5-9-11

Monday: Today was pretty cool. We got up and went straight to the
Centinela sector for our Zone activity at the beach. We went on a
really gorgeous hike through a forest. It was filled with fog, and at
one point we came across an open field and I was sure we were about to
meet Mr. Tumnus at the lampost. But we got to go to a pretty viewpoint
on a cliff and lots of rocks. I found a giant starfish! I also found
some sun pouring etween tree branches and I posed like Joseph Smith.
PWN! We were the first ones to leave, because we wanted to shower and
change before going to concepciòn and the office. When we got there, I
found letters from Anna and Tosha. I really liked Daddy`s email to me.
He said that I`ve grown up a lot and even that my sense of humor has
matured. That made me feel pretty good. We did contacts in the
afternoon. Only one lady stopped to talk with us--or should I say "to"
us. She lectured us about how her church was so cool. But my comp.
shared about the Book of Mormon. She wasn`t listening, so I helped him
out. I told her that we have a living prophet who speaks with God. She
started talking about her church. I raised my finger to silence her. I
asked, "What if we`re right?" Long story short, we have an appt. this
Saturday. We had FHE with the Soliz family. They made their best
hamburgers to celebrate my year mark.

Tuesday: I felt like poop today, and it was raining cats and dogs to
boot. We left an hour before our meeting, to meet the bus. But it
didn`t come until 20 min. before and we were late anyway. Oh! Elder
Cortes called me this morning to assign me a 20 min. class in our
District Meeting. I taught about companioship untiy and why it`s
important. It went really well, and elder Rubilar, one of the
Assisstants, sat in on it and complimented me. Then we had to do the
practice. We had to pretend that one of the Elders was Merta. We had
to find her doubt and immunize it. We did both, and put a baptisimal
date with her. After the meeting, I sent Cassie (friend) her reply and
Estèe her birthday letter. We took the wrong bus and had to take
another one to get to get to lunch. Hna. Marìa gave us mashed
potatoes, unseasoned meat and un undercooked fried egg. It was a TON
of mashed potatoes. I was so full. In fact, I was feeling positively
ill by the time we got to the apartment. I ate so much, because she
asked, "Do you want more, or didn`t you like it?" lame. In the middle
of that, I had a pain I felt come through my chest, neck, and temples
to rest behind my eyes. I thought it was a blood clot and I was going
to die. But I didn`t. Drama Queen! My stomach was as "the waves of the
sea." My comp. says I said funny things in my sleep. I talked him into
reading "Jesus the Christ." I learned so much from that book. In the
afternoon, my comp. taught Merta the Plan of Salvation with Elder
Hickman. They challenged her to baptism on the 28th. she accepted!
We`ll do our best to help her to the Celestial Kingdom.

Wednesday: All of our appts. fell through today, but we did really
good work and battled the forces of evil, and all the things
missionaries do. We got up and I was feeling much better. I started
reading "Jesus the Christ" again. I love learning about the SAvior so
much! I now have a new part of my personal study that I`m starting to
do. I read the entry from my journal from ayear ago. It`s interesting
to note the difference in how I`ve changed. I mean, I used "divine" as
a freaking VERB when I was in the MTC! What up with that? We dropped
off our clothes and an umbrella that hna. Marìa had lent me. Her
daughter, Hna. Soledad, has got to be one of my favorite people in the
mission. She just loves the missionaries. We had cazuela for lunch.
Yuck! I got 3% meat, and 97% cartilage and bone. Ugh! As I sid, all
the appts. fell through, but we had good contacts. One guy asked for a
pamphlet to give to his brother, who`s a member. He also mentioned his
mom died two weeks ago. I asked him, "Do you want to know where she
is?" He did and we`ll talk Saturday. I started playing soccer with
some kids and their dad came out, impressed by my hacky-sack moves (he
told me so). He also invited us by. Elder Calaway showed me "the
Miracle of Work." It`s a short story about a tired man who was faced
with a great work charged to him by Christ. He had to push a rock with
all his might. He did, without success of moving it. Satan attacks,
saying, "You`ve done it forever. You haven`t even moved it even a
little." He prays and confesses he hasn`t moved it at all. Christ
comes and says, "I told you to push with all your might. You`ve done
that. BUT NOT ONE TIME DID I MENTION THAT YOU HAD TO MOVE THE ROCK.
Did you really fail?" Then he points out the strong arms, legs, back,
and hands. he says, "I will move the rock for you."

Thursday: So we saw some mini miracles today. It was really special
for me. I`m pretty sure it was on of the best days I`ve had here, in
Hualpencillo. We had our weekly planning session. I went through
it,step by step, in Preach My Gospel, and felt like we did a really
good job. then we cleaned the house and I taught Elder Calaway how to
swallow air for big burps. Missionary stuff. We had lunch with Hna.
Leon. He rinactive Sister was there and we talked with her. She said
she didn`t go because of laziness, but after more talk we found out
she didn`t go because she didn`t believe in Joseph Smith and the Book
of Mormon. I bore a testimony of all the things I had learned and the
divinity of it and she was stunned. She said she`d go to church for
the first time in 20 years because of the things I taught her. We went
to the house and it was hard to leave. We were depressed. But we met
with Ivanaa, a member, to isit Merta. She made me happy. I wanted to
review the Plan of Salvation and not only did she remember and
understand, she told me I had forgotten to say a prayer. WOOT! She`s
progressing! She`s going to Seminary on Saturday. Then, as we were
walking around, a lady came up to us and asked, "What is YOUR
doctrine?" I was like, "Oh, let me tell you!" She asked what we avoid,
and how we baptize--if we do it by immersion. She said, "Tat`ll be
hard WHEN I get baptized because I get vertigo." We have an appt.
tomorrow. Then it was hard to do contacts. but we were like, "We need
one more, to meet our goals." That contact said "I can`t talk...hang
on." Then came downstairs and let us in. We taught the restoration
really well. I know, because at the end, she was like,"What if the
whole Catholic church is wrong?" She works a lot and I think I hurt
her, so we might not see her again. Elde rCalaway and I make a good
team.

Friday (the 13th): Today was an average day. We got up and did our
exercises and got ready for the day. I`m doing the Book of Mormon
challenge and am marking every word that refers to the Savior. I`m
really excited! When we planned the day, I was delighted to find that
we had plenty of people to plan for. The time is passing so fast. It
feels like I just left Tirùa, and not long since I was in Temuco. But
it`s been almost 7 months since then! I`m almost done with my second
transfer in Hualpencillo. I feel like it`s been a challenge to find
people here, but I feel like I really larned how to be a missionary
here. Sometimes I feel discouraged, but, at the same time, I`m
learning so much about the Savior and my role in the work. But, just
because we planned for a lot of people doesn`t mean we got to teach
them. That part hasn`t changed. None of the doors opened. But we keep
saying, "I will go and do" not "I will sit and stew." Seriously, I`m
so happy that I`m in the mission! It`s the best thing in the world to
just KNOW there`s nothing better you could be doing, and seeing the
blessings come to your family. Tonight, we helped the Relief society
Pres. (Hna. Teresa) set up for their activity. No other sisters
helped. She was so happy to have us. Then, there was a dinner prepared
and we got to put bowties on and serve the Mother`s for a late
"Mother`s Day" thing. I served Hna. Teresa and she got a picture of it
because of the rarity of being SERVED instead of SERVING. All of the
Sisters were joking with me and odting on me like old friends. They
were all sad when we had to go, to keep curfew. I felt so special. I
really think I`ve become a lot more charismatic in the mission. Yet
another blessing!

Saturday: I had such a wonderful day today. you know what? I am SO
thankful for the opportunity we have to change and become true
disciples of Christ. My comp. shared a talk with me called, "The
Fourth Missionary." It talks about the four types of missionaries in
the world. The 1st doesn`t even finsih the mission. The second is
disobedient and hates being here,but he finishes. The 3rd missionary
is obedient and does great work. He works with his might and strength,
but he is impatient to go to the next sector, the next comp. and,
ultimately, to his house. He doesn`t give the Lord his heart and mind.
He`s constantly warring between what he wants and what the Lord wants.
David O. Mckay once said something like this, "The greatest battles
you will ever fight will be within the silent chambers of your heart."
The natural man will always be fighting for the rest of your life, but
you have to beat him down every time. The fourth missionary does this.
He`s not perfect. He gets discouraged. But he doesn`t give up. HE LETS
HIS ONLY DESIRE BE SERVING THE LORD. His will is swallowed up in that
of the fAther. the best part is that this change is possible for
EVERYONE and it`s immediate! We always change! Today we worked so hard
to help people. We were out, talking with everyone and I loved it! I
felt so happy! Merta called to tell us that she had gone to Seminary
with the Stake, and right after that, they got to see two baptisms.
Now she`s really excited! There are so many blessings of the Lord
here! I`ve learned how to use the members for help, and we might have
3 in the church tomorrow. I love being able to humble myself before
the Lord and let him change me. I love this Gospel!

Sunday: Today wasn`t as good as it could have been. We got up and went
to church, having delegated to several members the duty of picking up
investigators. but when we got there, Ivanaa (the member who was to
bring Merta) was there without Merta. It seems that no one answered
and her neighbor said no one was there. That was lame. Hno. Novoa came
in wth Valentina at his side. That was when I learned something very
important: she pretty much loves me. She didn`t pay any attention
whatsoever to the Sunday School lesson because she was too busy asking
us where we were from and what our favorite ccolor was and everything.
Then she started tickling us. then she started tickling the
assisstants. It was so embarrassing. Then, after the last class, and
we were saying bye to the members, Valentina came right up to me and
gave me a hug. I FREAKED. I squirmed and started pushing her away,
while simultaneosly trying to think inconspicuous thoughts that would
let me avoid the attention of the members. but we walked her home, and
told her we couldn`t give kisses on the cheeks, we couldn`t give hugs,
and we definitely couldn`t go to the theaters to watch horror movies.
We ate lunch, then we went to do contacts for the rest of the time.
Elder Calaway`s convert from Lautaro called to tell him he wasn`t
going to church anymore because they changed the Branch Pres. He just
wanted attention, and we talked him down. We did contacts until the
end of the night. we finished right before we had to get home. but we
completed with our weekly goals. We also saw some kid getting beat up
today. He was actually getting mugged! But as we looked closer, we saw
that it was the same kid that had been begging us for money a few
weeks ago. We didn`t really believe him because he had really new
shoes and would avoid questions about his home and parents and if he
would rather that we just buy him food so he didn`t waste the money on
drugs or something. But he was getting beat up for a while, but we
couldn`t help him, `cause there were about 15 other gangbangers. It
was lame.