¡Feliz 2012!

Hola
I hope you all had an awesome New years. Its so weird that its 2012.

In mission news...

We had the mission goal of 1000 bautismos en 2011, and we achieved it with 1012. We also had 23 bautismos here in Quillota in the month of december. Which is pretty much like a record. it has been years since a zone in this mission has baptized more than 20 in one month. So there has been lots of excitement in the mission. Our next big goal is 300 in the first three months. I have learned a lot about the importance of having goals in the mission. If you do have goals, you don't have vision. Not just in the mission, but in life in general. We should be constantly setting goals and working to fulfill them. If we don't, we can still learn from the experience and set new goals. The purpose of life is to progress. We can't just idly by waiting for the progression to happen if we don't do our part. How can we do that? by prayerfully setting meaningful goals and then working towards them.

Other than that life has been pretty good. Its been hard though...I have been sick like all week. its lame. and the sun makes it worse. its not that it is super hot, but its like really strong in La Calera. Like even if there is a breeze...me and comp can just feel the sun beating down on us all the time. and we walk a ton. we drink tons of water, but still...yesterday for example was horrible. and the majority of our area is really open to the sun. There is not much shade...unless we go to Hijuelas (another town in our area). I actually love Hijuelas for that reason....because the sun isn't as strong there.

Bueno, Año Nuevo was good. I think that I love having Christmas in the winter, but Año Nuevo is fun here in Chile because its summer. like everyone goes to the beach and theres fireworks everywhere. We even had fireworks here in La Calera. Nothing like the fireworks in Viña and Valparaíso. But still, they were pretty cool. The tradition in Chile is to have a nice big dinner on the new years eve at like 10:00 pm (usually involving meat). Then midnight comes and then all the parties happen. We ate dinner with the Bishop and his family and then at 11 we had to be in the apartment. There with the other two elders we watched the fireworks at midnight. it was fun. Sunday was interesting. There were 14 people (including my Comp and I) there to take the sacrament and then by the end of sacrament meeting there were 20. Which of course caused some problems when it came to the sunday school classes. In the end, we just had sacrament meeting. oh well.

I hope you all have an amazing new year. Take time to think about what you want to achieve this year. take time to count the blessings you had in 2011. Well sounds like utah was fun dad and mom. have an awesome week!

Love you all

Elder Hyer