WEEK 51

This Week From Elder Colby Eyre in Santiago Chile:

Hola Amigos!  This week has been pretty good.  Just preaching the gospel here in Chile.  I think the best part of my week was getting a package from my sweet family!  I now have an official REAL Salt Lake jersey to fit right in with the millions of soccer fans here.  I'm excited to sport my home team!

It is crazy to think that I have completed a year of my mission.  It has been a year I don't think I have enough words to describe.  Definitely rewarding and challenging all at the same time.  I have also seen so many blessings that my family and I have received.

Last night we got to teach this guy who we had met earlier in the week.  Teaching him was awesome.  He was so cool and asked all the right questions because we had all the right answers! I love having this opportunity to teach the people of Chile.

I also got to speak in sacrament meeting last week about the restoration of the gospel.  I prayed a lot before my talk that I would have the spirit with me and help in speaking to the people.  I got up there and hit a home run talking.  I spoke for a solid fifteen minutes and just had a few notes.  I think the best part of that talk for me was knowing that God does listen and answer our prayers. :)

Have a great week everyone, I love you all!
Elder Colby Eyre

 

This Week From Elder Colin Eyre in Vina del Mar Chile:

This week was pretty crazy we had changes and I got changed to a place up North in Illapel.  The city, Salamanca, reminds me of a ghetto Park City.  My new comp is awesome his name is Elder Hammond and he is from Atlanta.  He is really funny and makes me laugh a lot!  People think he is pretty funny too so we have a good time together.  I am so happy with the new area and comp!  The night we had changes it was like a big mission reunion.  All my friends from the MTC were there.  I also got to see Elder Salazar and Elder Jensen, it was pretty awesome.  We all just talked and laughed and couldn't believe we have now been out a year!

What followed was not good.  My new comp, Elder Hammond and I took a bus at 10:00pm to leave the beautiful beaches I have seen every day for this past year and headed to the mountains for four hours!  I think I prayed all four hours that I would not throw up.  The bus ride made me so car sick!

Salamanca is amazing.  The people here are so prepared to recieve the gospel!  The people are just happy and when they meet members they want to know why we are so happy and naturally they hear about the gospel and want to learn more about it.

Yesterday we were teaching this guy and his whole famly is LDS except him.  He wants to be baptized but has some Word of Wisdom problems.  He wanted to see the baptism clothes and so we showed them to him yesterday he says he is going to do all he can to be baptized.  It was great to see someone want to try so hard and be so pumped about the gospel.

Well it's good to be here and the sector is little so it's really good for my knee.  The mish is great and I hope that everyone is okay.  I love you guys tons and have a good week!

Elder Colin Eyre

WEEK 50

This Week From Elder Colin Eyre in Vina del Mar Chile:

This week we did a lot of things.  First, yesterday it rained so hard my comp and I just  laughed because we had already left our house at 7:00am and it just rained and rained and rained!  We didn't bring any rain protection so we just got hammered.  It was fun for like an hour but then it kinda sucked being wet the rest of the day!

On Sunday first we got to give a guy in the ward the Santa Ceña (Sacrament).  I love blessing the Santa Ceña for people that are sick because my Bro and I did it so much at home.  I just love giving the members here the opportunity to take the sacrament when they are sick.  They are always so grateful after.

We are still working with the people that are kind of gangsters.  They seem so interested and excited for the gospel but then they do not go to church - it kinda sucks.  The Chileans love to stay up all night and wake up late so going to church at 10:00am is hard for them.  However I just love working hard with all of these people!

One crazy thing happened when we got to church on Sunday.  Right when we walked into the chapel we got called on to speak in Sacrament meeting.  I am like my mom, and need to prepare before hand.  I don't do very well with on the spot talks!   It turned out to be all good.  I just picked a topic and then talked about it for fifteen minutes.  I spoke on Faith, Repentance, Baptism and Enduring to the End.  I also told a story about pioneers that I remembered.  I know that Heavenly Father really helped me to stay calm and know what to say!  One thing I missed is that in the states people like to talk about their family for the first five minutes and ease into it - they don't do that here they go straight into it. I'm not sure what happened to their original speakers because Elder Pan and I were it!

We have changes this week I will propbably change sectors and companions so I hope all goes well! I love everyone back home and hope all is well.

Love, Elder Colin Eyre

This Week From Elder Colby Eyre in Santiago Chile:

Hey Family!
This week has been pretty good. We were able to do a ton of service which was actually pretty fun.  One of the services we did was pulling weeds for a member.  I couldn't stop laughing because my comp had the one shovel we were given and was just chopping at the weeds with it, not pulling them.  I am still not sure what he was trying to accomplish, Haha!!  It did make me thankful for they many times my Dad pulled me out of bed on Saturday's to weed.

We also had a pretty cool lesson with a less active family this week.  We brought with us the Relief Society President and her husband who is in the Stake Presidency.  We had some pretty strong testimonies with us to help get them spiritually moving again.  The lesson was so awesome and the spirit was so strong.  It's crazy what help the members are in these lessons.  It's just an added bonus of testimony and spiritual strength.  Everyone back home ask the missionaries if you can go on a lesson with them I know they would love it.  It is also such a great opportunity to feel the spirit and help some of God's children come unto Him.

I hope everyone back home is soaking up the sun for me.  I'm just being chilled down to the bone here in Chile!

Love you all,
Elder Colby Eyre

WEEK 49

This Week From Elder Colby Eyre in Santiago Chile:

Hey family and friends!  This week was great considering it was my countries Independence Day.  It's funny because not being in the United States this year my pridefulness of being an American was great. For the first time I was very proud to be an American.  On our way home on the 4th I went a grabbed some hamburger patties so I could eat an American dinner with my Columbian comp, Elder Martinez.  I even wore my USA flag socks that day!

This past Sunday was really awesome we had a part member family come to church for the first time in ten years.  Her husband had never been and they brought their one year old with them.  I felt a little bad because their little boy was really noisy during sacrament meeting and I could tell the husband was uncomfortable with that.  Afterwards I told him not to sweat about it.  I told him my twin and I were always a straight distraction during sacrament when we were little.  (Sorry Mom!). I loved seeing them come to church as a family because I know if they keep following the gospel they can be sealed together and have an eternal family.  :)

It is such a blessing to serve a mission and help other families become eternal.  Thank you to everyone back home for all the things you have done for me.  Have a great week.
Love, Elder Colby Eyre

This Week From Elder Colin Eyre in Vina del Mar Chile:

I saw my man Chandler SALAZAR this week it was the best!!! The weeks are starting to go by really fast and I just feel like there are so many things to do and lots of missionary work to get done!

Yesterday was the 4th of July and the mission had a party for us.  That is how I was able to be with my man Chandler.  I was so happy to see him he came late to the party so when I saw him it was a great surprise!  We got to eat lunch together and talk for a good hour.  It was funny because our mission president was there and Chan asked if we could be companions haha!  He was like well if the spirit guides me it will happen.  It was so fun to see him and how the mission is changing us both for the better!

This week we are still working with Cecelia and her family.  They are the ones that are a little bit gangster.  Cecelia has been super receptive to the gospel and I just hope that she can keep going strong.  Sunday it rained pretty hard so no one came to church and I was a little sad because Cecelia and her fam didn't come either.  We talked to them after I just hope that they can start coming to church!!

Something that I love is that the more time out I have on my mission the more I see the miracles in my life.  One miracle happened on Thursday.  We were walking a ton that day and it was like 8:00pm.  We hadn't had any success during the day so finally we went to Daniel's house.  He was so close to being baptized a while back but his family had pressured him out of it.  Normally the Chileans take a long time to open the door to us and normally there isn't a person over 16 years old so we cant enter into the house anyway.  This time before we got to the door we said a prayer.  Then we walked up and rang the door bell and the Grandma came out and just let us right on in!  That's was a sure miracle - never happens!  We had a nice little lesson and they were all super nice and seemed to like hearing our message.  It was cool to see that Heavenly Father really does listen to us and wants to bless us.

I love you guys so much.  America's birthday was fun and all is well! Have a good week:)
Elder Colin Eyre

Week 48

This Week From Elder Colin Eyre in Vina del Mar Chile:

This week was pretty cool! We had a less active member that we have been working with for a long time finally come to church.  It made me SO happy!

We have also been working with two sisters which has been a great experience.  They are both interested in the gospel.  During our lessons they say they love the feeling they get as we testify of Christ.  I just love that and seeing others progress in the gospel.  We have a tentative baptismal date set with them so we will see how it goes.  The funny part of the story is the sisters are totally gangster!  If we baptize them they will be my first gangsters I baptize.  Wouldn't that be SWEET!

It is really pretty cool to see the gospel change the lives of other people.  It just makes me happy.  I hope all is well in the States and that summer is just blazing hot, it's a bit cold here!

Love ya guys tons have a good week:)


Elder Colin Eyre

This Week From Elder Colby Eyre in Santiago Chile:

Hey guys this week has been pretty good!  I've been getting to know my new comp, Elder Martinez.  He is pretty cool and loves to find the best way to do the things which is awesome.  He is also a really good missionary.  I hope that I will learn a lot from him.

This week we went to go visit a family that we had contacted and had an appointment with.  When we got there no one was home.  That's always a bit disappointing :(.  We left and headed out to try and see if we could find some other contacts.  We passed by this guys house and he invited us in!  He introduced us to his girlfriend and it turns out she was a member!  She said she was so excited when she heard the missionaries out side.  She said she has really been going through hard times and had prayed for help.  Then we showed up!  It is super awesome to be an instrument in the Lords hands. Being on a mission I get to see things like this happen every once in a while.  I think it's so cool how the Lord has a reason for everything even though sometimes we don't always understand why.

I hope that everyone at home is having an awesome summer.

I love you all!


Elder Colby Eyre