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!"

Pray for the "tisms"

The work continues.  I can tell Hayden is feeling the time crunch in his mission.  He has set goals he wants to achieve.  I'm going to pray for him to be able to accomplish what he has set out to do. I know Hayden will do his best to bring to pass those miracles.  

"Hey All,

It was a super good week! We were able to baptize Mauricio!  It is the first door that I knocked in Talagante, so that was a cool experience. We know that he was super prepared.  He is 21 and is starting now to prepare for the mission. Such a cool kid. 

Elder Harries got replaced by Elder McDermott in our trio!  Sad to see Elder Harries go!  He is a really good friend.  I`ve had straight gringo comps for a while now. 

I`ve still been doing a ton of divisions, but it`s cool because there`s a lot to see out here! I`m enjoying the sector. We have a few people lined up for baptism!  We`ve just gotta keep working hard and the miracles will keep coming.  I`m sure of that! 

I`ve got 3 changes left...that is not very much time!  I sure want to pass my time here as well as possible. 

Pray for the tisms!

Love,

Elder Clegg"

Baptism of Mauricio

Elder Harries is on the right

Elder Peterson is in white

Goats and Stuff

There was no group email this week, but in his email to me, Hayden describes his new area a little more.  I'm glad he is seeing a different side of Santiago.  I included some images of Talagante I found on Google.  Those are some cute Chilean goats!

"I´ve seen some goats and stuff, so that´s pretty cool. I´ve also seen some cows and the members give us a lot more food. It´s super pretty out here so that´s awesome. Chile is honestly a lot like Utah when you´re in the country. The city I'm in now reminds me a lot of Logan! 

It´s a bit cooler compared to my last area, but it´s still hot as blazes.  My sector is still cityish.  I´m in the center of Talagante, but it´s a lot more green and stuff.  I went out to the boonies this week with the kid I trained...Elder Montero and we went on a division.  He´s in a very famous sector in the mission called Bollenar.  It´s in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!  It was fun because I got to ride a bike. I was jumping and doing wheelies the whole time, haha!  Funnest day I've had in a while, but it would be horrible to be on bike always."

Lost and Found

I've done more than my fair share of losing things.  (And you should know, I HATE losing things!) I've lost car keys too many times to count. Right now losing my cell phone is the thing for which I get teased by my family.  This winter I lost something that is so near and dear to me, I still can't think about it's absence without tearing up. Then there was the ring in 5th grade, my purse forever ago and currently it would seem I've lost my mind!

This week, I felt like I lost my boy.  I didn't know where he was or if he was okay.  I didn't know who was with him, where he was living or ANYTHING!  It's been a long week of waiting to hear where he ended up.  We are grateful he is "found" and happy with his new opportunity.  (And I am left feeling humbled after that test of faith.)


"Hey Guys! 

My P-Day got changed back to Monday... So I actually have some time to write a group letter today! 

This was the craziest week of my mission!  After serving in 5 de Abril for 8 months, President had the AP´s come and tell me I had a special change because there was a zone that needed some extra help.. So they sent me in a trio to TALAGANTE. It´s so sick.  We are the farmland sector! Haha our zone is 8 times as big as Santiago.  So we have a ton of traveling to do.  I´m with Elder Harries from Atlanta and Elder Peterson from Arizona.  They basically put the 3 Elders that are craziest about baptisms and put them all in the same zone. We have more than 30 Elders and Sisters to worry about.  ITS CRAZY! 

We have 5 baptisms on the 23rd and 1 next week!  The crazy part is that almost all of these people have been found in the past 3 or 4 days!  So many miracles. 

The people here are so nice. It´s a variety.  Some are filthy rich and some are very humble.  Like for lunch yesterday, a member took us 30 minutes in his car to a mountain resort where it is just insanely rich. I saw some dope cars and ate a huge lunch. The contrast is crazy. 

I´m super happy to be here.  It´s time to baptize! 

I´m also super sad to leave Amengual and 5 de Abril.  I put so much work into helping that zone and we saw so many miracles. The Bishop told us it was the most baptizing ward in 2015...in all of Chile.  Hope that´s accurate, but I don´t doubt it. 

Looks like this will probably be the sector where I end the mission!  Gotta do my best here. 

Love you all!

Elder Clegg

P.S. Mom.. The only danger I am in here is getting trampled by a cow."

Pictures:

Sector Contrast

New Comps

Awesome Member