10-9-11

Monday: Today was a good day. Except when I woke up at 6-ish and was
immediately completely awake and couldn`t go back to sleep. Haha. It`s
ironic because it`s my only day to sleep in. We studied for a little
while before Hna. Roa came to pick us up to take us to her country
house. Her daughter, Javiera, bought a new Triple so she could use my
"Scripture Shortcut" system, and she needed some questions answered
and help in heneral. They gave us some breakfast, and then Hna. Roa`s
dad, who lives next door, came by with their doead dog in a
wheelbarrow. Everyone cried and I felt awkward. We wrote the family.
It looks like mama and Daddy are in pretty bad shape. I`m so worried
for them. We watched "Up" while we were with Hna. roa. It`s a really
good movie. We got home, and went to do some contacts. We found a few
people who are interested, and one woman even speaks English. Sweet!
We visited Gustavo and Scarlet. They`re so awesome! Scarlet said
Conference was exactly how she`d exècted it to be. She also thanked me
for the blessing I gave to her last week, for her back. She said she
was going to go to the Hospital the next day. But during the blessing,
she felt something she`d never felt before--a fire on her back, right
where it hurt, and then the pain was gone instantly. She hadn`t said
goodbye, that night, because she was speechless. Priesthood power is
real. Especially when used with love.

Tuesday: Today was a singularly unproductive day. Actually, from the
way this week`s starting to shape up, with all of our meetings and
various duties, it looks like the whole week`s gonna be the same way.
We had our Distrizona in the morning, and I gave a class about how to
recognize and follow the Sìrit. It turned out well, and then I had
everyone share what they learned from their companions. That was
reallly awesome. Elder Zunñiga said he`s learned how to be happier and
how to have a positive attitude when things get hard. That made me
ffeel so humbled. I`m still working to get it right. I still have so
many short-comings. Jus ta quick note on learning how to recognize the
Spirit: That was one of my biggest fears in the MTC. But most of my
class was from personal experience. It`s such a wonderful blessing to
have in my life. We had lunchy with Hna. Roa before going to teach
Sabrina. Then we went to drop off our clothes and buy bus tickets for
tomorrow. We have a conference, but it`ll be in Hualpen, where I was!
We had a Ward Council. All of chile is doing Permaneced, trying to
help inactive members come back, for the Celebration of 50 years since
MIssionary Warted here. Santa Barbara is sleeping over here for the
night

Wednesday: I completed 17 months in my Mission, Today! Woot! It
doesn`t feel any different from last month. haha. Today was a happy
day. we got up at 5:00 so we could walk to the Bus terminal and leave
to our conference in Hualpen. Oh, how I`d missed it. I remember the
stinky gas factory that used to bug me. But today I loved it, as
treasured memories were brought back. then, I got to see all of my
friends. I was especially happy to see Elder Calaway, Elder Montalbán,
and Elder Mcconnell. Elder Calaway is so funny, and we spent almost
the whole day together. I got to talk to Elder Mcconnell for the
second time since we left the MTC. He`s wearing glasses now. Haha. but
he`s doing well. I also got to see Elder Burch. He said he got me a
Bday present, but forgot it at home. But I was still happy to see him.
Pres. Martinez motivated everyone to be more obedient, using a lot of
Scriptures to explain how th eDevil works. It was kind of frightening
when you think in the detail he gave us. Satan constantly invites us
to do bad. But Heavenly Father constantly invites us to do good. Nephi
explains that it`s up to us to choose eternal life of eternal death.
Salvation depends on what we want. We took our long ride home, and
then immediately went to help Hna. Quiroga by helping her daughter
with her English. She`s really quite talented. We agreed to do it,
because her non-member husband was going to be there. He wasn`t. We
got home and I`m tired. Whew!

Thursday: Today felt pressured. when we added up our numbers thjat we
have so far, it was quite a shock to find out how busy we`ve been with
all of our meetings, traveling, and stuff. But during our weekly
planning we got to plan for all of the families we`re teaching, and
how to help them resolve their doubts. It was really exciting to feel
the Spirit of the Lord opening our minds to receive the answers we
needed. We had lunch and then came back to study. I startedreading a
bit of "The MIracle of Forgiveness" That my hijo has. It had some
pretty strong stuff, and I decided to wait `til I can read it in
English so it can be even stronger! Bwahaha!Cristian, one of the only
young men that works with us, came out to do contacts for the first
time in a while. While we were working, I got a call from the Mission
office. They had a referral for us1 She was up in Concepción, but she
lives here. She wants to get to know the Church. She has a testimony
of the Restoration and wants to get baptized! I haven`t even met her
yet. She`s done all that on her own! We set an appt. for when she
returns, next Friday. We went ot the appts. we`d planned with our
progressing investigators, but they all fell through. If they don`t
start going to church, they won`t be able to receive their answers!
Hna. Pinar called, and said she had a great referral, too. the Lord is
blessing us for all of our hard work!

Friday: Today was a pretty good day. Ever since they changed the way
to measure contacts, we`ve been finding it hard to complete with our
goal. But, we`ve been able to visit some of the awesome investigators
that we have. We had a great companionship study, learning together
about prayer. We practiced a few times, pretending to be one of our
investigators. It went really well. Practicing may feel uncomfortable
at times, or even unnecessary, but just by doing it, you`re showing
your diligence. And for that, Heavenly Father softens the hearts of
his children for you. That`s from personal experience. We had lunch
with Hna. Quiroga and then went out to work. We met with Angelica.
She`s pretty tough. We read the chapter we`d left her, together. But
she kept saying it`s true because it spoke of God. then she said it
was just as true as her church `cause they talk about God there, too.
She`s a real fan of the loud talkers. We invited her to pray, but she
said no. We were persistent for about 5 min. and I realized she`d
closed up. Our next appt. fell through, so we felt we should visit
Claudia, the wife of a guy who let us in last week. They`re always
busy, so this was a miracle. She`d read the intro. of the BoM we`d
left her husband! When we asked her to pray, and she said she wanted
to learn how to pray like us. the contrast between Claudia`s humility
and Angelica`s Stubborness was apparent. Right as we left, we found
Ernesto going home. We accomanied him and invited him to say a prayer.
Last time, he didn`t want to, but he said a wonderful prayer today. He
was the one we practiced for.

Saturday: We walked a lot today. But we also did a lot of good. We got
up and I ate some peaches that I had been craving. Yum! I`ve been
reading about Alma and the change that Abinadi had caused in him. I
thought to myself. "We are having an Abinadi week." Because of our
meetings and new system of counting things. I`ve been confused a
little bit, trying to organize and plan for what we`ve set goals for.
But we`re not having the success we want. But I guess it`s not about
what WE want, is it? That`s one of the things I`ve learned in my
Mission: be humble so the Lord can teach you, and through the hard
times he`ll bless you. It`s been true every time. We had the best
spagghetti of my life with Hna. Cecilia. So good! We did contacts for
a while, before coming across two women trying to stuff a sofa through
their door. THAT`s a good finding opportunity. They refused us at
first, but we persisted (Elder Holland, in the MTC, said Sister
Holland`s AVON lady was more persisitent than us), and they let us
help. We ended up taking out their window, metal support-beam and all,
to get it in. They asked lots of questions. I gave them a Book of
Mormon to answer. the rest of our appts. fell through, and so we ran
to every possible place, trying to find someone. Nothin`. Haha. We
found out our transfers...We`re both staying together! Woot! It`s
gonna be awesome!

Sunday: We got up, and my hijo reminded me that we had to go the Ward
Executive meeting two hours before church. So we hustled over there to
talk with everyone. we went over the Investigators we`ve been
teaching, and asked for their help in some areas. it went really well.
Today was fast and testimony meeting. I was nervous. We didn`t have
any of the new investigatorscome again, though. Ugh. we learned about
the Millenium in Gospel Principles and about the signs of the Second
Coming in PriesthoodThere was one investigator, Hugo, who was there.
He`s Catholic (hard-core) but has been coming to our church with his
wife for 20 years! The Missionaries have talked to him lots of times,
but nothing has come of it. Today, he asked if we could give him the
lessons :O SAY WHAT?!?!?! tHAT`S TOTALLY A MIRACLE. I called Elder
Burch, and he was more surprised than I was. We had lunch with the
Bishop. This whole week I`ve wanted a completo, but i`m saving my
money. Today, we had completos with the Bishop. I had 4! they were so
AWESOME! We did contacts for a while. We went through a whole street
without any doors opening. It was so lame. W evisited the Pinar family
and watched, "The District 2" with them. We were all crying. I can`t
wait to show it to my family. Hna. Roa dropped off calzones rotos
(broken underpants)--A chilean dessert. They`re scones with powdered
sugar. yum!