11-13-11

Monday: Today was a great day. We got up bright (dark?) and early so
that we could make the ttrip to Temuco so that we could visit the
Millahual family. hey are my Chilean Family from my first sector,
Lican Ray, that pretty much adopted me. We wrote our family first,
through. Everyone wished me Happy Birthday for Tomorrow. I loved the
visit to the Millahual`s. They had made me a ake and they gave me a
great cream-colored tie. Starting tomorrow, we can`t return to
previous sectors. I was greateful I got this last chance to see them.
We planned the only lesson we had scheduled for the night, with
Ernesto. We wanted to hlep them go to church. But the first thing they
told us was, "Thanks for your help, but we feel like we`ve been doing
too much, too soon." They haven`t completed ONE commitment. We helped
them see that, to show their faith, they need to act, and the
blessings that come from obedience. they committed to praying,
reading, adn going to church. That lesson was 11% by the Spirit.
no--200% by the Spirit. (A 65 year-old man showed me his thigh and
said, "I`m whiter han a mormon!" I shoed him my arm and he said I got
him beat. It was so funny and random!)

Tuesday: The Zone Leaders gave me Skittles and the Sisters in my
District gave me a keychain, with yellow, metal socks,a nd a pen. we
had lunch with Hna. Pinar. We had home-made pizza. Made with love!
Mmmm. She gave me a pretty pink tie, so I won`t wear my "amoeba"
(paisely) tie. She thinks it`s ugly. Haha :) It rained, and I now have
holes in both shoes. But I just thought, "Who says wet feet is a bad
thing?" And I imagined I was walking in a pool. then I wanted them to
be MORE we! Haha. We did contacts most of the day. We ac tually met a
few nice people. We had a "lesson" with two law graduate students.
They jsut asked questions and it was out of control. But it`s okay.
We`ll do better. Hna. Roa came by, and dropped off some brazo de
Reina, a really yummy cake with manjar inside. She gave me a pretty
ble tie with white stribes. I love my mamitas!

Wednesday: today was a good day. I had a good time studying about Alma
and the Zoramites. It`s so impressive, to me, to see his attitude of
humility even when he knows that others are wrong. He just wants to
serve and help make everything beter for everyone. Wha a great
example! We ran into Hna. Gloria in the mornign. She`s still offended
because the Bishop asked if she`d ever participated in an abortion.
Absurd! We had an interesting contact right before lunch. He was
sitting on a riverside beach and waved us over. He told us he`d always
seen us preach, but never knew our message. But 5 min. into the
conversaaion he took control. turns out he`s studied the Bible for 30
years and knows greek, Hebrew, English (he`s from England) and he`d
already heard all the discussions. He didn`belong o any church, but
was convinced that the Sabbath day was Saturday because of
Isaiah66:something. At the beginning of my Mission, I might have been
shaken. But I just kept thinking about how I`ve received an answer
about Thomas S. Mosnon being a prophet. If he`s going to church on
Sunday, so am I. It was like Sheram in Jacob 7. We taught Jorge. We
watched "The Restoration" with him. He`ll pray about Joseph Smith. He
put his own baptismal date for next Saturday. That`ll be so great! We
did contacts and found some really great people that want to hear us.
we have some missionaries from Angol sleeping over here.

thursday: We had to get up at 4:00 AM so everyone could shower and
then make it to the Stak Center in time to leave. But as we left at
4:45 Gustavo was coming home from a nigh shift and cararied us. We
took a bus to Concepción. There, we heard from President Keith
McMullen, 2nd counselor in the Presiding Bishopric. He had a really
deep, resonant voice. He spoke of how we need to know our message,
down to our bones. He spoke of one of his sons who wasn`t sure if he
wanted to serve, because he was unsure of hings. Elder McMullen
thought, and said, "Do you know that it ISN`T true?" His point is that
we don`t need to worry about what we DON`T know. Through service,
sudy, and teaching, our testimony arrives. He asked, "Wheredo you
think you`re going to find it? BYU-I?" I thought of Joe, and how badly
I want him to have the peace that comes with a testimony. Jorge read
and prayed by hasn`t received hsi answer. It`ll come. We taught Hector
tonight. I was worried for what he`d said on Sunday, about not
bothering him. But his concern is that he wants Sunday to do all the
things he didn`t have time to do, during the week. Ah-hah! a clue. we
know that he doesn`t understand, still, that we should rest and
dedicate Sunday to the Lord. We`ll help him, too! We stopped by the
church to use the bahroom, but the Youth were there and hey asked for
English help and were offering brownies as payment. ugh.

Friday: Today was a great day. We got up and studied as usual. But
then he Zone Leaders came over during our session of weekly planning.
Elder Tanner and Elder Pliler are great Elders. they didn`t say too
much, but they said enough to let us know they care, and they had a
few good ideas about how to help our investigators progress. Elder
Pliler stayed with Elder Zuñiga in our secor, and I went to San Martín
with elder ÇTanner. We had a delicious veggie-lasagna for lunch. We
studied the language before heading out. Our first appt. fell through
so we went to teach the mom of a recent convert. She was a little
hard-hearted, saying she didn`t feel the need of knowing if the BOM
was rue. I asked her some quesions to help her out. We visited an
investigator, Pamela, who is super nice. She`s getting married soon,
so she can get baptized. She`s already glowing with the Light of
christ, I think. We found a young woman crying on the sidewalk. We
stopped and she said we should keep going. I almost did, bu the Spirit
told us not to. We sat down until we got a conversation going. She`d
had a hard time with tests in med. school. We had her laughing as we
got a return appt. We visited another investigator who`d received the
answer that she should get baptized Dec. 3rd. Golden. We found a
family of less-actives and are gonig to help them out. Zuñiga called
and said Jorge`s for sure going to church on Sunday. WOOT! It`s 11:11
PM on 11/11/11

Saturday: today was a good day: I had a good time talking with Elders
Tanner and Tavernier. I like being in apartments with four
missionaries. The first thing I did was call Elder Kemp and wish him
Happy birthday. He`s doing excellent! We had a great personal study,
followed by comp. study. Elder Tanner helped me focus on how to work
with members. Elder Zuñiga and Elder Pliler came by shortly after. I
found that Elder Pliler has "The Missionary`s Little Book of
Inspirational Stories." I read some really cool ones. We had lunch
with Natalia and Javiera Roa. Their mom was in Santiago. We got back
intime for our appt. with Natalia (a different one), a contact we did
last week. She`s really nice and very receptive. She knows how to
think and ask good questions. Unfortunately, she works every other
weekend. But she`s going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.
All of our other appts. fell through. So we had the blessing of being
able to talk to people all day. I really do enjoy being able to
testify to people I don`t know. It`s a lot easier than giving a talk
in Sacrament Meeting, like I have to do tomorrow. Near the end of the
night, we were let into the house of one Raphael. He old us taht he is
100% Catholic, and he wasn`t going to change. I just though, "I want
to hear you saying that form the pulpit in a few months." We called
Jorge and encouraged him to go to church, tomorrow, just to be sure.

sunday: So we spent this week on Jorge. We called him or visited hime
very day, sharing scriptures, experiences, and encouraging him ot go
to church so he could get baptized this Saturday like he wanted. AND
HE DIDN`T GO!!! We were waiting all morning for him to show up, our
hopes rising and crashign with every open and close of the door. So
I`m frustrated. Hopefully, the next missionary to come will be able to
help these children of God more than I was able o. I was assigned a
talk about my favorite subject in the whole world: the Book of Mormon!
I testified why it`s important for us to study it. Hna. Marita came up
afterward, and said I made her cry with the experience I had when I
got my testimony. I apologized. I don`t want to make people cry! It
was odd. I testify all day in the street to strangers, but I was
nervous in front of members and friends. But it went well. Our lunch
bailed on us, but Hna. Pinar was just awesome and took us to her house
and gave us completos, bless her soul. We shared "17 miracles" with
her. It`s about the Pioneers and their trials. Abolutely amazing, what
they went through. We did contacts without much success until the end.
the last ones were a mom and her son. Her boy-friend had invited her
to mutual, y ears ago. Now she wants her son to go, this Thursday.
What a blessing!