Familia- So we didn´t have transfers. In fact, very few missionaries had transfers and so I am still in El Parque for the time being with Hermana Salazar. The work is moving verrry slowly. We are still working with R____, but we are figuring out how to start on a clean slate. There wasn´t a lot going on this week but we had a pretty cool activity with the youth in our ward. We have what are called Farrias which are the flea markets that are set up by workers. Since one of the families in our ward works in the Ferria (which is located directly outside of our chapel) we were able to set up a table and have the youth help us contact people. The youth also made giant Book of Mormon/Bible replicas. They had a really cool experience with a lady that they contacted. They were able to go to her house and invite her 12 year-old grand-daughter to attend church! Unfortunately, this time of the year everyone is going on vacations. So there haven´t been a lot of people to teach this week, and we hear that February is worse. It is very hot and everyone is leaving Santiago.
We have started teaching a man named R_______. He is awesome! He was a contact we made while trying to call to someone else. We left him to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon last week and we passed by again this week to find that he read and really loves the Book of Mormon! The only problem we have is that he lives alone and we can´t enter unless another Hermana is with us. I´m super excited to work with him.
I hope you like the píctures! A couple from the Ferria, one of me and Hermana Ekins with "beignets", another with me and a Charungo (guitar of Chile), and our District.
I have been reading a lot in Alma.. the war chapters. We were able to have a good lesson with a less-active couple about this verse. It is super important to protect the things we have that are important to us. If we value something, we protect it. These chapters apply to us as well. It is also important to protect our beliefs and to use our testimony as a shield. I also love D&C 93 and am glad K attatched it in her email. The Glory of God really is intellegence. It is also the chapter in which we learn what truth means. And yes, I am excited to go to the dentist for my check up next year! Dad, thank you for the email about temporal and spiritual assistance. Our Mission is hard. There have only been a handful of Baptisms in our Zone with all of the time I have been here. It´s hard with the customs in Chile. But we have been blessed to be able to work with a lot of Menos Activos- a ton. It is always a blessing being in the Service of the Lord.
Not much else- Hoping for a good week. I haven´t been hit by the sun too hard, although I do have a pretty nice tan ;)
This week has been a little crazy! Sounds like like it was fun on the other end of the world haha. I know K and Dad had a fun time according to the letters! Glad you were able to visit the Temple w the Hathaways! Makes me miss Louisiana just a little! But.... I was able to have a kind of beignet this week that some of the members made for us. Doesn´t have the powdered sugar, so it´s not the same. One of the blessed discoveries of Chile is a topping called Manjar! It is like a thick caramel but 50x more delicious. I have decided that when I come back home, I am going to make beignets and bring manjar with me. Not healthy at all, but super good. Hermana Salazar and I decided to make a dinner for one of our members, K____ O____ this week. Enchiladas! It was delicious. I even made mexican salsa. Gracias a los 3 días en Mexico! Unfortunately, I stink at picking out avacado, so yep. The guac turned into salsa.
I have come to find that a lot of our small encounters have turned into giant blessings looking back- We were contacting a just a month ago we found a 17 yr old boy, J_____, who had just moved into our sector. He had mentioned that he was a convert along with his mom and sister- all of which had been less-actives for the past couple of years. We had told the Bishop and YM presidency about him and we were able to visit him a few times. There was EFY this week where all of the youth in our ward went and the day before, the Bishop was able to visit him. The Bishop pretty much told him he had no choice and he had to go (especially since it was his last year). So all of the youth were able to go. They came back and bore their testimonieson Sunday. His was especially cool to hear. We heard that he wants to and is going to start preparing to serve a mission.
A few of the Young women have decided to as well. K´s fb friend J____ has decided to go and I am sooooo happy for her! She is the only member of her family with little support. Please pray for her! We have also had a lot of success with our Menos Activos. We have challenged pretty much all of them to read the Book of Mormon. We printed off sheets for them to fill out, and we have seen progress with a few of our families.
Other things of this week?.. R____ invited us to her birthday party. With M____ A____ from Peru and J____ who is diligent in feeding all of the blind dogs in the park. Hilarious, but there are many stories of her. There was also this dog that followed all throughout our sector one night and i was feeding him the cappucino cookies we received from a MA.
The other pic is a few of the hermanas on p-day.
I received a package!...... love the headbands and pens .. etc! esp the light up one. I am constantly trying to finish writing in my journal every night before the lights go off. ....... we have cambios (changes) at the end of the week, so we will see what changes. ..... Love you lots!!!!!! have a great week!
First, I want to tell K, FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!!! I hope it was wonderful and that you could enjoy it a little. We celebrated it over here by having a lot of lessons with Menos Activos haha. Second (which is directed towards K) Hermana Ekins -from the other companionship- wants to go to your Tech party. She is from Missouri, and wants to be your friend but I have told many stories of KJB and everyone wants to know you, K.
We celebrated New Years at the Bishop´s house up until10:30. We also watched Fireworks up until 12 from our balcony. We are still teaching Rosa, but it has been hard because she hasn´t been reading the Book of Mormon. We were able to have a lesson with her and the Bishop´s family where she could really feel the Spirit. And a few days later had a lesson on Baptism with little results. Ugh... stressful.
But with this and said scripture above, Both Hermana Salazar and I can say that we are at work in the Lord´s timing. We are doing what we can, and with that we can always do better. It feels like a matter of trial and error right now, but we can really have joy in the positive miracles that each day brings us despite what might seem like hardships.
There hasn´t been a lot happening other than that. A few new investigators with lessons, and we were able to have a couple FHE´s with the families in our ward this week. Haha, sorry I will try to have more news next week.
BUT... I was able to just read Elder Berthelson´s letter.. That is awesome!!!! Wow- the Holy Ghost will just work with people and am glad for that example of following the promptings of the Spirit. It is really incredible what the Spirit can accomplish if we are willing to listen and act. How cool, AB such an exciting time for B_____ and keep working with him! :) Thank you K, Dad, and Alex for the letters. It is cool to hear of what is going on. I like the news about what is going down in B Rouge aha.. enjoy going to the temple with the Hathaways. Also was really glad for the message K sent about cousin Leona. Very cool what blessings can do. With a last thought, like they said in conference, I challenge/ask that if you already aren´t doing it, ask about the investigators from the missionaries in our ward and pray for them BY NAME. And be their friend on Sunday when they come to church. Put the face to the name. Lots of love! have a great week!
...... I felt very spoiled with the packages I received.
I am glad that you are keeping me updated on everything happening
in the ward, with our friends, etc. Glad to know for the most part,
everyone is doing well! ......
I have been reminded time and time again of 3 Nephi11:29and 30
in the mission. There is a reason that this is one of the first things
Christ says to the people of Nefi when He comes. Love can change a
person´s mind a lot more than fighting. Regardless, I am praying .....
I read the talk that Brother Persons had talked about. I really liked it. Treating the things we treasure differently.
Editor's note: Below is the video of this talk. Go to about the 7 minute mark of this video to hear what Hermana B is referring to. This was our lesson in church a few weeks ago and I had shared the story briefly with my missionaries.
Eternal Marriage - F. Burton Howard - April 2003 General Conference
Familia- It
was so cool to get to talk to y'all on Christmas!! I hope it was
enjoyable for everyone. It was pretty hot here, and we had a lot of ice
cream that day... We did a lot to lead up to Christmas this week. We
were giving out the rest of our cookies, we did some caroling in the
plaza in our sector, we had lessons with our investigators about the
Spirit of Christmas. Over all it was a good week. They don´t celebrate
Christmas like they do in the states. And it definitely didn´t feel like
Christmas- it passed pretty quickly actually. But we had a fun
Christmas morning, the four of us in our pension. I told them about dad,
and how he has to shower, get ready, eat his bowl of cereal before we
can open presents. And about Karen`s delicious Christmas breakfast
creations... haha. It was fun though. We opened presents that we bought
for each other and I made pancakes and eggs for everyone. After, we
caroled for the man who works outside of our apartment building and went
to the Lopez´s house to eat lunch and talk to our families. But we
worked like normal on Christmas after I finished talking with you guys.
It was Hermana Salazar`s birthdayon Friday. We had planned to go to the Temple with
a couple of other Hermanas, but it ended up taking a lot longer to get
to the temple than planned. The horario de la Navidad with all of the
micros set us back, and we ended up getting there a lot later than
planned, and so it was just Hermana Salazar and I who did a
session...... In general, it was just wonderful to go back to the
temple. I will get to go once more next year, and then at the end of my
mission.
That
day I had called up a less-active family (familia A_____) to see if we
could have a surprise "Once" for Hermana Salazar. They decorated their
backyard with balloons and we had a Pan de Pascua cake with other snacks
which was kind of cool under their tree decorated with Christmas
lights. Hermana Ekins, Perez, and I made a piñata for Hermana Salazar
and I made a pretty sweet ice cream cake.
R____, our investigator is progressing. We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation
with her, and we could feel the Spirit so strongly. You could see her
eyes light up when we were explaining that we were created before this
life and that this earthly existence is not the end. Unfortunately, she
has had, and is having a lot of family problems, but it was a blessing
to be able to teach her about the Plan of Salvation. She gets so excited
when we come to visit. She is progressing slowly, but I am grateful for
that because I feel like with the questions she has and her
understanding, we learn together. She has been able to go to a few of
the ward activities and is getting to know a lot of the members. Stay
postponed with baptismal date-
There
have also been other miracles that we have seen this week with visiting
families, getting into homes that we couldn`t get in before,
contacting, etc. It`s hard work, especially with the heat, but fun none-the-less.
I
don`t know if I have ever told you about our Bishop, Bishop
Llancoñanco. He is like Michael Scott.. anyways, we had our third hour,
fifthSundayyesterday.
He had everyone gather into the cultural hall and we watched a Mormon
Messages. I was thinking a lot about my papi yesterday with one of them.
The one about our Earthly Father and our Heavenly Father. I also was
studying in DyC. A lot about the Priesthood. I was pondering on just how special it is that Alex and my Dad have the Priesthood Power.
In vs 26 it explains that this power is ordained of God. And not to be
looked upon as a power to Rise above, but to fall below and to buoy up
and serve others. I know that we are human, and we all have sins, but it
is pretty cool to know that worthy Priesthood holders have the ability
to do ALL things in the name of Christ according to their faith and
worthiness. I would always hope that the Priesthood holders I know have a
life reflected on Christ even for those small moments where God will
provide Earthly miracles on account of the worthiness of the Priesthood
holder. I hope that Karen will find the video and that you guys can
watch it.
Editor's Note - see below for this quick Mormon Message or you can click here:
I
don`t know if it is possible to burn a disc of mensajes mormones
(mormon messages, spanish?) thought of that after i called you. I don`t
know if there are really any new years traditions here, but we did see
some fireworks the other night. USA has a pretty big influence in Chile,
I am guessing we will have fireworks for new years. Cool for Tyler Mander and way awesome for Kennedy! She is going to be an incredible missionary.
Grateful
for you guys and your goals, no not finished w LDM yet, but I am going
verse for verse with my Journal of it so it will hopefullly be finished
by next year. And thank you K! I am excited to see the glue-ins.
Hermana Salazr is going to love them too..
Keep workin hard Elder B! I put together a very small package for you. I will let you know when I send It.
