January 11, 2016 Day of transfers except for me!

and this guys is named Neftalì. (yea like one of the 12 tribes)

and when he was 17 years old, he got hit by a train, and lost  his leg and injured his left hand. But he is the high priests group leader, and has been a member for like 30 some odd years. And is stellar! he also took off all the handles and stuff on the back of his wheel chair, so that no one could push him around. he is like the definition of stubborn (in a good sense..... like being independent etc.)

this is Nelson Campos. who is the friendliest guy EVER! and one of the few people in this sector that I feel like is actually excited to see us every time we pass by his house :) On Saturday we went by, and he knew it would probably be my last visit, and was waiting for us with completos and everything :) He calls us "my little angels" (he got baptized like a year and a half ago, and is the only member in his immediate family)

Hey guys!!! So the day of transfers has finally come. And you have to always be expecting surprises, right? Because inspiration from God isn't a guessable a thing. So it turns out that my comp. Elder Parker is the one getting transferred (he is going to Chillàn) and I am staying ANOTHER TRANSFER in Cerro Verde. AHHHHH! I am going to be here for 7 months! but the fun thing is that I get to train again! Which Im actually super excited about. And so I will stay here and continue being district leader, which is gonna be sick.

I totally think that most other people if they were in my same situation would be sad, or sort of mad about it. Because Cerro Verde is BY FAR the hardest ward/sector that I have been in. And to be in a sector for 5 cambios (7 months) is not that common at all. Almost always you get transferred out of the area after being the for 4 cambios ( 5 1/2 months). But I know that the Lord wants me to stay here. And I know that there are more people for us to find here and teach, and hopefully baptize :)

Something super cool this week, is that we ate lunch with a lady (my first time eating lunch with her) and she asked where I was from. And I said utah. And she was like oh.... the Elder who baptized me is from Utah, maybe you know him? (and I was thinking in my mind YEAH RIGHT! hahaha there are so many blithering missionaries that come out of utah) but I asked her what was his name. She said Elder Collins. And I thought, OK. thats a super common name. And then I remembered that Jared Collin's dad had served in Concepciòn. But then she started to pull out this little box that this elder has sent her a Christmas card every single year. And I saw out of the corner of my eye on the envelopes "Alpine, UT"  and then looked closer and it was Sean Collins (Jared`s dad) who had baptized this lady named Maria Isabel (Gònzalez) I think.... but she said they were the "Tapia family" and she could NOT say enough good things about Elder (Bishop) Collins, and how their family had come to visit them in Chile a few years ago, and how it was so nice that he kept sending her a Christmas card each year.  and then I helped the sweet older lady find Jared`s mom on Facebook to be able to add her!  what a small world right?

 Tomorrow I pick up my new companion in the office. I sort of think it will be a latino. because there are like 13 new elders coming. and only 3 of them are gringos. but we will see :)

Elder Hartvigsen