Aug 24th

well mom to be honest ive got a lot of mixed feelings.

sprititually i feel really good! i honestly feel like i have been turned into such a better version of my old self and that is a great blessing in my life. i can feel that God and Christ love me and they are here for us all. 

mentally. its like i am really happy sometimes and other times its hard not to be sad. im happy to see you guys haha its actually really hard to focus because i just want to hang out with you guys but other times its sad and scary to see that what i have come to know and love is ending and so its just a really crazy feeling. pluss with my Elder Gardel he has been doing really good with the seizures but its just hard cause he is lazy and we have to tell him to do everything of he just sits there. but i can say that Elder Gardel is an honest fool haha he is really nice but he just needs to be kicked in the butt a few times a day and plug himself in more to what is happening.

physically. digestive problems came back this weekend and they are taking there toll. i feel tired worn out and not a lot of motivation for anything. its hard. i still have this rest schedule going on but i still  am tired when i get home and im sleeping almost 3 extra hours everyday. it frustrating. i feel like satan is really trying get me with this and then once i get home its all going to stop! i just want it to stop now haha but beggars cant be choosers! haha yesterday while in the chapel bathroom "taking care of my duties" i was by myself and i had a 10 min conversation with Heavenly Father. haha i was talking out loud and probably sounded crazy if anyone would have heard me (no one was in the chapel except my comps) but i honestly felt a lot more relieved and less afflicted i guess you could say after and that helped a lot!

So that couple completely shut us down and they dont want to share with us anymore. there fam doesnt think that they need to be baptized again. the husband was really awesome and he wants to keep listening but not enough to say no to his family and so we have stopped teaching them but esteban is going strong for his baptism and he is going to get baptized on the 4th instead of the 5th. he is really prepared and so we are just trying to keep him progressing while we wait for the date to get here

i got a few pics but my camera stopped showing me the pics and the virus it has is just making things worse so i will show you everything first hand!

i have got my goals for after my mission and its really wierd to think about what i am going to be able to do after! haha i feel so wierd right now!!

love you mom just keep praying for us and please pray for my health so that i can make it home in one piece!

LOVE YOU! im excited to see you guys!       Elder Ethington

Aug 17th

haha we did get the power back on in the house on tuesday so we are very happy now! haha it has been really nice to have light in the house and not have to study with a fire! we really werent burning that much! in like the 6 days that we didnt have light we used like 7-8 bottles of 100ml! alright that might still be a lot but not enough to think we were buring a matress!! but we are all better now!!

thats really crazy about crissy and ashton because i actually was thinking about what was happening with them yesterday! haha that just might be and impression from the Spirit!

so esteban is doing really good! but he didnt come to church! he still wants to get baptized! its so cool how well he understands the gospel and how well he can just absorb everything! so yesterday as we were leaving his house to i asked him how he was doing with his reading in the book of mormon and he told me that he hadnt read for a couiple days and he commited himself in the moment to read when we left and start reading again! normally, with others, its like pulling teeth! sometimes i think i should be a dentist after the mission after seeing how much people react when you ask them about their reading.

and more good news! two of our other investigators accepted to get baptized on the 5th as well!! she is the best hair cutter in the city that im in (which is a big city!) and he was a professional soccer player and played for the national Chilean team in the late 50's and they already know a lot of people in the ward so we are just really trying to help them understand the doctrine better! Monica, she smokes, so i want to ask you guys to pray for her so that she can have the desire and can achieve the goal of not smoking! that would be awesome!!

its really crazy to get my trunky papers! its like a dream! haha

the list of thing that i want to eat when i get home

(airport)

1. blueberry madbrook donut

2. 44 oz mountain dew (easy on the ice) from maverick.

3. carls jr monster biscuit. (with BBQ sauce if possible..... Sweet baby rays)

and that would be it for now! ill update you if there is anything else!!

 also this week was pretty scarry!

my comp Elder Gardel, had two siezures on thursday! i was doing my rest thing, so that i dont have digestive problems, and all of the suddent the bed started shaking and i look down and he was convulsing after that passed he was contious of what what happening but barely and my other comp elder pedersen called the nurse and was getting intructions from her. turns out elder gardel has had this his whole life and is taking pills for it but for some reason it happened to him. and then that night it also happened to him again and we were up till like 12 with him and then me and elder pedersen couldnt fall asleep till 3 in the morning and since then everytime we are sleeping and he moves i wake up with my heart beating and think he is having a seizure again. haha i have had a few nights where i havent gone to bed till late. but he hasnt had anyproblems since and just here waiting to help him if anything happens again.

but dont worry we gave him a blessing and the Lord is helping us a lot!!

we had a good week!

love you all!

Elder Ethington

Geneology work!! 1 nephi 5:14-17 we will have the spirit with us and recieve personal revelation!

Aug 10th

haha were do i start with this week!

so we talked with Esteban and man he is ready to get baptized! he said that he wants to get baptized on the 5th of september! haha litteraly my last day that i have to work in the mission and right in between your guys birthdays! haah its really crazy!! he wants all of his family to be there so that they can see it and im hoping that they will be able to follow him very quickly into the font! it has been awesome to see him progress and im really grateful that im going to be able to see him get baptized! ITS GOING TO BE SWEET!!! 

on monday we had a FHE with some converts and they made Leche con Platano. all it is is milk with sugar and blended bananas and it is really good! im going to make some today!

so this last week we have had the biggest storm in 14 years pass through! and it was very interesting to see how everyone just stayed in there houses and we were able to teach a lot of people even with the rain so that was really awesome!! we taught 2 investigators and they both decided to come to church and they both actually came and they knew a bunch of people already and so we are excited to keep teaching them!! plus on thursday when the storm started our luz got cut and we have been with out electricity since then! it has been really freaking interesting lately! we have been doing grandpa phillips trick of burning rubbing alcohol to have a heater adn it has been working really well..... until today!!!! so this morning we were just studying away in the room with the alcohol burnig and it was nice adn warm there! we heard sirens coming down the road and then all of the sudden they stopped! i looked out the window and they were outside our house! turns out that someone from across the street called the firefighters and told them that we were burning a couch in the room upstairs! so then the neighbor lady come out and starts getting mad at us and then insists that the freaking firefighters search the house to make sure that we arent doing anything! so we told the firefighter that they could come in adn they could see that we were just burning the alcohol sothe firefighters were really cool about it and they came in and looked that we were burning the alcohol just like we had told them and they were just like you should put it on the tile floor instead so nothing really bad happens. haah then the neighbor stopped freaking out and then another lady got all riled up and started telling us off and that we should have called the company to fix the problem (which we already did and they told us we had to wait till the storm passed) but i had to tell her  3 times and not very nice the 3rd time before she listened and finally said goodbye and left. haha this week has been kinda stressful and im glad that it isnt going to rain this week.

love you mom!!!

Aug 3rd

this is who i was with for the first 3 days of my week! he is from arizona and his parents are from tonga! elder nasilai is a really cool guy and can do all the sweet poly stuff.... beatbox, plays the uke piano and the guitar,and can freestyle rap. and he has got a full ride scholarship to go play football for a college in arzona when he gett back from his mission! he is really cool and i enjoyed working with him for 3 days!

about the card if it doesnt cost to much to overnight the card sure but have about140 in cash with me that im going to save for anything that will come up and my card is going to actually last till the end of august cause i was able to take out money today ( in august)

well this week was a pretty good one and it was fun too!!

so on monday i said goodbye to my comp. it was crazy to see someone finish thier mission. haha it didnt seem real!! it was kinda sad saying goodbye to him but i felt my shoulders relax unconsiously right after and i felt like i learned a lot from him and i feel like i had a good impact on him and helped him be better.

and then i was with elder nasilai (who i just send you a video of) he is super awesome. we had a little bit of a rough time in the sector for those 3 days but we got along really well and we laughed quite a bit!

it was really cool on wednesday he got called to be a district leader and a trainer at the same time and he was SUPER nervous and it awesome to be able to help him a little and give hima  little direction and help him know what to expect and what to do!!

at the change meeting i got to talk to elder brock and elder dalton a little bit and they are super aweseom!! i was a little jealous of them because with the new mission pres. they are doing a lot of fun stuff as a district! like waking up at 5.30 to play soccer at the church because normal missionaries andthe office elders have different p-days so they got permission to got do that! haha thanks to elder brock we got to watch the Chile VS Arg game.. haha he was the one who asked for permision! haha and then elder dalton to me that i would be gettin another assignment and so it turns out that i now have 2 companios! im in a trio! and im here with and elder who is just a little bit different and a little lazy and then im with another elder who is a really good missionary. elder gardel is from argentina and elder pedersen is from oregon!! haha i showed elder Pedersen my Oregon Ducks socks that i have and he was pretty excited about that one! haha he is a really good elder!

so with my stomach it has been going really good and i actually havent hardly anypromblems! like one and thats it! im might be having to do this rest thing for the rest of my mission if that is the only thing that is fixing it but today im goin to call the nurse and see what she says!! BUT hahah i got a cold on thursday  and had some major ear pain on thursday night that luckly went away after a blessing, and a sock heated up and filled up with rice, pushed against my ear for like and hour! haha it was a wierd but it worked!! and then have just been sneezing and coughing a lot lately haha! if its not one thing it the other, right?!

so for like the last week i ahve felt that i just needed to talk to ouir investigator Esteban and just sincerly talk to him, one on one and see what he feels about getting baptized and everything in general about the church and what we are teaching. so yesterday after church i had a chance to talk to him one on one and he told me that he feels like he recieved a confirmation on everything and that he wants to get baptized!! he said that he was going to talk to his parents and this tuesday he is going to tell us the date for when he is going to get baptized! haha he is going to put his own baptism date!! haha he is super awesome and im really excited to see him make a covenant with God!! its going to be awesome!!

and on sunday my comp also got way dizzy and couldnt like sit up out of bed and we should up to church a few min late because he was trying to get ready without falling over! haha it was a little nuts!!

but over all we had a really good week and im excited to see what these next 5 week brings haha. its so crazy! it hit me this last week that im actually going to walk around in the kitchen and finnally get ot see the hard wood floors this and everything. haha it was a really wierd feeling think about that! its like dream!!

we are all children of God and Christ and i know there plan is perfect and when something goes wrong in our life that means we just have to open our eyes and see what it is that God REALLY wants us to do in that moment and i know that through the atonement we are able to change dirrections in our life and be free of sin and full of energy!!

love yo mom!

Elder Thomas Ethington

July 27th

haah well this week went by really really fast!! it was so  crazy to see how fast the tdays go by. so this week i talked to the nurse adn she is having me do this rest schedule still and so im just letting my body calm down and digest my food normally and i have been doing a lot better with only a few "problems" so that was really good and today im going to tak to her again adn she is going to give me and update on what i can do. and mom i tried the no wheat adn stuff like that the best i could and it has seemed to help so im just going to stick with it and try to find some variety for it!  it is frustrating but im glad that we have at least found something that is helping out!

so the investigator that we have right now are just one the edge of breaking through right now! all of them are so close to taking all the steps they need but we are just trying to figure out what it is that they need to really just get freaking baptized! haha its like they all know. haha any advice? they just need something really little and they will be membrs! we had 3 come to church and one mayra has came before but she had problems with other missionaries before but for her to come to church is a big step adn we are going to have to get a move on teaching her what she needs ! 

it was really crazy to see my comp leave! elder porter finished his mission this today and it was really nuts to see someone actually finsih thier mission. ive never been with a comp when they have finished their mission so it was a new experence and it really weird! he was a really good comp and i learned a lot of how important families are and making sure that we organize our live around God.

it really just doesnt make sense that everyone is coming home. haha and how quickly it is happening.

so along with the dr. appointments i want to talk to you takl to you guys and josie and ely when iget home! i feeel like the relationshep that we can all have can and probably shound be stronger so the first thing i want to do is have a good talk with everyone with everyone! haha!

i ove you mom and thank you for everything! it is helping alot to get through this next month and a half! your my hero and your the best!!

Elder Ethington

July 20th

Monday.

so on monday we were able to rest up a little bit in the pension and then we had a really good family home evening with and investigator and his family who are members. we watched the video "The Masters touch" and it just talks about a violin (us) and how when played correctly buy someone who knows what they are doing (God) everything goes better in our life and the people that matter most see who we really are! its a really good video and we had a good time!

Tuesday!.

we had conference with our new Pres and his wife!

it was really fun and he is really good and teaching. he was the president of institute in Santiago and so he understands really welll how to teach so that people understand and want to learn more adn so he shared some of his wisdom with us!  so we were excited for that and we had a really good time at the conference and president díaz is a really loving guy and is really sincere in what he says and does! Im jealous of the missionaries that are going to be here to really get to know him! but not too jealous. haha im going to get to be with my family soon! and then i got my glasses also! haha HIPSTER CRAZE HARD CORE!! haha i figured i might as well try it out while im here and if i dont like how it looks i can change when i get home! haha it feels really different to have glasses! and man i was BLIND!!!!!! haha after putting on the glasses it was a big change and serioiusly i couldnt even handle it! haha i could actually see! its awesome! and i feel like my head is a lot clearer now!

Wednesday.

well the digestive problems have came back and really its freaking annoying! haha we did service but i was really tired the whole day which usually doesnt happen to me. haha i have been blessed with energy for all of my mission but it was a pretty hard day! so we taught a few lessons and the nurse told me to eat like beans and rice bread oatmeal and try not to eat the meat that if its not fresh fresh or something that has to be safe (something packaged good.....thats from the states..). and we taught an investigator and she was really sick and tired and we were able to give her a blessing and immediately after the blessing she felt a lot better and she was a lot more excited to have us come back! and then we talked with and ex stake pres that lives in our ward and he is really smart! 

thursday.

so my digestive probs continued and i talked to the nurse again in the night time and she is having me rest right after our comp studies for and hour and and hour after we have lunch so that my stomach can relax and digest normally. my comp thinks that im suffering from exhaution and thats why its going bad. the 2 hours of rest i just fall right asleep so haha maybe i am a light worked haha. it has helped a lot along with not eating the bad meat has helped a lot and i feel a lot better and so i am going to find and alternative for the meat so that i dont get fat from eating all these grains!! one of our investigators realized by himself that if he doesnt get baptized he is going to spirit prision. haha that was a big step for him and we hope to get things going more! his wife just got made relief society pres too so  we are exicted!

Friday

we didnt teach anyone and it was kind of a really fast day.

saturday

we had lunch with someone that live in the campo and it was really fun but it was a long walk and then after we taught a few people  and some less active poeple that just started commenting very rudely about the temples and it was a really intense lesson to say the least. our bishop cam with us and it was good because they really formed a good relationship with him after that and came to church on sunday! haha it was a goofy lesson!

sunday

we had 24 people come to church but we had a lot fo people sign up for the activity that we are going to do this week so we are hoping to see some good results from that!

love you mom!

Jul 13th

hey so i have got a question.

the glasses that have im thinking of gettting are one that i like.i am thinking that if i get these glasses here than i can have a pair of glasses that i like already and then when i get home i can just get contacts instead of gettting glasses and contacts. what do you think of that? i can get cheaper glasses to here im going to look around a little more and see what they is to get!

Monday. 

so we had a FHE with and ex-stake pres and it was good and they had a waffle iron so we ate waffles! haha it was really good and with manjar they are pretty amazing!! and then we watched so videos with a a convert and his mom who is and investigator about how to get a testimony and the lady, sofia, said that she really liked the video! lets just hope she puts it into practice.

Tuesday. 

so we had lunch with the bishop and it was a really good time! he is a really smart guy so that is nice having lunch with them. and then we taught a less active lady who is really funny but she isnt going to church and that is definelñtly a problem! haha its really hard sometimes to help people understand that all this stuff is so important sometimes!! haha dn then we got to watch the Joseph Smith movie with our really good investigator (Esteban) and his family (Sandra, his mom, and alexandra, his sister) and it was really crazy to see how impacted they were to see the persecution that happened in the beginning of the Church. haha they were tought people!

wednesday.

so we taught some more investigators about prophets and they really liked it and one of the ladies asked for a Book of 

Mormon so that was awesome BUT she doesnt live in this sector! so we will have to pass the reference but she will be a really good investigator!

Thursday. 

haha so we went to this house to teach a lady and her dad answered the door and told us to come in and wait. as we were talking he was like "man im just trying right now to get some of my family history done  for my grandkids so that i can give them something to nice!" so we very quickly asked him for his computer and we make him and account and showed him how to start his family history and get things rolling for him! haha it was a really crazy coinsidence that happened and i know it was for a reason! his name is roberto! pray for him and his daughter camlia please! haha please pray for all the investigators really!........ and the memeber also....... wouldnt hurt........

Friday.

 in the morning we went and looked for a new window for the bathroom because we dont have the top half in the bathroom! haha its currently covered with plastic bags and tape! it add just a touch of redneck zing to the place.... YYEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAA! and the we had another lesson with Esteban and his dad adn w talked about eternal families and estaban just hardcore testified to his dad (like esteban was a member for a long time) that their is anothr life after this and that we need to prepare adn that he knows this is the church that he need to belong to! haha the kid is GOLD!!! please pray for him and his fam!!

Saturday

we taught a few less actives and we watched "together Forever" with Sofia and her son who is the recent convert and it really is a good cheesy, Spirit inviting movie and the mom really liked it and she opened up a little and told us that she wasnt reading and that she was going to do a better job about it!

Sunday!

it rained all day! haha so we took advantage of the situation and watched 17 milagros with a less active family and it made them all cry! haha its a really humbling movie!! i also got to watch Ephraims Rescuethis week and it really makes me want to be read at all times for the call of the Lord in my life. i found it really cool that we all have talents and we just have to use them. that requires action. Movement. love for God and our brother. and it really helped me understand how i can help in this life!

so that was my week and im feeling a litte better about everything and i feel like i have been progressing alot.

and learning a ton also about what i can to do to feel better.

with my stomach i have been doing good till breakfast in the morning and it has been the last couple days i have had some problems with my stomach and im going to change my a little my diet to see in i can get better. i have been eating hamburger patties and vegtables in the morning. haha i dont really know what is going on with me anymore haha i just have to try and fix it now!

i will pray for josie send her an email every week! and a letter as soon as i can!

mom i want to thank you for the way you raised me! i really can say that i have felt the blessings of your teachings in my life and it has helped a lot to be able to not just get through my mission but to enjoy it and focus on others to get here! THANK YOU MOM FOR EVERYTHING! my comps favorite saying right now is "no pain no gain" and you have gone through a lot to raise us and like you said you have had stress problems for the last 20 years but i can express to you how greatful i am for the way that you have raised me. you truly have magnified your calling as a mom and you and dada have taken our family right to the door of the celestial kingdom! keep trying adn praying mom! i love you so much and i just want to thank you for your help in everything!!

LOVE YOU!!