Week 56 - Visit From Elder Viña del 70

September 22, 2014

Hey guys, how's it going?

I'll try and write a quick letter but the truth of the matter is nothing happened this week! Monday was a bit crazy, in the morning I got a call from the zone leaders telling me that I needed to call my district because we were going to have a zone meeting... on pday. So I called everyone up and we headed down to the chapel. Well we get there and they tell us that we will be housing all of the missionaries from Chiloe for the zone conference so we need to meet up at the bus terminal to collect them and help them write and do all of their pday stuff. So we did our shopping and then went to the mall to meet up with the zone leaders and everyone else and I find out that my buddy Elder Borup and his son are going to stay with us for the night! So we meet up at the mall, grabbed some KFC, wrote emails and came home. Afterwards we did divisions with the elders. Elder Karvfordt is still in training so we had a trio and we went to an awesome noche de hogar with the Bahamondez family and did a lot of contacting. Came home and hunted dogs with the new lazer pointer it was a blast!

Noche de Hogar with Familila Bahamondez

Tuesday we all woke up early and got dressed so we could get to the stake center on time. The meeting with Elder Viña del 70 was amazing and I learned a lot!  Afterwards we got a special leadership meeting with all of the district leaders of the area and it was really cool, I picked up a lot.

Puerto Varas Zone/ Pres Ibanez and Alerce Districts

Wednesday we didn't work, we spent the whole day prepping for the ward activity. It was great and we had a lot of fun, but we didn't teach.

Because of the 18 de Septiembre (Chile's Independence Day) the next few days were filled with empanadas and juice (socializing) we spent all of our time with the members because we weren't allowed to leave with out fixed citas (appointments). Kinda killed me but the food was amazing!

Me and Jonathan

Me and Emanuel

Sunday we had church and went by ALL of our investigators to set up citas so we could teach them and it was a really productive day.

Well thats about it. Love you all!

Elder Washburn

Week 55 - Crazy Busy Day!

September 15, 2014

Hey, I'm really sorry the cyber we were using is plagued with viruses and I had lost my tarjeta (card) but I found it so it’s all good. I'll remember to bring my card reader this next week, it's just been a bit crazy today. We had to pick up a couple of guys from Chiloe and take them to the house for the night for the conference with Elder Viña del 70 tomorrow. I'm pretty excited and ready to receive some palos (scoldings)... but hey, that's how it works! No, I'm sure the first conference will be great but I'm a bit worried about the leadership conference afterwards and the 4 interviews that he's going to choose randomly. I think it would be a great opportunity though. I'm really sorry I'm not going to send a novel but I promise I will next week with my other missionary moment and a ton of pictures of me, my old companion, my new one and all of my investigators. I love you sooooo much!  Thanks for the package, everything got here safe even if a bit late... (offices fault not yours don't worry) I just want you to have a fantastic week and to know how much I love you!

Elder Washburn

Week 54 - Future Missionaries

September 8, 2010

Hey guys!

How are you doing? It hasn't been much of a week but a couple of cool things have happened. I really don't remember what happened in the middle of a couple of cool experiences that happened so I'll just write what I do remember.

Monday was pretty great, woke up and went running with Elder Davis and then we got back cleaned the house a bit and woke up the other elders and cleaned some more. We then ended up reading our letters and putting in numbers.  We went to Jumbo where we walked around a bit and looked for the ingredients to make some Remoulade sauce (amazing cajun fry sauce) and calamari. I bought all of the calamari they had, which ended up being a bit under a kilo. We then came home, put the squid in the fridge and then went to the cyber to write. Came back to the house and we started to clean and cut the squid. We then breaded it in flour and fried it. In the end we just about died after eating a pound a piece and it only cost me about two mil or 4 dollars, not a bad deal. Me and my comp Elder Linares then went out proselyting at six and passed by a few members we knew and ended up at J’s house where we had a short lesson.

Tuesday was a bit interesting. I woke up like normal, hopped in the shower as quick as I could, got dressed and started finishing final touches for my district meeting. I finished at about 9:30 and we got ready and headed out. Got to the church at 10 and started setting up. I wrote the numbers, put up a few tables and made sure that everything was ready. The zone leaders and the other district leaders got there a few minutes later and we started at 10:30 at about 11ish, half way through my meeting, president called so I tried to organize some practicas and ran out the door. It turned out that it was for my companion but I still had to stay with him so after about 30 minutes or so I came back in and tried to cram an hours worth of material in 15 minutes and delivered a district compromise which I really hope works. After that we hung around for a bit and I talked with my buddies Elder Bustamante and the other district leader Elder Terra, and then we went out to the familia Bahamondez's house for lunch. We then came home studied a bit went out and then taught a few lessons.

Presidente Ibanez District

Hna Paxman, Hna Ramirez, Hna Figueredo, Hna Contreras, Elder Linares, Elder Souza, Elder Washburn (DL), Elder Davis

Wednesday not much happened but we had an amazing lesson with Jose. We ended up taking one of our future missionaries Carlos, he's going to Buenos Aires sur this November. We got in and didn't even really have to teach.  Carlos was on top of it baring his testimony and teaching the points of the restauration really clearly and then inviting J to pray and be baptized, in the end he accepted and prayed to know that the Book of Mormon and what we were teaching was true the spirit flooded the room. We left shortly after knowing that he would receive his answer soon.

Elder Davis, me, Jose, and Elder Souza

Thursday not much happened.  We ended up going to central to take care of some visa stuff for Linares. Later we had ward correlation and found out that we had to do something in the talent show, so we decided that we would sing querido juan (dear john) by the Corbatas Amarillas

Friday we practiced for the talent show with Carlitos on the guitar and Emanuel, another future missionary, singing with us. In the end it wasn't so bad and we got the whole crowd to laugh. It was a fun night. I'll have to try and send you a video.

Saturday we taught a few people and stayed in the house a bit because my comp was sick. We then cleaned the chapel from 6-9 because no one had cleaned it in several months. In the night the zone leaders called me with cambios. (transfers)

Sunday we had daylight savings so almost no one came to church and all of our investigators were working.  Other than that we had a good lesson with Jonathan and a few other menos activos.

Well I've got to go! Sorry it was a bit short on details. I promise to send some next week. I love you all and  have an amazing pday for those of you in the field and an amazing monday por los de mas!

les quiero muchisimos

Elder Washburn

Week 53 - It Really is a Small World!

September 1, 2014

Note Mom sent to Hayden:

So I have a cool story to tell you.  I mentioned to you that we went and visited Grandpa Washburn tonight and Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue were there. While they were there we talked a little about your time in Punta Arenas.  Well, when we were on our way home, I got a call from Aunt Sue and she told me after they left Grandpa's they stopped at her sister's and they met her visitor from Chile that was on his way up to BYU Idaho.  Aunt Sue showed him a picture of you and he said he knew you. He said to tell you that he is from Punta Arenas and his name is Oscar. He speaks English and had just recently returned home from his mission.  Do you think you remember him?  Apparently, Aunt Sue met him several years ago because he was a foreign exchange student living with aunt Sue's sister's son in Michigan. Aunt Sue met him at a wedding at the Manti temple (in a previous year).

How cool is that? It's amazing that because of the gospel you can find people you know out of all the billions there are out there.   What are the odds that Aunt Sue would bump into him again and that you would be serving in that part of Chile at the same time he returned home. Pretty neat!

Hayden’s Response:

Seriously she met Oscar? I love that guy! I knew that he was going to Idaho but what are the odds that he would meet Aunt Sue! We were really good friends.  He served in Mozambique, Portuguese speaking, and has amazing English! Ya we hung out at all of the stake meetings and I went out teaching with him with my district leader Elder Johnson. That’s great, made my day!