5-16-11

Monday: Today was a pretty good pday. We slept in for a little bit
before we got up. While Elder Calaway was taking his shower, Elder
Hickman turned the hot water off by degrees and then turned it all
back on at once. Then he went Old School and threw a bowl of cold
water in the shower. He`s a pretty big jokester, even if he hardly
ever smiles. :) But we eventually got out of the house and went to
Concepciòn. First, we went to the office to look for mail. I hadn`t
received anything, but Elder Calaway got a package containing rubber
covers for his shoes, along with gushers and fruit roll-ups. He was
humanitarian enough to share with me. :D then we wrote the family. I
had only received one letter and it was from Daddy. He said that Elder
Gonzalez`s behavior had made him angry. I felt a burning pride for
having him as a father. He told me that I make him proud. He said a
lot of things that I needed to hear, as a doubtful son missing his
DAddy. A lot of thgings that, when said together, made me cry. After
that, we had lunch. Elder Calaway had a 1 kg. (2 lbs.) sandwich. He
got really sleepy after that, and slept. We did contacts in the night.
But both of us had a case of the cramps for unknown reasons. We
completed our goal for the day, and retired to the hosue because the
pain made us so ineffective. But we`re really trying to focus on being
diligent.

Tuesday: I`m so thankful for prayers, and the answers we can receive
from our loving Heavenly Father. We went to our Distrizona. The Sister
missionaries were the ones who had the baptisms that Mirta saw on
Saturday. They told us they let Mirta wear a nametag while she was
there and she told them, "You have to come to MY baptism!" During our
lunch with Hna. Marìa, I asked for less spagghetti than had been given
to my companion (something that looked like Mt. Vesuvius`s offspring),
and therefore received an amount that would satisfy a hippo rather
than an elephant. I finished, stuffed, and was about to top off with
my dessert, when Hna. Soledad (Hna. Marìa`s daughter) sent her
daughter over w/ mashed potatoes just for me (she knows they`re my
favorite). So I had to shove that down, along with my jello and ice
cream. I have gained 10 pounds in the last 3 months. yes! But it
doesn`t show at all. Lame. I had trouble standing up straight, I was
so full. We went by Mirta`s at 4:00, and she came out crying a little,
saying her dad won`t let us come by because she had come home late on
Saturday, because of the baptisms, without telling her dad (she
doesn`t have a cell). I felt the loving Spirit and told her we`d talk
to her Dad for her. I spent the next 3 hours wondering what to say,
and praying my guts out, asking for guidance on what to say to her
father. The firrst thing he did was call us liars. He said we lied
about hte hours on Saturday. Even though we din`t know about it, we
apologized and were very respectful. Basically, we got permission to
keep teaching.I told him we wanted to baptize Mirta. She told him she
wanted to get baptized to his face. He said he`d think about giving
her permission. I said we were teaching her a better way of life.
We`ll talk Thursday. We taught Mirta the Word of Wisdom and the Law of
Chastity. She`ll stop drinking Coffee because she doesn`t want to
stain her "temple." She said the closin gprayer, and asked that her
dad would give her permission!

Wednesday: We didn`t have a lot of success today, but it wasn`t
necessarily bad. I spent the morning studying "Jesus the Christ." I
lsove reading about the Savior`s ministry. I learned about Satan`s
tempting of the Redeemer. It specifically says that Christ was
tempted. A part, no matter how small, was entied by the Devil. But,
as our perfect example, he never once gave in. We couldn`t get anyone
to let us talk to them in the morning. We had fish for lunch and I
accidentally swallowed a fish bone. Ouch! NOne of the people we ha
dplanned to visit in the afternoon opened their doors. It`s a little
frustrating because we just want to help them with their exaltation!
I`ve become a different person on the mission. I look at people
differently than I used to, I have different, more focused goals, and
I have been able to say determined in the face of opposition. There is
no doubt that I grew, not because I`m simply in another country,
speaking a language, but because it`s HARD. That doesn`t mean it`s
mildly challenging, either. It means that it is a a desperate battle
between what I want and what has to be done. At times it`s something
that is close to impossible. But being able to say, "I wanted to do
the will of the Father more than mine." To keep on working in the face
of repeated failure. Emotional maturity is the ability to stick to a
job and to struggle through until it`s finished; to endure
unpleasantness, discomfort and frustration; to give more than is aske
for or required; to size up and make independent decisions, to work
under authority and to cooperate with others; and to defer to time,
other persons, and to circumstances. I`ve begun to grasp these things.

Thursday: Things didn`t exactly go liek we planned, with Mirta`s Dad.
Quite simply because we didn`t get to talk with him. I woke up to a
body slam from Elder Calaway--which is saying something, because I
sleep on the top bunk. We got everything done and started studying. I
finally got a spiritual application to the war chapters in Alma. For
me, they`ve been far and in between. At first, Moroni complains to
Pahoran, the governor or chief judge of the nephites, saying the army
needs more food and soldiers. Pahoran tells him he was usurped, and he
had to leave with some people. Moroni`s reaction is happiness because
Phoran is still his friend, and treasures the same values. Then he
comes to help his friend vanquish evil. It`s like a sinner, who`s
repenting from an addictive sin. He got pushed out of the "control
seat" in his life. God may send him a little reminder (moroni`s
letter). But when he confesses he wants to come back, God (moroni)
will be there to help. We planned our week and headed out, into the
rain. It stopped after lunch. NOt too bad this time. We did contacts
and made appts. until our appt. with Mirta and her dad. We saw him
standing 20 ft. away, on a corner when we arrived. He saw us. We
knocked on the house and Mirta came out. We went in and asked her to
call her dad. She looked out the window and said he had left! And she
din`t have a way to call him. He totally flaked on us! I was worried
and prayhing all day, trying to anticipate the coming
conversation...and he CHEATED! That`s so lame! UGH! I just wanted to
scream and yell that it wasn`t fair. (I find this ironic, because I
was talking about emotional maturity yesterday.) not cool. Oh, and
someone tried to sell us drugs today.

Friday: We saw miracles today. It was so amazing to be guided by the
spirit. It started when we got out of the apartment late by 15
minutes. The other missionaries were bugging us about it, too. We were
late because we had a really comp. study. It was lame, because we were
going to arrive late to our appointment late. But when we approached
her house,she was just barely getting back. If we had come sooner, she
wouldn`t have been home, or she would have, but would have bene
watching the clock. Her name is Vanessa. She`s living with her
boyfriend and two daughters. We taught her the Restoration and she
loved it! She understood everything, drew her own conclusions, and
committed to the Book of Mormon challenge. When we explained it, she
handled it like a treasure and hugged it to her a little. The lesson
just flowed. and after SHE said the final prayer, her mom arrived at
the very end. Talk about coincidental timing! NOT! Later, we taught
another contact that owned a lottery. He had just gotten out of jail
after 2 years for assault with a gun. Yikes! His girlfriend`s still
there, for doing drugs,. His brothers died during a robbery. But he
has a lot of faith in jesus Christ and wants to repend and be
baptized. We invited him to church, and he said he couldn`t because he
had to play soccer. He`s 31. But we taught him a little and he changed
his mind. His 10 year-old son came down the stairs and Elìas (the
investigator) told him, "We`re not gonna play soccer on Sunday. We`re
going to church! Why would we go to play soccer on the Sabbath?!" It
was so amazing! If everything goes well, we can have 7 investigators
in church! I`m so thankful for these blessing. The Lord worked through
us. I almsot taught Elìas the Restoration, but I was impressed not to
do it. so cool!

Saturday: My comp. went Tarzan on me this morning as he woke me up. I
was practically assaulted as he belly-flopped on my top bunk. He was
unstoppable. Even the boards holding up the mattress gave way and we
fell through, onto his bed. I tried to get away, but he would tackle
me, and we pretty much just romped around. It was AMAZING! We made an
effort to study our mission Scripture Mastery for the Interviews we`ll
have next week. We were going to play soccer with Bio Bio, but when we
got there, we discovered that all of the other players had slept in.
It was 11 Am. We went to pick up our laundry after that. We showered
and swung by Mirta`s, to see if we might speak with her dad. He wasn`t
there. I sent an email to Daddy, letting him know that I wasn`t able
to take moeny out of my checking account. He replied immediately, and
said he`d help. Wee! We had lunch with Hna. Rebecca. It was her
birthday. Jessica, the member who`s romming with them, made the cake.
It was delicious. We actually returned, in the evening, to celebrate
with them. The whole ward was there! Which was really a blessing
because we needed to coordinate with some of the members in order to
pick up all of the investigators for tomorrow. We talked, and planned,
and schemed on how we could do it most effectively. Then I had to call
the investigators and remind them. It was the other side of being a
missionary--I call it "phone tracting." Tomorrow`s what it all comes
down to. Woot!

Sunday: Today was really special for me. Since I`ve met Mirta, she`s
changed so much! I`m so happy that she has that desire to come unto
Christ. We learned in the MTC that if we can see changes in the
investigator (i.e. arrange flowers, looks clean, have scriptures ready
to go), it means that they`ve been changed by, or interested in, the
gospel and it`s message. When I met Mirta, she was sad, shy, and
walked in a discouraged way. When we picked her up today, she came out
as a totally different peron. Her hair was straightened and
shiny-clean, she wore a bright purple sweater with matching pumps, and
she ws grinning from ear to ear when she high-fived us. Totally.
Different. Vanessa didn`t come, along with some other investigators,
but Elìas did. He also brought his son and two friends. And Hna. Vania
brought her non-member niece. 6 in total. WOOT! "Fruits of your labor"
thy name is diligence. Our work really paid off. Actually, one cool
thing that happened, was when Mirta asked for her own "Gospel
Principles" book to study during the week. Yeah, so back to diligence.
I was talking with Elder Calaway about htis. The people who lived the
law of Moses didn`t really make their own decisions. They had
everything laid out for them in excruciating detail. After the
Atonement, and the completion of that law, the people were given more
freedom and the Holy Ghost to make righteous choices. As missionaries,
we live the lower (Mosaic) law. After the mission, or even as Senior
Missionaries, we`ll have more freedom and more opportunities to prove
what we learned. Interesting, huh?