Trent's Mission To Chile

Monday, May 5, 2014

APRIL 29 - MAY 5 SEMANA 2 EN EL CAMPO MISIONAL, CONCEPCION, CHILE

Hey, my parents!!

It's going great, my dad! We've been busy and working really hard! Lorenzo Arenas is an awesome ward and there are so many nice families here. I'm going to send a bunch of pictures your way right now, since I'm a bit behind on that. ;)

I'm going to try to Skype around 4:30PM on Sunday!! We're on the same time now since Chile set their clocks back a week ago, so expect me to call around then! We're going to Skype from la casa de la familia Muñoz. They are super nice and awesome, and we're going to have an hour and a half to Skype!

I have to go, since I spent a lot of time sending pictures, but I will talk to you on Sunday!!

Love you, my parents!! Tell Travis I will talk to him on Sunday TOO!

Elder Trent Sellers

One of the LAN airplanes at the Santiago, Chile Airport

Our rescheduled flight to Concepcion, Chile after the "apple incident"!

Our welcoming to Concepcion, Chile!

The birthday package made it and I saved it for my birthday! :)

The pantry, a little fuller with PEANUT BUTTER!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Gracias, mi familia!

Me and my first company and trainer, Elder Withers!

Mi cumpleaños a la casa de la familia Muñoz, con mi amigo Elder Taylor (from Utah) and tambien mi amigo Hermano Del Río

Tortazo!

A small park outside the wall of the Concepcion cemetery.

Trying to stay organized! Missionary apartments can get a little messy.

Nuestro cuarto, and my desk.

My first birthday cake in Chile! Yum!

The cross at the top of the hill, above the cemetery. We have an investigator, Isabel, that lives up there.

Cementerio General de Concepcion which is in our area.

Walking up the hill!

A "chow". This one lives up the hill and I call him Chew-baca!

The cross on top of a hill overlooking Cuidad de Concelcion

Cuidad de Concepcion

Me with Cuidad de Concepcion in background.

The Bio Bio River

Old ruin on hill above Cuidad de Concepcion. It's a little further up from the cross.

The Ocean/El Mar

Me and the cross on hill above Cuiidad de Concepcion.

Ruins above Cuidad de Concepcion.

Back from playing futbol!

Our mission apartment kitchen.

Received my birthday package. Thanks momma, and thanks my dad!

Birthday present to myself!;) We're allowed to have musical instruments in our mission! Yippee!

Our maps and schedules! Busy, busy!

Mission office

Thursday, May 1, 2014

APRIL 23 - APRIL 28 SEMANA 1 EN EL CAMPO MISIONAL, CONCEPCION, CHILE

¡Hola, mis papas, toda mi familia, y todos mis amigos!

¡ESTOY EN CHILE!

I've made it to el campo misional! Man, what a week it has been! First, THANK YOU ALL FOR THE BIRTHDAY WISHES! I love hearing from my family and friends, and I'm so grateful for the awesome words this week. Thank you, first and foremost. :)

Ok, ok, so I made it to Chile!! Oh man, what a story that is, though. After an AWESOME flight and dinner and breakfast on LAN Airlines, we arrived in Santiago close to 7:00AM and went through customs. One of my companions, Elder Archibald from Alberta, Canada, brought an apple from Mexico and forgot to declare it, and got CAUGHT. Hahaha my poor companion got stopped by the authorities and we had to wait for OVER 30 minutes so he could explain his intention with an apple. Long, long story short, including an encounter with his brother who is serving in Chile also, we MISSED OUR FLIGHT TO CONCEPCION. We had just arrived in our new country and we were stuck! haha oh man, what an experience. Fortunately, Elder Kemner, Elder Archibald, and I were able to hop on a flight an hour later and contact our president that we'd be arriving a tad late. ALL WAS WELL. We arrived in Concepcion an hour later and were welcomed by a whole welcoming party from our mission. It was so awesome, and pretty soon we made it to the mission office and in a little bit more time were assigned our companions and sent out to work!!

My companion is Elder Withers, from Boise, Idaho, and he's a great guy! He's my trainer and senior companion, and he's been here for about 10 months. He knows his Spanish, and I can't wait to pick it up like he has! It gives me more and more hope! I love the language here. It's so weird being truly surrounded by people that speak a completely foreign language to me, but I've been able to use everything that I know and learn more and more every day. It's a really fun challenge, and I'll pick it up with time.

Ok, so this week SUPER SUPER FAST. WOW, so much happens in a week here! We've eaten at members houses every lunchtime, had a correlation meeting, had a mission conference, contacted over a hundred random people in the streets, gone out with members to knock doors, and more.

SATURDAY was awesome, and such a great birthday! It ended at la familia Muñoz, and we had completos and torta (CAKE)! It was a really special night, and it included a tortazo (abrazo (hug) plus torta (cake) = cake in the FACE)! It was a great day and night, and I'm very grateful for all of the love that the people here have shown me, even this week.

I know I'm really going to come to love the people here (I already have!), and I'm going to have so many opportunities and experiences to share. Most importantly, I am going to be able to share the most important thing in my life with the people here. It has blessed my family, and I want to share the same blessings with the families in Chile.

I know it's true. It's important that I say that, because I know it. It's the reason I am here and the reason I am so happy. My life has been blessed so greatly because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am so grateful, so truly grateful, for all that I've come to know and to feel because of it.

I love you my family, and of course all of my friends, too. It's hard being apart, but I know Heavenly Father will watch over both of us for this time that I'm here.

I love you all. Have a great week and see ya when I see ya. :)

Con mucho amor,

Elder Trent Sellers

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