Week 31: Adventures of truth or dare rainbow care bear

You guys Zach has turned into a care bear. If you don't know what a care bear is, please leave this blog, and go live in the 90's for a minute. You are way to young to be reading this blog. Just kidding, all ages are allowed here. Anyways Zach was told this week that he reminds his zone leader of a care bear, and that every time he gives a hug, rainbows shoot out of his body. This mental picture is actually kind of disturbing as I think longer about it...

This week, Francisco (the man who Zach and his companion met in the park to give him some marriage counseling) came to church this week, and not only him, his wife was there too! What an awesome change to see, that after his mistakes, he can come back and stay true to the covenants he made with his wife in the temple. I truly hope they keep it up, because eternal families are AWESOME!

Zach is supposedly becoming more and more daring. I wont believe it until he crosses that bridge by himself in Victoria. But really, he was challenged this week by another missionary to contact an entire bus! Heyo! Four elders on the bus all helped. Zach stood up and started singing "nearer my god to thee", another elder was introducing themselves, and the other two were handing out pictures of Christ. What a smarty pants idea! I hope that someone on that bus was touched, im sure that at least one person on that bus was in desperate need of that pick me up. Well Zach has said, he wants dares. So send him dares. (Related to his mission of course.)  Mine is: Zach I dare you, to contact more GRANDMAS! What happened to all these cranky grandma stories that made me laugh so hard that I peed my pants?" I was pregnant, so that was understandable. I DARE YOU!

Pipe went to EFY this week, Zach was a little worried because they were unable to contact him for a week during this time. When he came back, Zach and his companion went to visit with him to give him some awesome news. I am actually going to paste this from his letter because it was such a cool story!

"We passed by his house. He lives in an old beat up apartment behind the church in lagunillas. As we knocked the door not knowing what to think he opened the door. As he did I had a flash back to when I first contacted his house and saw a young confused 15 year old, but when he opened the door he was different. He opened the door and I saw the light shining from him. He told us to enter. He changed is clothes from wearing a basketball jersey which isn't a bad thing to wear but was wearing a nice read shirt. He shaved his mo hawk off of his head and I knew just from the light shining in his eyes that he was different.

We started with a prayer before we told him the news. The special news was this.... "pipe we are sad to tell you that you will not be baptized on the 28th.... when we told him that his head dropped down. But then following that we replied.... "but will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized this Saturday at 11 o'clock in the morning?" His head shot up and looked at my comp and connected with my comps eyes. He then said what? He turned and looked at me in the eyes and the spirit then permeated through the room and touched my heart so strong as he looked at my eyes I had a flash back of every moment that I had with him. Teaching, Helping, Changing, Inviting him to do things. He then started to cry and replied yes! It was a very touching experience.

This Saturday pipe will be baptized due to the prayers and fasts and amazing change and example that pipe has shown. The mission president was so impressed with pipe when he heard he went to efy that he gave us permission to extend the call to be clean of his past and start in the road to eternal life."

HASTA LUEGO!

Week 30: Adventures of hat tricks

Well Zach is super excited about an upcoming ward soccer tournament, that the missionaries were invited to. They all have custom made t-shirts and everything. So gangster. Speaking of gangsters, lets talk about another soccer match that Zach was having with some flites (gangsters). These gangsters thought that Zach was Percy, a player on Hollands soccer team. Needless to say, Zach had a hat trick (soccer mumbo jumbo for more than one goal scored in one game), scoring 6 goals! Wowsa! Zach didn't only brag about his soccer skills in this weeks letter, he also bragged about his cooking skills. He tells all of the members for family home evening that he is going to make gringo dessert for them (no bake cookies). Apparently they all love it though. He said that their "taste buds fly in all different directions". Haha, thats Zach for yuh :)

We remember Pipe, right? Young guy that Zach and his companion have been teaching for about a month now? Well he had committed to a baptism date, but turns out that there are some different rules to being baptized in Chile when you are under 16 years of age. When they told him he couldnt be baptized yet, he was devastated (understandably). They had three options, one, they could wait until he turned 16, two, he could attend church for 12 more meetings, or three, his father could become an active member again and that would speed the process along. Well during this lesson where they told him he would not be baptized on his expected date, they also taught him about fasting. That day, Pipe fasted for the first time ever! Pipe showed up to church the next day with even more desire to be baptized. He knows the church is true and has accepted all of their discussions. This little guy is 15 yall, he has a better testimony than most members! That night he had fasted, he had a real, live miracle happen. As he was sitting around the dinner table with his family, his father asked him why he wasnt eating. His father had lost his job, so money is tight, and food is a precious commodity to this family. He responded to his family that he could not be baptized the next week and was fasting. The next week at church, Pipe showed up with his father, after his dad promised to give the church another chance so Pipe could be baptized sooner. Pipe is also attending EFY with the young men this following week. What in incredible blessing, for Zach to see such an incredible miracle happen through the power of fasting!

Anyways, that is all for this week!

Hasta luego!

Week 29: Adventures of the broken bromance

ALOOOOO!

Zach opened his letter this week with some very exciting news. In fact I don't know if I should tell you guys, because it is way too exciting... It may make your head explode.  If you don't want your head to explode into a million pieces, skip to the next paragraph, don't say I didn't warn you. He was eating DOMINOS PIZZA for lunch! WHAT?! He was in Concepcion with Elder Castro, where they found a food court with some sweet, delicious, American pizza, that he missed so much. So if your head is still intact, count yourself lucky. Our family is obsessed with pizza. We have pizza at least once a week, mostly in the middle of the night (my dad has night pizza cravings). Anyways, he misses pizza a lot. Its in his blood. We have taken up entirely too much space talking about pizza and heads exploding, so lets move on.

Elder Van Pelt and Elder Gibson

As most of you know, Zach is a sensitive soul. We have known that all of his life. He has a ginormous (not literally) heart, that holds so much love. He really is a special guy! Well, this week he had to say goodbye to Elder Gibson, which as you have read, is his favorite companion thus far. They really clicked, and Zach became really close to him. So close, that they developed a bromance. Yes a brotherly romance, that ultimately was ended in a forceful breakup. When Elder Gibson left, Zach actually broke down into tears. He cried and cried for the entire week. Just kidding, he just cried when he left. However, out with the old, in with the new, Elder Castro has replaced Elder Gibson (physically but not spiritually).  Zach certainly has enjoyed him around, as I said last week, he speaks only Spanish, so it will be new for Zach. Zach described him as a jolly gummy bear, and there is nothing that could be better than a life-size, jolly, gummy bear. Nothing. When Elder Gibson left, and Zach was crying, he looked over and saw their zone leader crying too. Zach knew why he, himself was crying, because he wouldn't see Elder Gibson for a long time,but had no idea why the zone leader was crying. He said it was probably because they were both from Texas? Which is probably a valid point. Texas cry babies. 

Elder Van Pelt and Elder Castro

Zach was able to liken some of our family situations to some people struggling over there in Chile, which I thought was pretty cool. All things happen for a reason! I won't go into detail, but most of you know the situation with our sister, who got pregnant and gave birth to our beautiful little niece Tegan, 18 months ago. She is seriously the cutest. Anyways, that was one of the most difficult trials for our family, but we have learned so much from it, and has made us absolutely stronger as  a family. Now our sister has found a man who has stepped up to the plate to be an awesome husband and awesome father, something that has been missing from her and my nieces life. They are actually going to be sealed together this spring. In Chile, Zach has met a man who is actually a member, sealed to his wife, but has been separated from her for a month or so and had fallen away from the church. Zach told him this story of our family, and that he can always return. Well he told him that he was prompted to be there, that there is hope, and he is not alone. After that he committed to reactivation and to work on whatever he needs to, to be with his family forever. Amazing! 

That's all for this week friends and family, keep Zach and his special work in your prayers. 

Hasta luego!

Elder Van Pelt and Elder Dudley

Elder Van Pelt and Elder Thompson

Elder Gibson, Hermana Riggs, Elder Van Pelt

Elder Woods, Elder Manscil, Elder Van Pelt

Elder Noel and Elder Van Pelt

Elder Woodfield, Elder Van Pelt

Elder Gibson and their guard dog