Hey everybody
I'm still here in Talca and I'm doing good. This week seemed to pass by pretty fast and time in general is passing by very fast.
On Monday we started out by having a family home evening lesson that we are starting to do every week now.
Tuesday we did a mini cambio. Elder Cockrell came to my sector and worked with me, but even that was weird because we had to do a switch while we were switched so Elder Irigoyen and I could go and have a meeting with the stake presidency. We also taught a good lesson with Kathy and Tihany. They had a huge change in their attitudes and we really saw a miracle with them.
Last Thursday Elder Horton and I went to their house. When we got there the mom was kind of busy and stressed and to make a long story short, one of the first things she said to us was 'I don't want to keep going with this. I don't want to get baptized, it's just not for me. I was doing it to support my daughter, but now I'm just too tired and I don't want to.' Whenever I hear anything like this I know I've done something wrong or we haven't taught well enough or something. We listened to everything she said, and then we started to talk to her. We expressed the love we have for them and we taught them the covenant of a baptism and how important it is. When we finished she said, 'Wow, OK' and we left her some things to read in the Book of Mormon. They were both very good in reading and all that and on Tuesday in the lesson they had a change, and said they were ready.
So Wednesday morning rolls around and I'm at the house with Elder Cockrell still, when Elder Fishbeck calls me. Elder Fishbeck is the Senior missionary here in the mission. About 6'3", 65 years old, loves to talk loud and laugh. He gets there and the very first thing he says is 'Where am I puttin my air mattress?' He had come up to work on the house. And he was going to stay the night with us. So right then we all went to the Chilean equivalent of Home Depot. It was funny walking around there, four missionaries in shirt and tie and a big old man in jeans and a T-shirt. We had a big sheet of Sheetrock, we bought paint, Mud, tape, a lot of stuff. We went and started working in the house. Elder Fishbeck stayed the night, but at 9 o'clock we got a call from the APs who said they were coming from Concepcion and needed to stay with us also. And so instead of having us four in the house, we were 7 people. When we got to the house at 10, Elder Fishbeck was already sleeping, but we woke him up... However, he got his revenge. At 6 o'clock the next morning he snuck into our room and started yelling stuff... he actually jumped on one of the missionaries that was sleeping on a mattress on the ground.
Thursday, we also had interviews with the president. They were good. We taught his wife and the assistants while the president was doing the interviews. We really have some great missionaries in our zone, however, we can all become better teachers. Something that has always been able to help me in my teaching is teaching, talking, and testifying about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Everything has to do with the Atonement, but at times, I think people forget that. I believe many times people take for granted what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. They have heard so many times that they just say, almost without gratitude or emotion, 'Yes, Jesus died for you and me' but it is almost as if they aren't listening to the words they are saying.
I truly believe, with all my heart, that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, suffered and died, and resurrected from the dead. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to serve him as a missionary. I firmly believe that he lives, and is literally guiding this work. It is such an amazing blessing to be able to be here in Chile. I love it so much.
Saturday and Sunday were just awesome. We watched conference in the stake center. There were a couple talks that I want to study, because they were just jammed packed full of doctrine. A couple things that really came to my mind this conference were...
I need to be more grateful. I have been given so much, and I need to show gratitude.
I need to write in my journal a lot more.
We are lead by a prophet of God. Thomas S Monson really is the living prophet of God. What he says really is the will of the Lord. I meditated in that a lot and it really got to me. We believe in Christ, if we want to follow him, we must follow every word that comes from His prophet's mouth. I feel so lucky that we have what we have, that we are members of the true church of Jesus Christ. There is not doubt in my mind about that. If anyone sincerely listens to our message, if they sincerely read in the Book of Mormon and if they sincerely ask God, they too will know that this is the only living church on the earth. I feel so lucky to have been born into it and to have the opportunity to be a small, small part in the building up of it.
I love you all, thanks for everything!!
Today our zone went paintballing.
