Elder Talon Walz: Feliz ano nuevo!!

Happy new year!

The new year was pretty cool! So now me and Elder Matamoros are living with Elder Roberts and his companion! It is a small house but super fun to be with Elder Roberts again! One cool thing about that is that Elder Roberts has some workout vids! So we have done that the last two mornings and it’s been fun!

On NYE, we had a regular day up until 9pm. Then we bought a bunch of junk food, went to the house, and played Phase 10 haha! It was a lot of fun. Elder Matamoros told us about a tradition they have in Ecuador where they build these little fake people out of stuffed paper and weeds and then burn them at midnight, haha! We still had to be up at 6:30am for study and church.

Here's something random, I had to eat tuna this week! Super gross but I ate it all! It was like a nicer tuna helper so I guess it wasn’t terrible but I definitely didn’t enjoy it. I was starving though and knew I wouldn’t be able to eat anything else and I didn’t want to be rude! So finally, I had fish here! But only tuna. lol

As far as new contacts, we haven’t had too many. I went on exchanges twice this week though and did actually have some cool lessons. I went once with an Elder from Brazil that is our zone leader. He is super energetic and fun and we found a ton of people to teach! Then another day, I had exchanges with my trainer Elder Agostinelli and his new kid that he is training now! His name is Elder Zimmerman from Gilbert! Haha He actually has a Mormon message about him. It’s called like Deyton’s legs or something like that, check it out! Its a cool story! But anyways, he is a greenie and only has like 5 days in the field. His Spanish is struggling a ton and I think that is why I needed to go on divisions with him. I needed to help him realize that it really does get better and gave him a few tricks on what he can do to study better. So, for that it was super cool because I feel like I was able to help him out a lot. I was also able to communicate with Elder Agostinelli much better than last time. He was super excited with my Spanish! For once I was the one translating for someone! That was sweet!

I had a cool conversation with a member this week! I have been thinking about what my favorite stories in the Book of Mormon are because I am going to order a personalized case for my scriptures. There is a place that does them on leather and are super nice so I want one. In the beginning, I knew I wanted Christ on one side and I decided to do the part where he visits the Americas after his resurrection. I really like that part of 3 Nephi. But for the other side I had no idea! I thought about it a lot and three different times I randomly talked about Lehi’s dream with random people. Once a missionary shared it during a lunch. Two days ago, I was talking with a member and he brought up something that I hadn’t thought of. First of all, I like the story because it applies to my personal life. Right now I am living the gospel the best I can and I seriously love it. I want more than anything to be able to come home and live it with all of you like Lehi wanted for his family! But like him, my whole family isn’t active and so that makes me sad. Before, I had thought, yeah I really want my family to be here with me but don’t know exactly what to do. Then he shared with me that Lehi never left the tree. He stood at the tree and called his family to the tree. He told me you need to do the best you can to never leave the tree or the gospel. You can bring them to the gospel by being an example and inviting them to things and sharing experiences with them. You can’t leave the gospel to go find them however. That had a huge impact on me. If I ever leave the church even for a little while, it could be easy to fall away. So I need to do whatever I can to live it throughout my life. I am so grateful for all of my friends and family, I love them so much! I believe in our Father's plan for us and hope to share that with as many people as I can here in Chile and at home. I love all of the great blessings that I have in my life through living the gospel. :)

I am super excited for this new year!! I have set some solid goals that I think will help me a ton! I love you tons as well! Have a great week!