocean, but he said that the truth was that his pistol was in the neighbors house because he isn't allowed to have it hahah Playa Ancha is a little crazy.

Love you all I hope that you have a great week with lots of Exito and Animo! 

Elder Biesinger

      Hopefully gives you an idea of the fog at midday doesn't clear up very much. Four days straight

May 11, 2015

Hey everybody! 

SOO HAPPY MOTHERS DAY  I know I'm a little late, but I don't like to jump the gun. So, better to do it after maybe.  You can just think of it like a blessing, they always come, just sometimes not on the day we had scheduled. 

So another change has begun! I've now got "a son" here in mission. Elder Gustavo Alvarez from Uruguay! He is a great Elder and is going to have a lot of success in his mission. Elder Gomez is now in a area of the Hills above Viña (Achupaellis). So, I stayed in my area.  We have a few changes in the district including two more Elders. which makes things fun, and the nightly calls a little longer, but its all a good experience! I love the mission and all the Crazy things that happen.

SO HERE IS A QUOTE: 

" If you don't have time to pray and read your scriptures you are busier than God ever intended you to be." 

So, I hope no one is busier than God intended them to be! 

Also, another thought that I liked a lot, reading Moses chapter one. The difference of How God the father refers to Moses and how Lucifer refers to Moses, and then the response of Moses. 

If you could all read it you will see that God refers to Moses as son. Hence making him a son of God but Lucifer refers to him as son of man. And then Moses cuts Lucifer and tells him "I am a SON OF GOD." 

Moses had the kind of relationship we should all look for with our Father. If you don't feel like God exists or that you don't feel his love,, or that you are his Child I invite you as a Representative of Christ to LOOK FOR GOD. We are his Children and we need not fall to the temptation of the devil. If we don't look for our Father it will be our own fault when we know him not. 

Love you guys a lot! Miss you a lot too, but time is the only barrier. So gotta make it count. 

Elder Biesinger

Claudio Mirza and Constanza

The Gallegos

Saying bye to Gomez The Serains

Elder Alvarez and I

May the 4th be with you post 2015

Wow and another one bites the dust! Another week, and another Change. 

This week was pretty great, full of challenges and triumphs. Plenty of things are happening and changing! It's starting to get a little colder and so I'm feeling that the Chile that I first met and loved is getting ready to make a come back. 

This week we taught a guy named Luis From France, he is 25 years old and he is a catholic missionary. ha Yeah that's right a catholic missionary. So, There is a house here in my area called "Punto Corazon" There are about 8 "missionaries" that live in the house men and women from Chile, Hungry, Poland, Argentina and France. One day we decided we wanted to know what this operation was, so we yelled a the door. Luis came out, a little surprised, they were about to start a meeting so he invited us to come the next day. We Explained how we would like to know what they do and all that. Well we ended up not having time to pass by that day so this week we ran into Luis and set another time to visit. We went by, and he was all alone.  We entered the house he offered something to drink, we asked for water. And we started to talk. After letting him talk and tell us about himself and them.  We started to talk a little saying things like; hey its really cool what you guys do, you do a lot of good, we do this too. Or oh yeah its really cool that you are all here to be a part of the ward and help people with stuff that they need and share "compasion." (his word) and be source to help people leave the drugs and stuff. That's something really great; we are here to teach people how to come unto Christ. We ended up teaching him about the restoration and baptism. not in depth but to the point where you could see in his eyes and feel with astonishment. His Eyes teared up. We have plans to write our testimonies and give them to him in a Book of Mormon this week. It was a cool lesson. He kinda sat there not knowing what to do. It would be hard for him to accept it being that he had dedicated 18 months of his life to being catholic. 

We also found a man named Edgardo Soto he had shared with missionaries before.  So when we knocked the door it was easy to enter being that he has prostate cancer, diabetes and he is anemic. He is thin and pretty skinny. He told us that he needs to be baptised. So we are going to be working to find a way to help him go to church and fulfill his goal of Baptism the 30th of this month. 

Something that I realized as we taught Luis and he took like 5 minutes to find Amos in the Bible is that we are very blessed to have so much of the word of God in our lives as members! We need to treasure it. Luis doesn't understand the bible because he has not studied it with the spirit and the knowledge of the Gospel. HOLD TO THE ROD. The Iron rod is the word of God and if you let go the world takes you. Lucifer takes you. Its not a brain wash its not a trick it's the answers to the test that whether you like it or not you are taking at this very moment with every breath of life you take. With out the Iron Rod you will fail. I will fail, we will fail. Lets all set the goal to treasure the truth the answers to the test. I love you all.  I hope you all have success this week! Until next week from the land of the first inheritance. 

Chou! 

Elder Biesinger

Some grub and the roof

The "U"

April 27, 2015 Letter

Hey everyone! So a big happy birthday to my dad! Love you dad. 

This week I'll say it again, flew by.. It was a week a little hard for me. Sometimes I get frustrated to not see the results I want. But the only thing to do is keep on working, and with a smile! Animo! But for reals the mission is the greatest. Every day a new experience of all kinds. I love my area. It is beautiful, looking out the window in the morning is pure Joy. The Gospel that we teach however is pure and it is the most joy that there is. I love to realize that if everyone in the world listened to the missionaries, the world would be a better place. So I'll just keep doing my best to get everyone to listen.

Its starting to get colder here it's crazy. After the eruption of the volcano (which filled the house of my comp with Ash) not even a little ash got here, the wind is too strong in the other direction sending it all to Argentina. But it was really cloudy here for a few days with out warning. I'm no weather man but I have heard that volcano's have a big effect on the weather. It'll be interesting to see what happens next down here in Chile.  

Something that I have been thinking a lot about lately is the condition of our hearts. The scriptures are full of lessons of the heart. Thoughts of the heart pride of the heart, love in our hearts, broken hearts to be humble and learn from the spirit which speaks to our hearts. There are a lot of scriptures. I have been trying to focus on that a lot lately. What is in our hearts is our treasure. If we are prideful it will be our downfall; if we are not virtuous in our hearts, we are unclean and there for unworthy of the kingdom of God. Okay but I feel like I am rambling, so the point I want to make is that our heart and our mind are like a garden. If we fill it with pride its like laying concrete over it. If we fill it with righteousness and love we will be able to reap good fruit. I really want to be able to show more love to all people, that is one of my goals in this moment. 

This week were were having lunch with our mamita and her family. They are really great. While we were eating the dad of our mamita came home from a hunting trip ha. A pretty cool blessing for me. It was a cool opportunity to be close to something I love even in a land so far away. The pictures include me and a few bunnies, Hermano Juan, and his shotgun. ha. 

I'm sure I'll have a lot more to write about next week so until then! 

Love Elder Biesinger

a

A building in James Area

Happy Birthday to Dad!

Picture of James tracking in his area

Elder Gomez

April 20, 2015 letter

Hey all 

Well this week again passed by super fast! I don't even realize when Monday arrives hardly. 

So this week we found a few new people! We ended up teaching 5 youth from the ages of 14 to 25ish that are real interesting it was a lesson that maybe someday i'll take the time to share all the details. But for now the most important it that when you are in a sticky situation its always better to have friends instead of enemies or unknowns. So make friends with everyone but don't change your standards to be their friend, it's better that everyone knows where you stand. 

(Corina) One night we were walking trying to do some contacts, and in front of us a Micro stopped and a lady got off. As we walked to where she was, she stayed in our path. We said hello and she said hello! I'm going to walk with you because in this area its always better to walk with two men then by yourself because you never know when one of this "without shames" (thieves, muggers, dirtbags) is going to try something. We laughed a little and started to talk. We gave her a card and started to talk about Christ, she started to explain that she has participated in lots of different churches, but never in ours. She then said that she needed to ask a question, but wanted the truth. Then she asked us if we were extra terrestrials.. hahahaha She asked because the steeple used to have a metal rod then she asked someone the same question and the metal Rod disappeared. It was a good laugh and she asked us a lot of stuff from multiple wives, to the virgin. We ended up teaching her, and I think with a lot of work and miracles she will progress really well. Her husband works on the sea on a boat I believe fishing. He takes the Book of Mormon with him according to her even though they have no Idea what it really is. 

This week I ended up feeling really sick I woke up Saturday morning feeling pretty crappy, but went through the day the best I could then Sunday was worse. There is a bit of a stomach flew going around, but I decided it would be a good idea to ask my comp for a blessing because I was really feeling out of it. After the Blessing from the words said, and the feeling I had, I decided that I needed to in that very moment be really excited and just get all the things for the night done as best as I could. So, I did and I promise you that I felt pretty much 100 percent better. Faith and the Power of the Priesthood are things that you cant argue with. I hope everyone can look for chances to exercise faith and the Priesthood for ourselves or for others. 

Well its been a pretty great week this morning we went and played futbol with a LA and all his buddies it was interesting but a lot of fun. I'm learning little by little to control that dang ball with my feet! I hope I can take advantage of every second of my mission, not to learn to play soccer but to become closer to the person I'm destined to be.

Chou!

Chilean Sunrise....Awesome!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

April 13, 2015 letter

Alright so another week has flown by, and how crazy it has been! For reals one of the craziest weeks ever. We had interviews with president that went really well. We also had a few run ins with some crazy Drug addicts and alcoholics but nothing to sketchy (Gotta love Valparaiso) and we started teaching some more people. We are always finding new people to teach every week, some more promising than others, so I normally only write about the ones that look promising cause of time, and all that. But Anyways, we started teaching English classes this week and that led us to visit a family of members, because they asked us if we could come help their daughter study.  In the end they ended up telling us that their neighbors wife had recently passed away. Long story short they are Christians, but the dad is mad at God. He has a 16 year old and a 5 year old. He had made it so that they are the same way. But we went by to visit them, when we knocked the door the mother of the father answered the door, we talked with her for a good time and had a spiritual discussion. In the end, we left her with a Book of Mormon, and a card that says "Will we see our beloved beings after this life?" with the video on the website. Her name it Gilda her son is Roberto and his daughter the grandaughter of Gilda is Dankary. We are praying that we can work through the Grandma to soften the heart of the father. The Daughter Dankary is receptive as well being that her friend is a member. But we are going to need a lot of miracles to get this family where they need to be. I know that its no coincidence we are talking with them, so something good will happen. 

I really enjoy short verses of Scripture for a few reasons they are easy to memorize sometimes they are over looked when searching for deep teaching, and they are good phrases. So, I decided to give one of my favorites a better look. Jacob 6:12 Oh be wise... but how can we be wise? Well Mormon 9:28 says by asking to not being tempted and separating ourselves from the things without value to serve the true and living God. Alma 5:13 says that if we serve the true and Living God and are faithful to the End that we well be saved. Also in 2 Nephi 31:15 The Father him self gives us the promise that if are faithful and endure to the end we will be saved. Therefore Oh Be Wise what more can I say?

I'm really loving the mission and Chile I hope that all is well and happy! 

Mando Saludos a todos!

Elder Biesinger

James in Vina getting legal paperwork done for his Chilean Identification

Elder Gomez

April 6, 2015 Easter and General Conference

Hey family and friends and all my loved ones! 

So this week was pretty interesting it's amazing how sometimes all the things seem to be a little bit harder right before something amazing happens. We had a lot of trouble getting in doors this week, but in the end we finished with Conference, and what a blessing it was! I love conference. We were able to watch it in the District Center (we are not a stake yet) we watched it live stream! So at the same moment as you, but there is a three hour difference now, because Chile doesn't do daylight savings anymore, but good old Utah does. So when you all started watching at 10 we were here watching at 1 in the afternoon. It was great. I watched it in English with the other Greengos and one or two Chileans here and there that wanted to give it a try. It's such a blessing to be able to hear the real voice and emotion of the speakers for me.

 Truly, this was a great conference. I was able to take like 12 pages of notes only noting the important things in case one day I need a talk on the subject. I loved a lot of the talks, and the real focus on our Salvation. The Family, the Atonement, Faith, Testimony, Temple all of it is so that we can receive salvation. There was a lot of talks that I loved Holland, Bendnar, Uchdorfs on Grace. All of them From Elder Gibson and the dance steps to The Prophet on temples were inspired. 

I left conference with a stronger feeling that the Savior is on his way. I know that he is coming. It then becomes my duty to prepare my own salvation and the salvation of others. 

One of the blessings of speaking Spanish is that when my co-Chilean Elder Zaballos spoke as well as Elder Pino we changed the channel to Spanish and heard them speak in their own voice. For me I feel that the talk that Elder Zaballos gave sums up what I learned from conference very well. 

1st. I have the responsibility of my own salvation

2nd As I know what I must do for salvation I have the responsibility to help others in there salvation. 

In order to do this I must 

1st Learn my duty

2nd Make the decision to act

3rd Take the out come as it is and continue acting

4th Accept the will of the Father HAPPILY. 

I am not content with less than exhalation there for I have a lot of work to do. I hope you all feel the same way. 

I love you all and hope that you all received a lot from conference I'm sure next week Ill have something else to talk about ha but seriously I love the mission it's a lot of fun and a great blessing. 

Elder Biesinger

P.S. Elder Jorge F. Zaballos is the second counselor of the area presidency here in South America.  He is from a town in the north of my mission. 

James on P-Day with the Football I sent him for Easter! Yea