From Chile with Love...

Hola,

Elder Hjelm here reporting from Santiago, Chile. It´s a balmy 18 degrees here - celsius of course. That´s one of the wierdest parts - going from feet and miles to meters and kilometers, and farenheit to celsius. But it´s nothing that I can´t handle. Things are going well here. We´ve found a few investigators, one of which is progressing. The problem is that she goes with her dad on the weekends, and she can´t miss church before her baptism if she wants to be baptized on September 9. All investigators from 12 - 18 have to go to church four times before they can be baptized. Our other investigator with the smoking problem hasn´t smoked in a month. I am so happy for her. The only problem is that she and the rest of our investigators have baptismal dates for after this change, and I´m likely to leave after this next change, most likely to the middle of the country. Oh darn.

It´s great to hear that mom is going back to school - I´m excited. When I get back, we can be study buddies. And now Jonah´s going to get his license - another reason that I´m glad I´m here, several thousand miles away. And school´s starting - that was fast. This whole thing is going by really fast. The days feel long, but looking back it has gone by so fast. I´m basically one fifth of the way done. That was way too fast. But It´s so, so good.

From Chile with Love,

Elder Hjelm

Let it snow!

¿Qué Tal? (What´s up)
     Why is it that as soon as I leave, everything interesting starts
happening. Felix Hernandez pitches a perfect game (against who?).
Romney chooses Paul Ryan as his running mate (not gonna lie, I like
the choice), and now my Seahawks are winning all over the place. Why
does this happen when I´m gone, and I really shouldn´t worry about it?
I´m sorry to hear about Mark Thibo. He was a great man, one of my
examples. I will miss him a lot.
     We just got back from the mountains north east of Santiago,
almost in Argentina. We went there for a zone activity, mainly because
seven of the twelve elders in our zone live near the equator or in the
desert, and have never had the chance to play in the snow, have a
snowball fight, or build a snowman. We built a snow missionary,
complete with tie. However, I forgot my camera. I´ll ask one of the
other elders for some pictures.
     The work here is still work. Elder Chung was sick most of last
week, with a virus. We only worked four days out of the seven. But we
worked hard. There´s a chance that the rest of us will get sick too -
I hope not.

May the Force be with You All,
Elder Hjelm

Short, but very sweet!

The work continues! We have begun to see the fruits of our hard
work over the past few weeks. We now have five people who are golden,
and need to be taught. We have found new people. And our investigator
who has a smoking problem hasn´t smoked in two weeks. It is so
awesome!
I´m sorry to hear about Mark Thibo. I haven´t heard about Pyron´s
disease, but it sounds terrible. He will be in my prayers. And girls
camp sounds about like normal. I can´t believe that you left Jonah and
Isaac alone in the house for a week and It´s still standing. Oh, my
package came. Nice call with the chips and pretzels - they´re super
yummy!
     It sounds like my Seahawks are doing well - who did they play?
And What!? They signed Terrell Owens?!?! Oh well.

Adios,
Elder Hjelm

Adventure Log: Chile: Week 7

Adventure Log: Chile: Week 7.

No baptisms this past week. Fresia didn`t feel ready, and so she and her daughter both have dates for the 26th. Chuta. But life goes on. This past week has been hard. We have worked harder than before and walked more and done more, but have achieved less. We taught a total of six lessons and found 2 new investigators. That´s it. However, we did walk basically every street in the sector twice. That might be a little high, but it sure feels like it.

Still no package - hopefully wednesday. I can´t really wait, and Elder Chung is tired of hearing about my jacket. I miss helping out with things like girls camp shopping, or working on the Temple. I doubt that this will be Mom´s last year at girls camp - she´s too good at what she does. I don´t know very many people who could cook for 150 hungry girls, and have everything prepared on time. She´s amazing. Everything is going to go all right. Don´t worry about it.

I don´t know a marcus williams - do you mean Marquis? Either way it will be cool to have someone else from washington here. Whenever I say that I´m from washington, everybody thinks Washington DC. Oh, and what´s this I hear from Isaac that Ichiro has been traded to the Yankees?!?! That would be something that I would want to know. How are my Seahawks doing? How are the Olympics? They don´t tell us very much here, so I need you all to send me info, por favor. I love you all.

TTFN, Ta Ta For Now,

Elder Hjelm

Staying in Gambino...the heads will have to wait!

Dearest(?) Family,

This week is transfer week, and I have been sent to Easter Island to convert the heads. Just kidding. I´m staying here in Gambino for another month and a half. One of the elders in our house got transferred, and his former companion is training a new elder fresh from the MTC. Yes, I am feeling better. I´m not sick anymore. I´m still waiting for my package - I´m hoping for thursday, but most likely next tuesday - I hope. I attached a map of my ward, just for you all. Our house - which I forgot to mark, is on the street behind the chapel. Everything is going fine here. Our baptisms were moved back to this week, and with any luck they should go on. We have three others with a date to be baptized on the 26th. I sure hate missing the olympics. It sounds really, really cool. I love you all.

Ciao for Now,

Elder Hjelm