Birthday Baptizing

Hayden turned 20 on February 21st.  I've been thinking a lot about that first born of ours.  We sent him a birthday care package.  We bundled all the love and support we could in that spendy International Priority Mail box.  No matter what we sent in that box, however, it will never compare to the gifts Hayden has given us while on his mission.  He has shown us about true obedience.  He has shown us that miracles can happen.  He has exemplified losing oneself in the service of God. These things and more.  They can't be put into a box and they certainly can't be purchased.  But, they can be held in our hearts for eternity.  The birthday boy becomes the giver, instead of the receiver.

Hey everybody! 

Well this week was super crazy! I set the goal a couple weeks back to baptize a family on my birthday! Haha!  Families in Chile are super rare for the 'tisms.  Normally they come 1 by 1, but we saw a huge miracle with la familia Troncoso Hermosilla!  They are so awesome. 

The other girl is Connie that we baptized last week!  She was a huge miracle as well, and now her younger sister is gonna get baptized as well. 

I had a great Birthday!  Thanks for all the wishes!  The Lord gave a huge miracle! 

Love y´all! 

Elder Clegg

Worst Party Ever

I was having a bit of a pity party the other day.  I saw other missionaries sending their Moms flowers for Valentine's Day.  I also saw another friend get a package from her missionary serving in Russia!!  There were other Valentine missionary pictures posted and by the time I saw it all, my pity party was in full swing.  I was wishing I could have something sent my way.  After carrying on for albeit too long, I got on Facebook and was not prepared for the wake-up call I was about to receive.  There, at the top of my feed, was this picture of Hayden in white, thumbs up and a huge smile on his face.  A sweet member from Hayden's current ward posted the photo.  The thought came CLEARLY to my mind (kinda like a strong, parental voice) saying, "What more do you need?"  Tears came to my eyes as I was humbled again.  That was all I needed.  Embarrassed that I even held a pity party in the first place, I quickly brought it to an end.  

"This past week was a real good one! We baptized a cool girl named Constanza! She has been an investigator off and on for 8 years.  She´s a single mom and her whole family are members.  So we baptized her.  Her sister, who is also a single mom, came to the service and said she and her daughter want to get baptized too. So many miracles!

I´ve loved the mission.  The other day I took a nap on P-day and I couldn´t sleep.  I just stayed up thinking about all the great experiences I´ve had and all the cool people I´ve been able to meet. I've grown so much!" 

Hitch Hiking = No Bueno

Frankly, hitch hiking scares me.  I remember as a child, traveling to Salt Lake City and seeing hitch hikers on the freeway with their bags packed and thumbs up.  I also remember my parents giving me strong advice to never, EVER pick up a hitch hiker.  I always wondered about their stories.  Why did they need a ride?  Where was their family?  Why were they stranded?  It bothered me that I never knew.  It was all too much for my little brain and heart to take.  Nowadays, I still have reservations about hitch hikers and I also have the same questions I did when I was a kid.  This week, ONE question has been floating around in my mind about my hitch-hikin' missionary son.  Why, oh why?

P. S.  I guarantee you'll find the answer to what hot boxing is, faster than I find out why he missed the bus and had to hitch-hike.



Guys! 

It´s been a super good week here in Talagante!  We have seen so many miracles and had to do SO MUCH administrative stuff.  Holy cow it takes a ton of time.

Funny Stories:

Contacting a house and then all the sudden these four guys walk past and get to the door of their house and start staring at us.  Then some guy does a fist pump and yells, "Welcome to He.." in English.  They run in and slam the door and immediately "Shots" by Lil' Jon starts playing SUPER loud.  I was literally on the ground because I couldn´t walk from laughing so hard. 

Another day in divisions we missed the last bus home and were stuck out in the campo, so we started hitch hiking.  We got a car to stop and then we get in.  The driver starts going and then I realized that it was a bunch of hippies HOT BOXING their van.  Haha!!  Then some guy looks back and is like, "I love Jehovah. Would you die right now for Jehovah?"   Then I was just like, "Oh hey, we´re gonna get off right now."  So we got off and hitch hiked a different car that was way more normal.

We went into a super ghetto riverside camp place and they were just like, "You´ve gotta go!  They tried to stone the last missionaries that came here."  Haha!  Oops! 

I found a dog that looks like an Ewok.  I laughed a good minute for that.  (See picture.)

Spiritual Stories:

We´re teaching a couple super prepared families! We should be able to baptize them on my BIRTHDAY.  That´d be a huge present.  Haha! 

This next week, Connie and Josefina will be getting baptized.  Both are super sick eternal investigators!  They just all of the sudden decided to get baptized. 

Love y´all,

Elder Clegg

Lovin' Life

Hayden is so happy.  He is finding lots to love.  In his words... "I`m happy here in Talagante!  Our sector is city.  It`s basically like having Logan as the city and my sector would be like downtown Logan, then the other sectors could be compared to Paradise.. Newton... Nibley.  It`s pretty fun!  We`ve met a lot of good people!  I`m lovin life!"