Trent's Mission To Chile: April 2014

Thursday, April 24, 2014

APRIL 22 ELDER SELLERS ARRIVED IN CONCEPCION, CHILE

Dear Brother and Sister Sellers,

Sister Arrington and I had the great pleasure of welcoming your son, Elder Sellers, to the Chile Concepción Mission. After we met him at the airport when he arrived on Tuesday, we enjoyed lunch together with the other new missionaries. Afterwards, we held an orientation and testimony meeting, and Elder Sellers met his first companion, Elder Withers, who will train him to be a missionary. They will be laboring in the sector of Lorenzo Arenas B and located in the zone of Concepcion.

A mission is a wonderful experience filled with challenge and success that strengthens the testimony and spirituality of each missionary. The greatest support you as a family can give your son during his time as a missionary is that of uplifting letters. Missionaries look forward with great anticipation to each letter from home. In addition to using email, you can send packages and letters to our address. The U.S. Postal Service and the Correos de Chile do a good job of delivering mail and packages. Please do not send anything Fedex , DHL or any other private company.

Elder Trent Sellers

Misión Chile Concepción

Castellon 1063 Oficina Norte

Concepción, Chile

Casilla 2210

You may also e-mail or send letters (and only letters taped shut; no envelopes) via the "pouch.

Elder Trent Sellers

Misión Chile Concepción

POB 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

We encourage each of our missionaries to write to their parents each week. Please let me know if a reminder to him is needed. You may contact us at 2015528@ldschurch.org.

It will be our privilege to work closely with Elder Sellers as he serves here in Chile. We are blessed to have him join us in this mission and know that he will have many life changing experiences as he proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your support and for sharing your son with us.

Attached are photos and a map.

Sincerely,

President & Hermana Arrington

A WARM WELCOME TO THE CONCEPCION, CHILE MISSION BY PRESIDENT AND SISTER ARRINGTON

MAP SHOWS NORTH AND SOUTH BOUNDARIES OF THE CONCEPCION, CHILE MISSION. ELDER SELLERS IS CURRENTLY SERVING IN THE CITY OF CONCEPCION AS SHOWN BY RED ARROW

Thursday, April 17, 2014

APRIL 5 - APRIL 17 CENTRO DE CAPACITACION MISIONAL MEXICO ( MISSION TRAINING CENTER)

Hola Amigos:

We have our flight information for next week!! Elder Kemner, Elder Archibald, Hermana Richards, Hermana Fisher, and I are leaving the CCM at Monday, April 21! It's an almost 9 hour flight OVER NIGHT! Should be pretty neat and they're supposed to serve dinner. ;) It's great, too, since we'll be at the Mexico City airport when everything is busy and open before we do leave. Hopefully we should have at least an hour to ourselves before the flight to go grab some burgers! haha. We'll fly to Santiago and then on to Concepcion. That'll be on an Airbus 320, so it'll still be a pretty big flight! I'm so EXCITED!!

Only a few more days in Mexico City! It's beautiful here, but I'm ready and excited to get to the mission! Ah, so the fireworks I mentioned before have quieted down COMPLETELY. Supposedly that first week or two we were here was around a holiday, and we haven't heard too many of those since! It's been a bit smoky or cloudy in the sky, but the past few days have been really nice!

So I got my darker suit dry-cleaned last week (for US$5), and it turned out nice! I was going to get my light grey suit cleaned today, but we just found out that the dry-cleaner is closed for the rest of this week. :( Oh well, I'll look for one when I get to Chile. It's still in good shape and I don't think it smells. ;) The rest of our laundry is drying right now as we're emailing.

That's so awesome that Mitchie (my cousin) is coming down! Man, I so wish I could tour the Ft Lauderdale Temple!! Cris sent me an email all about it with a ton of pictures and it looks BEAUTIFUL. One of the things I'm most excited for when I get home is going to see that temple! Take some more pictures for me when you go with Mitchie!

Almost all of us here had no idea that this Sunday is Easter Sunday! We just got reminded yesterday or so and they are going to have a special schedule for us. We're going to have our own Easter devotional around noontime. Elder Pugh and I are still singing, but we're not sure in which meeting. We'll find out. :) I'm excited that it's Easter Sunday. It'll be even more special on the mission, to be able to focus more on the life of the Savior. :) I hope you all have fun at Uncle Bob and Aunt Judy's!! Tell them I say hi from Mexico. I still need to shoot them an email!

I'm so glad to hear about Dulce and Grace's baptism!! Cris sent me a few pictures and they looked so beautiful on their baptism day. :) I

Tell Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Rose that I say hi and that I hope they're doing well this year! Also congratulate Mrs. Rose for me on her retirement that's coming up. :) Gosh, she has taught for a long time!!.

Also, tell Joyce, Sis Fisher, and Collin that I also say hello from Mexico, that I love them and I certainly miss them. When you talk to Sis Fisher, tell her I say hi to my Grandma Betty! Being in ward choir with her has helped a lot here, too! AND give Sis Stokes a hug for me.

I have to get going!

Love you all and I hope you've been having a great week. :)

Elder Trent Sellers

ME AND ELDER KEMNER (ONE OF MY COMPANIONS)

OH BOY, A PACKAGE. I WONDER WHAT IT COULD BE?

YUMMY! CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!!

PLAYING WITH STICKY NOTES

HEY, THE URINAL HAS A PEDAL. WONDER IF YOU COULD DRIVE THIS THING?

ME AND ELDER ARCHIBALD (MY OTHER COMPANION)

DISTRICT 13A (HUNGAR GAMES ANYONE?)

HOW ABOUT A MEXICAN SNACK?

ELDER ARCHIBALD

Thursday, April 3, 2014

MARCH 28 - APRIL 4 CENTRO DE CAPACITACION MISIONAL MEXICO ( MISSION TRAINING CENTER)

Hey, mom and dad and everybody!!

I'm going to try to do something different this week and type this weekly update FIRST, before I read any of the emails that I'm staring at right now and SO wanting to open!! I want to get this out so I can have as much time as possible to respond to those emails. :) So this past week has been a great week in the CCM! We've been here for over three weeks now (which is CRAZY) and by now we're so used to our routine that we feel like the seasoned guys haha. The only other remaining district in our zone and branch left early Monday morning (there were two before us), and until yesterday our district (the nine of us) was the only one in the zone! BUT yesterday we received eight brand new missionaries as the newest district in our zone!! We have been super excited for that! It's so funny how excited you are when new missionaries get here hahaha. There are a few traditions that we're going to carry on from the districts that left before us -- namely, P-Day Eve and kickball on P-Day! We met most of the new elders and sisters last night and this morning, but tonight we're going to get together with them and play a get to know you game of some sort. Coming with the building up of the zone came new leadership! Elder Pugh and Elder Russell have been promoted to zone leaders (Elder Pugh was our former district leader), and I have been called as the new district leader!! I love leadership opportunities and I'm really grateful. :) District leaders have a lot of responsibility here and every week I'll have to have interviews with everyone in my district. It's going to be neat and I'll get to help everyone in my district as best as I can. I should be the district leader for these last three weeks!! Ok, ok, so what else has happened in the last week... On Friday, Elder Pugh and I auditioned to sing a duet of "Oracion de un Niño," or "A Child's Prayer," and it went so well and came out so nice that we are going to get to sing it for our very last Sunday night devotional here for the entire CCM!! I'm so excited for that! It's a beautiful song and, just like it, I know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. :) Sunday was our third Sunday in the CCM (also CRAZY) and we had Fast Sunday a week early since General Conference is this weekend! We had a fast and testimony meeting and although I wanted to bear my testimony, I wanted to give the district who was leaving as much time as possible to leave us with theirs. Our entire district sang "Oracion de un Niño" for them as a special musical number, and it turned out really nice. :) This week has been busy in class and we are learning more in every class. Some days have left me exhausted and I know that's because we are literally learning, speaking, and doing so much! Tuesday was a bit different. It was Elder Archibald's birthday! Since he's one of my companions, I wanted to try to make it special for him and I think he had a really awesome day. I got the other elders in my district up a little bit early and we sang a very loud happy birthday to him before he got out of bed haha. I got him some cookies and the other elders and sisters had, too, and we all signed a card for him. AND our teacher Hermano Salvador brought a cake for him! Even if it wasn't at home, I think it was a pretty awesome birthday for Elder Archibald! I'm going to get to celebrate mine in Chile! It won't be long!! Today I got to do one of the greatest things that I get to do during my time in the CCM and before I leave for Chile -- break outside the walls of the CCM and go to temple! Our district and a few others (41 of us) all crammed onto one of the CCM buses and traveled through Mexico City to the Mexico City, Mexico Temple! It's a beautiful temple and although it is closed for renovation, we had the opportunity to see it up close and tour through the brand new visitor's center! I took a lot of pictures and I'll send along a few today. Words can't describe it as well as the pictures can! I had an awesome time and you'll see how beautiful it is.

Ok, I must get going on to sending these pictures and reading these other emails! There's never enough time on P-Day!

I love you, my parents, and all of family and friends back home. I think about you all the time and you are always in my prayers -- and as a missionary, I pray a lot. :)

Mucho amor,

Elder Sellers / Trent