17 Enero, 2011

How are yall doing? Im relieved this week is over. It was a rough one, but we had a baptism!

The weeks before this one we had been finding a lot of investigators using a list of less actives, because there are tons! But, this last week we lost almost all of our investigators! One mom filled an investigator´s head with lies and now he isnt interested. Another family that we found of five doesnt even want to talk to us and avoids us. Another family tried hiding when we yelled (we yell ¨aloo¨ and we dont knock because there are fences) and they yelled ¨nobody´s home!¨ So, its been kind of rough but, atleast we are doing our part! Honestly, there are some people that I have met here on the mission that the Savior himself wouldnt be able to teach. I told my companion that it would be awesome to see the final judgement of some of these people that yell at us and shut their mind off to what we are trying to share because of false traditions and following what their preachers at their churches tell them to do and say. He told me that would be nice, but that is bad to think that on our part. We should desire their salvation, not seeing them before the Lord feeling guilty for their sins. So, I appreciated that a lot. Oh well, our job is to preach the Gospel and whoever wants salvation will listen and act on it!

But like I said, we had a baptism! Elder Gil baptized Monica, an investigator who we had been waiting to baptize until she got married, and I baptized the 8 year old son. He was a baptism for the ward because his Dad is a member. Jose Luis, the boy, is pretty crazy and was scared a little bit before the baptism so I had to guide him into the font for the baptism. Monica had been a member of the ward pretty much, but just needed to get baptized!

So, with the stressful, hard, and tiring week, it atleast ended in a baptism on Sunday! Oh speaking of Sunday, Elder Gil gave a talk and dropped a lot of hammers on the members. (Hes really good about being brutely honest.) He spoke on a commandment that the ward needed to hear- the day of rest. Almost nobody keeps the sabbath day holy here. It was really surprising to me when I got to Chile that we dont only have to worry about finding people to teach, teaching them, and guiding them to baptism... but get the members in line too! The church is a lot newer here than the states so maybe thats a reason. Who knows!

Thats about it for the week. Im really excited to just talk to a bunch of people this next week and find new people to teach. It hurts dropping people and seeing them make the wrong decision but now I can feel a little bit of how Our Heavenly Father feels when his children sin. The mission has taught me so many things! Im so grateful to be here!

Love yall!
Elder Gregory

Hola-po (January 10, 2011)

Hey! Today was cambios but my companion and I are staying where we are. Its good because we have seen a lot of good things happen here these past six weeks and we want to continue with it!

We were talking to a lady on Jonathan´s street that lives across and she was commenting on how much he has changed. It really makes me happy to hear of how the Gospel really does change people for the better. She says he is really pleasent to talk to now and he cut his hair. (All the flites here have a stripe down the center of the back of their head that is longer than the rest.) So, he has really cleaned up and now he is sharing the Gospel with his friends and trying to invite them all to church. He slpet in so he didnt come to church yesterday and was going to recieve the priesthood, but we have to keep him animated because he lives in a rough part so he could fall back easily! We are working with his sister and she is on track to get baptized in a few weeks!

We have been sharing with another teenager too, Luis. He told us that he stays alone in his house a lot and just reads and meditates. So, he doesnt have too many friends but is really nice. We shared about the Book of Mormon and gave him one this past week. We came back to share two or three days later and he had already read up to 1 Nephi 14, including all of the testimonies at the beginning! He was cross referencing it with the Bible and had some questions for us. He asked us the questions, we would answer them, he would cross them off and understand completely fine. We walked with him to church and he said he really enjoyed it. We went with him to second hour and someone was talking about members sharing with friends. Someone said that all members need to share with their friends because, ¨if you dont have friends, your the last of the last!¨ That was a dagger for Luis but everything ended up fine. We smoothed it out and he didnt end up offended.

We have found some other people this past week too including a mom and two sons that moved into our sector recently. The mom and a son were baptized a few years ago but the other son is now old enough to get baptized so they are going to go to church again and he is going to get baptized!

Well, I guess I just talked about the investigators this email but I love them! Ive been working really hard to develop a love for Heavenly Father´s children and show it more. I think it all starts from there and the rest just falls in to place.

Love yall!
Chao!

Jan 3, 2011

Hey everyone! Everything is fine here as far as the earthquake. It really wasnt too stong where I am since we are so far away but it still shook us around a little bit. We were doing contacts and I had to grab a limb from a tree to keep balance but it really wasnt too bad. Its worse in a house when you can see tons of stuff moving around! But everything is fine and its was pretty fun!

These past few weeks were the ¨trunky¨ days of the year for a missionary. (Trunky means you think about home a lot!) But, it wasnt bad at all. We took it easy Christmas morning, talked to the family and I loved it! For new years we had a family home evening with the elders qourum president and his wife and went to a few other members homes. We had our P-days on the Saturdays these past two weeks and Mondays we worked regularly.

Yesterday another Elder from the ward left. Hes headed to Peru! (Chile and Peru dont like each other too much.) His mom washes our clothes and she is extremely nice and is always worried if we have eaten enough and are doing ok with everything. Shes been doing it for more than 20 years! So, Javier, the son, has been raised with the mindset for a mission and he is really prepared. Its tough for us that all the willing young men are leaving on missions from the ward because we wont have them here to help us, but they are going to do great and going on their own mission is more important! There are 3 more leaving in the next 4 months!

We are working a lot with less actives here. There were tons of people that got baptized when the church was new here in Chile to where the missionaries would have an average of 40 baptisms a month! Sometimes people would just get baptized because everyone else was doing it. They would walk up to the missionaries and ask what they had to do to get baptized! So, the retention rate isnt too good and we are going through the ward list and trying to contact everybody. We havent seen results yet but we have a few return appointments with incomplete families for this week, so we will see what happens!

I attached a bunch of pictures because I havent sent any for awhile. A few are from when I said my goodbyes in Chiguayante with the ward mission leader, elders qourum president and his family, and a convert and her mom that will get baptized once she gets married. A few others are from Jonathans baptism and others are with Javier and his nephews.

Love yall! Chao!

Elder Gregory