Final Email -Part Two

Hola Familia han sido dos años excelentes que jamás olvidaré. Sé que ésta es la gran obra de Dios y para siempre seguiré sirviendo al Señor. Me gustaría primeramente hablar de los lugares donde yo pude servir y no se preocupen, lo haré en inglés. 

I'd like to share a little of what we were able to accomplish in each of the areas I served. I love the associations I made with those I was able to serve and I will forever feel blessed that we meet and they allowed me to be apart of their lives. 

ROSENDE: My first sector. The ward was good, but we knew that there was a lot of work there to be done. With my trainer we were able to find many people that accepted this gospel and were baptized, including the very first convert: Mario Aracena who has grown to be one of the strongest members of the ward, accepting callings as Young Men´s President and as Ward secretary. Among the others that were baptized are his daughter Romina, Emily Aburto and her grandpa´s friend Juan. Two brothers Pedro and Kevin, as well as Andony Joseph were also baptized. It´s been awesome to return to the stake a year later and to see the growth. It wasn´t the easiest sector ever but I´m very happy with what we accomplished.

GALVARINO 1: This was the ward where I served the most time (about 5 months). Up arriving, I learned that there was a total of one convert in the past two years and as a young missionary I didn´t feel capable of changing that trend. It was a very humbling experience, and I´m thankful that the Lord did give us the chance to teach and baptize very converted people. In the Muñoz family we saw miracles and to this day I remember that every time we shared with them they had some great experience to share with us. Nicolas Marabolí, the grandson was baptized as was his cousin Constanza a few months later. In the Silva Matos family, we were able to see miracles as Jesús became very converted to the gospel and over time, quit smoking and drinking, and was baptized. His wife Catalina (already a member) was very thankful for the change in their family and continues working in order to be sealed in the temple. Luckenson Dorsaint was the first Haitian member of the ward that we worked with and is currently working a couple hours away from Santiago, but goes back to Santiago every weekend where he has a house just so he can continue attending church in the Galvarino ward. Unlike most Haitians, he didn´t believe much in God before we talked to him in the street one day, but has found the light of the Gospel and he can´t get enough. We also prepared the Nonato family for baptism, where the 3 kids were baptized a few weeks after we left. Unfortunately, the same still has not happened in the Aguilar family despite the miracles they´ve seen as a family. One day they will. Galvarino for me was a fantastic place for me to learn and grow and gain confidence as a missionary and helped me to see and feel the impact of the mission work in the lives of these people.

DORSAL: In this sector I realized that the work we did in Galvarino was good, but thanks to great companions and leaders as well as a deeper understanding of the mission work I knew we could do more. In this sector we talked to so many people that missionaries in other zones started taking notice and tried to talk to more people. Really in every aspect of the mission work I was open to change and grow and improve and I think in Dorsal I improved the most. Two references from a Bolivian member Juan Pablo were baptized (Christopher and Ignacio) as well as the humblest person I´ve met in this country (Jaime Ardiles). Cristian Jara impressed me so much with his testimony and understanding of the importance of the Gospel in our lives. The only thing we had to do was help him to put that faith into action, quit his job, go to church, get baptized, and find a better job that would allow him to attend church. Graciela was a miracle in many ways and her willingness to just do the things we asked her to do allowed her to gain a testimony very quickly. Rita, a humble Peruvian lady, was almost too ready to hear this message. Yamilet, the wife of recent convert Fabian took a very long time to appreciate and become converted to the gospel and our part was very small, but with us she finally accepted the missionaries in her house and even grew to a desire to be baptized (She was baptized some months after we left). Elizabeth was found through a simple act of service and learned about the gospel she truly deserves to know and was baptized. This sector challenged me a lot because we talked to so many people I thought success would come immediately, but it just didn´t. Looking back I realize that all that hard work was definitely worth it.

LAMPA: Wow, that branch was awesome. It was there that I deepened my understanding of how to work with members. My only complaint is that I was only there for 6 weeks. I was there long enough to be there for the baptism of the Tapia brothers (Matias and Vicente) who continue as leaders in their family and in their Quorums. We had the opportunity to work with Bojan a convert with a bad drug addiction. Over time his sons have been baptized as well as his mom and they are continuing to see the blessings of living the gospel. Guillermo (memito) and Danna were also very good examples for their families by getting baptized and living the gospel, but were baptized just after I left. 

VESPUCIO: Here I really wish we had time to do more, but I know we did what we could with the limited time we had. Ines Gutierrez has become one of the strongest members of the ward following her baptism and she really is an example to me for the kind of member I want to be after taking off the missionary name tag. She reads her scriptures for an hour and a half every day, shares the gospel with everyone, and visited people in the ward in the time after her baptism and before she received a calling. David Gallardo is the oldest of the people we baptized at 82 years old, it was hard to get him to read and he wasn’t too sure for a while about paying tithing, but thanks to the help of the members of the ward, he felt the spirit and knew that he had to do it. He now has a calling and continues to progress even at his advanced age. This ward was a little bit weaker relatively, but I learned that you don´t need 100 active members in a ward to involve them in the work of salvation.

LOS OLIVOS: Sometimes I think I woke up in a different country since we talk to more Peruvians, Haitians, Dominicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, Chinese, Koreans, and even Americans than Chileans. Even though it made me dizzy at first, I love this sector and I´ll dearly miss it next week. We´ve worked with the Cruzate (Peruvians) family, helping Abraham in order to get baptized. We know that someday his mom will follow his example and complete the whole family.  Yslande Meus was a miracle baptism because 6 weeks ago we knew hardly any Creole, but we can now teach the lesson and converse with the Haitians in Creole. When they talk fast it´s a little hard to understand, but we´ve felt the gift of tongues with the Haitian investigators. Yslande´s daughter came to Chile a couple weeks ago so she´ll soon follow in her mother´s footsteps but I will unfortunately have to see pictures of that baptism from the United States. Marcial is the only Dominican that I´ve ever seriously worked with and it was really cool to work with someone from the country where my mom served her mission. His son (member of the church) is a baseball prodigy in the Dominican Republic and they are actually related to Albert Pujols. He took some huge steps of faith during the process and we cooked him a little bit on Sunday because the water in the font was so hot, but he was very happy to be baptized. On Saturday we will baptize the smartest, most creative and talkative kid in South America. His name is Arturo and I´ll tell you all more about him on Tuesday when I get home. 

This has been my mission. “Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end” has been my objective and I hope that I´ve been able to do my part in this work. I realize that my part is very small, but if I hadn´t done it then it´s more than likely that very few of those people would have the blessings that they currently enjoy. I´m so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to serve and I hope he lets me serve even after December 19^th. I love this gospel and I know that it is true. I might have changed during these two years and that´s okay, I hope it´s for the better but I´m very much still Seth. My love for the Savior has immensely grown and as a natural consequence of that I´ve changed and I know that God wants me to continue growing and becoming better every day. My commitment with God is far greater now than it was before and it´s not something I´ll take lightly. I´d like to ask all of you to help me and support me in this next phase of life since it won´t be easy either.

I Love you all and I´ll see you soon.

Elder Birrell

Final Email- Part One

Dear Family and Friends,

I’m so sorry for not writing much in my letters home as of late, but I’d like to make up for that this week as well as the next with more reflective and meaningful thoughts on these past two years as a whole. My mission has easily been the greatest thing to ever happen to me and it’s by far been the best thing I’ve ever done. My heart is filled with gratitude as I reflect and recognize the Lord’s hand in these two years that I’ve tried to be a worthy representative of Him. Over two years ago, an apostle of the Lord inspiredly assigned me to the mission Chile Santiago Norte and the Savior has continued inspiring his servents while placing me in 6 areas and with 8 different companions (9 including the MTC). I hope each companion knows how grateful I am for them, for what they have taught me, and how they’ve helped me to grow. By name, I’d like to describe what I’ve learned from each companion.

Elder Michael Ricks, Idaho Falls, Idaho- AREA: MTC

I entered the MTC with the notion that my preparation for the mission field would essentially come down to how well I could master the Spanish language and how well I could teach the gospel. While those skills are both important for missionary success, I came to realize that I would be just as the Pharisees of Jesus’ time if I wasn’t also continually developing Christ-like attributes. Through small and simple acts, Elder Ricks showed me all that I was still lacking in order to become a representative of Jesus Christ.

Elder Ricks

Elder Chase Smith, Highland, Utah- AREA: ROSENDE

My initial fears were calmed as I got to know my trainer and I realized that he was a hard-worker and an obedient missionary. In my fragile phase as a young, moldable missionary, I learned principles such as obedience, true and sincere repentance, diligence, study, and honesty which would become the foundation blocks for the rest of my mission. I feel SO blessed to have had the trainer that I did.

Elder Smith

Elder Carlos Conde, Lima Peru- AREA: GALVARINO 1

Following my training, I had many companions, but none of them lasted even a week with me (because of several  emergency transfers) so ultimately I ended up with Elder Conde. This was my first time being Senior companion and I really didn’t know what in the world I was doing. I’m grateful for his patience, positive humor, and humility in supporting me in my assignment as Senior companion even though he had 13 months more of experience as a missionary. I learned a lot during those 10 weeks together.

Elder Conde 

Elder Samuel Langston, Mesa, Arizona- AREA: GALVARINO 1

I’m not sure that it’s possible to enjoy life as much as we did during those 12 weeks. We worked hard and we found ways of achieving new levels of success. My assignment was to train him, but I honestly was overwhelmed by the responsibility. I learned that there’s a time and a place for everything and in the work of He who makes the Plan of Happiness possible, there is plenty of time to smile. I’ve been able to see him grow throughout his 17 months in the mission and it has been a source of joy to see him excel in his mission.

Elder Langston

Elder Dante Ortiz, San Diego, California- AREA: DORSAL

With Elder Ortiz I learned to not waste even one minute in this sacred work. His first companion was not a very motivated person, so during his first 12 weeks, he didn’t get to work a whole lot. Elder Ortiz is really smart and as his trainer would sleep, Elder Ortiz studied the gospel. This was frustrating for him as he was learning so much, but he couldn’t do much with what he learned. During those 6 weeks together, we did not waste a minute and tried to talk to literally everyone. Many people that we talked to during those 6 weeks were baptized and we both left that change with a firm resolution to not waste a single minute.

Elder Ortiz

Elder Edward Dussan, Neiva Colombia- AREA: DORSAL

In the ways that really count, I changed the most while with Elder Dussan. It was really hard sometimes being with someone as Christ-like as Elder Dussan because just being with him reminded me how much I still needed to improve. He was a convert of 2 years who truly experienced a mighty change of heart and lost all disposition to do evil, but rather to do good continually. I was also assigned to train him, but he ended up training me to be a true disciple of Christ in all time, all things and in all places.

Elder Dussan 

Elder Nathan Heaps, American Fork, Utah- AREA: LAMPA 1

It was a funny transition being with someone half my size (Elder Dussan) to then being with this giant BYU tight end. I learned so much that change that would help me become a leader for the rest of my mission. I love being around highly competitive athletes because of the high standards they keep themselves to and Elder Heaps definitely had high standards for everything in the mission work. It was too bad I didn’t get to be his last companion, but I learned so much from the one change I was with him that I can’t complain either.

Elder Heaps

Elder Calvin Santos, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil- AREAS: VESPUCIO AND LOS OLIVOS
The companion I had for the longest time (almost 6 months) and in a letter home in September I described all that we did together. What I most learned from Elder Santos is to never be embarrassed of being spiritual. He was very good at turning a normal conversation with a group of missionaries into a spiritually edifying experience. Because of the assignment we had, we were often with new missionaries and mission leaders, and Elder Santos consistently created spiritual experiences out of those moments.

Elder Santos

Elder Dolenar, Mesa, Arizona- AREA: LOS OLIVOS

My last companion helped me to keep going until the end. I learned with Elder Dolenar to change the culture of the mission and that’s the biggest thing we’ve accomplished together. He has the vision necessary to do big things and in these two changes we´ve seen huge growth in the mission and almost everyone has started to buy into President Meservy´s vision of the Chile Santiago North Mission thanks to Elder Dolenar. He helped me to keep going until the end and I´ll forever be thankful for that. He´s become a good friend and I´ve loved working with him. People must be really confused that see us walking in the streets because we talk in a weird combination of Spanish, Haitian Creole, and a little bit of English. I´m thankful to him for being a great final companion.

Elder Dolenar

Teaching in Creole!

Yslande and Claudy

We are teaching a good number of investigators right now, in fact, last week didn’t have enough time to teach everyone because we were busy with zone conferences so their progress slowed because of that, but this week we’ll be working hard to get them all up and going again. I love my sector; it’ll be hard to leave it behind when I leave in 4 weeks.

One of our investigators, Yslande Meus, was baptized Saturday morning by a Haitian member named Claudy. Yslande is also Haitian and has been investigating the church for about 7 weeks. She had to overcome some difficulties in the process of getting baptized, including repentance and getting sick, but she is very resilient despite not knowing hardly any Spanish. We teach her in Creole and try to always teach with other Haitian members and that has helped her to feel a part of the ward. She has already been assigned visiting teachers who speak Creole. In her baptismal service my companion and I each gave a talk in her native language, she probably thinks our Creole is really bad, but we do it with lots of enthusiasm, so she laughs anyway. She really needed this gospel and so I´m thankful that my companion and I have been able to learn enough Creole to help her accept Jesus Christ in her life. 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Birrell

Nov. 14, 2017- Leadership Council

So this week we had another great week. The leadership council was the best I´ve ever seen and it´s gratifying seeing the progress that there has been in this past 2 changes among the zone leaders. Not too long ago the zone leaders weren´t doing much better than regular missionaries with regards to the key indicators, but now they are over doubling. I´m thankful for the vision that President Meservy has shared with us with regards to the leaders of the mission and I know that having an elevated vision will always be a part of my service in the church after the association I´ve had during these 5 months with President Meservy. Whenever I think the mission is on fire, it always surprises me by doing even better. In addition, our sector has been doing great as well. I think it´s finally gotten to the level of an example sector that we had always wanting but had never achieved given the time constraints. We feel really blessed.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Birrell