We had a good week and we are really happy about that. Ill describe the investigators a little bit.
We are teaching a couple named Gissel and Mauricio. We found them doing contacts out in a small town about 20 minutes away from Coihueco. Gissel is 22 and Mauricio is about 25 and they have a 2 year old toddler. They go to a church but they see that their church doesnt have all of the truth so they are really open. The first lesson we shared with them, we were teaching the Restoration and I had not even talked about Joseph Smith or the First Vision but my companion decides to pull out the Book of Mormon and teach about that. I went with it and tied it in as best I could and it ended up being really inspired. The next time we came, Gissel had read the testimonies at the beginning and had a dream about it. She dreamed that she was in the room of Joseph Smith as he was talking with the angel Moroni. We asked her what she thought that meant and she said that she figures that means that everything we are telling her is true! We shared more and she told us and her husband at the end of the lesson that there is no way what we are saying is a lie. They both have baptismal dates for the 16th of October and are really excited to get baptized! Gissel went to church yesterday and stayed all three hours but Mauricio had to go out of town. They are both really smart and are going to help the branch a ton if they get baptized!
Another investigator named Cristina came to church with her two children and her and her son have baptismal dates for the 16th of October too. Cristina is pregnant and she also said that she goes to a church but she wants to get baptized and she cant in her church because she is not married by that church. It all started out with Cristina by knocking on her door a few months ago and she didnt seem too interested at first but we just asked if we could share for 10 minutes, she let us in, and then was really interested the next time we came back!
Another investigator named Gustavo came and has a baptismal date. He wants to get baptized but he needs to move out of his girlfriend´s house before he does. Once we find a room for him to live in, he will be baptized!
We had other investigators go to church including a husband of a recent convert, a friend of a member, and the, ummm, ¨very feminine man¨ of Coihueco. He has gone two times now so we are actually thinking a little bit about teaching him. His parents died and they were members so if he were to change some things, especially with the law of chastity, he would be getting baptized too!
I gave a talk in sacrament meeting about the importance of a living prophet and about the organization of the church from a Prophet down to the 12 Apostles and the Seventy. It was all about getting everyone excited for General Conference!
We had to focus a few weeks on reactivating and now we are seeing the fruits of it all. That means that we are getting less actives back to church and the Lord is blessing us with amazing investigators. We talked with the Relief Society President of the branch last night and she thanked us for helping the less actives so much. She said that all of the less actives that come, come because we (the missionaries) visit them. She apoligized that she hasnt been doing her visits but she thanked us a lot and we appreciated that.
I love yall! Chao-ito!
Elder Gregory
I'm staying! (9.19.11)
We got cambios this morning and Im staying for atleast another 6 weeks in Coihueco. Im really excited and happy about that. This past Wednesday a seventy came to our mission. His name is Elder Richards and he is now the second councelor of the area here in Chile. We had a leader capacitation early in the morning and then we had a 5 hour conference. He took thirty minutes at the end to do a question and answer and I took advantage and asked him a question. A missionary asked him what it means to be a ¨special witness of Christ.¨ Elder Richards teared up whenever the Elder asked him and said,¨Thank you for asking me that question.¨ He explained what it really means after.
At the end of conference, our Mission President, President Humphrey, said that Elder Richards wanted to talk to some missionaries. He named off 5 missionaries and the first was ¨Elder Gregory!¨ I was pretty nervous but it ended up to be an amazing experience and one that I will never forget in my life! Here is what happend.
After lunch we got back to the chapel and I was the first to be interviewed by Elder Richards. I walked into the room and he was waiting there with two chairs facing each other and a table with his scriptures. We started by saying a prayer on our knees and he asked me to say it. When we sat down after the prayer, he started asking me a few simple questions. He asked me how much time I had in the mission and about my family. I told him about my family and that my parents had gotten a divorce. He asked me if my testimony had grown and I said that it did and he asked me to share my experience with him. I told him the long version but that basically I had prayed the night that I heard that my parents were divorced, and I felt like arms were wrapped around me as I prayed. He asked me to open up Doctrine and Covenants 6:20 and it applied exactly to what I had felt. He said that all I needed to do to feel the love of the Lord´s arms wrapped around me was to be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments.
He said, ¨This really isnt a very fair question and I shouldnt answer it, but do you remember what I talked about last General Conference?¨ I told him that I didnt but I had my notes right there and I opened it up and read my notes. He spoke about learning and growing through pain. It was an amazing talk and I had it starred.
When we finished talking about that, he asked me if I had any questions. I honestly didn´t but I waited a few seconds to think of one because I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of being one on one with a seventy! I thought of a preocupation that Ive had lately. It was that I am a little afraid to go home in seven months. I love my family so much but the things is that they will be different, I will be different and I will have to adjust myself to a different lifestyle all over again. He told me a story about one of his zone leaders when he was a Mission President in San Antonio ten years ago. He had a zone leader who had been less active up until a year before his mission because his parents were less actives. He went on the mission, completely changed, and came to be an amazing missionary. His parents had gotten divorced while he was in the mission field but they wanted to pick him up with his brother who was also less active and was covered in tattoos. Elder Richards watched as they picked him up in the mission office how this missionary´s jaw quivered as he saw them and how stressed he was to go home to a family like that. A few years later, he ended up marrying in the temple and having a few children. Elder Richards said that he had a beautiful little girl but it was hospitolized and there was brain damage to the baby´s brain. This returned missionary called up his old Mission President, Elder Richards, to go to the hospitol. Elder Richards started to tear up as he told me the end of the story where the baby was given a blessing and she was promised that she would be healed. The baby was healed completely. He told me that story to tell me that everything will be fine and to not worry too much about after my mission for now.
The Spirit was so strong in that interview and after we finished, we stood up and gave each other a hug for a few seconds. It was an experience that I will never forget.
I love yall!
Elder Gregory
(Sorry, I am only going to write this letter. I dont have time to write others this week!)
Hey! (9.12.11)
This past week we worked a lot with less actives and recent converts to get them to church. I think it helped because the sacrement room was full yesterday! The old branch President that is inactive came with his family, the old second councelor came who is inactive, and other small families we have been trying to help! We didnt have any investigators in church unfortunately but we still felt really good about having a part in bringing some key priesthood holders back to church.
The Stake President talked the Branch President down of making a missionary a councelor because he doesnt like that idea too much. So, I am assigned to the Elder´s qourum as a councelor. So, now Ill be teaching 2nd hour (to the youth) and 3rd hour (to the priesthood) in church as well as giving a talk each month. But, I love teaching and I feel comfortable teaching pretty much any aspect of the Gospel thanks to a year and a half of studying the scriptures each day!
This past week we had branch council. I was looking forward to it a lot beacause we haven´t had one in a long time and the branch is suffering a little bit. I was sort of confused in the branch council because there was no main focus, just a lot of venting and opinions, but no real solutions. I added my input but as missionaries, we sort of comment from the outside because we dont have the responsibility of an organization within the branch. I took a second to look around, and there wasnt a single returned missionary in the room. I realized how much of a difference a mission can make as far as leadership qualities. We learn in the mission that we should 1)State the problem, 2)Think of solutions and pick one, 3)Verification.
So, I was stressing about the state of the branch and up at night for a few hours thinking about it. Last night, we visited Juan Vega (the x branch president that is inactive) and then ran over to a member´s home. In that family, there are three sisters that are in their 20s and are the leaders in the young women and primary and are really strong members. (They are like a chileno form of my three older sisters- Julia, Emily and Becca!) I respect their opinions a lot and they told me to worry about my mayordomia (Ian, Jason or Emily, yall can translate that for me because I forgot!) and that if the missionaries always do all the work for the branch then the leaders arent going to grow by having to sacrifice. They have seen me stressed out lately about the branch so they told me that they appreciated what I was doing and that helped a lot. Its incredible how much of a difference it can make when someone thanks you for the work that you do.
I worry about this branch so much because I love these people so much! But, there are people waiting out there to hear the Gospel and it is our responsibilty to find those people and bring them the Gospel. We are the only people with that authority in all of Coihueco!
This next weekend is 18 de Septiembre, and that is a big holiday in Chile. Its going to be a crazy week! I love it!
Love yall!
Elder Gregory
The Stake President talked the Branch President down of making a missionary a councelor because he doesnt like that idea too much. So, I am assigned to the Elder´s qourum as a councelor. So, now Ill be teaching 2nd hour (to the youth) and 3rd hour (to the priesthood) in church as well as giving a talk each month. But, I love teaching and I feel comfortable teaching pretty much any aspect of the Gospel thanks to a year and a half of studying the scriptures each day!
This past week we had branch council. I was looking forward to it a lot beacause we haven´t had one in a long time and the branch is suffering a little bit. I was sort of confused in the branch council because there was no main focus, just a lot of venting and opinions, but no real solutions. I added my input but as missionaries, we sort of comment from the outside because we dont have the responsibility of an organization within the branch. I took a second to look around, and there wasnt a single returned missionary in the room. I realized how much of a difference a mission can make as far as leadership qualities. We learn in the mission that we should 1)State the problem, 2)Think of solutions and pick one, 3)Verification.
So, I was stressing about the state of the branch and up at night for a few hours thinking about it. Last night, we visited Juan Vega (the x branch president that is inactive) and then ran over to a member´s home. In that family, there are three sisters that are in their 20s and are the leaders in the young women and primary and are really strong members. (They are like a chileno form of my three older sisters- Julia, Emily and Becca!) I respect their opinions a lot and they told me to worry about my mayordomia (Ian, Jason or Emily, yall can translate that for me because I forgot!) and that if the missionaries always do all the work for the branch then the leaders arent going to grow by having to sacrifice. They have seen me stressed out lately about the branch so they told me that they appreciated what I was doing and that helped a lot. Its incredible how much of a difference it can make when someone thanks you for the work that you do.
I worry about this branch so much because I love these people so much! But, there are people waiting out there to hear the Gospel and it is our responsibilty to find those people and bring them the Gospel. We are the only people with that authority in all of Coihueco!
This next weekend is 18 de Septiembre, and that is a big holiday in Chile. Its going to be a crazy week! I love it!
Love yall!
Elder Gregory
this past week... (9.5.11)
.. was awesome! As always! I am loving it here in Coihueco. We had stake conference yesterday and we didnt really push any investigators to go because they said they will go the next Sunday here in Coihueco. But, we looked back during the conference, and an investigator was back in the back with his girlfriend, who is a member in our branch! We were pretty happy about that. The conference was really good and President Humphrey and Sister Humphrey came and spoke and everyone loved their talks. President Humphrey shared a bunch of scriptures from Doctine and Covenants, as he always does, and it was really good. He is a master of Doctine and Covenants!
Viviana said that she loved church a week ago. She said that it is a lot different than what she expected because it was reverent and not like the Evangelical church next door where they yell songs all the time. We visited the person that called us over the other week. We shared with him twice last week and he seems like he is really interested. He owns a small restaurant and he wants to clean up his life but he has the temptation of people drinking and smoking there all the time.
Transfers are in two weeks, and thinking of the possibility of me leaving almost brings me to tears. It is the first time in my mission that I have those sort of feelings. I love these people here and I feel like they are my family. I really feel needed to bring energy to this branch and we are having success in reactivating people. The Branch President is thinking of putting one missionary as a councelor and the other to help in the young men´s because there are a lot of recent convert young men. If I do have the amazing opporunity to be put as a councelor, that would probably mean that I wouldnt be district leader anymore and maybe make it to where I would be here for awhile and never be a zone leader. But I would much rather be here in Coihueco to help the branch. So, I told that to President Humphrey in my email to him but in the end, I am just an instrument in the Lord´s hands so I will have to go wherever he needs me.
I love yall!
Elder Gregory
Viviana said that she loved church a week ago. She said that it is a lot different than what she expected because it was reverent and not like the Evangelical church next door where they yell songs all the time. We visited the person that called us over the other week. We shared with him twice last week and he seems like he is really interested. He owns a small restaurant and he wants to clean up his life but he has the temptation of people drinking and smoking there all the time.
Transfers are in two weeks, and thinking of the possibility of me leaving almost brings me to tears. It is the first time in my mission that I have those sort of feelings. I love these people here and I feel like they are my family. I really feel needed to bring energy to this branch and we are having success in reactivating people. The Branch President is thinking of putting one missionary as a councelor and the other to help in the young men´s because there are a lot of recent convert young men. If I do have the amazing opporunity to be put as a councelor, that would probably mean that I wouldnt be district leader anymore and maybe make it to where I would be here for awhile and never be a zone leader. But I would much rather be here in Coihueco to help the branch. So, I told that to President Humphrey in my email to him but in the end, I am just an instrument in the Lord´s hands so I will have to go wherever he needs me.
I love yall!
Elder Gregory
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
