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