15 January 2023
VOLUME 11 – NUMBER 487
Cougar’s first day attending BYU
Well I’m finally a Cougar for real! I started at BYU this week! I’ve been working towards this goal for a while. After starting out at BYU-Idaho last summer, and working last fall, I was able to transfer to BYU-Provo!
Cougar with dinner
I've been trying to get ahead of my school schedule, so that when the time comes, I will not fall behind when we go to California for a week. I am so excited to go to Disneyland.
We've also got a temple visit sometime that week, which I am also excited about. California's temples are just amazing (I'm not saying that the other ones aren't beautiful)!
My only worry for school is that I won't be able to get caught up in Math.
I also got all of my jars to be able to go to three days in Disneyland and California Adventure. We needed eight jars of beads for one day, 10 jars for two days, and 12 jars for three days. Each jar holds 140 beads, and 20 beads are one hour of study. That means that 12 jars equals about 84 hours of Spanish study!
I can't wait to go to all of the rides and roller coaster rides there, they are just...pure amazing!
Gloria’s pin in wrestling tournament
Wrestling has been going well this week I had three matches on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Wednesday I did not wrestle because no one in my weight was there. In my next match, I only wrestled once but I did not win.
Saturday we had two groups in our team that went to different tournaments. in my group, there were only eight of us while the rest of the team was in Herriman.
I wrestled four times, and I lost two and won the other two. I has super happy that I was able to win a few before the season ends in a few weeks.
Dad, Mom, and Veidi came done and saw two of my matches. I was close to getting 5th place in my weight if I won my last match.
Gloria, Veidi, and Mom at wrestling match
The new semester has officially begun! Since I'm only doing part time school right now, and pretty much full time work, the schedule has been a little bit of an adjustment.
I work in the mornings now at the MTC, and then either REALLY early in the morning at Raintree, or late at night depending on how early I want to get up the next morning. But now my afternoons are pretty wide open, because my only classes throughout the week are every other day and are pretty much from 12:00-1:00.
My entire time since coming home from a mission I've pretty much worked in the afternoons, so it is weird having that time from 1:00pm to 6:00pm open. Overall I am enjoying it! In fact I am enjoying it so much so that I think it's probably that point in the semester where it's time to take a break.
So next week I'll just take a week off and go to...Disneyland! I am so excited to go to California next week, and I'll worry about adjusting to afternoons when we get back!
Caleb’s care package
I got my package this week! Thank you for sending that to me! Ha, ha—sometimes I was left with the vain hope that my first package would come, but now I'm content. But it was super awesome to get that! Thank you guys!
We had one complete day that we just spent traveling, because we had to go to Lota to get my Chilean ID. We caught a bus at 6:30am in Los Sauces, and we returned to Angol, to spend the night with the zone leaders, at 8:30pm, but we still got one visit in that day with our branch president that lives in Angol.
While we were traveling to Lota, there was a small, crazy miracle. We were in a train traveling through Coronel—actually two of my old sectors, Lagunillas and Camilo. There was a lady in the train sitting across from me, I tried to say hi to her, but she kinda ignored me, so I left it. But later I wrote a tiny letter to her and before she got out I gave it to her.
Then we spent another two or three hours going to Lota and getting my ID, and on the way back, we were in a “micro” or small bus, heading towards Concepción, and that same lady entered this tiny bus! I think I Iitterally said “Wow!” She sat in front of us.
It was kinda funny because me and Elder Miranda were passing the phone back and forth, writing notes, trying to plan what we were going to do with this miracle. But in the end she got off early actually super quick. We think she got scared seeing us again—Ha ha. But if anything, between what was written on the note and the opportunity to talk to us again was a huge sign for her!
The next day we had zone conference and I picked up my package. And then we got back to work. We've been trying to be super creative with the members, between making lunch and carrying it to their houses and eating with them, and planning Noches de Hogar. It's been super fun. The missionary work isn't "missionary work" but a way of life.
And on top of everything, despite loosing two days from traveling and meetings, we completed all our goals for key indicators for the third week in a row with Elder Miranda!
Caleb at church with members
We had this cool miracle finding this sister that's less active. We passed by her house on Saturday, invited her and her two boys to the Noche de Hogar, and then we invited them to church the next day. Afterwards we invited her 14-year-old son to be baptized, and he said yes! So we got two baptisms coming up!
Then, just today we traveled to Collipulle because Elder Miranda had served there and he wanted to visit a family there. We went to a waterfall with them and had lunch.
Keep doing the little things, and make the gospel not just a "church thing", but instead a lifestyle. Embrace it, and by doing so you'll let God's power enter your life and you'll be happier than ever! Love you guys!
Also hope you guys enjoy Disneyland!
Caleb, Elder Miranda, man, and cow
Major change of plans! First off, I got all of the beads I need to go to Disneyland! Second, because Dad forgot to reserve tickets until the last minute, all the days that we had planned to go to Disneyland were sold out! At first Dad was really worried, but then they decided to go to Disneyland on Monday—the same morning we would arrive from driving all night!
Our plan has us taking a break on Tuesday, then the next day we'd go to California Adventure (cause that wasn't sold out). Then another break on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday we would go back to Disneyland!
I am so excited to go, and it's gonna be an absolute blast. I am a little bummed though because some of the rides that are amazing are gonna be closed, like Splash Mountain (my personal favorite) and Indiana Jones.
But I think that we will have fun anyway, because there is so much to do at Disneyland, and no matter what it will be amazing!
Monte in Spiderman outfit
This week I have been trying to get enough beads to go to Disneyland. In order to get beads you have to do Spanish, and every three minutes of Spanish you get one bead. I have been working on them and I am almost on track.
We also have done some Fab-Fab-Vocab, so that we can get some beads too. I also have a Spanish class for my school, so that I can earn high school credit and also get beads and go to Disneyland. I think that I'm going to be able to make it and I can't wait to go.
Mom playing games with children
So far school is going well this week. I am ahead in all of my classes for the week we are going to Disneyland next week!
It is also really nice that I am having all of my classes ahead because I want to get done early, so I can have an early summer break.
Winnie, Misha, Max, Mable watching TV
I can't wait for next week because we are going to go to Disneyland on Monday! We leave Sunday night at about 10:00pm, and I am just trying to get ahead of my classes so then I won't have to do school at California.
I have never been to Disneyland because this is my first time going, and I am so excited. They said that all of them that we were going on was very steep and had big hills and I can't wait.
I am also trying to get Spanish beads because if we earn enough beads we can get different amounts of days that we do. The limit is three days and I am going to one day. I can't wait.
Joanna with toys