December 26, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

So, I think I´m going to go through the week chronologically, because a lot happened and I want to keep it all sorted out.

First off, two days of interchanges. First, Elder Do Nacimento, one of the zone leaders, came up and worked with me in my area. He is ancient in the mission--actually going home next week. He was so animated and motivated to talk to people, several times crossing a street to invite someone to hear about the gospel, once asking a man to put his shovel down and come over and listen to us. It reminded me how important it is to talk to people, how God really puts people in our path who are prepared and who want the gospel, and how our job is to remember that and give every single person the opportunity to accept.

Next day was interchanges in Casa Blanca with Elder Rivoira, an Argentine who arrived with me in Chile. We had a great time teaching the law of chastity to two girls ages 9 and 10. Awkward.... But pretty necessary, sin duda.

Friday we had a mission conference. Not as big as the last one, where everyone in the mission came, but still a third of the mission. We started out talking about health and safety, then about Joseph Smith, we performed an impromptu Christmas program, and we watched "A Christmas Carol" (which would have been incredibly scary if it was made in 2010, but was actually rather cute).

In the Christmas program, my zone sang "the first noel." The arrangement called for the second verse sung as a solo, and I was chosen to do that. After singing it through twice it was time to start. I had forgotten to tell the other missionaries that the last time I performed something in public I had to pause for 30 seconds in the middle to stop shaking (which is weird, because public speaking doesn´t bother me at all)... I made it through the verse without fainting, but I was definitely shaking pretty bad. To me my voice sounded like a billy goat I was shaking to much. But, a couple of people told me I did well, and Hermana Gillespie, the mission president´s wife, told me to make sure I am using my voice in my mission (sacrament meeting, before lessons, etc), so I guess I did better than I thought. Or better than it sounded to me. And who knows, maybe if I keep singing throughout all my mission, I´ll kick the stage fright!

Saturday, Christmas Eve, was reeeeally full. We started out cleaning out the church--I vacuumed and dusted the chapel and hosed down one of the outside walls. Then we headed off to a hospital, carrying sacks of presents from all of the relief society´s in all the stakes, some Elders wearing santa hats. We sang Christmas hymns, gave out a bunch of presents, and then got to watch as the children´s faces (and their mother´s faces) brightened up as they heard us sing.

We spent Christmas Eve with a great family in the ward, la familia Rivas Quiroz. We read the Christmas story from Matthew, Luke, and Isaiah, sang hymns and primary songs, and shared what Christmas meant for us. I translated part of "I Celebrate the Day," by Relient K, to use as a part of my explanation. Then we ate a lot of food and laughed while Elder Umbach played with a Max Steel doll left over from the hospital (that´s a "you had to be there" moment, but it was quite hilarious).

Christmas day was very relaxing, church, studies, calls to families, and 2 different onces (like a small dinner)--one with the ward mission leader, one with our mamita. By the end of the day I had eaten way too much, meaning I felt about the same--content and happy--as every other Christmas of my life!

Something that I decided over the weekend: We watched a Mormon Message in which Heber J. Grant (I think) is shown giving his brand new coat to a poor boy in an alleyway who was huddled around a heating grate trying to keep warm. I decided that I want to live by the motto "clothing is to be given away." Who knows how much of a difference that coat made to that boy--maybe it even saved his life? And besides, I can buy seven coats every winter from Goodwill for the same price as one from Sears.

Overall, first Christmas on my mission was great. I missed being with you all, tree-decorating and present-unwrapping and breakfast caserol-eating, but I am happy that I can give up a few Christmases with my family so that other people can live forever with theirs.

Lots of love,

Elder Jason Ray

Picture Time

View of the hills in the city that they climb.

Christmas picture with the family they spent Christmas with.  Jason says "they just pose this way".

In the hospital delivering gifts to the kids.

Jason with Anastasia, 4 yr old

December 19, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

Oh, the life of a missionary is fantastic. This week was pretty interesting, a training meeting that Elder Paulsen went to meant that I had interchanges with Elder Wardrop, who was in my district in the MTC--we worked one day in his area and one day in mine. It was amazing to see how far we have both come, that we could talk to people in Spanish on the street, teach people in their homes, help people come closer to Christ in a language we just started learning four months ago.

One of the coolest experiences from those two days was a part-member family we visited. The mother and two sons had been baptized five years ago, the husband no. The two sons, ages 13 and 15, were currently inactive. We started out teaching specifically to the husband, but the lesson kind of morphed to include the entire family. By the end of the lesson the two sons said they would give church another shot, and the husband said when he knew the Book of Mormon was true he would be baptized. The wife seemed pretty touched and said, "Having my whole family together in the church has been my dream for years. I can finally see it happening now." Something I´ve been wondering for the past few weeks is, why does God give 19 year old kids the amazing blessing of being his hands and his servants? It´s such an amazing privilege, I feel like the application process should involve jumping through hoops of fire and swimming the English channel.

Two characteristics I have developed as a missionary. Number one: I cry in movies. Elder Paulsen has quite the LDS film collection, from Joseph Smith--Prophet of the Restoration to The Testaments to On the Lord´s Errand. We like to watch these movies with recent converts, or to help build the faith of people who need a little extra push to help them come closer to Christ. And every single time we watch a movie, I end up sobbing. The first movie we watched was ok because I didn´t understand the words in Spanish, but now that I understand, I am always in tears by the end of the movie. Luckily for me, most of the time the investigators are too. But it still makes me laugh at myself :D

Number two: I hand out pass-along cards to kids. There are two groups of children who now ask me for pass-along cards any time we pass by where they are playing (one right by where we live, another on a path we walk a couple times a week). I started out by giving a few kids pass-along cards (and teaching them to say "baptize me") while Elder Paulsen was on the phone, and somehow it just spread. The kids love the pictures on the cards, and every time they come running up and asking for them I think, "Suffer the little children to come unto me."

Testimony of the power of the priesthood--all day Saturday I felt like I was starting to come down with something bad. My mind was scattered, I didn´t have much energy, and I couldn´t eat my usually seven and a half plates at lunch (chiste no más, so se preocupen). Saturday night I received a blessing, and yesterday I worked hard and felt wonderful. Such a blessing it is to have the power of God here on the earth, and in my apartment, to help everybody get to eternal life, and to help me keep working when I´m coming down with a fever.

And, final note of the week. On Saturday morning, Alberto was baptized. Alberto is the husband of one recent convert and the grandpa of another. About four weeks ago he looked at us across his table and said "Hermanos, prepárenme (Brothers, prepare me)." About forty eight hours ago, he made the choice to follow God forever. After he came up out of the water (and after I messed up the prayer once and almost smashed his head against the wall the second time,) he stood there in the font and cried a little bit. There´s a new light in his eyes now. There´s a new hope in his family, as three of them have now come to the gospel. This next week he will be confirmed and receive the priesthood. And then on to eternal salvation!

Viviendo el sueño :D

Con amor,

Elder Jason Ray

Picture Time from the baptism, Jason's note on the pictures
Baptism fotos! You should be able to recognize Gaston, the ward mission leader. Also in the family foto are Rosa, Alberto´s wife; Melany, a granddaughter; and María, who hasn´t started investigating the church yet (her son is, but he didn´t come to the baptism).

December 12, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

I passed two months in Chile a few days ago. Time pretty much zips by here, it´s crazy!

So, nicely busy week to write about today. I´ll try to fit it all in in the 15 minutes I have left on the computer! (anyone want to time my wpm?)

Some news for Guillermo, who is basically amazing and one of my favorite people. He (and Luis) got callings last week. When we went by to watch a video with him this week, he asked us how he could learn to work in his new calling (Biblioteca=Library). Then he said, ¨You have to understand, I want to fulfill my calling well because it is for God, not for you.¨ Wow! That just awes me, that someone who three months ago didn´t know that Mormon and Latter-day Saint were the same thing now has a sense of duty towards God. And I got to be a part of that!

Recently, we have decided to start working more with inactive members. There are quite a few recent converts on the list that I have never met (meaning they have never come to church). There are a lot of reasons for this, including that many of them are youth or kids and aren´t coming because their caretaker stopped coming, but I believe we can help them all in different ways. And helping someone get stable and solid in the church is just as important in baptizing them in the first place, I believe!

Lucía, whose life is so different and difficult (I think I wrote a bit about her last week, right?) has been reading in the Book of Mormon. She struggles to read and can only do a few verses at a time, but she says that she reads it in the morning, then ¨leaves the house saying hi to everyone and their dog.¨ The change that is going to take place in her life is going to be incredible. When she receives the Holy Ghost... Oh, I love this job!

Another reason I love this job so much is because of how much I am growing personally. For example, I had kind of an epiphany on faith this week. I´ve always known= that through faith miracles were possible, and more faith means more miracles. But I had the mistaken idea that because of that, my faith--or my willpower--influenced what God did. I´ve realized that faith isn´t really willpower, rather absolute trust that God (1) can do something and (2) will do it (because it is right, and because it will help one of His children, etc). I feel like this epiphany has changed the way I view my mission and, really, my whole life.

This last weekend we had two Christmas activities, one in the ward and one in the stake. They were both amazing. The ward activity was a play type presentation where a grandmother explains Christmas to two grand kids, with the events being acted out behind them (the missionaries explained the colors of Christmas. I was green). The stake activity had three different choirs. Me being me, I was basically on cloud nine all during the stake activity. Choirs rock :D I also learned how to be a missionary during an activity, talking with members and their friends, sharing the spirit and the spirit of Christmas. I love my job.

Closing note for today--Saturday´s baptism. This last Saturday Victor, an eternal investigator whose entire family are members, finally decided he wanted to be baptized. He has gone to church for about 20 years, and most of the ward came to his service. His wife and one of his daughters sang a song before he was baptized--families can be together forever. Halfway through his wife started crying. It was such an amazing experience, to see this family move closer to becoming eternal.

Viviendo el sueño. Living the dream.

Con amor,

Elder Jason Ray

December 5, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

Week of laughs, week of miracles. Every day I feel like I learn so so much, yet also realize how much more I need to learn. I once heard that knowledge is like a balloon. Everything inside the balloon is what you know, everything outside is what you don´t know. The surface of the balloon is what you know that you don´t know. So, the more you know, the bigger the balloon, the more you know you don´t know... So, I guess my balloon is just growing a lot!

Last Tuesday we had a fun service project that took up most of the day. We helped Hermano Videla, a slightly senile father of a lady who gives us lunch every week, to put up a roof in a house he is building (or maybe renovating? Anyway, good for him for keeping busy in his old age). I can see why he needed us, having a couple tall gringos (and a tall Paraguayo) helped a lot. But oh, Chilean construction! I remember construction the way I learned it from Dad--you measure twice (or seven times) and cut once. And everything fits together perfectly, precisely, exactly. In Chile things go more in a whatever-works sort of way. We ended up cutting the pieces of roofing in kind of trapaziodal shapes to fit them against each other and the walls. A few times we had to attach a little board onto the main supporting beam so that we could nail the roofing on at all! And the best part--every time our dearly beloved slightly senile Hermano Videla cut a piece of roofing, he laid it flat down on the cement floor and cut a line in the cement alone with a line in the panel. We all ran out of the house when he started cutting to avoid getting cement in our lungs. We´ll see how well we avoided it in another 50 years, huh?

Yesterday in church, both Guillermo and Luis got callings--librarian and first counselor in the Sunday school. So amazing to see them make all this progress! I can literally see a new light in Guillermo´s eyes. He has a new vigor, a new smile, that was definitely lacking before his baptism. Luis, too, got pretty emotional when someone asked him how the gospel has blessed his family during Gospel Principles. I love this job!

I had interchanges to Casablanca this week. Very hot and no hills--definitely a change from Valparaíso! We had some great lessons, and I´m pretty sure I learned things that will totally shape the rest of my mission, but the coolest experience was talking to a man from New Zealand.

We went by to visit a member family and started up a conversation with a man from New Zealand that was out in front reading. We ended up talking for about an hour, out there in the yard, but it was worth every minute. He basically told us his life story, from growing up in a part of town in New Zealand such that it didn´t bother him to have a gun pointed in his face, being baptized at 8 but never knowing anything about the church, learning the culture of drugs and alcohol that made up his neighborhood, etc. A few years back he got a working visa to go to the United States. He ended up in Park City, Utah, to snowboard. There he met an insane snowboarder who totally changed his live by being friendly to a complete stranger, then inviting him to church. Time passed, he didn´t really find the church just then, and for a while he had a job for Skull Candy programming tours for people like Snoop Dogg. He said he literally slept in beds of cash in tour buses. Then he got news from home that his best friend had committed suicide. He really started looking, and eventually ended up back at the church. He described his repentance process, recovering from his multiple addictions, and learning to put all of his trust in the Lord. He described how he ended up in Chile--he knew he couldn´t go back to New Zealand, couldn´t go back to his old haunts and be around his old friends, it would be too easy to slip back to his old ways. So the day his visa expired he went to the airport, said a prayer, and bought a ticket to Chile. Now he is staying with a family that used to be his neighbors, helping them out and praying to find out where to go next. Couple of things he said I really liked: ¨Church isn´t three hours on Sunday, that´s the easy part. It´s every decision you ever make.¨ ¨Repentance is real. There are people who get up and say ´oh, I´m so awful, I didn´t pay my tithing last month, but I know that eventually I can repent,´ and there are some people sitting around who think ´I was smoking pot last night, how can I repent from that,´ but the thing is that repentance is real, it really cleans you. Not that I´m condoning these sins, but I can help people to realize that now.¨

Last story of the day: Lucía. There is a part of our area that is a little poorer than the rest named La Ísla. We are usually up there once or twice a week, but we´ve never had much success. One day this week we were walking away from a failed appointment and I started praying to find out why we were there. Two minutes later, a girl called us over from the side of the street. She told us she wanted to learn about God. Then she told us she wanted to come to church, change her life, and--when we taught her about it--she wanted to be baptized. Since that first day we´ve seen her a few more times and gotten to know her a bit better. She turns 20 tomorrow, but she takes care of herself with her 21 year old sister, who has a two-week old baby. Her mother and several brothers have passed away, her father and several more brothers are in jail. The one thing she holds onto is her faith in God--that God is great, and He will help her. And now she is coming into the kingdom of God, preparing to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, which will lift her and help her and change her life. And she is coming into a ward family that will also lift her and her broken family, heal them, bind them, bring them joy where there once was sorrow.

This gospel literally amazes me. To think that I am so privileged as to be a missionary spreading it... God is to nice to me! And He is wonderful and merciful to all of His children. That´s what I´m teaching. That´s my job.

Viviendo el sueño.

Con amor,

Elder Jason Ray

November 28, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

We got to go to the temple this week! One of our recent converts, Guillermo, went and did baptisms for the dead. We went to accompany him and our ward missionary leader, Gaston, while he received his endowment (investidura en español. One of those words I imagine most people don´t learn in school). I´ll send some pictures from the temple as well.

The temple in Santiago is beautiful, and small--you actually can´t see it unless you are in the church-owned property that also has the Chile MTC, a distribution center, and the Santiago East mission offices. While there I also got cases for my scriptures, so now I don´t have to put them in covers made out of cereal boxes (it works, but it always feels a little weird to pull out a crunchy-O´s box to read something to an investigator). Going through the temple in Spanish was quite an experience. I think I understood most of it because I had gone through so many times in English, and the amazing spirit of the temple helped me to understand everything else I needed to. Both Guillermo and Gaston had big smiles when getting back on to the bus. Gaston is a convert of about two and a half years, and he made it to the temple. I have no doubt that Guillermo will be going there in another year to get his endowment, and to be sealed to his spouse.

So, we have a new Elder in the pension (which means apartment in mission-ese, don´t ask me why), which somehow made me think that I should give a background of all the Elders of O´Higgins (our ward) including the one who just left. My companion, Elder Paulsen. From Utah, went to BYU the year before coming out on his mission. Likes singing in the street (me gusta). He keeps finding unexpected talents while on his mission, out here he has learned how to play ping-pong, the piano, and now he is learning how to draw. He is the grandpa in our group, he has about 7 1/2 months left of his mission now.

Elder Mace, who just left. Also from Utah, also a BYU-ite. Everyone in the ward calls him ¨Elder Woody,¨ Like Woody from Toy story. He played the hymns on the piano while he was here. Pretty crazy, one time when I asked him if he could test me (meaning with a scripture) he bit my leg. Also super nice, the ward was sad to see him go.

Elder Umbach. He has been here for one more change than I have, but is several years older--he wasn´t planning on serving a mission until about 6 months before he came out, but after fasting and praying he decided it was right. Before that he was in the army and played rugby, so he is ripped. He also doodles better than anyone I´ve ever met.

Elder Marecos, who just moved in. He is from Paraguay, but speaks really good English (also Portugese and Paragi, ((I think that´s what it´s called, some Indian dialect)) he is a talented Elder). He wants to play soccer for BYU after his mission. He alternates between being really humble and quite to funny and crazy, and he is more expressive with his lips than anyone else I´ve ever met (Paraguayan characteristic?)

Speaking of lips. I´ve starting pointing things out with my lips like Chileans. Hehehe.

On Thursday night when we called President to make sure we could still go to the temple, he wished us a happy thanksgiving. None of us had even realized which day it was! Turns out we had a great thanksgiving feast, fajitas mexican-american style made by a chilean-canadian daughter of the Bishop. Then she showed us this house she wanted to rent out to missionaries--basically a paradise of tropical trees, flowers, and other greenery that I named Narnia. We can´t change pensions unless something bad happens to the original one, but I now know what my dream house looks like.

Two investigator stories, first Alberto. Alberto is the husband of one recent convert and grandfather of another. When we taught him the Word of Wisdom last week, he said that he had given up all of that three days ago when his wife told him that´s what he would need to be baptized--so much faith! We are also teaching another grandson of his, Eduardo, so I´m pretty sure the whole family is going to get baptized someday.

We met a family on the street a few weeks back and set up a time to pass by. Then we had a mission meeting go long that day and we missed the time, and after calling a couple of times it was looking like we weren´t going to be able to do anything there. Then a few days ago I saw the son, Diego, walking along the street. He remembered me too, so we started talking, and he said we could come meet his family again. Now we have a definite pass-by time, and I´m pretty sure the whole family things we´re pretty cool. When I left from talking with them, I realized that Diego reminds me of Jared. About 11, same mannerisms, same smile. That made me think of how glad I am that God is in my brother Jared´s life, to help him and protect him, and how much I want to help Diego to have that as well.

I decided on a goal for this change. I want to learn everything I possibly can so that I can train in my third change. It isn´t an application process, God decides, but I want to give it everything I have to become the missionary who could train after two changes. ¡Es posible!

I love being a missionary. Even the hard times are awesome, because it´s hard because I´m doing the same thing Peter did, Paul did, Ammon and Alma and Nephi and Lehi did, the same thing Christ did.

Love you all, and I pray for you every day.

Elder Jason Ray

Editor's Note: I asked Jason several questions and he responded to them before he left for the day.

Do you live in an apartment? With a family?
We live in an apartment with the two other Elders in the ward.

Do you cook for yourselves or does someone else cook for you?
We cook our own breakfast and dinner (if we want it/have time), lunches are with members. Lunches are the biggest meal of the day, like dinner in the states, and it´s the only time we have blocked out for meals. I usually eat dinner about every other night.

Do you clean your apartment or pay someone to do it?
We clean the apartment and dishes for ourselves, but we have a mamita who cleans all our clothes. She and her family are amazing, I´m pretty sure they´re spoiling me because no way are all the mamitas in Chile this good.

What is your schedule like as a missionary?
Wake up at 7, pray, work out (running if I´m lucky and someone wants to do it with me, jump rope if not). Eat breakfast. At 8:30 we start with an hour of personal studies, then two hours of companionship studies (only for the first three months, then it´ll go to one hour) and an hour of language study. The we work for an hour and have lunch at 1:30, for an hour and a half. After that we work until 9:30 or 10 (usually ten, there are a lot of people who have schedules such that they can only be taught after 8 or 9). Then we plan, eat, I write in my journal, and head for bed!

And here are some pictures he sent

In front of Santiago Temple

View from a member's "Tree House"

On top of the World

At the Santiago, Chile Temple

November 21, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

Another great week! Luis, father of one recent convert and wife of another, was baptized, and both Luis and Guillermo were confirmed and received the priesthood. This Saturday is a ward temple trip--all of them, Guillermo, Luis, Daniela and Fransisca (Luis´s family), are going to go do the temple work for their ancestors. And we get to go with them! Temple in spanish will certainly be interesting, but I´m really excited.

After he was confirmed, Guillermo told me ¨¨Yo voy sobre los nubes,´ or ¨I´m going above the clouds.¨ This gospel really is amazing, the power of the spirit is incredible.

A couple of stories to start off. Every so often, La selección national de Chile (the national soccer team) has it´s games, and everything in Chile stops. Then, whenever Chile scores a goal, the whole city erupts in applause and screams, really from every single house. Scared me the first time it happened, but now I think it´s hilarious!

Fun service experience this Wednesday, draining out a pool that was about 1/5 full of dirty water. We didn´t really have a way to make a siphon (and it probably would have clogged anyway), so we ended up using buckets to, bucket by bucket, pull the water up out of the pool and dump it on the grass. By the end, we were all totally soaked, filthy, and happy. Good bonding experience for all the elders in the ward, too.

My companion, Elder Paulsen, got really sick this last week. I was torn between wanting to go out and work and wanting to stay in because he looked so bad, but he kept saying he wanted to go out, so go we did! I´m pretty sure that gets him saint-status. There were times when he could hardly speak, and times when he looked like he was about to die, but we went out, taught some lessons (with me doing the teaching when he couldn´t speak) and found some great people.

One family in particular that we ran into is pretty special. They lived, as a family, for five years in North Carolina. A few of them even speak English (and about as well as I do!)  My companion said he had talked to them before and they never had any interest, but now they said we can come by sometime and talk, just because I´m from North Carolina. Moments like that just make me smile. I like thinking about how many people there are in Chile that I, specifically, need to find.

Note about another investigator, Anna. Anna pretty much asked us to baptize her the first time we taught her, she just doesn´t realize it. She explained that she felt like she was apart from God, that He had a plan for her but she didn´t know what it is, and she wanted to make the commitment to follow him. She also talked about how hard it is to have so many churches and that there should only be one, and that she wants to know what God´s reasons are for doing everything he does. Now, we´ve taught her a few more times, and every time she is absolutely full of questions and, by the end of the meeting, I can actually see more light in her eyes. She´s read all of the pamphlets that we have several times over now, and keeps reading the Book of Mormon even though she doesn´t always understand it. She also promised to come to church this next week, and wants the bishop to come bless her house. And when we first ran into her, we had no idea of any of this. This is the hand of God putting us where we need to be! I love being a missionary.

This is the end of my first change. Not too much is changing for this next one, Elder Paulsen and I will still be together here, although one of the Elders in our ward is leaving. I had a realization that I think is going to shape a lot of this next change--one of the best things I can learn here in my mission, perhaps, the absolute best thing, is how to be a good companion. Because if I can be a good companion here in the mission, then I can be a good companion for all eternity. So in this next change, I´m going to try to figure out everything I can about how to be the best companion, how to love and serve and have patience.

Qué más... I love my life. I love Valparaíso and Chile. I´m always hungry. I can jump rope for 200 reps at a time now (up from 30 when I started). One of the elders in the ward drew a caricature of the four of us and drew me singing. Jesus loves me.

One of my MTC teachers signed a tshirt with the saying ¨Viviendo el Sueño.¨ Living the dream. There´s really no other way to describe it!

Os amo, (I know vosotros isn´t really used except in the scriptures, but I like it),

Elder Jason Ray

Luis y Familia

Zona Valparaiso

November 14, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,

¿Cuántos estrellas hay en los cielos? Sin cuenta.  (Editors note:  if you say the answer all together, it means 50.  How it is written, it means without number.)

I laughed at least. :D

So, fun and busy week this week, including a visit from an apostle and a baptism! But I´ll start off with the most important part. Dessert.

We had a ward activity this last week, a ¨Noche de Postre¨ (night of dessert) where all the different organizations made a dessert and everybody got to sample it. I got to taste a whole bunch of Chilean desserts, AND I learned how to play Chilean tag. The running around part is the same, but if you squat down and touch the floor, you are ¨safe,¨ and whenever you tag someone you shout ¨¡Pinta!¨ Had quite a fun time playing that with the primary kids and one of the other elders in the ward. Then an investigator showed up, I took my dignity back out of my back pocket, and we did my first church tour (I never used to really notice the paintings in the church, but they are really fantastic!) Good night.

That was Saturday--on Friday we had my first mission conference, but this conference was special. Usually to do conferences, the mission is split up into three different ¨zones,¨ (the coast, the interior, and the north) and each zone has it´s own conference. But this time was special. The whole entire mission, some 200 strong, gathered together in Viña del Mar, where we were visited by Elder Cook, Bishop MacMullen, and two other General Authorities. What a blessing! Bishop MacMullen talked about the first vision and what a powerful story it is, how the Holy Ghosty will always testify that it was true. Elder Cook talked about what it means to be a missionary. A missionary is a branch-builder (or ward builder), a missionary is bright and friendly, a missionary has the spirit. Then we took a mission-picture, possibly the only mission-picture to have been taken for 5 or more years, and I got to see all my district from the MTC again (Elder Lucero sends his love).

Yesterday was my very first baptism. Such an incredible experience! Guillermo Hughes, almost 70 years old. My second night here in Chile I had the privilege of asking him to be baptized, and yesterday it really happened. His faith is so incredible! Now he is getting ready to be confirmed, receive the priesthood, and go to the temple--all within three weeks.

While we were sitting there waiting for the baptismal service to start, I asked him how he was feeling. ¨Como un pez en el agua,¨ or ¨like a fish in the water.¨ I asked him if that was a good thing. ¨Si, si, un pez en el agua se siente muy bien.¨ ¨Yes, yes, a fish in the water feels really nice.¨

The baptism itself was quite interesting. Guillermo is tall, about 6´, and he has bad knees. He was baptized by my companion, Elder Paulsen, who is a good deal shorter and forgot that he had bad knees. But, after three failed tries, the ward mission leader suggesting that, after the prayer, he lay down as if he was getting in bed. It was the strangest way to be baptized I´ve ever seen, but it worked!

And, when he went under the water, I felt the spirit hit me like a brick, bearing testimony that this was an ordinance of salvation, that Guillermo had taken the first step to exaltation, to eternal life. When he came up out of the water and stood up, he didn´t move for about a minute. He stood there praying, crying a little bit as well.

I feel so privileged to be here, to be a part of this work--of bringing people to Christ! There is really nothing else like it in the world.

Elder Jason Ray

Editors Note: A couple of pictures that Jason sent this week. The first picture is of Guillermo, his companion, the ward mission leader, and Jason.  The next two are the view from his window where they study.
 

Elder Paulsen, ward misson leader, Guillermo, Elder Ray

View from his study window