Toda La Fuerza

Elder Alvarado and I

My comp and I are hitting it off really great. He's a thought-provoking dude. For instance, he likes adapting stories like The Odyssey to real life situations. He used the example of Odysseus and how he needed to go through all of his trials and experiences to become less prideful.

I'm also teaching Elder Alvarado English. He's having a bit of a struggle, but he's coming along.

#TodaLaFuerza Zone Conference
Had a mega conference that combined two zones, ours and Chiguagante. The focus was on Unity, Order, and Obedience. The President's message spoke of re-converting the less-active, which I think is really great. The Lord is looking - not for numbers, but for the truly converted.

The assistants introduced #TodaLaFuerza - the hashtag is to encourage members to share pictures of them with members on social media.

One of the sisters talked about teaching with a member present. It reminded me about what my sister Lauren told me from her mission experience in France: Investigators that are not taught with a member present seldom stay active. Our hope is to use members more in the work.

Noche de Barrio
We had a ward activity in which my companion and I shared a talk from Elder Jeffrey Holland. We told those that were in attendance that they were golden, reliable, trustworthy people, and that if we unite and work with them, we would bring less actives back. We really pumped them up and rallied them to the cause.

Speaking of which, I have been feeling more motivated myself. Been hitting the workout time harder. Even went out for a run with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Brewster.

The Comeback Veggie
I received a nickname from the lady who washes our clothes: pantruca palida. It's a long, thin, white vegetable that poor Chileans chop up and put into soup. It's apparently making a comeback.

Directly Speaking
The numbers in church nearly doubled this week. Juan and Sirvana were among them - yes!

Bishop told us to visit the Young Men's president in the ward who has not come to church for a month. When we sat down with this Young Men's president, we were very direct with him in telling him to come back to church.

He said, "I think I am going to wait for 2 weeks more before returning."

Well, we weren't having any of that. So we took turns telling him why his thinking was bad. It kind of reminded me of the story of the angel visiting Alma Jr. But what made this more uncanny was that this brother said, "You elders are like my angels. You always arrive when I need you, and tell me what I need to do."

That was cool.

Thoughts on a Hymn
The song "I am a Child of God" takes on a new meaning in Spanish.  The chorus in English says,

Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with Him some day.

Now, in Spanish, the first words of the chorus are:

Guienme, enseñenme - ("Guide me, Teach me" - in plural form)

It's the pluralization that meant something different to me. The Spanish translation makes it clear that it is talking to more than one person, as in giving parents the directive to Guide and Teach their children what they "must do to Live with Him some day."

Working on Finding people - families this week. Knocking a lot of doors. Wish us luck!

#TodaLaFuerza
Elder Connor Nef

Be Strong and of Good Courage

Concepcion, Chile

Well, I arrived in Concepcion safe and sound, in the sector of Lorenzo Arenas. Lorenzo is a suburb of Concepcion, as Campbell is to San Jose, California. The ward is small both by area and numbers. We went and met a few members, a recent convert, the Bishop, and our very cool ward mission leader, Hermano Del Rio. I'm excited to have members to work with.

Meet Elder Alvarado
Elder Alvarado, from Peru, is a convert of only three years, and he's been on his mission for 17 months. This is his first time being senior companion and I'm finding him to be hard-working, obedient (which I appreciate), a great teacher (he's very direct), and ward members seem to love him.

Knocking Doors etc etc etc
Spent much of the week knocking doors. One day, no one opened. Whatever. Happens. Made a lot of visits, did some FamilySearch (computers were slow), and attended a ward activity in which they showed the making of the Salt Lake Temple with Wilford Woodruff and the journalist dude.

Our apartment houses both us and the Zone Leaders, one of which is Elder Hepworth, my first district leader, so that's cool. We have carpet and it's so much warmer than my last place in Quillon. But this 4th floor apartment is a little more cramped and will be challenging to find area enough for exercise: Little space, big body, and three other dudes to not bump into. I'll make it work somehow.

View from our apartment in Lorenzo

Fecha Bautismal
After teaching the Restoration to teenage brother and sister, they set a date for their baptism!

Juan and Zirvana and their 16 year-old daughter are long standing investigators who have put off baptism by mere fact that they aren't married, and Elder Alvarado was about to drop them, only I thought we should keep teaching them because they behave like active members.  Well, we gave this couple the challenge to set a date to go visit the Civil Registrar's office to make things legal, and thought that their goal would be close to October.  When we asked them what their goal was - they told us the date was set for July 28th!

OH MY GOSH.  Pumped.

Now the whole family can be baptized together (not just the daughter).

Punchinello from You Are Special, by Max Lucado

Talk with a Punch
Sunday was just what I needed. Sacrament meeting was awesome. There were only 36 people there (rain kept most away), but the Bishop's talk was awesome!  Using the story of Punchinello in You Are Special, his message was on being more like our Heavenly Father and Savior. I have always loved that story and it was a great reminder for my state of mind on that day.

Be Strong and of Good Courage
Then for good measure, there was a wall we walked by on our way home to almuerzo (lunch) with an inspiring verse on it. I think I will end this post with this thought.

"Be strong and of good courage:

be not afraid,

neither be thou dismayed;

for the Lord thy God is with thee

whithersoever thou goest"

Joshua 1:9

Love you All. Peace Out,
Elder Connor Nef

Adios Quillon!

Quillon, Chile

Monday morning, transfer calls came and my suspicions were confirmed - Elder Evelo is staying in Quillon, and I am leaving the country for the big city and going to Conce Centro (Central Concepcion)!

Concepcion, Chile  photo by Julio Saez

I'm excited.

The week leading up to transfer calls was pretty productive. Always expect the ebb and flow of the work. One day is full of appointments, then everything drops. Another day is empty and then you end up with several lessons. Some commit, others drop. But all-in-all it's always a good week when the goal is to serve others.

Noche de Hogars (Family Home Evenings)
Carlos and Carla Poblete invited us over for a Family Home Evening that focused on Temples (Carla is anxious to go).

Familia Zapata (Gladys, Getsemani, Danilo, and Barbara) got to hear the steps to an eternal family.
     1.  Marriage
     2.  Baptism/re-activation
     3.  Temple
The lesson went well, and I have not been in a room with this much laughter since the CCM (Missionary Training Center in Mexico). It was so much fun!

That Sort of Boldness
The rest of the week was teaching a variety of other gospel principles to instill perspective or help them along. Everything from Repentance to the Word of Wisdom to keeping the Sabbath Holy. When you get to know your investigators, you learn to tailor the message to the need. And when you let the Spirit guide your words, the result is magic.

For instance, in a lesson with Maria, we were talking about being an example, and while I was giving the compromiso (getting her to commit), I felt this power to be more bold and just come right out and tell her to go to church. That sort of boldness could only have come with following the Spirit.

Zone lunch

Fun(?) Facts:
-  Weekly English Course classes are great - I only wish we had more students. This week's topic: the difference between cracker and cookie (both are galletas here), and other important things to survive state-side: Freedom, Justice, Superbowl...

-  The Hermanas told us that the locals call me and my companion: Nef - the tall one, and morenito - the little dark one.

-  There's a popular Reggae rapper here in Chile who sounds exactly like Hamilton dude Lin-Manuel Miranda, only this guy raps in Spanish.

-  My whole life I wanted a dog and couldn't understand why my mom was a little afraid of dogs (she went on a mission to Puerto Rico, which had wild dogs everywhere on the streets). After this little time in Latin America with wild dogs roaming everywhere, I now understand. I don't want a dog anymore...except when I see something cute like this:

Tag-Team Missionaries
Friday we did FamilySearch genealogy and I found some more people in my family line (on my dad's and mom's side) and input the information.  Then, come to find out, my family went to the Oakland, California Temple on Saturday and were baptized for 34 ancestors(I found about 1/2 of those)! Team effort, man.  All for one and one for all!

Adios Quillon
Well, I have been in Quillon for 4 transfers (5 1/2 months). The Nefs seem to stay in areas for a long time (my sisters were in each of their areas for long periods of time) and so far I have kept that tradition.

Quillon has grown the time I have been here and I expect it to continue to grow and become stronger. My time here has been good, and I have a lot of goodbyes to make today. Adios Quillon.

See you next week in Concepcion!
Elder Connor Nef

Meet President and Sister Catala

Our Zone with new Mission President and Sister Catala

Our new mission president and his wife arrived, so we had a conference meet and greet conference with everyone.

President Nelson Catala and
Sister Liang-Fan Wu Catala

Meet President and Sister Catala
President Nelson Catala is a real high animo guy, loves numbers, loves music (can play around 6 instruments and can sing - so can his wife and 16 year-old son). He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and has previously served as stake president and bishop. He's pretty awesome.

Sister Liang-Fan Wu Catala, from Taiwan, is pretty awesome herself - speaks Spanish and has this happy-go-lucky attitude.

President Catala has had a pretty rough life. His father died before he was born, and because his mother wasn't able to care for his, he spend the next dozen or so years being passed from one grandmother to the next until he was completely orphaned by the age of 13. That's when he joined the church.

Church Family
Shortly after baptism, his aunt forbade him to attend Church, but because he had made a promise to God, he defied her order and went anyway. So she kicked him out of the house, and he lived on the streets for a few weeks. When members of the Church heard about his plight, he was invited into their homes, which made him realize that his real family was his Church family.

250 is the Goal
That experience is the driving influence behind his goal-making for this mission. He sees real power when we work with members. His weekly goal for the mission is to have every zone have 200-250 lessons to investigators with members present. That means every sector needs 9 lessons per week.

To help with the goal, president suggested that every recent convert be a ward missionary. Good idea.

Happy July 4th!
The 240th birthday of our beloved United States of America. I've quietly been looking forward to this day, wearing red, white and blue, and changing the ring-tone on the cell phone to America the Beautiful (the only American song we have).

And, like a patriotic nerd, I doodled America on my agenda. FREEDOM!

Our zone celebrated with hot dogs and floats, soccer and monopoly. It was fun.


A Question About Trials
Went on an exchange with my District leader, Elder Barson, and stopped by Ezekiel and Fabiola's. They are struggling right now and wondering why life is so hard. So Barson and I ended up tag teaming between scripture, inspiration, and testimony.

I agreed with them - life is tough and no one escapes adversity in this life. Why?  Well, basically, we are here on earth to learn, and God gives us tests so that we can learn through experience. Wish that our "education" could come in a pain-free, worry-less, free-ride scholarship, but that's not how Heaven's scholastic works.

And this reminded me of a video telling a sort of modern day parable about a currant bush.

Trials are designed to be difficult so we can exercise our character muscles, tone our temperament, and build our spirit.  But we're not left without help. Christ provides the grace and power and comfort and peace - everything we need to get through the tough stuff and come away improved.

For an hour and a half we answered their questions, and in the end, left them with a really good spirit and no more questions.

Sometimes I feel like the currant bush, but like they say, "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." The Lord's got my back.

Love you all. Until next week,

Elder Connor Nef

Joy in the Service

Found a restaurant that offered 2 giant hot dogs and 2 juices for a great deal. Four of us couldn't pass it up.

Back in Rhythm
Since Elder Evelo is feeling better, we have gotten back into a rhythm of teaching.  It feels good. With every conversation I am reinvigorated to do missionary work. Just small feelings of joy. One of the things that reinforced this feeling even more was in an article in an old magazine.

Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
by Heinrich Hofmann 1890

I Believe in Christ
I came across a decades-old Liahona magazine in English (what's that doing in our home?) which had the last testimony of Bruce R. McConkie in it. I read it, and let my imagination take me to each of the three Gardens, hoping that one day I could build my testimony to this level of knowledge, and how I need to base all my decision in life off of knowing Christ's sacrifice.

Upon this rock I cannot fail.

Fun Fact for my generation:
It was from this April 1985 testimony that they composed the hymn 134, I Believe in Christ.

Thursday, we did not enter a single house, but I was still on a spiritual high from McConkie's testimony.

Fun Facts:
-  Helped a less-active kid with translating his English homework. It was about Tupac.
-  Ate a Chilean churro. It's different from what we have in USA. Picture, deep fried corn based shell stuffed with manjar (caramelized sweetened condensed milk). So tasty.

- The other night, no one had keys to the place we were staying, so I was nominated to crawl through the 18" open window. I fit! and opened the door from the inside. Perks of being flako (skinny). This might not continue if I keep eating Chilean churros!

Travelling to Chillon
Half of our week was filled with teaching, the other half was spent travelling.  Think of riding a bus over the hill to Santa Cruz every day for a week straight. This was our travels to Chillon for a slew of stake conference meetings and mission conferences. So cool.

Scales Falling
At the stake Adult Meeting Saturday evening, two returned missionaries bore testimony and talked about the joy that opens in the hearts of missionaries, a joy that makes it feel like your eyes have been opened. Kind of an awakening.  The Apostle Paul likened it to scales falling from his eyes that enabled him to finally see, really see.

I felt this same thing in the CCM, the Mexico Missionary Training Center.

At conference with my buddies from the CCM

Farewell to the President
And then we had the farewell conference for President and Sister Arrington. Both gave inspiring talks. Two things that stuck with me from president's talk was:

1. Without service, there is no progress. We can sit and study as long as we like, but we'll never progress if we never extend ourselves to help others,
2. The key indicator for a returned missionary to stay strong is to stay active in a calling right after returning home.

See if you can see me in the back row

Kinda makes me think of my sister who just returned from her mission to France.

Welcome Home, Lauren!
In fact, it donned on me last Tuesday that the same time I entered my house after a day of work, is the same time when my sister, Lauren's, plane landed in San Jose.  Quite poetic, actually.  Welcome home, sister!

So proud of you.

Adios!
Elder Connor Nef

How Can We Be Anything Less?

Damian leaving for his mission to Guatemala. His mom and uncle pose with us.

Sunday was the farewell of Damian Campos. Damian is a very social dude - full of personality. Every day when we're contacting, someone will say, "Hey, I know a guy who is about to leave on a mission - Damian Campos!"  He's going to make a terrific missionary.

The Reason for Staying
Most of our investigators have been dropping like flies, and I ain't gonna lie, it's downright discouraging. Such is missionary life, huh?  But what softens the blow are the families who are open and eager to learn. We still have a few of those.

For instance, we had a nice Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with Jorge and Rafaela. They are a super cool young couple who own the local Pastry Shop. Jorge is 6'4" and Rafaela is like 5'3".

We had another great lesson with Danilo and Barbara. The lesson at first was a little scattered because I steered the topic away from what we planned and in a direction I felt inspired, but in the middle of the message, I got a strong feeling that this family is one of the reasons - if not the reason - I am still in Quillon.  That made me feel better.

Fun Fact:
- It is common to see men walking on either side of the street yelling a friendly conversation, like:
     "Hey neighbor, when can I pass by?" 
     "This Friday is good?" 
     "Yeah, sounds good!"
     "Ok by, see you later!"
     "Ok chow. Have a good day!"
     "Until Friday, take care!"
     "See you Friday. Have a beautiful day!"
     "Bye!"
     "Bye!"
Prolonging farewells is a thing here. Hilarious.

- Every day I hear Jefferson Starship's We Built This City on Rock and Roll. Mr Evans, my high school Journalism teacher, would hate this!

-  I keep seeing teenagers and young adults with rifles. Ironic because Quillon is super peaceful.

- They finally fixed our shower! Before the temperature was either freezing cold or scalding hot. Now, it's a nice (aaaaahhhh) warm shower.

-  My sister, Lauren, returns from her mission to France tomorrow! Congrats and Love you, Lo!

Evelo is Enfermo
Sickness is still lingering with my companion, Elder Evelo. Every day is a little touch and go. Some mornings he wakes up feeling great, but then his health goes south as the work day goes on.

Ixnay on the Noche
Because of this, we missed a ward activity we planned with the sister missionaries last Friday night. It was going to be like a giant Noche de Hogar with sopaipillas (a deep fried bread you can load with whatever topping or eat alone).  But the Hermanas said it went well. Everyone laughed and cried, and there was a perfect amount of sopaipillas.

Tommy In-Toe!
Did I tell you that we got permission from the mission president to watch Chile play in the Copa America Centenario (this hemisphere's version of the World Cup), because, to be honest, soccer is so big here that no one will open door to us with this game on. The one condition was that we needed an investigator in attendance.

Well, we show up at the Campos-Burgos's house (with fingers crossed and a prayer), explain the situation, and Hermana Feli - bless her heart - sprints off to get someone and comes back with Tommy in-toe! FELI COMES IN THE CLUTCH ONCE AGAIN!  So we were able to watch a rather intense game of Chile vs. Bolivia, which Chile won with nearly no time to spare.

Elder Evelo, Damien, me

Because health issues have kept us indoors, it has given me a lot of time for study.
     I started and finished Our Heritage
     I am deep into Exodus in the Old Testament
     Reading 2 Nephi in the Spanish Book of Mormon
     Nearing the end of Matthew in the New Testament
     And about halfway through Jesus the Christ
We've also listened to a number of great talks (Elder Evelo came with a 109 GB USB full of Church films, talks, and music).

How Can We Be Anything Less?
One of my favorites was a BYU talk by Jeffrey R. Holland Oh, Lord, Keep My Rudder True -  An inspiring message on integrity and loyalty.

He shared a story of some LDS troops in Korea and how one Sergeant who was loyal enough to his bullet-ridden Lieutenant to go back for him and because this Sergeant was a slight 5'5" 150 lbs, he had to rely wholly on the strength of the Lord to carry the large 6'7" 245 lb. Lieutenant uphill to safety.

In a similar way, another man made an uphill climb many years before, carrying all of us.  As the Savior neared Calvary, his defenders became fewer and fewer.  But regardless of this, he has kept his loyalty to us.  His love, unwavering, has atoned for us.

Because of his loyalty, how can we be anything less than stand-up missionaries and disciples of Christ?

Ciao a Todos!
Elder Connor

Hurrah for Israel!

Hurrah. Hurrah for Israel  by Larry Wade

My companion and I are getting along great, but the bad news is that we are sick as dogs.  My comp got sick on Thursday, then it hit me with a vengeance on Saturday. Fever. Chills. Can't sleep. Can't keep anything down. It's been rough.

Tuesday we had a cambio (exchange) with other missionaries, and I was paired with a new elder from Brazil.  Near the end of our day, he said something that hit me like a ton of bricks. "Elder Nef," he said, "You need to be happier and smile more."

Wait. What?

Me - not happy? I have stooped to the point of not smiling? Note taken. Been smiling more since, but today is testing that. Sorry if I don't sound upbeat - this fever and exhaustion have temporarily gotten the best of me.

But even though I don't feel great physically, I can feel Heavenly Father supporting me - giving me just enough to keep going.  Reminds me of Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball when they left on their missions to England.

Heber and Brigham's Mission to England
Their departure was a little...shall we say, less than idea. Malaria swept through the area, hitting their families and them personally. Weakness. Fever. Chills. Yet, even in the thick of sick, Heber and Brigham answered the call to serve overseas and leave immediately.

Heading out with nothing more than meager belongings and audacious faith, they staggered to their ride and plopped down in the back of a horse-drawn wagon.

But as they were being wheeled away, Heber didn't want his family's farewell image to be of him pathetically laying helpless in a wagon bed. So as the wagon rolled away, he and buddy Brigham mustered up enough strength to boost one another to their feet and call out, "Hurrah. Hurrah. Hurrah for Israel!"



Pretty inspiring.

That's the kind of faith I'm trying to have. Answering the call to do what the prophet and God commanded, so that others can learn about the Savior's love. Small price to pay to spread goodness and kindness. Anyway, that's what I'm trying to do.

Remember God's love for us and that miracles come more frequently than you think.

Hurrah for Israel!
Elder Connor Nef