2-21-11

eeting. Elder Frankson got a call from President Swenson right there, saying that the mission depot. had messed up his assignment and instead of leaving in June, he leaves in four weeks! He was so happy! I was happy for him. Then I found $100 in my account. That was nice. At internet, I got everything typed up on time. In the afternoon, we had a lot of miracles. The coolest thing happened first. We spoke with Gonzalo, Maybilline, and Diego (another cousin and a really good friend.). We spoke with Scriptures and power and confidence. It was unreal. We challenged all of them to baptism. gonzalo doesn`t feel ready, even though he passed the interview. Diego needs permission. And Maybilline said yes! We got a tunic for her for this Sunday. Montoya`s organizing interviews for Saturday. Maybilline didn`t want to pray. Gonzalo said something that hurt her, and she ran away. We went out to the swingset and cheered her up. MOntoya was so sweet to her. He said it was all a lie afterward, but I didn`t believe him. :) Our active members are 18. we`re having a district conference where the prophet will speak just to south Chile. The news says a huge earthquake will come. Anyway, for travel, we need 30 members. And we did it. We went to the inactive/partial families and they said they`d come. AND a family of 11 are visiting. Strange that it should happen at this time. Amazing!

Wednesday: I`m feeling pretty confused and frustrated. I don`t know what to do, and neither does my comp. It feels like we`re in the middle of a fight that we don`t have anything to do with. The day, everything (mostly) considered, was pretty good. But the sector of Tirùa is pretty hard. The sector is part of the Branch of Cañete, and for distance`s sake we`re in charge. But Pres. Torres, the brother from Caete, has been a jerk to Elder Montoya after all the hard work he`s put in. pres. Torres has said that he hates Tirùa and yet has to help save it, so he dumps it on us, then tries to set impossibly high goals, then reaises them higher when we complete the first ones. That`s one side of the war. The other is Maybilline. She`s so ready for baptism. We want to baptize her. But why? For us? For the members? If we do baptize her with just half a desire in her heart, when she goes home, who will support her? Will she go to church? Probably not. So our question is, what tdo we do? If we talk with her, she`ll feel pressured and say, "no" regardless of how she feels. I don`t think she`s prayed yet, even though she claims to have done it. I`ve prayed and don`t know what to do. Part of me doesn`t want to do it because she`ll go inactive anyway and the missionaries will ignore anyone who`s already baptized. But if I don`t do it, I`ll never know what might have happened. I just want her to have the happiness I know the gospel can give her.

Thursday: This morning was our day for weekly 0planning. We don`t have that many people to plan for, so I used the extra time to study Spanish grammar. I haven`t studied the grammar aspect of Spanish since the MTC, just focusing on vocab. In my study today, I reviewed the whole book (220 pages) and found the last few things I hadn`t known already. I felt pretty good with how far I`ve come. Hna. Olivares came over and told us Maybilline and Gonzalo wanted to speak to the two of them alone. We got really excited about that. After lunch, Elder Montoya told me that Hna. Olivares had already spoken with Maybilline--she put her baptisimal goal for a year from now. Which is great, actually. But think of all the blessings she`s losing. Or if she`ll retain that desire a year from now. Elder MOntoya was ranting when we got to the house, calling her stupid. Wind buffeted the house, and I imagined I heard laughter floating on the air. We weren`t good enough. It was really hard to maintain my own attitude, while listening to my comp. She`s a good girl. I think she`ll be alright. I hope she will. She`s certainly made this time in Tirùa bearable. I had a dream last night, that I was back home. I felt homesick, but I have found such a tremendous comfort through prayer. My Heavenly Father loves me and all of the people of Tirùa. He`ll strengthen them through me if I am strong enough.

Friday: Today was really hard for me. I was wrong about Elder Montoya. Even deep down, he`s not waht I thought. If people won`t/can`t get baptized, he won`t even talk with them. We found out today that Diego, the nephew of Hna. Olivares, has a plan to get his mom to sign his permission slip for baptism. When one door closes, another opens! Maqybilline told us herself that she`ll be baptized next year. I was happy that she got up the confidence to say the "b-word" out loud, much less put a date. But when we left, Elder Montoya started swearing and complaining, blaming her reason for waiting on the pressure the fam. olivares gave. He called them stupid. And then I told him off. I told him they were good people trying to help their family. He said I didn`t know what I was talking about. He mad eme do all the contacts, saying I needed to learn something. It was miserable. We visited Duval, my little 12 year-old friend, then went to contact a contact. While there, Duval ran up and started playing with us. He eventually took off with my nametag. He`s really just an innocent little kid. I understood he was just playing. On the way home, Montoya said he`d ruined everything and we`d never go to his house again. I was so distraught and knew I couldn`t say anything, so I hummed "Behold, `tis eventide." To give me hope and comfort. He told me not to, `cause it depreciated from his monologue on how evil Tirùa is. I apologized and he said, "It doesn`t matter. I only have to deal with you for 3 more weeks."

Saturday: This morning, we helped Hna. Rosa (who`s not a member) gather firewood from a wood yard. It was harder than I thought because the good boards were trapped under others. Montoya would find them, then tell me to pull them out, claiming he was too weak. We had mashed potatoes with chorizos (smoke pork sausage) for lunch. We have a plan for 7th-day adventists--we`re going to do all of our Saturday contacts in the street, `cause all of the active adventists will be in their "temple of worship."
We met a really cool girl, Valeska, today. She was like, "What do you do? I`ve been looking for a church to join, but I don`t know how to decide. Why are there so many?" I looked at her like Scrooge Mcduck at his pile of gold. Sadly, we found out she leaves to Temuco next week, my old sector. Today, nature hated me. We were on our way to a visit when a giant bee chased me. I dodged and didn`t see it anywhere. We kept walking, and 5 whole minutes later, I felt something on my arm. An itch. I went to scratch it, and felt a ball the size of a marble. The bee had been up my sleeve the whole time! Naturally I freaked. I danced and shook, and raced into the sister`s house to take off my shirt. It never stung. I think the Lord helped witgh that. Later, in the night, we were walking and I heard a loud hiss by my foot. Looking down, expecting to find a cat, I about jumped out of my pants to find a cobra about a foot long by my foot. A sister said it`s `cause of the mist. We taught Diego and he accepted the challenge to be baptized. He will also bless the food and pray to show his parents his desire.

Sunday: A lot of the member swho said they would come to the conference bailed. But the bus driver still expected to be paid for the reserved amount. So Elder MOntoya paid the equivilent of $70 out of his own pocket. I told him that was nice of him. He said when he runs out of money, I have to pay for him. It was a really good conference. We got to listen to a seventy, the pres. of the YW and two apostles: Elder Christofferson and Packer. Elder Christofferson`s a stud with Spanish. Turns out Elder Holland (random, I know) was a mission president in Chile at one point. They told us there are 20,000 members who are men and in the eligible age range to serve a mission. All that are leaving are 567! Montoya thinks they were trying to trick us because they didn`t specify how many are act8ve. On the bus ride home, I ha d aspecial experience. Diego, our investigator, noticed my glum face and cheered me up. He said he wants me to baptize him. He says when he goes away for school, he wants to find a friend like me. I was filled with so much love that both English and Spanish seemed too small to express it. I felt happier than I have in a while. It was like a lighthouse in a dark storm. Only two years of such love? If only I was better at helping others find this love! Diego says he writes about me in his journal and the good things I do for him. I think he`s got it backwards! Montoya behaved himself relatively well today. that made me happy too. Maybilline and Gonzalo leave Tuesday: :(

Monday: So today was my pday. WE mostly slept all day. we almost taugh in the morning to a really great investigaro, valeska, but we already had another appointment with her in the evening. Montoya wanted to go anmyway. I talked him out of it, and he threw a big fit. Diego and Gonzalo played ping pong with us forever. Diego told me how much I meant to him. It surprised me. I was dismayed to discover that I`m still bad at explaining my feelings. I just can`t express myself without sounding weird. That makes me scared to go back home. I`m not ready yet. We had a horrible visit with an atheist--someone who doesn`t believe in God. He believed everything he had was thanks to him, and that there was no life after death. We asked if his girlfriend wantedd to talk. He was confused, then said, "Oh! You mean the mother of my child!" How horrible! Our lesson with Valeska was awesome! She`s been to all the otehr churches, looking for truth, just like Joseph Smith. She picked up things very quickly. the saddest and most emotional part was when we said goodbye to Maybilline and Bonzalo. I gave her the blue tie in which she had tied the chilean knot I`d taught her. I gave Gonzalo my black shorts he`d asked for. I stayed up `til 1 AM last night, writing them letters. Meyo was crying. She called me later to tell me my letter had made her cry again. in her letter to me, I could see how much she`d grown in her faith.ñ When they were about to leave, Maybilline offered to say a prayer! She`d gotten animatedly angry when asked before. tonight, it was beautiful. If only they`d been baptized!



Okay, just to not end on a bad note. I`ll let you know what happened today. We got called in the morning by Hna. Olivares. She told us she had bad news. She said, "You have to bring your district leader to Tirùa.... SO HE CAN DO MAYBILLINE`S BAPTISIMAL INTERVIEW!!! In her prayer last night, she had asked heavenly father to provide a way so that she could stay longer. Well, it worked, and she wants to get baptized! I`m in Cañete, and our Zone leader is on divisions with Montoya, doing the interview. Amazing! I`m soooooo happy!