Hi everyone!  Thanks for all the birthday wishes!  I had a good birthday and Easter. We ate with a Peruvian family yesterday, and the food was REALLY good! Chilean food is really plain, and so every time we get a little touch of Peru or Bolivia, its a nice little change :) Thanks for the birthday/Easter package, by the way! I´ve been studying the Portuguese book of Mormon now, which is cool. Thanks for that! It makes me feel really smart, because I can understand a language I don´t know! hahaha! I can´t speak it.... or pronounce any of the words, but the grammar and spelling is very similar to Spanish. Thanks for all the candy, too! The smart food disappeared in about 10 seconds ;)  I´m glad that you guys enjoyed Easter as well! 

As for the investigators, there´s a young mom that lives in our sector named Thiare, that is super receptive, and has a lot of desire to change, and be baptized!!! She´s super humble, and willing to follow the will of God for her. The only problem is that she has to get married first. Hopefully we can help her with that, but generally its kind of a long process. The family that we found previously... Hilda, Amaro, and Francisca, are super awesome and receptive, but have been hard to find. It seems that they are really busy people, so we haven´t had the opportunity to teach them again :( But we´ll keep trying!!! We also have an investigator named Cristian, that is Catholic, but has a lot of desire to recieve the truth directly from God,  so he commited to pray and read the Book of Mormon! He´s also kind of hard to find, but he let us teach him at work. It was interesting, as he works in the prison. He gave us a full tour and everything!!! ;) It was super cool, and he´s a really sincere person. 

I´m glad that everyone has been doing well with school, and prom, and work, and that Dad enjoyed his birthday! Anyway, i´m running short on time, but have a great week!

Love, PJ

Hey Everyone!

This week was transfers. I´m staying here in Chañaral, but Elder Burgos is leaving to Arica (the most northern city of the mission). My new companion is another Chilean, named Elder Silva, from Concepción. Hopefully this cambio goes well, and we have lots of success, and help the branch a lot.  About conference in Spanish.... I understand everything at this point, so it was fine.  

About Valentina... the baptism fell through, and her mom asked us to stop passing by for a while, because she´s having difficulties with depression, and essentially doesn´t want the hope of religion to mess with her brain more. (It doesn´t make a ton of sense, but better not to make her mom mad.)

However, this week we were blessed to find a super receptive, religious family, that loved the message we share, and committed to being baptized, if they read the Book of Mormon, and feel that it´s true!!! It was super awesome to get to know them!   Other than that, the week was pretty slow. We worked hard, but it was simply one of those weeks :) We´ll keep working hard, and Heavenly Father will bless our efforts.  Have another great week! 

--Elder Checketts

p.s.  Also, just so you know...we only have an hour to read & write all our emails on P-days, so I usually end up having to rush, and can't write a lot, but try to share the highlights of my week.  :) 

Hey Everyone!

Zone conference was great last week. President Ferreira focused a bit on the numbers, because people were putting really high goals that were not realistic, so he helped the missionaries understand that we have to realize that growth is a process, and that 7 baptisms isn´t a realistic goal, if we didn´t have any last cambio. I don´t have the birthday package yet, but I´ll be getting it next week, at the beginning of the next cambio. We´ll see what happens with transfers, as my companion and I have been together 3 months now, but only one cambio in each sector. 

Conference was super good as well, but I swear it gets shorter every time ;) As the only gringo in Chañaral, I got to watch conference in Spanish. It was super uplifting, and I especially loved the talk by President Uchtdorf, about how fear often motivates us, and how we can have better things motivate us, such as the love of Christ, that will chase away all of our fear. I loved that message! It´s something I need to continue to cultivate as a missionary, especially when I have fear of baptizing someone that could go inactive, or teach someone that I worry won't progress, or try to make an important decision that I feel will upset my companion. If we act in righteousness, and with love, we will always be choosing the right, but also FEELING the right! 

In answer to your questions...  About earthquakes and bugs.... I haven´t felt any earthquakes lately.... and bugs are almost non-existant in this mission! There are lots of ants in Vallenar, as it´s the greenest city in the mission, but in contrast, a city like Calama, in the middle of the desert doesn´t even have FLEAS!!! (I loved Calama!)   About teaching English classes... we try doing English classes, but no one comes. :(   We´ll try it a few more times, but I think we will end up canceling, because it´s more effective to proselyte. As far as things I can´t get here, there´s not really anything I need... and the members are doing well too (and yes mom, they´re feeding me fine!)  In response to a friend who was called to Bolivia on his mission... My Bolivian converts have all been super awesome, down to Earth people, and the Bolivian elder here that shares the apartment is super cool too.  

As for us, we are helping several people prepare for their baptisms soon. The investigator closest to getting baptized is an 18 year-old girl named Valentina. She has a lot of faith in God, and says that our church is different from the others, because you can really feel a peace in the LDS church. She quickly accepted baptism as a way for her to become closer to her Father in Heaven, and she even came to conference with us!!! We´ll keep working with her, and our other investigators, and I´ll tell you how the progress goes!  I hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Checketts

p.s.  About the new temple announced for Saratoga Springs... That is Super awesome! I heard that and was super excited!  The other Elders were kind of jealous, as they´re all latinos.   They said, ´´Another temple in Utah??´´ hahaha! 

Hi Everyone!  

The baptisms of Dilan and Benjamín went great!  (In the photo above: Elder Burgos and I with Benjamín, his brothers, his sister, and her boyfriend and little boy. In the photo below: Elder Burgos and I with Dilan, his aunt, and friends.) Their baptisms were miracles really, as Benjamin had been investigating the church for several years, never recieving permission from his sister to get baptized, until now. And Dilan at first wanted to cancel the baptism since his mom wouldn´t be able to make it, as she doesn´t live with him. However, in the end, he also made the brave decision to be baptized, and the branch in Chañaral is now growing because of the youth converts!!





Speaking of recent converts, Catalina is still doing well, and staying strong in the church, and we´ve started teaching her step-dad, Hugo, who isn´t a member of the church. When we were passing by to prepare Catalina for baptism, Hugo always greeted us with only a few words, and then went into the other room. He seemed cold and unreceptive to us, but we decided one day, when we passed by after Catalina´s baptism to continue teaching her, that we would try teaching Hugo as well. And it turns out he is super receptive!!! He simply is someone that keeps to himself, but we never asked him if he was interested. He doesn´t have a firm faith in God or in Jesus Christ, but really enjoyed our message, and agreed with the principles of the doctrines of Christ, and that by having faith and praying to God to truly know for himself, he can recieve his own answer. He even accepted the idea that baptism is a necessary step, and that he´d like to prepare to be baptized if he feels that what we´ve taught him is true!!! 

We also recently had the opportunity to have a home evening with an inactive family. Because of a problem of one family member, the rest as well stopped going to church. However, as we talked with them, it was obvious that they have strong desires to re-animate the family and begin attending again. I decided to share with them the story of Peter, and the perspective you shared with me a few weeks ago: that we often focus on Peter´s lack of faith, and the fact that he began to sink, but we forget that he didn´t drown! He got back up, and he continued forward with Christ, and they walked back to the boat together. Thanks for that insight, Mom! It really animated that family, and helped them realize that we all start to sink at some point in our lives. But it´s important to focus on what we decide to do afterwards... to stand up, and continue forward with Christ. :)  I hope you all have another great week, and I´ll talk to you later!

Love, PJ (Elder Checketts)  ;)

P.S... about conference... I CAN´T BELIEVE APRIL IS ALREADY COMING UP!!!! I feel like I was just watching the October conference in Calama!!! We also have a zone conference tomorrow with Presidente Ferreira, and those are always great! 

Hi everyone!  

I´m glad you´re doing well!  This week, we´ve seen tons of miracles! First off, we have two baptisms this Saturday: Benjamin, and Dilan. Benjamin is 12, and Dilan is 13. Both are miracle baptisms. Benjamin has been an investigator FOREVER! His sister is a less active member, and she´s his legal guardian, so as he is under age, she has to be the one to sign the baptismal form. The sister missionaries had tried time and time again to teach him and prepare him, but his sister would never give permission for him to get baptized, because she felt like he still didn´t know enough about the church. However, we´ve only been teaching him for a little more than 2 weeks, and when we went to talk to his sister, she signed the baptismal form immediately!!! It just shows that everyone has their time, and that the Spirit will soften the hearts of the people, when it is God´s will that something happens. The other young man is Dilan. He lives with a part member family, and so he had already heard quite a bit about the church, but as we were preparing him with the lessons, and began planning his baptismal interview, he told us that he probably wasn´t going to get baptized, because it´s likely that his mom can´t come to the baptism. However, he agreed to have the interview anyway, and afterwards was super animated and ready to take the step of baptism in his life!!! This week, we also ran into a lady who is a member of the church, but her family aren´t members, and she was the mamita to the missionaries for several years! We also met by coincidence a woman who said her son goes to the LDS church. When she told us his name, we realized it´s one of the hermana´s converts, that´s now super strong in the church, and acompanies the missionaries frequently! So that was really cool to see!  In answer to your question, the other Elders that live with us are from Bolivia, and Peru. They´re cool as well, and definitely help to improve my Spanish. ;)   I hope everyone has a great week!

-Elder Checketts

Hey, everyone!

This week, we were blessed with the baptism of a fourteen year-old girl named Catalina. She was thoroughly prepared by the hermanas (sister missionaries) that were here in Chañaral before us. It was a beautiful experience for her, and for her mom, Zunilda, who is also a member, but has not come to church in several years. 

At the baptism, the Spirit was extremely powerful. Zunilda, who was normally telling us about something bad that happened during the week, had a complete change of perspective, and she mentioned how touched she felt to be part of the baptism of her daughter. In showed simply but powerfully, the change each one of us can have if we simply let the Spirit into our hearts. 

This reminded me of a scripture that I love:

´´I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.´´ Doctrine and Covenants 82:10

The Lord has promised us His Spirit if we simply accept Him and His teachings in our lives. I also love the fact that the Lord doesn´t limit us and our potential. He wants us to be as happy as possible. This not only became a realization when we saw the change the Spirit made on Zunilda, but also something I´ve seen with the loss of the Spirit any time I´ve had an argument with my companion. The opposite is very true as well: that we bacome extremely limited in our potential if we DON¨T allow the Spirit in our hearts. 

´´No estáis limitados por nosotros, sino que estáis limitados por vuestro propio corazón.´´ 2 Corintios 6:12

This scripture is one I´ve shared before, but one I love, especially in Spanish. The scripture is a little different in English, but the literal translation is, ´´Ye are not limited by us, but rather, ye are limited by your own heart.´´ I love those words, and are the ones the I reflect on again and again each day to see if I have done my part in the work of the Lord. Am I limiting myslef today? And how can I improve upon that? 

Overall this week was a good one, and I learned a lot. I hope all of you have another great week, and I´ll write you next Monday!

- Elder Preston Checketts

Hey, everyone! 

This week has been great, here in Chañaral!  The town is really peaceful, and right next to the sea, surrounded by mountains.  

I had the unique opportunity to visit one of Uncle Bart´s converts here in Chile!

When I entered Chañaral, I was really excited to be able to contact several of the people taught by Elder Vance, when he was here several years ago. I made sure not to forget the name Jorge Rojas, that he told me to contact, if I ever made it here. So the first thing I did when I got here, was ask the branch president where Jorge lived, and went to visit him. Unfortunately, when I passed by, he was working, but his wife made sure to tell him that I had passed by to see him. The rest of the week we worked as usual, with the hope to visit Jorge the next week sometime. However, during sacrament meeting on Sunday, during the opening hymn, the man in front of me passed me this photo:

Jorge was super excited to hear that Elder Vance was doing well, as was his sister Deisy, that got baptized at the same time as Jorge, but is not currently living in Chañaral. But upon the request of showing Elder Vance that he´s also doing well, we took this picture:

​Years later, and here´s Jorge, his mother, his wife, and his oldest son, who has since returned from a mission in Guatemala. It was super cool to be able to visit this family, and talk about his conversion, and all that has happened since the missionaries first knocked on his door in 1988.

In other news, my companion and I have a baptism this Saturday! It´s a 13 year-old girl named Catalina, whose mom is a less active member. Catalina was taught by the sister missionaries that were here before, and she has a lot of desire to be baptized and follow Christ. 

As well, today for p-day we took pictures of Chañaral from a local lighthouse. hope you enjoy :)

 

​Hope everyone enjoyed the photos, and I´ll let you all know how the baptism went!

-Elder Checketts