1-26-11

Monday: Last night, Elder Orellana wanted to "meet up" with a friend from the village of Gorbea who happened to be passing through Temuco. What i didn´t know was that Orellana had invited the dude over for a sleepover. Oorellana got the couch, and the guy (I don´t know his name) called the only spare mattress. then they both looked at me and asked, "But where are you going to sleep?" I generously offered to sleep on the floor. Oh! Before we got going yesterday, but after we got on the bus to Temuco, I relized I had left my nametag in the house. Hna. Olivares was there "doing our laundry." Well, we found her, in our room, looking at my passport with our investigator. Creepy! and Illegal! We had an awesome birthday lunch with the Millahual family. The barbequed meat was really hard and chewy. I had to force myself to eat the cartilage-y parts. But it was sooo yummy. I bought some shirts today with my extra money. A green (electric/easter green) and a red polo. On the bus ride home, we met a man that´s 25 years-old and his mom died 2 weeks ago. It was so cool to be able to talk with him and ask him some questions. I think he´s another blessing that´s directly related to the lesson I learned the other night. I learned a while ago that we need to opush ourselves to the edge so that Christ can help us grow. I´ve been pushed for a while, and I finally got it! The mission is one of the hardest things I´ve ever done, but it´s the most worth it. I´m grateful for this opportunity to change, grow, and help.

Tuesday: It is interesting to me that the times when I am most tired are the days when I don´t do anything. Actually, we got a lot of good work done. We spent the morning cleaning the Olivares´ garage. Part of me felt like we were being abused, but it´s service, so who cares? We did end up rearranging all her firewood to the new space of emptiness. We clenaed up and came back for lunch. After which, we got to teach Maybelline the Restoration. It was a very special lesson, I think. She´s my first investigator that´s young enough to have escaped being brainwahsed by other religions for a long period of time, yet mature enough to have her own ideas and answers. I asked her how she felt during her prayer that we had committed her to, during our last visit. She said it was like talking to an old friend. I promise she didn´t learn that from any of the "hallelujah" preachers down here. When we taught the first vision, her face flushed, and she almost cried. I didn´t catch it, ´cause we should look at our comps, who happened to be talking at this point. I guess he acted appropriately. We traveled 5 hours to concepción for a conference. I thought a lot. It was my first time on a freeway since I went to the airport in Utah. It was great! I also found out that "multitudinous" is a word.

Wednesday: Today was a day full of experiences, something I haven´t had in a while. And I´m not just saying that because I saw a man with three ears, wlthough taht WAS an exciting experience. Today we got to meet with a Seventy of the Church: Carlos Amado. After a brief prepared message, he spent 3 hours answering any questions we had. there were some I wanted to ask, But not in front of others. I eneded up asking "how can we grow our faith or learn to trust God more?" Because there are things that I have to wait for, and that trust will calm my anxiety. He said that when we act, we´re progressing. He explained the seed analogy, but said it all starts with the desire. That´s it! but the coolest part was when he went on a random tangent about marriage, which was kind of th eother thing I was too nervous to ask about, or even know what to ask. He said that it´s one of the most important decisions of our live. It has to be made by faith, not knowledge, because we´ve never done it before. He won´t tell us the answer, but he´ll prepare us to know how when the time comes. We rode in a bus for 5 hours again. On the way home, I sat by a pretty girl my age. It was late and she was sleepy, and she actually fell asleep on my shoulder! the last time that happened with someone, I had wanted to wrap my arm around them and snuggle. Oddly enough, I did this time, too. but it was different because I wasn´t "me" this time. I had a choice to make. So I kindly woke the girl up and had her sit up. I felt like I had passed a test of some kind. I had breached a wall that I wasn´t able to, before.