Very short, but pretty sweet

Hola,

I don`t have much time. First, I am extremely saddened by the loss of uncle Kurt. Please give my condolences and love to the family. Everything is well here. I am excited, and can`t wait to talk to you. Remember that I love you. I will write more next week.

Love,

Elder Hjelm

Sunscreen in December

Since when do I need to wear sunscreen in December?

It´s summer here, folks. It`s starting to heat up. My new area is, once again, large, but we are working in one little sector inside the ward. The ward is great - great members, many of which are ready and willing to help with the work. I found out last night that I will be here in La Rioja for this next change, which lasts until 2013. Wow. That went by really fast. This week we have Tour of the Mission, with Elder Jorge Zeballos of the Area Presidency. In two weeks we have Christmas at the mission House, and the next week is christmas. I`m already singing christmas songs, and we have a small christmas tree in our apartment. About the christmas communication - I need to start arranging things for a skype or phonecall. What you need to decide is if you want to buy or borrow a webcam, set up two skype accounts - one for you and one for me - and then I can use a member`s computer to talk with you. Or, we can talk on the phone. I would like to talk on skype so I can see your beautiful, smiling faces, and you can see my tan. Please decide what you want to do, and then we will work out the five hour time difference.

I am doing well. I can understand about 90% of what everybody is saying. I am not sick. I am safe. I love you, and I miss you. Good luck.

May the force be with you, always,

Elder Hjelm

Doesn't he look awesome?!

Elder Williams and Elder Gibby

The three Elders

Elder Hjelm & Hermana Lazcano

Hermana Lazcano & the three Elders

Greeting from La Rioja....what?

Greetings from.......

La Rioja. My new sector. Let me explain just what happened. On Tuesday (the day that I recieved my package - gracias for the shirt and the goodies), we had our regular interviews with President Essig. At the end of the Interview, he told me that he might change my sector. I said, oh yeah, in two weeks, when we have the scheduled changes. He said no. I said, Sooner? He replied, It could be tonight. GULP! I said, Okay, President, what are the odds? He said 90%. Anyway, long story short, I got a call wednesday night. Thursday morning I packed, got on a bus to santiago, and now I´m here in La Rioja, just north of Simón Bolívar, where I was just a month before. My new companion is Elder Ferreyra, from Rosario, Argentina. We´re opening a sector. This emergency transfer was not my fault, nor the fault of my companion. I just got hit with the blast.

Anyways, I´m doing fine. No problems. It´s time to start preparing for the christmas call. Would you like to skype, or use the telephone? It can´t last more than 40 minutes. I

haven´t recieved any message from Brooke, so I have absolutely no idea what you´re talking about. Love you all.

Como Siempre,

Elder Hjelm

Austin has a tan!

Greetings from the other land down under!

This past week was great. We are working super hard, and having a lot of fun. Before I forget, I want to tell you about our lunch yesterday in a town called Curimon - bascially out in the middle of nowhere. The family we ate with is Russian. They spoke to each other in Russian. And we ate Russian Food - bolsch, to be precise. It was kind of cool, because we don`t speak Russian, and they don`t speak English, but we could all communicate in Spanish. Wow.

Still no sign of my package. I`m praying that it comes tomorrow. I´m a little worried, becuase Hermana Essig said that every once in a while they´ll open a package, and if there´s food, adios. I hope that my package is just late. But everything is going well other than that. I`m withstanding the heat. I got sunburned on Monday when we played soccer - yes mother, I forgot sunscreen. but now its faded and I look tan. Boo yah.

It`s weird to think that this is the fifth week of this change. And, it`s almost December. The time is flying. We have a baptism planned for saturday. And more planned for December. I don`t know if I´ll still be here in december. But anyways. Love you all and miss you all.

Ciao,

Elder Hjelm

Happy Birthday in San Felipe

Hey family,

I´m bushed. We just got back from playing soccer for our zone activity, where I scored my first goal. It was fun, but extremely hot. This week luckily was a little bit cooler, which was nice. It´s wierd to think that now I´m 20 years old. My package didn`t arrive, but I got my weekly letter from Mark, and we celebrated. Elder Gibby (he is such a nice guy) called ahead to our lunch appointment and told them it was my birthday, without my knowing. Needless to say, I was quite surprised when they brought out the bowl of ice cream with a candle on top. Later on, we bought alfajores, a chilean cookie with caramel and chocolate, and italianos, which is a hot dog with diced tomato, avocado, and mayonaise - so good. That, and some chocolate ice cream, and we had a party. I don`t think that I will forget this birthday, especially since Elder Gibby just told me that his sister gave birth to her son on that same day. Funny how that works out.

Gosh, I really don`t know what more to say. The time is flying by. I`ve already spent three weeks here. My skills in the english language are diminishing as my spanish skills increase. I can basically understand everything now, but there`s a lot of accents and things that i`m having trouble with. People have been saying that my accent is different than that of other gringos, a lot stronger. I guess that`s a good thing. I`m still losing weight - right now I`m hanging around 225 lbs. Now my drivers license isn`t lying. I guess that`s about it.

I miss you all, and wish you luck.

As always,

Elder Hjelm

A pencil with buff legs?

Chile log: Change 4: Week 3: Day 1:

It´s really starting to get hot here. They say that in Santiago, it gets to about 95 - 100 degrees, but it gets hotter in San Felipe. I´m going to come home as a pencil. Well, a pencil with buff legs, because we´re also riding around town on bikes - yes, with helmets. Don´t worry, we´re safe. But yeah, it´s hot.

We have investigators who are really cool. One is giving up smoking, and gave us her cigarettes and lighters, which are now sitting on my desk - I should probably clean that up. We have found people recently, and we are working hard. I enjoy my companions, Elder Gibby and Elder Williams. They are really fun, and work hard.

We are expecting the mission to grow, due the change in age, the beginning of next year. Right now we have about 200 missionaries. We expect to have 280. The church is growing, and I am witnessing it firsthand. I hope that the elections are going well - I have absolutely no Idea how to vote from here. You have to tell me who wins.

Bumm, ba ba ba bumm, I´m lovin´ it,

Elder Hjelm