Week 28: Aventuras de habla sólo español

ALO!

Well sadly, the dynamic duo are done with their cambio together. Elder Gibson is off to new things and new places, and has left Zach with more confidence than he has ever had. He also left him with a companion who is from Chile and only speaks Spanish. So surprise, surprise, Zach is going to be forced to speak a whole lot more Spanish than he has been. He has had the convenience of having roommates who are from the states and speak English. So this will be kind of fun! He is nervous, but also is excited to face this new challenge of interacting with an all Spanish speaking Elder.

Elder Van Pelt and Elder Gibson have been working so hard in this area, and they have lots of work to be done to finish things up, so Zach is hopeful his new companion will be willing to work hard and finish things up. They actually have a baptism set for February 6th for a guy named Pipe. He showed up to church for the first time in a basketball jersey and basketball shoes, (hey, if women can wear pant's to church, anything is possible right?) this last week he showed up in a shirt and tie, however, and was talking about being excited for his baptism.

In his letter, Zach explained that the biggest thing he has learned on his mission thus far, is to truly love. Our soon to be brother-in-law, Chan, put it perfectly a few weeks ago, that being on a mission is the closest you will ever feel to how Christ felt during his ministry. Just love for everyone. Zach for instance said that some missionaries seem to fall into a pattern, which seems to be pretty easy because you are doing the same thing everyday on such a tight schedule. He said that he has tried to break out of that pattern. Instead of walking up to investigators and doing his scripted "Hi I am a missionary, would you like to hear my message...", he tries to relate to them. He will walk up, tell a joke and talk to them. I think that is a great way to show love to others.We, as members, don't need to focus on hammering principles into peoples minds to get them to come to the gospel. We can show love, and care for them. That will go a long way! Zach has seen a lot of success with just taking a moment and getting to know people, it has opened up people to him in many ways.

Anyways, the letter wasn't very long this week, but it was full of great content! Hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember to love EVERYONE! Just like Zachy :)

Week 27: Adventures of winning the Olympics

Alo everybody!

I hope you all have had a fantabulous week. Zach had a super fun time this week in Chile. Sounds like he is hardly working... Just kidding, he is totally working really hard with Elder Gibson. But really, it sounds like a fun time over there :)

Originally Elder Van Pelt did not write a letter this week on his given p-day (monday), which probably would have totally freaked my mom out, if she hadn't looked on her Chile missionary mom support group. (She is 111 days sober of Zach, congrats mom!) Anyways, he ended up emailing us on Tuesday, which was a fun little mix up.

The work has just been pushing forward with these two guys! They really do seem like the dream team. From what it sounds like, they will be splitting up this week to have new adventures. Zach will be getting a new companion that (I think) he will be training. So pray hard that this new companion is not a meany pants. We don't want any of those! They had a baptism this week for a 9 year old little gal, named Mirca, who loved learning all the lessons from those awesome missionaries. She read and accepted everything that they gave to her, (which is probably more than most members of the church do) so she sounds like she will be a great contribution to the Church in Chile. Her mom was a non-active member, but has recently been re-activated, and her father has nothing to do with it. He went to Mircas baptism and was moved to tears seeing her make that commitment, Zach said it was so tender.

Elder Van Pelt and Elder Gibson also received a surprising call from a man they had been teaching and had a baptism date set, whose name is Jose. I guess they met Jose at a local park to talk to him after receiving a call with a panicked Jose. Just recently Jose was kicked out of his house by his wife, who was referred to as "crazy", and threw something at his head that left a gnarly bruise. He expressed that he was forced out of the house, leaving his 3 kids with her after telling her that he wanted to get baptized. He told them he tried to go to church but the wife would have him stay home and take care of the kids. Well of course most of you know, or should know, that Zach is not a marriage counselor. That is a given because he is an 18 year old missionary. Anyways, the elders sat with him and tried to console him with scriptures and encouragement of love. They later bought him some breakfast, (which was super nice of them, since they have such a tight budget as missionaries, it amazes me how selfless he is.) and he hitchhiked back to Uruguay with some money that another member gave him, since all the rest of his family lives there. His plan is to get a stable job and fight for his kids, then find the missionaries in Uruguay and get baptized by them. Now, this guy is either really down on luck and Satan is really trying hard to keep him down, or he REALLY doesn't want to get baptized and made up a crazy elaborate story for Elder Van Pelt and Elder Gibson, to get out of his baptism commitment. Either way, keep him in your prayers!

So the reason Zach was not able to email us on Monday, is because he was going on a fun little 3 hour trip on a bus (with no air conditioning) and stayed at a house a little closer to where they would be having a mission activity. Zach ended up sleeping on the cold, hard ground, with no blankets, so he slept for about 2 hours. (let me tell you, the Van Pelts do not do good without sleep, it is a prized priority.) They got up at 5:30 AM to go to Traiguen (which is about 30 minutes outside of Zachs first area in Victoria) for a mission activity. The activity ended up being a missionary Olympics, which is soooo

dope. Can you imagine? The most honest, holy Olympics in the world! All the different zones competed against each other and they all had their own little flags to represent their zones. Zach competed in two games, ultimate frisbee, and dodge ball. Jokes on them, our family had a large stint, where we played dodge ball against each other every night in our backyard for like 2 years, so basically he was trained well for this activity. So that was that, and they CRUSHED all other zones. Because we are winners. That sounds cocky, but whatever, we totally are. After that, they had a yummy, delicious lunch of all-american hamburgers and hot dogs, then watching "Meet the Mormons" (which I haven't seen yet, but totally want to because of Zach's mention of a kick boxer, uh, hello, that's awesome). Well they left that activity on Monday at about 6 PM and didn't get home until about 8 AM on Tuesday, which is when we received his weekly letter. So basically he didn't sleep two nights in a row.

Zach ended his letter with him trying to get us to promise to not go to Disneyland with his two neices, because he wants to go with them for their first time. He must have not heard about the Disneyland Measles epidemic. Either way, there are no promises. Measles or not Disneyland rocks. Thats totally off subject.

Keep your prayers coming for Zach, he is doing so good and loves to hear from every one of you! Again, handwritten letters are the bomb, they make him so happy!

HASTA LUEGO!!!

Week 26: Adventures of pants on the ground

Alo everybody! It is week 26 yo! So crazy! It seems like this mission is just flying by… I mean not fast enough, but just enough to be comfortable. Zach, as he has been in the past, is great! He absolutely loves Chile and all the people who live there. You can truly tell he has a light about him and that those people are so special to him, the way he writes about and interacts with them. What an awesome thing it is doing for him to see these people who are living differently, turning to Christ, and starting to live not all that different from us here at home. Cool, cool!

Zach and Elder Gibson have been working super hard lately (as if that was in question). They are working more and more on members of the church who have fallen away and become in-active. In fact he said that is where they are finding most success, in bringing the gospel back into members lives. So that is pretty cool. I know there is a lot of inactivity here in Utah, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner a couple weeks ago and they told us that Utah is one of the biggest missions! Lots of work to be done here at home, so remember to always be a good example and search for those who may need a pick me up. On top of the success of bringing members back into the fold, he and Elder Gibson also have 6 baptism dates set! Wow, the work is moving forward with these two gospel-a-holics.

For p-day this week, Elder Van Pelt and Elder Gibson were able to go on a super awesome bike ride. It is nice that with all the work they are doing, they can have a day to explore, have fun and relax in such a beautiful place. Coming from Zach, Chileans have no bike manners, of course that is a very generalized statement… Many probably have wonderful bike manners. He mentioned to my husband and his father, who are avid bikers, to never go biking in Chile. Nonetheless, he has produced some beautiful pictures for our eyes to gaze upon. Some of the paths they rode on were cobble stone, which sounds uncomfortable, but super cool! He even mentioned that they got caught behind a grandma and her grandson with "his pants on the ground, hat turned sideways, gold in his mouth". Now this statement is an inside joke between Zach, his sister Cassie and I. But since I thought it was so funny that he mentioned it in his letter, I will share with you the inside joke.

One day we were in a hotel in Arizona I think and an episode of American Idol came on. It was one of the episodes where the contestants try out to be in the running for the competition. Well of course we sat down and watched it together, because, well, we honestly love to laugh at peoples unfortunate singing abilities. So here is the video of the guy that randomly showed up while we were watching.

So now you are in on the inside joke. Do you feel special now? Because you should. Anyways, on that note, Zach was annoyed by the kid, but I enjoyed is misfortune.

Zach was able to go to a Chinese buffet this week. Which is hard for me to wrap my mind around. It seems so weird to me to eat Chinese food in Chile. It is stupid, because we eat Chinese food here in America, so why wouldn't they in Chile? Random. I know. Anyways, Chinese food is Zachs favorite food. Those of you who really know him, he wanted to constantly eat at China Wok in Spanish Fork. So much so, our family have become friends of the couple who own China Wok (shout out to Lee and Nancy who make the best Chinese food in Spanish Fork).  He really loves Chinese food though. So it was a big deal for him to be able to eat as much as he wanted. Too bad he's trying to not get fat, so he didn't even eat as much as he wanted.

I will end this post with a direct quote from Zachs letter, because it is too good not to share:

"In many of my emails and letters that I have received I have been given so much encouragement. A mission is super tasking and takes you to the highs and lows of any situation. Many days I spend my time praying to be given the strength to keep doing what missionaries do. I found that my purpose as a missionary is not to change the world in a dramatic move ore something that I ever did, but to bring happiness to others. Love to others. Enjoyment and laughter.

Before my mission I thought about what I could encounter for the next two years, what I would be able to accomplish. But what I found here in the mission wasn't any different than what I felt at home with my family. God doesn't need you on a mission, he only wants you on a mission. No matter what happens, the work will penatrate every every continent and sound in every ear.

My vision of missionary work has changed. Im not just thinking about what I can do now, but how I can forget about me and focus on others. I find that through smiling at people who are mad to see missionaries. I find that teaching and looking for others, helps me achieve what I want to do. Forget myself and serve others.

Im not the type of person who could be the first one to cross the track in an iron man, or become someone hugely known in the wold, or even enter into the olympics. But I don have something that others don't have. The gospel. The gospel blesses me with love. That love is hard for me to keep in  when I feel it. I am spreading love to others here in chile. No matter what we do there is no defense to love. Im going to love others and help them see that the gospel is what brings us happiness. "

Hasta luego!!

Week 25: Adventures of a Chilean Christmas

Well I will take this moment to wish everyone a late Merry Christmas. This last week was uber hectic, but it was AWESOME! We were all really worried about getting our skype call to work with Zach. Everyone was super stressed that Christmas would come and go without any call and we would cry forever. Christmas eve, my husband Austin even mentioned that he wouldn't be surprised if Zach decided that he wanted to focus on the work and that he couldn't get distracted by our family call. I think I smacked him for saying such a thing and maybe jinxing us. We were so worried in fact, that we had 3 lap tops set up in the room, with 3 different skype accounts, waiting for some sign of a missionary call. Luckily, it all worked out great! We talked to Zach for the allotted 45 minutes, plus 60 more minutes... But that kind of sinning is okay with Heavenly Father.  We got to see his super tan face (more tan than normal) and he got to meet a couple new additions to our family, his new little niece (Zoey), and his new soon to be brother-in-law (Chan). I had never known how amazing these skype calls could be and how truly dedicated Zach was to be giving up so much for 2 years. He will not actually meet my daughter until she is 2 years old, I think he realized that when he saw her and was shedding a tear or two when we held her up to the screen. We even got to meet Zachs new companion, Elder Gibson (the Texan). He was super nice and you can tell that him and Zach have a cool, special bond. They are going to do great things together this combio.

We asked Zach about pretty much everything, from girls that are writing him, to what the people of Chile are like. There wasn't much silence during our long conversation, which was nice! He told us that after his call him and Elder Gibson were going to go to the beach and build sand castles. So pretty much Zach is doing GREAT! We are so happy and so proud of him. If you guys could see him now, I don't know if you would even recognize him. The way he carries himself in confidence is amazing, he knows what he is doing and he knows its the right thing. He has such faith and I LOVE IT. Also he has a total Spanish accent. It seemed hard for him to speak in English. Sometimes he could only describe things in Spanish.

Well Elder Van Pelt and Elder Gibson are really chipping away at all the souls who need saving in Chile. They have even resorted to singing at peoples doorsteps to get them to listen to their message. He said that they knock on the door and give them a choice, they can either sing on their doorstep or they can sing inside their house. Most people invite them in and they will sing a song, give them a lesson and show them a Mormon message. I guess it is a pretty darn good strategy, cause it is totally working. They have contacted a ton of people in this new area, in fact Zach said one day they had contacted 75 people. That is more than most of his weeks in his last area, so it is moving forward and they are having some great success. Their next step is to get all these people to their first Sunday at church.