12/18/2017
Merry Christmas

Oh man it´s almost Christmas and I forgot to buy a gift for you all!  Well I hope you all feel my prayers and my love this year. That´s the greatest gift I can send home.

I don´t have a lot of time to write today, but I love you all and I hope you have a great Christmas!  I don´t know if the Cybers (places that have computers to write home) will be open next week.  But we will be Skyping home so, if I don´t write next week it´s because of that.

Anyways take care everyone, I miss you all tons and I wish you all the best!

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Answers:

1.What time do you think you will want to Skype on Monday for Christmas?

 At 5:00 here in Chile and 1:00 in Utah

2. Have you been singing Christmas songs at church? 

 Actually we just started like last week.

3. Are there any changes with transfers?

 Elder Taylor and I are staying together YAY!  But Elder Ramones will have a new companion.

4. What are some things you did this week?

 We taught a lot of people, brought an investigator to church, and got sunburned haha.

5. Have you been sharing the light the world a lot this month?

I have been trying to do the light the world this month, but some of the invitations are impossible.  For example it says "Has it been a while since you´ve spent some real time with your family?"  "You should spend some time with them today."  My companion and I thought that one would be a little hard for all the missionaries haha.

12/11/2017
Hola mi familia

Hey it´s almost Christmas time and you know what that means... we still have to work yay!  Actaully I am really exited for Christmas even though we still have to walk all day long.  At least we get to call home and talk to the family.  I thought at first that I might not be able to speak English very well, but that shouldn´t be a problem because I live with 3 people that always speak English haha.  

We had a pretty good week. We found lots of cool people to teach, and they are starting to progress very well.  Please pray for them that we can teach them well and that their father will also be receptive to our message.

I love you guys tons. I don´t have very much time left, but I hope you all have a good holiday season.

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Answers:

           Have you been opening your Christmas gifts everyday with your companion from your             package?

Yes we have been opening our gifts

When are the next transfers?  Do you think you will be staying in Iquique for Christmas?

Next week we have transfers, yes I am almost 100% sure I will be here for Christmas

What did you do for the Christmas party at the mission home?

We had a small conference, then we played a white elephantish game, and then we watch Kung Fu Panda.

Have you met any new great people lately?

Yes we have meet a few good ones!

Did you put up your tiny tree we sent and decorate it?

We did put it up I wanted to send pictures, but I still am having problems with my flash drives and this dumb cyber...

12/4/2017
Christmas Time

Hola Familia!  I am doing well here in Chile.  December is here and it´s reaching that time of year when you just want to put on a swim suit and go outside am I right?  Well I guess not so much where you guys are... but still it´s starting to get realllly hot down here haha! 

We have started the Christmas service this year. We helped an investigator set up her Christmas tree.  We have been trying to help others feel the love of Christ through service and this month I have looked for many opportunities to serve others.

We just had the Christmas conference/party with all the other missionaries, and it was pretty fun.  I realized how old I really am getting because I remember the Christmas conference last year and I was one of the new guys.  Wow that was a long time ago wasn´t it?  Anyways I hope everyone has a good Christmas and holiday season this year.  I love you all tons! Thanks for all the support and love, I miss you!

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Answer:

1. Do you think you will go caroling for the Christmas season?

 I don´t think they will this year, but it is possible.

2. When is your next zone conference or when can you pick up any packages?

 I already have the package and the last conference was on the 1st of December.

3. Do you think you could find a nativity set from Chile that you could get and bring home with you or send home sometime?

 I could bring one home, possibly.

4. Do people decorate for Christmas There? Do they get Christmas trees and decorate them?

 Yes they do, maybe not quite as loco as they do in the states though haha.  They usually have a fake Christmas tree, but yes lots of them do.  

5. Do you do splits with members much?

 Not really, we don´t have that many members that live with us here in Lynch.  Although we did have splits for the open church that we had. 

Sorry I am in a really bad cyber and my camera is having some problems.

11/27/2017
America

Hello family.  We baptized America this week!  It was really cool, because we had her wedding just last week and now she was able to be baptized. We have been working hard and it`s just really cool to see the fruits of our labors, I hope that within the next two weeks we will be able to baptize more.

Because December is getting so close I wanted to challenge everyone to do the light the world campaign  on Mormon.org.  We will all be doing acts of service everyday of December to help others.  It`s really cool and they have an awesome video about it on the website as well.  I recomend watching it and trying to do what it asks.  

Anyways I don`t have a lot of time, but I love you all and I`m grateful for everything that you do!

Love,

Elder Hirschi

1. Did you cook up something for Thanksgiving?

 I actually to be honest I forgot it was Thanksgiving until after it had already passed haha.  Although we did buy a metro pizza to celebrate the baptism that we had!

2. Do you still have your Christmas music and do you guys ever listen to it? Do you need us to send more?

 I do have the Christmas music, but sadly there is a list of music that we can listen to and we can`t listen to anything else.  :(

3. Do you guys do the light the world calendar the church put out for December or share it with others there for Christmas?

Funny that you ask that haha.  Yes we invite others to do it but we don`t actually do all of the acts on it.

4. Will they have another Christmas party at the mission home this year?

 Not in the mission home, but they are coming at the 1st of December to do a white elephant Christmas party thing like last year!

5. Besides soccer what other sports do they play a lot there?

 Basketball is probably the next most.

11/20/2017
MATRIMONIO (Marriage)

This week we had a marriage, and it was way cool.  It was a member named Pablo to one of our investigators. Her name is America and she is really cool.  She is excited to get baptized this Saturday and to be a part of the church.  She has been listening to the missionaries for awhile and has a very strong testimony.  It`s going to be cool to see her be baptized!

Thanksgiving is coming up really fast. I remember that I was in the CCM (MTC) when I had last Thanksgiving.  I can`t believe that time has past that fast, to be honest I still feel like I just got to Chile.  

We are working hard here in Iquique, I hope we can find lots of new people this week.  We have kind of been slacking in finding new people and we almost have nobody left to teach!  We are going to talk with everyone this week, and show them love so that they know we are disciples of Christ.

I miss you guys and love you tons.  Take care!

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Scirpture: Ephesians 5:25 (Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;)

Answers: 

1. What has been one of your favorite things you have ate in Iquique?

 I really like the Chicken with fries that I ate this morning.

2. Have you gotten very many postcards? Is there anything you need we could send you?

 I have gotten a lot of postcards thanks!  We can always use references haha.  No I think I should be ok.  

3. Do you think you will take Elder Ramones up the huge sand hill some time?

 Actaully we almost did it today, but then we decided not to.

4. Do the Chileans have a day they celebrate that is like our Thanksgiving?

 They like to celebrate everyday almost haha.  No they don`t really have a day for Thanksgiving.

5. How has your health and the weather been lately?

 It`s getting a lot hotter, but it still hasn`t reached as bad as Copiapo was last year.  I am doing well, I think I just needed to eat more vegetables, but I bought some today so I should be ok.

6. Do you get together with Elder Butcher for district meetings? What are they like?

Sadly, Elder Butcher is not in our district, however we do go running in the mornings together.  With Elder Rupe!

11/13/2017
Hello Family

Hey guys, I don`t have a lot of time today but I am doing really well.  We had another baptism this week of a little kid named Rohit.  He is only 8 years old, but his parents aren`t members of the church.  Also his older brothers and sisters are members of the church, so his older sister named Lady, said she would take him to church every Sunday that she can.  I got to confirm him in Church yesterday and it was really cool.  He is a super cool little kid and I hope he can learn a lot growing up in the church.

This part is for dad, I totally got to touch a snake today haha.  It felt really scaly and a little slimy just like you would think.  Don`t worry there was a guy who had a snake that was harmless and he let us touch it haha.  I didn`t get to take a photo with it, because it costs 2000 Chilean pesos, that`s like 3$ for us.  It`s not that bad, but I didn`t have any money with me.

We have been working really hard this week and I hope that we can work even harder this next week.  We want to talk with the sister of John Pablo to see if the mom will let her get baptized this week as well.  I hope that you will pray for us that we may touch her heart and let her daughter be baptized.  

Anyways I love you guys tons take care and stay safe.

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Scripture: John 13:34 (We need to love others even if it can be hard to do sometimes)

Answers: 

1.Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?  I know they don't celebrate it there but maybe you can make something from your package.

We don`t have any plans for Thanksgiving, I think I will use the stuff you gave me in the package.  Other than that we will probably just work like normal!

2. Have you been to play soccer lately?

We were going to go today, but we didn`t actually have time, because we needed to cut our hair and pull out money!  We did get to watch a movie called Spirit with the horse who gets caught by the Americans and try to tame him.

3. What is Elder Ramones like?  What does he like to do?

 He is really cool. He is teaching me Tagalog.  I got to know him before Iquique and he likes music and to play chess.  

4. Is Elder Taylor getting pretty good at speaking Spanish?  Does he like it there pretty well?

Yeah he speaks really well, but I don`t think he likes the language very much haha.  He is doing really well. Here in Iquique we are teaching lots of people.

5. Is Luis your ward mission leader?  Have any of you spoken in church in the ward there?

Oh yeah sorry if I didn`t explain.  Luis is our ward mission leader and he is really cool.  Elder Ramones had to speak in church this week but I never have.  Neither has Elder Mortensen or Elder Taylor.

We have a really cool administrator in our apartment that bought us Chinese Food that was really good

11/6/2017
Happy Halloween!

We dressed up as missionaries for this last Halloween haha.  We actually knocked on one door and said trick or treat to see if they would give us candy, but it didn`t really work haha.  It was really cool to see all the kids trick or treating though. It was actually a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be.  Pretty much everyone was dressed up, but there weren`t that many decorations.    

We just got transfers!  Luckily I am still going to stay with my stepson Elder Taylor haha.  Sadly we are not going to stay with Elder Mortensen as a trio although he will still be in our apartment with us.  However his new companion is a Filipino that I met in Copiapo and Antofagasta named Elder Ramones.  He is really cool, and it is going to be cool to have him in the apartment.  Sadly Elder Laso and Elder Thacker had to leave the apartment to have space for all of us, but they just live 2 floors down so we will still see them a lot.  Also we will not have a giant sector anymore which will be nice but it also means that I won`t be able to teach Silvia anymore.

Speaking of Silvia, we had a baptism this last Saturday that went really well.  It was a lady named Silvia and she is really cool.  At first she felt scared to get baptized, but really we all knew she was ready and we could feel the spirit testifying through our lessons that she should do it.  She said yes and got baptized this last week. It was a really good service.  Now we just need to find her someone that can fellowship her a little better, because she only really knows the sister that talks to her with us.  She is going to be a strong member and I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for helping us find her and teach her.  

Thanks mom, I did get the Thanksgiving package, I didn`t know what it was so I already opened it sorry haha.  Thanks tons though, I realllly like the ties you sent me, plus lots of mine are getting slowly worn out. 

Anyways I love you all so much and I am grateful for all the support and love that you give me.  I hope you all are doing well and I will see you all in 1 year!!!

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Scriptures: Mosiah 18:20-21 (We need to teach with unity and not have contention among us)

Pictures/Video:

 So there is a little kid named Matis, and he is super cool haha.  His Uncle Luis (our mission leader), taught him to laugh whenever they say Ríete which is the command form of saying laugh.  He is super cute though, and I think it`s super funny because it sounds like he is coughing haha.  So we took a video of him.

10/30/2017

Hello Family

This week was really good! We`ve been working hard, and even though our baptism fell through this Saturday, I still could feel the many blessings of the Lord this week.  It`s been really different, but also really cool to be in a Trio.  Transfers are next Monday so it looks like we probably won`t be a Trio much longer though :( o well it was cool while it lasted!)

There was a family of converts of Elder Taylor, and they all lived in a great and spacious building haha no, but a big apartment building.  The owner of the apartment building was renting it out to them, but recently got back to Chile and told all of the people in the apartment that they had to leave by the 30th!  So we have been working hard moving investigators and recent converts to new houses.  It is nice to do some service. I haven`t done any in awhile.  

We have been working really hard lately and I realized that I am actually getting super tired again.  I remember at the first of my mission every night I got home I just wanted to sleep, but after awhile I just got used to it.  Recently however, I have been super tired like I was in Copiapo.  So I decided to go to bed early and drink more water while I am working.  

It`s starting to get hot again. The sun has been stronger than ever.  I remember when I first got here in Summer I had a sun burn like everyday.  It`s not quite that bad, but slowly and surely I will be as red as Rudolf`s nose.  Luckily I still have some sun screen that I never got to use last summer so I will start putting that on everyday.  Anyways I assume that on the other end it feels really cold in the United States, so I hope you all can stay warm this winter.

We hiked up Cerro Dragon today.  It is the biggest natural sand dune in the world!!  It was super cool! The sand was realllllly cold because we got up at 7:00 to make it there before it got really hot.  I will have to send some of the cool pictures that we took. I tired to jump and take a picture but it didn`t really turn out haha.  Anyways that was really fun!  I love you all and I hope you are doing well take care!

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Scripture: Alma 29:15 (Behold, they have labored exceedingly, and have brought forth much fruit; and how great shall be their reward)

Answers:

1. Did you get to see Elder Butcher yet?

 Elder Butcher is doing really well. It is super cool to see him again.  His Spanish is amazing compared to what I heard when I last saw him.  He says mine is as well haha.  Anyways he is actually sitting behind me right now as I am writing this.

2. How is your ward there? Are there lots of kids in your ward?

 It`s ok, we do have lots of cool members, but the bishop is a little bit hard.  Don`t get me wrong he is a great guy and really wants to help the ward, but it`s just because he doesn`t like us baptizing people unless it`s done a certain way.  Still a great guy though!  Also Sister Yanet is really cool and helps us with the work a lot.

3. Do kids go trick or treating there for Halloween?

 Well I know they celebrate Halloween, and I assume they have candy, but last year I was in the CCM and this year I haven`t seen it yet so I`m  not sure.

4. What do a lot of the people do for work there in Iquique?

 Lots of them Drive Taxis and others are mechanics, but other than that just the basic jobs.

5. Have you met with your mission President lately?   

 Yeah we had interviews pretty recently and he says he is proud of my hard work!

Pictures: 

10/23/2017

Hello Family

This week was a lot better!  Oh man this week was really good.  Not only did we have the best lunch with a member that I've ever eaten, but we also had a baptism of a 12 year old kid named John Pablo.  He is a really cool kid and has been a ready investigator for a long time, but his mom wouldn`t ever let him get baptized.  She said he was too young for him to be baptized and that he should wait longer. One day the zone leader and I went to their house and had a really spiritual lesson and he started crying and asked if his mom would give him permission.  Then she said with teary eyes as well, if you really believe you are ready I will support your decision.  

There was an Elder that had to go home due to some problems that he was having, so Elder Taylor and I are now in a trio (I don`t know if that`s what they call it in English).  Anyways we are now companions with Elder Mortensen our district leader.  To be honest I never thought I would be in a trio, but it actually can help a lot, because we can do splits with members very easily.  We have been working very hard in our sector to find new people to teach, but it`s just very hard to leave people that are not progressing.  Luckily we found a person the other day, that accepted a baptismal date in the first contact and he is really excited to keep learning more.  I think it`s because of all the prayers from you guys so I wanted to say thanks to everyone who is praying for me.  I hope we can keep teaching him and get him to go to church next week.  

Love,

Elder Hirschi

Scripture: 1 Nephi 19:9 (“And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men”)

Answers:

1. Did you find out what the other missionaries in your apartment are like?  What do they like to do?

 Elder Thacker is from California and he likes Batman and learning new languages, Elder Laso is his companion and he is from Peru and likes rice and music.  Elder Mortensen is our new companion and he his from Idaho and he likes Movies and machines.  Elder Taylor is my step son (Because I am his new trainer), and he likes cooking.  I am Elder Hirschi from Utah, I like to run and sleep during sacrament meeting haha jk.  Anyways that`s all of them!

2. Have you gotten used to being in Iquique and know your way around pretty well now?

 Yeah Iquique is really cool and I have gotten used to my sector pretty quick. It`s going to take me awhile to get used to the memebers though.

3.  Do you guys think you will do anything for Halloween there?

 The missionaries?  I actually have no idea, I am assuming that we won`t.  Although in Chile they do celebrate it.

4. Have you spoken in church in your new area yet?

 No I have not spoken in my ward.  However I have blessed and passed the sacrament for the first time in Chile, and I confirmed John Pablo the other day.

5. What is your ward like there in Iquique?  How is the ward mission leader?

 They are really nice and do their callings well! But they don`t really do too much for the missionaries.  Although I wanted to start teaching them to work with the missionaries better.

Pictures:

Sorry It`s been so long since I`ve sent pictures! (Iquique)

 Me and My Step Son (Sometimes we`re goofballs)

Opening my "Trunky Box", happy hump day!

The Apartment