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

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??

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

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

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

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

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