Goodbye Rio Bueno!‏

Well I guess it had to come sometime, this week we have transfers and I am officially leaving Rio Bueno.  I won't lie, it's pretty tough to leave this place, I've come to really love these people and it's gonna be really hard to say goodbye after almost six months of serving here, but I know that it's what the Lord wants for me.  My new area is on the island of Chiloé in a city called Quellón.  All I really know about the island is that people eat a ton of food there and it's the place that rains the most in all the mission.  As hard as it is to leave, I'm excited to have a new start in a new place and to continue progressing on my mission.

Saturday we had a baptism! I was able to baptize Paty which was an awesome experience, it's been a lot of fun being able to go out to Colhue to teach her and her family this past month.  I'm really gonna miss them, along with everyone else here in Rio Bueno.  Sunday she was confirmed by my companion and I got to confirm Alexandra, one of the investigators of the Hermanas here who was also baptized on Saturday.  It's really cool because both of them came from families being reactivated in the branch.  Through each baptism, 4 or 5 people are really coming back to the gospel.

Well that's about all there is to tell this week, I'll let you all know what Chiloé is like next week.  Hope you all have a great week.  Love you!

Elder Cameron Dower

Here are some pictures of Cameron's new area
Chiloe Island, Quellon

Hola Todos

Wow, I can't believe it but during this last week I officially passed my year mark on the mission.  I seriously can't believe how fast the time has gone by!  This last year I have grown so much as a person and my life has changed so much that life before the mission sometimes just feels like a dream haha. I'm kinda scared because they say that the mission feels like one year and five minutes, which means this next year is going to go by super fast, I just want to make sure that I take advantage of the time that I have left.

So awesome news this week.....Paty is getting baptized on Saturday!!!!!!! I'm super excited, it's been a challenge to get her family back to church from clear out in the country but it is definitely worth it that she is going to take this decision to follow Jesus Christ.

Hernan and Carolina have set their marriage date for October, I hope I'll be able to be there for it but either way, I'm happy for the oportunity I've had to see the gospel work miracles in their lives and in their family.

Well that's it for this week, hope you all are doing great.  Thanks for all of your emails, especially those of you I don't always get back to, I sincerely apologize for that.  Thanks for all the support and see you all in a year!

Love, Elder Cameron Dower

Hey Everyone!

Hope you've all had a fantastic week.  I sure have!  We've had a lot of fun here in Rio Bueno this week, lots of things are happening and I'm really excited.

Today for Pday we went to Elder and Sister Stott's, the senior missionaries in our zone.  The made us Chili dogs which was pretty funny to be eating chili dogs in Chile haha.

The best news for this week is that we have been visiting with Hernan and Carolina and guess what! THEY ARE GOING TO GET MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm not sure if there's enough exclamation points there to describe how excited I am for them.  They really want to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.  Now I'm just hoping that President will let me stay for another transfer to be able to be a part of it. Paty is doing well as well.  We went to pick them up for church yesterday and had to help a little with the chores before we could go.  I got to feed a baby cow! It was pretty exciting. Hopefully she will be ready for her baptismal interview this week and will be able to be baptized next week.

That's about all the news for this week.  Thanks everyone for your prayers for me and for our invetigators.  I have a huge testimony of the power of prayer.  I know that works and that the Lord hears our prayers.  Hope you all are doing great. Thanks for all of your support, couldn't do this without you all.  Love you!

Elder Cameron Dower

Hey everyone!

Hope you all had a fantastic fourth of July.  It's been a really great week. Time is really starting to fly by.  I realized this week that a year from now I will be back home. Since I technically go home two weeks before the date I left because of when transfers will be, I am at my halfway point today.  I seriously can't believe the tame has gone by so fast.

This week we've seen a lot of miracles.  The best news is that we are back working with Hernan again.  We stopped passing by for a little while because we lost contact with him. Him and Carolina are back together and want to work things out and be together as a family.  It's been great to see how the Lord makes things work out with people. We are also working with a family who lives outside of the city which is really fun.  The mom is a member but hasn't been to church in a long time because they can never come on the bus because they have to take care of all their farm animals.  So this week we sent our ward mission leader in a car to get them and bring them to church. Paty, her daughter who is 10 years old really liked the Primary and  is preparing to be baptized at the end of the month.

This week hasn't been too eventful for us.  Two funny memories off the top of my head are that yesterday I had sushi here in Chile, that was wierd.  On Friday we made empanadas for the fourth of July so I've finally learned how to do that.  Thursday we went to the campo (outside the city) to visit the family we are teaching and missed the last bus back to Rio Bueno so we had to ask our branch president to come and rescue us haha.

Well thats about it for this week.  Hope you all have a great week, thank you for all of your support!

Elder Dower