So, This week went alright. We did a lot of contacting and weren’t able to find many but we’ll keep working on that. With our investigators if I remember right we only had a lesson with 1 matrimony. We did have a lesson with Hermano Marcos and Hermana Nancy about family history and Hermano Marcos got really excited. It was pretty awesome! Honestly I don’t have a whole lot to say this week, but I’d like to share my testimony.
18 months
So, not to be too trunky but tomorrow I’ve officially been away from home for 18 months. I left the 1st of May 2017. It’s a little crazy how time flies! I’m excited to get to learn and progress some more during the next couple of weeks. Hopefully all is well back home and you’re not missing me too bad yet. ;D
Temples!
Hey everybody!
So, we went to the temple again to help out with the videos and the reception for the open house and it really is amazing to see how the temple affects the people. Pretty much everybody comes out with a look of awe on their face. In the mission we’ve received 211 referrals from the temple that are currently being contacted by the missionaries. We never receive that many referrals so it’s pretty amazing and they’re really good because they actually want to learn more after the amazing experience they had. I really have missed the opportunity to enter the temple. I haven’t been able to go through since I left home for the MTC. So, it’s been almost 17 months. It really is a grand privilege that we have in Utah. Everybody always told me that and I never really understood until I was kept so far away from the temple for so long. When I get home I have the goal to go at least once a week. I love you guys a lot! Keep loving your neighbors and sharing your knowledge of the gospel with them when you get the opportunity, and please take advantage of the fact that you have so many temples so close.
Open House!
So, Monday and Tuesday we worked in the temple open house showing the video at the beginning of the tour and answering questions and asking people to fill out comment cards in the reception tent. It was pretty amazing to get to see how the spirit being so strong inside the temple can touch people’s hearts and change so much for them. It’s also been interesting to see a few people who are so set in their ways and ideas that even after they’ve gone through such a great experience they don’t seem to have learned anything. I think that it comes with the mindset with which they enter. I can think of a few times that I entered the temple before my mission with the wrong kind of mindset and honestly I didn’t really feel the spirit as far as I can tell. I think it’s because I was closed off to it and couldn’t feel, but little by little I’ve been learning how to soften my own heart so that I can learn and grow by listening to the spirit.
Baptism Investigator
To be honest not much happened this week. We tried really hard to have appointments with every single person that has interest in the message and we were motivated to teach with the spirit and everything so that the people with interest could progress, but for some reason everybody had stuff come up and by the end of the week I think we ended up having less than 5 lessons and 1 or 2 were getting to know the members better. So, we didn’t get super far there.
Temple in Concepción!
This week we found some new people with interest in the message, but due to my cold (I’ve now got 13 days) it’s been a little difficult to have a lot of appointments because people don’t want to get sick and I don’t want to get them sick. It seems like I might be getting a little better though, so we should be good. 🙂 I’m excited as well as nervous for the puertas abiertas. It should be amazing, but it’s gonna be a lot of talking to people. Honestly I think it’ll end up being more than normal because I won’t have time for studies every day, and that’s gonna be a challenge for me, but it should be good. Hermana Judkins and I will be working the reception tent and the introduction tent with the videos during the 17th and the 18th as well as the 22nd through the 25th. So yesterday they gave us a tour of the temple and explained to us what we would be doing. Pretty much all of the Hermanas cried as we went through the sealing room. It was pretty trunky. :S The whole mission is getting pretty excited about this and it looks like all of the members and non members are as well. We should be getting a lot of good references as people go through and learn about the temple in the tours. I feel very blessed to get to be one of the missionaries in Concepcion sur at this time because the work is progressing a lot here in this mission. I’ve gotten to learn so much here on the mission, and one of the biggest things that I think I’ve learned is the importance of family and I know that families can be eternal. I also know that no family is perfect. We’ve all got lots to learn together.
Transfers (the last 12 weeks)
Hey Everybody! So, This week I got a cold. It kinda stinks, but oh well. The Elders gave me a blessing and some vitamin C yesterday so that I can get better. Last Tuesday at about 9:40 they called and told us the transfers, and Hermana Horton headed for Cabrero on Saturday. I’m still here in Arauco, but I’m with a new comp who’s name is Hermana Judkins. She’s from Oregon and she’s the 8th of 9 children. The younger brother is actually her twin, but she came out first. 🙂 She’s really energetic and a great missionary even though she’s only got 7 months in the mission. This transfer should be a lot of fun. Today we cleaned a little deeper and we don’t have as much time to write, but I’ll add some photos to the drive folder for you guys to see.
New Investigator
We finally found a new investigator! I’ve gotta admit that really makes me excited. I’m making a new minor goal of trying to be super excited everytime something like that happens even if it becomes a normal thing. (Ojala que si) I’m not sure if he will progress much, but we’ll work hard to see that he gets every chance he can to do just that. His name is Ruben and he’s about 60 he loves the bible and he’s a recovered Alcohol addict.
Feeling Philosophical
Every once in a while all of the missionaries in our zone get together for a couple of hours 1 day to work in 1 sector to help out the missionaries there. We call it a Zone Taco(Mission slang is weird:) This week we did that and I had an interesting experience. I was contacting some people with Hermana Anderson and inviting them to come answer some deep questions using the book of Mormon and this lady we started to say Hi, how are you? and she without thinking as she was practically running away said, “No thank you, I’m Catholic, I don’t believe in God!” It was kind of hilarious because I’m pretty sure she didn’t process what she was saying before it left her mouth. We all have those moments, but then it got me thinking and honestly I think that we all do the same thing sometimes. That is, we say stuff claiming that we believe it but we don’t actually process what we’re saying and it’s not the best to say it because often we don’t mean it or it doesn’t make any sense. I’ve been catching myself saying some things that I’ve heard other people say a billion times and I just repeat it to have something to say. Like, I know the church is true. For some people that might make sense, but for me that kind of sounds like filler words because I don’t see how the church can be true, in my eyes The Church of Jesus Christ is the kingdom of God on the Earth today. So to me it’s something real that teaches the truth. The truth would be the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I also know that the Church of Jesus Christ is the only place that has worthy men who hold the priesthood necessary to do saving ordinances like baptism. But the church is the church. The catholic church is also a church and the baptist church as well not to mention the billions of other churches, but the difference between them is that Christ leads his church not the other churches and in his church we can learn the truth. Just thought I would share my philosophical thoughts from this week. Love you all! 🙂
No More Sugar!
So, Martin changed his baptismal date to the 18th so he could have more time to prepare and it should workout nicely so we don’t have to cram so much with the lessons. He really does have a very strong testimony! It’s pretty cool to get to see how fast he learns and understands the lessons. We were teaching the plan of salvation to him the other day and he told us he had a couple of questions. I don’t remember the first one but the second question was basically why was there polygamy in the church and what’s the story behind that. So we explained that it was a commandment of god in that time and that as a church we no longer practice polygamy because God doesn’t want us to do that at this time. He was totally cool about it and was kind of like “oh.. ok. That makes sense. :)”