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

December 13th

This week was a good week. I feel like I worked my brains out by learning Spanish the last week that Im sort of mentally tired but, thats what P days are for! We dont always rest physically on P days (because we play sports sometimes) but we always rest mentally, and that helps a lot.

Last friday we had mission conference in Concepcion for the inside. The mission is split into two halves, the inside and the outside. The inside is Concepcion and the surrounding cities and the outside ranges from 2 hours to 6 hours aways from Concepcion. Im still on the ¨inside¨ and my whole district from the MTC is on the inside, so I was able to see everyone! I was really excited about that because Im pretty close with a few of them. My first companion in the mission field, Elder Davis, gave his final testimony because he is leaving in February and also Elder Lopez, my zone leader for 18 weeks. They are both awesome so I talked with them for a bit and with other missionaries. Im getting to that point where I know a lot of Elders in the mission because around the year mark, you know almost everyone. After the year mark, people go home that you know and tons of new Elders come in. So, I enjoyed conference a lot. President Humphrey, Sister Humphrey, and the assistants spoke to us on different topics. I really enjoyed what the assistant taught especially. They taught us ¨The Vision¨, which is what we are supossed to teach as we are guided by the Spirit. They basically told us that we are to teach that God is Our Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ, through the Atonement, is our Savior first and if they dont understand that, then we cant move on because they arent going to know or realize the importance of the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, Doctrine of Christ or anything like that. The assistants that we have now are really good. They arent number pushers like some assistants can be, they just want us to do our best and reach our potential and thats really what its about.

There were two baptisms yesterday. The missionary that I replaced in the sector, Elder Dastrup (who is from my group that came to Chile), came to baptize one of them. When I got to the sector, they were already golden and ready to go for baptism. Baptisms are always really special because you can always see the joy in the convert after they are baptized. Last Tuesday, we attended a setting apart from someone in the ward who is headed to Argentina. It reminded me of mine 8 months ago and how special it is!

I love yall! We are working hard and I love talking to people about the Gospel, that I love!

Chao!

Elder Gregory

First post in Chillan! (12.6.10)

Things are going great! I love the ward, the investigators, and my companion is awesome! Sometimes its easy to get sector trunky (to miss your last sector) the week after changing, but things are amazing here so Im not trunky at all!

Im replacing one of my friends from the MTC and he left a lot of really good investigators. The ward is great and really friendly. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and it was a lot of testimonies of people saying bye to a future elder who is leaving tomorrow for his mission! He lives right down the street from us and he is a really good person with a smile always on his face. Its awesome to have a good, LDS family a few houses away from where we live. I introduced myself in sacrament and I could just remember 6 months ago when I arrived in Chile and how petrified I was to do it in my first ward! Its nice to have a fresh start and bring what I learned from my last sector and apply it to my new sector.

My companion is awesome. He doesnt know any English so its spanish all day, everyday. I have probably learned more spanish in this past week than I had learned in the six weeks before. Its all about filling up my agenda each day with words that I hear that I have to look up the meaning to once we get to the house, asking my companion questions, having him correct me, and my grammer book! Im starting to break out of that missionary vocabulary and be able to speak about other topics and it feels great! My companion is really patient with me and he cracks me up. Hes really friendly with everybody and can find something to talk about with everyone and make them laugh. Its hard to explain why, but its different living with a latino but like I said, I enjoy it! For example, Ive been snoring lately a little bit so in the middle of the night I got a few wacks with a pillow! I asked him what was up in the morning and apoligized for snoring and he just laughed about it and wasnt mad at all. It cracks me up how forward he is and how easy going and forgiving he is too.

The sector that I am in is a little ¨flite¨ as they say here. (That is a name for the gangsters here and it comes from the kind of shoe, nike flights!) I really havent seen too much but its known throughout the mission as one of the more dangerous sectors, I guess. We saw a fight outside the church one day with a guy with a 2 by 4, wacking someone who was curled up in a ball against a fence. They got up and the guy getting beat up ran away but its really nothing to be worried about because they dont mess with us at all. The Lord promised us safety as long as we are worthy and follow the guidance of the Spirit so there is nothing to worry about even for a second!

If I havent showed it, I really am enjoying my new sector! Im learning a lot and I feel like we are doing some really good work.

I love yall!

Elder Gregory

End of November

Hola!

Im headed out of the sector where I was born! (in other words, the sector I started!) Im headed to a city called Chillan and I heard its incredibly hot there in the summer. Oh well, Texas prepared me for hot summers! Ill be companions with a latino, from Argentina, so Im really excited about that. His name is Elder Gil (HILL). Its hard to speak in Spanish all the time with a gringo companion so now Ill be forced to speak spanish all the time, which Im excited to do! No more gringo companion to bail me out on vocabulary words! Ill have to study a bunch now!

We have one investigator that is good to go for next Sunday so Im a little bummed that I cant see her get baptized. But in the end, all that is important is that she gets baptized! She was the one that I spoke about in the last email that I found on a mini cambio and challenged her to baptism as straight forward as I possibly could. She was really prepared by the Lord and Im grateful that I could be a part in the process of her becoming a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

A zone leader asked me, on a mini cambio last week, ¨what was the main thing that you have learned from this sector?¨ Considering it was my first sector, I told him Spanish obviously. The other one that I learned is how to do ¨inspired contacts.¨ I mean that by applying the Gospel to the person that we contact in the best way that I can, as quick as I can. Thinking about it a little more, I really learned that the people and the members are amazing here in Chile. Ive really tried to develop that love for my brothers and sisters here and they have showed love back. It will be hard to say ¨chao¨ and ¨nos vemos¨ tonight to everyone but atleast Im not headed home to the states yet! That will be rough!

Thats pretty much the biggest news, that Im leaving where Ive been for 5 1/2 months! During studies in the morning every time something makes sense to me, it just re-assures me that this is the true church! Everything just falls into place so perfectly!

I head out tomorrow morning so time to finish up emails and say bye to everyone!

Chao!

Elder Gregory

November 22

Hey!

We have been blessed in finding some prepared people these past few weeks. Ive already shared of one but this past week we found another. I was contacting and a lady came out and was real nice. I introduced ourselves and said we would love to share a message about Jesus Christ with her. She said ¨of course¨ and let us in! After talking for a bit, we found out she had family ties to members and she knew a few lds families in the neigborhood. We taught her of the Atonement and then the Spirit prompted me to challenge her to baptism. Usually I try to say ¨seguira el ejemplo de jesucristo al ser bautizado por alguien que posea la autoridad de Dios?¨ or something like that which is really formal and well worded. (It translates to ¨will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who has the authority of God?¨) But, I knew she was prepared and so all I said was ¨se bautizara?¨. (It just asks ¨will you get baptized?¨) It was a plain and simple challenge but she said yes really quickly after! I couldnt believe I challenged her the way I did but it all worked out! She attended church yesterday and she is really interested. We met her husband and he is really nice as well and will get baptized, just doesnt want a date yet. Anyway, the Lord prepared and we were just in the right place at the right time, guided by the spirit, when we did contacts!

Yesterday I did a mini cambio with an Elder that has the same time as me in the mission and was in the MTC with me. We taught an older man that loved cracking jokes at the expense of others. We got in his door and we started teaching. He had every sort of question and so I tried to apply them to our message. After tons of questions, I just had to say that we need to teach the doctrine of Christ. He would laugh at our inability to communicate perfectly and our imperfections in Spanish. At one point, I got sick of it and testified to him and it was silent after. We then were able to finish the lesson and he accepted a Book of Mormon and to read the chapter we left him. I was a little frustrated after because I knew I put too must trust in myself and not enough in the Spirit until late in the lesson. I learned my lesson that I dont speak as well and teach as well as I thought I did! But, the Spirit always testifies strongly and does his part, we just have to invite it in.

Ill put a few pictures. Everything is going great! This is the last week of this cambio and we will see if Im headed out next Monday!

Love yall!

Elder Gregory

First week of November (11.8.10)

Things are amazing here in Chiguayante, Chile! A lot of good things happend this past week and we really have been blessed.

We had a mission conference a few weeks ago and President Humphrey and his wife, Sister Humphrey, challenged us to do something that I really am enjoying. They told us to read the Book of Mormon again in two months. We have a book mark that tells us what chapters to read each day so that we can all do it together as a mission. They gave us a unmakred Book of Mormon in our native language so its really edifying to read it with ¨new eyes.¨ We just finished first Nephi and I really am enjoying it and trying to read it as an investigator would.

Some quick news that isnt so happy is that my companion from the MTC went home this past week. He broke a bone in his foot and has to go back to the states to have surgery. Elder Martell is a good person and I think he was really getting to the point where he enjoyed the mission a whole lot. Its sad to see missionaries go home but especially a bummer when they have to go home early. Oh well, its all the plan of our Heavenly Father and he is in control!

Elder Stull and I were able to be apart of a few baptisms! Ill start with a story of how we found a few of them, and then talk about the baptism.

A few weeks ago we got out of a lesson early and had fifteen minutes to go before lunch. We were thinking of going to lunch early since we were already so close to the house but we decided to do some street contacts. I contacted one and the man didnt want anything to do with us. Then, we contacted a mother and teenage boy walking along the street. Elder Stull talked with the mom and I talked with the son. We found out the mom was a less active and the son wasnt a member. She wanted to go back to church but needed an extra boost. They lived in the next sector over so the missionaries there baptized the son and the father but she gave us a reference of her niece who wasnt a member. Her niece had been going to church and was nine years old but wasnt baptized! She lived in our sector so we were blessed by the Lord with that baptism.

So, there were three baptisms yesterday- Marisol, the niece of nine years, the husband of the less active who we contacted whos name is Marcos (he is from the ward next to us but was baptized in our building), and Jorge! I had the priveledge to baptize Jorge, my companion baptized Marcos, and Marisol´s father baptized her!

I could type on and on about the investigators because I really do love them but just to summarize, Jorge is a teenager who is ninteen years old and became interested in the church through his girlfriend. Jorge is a really good person and I feel really blessed to have been able to baptize him. After the baptism, something really special happend. Jorge told me with a crack in his voice.. ¨Im clean!¨ It was an amazing feeling and I testify that the joy that comes through the Gospel is much more than any other happiness that someone can feel.

Thats about all I have time for! Like I said, I could go on and on about the investigators and experiences with them but Ill save that for when I get home! Love yall!

Elder Gregory

November 1, 2010

Hey everyone! Its heating up here.. but I love it! Reminds me of back home!

This past week went well. We found one family by doing contacts that is amazing! They are inteligent and ask really good questions. They are really looking for the truth. But, the Dad didnt seem too interested. We found out a few days later that he doesnt want us coming by. The son and mother didnt want us to talk to him but we finally got through to them the importance of us needing to talk to him one last time. We said it didnt matter if he told us to leave, yelling at us! We just want that last oppurtunity. So, this week we are heading over there to talk to him. We will see how it goes but I definentely know that God is a God of miracles and anything is possible with his power and his Spirit!

We had Stake Conference in Chiguayante yesterday. President Humphrey spoke and his wife gave her testimony. At the beginning, we were stressing out a little bit because none of our investigators had arrived. We were sitting there and we decided to go to a few of their houses to bring them to church. Within a minute after us walking out the church, we met three of them in the street! One of them told us that he wouldnt even be able to because of work a few days before, but he came anyway! It really was a blessing and wonderful feeling to see them walk through the doors and feel the Spirit that was there at conference.

We had a conference with the missionaries in this part of the mission with Elder Zeballos. He is a seventy and second councelor of the area presidency here in Chile. I learned so much and he is an amazing teacher. He drew a lot of examples of things that we can relate to missionary work. He testified very strongly with the Spirit at the end and the Spirit felt like it was pressing against me. It was so strong. He was a missionary here in Concepcion when he served and was a mission President for the mission below my mission. So, he loves this part of Chile and we were really blessed to have him come by to talk to us and give us council.

It was a great week and im loving life down in Chile right now. Its a blessing to be able to serve these people everyday. Elder Zeballos testified of the significance of what we are doing right now. He said that no other person, except my companion and I, have the authority to teach, find, and bring to the waters of baptisms like we do, in the sector in where we work.

Time to go but I love yall! Take care!

Elder Gregory

October 25, 2010

Hola! Como estai? (as they say in Chile!) Things are good here. Another week of work and another week of trying to follow the guidance of the Spirit!

As I thought about what scripture to share with yall this week and what to share, the Spirit prompted me to say something. So, it might me a little firm but its something I want to share.

We had a mini cambio this past week and I was with a missionary from Argentina. He taught me so much Spanish in the little time I was with him. We did contacts pretty much the whole day and didnt get in any doors but we kept positive and we tried. At night we had a family home evening with a couple who are returned missionaries. They invited their neigbors and we watched a movie of the miracles of Jesus Christ. It was a good night and we are always full of appreciation when the members are willing to help. A thing that had me a little confused is that they told us to not even talk about baptism with them. So, directed by the couple, we just talked about faith the whole time. Faith is where it all starts and is extremely important but many people think faith will get them to Heaven and thats all they need. I dont know any other way to put it except that it is extremely wrong to think that. Baptism is the way we show our faith. As it says in the Bible, ¨faith without works is dead.¨ Sometimes people think we as missionaries are too straight forward and too forceful to bring people to baptism. If we do not invite people to baptism, as the Spirit directs, then we are not doing our job as representatives of Jesus Christ. Ill give a scriptural reference of Jesus Christ himself teaching this.

I have been reading a lot of the doctrine of Christ. This consists of two major chapters in the Book of Mormon for me.. 2 Nephi 31 and 3 Nephi 11. In 3 Nephi 11 Jesus Christ appears in the Americas and teaches his doctrine. When Jesus arrived and showed the scars and speaks of how he drank the bitter cup, the people are overcome. In 3 Nephi 11:17 they say ¨Hosanna! Blessed be the name of the Most High God! And they did fall down at the feet of Jesus, and did worship him.¨ The word ¨hosanna¨ means ¨save us, now!¨ What the Savior does next is extremely important. He calls over Nephi, a prophet and says this to him in verse 21, ¨I give unto you power that ye shall baptize this people when I am again ascended into heaven.¨ He then invites the people to be baptized. He says in verse 33 to the people, ¨And whoso believeth in me, and is baptized, the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of God.¨

They pleaded with Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, to save them. The first thing that he does is give the power to baptize and then invites all to be baptized in his name. This is the way we are saved- as we show our faith and repentance through baptism by someone who has the authority of Jesus Christ to do so.

By writing all of this, I just hope that nobody takes the covenent of baptism lightly. I confess that I was one of those who thought the missionaries were a little too ¨pushy¨ at times. That was wrong and incorrect. Missionaries invite to baptism, as guided by the Spirit, because they love their brothers and sisters. The Savior showed the importance of it, and we need to follow his example.

Now that Ive said all that, I just want to let yall know how much I love yall! I love yall as my brothers and sisters... because you are! Heavenly Father has a plan for us and we have the privelige and blessing to be apart of it. Ive been raised by parents who raised with love and with the Gospel principles. My Mom raised me to love everyone and to have Christ-like patience. She taught me the best by leading by example. My Dad raised me to serve others to show this love and to always remember my priesthood responsibility. He also lead by example. Im also so grateful for being raised in a home with loving Sisters and that I now have the blessing of having brothers to help council me and help guide me along the path. There are so many others that have helped me and have been an example to me and I wish I could mention all but I think its enough to say that so many people have helped me that don´t even realize how much they really have.

The Spirit prompted me to say these things and I feel like I dropped the hammer a bit but just know that I love yall so much! Because I love yall, I invite yall to study and ponder about the importance of baptism. If you are not baptized and reading this, I invite you to do the same and then ask your Father in Heaven if what I have said is true. I also invite you to act on that answer.

Everything else is going great and we are working hard! Its heating up a bit and Im loving it!

Love yall! Chao till next week!

Elder Gregory