12-13-10

Monday: First off, some funny things happened last night. We all talked until about 3 in the morning. I THOUGHT I was awake. Apparently I had been having conversationg with the others while I was asleep. Things like "Raise the tent!" or "Compress the church in...in Santiago," or even "There aren`t enough Priesthood holders to pick the flowers!" Once I was in a deeper sleep I snored. Lisonbee, with whom I was presently sharing a bed, asked me to stop. I suddenly roared, "FOOL OF A TOOK!" Apparently that`s a Gandalf quote from Lord of the rings, which I`ve only seen twice. My family didn`t write me today. Elder Oversby had a difficult experience. I told him it was a growing experience. In the instance of bones, they stretch and then develop. Sometimes though, if something stretches too much, it breaks. Growth is forward change. The secret to growing and changing in life, is to learn how to stretch and not break. I explained to Elder Oversby that he`s growing. He`s stretched. When he`s in a situation like that, he just needs to remember that, although he`s got the desire to move forward and he`s all stretched, that`s also when he`s most vulnerable and weak. He just needs to move on and grow.

Tuesday: We had our Distrizona meeting this morning. Everything went smoothly and we left on time. Everyone left and we were the last ones out. A man with shaggy, long hair and what appeared to be his pajamas walked up to us. From close up he looked like some kind of hippie. As soon as he reached us, he asked, "Where did I come from? Why am I here? What will happen in the next life?" My heart fluttered for a second in surprise before we started helping him. Turns out he doesn`t live in our zone. We got his number and passed it to the corresponding missionaries. I hope that they can help him. While we were doing work in the afternoon, Fernanda called us to ask us to buy sopaipillas from the Stake fundraiser. They were very delicious. Then we ducked back into the reain and got to working for the rest of the night.

Wednesday: Franco called us this morning and asked us to move our afternoon appointment to the morning because he had a doubt. We rushed over and found he had a problem accepting that Jesus Christ and Jehova are the same person. We helped him understand that by teaching about the Pre-mortal life and the Plan of Salvation. He accepted it very well. He hasn`t smoked for 3 days either! This afternoon we went by Ignacia. She was happy to see us, and, after a few weeks of not seeing each other, we took the opportunity to have a social visit. We foung out a little more about who she is. We went to our ward meeting with good news about the mission work. We fdropped off our clothes and went to Robin and Bilha`s. They couldn`t attend us because their kitten had just died and they were sad. We came home and my bed felt sooooo good.

Thursday: We got up and had a good time talking as a house. Elder Rodriguez is still drinking mate. He also swears every now and then. He said the "F" word a few times and I asked him to stop because we shouldn`t do that. He said that we shouldn`t listen to music through headphones either, which I do. I like to listen to the mo-tab or piano while I study. But he had me there: I was doing something just as bad as swearing. That was a scary thought to have. Is there a difference in the levels of sinning? A variance that can be measured? Absolutely not. If we even mess up a little bit, we are lost in the sight of God. So I hastily found a liking for quiet study time and started to repent. We had lunch with Renato and his family. They had other things going on and got started late, so we went a little over the time of our lunch hour. We visited Estefanìa before doing contacts. We found a lot of people who are willing to hear the Gospel. a few, even, who have been investigators before. Tonight, we started divisions and i`m with my friend Elder Josè Sanchez until tomorrow night. It`ll be fun to work in another sector for once.

Friday: I had a really good time with Elder Sanchez. We got up and went out to work. It rained today. A lot. And not "a lot" in the sense that it was more than average. "A lot" in the sense that after 6 hours of HEAVY POURING I wondered when Noah was gonna go cruising by. It was raining big ol`buckets of the wet stuff. We ate lunch with a family that lived in Utah for 10 years. They spoke English and there waas a 10-year old boy that reminded me of Dev. He showed me all of his toys and made me watch him play Dragonball Z on his Playstation 2. It was then that I realized the thing I miss most is people speaking English...everywhere. But I like Spanish. I`m excited to call home on Christmas day. We worked outside for a while because all of the appointments fell through. But we visited a partial family where the dad doesn`t want to be baptized and doesn`t know why...just like Papà Joel. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and had a very spiritual lesson afterwards. He wouldn`t budge. But the wife told me that not only did I speak spanish well, but that I didn`t have an accent. So that was nice. We came back home and now I`m excited for sleep.

Saturday: today was a cold day. I think I upsetted mother nature or something. But I eventually conviced my aching and tired body to get out of bed. Here, it`s the equivelant of the beginning of June. But it hailed for the first part of the morning and rained the rest of the day. We had lunch with Hna. Espinoza and I predicted it: three potatoes with questionable meat. Questionable bacause I didn`t trust it. It was a sphere of turkey--"turkey"-- bones with some cartilage in it. So I couldn`t get my knife in, and I didn`t really want to. We went home `cause Oversby left something and wanted to get it. I laid down for just a moment, and an instant later and it was time to go. just as I was about to go out, the rain picked up to a raging Torrent. I told Elder Oversby to motivate me because I didn`t want to go out. He said he couldn`t make me do anything and that it was muy choice. Well that did it. I put on my rain gear and galoshes and headed out...into the glarin gsunlight. Heavenly Father went and blessed the unworthy servant again. It didn`t rain for the rest of the day. Tamara, the neighbor and Robin and Bilha, was struck by her father along with her mom. We talked with them.

Sunday: We got up and went to church. We picked up Ignacia (nacha) on the way. She was excited to go with us. I was a little nervous during the talks of the rather stern speakers. But she said that everything was beautiful and that she felt very peoaceful. I`m glad she`s sensitive to the spirit, because I was just feeling hungry . She came to the Sunday School class with us too. The teacher took forever to show up, so I took time to get a replacement book for my "gospel principles" that I gave away 3 months ago. When i came back to the class, the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric asked me to teach. I was dismayed to see that it was on the word of wisdom. It was Ignacia`s 2nd lesson on her first day at church! It is the lesson most investigators shave problems with. But I taught well, I thought. Bilha told me it`s the most comfortable she`s ever felt in class, Cristina said she learned a lot and that it was a fun class. MOst importantly, Ignacia said she`ll start trying to quit the bad substances that she`s been taking. We had lunch with Robin and bilha and watched "The testaments" Wwith their neighbor, Tamara. We spent the evening doing contacts.


Alright. This is a special letter. It`s for my grammy. She`s been feeling sick lately. I love her soooo much! She`s such a strong example of faith for me. She just keeps plugging along admirably and faithfully through the trials of life. I`m so happy that I can tell my investigators that she`s obeying through all of these hard things, and that they need to also, or by George they`re just not up to par. Keep this wonderful woman in your prayers this holiday season. We all would appreciate your support.