Baptism of Javier!

Letter from 9/12/16

Hola!!!!! 

I hope you all had an amazing week this week! We had an incredible time seeing the Lord's hand work through us as we witnessed the baptism of Javier! This young man is an incredible son of God and is more than prepared! He will be an amazing instrument in the hands of our Father in Heaven. I know this work is the most important work we can do here today and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ is at the head of the Church leading this work. I love you all and I hope you have an outstanding week!!!

Love,
Elder Callister

Teaching and Good Bread!

Letter from 8/29/16

Hey Yáll!!!! 

Sorry for the delay of writing for a while! After 13 months I finally feel that I have gotten the whole timing on my writing down....took me long enough!

This week was a really good week! Elder Willey and I worked a ton on the zone and how we could help them to be able to be more effective missionaries in the circumstances that we are in here in Chile. Doing the work here in Chile is a lot different than other countries. There are a lot of people who are members in really small towns but not all of them go to church. So we spend a ton of time looking for less active members helping them to know that they are loved, by us and the Lord, and that we have missed them in church. They really love the visits and I love getting to know more and more people every single day. 

This last week was my comps birthday and we had a sweet party with a ton of completos. We ate much and played a lot of soccer and ping pong! He just turned 19 and is coming up on his year mark. Now I gotta figure out what to do for his year mark celebration.

I would love to share my testimony to your all, that I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. He loves each and every one of you and cares about everything that you do. You are very special to Him and He always desires to be in contact with you through sincere prayer and scripture reading. He loves you more than you can imagine and all He asks of us is to Show our love through keeping and living His commandments that He has given to all of His children. I know this to be true and as we strive to do what He asks us to do and come closer to Him through His Only Begotten Son, we will receive the greatest gift of all. Eternal life with our families in His presence. I testify of the truthfulness of these words and I hope that you all will continue being the best you can be. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Callister

P.S. That is a picture of a 2 ft. long loaf of bread.....do not judge me if I return fat.... ;)

 

August 22, 2016

So I am sitting in the cyber café (sweating) enjoying the beautiful start of the spring breeze through the side door....I thought you'd all like to hear that going into winter..... ;) love you all!  

Jajaja! Sorry that was mean...

Thank you so much for the letters! I really do appreciate the comfort and love you guys send. I have been struggling this week with my mind going crazy and it's definitely true...I just need to stop, take a step back, breathe and go at it again. Life has been a roller coaster for me and it is super hard here in the mission. Thinking about how life is back in the states and then comparing it to here it's sooooo different. Not saying it’s bad, just different. I have really been able to come to a better understanding of the plan of salvation and the importance it has for each and every one of God's children. This work is so important. Incredibly important. I still don't understand it all not even close...but I feel the importance of it. Satan is working so hard on the children of God. He is so sly and wants us all to be like he is, miserable. DONT GIVE IN…ever, ever, ever, ever, ever! He is the biggest liar in the world. If I could say anything right now to you all it would be that there is always a way out. There is always hope. The atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ is the only way we can have peace in this life and life eternal after. Live the gospel. Read the Book of Mormon. In it you will find this peace and understanding. Enjoy every single moment you have to live on this earth. 

One last thing. I have been studying a lot in Moroni 7 lately. Faith hope and Charity. As I have studied I realized that there is something linked in all of these attributes.

Faith-past              Charity-Present            Hope-future

We have faith from what has happened in the past that we can and will be able to live again with our Father in Heaven. We hope from our faith that really it is true. But the only thing that will make either one of those true is what we choose to do right now. In the present. Charity-the pure love of Christ. Love this life. Love everything that God has given you. Love the people around you. Love everything. It will bring peace to your hearts and prepare us to live with our Father again. With love there is no fear.

I love you all and I will keep fighting till the end. I know this Gospel is true. I know God loves each and every one of us. I know it. I know it. I know it. I love you all. Have a great week!!!

Love,
Elder Callister

Opposition

Hey guys!!!

I love your letters! They give me such a huge boost in the week! It is so cool to see how you all are progressing in life and that you are doing it with the help of your Savior and your Father in Heaven.

This week has been a big rollercoaster week! Lots of ups and downs, loopty loops, and whatsoever corkscrew. A mix of craziness and a ton of fun at the same time! First off I love the mission so much! It is the greatest place to grow in your relationship with your Heavenly Father. 

This week consisted of much prayer, fasting and a ton of work in the street. Through all of this I have been able to see miracles in my life. These blessings have been granted upon me all because of one reason...opposition. 

This week my studies have been super focused on the reality of temptation, sin and opposition. I talk to so many people during the day, nice people though unfortunately they are completely blinded by the sly works of temptation. 

In my studies I looked up the definition of temptation;

Test, try, or prove.
Seduce or lead towards evil.
Provoke to anger.

I see these effects in my life every single day. Whether it be in my own life or others. It has such a huge effect on us and it changes us. It is terrible at times and feels so over bearing, but why so much temptation?

In the Spanish scriptures it says that temptation is the test of the capacity of a person to choose good from evil. Unfortunately, we all fall....and it´s not fun. Some might ask why does God let us fall so much in our lives.

Well.. "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy."

We must experience pain to feel the joy of our loving Father in Heaven. In the book of Hebrews it explains how Christ overcame this temptation throughout His whole life and on through the atonement. "This that the word might be fulfilled" and that He might “succor" His people. 

I want to testify that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He has suffered all that we have, are, and ever will suffer and this so that we might have eternal happiness. The word Succor literally means "to run to" and as I read this I know and testify to you all that as we are trying to follow our Savior, He is running out to us help in each and every way. I love you all and hope that you will apply the atonement in your lives this week. I know you will feel the love of God. Have a great week!!!

Love, 

Elder Callister

The Doctrine of Christ

 

 

Hey Yáll!

This week was pretty rough. It definitely was not the best one of all my weeks here but at the same time not the worst, so I am counting my blessings! :) My companion is finishing his mission pretty soon and it has been a bit difficult lately with the last little bit. There are so many things that you still want to do here on the mission and you meet so many people that you respect and love. Leaving it all is like giving a kid a lolly pop and then ripping it out of his mouth when he's only half way done. Not cool man...but it has to come. The end of everything always will come. I was thinking about that the other day and now that I am here at the year mark of my mission it is starting to creep up on me as well. Though the thought of leaving the mission after 2 years is pretty rough, the greater thought is the reason why we are doing the work. Creating the paths for eternal families is the greatest work that I have ever been able to take part in. It has completely changed my life. The mission is probably the best place to learn and understand the greatness of these blessings and how it really is the greatest blessing God can ever give us. I think of you all on a regular basis and it makes me so happy to know that you are doing the same work, the work of our Lord and our God.

My focus in the mission has been a lot on how we can apply the doctrine of Christ to our lives each and every day. This is what we teach over and over and over again everyday every hour every minute. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end; I have thought much about these steps and how we can apply them daily in our lives. What does this mean as far as what we must do as children and servants of our Savior, Jesus Christ? I was studying in Doctrine and Covenants 4 in verse 3 where it says that if we have desires to serve God we are called to the work. When we take up the name of Christ and follow his example in any way we are showing to God that we are willing to serve Him and share what we know with others. Everyone is a missionary. Does not matter if you have a missionary badge or not. We are all called to preach the gospel. I know that as we live the gospel according to the doctrine given to us by our brother Jesus Christ, we will receive the blessings promised by our Heavenly Father. I invite each and every one of you to think of someone who does not have the blessings of the Restored gospel and invite them to come and see and partake of these blessings promised by our Father in Heaven. I know and testify that as you do you will come to a better understanding of the Gospel and of our Father and His son Jesus Christ. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of your examples to me here on the mission. I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Callister

Burgerfest!!

Happy 4th of July!

Hey Yáll!!

IT.IS.SO. COLD!!!! I am used to having cold weather but this is a different kind of cold. It’s cold and super wet. I don't think it should be normal to go to bed and wake up completely soaked from all the humidity. This morning was especially fun because we did max plyo insanity, about died and then walked into the bathroom to see that the water heater was not working. There was ice on the inside of the windows!! So we had to man up and take an ice cold shower. I will have to apologize to the neighbors later on for the high pitch yelling that came from our house this morning. I could not feel my body after....but it was fun anyways! Great memory!

This week was awesome! We had so much fun putting our minds together to find different ways to tract and find people. One of the things we did was take cookies and chocolate milk powder and when we knocked on a door, we asked if we could share some cookies and chocolate milk with them....it was so funny to see their faces as they began to reject us and then suddenly change their minds as they saw the delicious treats we brought with us. We found an amazing family from it that we will visit today and we enjoyed cookies and milk at the same time!

Today our new mission president will be flying in to Chile. His name is president May and he is from Alabama! He served his mission in Mexico and his wife in Spain. We have a conference with him on Friday and we are all excited to meet him!

We finished the week off super awesome with the baptism of Cristofer Colipàn. He is a young man that was going to get baptized with his family about 2 weeks ago but he had doubts at the last minute and didn’t get baptized. We ended up having an amazing lesson with him a week ago where he could feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and he knew that it was true. He actually didn't even know why he should be baptized when he was going to be baptized the first time. So we started from square one again and he was able to receive his answer. I love this kid so much and he will be an example to so many people here in Pitrufquèn!

Oh and HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY TO ALL!!!!!!!!! I love you all and I know that this church is true. I hope you all have a great week and a great 4th!! BE SAFE!!!!!

Love,

Elder Callister

New Sector!

Hey Yáll!!!!

So happy to hear from you all! It sounds like a blast soaking up the sun, enjoying the summer! Please enjoy all of it for me....I'm trying to type as fast as possible to warm up my fingers! It´s so dang cold here! My new sector is a lot more down south. I love it though! My comp Elder Stevenson is so awesome and I love being a zone leader with him. A lot more responsibility but I love learning more and more.

I apologize for not being able to write to everyone personally. With more responsibilities there is more to do during this short hour of writing. I figure one big email to everyone fixes the problem.

This week was so fun! First off....CHILE WON!!!!!! The American cup was on Sunday and it was so crazy here. We obviously couldn’t watch it but we got to take advantage of it in the work of salvation! We had the idea to go to the plaza during the pregame where everyone gathered to watch the game on the big screen. We pulled in a big white board with words that said, "Tell Us Who Wins!!" We did a huge game to see who would win the Cup. They had to come and put their names, number, who would win, final points, and who would make the goals....people loved it!!! There were about 60 names on this sheet at the end of the nights and now we have about 60 people to pass by for. 2 people won the game and now we have to go and cook them a huge BBQ from the states! It’s going to be so awesome! 

This week in my studies I really focused on the way we can better understand our purpose here on earth. We are teaching a lot of people here who really don't understand why they are here or where they are going. It is sad to see but drives us even more to share this message with everyone. We had a super awesome lesson with one of our investigators a couple days ago. Her name is Julia and she had a daughter named Paloma who is listening as well. She had so many questions about why we are here and what she needs to do in life. She has grown up Catholic and she doesn’t really study the bible a lot. So we used a lot of scriptures and visuals to help her understand. We came to a point where she had a question about the spirit. She said that she was not doing too well in her life, in her job, life at home, and other aspects of life. But right when the missionaries came over she started to change a few things. She said she started to feel a weird change in her mind and in her heart and she didn't know what it was, only that it was changing everything for the good in her life and the lives of her family. We testified like CRAZY about the influence of the spirit and that this was the path she needed to follow! We went to pray at the end and she was so happy after praying to her Father in Heaven!! It made my whole week!

I testify that these things are true. These experiences are real and they are without doubt from a loving Heavenly Father. I love you all and hope all goes well this week!!

Love,

Elder Callister