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.