Last week in July

Jasmine's email from 7-30-13

Another 2 weeks have gone by which means that there is one more group of missionaries are coming in. This will be my last two weeks here in the CCM, crazy but I have been very blessed thus far. It´s been a struggle for me to continue with the language which sounds strange, but we are still learning (as a district) all of the simple Spanish and we don´t get too much time to associate with the Latinos like the first group. But it´s still routine and I have been gaining a lot with my personal study. 

We´ve had the chance to walk around the temple a few times now to talk to the people who visit. Man do Chilenos like to talk! they Talk so fast here it´s crazy! By the time I understand what they are talking about, I don´t get a chance to say anything because the start talking again. But I love it. The people that we have gotten to talk to are so sweet. There is also an extra love for missionary work. I see a lot of "futuro misionaro" bands on the kids around here. They love when we walk by. 

So every other Sunday the 75+ missionaries are given an assignment and then by random assignment, 2-3 are called to speak. This week our topic was on dilligence. They are called from the pulpit after the sacrament is admisistered. I had a feeling that they would choose me, and of course the did, and I was incredibly nervous and hardly remember how it went, but the Latinos said I did a good job. I talked about playing basketball in hs and having the dilligence to practice as much as I could and work as hard as I could for four years. I talked about Enos vs 12 and how the Lord will see that we are dilligent when we have a desire to do so. Because of the dilligence of the prophets of old (and Enos) the records that were compiled to be the Book of Mormon were saved for our time. I also talked about how we need to be dilligent as missionaries through obedience, faith, and doing all that we can in the time allotted to us. Time is a very precious gift, and If we use it to our advantage, the Lord will work through us to bless so many more people. And by the end of the Mission, or our lives, we will remember that it was all worth it. 

We had an area 70 come and talk to us the other day who was a convert to the church at 17, and at 18 he decided to go on a mission and was called to South of Chile. His testimony was incredible. He shared with us an experience that he had about the end of his mission. As he went into the last meeting with his mission presdent, he told him that he had a goal to baptize 30 people. His last area was a group of about 15 active members, and on a whim he said his goal was 30 baptisms before he went home. To even get 3 in that difficult area was unheard of. He baptized 21 people in that area before he went home. It was so overpowering to hear that through hard work and sacrifice, experiences like that can and will happen only if faith is put into action and we dedicate 100% of ourselves to the Lord. 

La obra es perfecta. Esté Evangelio es perfecto. Yo sé que Jesucristo vive y somos hijos de Dios. Nos ama y hay muchas personas que les quieren que tenemos. 

con amor

-- 

Sister Jasmine Berthelson

Chile Santiago East Mission