Week 12: A baptism, transfer week, the ocean, hike, singing at the temple, and yummy food

This week Elder Monson didn't have time to write a full letter but we (Mom) did chat and he called as well. Lots going on in his area of the world. It is transfer week, Brayden isn't being transferred but he will be getting a new companion tomorrow, Elder Turpin. A baptism (another baptism today) a trip to the ocean, a great hike with the Mission President, good food and a lot of teaching. Here a some fun photos!

The OCEAN

a fun Preparation day activity, it was early in the morning so a little cold but beautiful

a visit to the Ocean!

view of the ocean, it is about 1.5 hrs from where he serves

view from the ocean to the city

I spy with my little eye... a ski boat!

anyone see that beautiful ski/wake boat out there? Dad is jealous

 A Baptism

baptism last Friday, Elder Monson did the confirmation on Sunday

 Food!

best burger ever

Sushi!! Seriously his favorite food. 

He says they make it differently there. It is all cooked and not always seafood

Elder Groll enjoying sushi and punch

Transfer board

transfer board

From Sister Richter: 

Every Saturday our wonderful missionaries invite the people they are teaching to the Temple in Concepcion for a tour and an introduction to what happens in the temples. The Temple Tour starts at 10:00 in the morning. Bring your friends!

New Missionary Conference
The subject was - Resilience! The Blessing of Hard Things!

This is for Hailey... who I guess likes pigeons

Week 11: Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-- Robert Frost

Nothing gold can stay. What a powerfully profound statement. My sister showed me this poem a few months ago and I haven´t been able to get it out of my head since. Though the words of the poem are morose, almost mournful, I always find my heart´s sorrows to be somewhat lighter after reading the poem. There are very few things in known history that have been valued above gold- diamonds being the only thing that comes to mind. Its value is, of course, more or less abstract. I mean it´s a piece of shiny metal. Useful, perhaps, in building specialized electronics, but unnecessary. In fact, if you were to smelt all of the obtained gold in the world together it wouldn't even fill a single Olympic swimming pool. And that is precisely why it has been our eye´s focus for so long as humans.
For roughly 75 years after the USA was formally established as an independent country, our minted money was nothing more than numerical representations of how much gold we had stored in the bank. It was a flawed system, one that favored the already rich, stagnating economic growth staggeringly, that´s why we don´t use it today. It was to be replaced with a gold and silver-based system during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson, a system that would fundamentally change the economic power balance in the country. But this decision which was made only after Jackson´s insistence on an unstable system was proven faulty after the economy collapsed. You see, Jackson trusted in the gold system, perhaps because he himself benefited greatly from it. And though two of his three secretaries of treasury told him that the system needed to change, Jackson didn´t make the change. And I have no doubt that many people were pushed down into poverty because of it.
I share this example because, well, I like to bash on Andrew Jackson (why he's on our 20 dollar bill I will never know). But Jackson´s focus was on the wrong thing. So far as I can tell, it was on his own economic situation, rather than what was logically best for everyone. And we do the same, as people in the world. Our eyes get distracted, and thus we do too. We turn our attention to that which cannot last, that which fades. Nothing gold can stay. Nothing ever stays, not forever. Nothing in the universe will last, except for one thing.
There´s this couple we´ve been teaching- I mentioned them in last week´s letter. Fernanda and Christian. They have a wonderful family and a wonderful life. And, until 2 days ago, they had a wonderful baptismal date set for the 24th of this month. They are, or were, what missionaries would call "golden" investigators. But nothing gold can stay. And neither can they.
Their situation is complicated, but for legal and economic reasons they´re getting a divorce. They still live together, they still love each other, and they ́re still planning on progressing in the Gospel. But they can´t be baptized. Not for another 9 months, when they can legally get married again. They still plan on attending church, every week they can, and want to be baptized. But 9 months is a long time, and their faith is a new, a budding thing, and I´m not sure if it can last 9 months basking under the heat of temptation.
I shared this scripture with them: "That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ"
Nothing gold can stay, that much is clear. But I´d like to propose something: Nothing gold should stay. Because gold, on its own, is worthless. That´s why we need to spend it. And 9 months is a long time. But I have faith in them, just as I have faith in all of us. Life is hard and we all of trials, but the trial of our faith is more valuable than anything we can find here on this Earth.
Nothing gold can stay, but maybe that´s a good thing.

screen shot from last weeks phone call

Elder Brayden H. Monson

Week 10: With all the Feeling of a Tender Parent

Dear Men of the West,

1 Nephi 8:37 "And he did exhort them then with all the feeling of a tender parent, that they would hearken to his words, that perhaps the Lord would be merciful to them, and not cast them off; yea, my father did preach unto them."


John 3:16- My Favorite Scripture:


"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.


17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."


"I don't believe in love at first sight, yet it's something I've experienced. It's what I felt the first time I held my child, shortly after they were born."


- John Green. Not a direct quote.


I love that phrase. I love that phrase oh so much. "All the feeling of a tender parent." Because there is nothing in my life that means more to me than my family. Nothing. These past few weeks I've seen a lot of different types of families: An old man of 80 who lives with his dog and cat, and treats them with an abundant level of respect. Two of the people we're teaching- Chana and Alberto- who almost always have their at least half of their children/grandchildren with them at any given time, who are learning to love the gospel because now- more than ever- they can see how Christ can bring their family closer together. Ruben, another man we're teaching, who lives with his disabled mother and spends his days watching over her and loving her. Fernanda and Christiansen, who fulfill all the

stereotypes associated with 'young family with young children.' They're where I hope to be in a few years.


It's interesting for me to note that, with the exception of a few, all of our investigators have living, breathing, loving, functioning families- or at least are trying to create that for themselves, at any rate. It's more than interesting actually, It's key. And I have something of a theory about it. I think that, while the Gospel of Jesus Christ is intended for everyone, it is meant most especially for those people whom most desire to build up their families. Because I think Heavenly Father knows that those are the ones who will be able to understand the great import of his message: when His children reach the wonderful part in their lives when they become Fathers and Mothers themselves and- in their own way- can come to understand a small portion of the love the our Celestial Father has for us. His children. And if they understand that then maybe, just maybe, they can hope to understand exactly what this Gospel signifies. Because Families are the central point of the Gospel, they are the point of the gospel.

The Book of Mormon, for example, is riddled with families (I mean just look at the Book of Omni, it's literally just a family history record. Same thing with Matthew chapter 1. The first thing we learn about Christ is his lineage). It's the story of a family, one family. They grow, they change, the separate, they fight, and eventually they end- it's a little bit depressing, actually. But there's something I realized about Nephi and his family that really puts the whole story in a different context. You see, Nephi fled Jerusalem because God said that it was going to be destroyed (obviously, I'm sure we all know that). But-well- Jerusalem wasn't destroyed until nearly 100 years after they left. In a lot of ways Laman and Lemuel were right when they murmured, there wasn't an expedient need to leave. So, why did they?


2 Nephi 25: 26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins."

Nephi isn't concerned with is own life. He's thinking about the future. He's thinking about children, about what's going to happen to them when he dies. And that, I think, is exactly where our focus needs to be. Family. I think about my family a lot out here. I get home sick a lot out here, though not as much as you might think. It's not a bad thing, I think, it's just an occupational hazard of what I'm doing. I miss my family and my family misses me, it's the way of things, it's life. But there's one family that I miss somehow more than the one I've left back in Utah, one that I've never even met, but love anyways. And they're the reason I'm out here preaching the Gospel, more than anything. They're who I'm preparing for, who I'm waiting for. My own family. I can't wait to meet them. I can't wait to someday understand, in my own small and simple way, how God feels each time we choose to turn towards Him, and choose to make the right decisions for our lives. When we choose to partake of His fruit, and feel is love, and understand just how much He loves us.

And, more importantly, when we realize just how much we ought to love God. Because ours is a God of love whose work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man, who created the Earth that we might possess it. Who lets our helpless souls struggle and scream, who lets us fail. Who let the Earth be cursed from Adam's transgression, just so we could come here and live.

Who let Jesus suffer, and undoubtedly did so with tears in His eyes. I can only hope that most of those tears were of joy, rather than of sorrow.

And who does so with all the tenderness of a loving parent.

---------------------------
Side note:

I don't know a lot about the political situation in the world right now- though I kind of wish that I did- but I have some counsel that applies to this event, as well as every event that is relevant to politics. Firstly, though politics affects everything, it is not everything. Don't over stress about it. Secondly, more importantly, your religious views are not the same thing as your political views, and your political views do not top your religious ones. So often we use religion to justify our human philosophies. But just know that if you ever are in a political debate and feel the need to quote a scripture to prove your point, don't. Not only is that incredibly vain, a seed of apostasy, and oftentimes a complete misinterpretation of the scripture in question, it's also the reason that so many people hate religion. Because people preach at them instead of ministering to them. Neither side in modern politics is more "morally correct" than the other, not really.

And remember that Jesus Christ, though He had a great influence on the politics of His time, was not a political figure. So don't treat Him like one.




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- Elder Brayden H. Monson

Week 9: Vain Repetitions

Dear World,


1 Nephi 17:36 "Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it."


bought a new hat in the "market" on pday

So there are very few things that I have more disdain for than what Isaiah 1 calls "vain obligations." The idea that everything we do is done because it's something that we have to do. The idea that we follow commandments, perform baptisms, teach lessons, help others, because it's what we have to do, rather than being something that we want to do. And so many people, oftentimes including me, live this way. Moment to moment, obeying (or not) for obedience's sake, just sort of going through the motions. Because that way of living is so fundamentally wrong and so intrinsically opposed to our progression here on this Earth.


Life is an experience. Life is a bundle of thoughts and feelings and actions and that's all it is. But every significant action we have gives us the opportunity to learn something. Life is a gift that God has given us and everything in the world was given for our sake. I'm sure that you've all heard the phrase "everything happens for a reason." To be honest I've always found that sentiment to be a little... optimistic. Because sometimes things just are. But here on a mission I'm learning something. I'm learning that, while not everything happens for some deep spiritually nourishing reason, it does all happen for a reason. Often times that reason is mundane, but it's always there. And that means that there is (almost) always something we can learn from the experiences and objects we encounter in our life.

What is life?

I'm serious here, what does it mean to be ALIVE? To be a conscious creature, self aware, reacting and acting, constantly developing into... something? I had a weird, somewhat surreal moment this week in our apartment when I looked into the mirror and saw... someone else there. Someone I didn't expect. Because when I look into the mirror it's usually because I need to see what I'm doing. When I do my hair, I look at my hair, when I put in my contacts I look at my eyes, when I peel the ever decaying skin off of my half burned nose, my nose is the sole object of my attention. But when I looked into the mirror that day, that morning when all I could feel was an incurable rush to move as quickly as my human body would allow, I paused.





And for the first time in a while- longer than I'd like to admit- I saw myself. He blinked when I blinked, moved when I moved, and was precisely as confused as I was. And I realized that I, Elder Brayden Hunter Monson, am a living being. Of flesh and bone and brain. But, most importantly, a being of thought. What we think, is who we are. Because everything we think about is what makes up who we are, for thought is the way that we experience the world. How do we know that something it hot? Because our brain tells us it is. How do we know that our friends love us? Because we think they do. There's no tangible evidence of it, we just think that they do. We think that the fire is hot because our brain has received a signal that it is. Everything we believe and perceive about the world depends on that- what we're told, the signals we receive, and the emotions we feel.

Makes sense? No? Good.

My point in this mini psychology/ philosophy lesson is this: What happens when we don't think? What happens when we go through life moment to moment, just doing what we do out of obligation? I'll tell you what happens- We die, mentally and spiritually. Because thought is the only way that we interact with the world. And without it, there's no point.

It occurs to me the point of my letter still isn't particularly clear, so I'll spell it out directly.

2 Nephi 28:21 "And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell."

Sometimes we forget why we're here. But our God has put everything on this Earth for a purpose-including us. Every experience we have, we can learn from. Every day, every prayer, every sacrament meeting, every conversation. And there are so many people who don't understand that. There are so many people, here in Chile they tend to be women over 70, who have puffed themselves up in their own knowledge and, because of that, refuse to accept that there's anything they still have to learn from 'jovens,' young ones, such as us. They're the sort of people who have stopped looking for the truth. Who would rather perish in iniquity than improve their lives in the best way we know how. I can only hope that you and I understand that we were sent here to learn, now and for eternity. Because, as my dad once told me, "the closer you get to perfection, the more you realize just how far you still have to go."

So that's the point of my message this week. I'm sorry it was a bit of a mess. Be aware of why you're here, don't stop learning. And understand this: You're a person, with flesh and blood, and you're flawed, just like the rest of us. And you still have more to learn. So learn something from everyone you meet this week.





cooking meat at a members home in their indoor bbq (seriously the most happy missionary)






more meat than he has ever seen

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Who I'm thankful for this week:

Hailey Hutchings, who's headed out on a mission, and who is going to conquer Canada and do it with an unfaltering smile.

Marielle McDonald, who always makes sure I know that it's okay to fail, and it's okay to be afraid, and it's okay to struggle.

My Dad, who's the most genuine, most human person I know. And is always aware of just how far he, and I, and everyone, have to go.

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-Elder Brayden Monson