10-16-11

Monday: Today was a great Pday. We woke up, and I got to sleep in. I
had a crazy dream last night. We cleaned a little and then went to
write the family. We did contacts today, and had a lot more success
than yesterday. I liked one comment, from Conference, that I keep
going back to: a lot of people pray for patience, but they want it
RIGHT NOW. The Lord`s not going to make that change, instantly, for
us. It makes me pay more attention to HOW the Lord will be preparing
ways for me to endure well and be rewarded with that potential prize.
We visited Hna. Pinar and she said she loved the talk by Elder Holland
that I`d left her.

Tuesday: Today was a good day. We got up and went jogging. we actually
did a lot of jogging today, for various reasons. sHaha. For our comp.
study, we studied "Common doubts." If I ever have the time, I`d like
to share it with Alan and Kevin. I learned some more stuff today, for
sure. We did some contacts in the morning. We had lunch with Hna.
rodriguez. She made some heavenly lasagna. but the whole conversation
was about how much better her sons are than me. She said that all the
Utah missionaries are obligated/forced to go on a Mission. There was
so much I didn`t know before the Mission. I`m not sure why I came,
except out of love I felt for other people. I didn`t know the
doctrine, but I kenw how happy the Gospel made me. Hna. Rodriguez said
it was all a joke, AFTER she saw I`d been bothered. the Mission`s
frickin` hard! I don`t care if I haven`t been a Zone Leader since I
had 2 months in the Mission, like her son. I`m proud just for not
going home that first, rainy, confusing week. Okay, done venting. We
found Lilian. She`s way receptive. We taught her faith, repentance,
and prayer. She even said the closing prayer! There was an...aroused
dog gang, trying to get the girl dog. They started fighting with each
other, and we tried to get away from them. But their center of
attention, the girl dog, followed us. So we ran for 3 blocks, trying
to ditch the vicious, pursuing, horny dogs. If I had it on camera, and
sugsequently youtube, I`d be a star. It was so hilarious!

Wednesday: Today was a hard day. We had our Distrizona in the MOrning.
I was asked, by the Zone Leaders, to give a class on how to study and
prepare effectively. Then, for our practice, I had everybody prepare a
lesson for one of the investigators right there. It was a pretty good
class. We had lunch with Hna. Pinar. We had completos! It was so good.
Hno. Pinar wasn`t feeling so good. He was all bundled up, eating warm
soup, next to the fire. It was raining outside. It almost made ME want
to be sick. And be with my mom to take care of me. Almost. we did
contacts in the Afternoon. After 3 hours of knocking doors, we only
had 11 contacts. Everybody recognizes my red hair through their window
curtains and tells us to go away. there`s only one really good
neighborhood to find people/knock houses. The rest of the Sector`s
just businesses. But thanks to the "Month of Sanctification" we blew
through the neighborhood about 3 times each transfer. This is my 7th
time talking to the same people that told me not to come back. One
particularly rude lady had remembered my name, even, without looking
at my nametag, and used it to tell me to stop wasting her time. I`ve
just hit another rough spot, I guess. But I read my Patriarchal
Blessing a little while ago, and I felt a peace. that was the Spirit
telling me, "This is true. This is right." I wrote back to Alan`s
letter. That made me feel better, too. I`m gonna keep going.

Thursday: today was way better than yesterday. I think the rain had
been dampening my mood, is all. but today was sunny and warm and
awesome. We woke up and did some studying before we had to go to the
bus terminal to head off to santa barbara to start off our divisions.
I went with Elder Gomez, and both of our hijos went together. We had
lunch and then wen straight to an appt. Margaret wants to get
baptized, but her Grandpa won`t let her leave him alone on Sundays. We
challenged her to do everything possible to get to church. In our
Afternoon study time, I showed Elder Gomez a little bit about the
Sabbath day. we visited a less-active member before going to do the
Interview. Daniela was super cool! she had lots of doubts at first,
but through prayer she received her answer. At conference, too! She
told me she was pregnant, but it`d happened before she met the
Missionaries. I read 2 Nephi 9:25-26 telling her the marvelous
blessings of the Atonement. She passsed the Interview wonderfully. we
did a contact, and she said, "I don`t believe in happiness." But as we
talked more, she said she was looking for a Church for her daughter.
We talked more, and she said, "What if I wanted to get baptized in
your church?" haha. A miracle indeed. We taught Teresa about the Book
of Mormon. She likes what she`s seen, but is still doubtful. I bore
her the strongest testimony I`ve ever given and invited her to be
baptized when she received her answer. You could see/feel the Spirit
working in her before she said, "yes." It was very cool.

Friday: Today was a really great day. I accidentally slept in, and
Elder Gomez didn`t wake me up. Ugh! But I got up and studied for a
little bit before we had to run to catch the bus to Los Angeles. we
met up with our comps. and ended the division. I found that Hna. Roa
had stopped by, this morning, to give us rasberry pie. She loves me.
We were asked to go to the Hospital and give a blessing. It was an
inactive member form another city. He was a big tough guy. He told us
he had cancer, and it broke my heart when he started crying. But he
was smiling when we left. We also had to give a blessing to the
grandson of a lady (non-member) we ran into. Her daughter`s a member.
It`s a really cool feeling to give blessings in Hospitals. People look
to you for hope. We taught Lilian today (while I was in Santa Barbara,
my hijo put a baptisimal date with her). She said she couldn`t sleep
last night. She felt like she was being watched. So she read the Book
of Mormon, and felt at peace. She said she thought it was Satan,
trying to stop her. We taught the Restoration. She said she believes
Joseph Smith was a prophet. She`s so prepared. We visited Hector. He
started by telling us he didn`t believe in the Book of Mormon. We
"argued" for about 5 minutes before I suggested we read it. Afterward,
he quieted down a bit. He said he`d read daily from then on, even if
it`s one verse. His wife is going to help him. Our Ward left for the
Temple at 10:30 tonight. They`re all so excited.

Saturday: Some really cool things happened today. We spent our
companionship study discussing ways we can teach the Book of Mormon
better. Then we went to try and find Jorge. We always visited him in
the Afternoon. But his wife told us, on Thursday,k we can find him at
noon. and for the first time in a month, we found him! He`s had some
spinal problems. when we told him that he doesn`t have to be able to
fast right away, in order to get baptized. He smiled and said,
"Thgat`s good news." He`s gonna get baptized, I`m pretty sure. Our
other appts. fell through, but Hno. Ordenes called and said he needed
help cleaning the Chapel, because everyone else was gone. We finished
with just enought time to head to the "Missionary Work" Cultural
activity transmission from santiago. There were about 5,000 youth
participating. They did a really cool part with 2,000 stripling
warriors doing a battle dance to the Primary song "W`ll bring the
World his truth." An opera lady sng a solo, high up in the Stadium, of
"come, come, ye saints" while the "pioneers" marched below. But the
the whole stadium joined in. It was so moving. All of the
ex-missionaries that have ever served in Chile, that were able to
come, stood on a podium. It was cool. Then, the first two Missionaries
gav e a message. There was a play where a family sent their son on a
Mission. That made me cry. That first day was a hard one. Watching the
Mom saying goodbye to her son was hard.

Sunday: Today was a good day. we fasted this week, for Jorge and for
Daddy, so that his surgery went well. During sacrament Meeting, the
Bishop called a lot of people out. He said there are 68 Ward Members
with Temple Recommends and only 11 went. He said that Money, Work, and
"being busy" in general are all excuses of man, and that going to the
Temple should be our top priority. It was a pretty strong call to
action. We didn`t have any investigators in Church today. but we
should have several next week. Yeah! Our lunch was with Hna. Marta.
She is extremely strange. Our last lunch with her was squash soup in
their country house that is right next to a Satanic cult. So I waws
worried this morning. But when we got there, we found a
barbeque...with no cartilage! We had pork, chicken, and a really
flavorful sausage called langaniza. She told us all the other
Missionaries spent the whole afternoon at their house, and told us to
do the same--and RELAX. When she told us to relax, I felt like a
vulnerable Zoolander to her evil Will Farrell. So wse told her we
still had work to do, which was true. We went to give ANOTHER blessing
at the Hospital. We did contacts for the rest of the night. Nobody
opened up until the end. My hijo said, "hello ma´am." The contact, in
a rumbling bass, with a smile that we could see from 10 ft. away,
said, "hello." My hijo was like, "i`m so sorry." The guy was coo with
it, and said we could come back. He`ll cut his hair, too.