I had to ask Hermana Ellis how to spell hello for the subject line. 🙂 Jaja. So, not sure what to say. After the Skype call I feel kind of wordless. It’s kind of funny cuz we didn’t have that much time, and I didn’t even tell you guys what happened in the last week but I’m still not sure what to say.
It’s All About the Love
So this week was pretty great! We decided to contact at least 50 people every single day during weekly planning on Thursday and when we left the house that day we were so motivated! We said a prayer before we left telling God that we would be doing that and asked to have some miracles. We started contacting and contacting and contacting. By the end of the day I realized 2 things. 1st thing is that I’m pretty sure it’s not possible to do 50 contacts in a day at least not the kind of contacting that we were thinking of. (We ended up getting about 20) So we lowered our goal to 30 so that we’re still pushing ourselves but not so that it’s completely unachievable. 2nd thing that I realized is that God will trust us more when we are putting forth all of our effort. As we were contacting that first day we only contacted 20 people and more than 10 of them became future investigators or references. The percentage of rejections went down a whole ton! I couldn’t believe it. I think that was the first time in my life that I smiled because of contacting. If we really put forth everything we get back a whole lot more in return. I think maybe it has to do with the fact that when I go out and don’t contact as many people as I possibly can it’s usually because I’m thinking about myself (being a little selfish) and why on Earth would God put his children in my path if I’m not ready for them to give them my full attention and truly try to help them be happy? The answer is simple, He wouldn’t. So that’s probably something I should have learned a long time ago but oh well. I know now. 🙂 Me and Hna. Ellis are working on killing it here in Chile and helping as many people as we possibly can. (It’s all about the love. Not to be weird or anything but honestly it’s true.)
12 Months!!
Dear family and friends,
So I left for the mission exactly 1 year and a day ago. It’s been an interesting experience to say the least. I’ve had tons of ups and downs and I don’t think I’ve ever grown so much or learned so much in my whole entire life. I remember having a conversation with my mom while I was deciding about coming to the mission or not and she told me that in the mission I would learn what would take me in the normal world about 10 years or so to learn in the short amount of 1 and a half years. She also said that that meant it would be super hard and stressful but that it would be worth the pain and struggle that it would take. I just want to say, my mom is a very wise woman! 🙂 Love ya Mom!
Cambios!
So we had transfers today! Also I forgot to tell you guys P-days are switching to Tuesday now so that’s when you should be hearing from me from now on. Also I will be writing you guys about Mothers Day and the video call soon. But back to business. I’m staying in Cautin with Hermana Ellis! That means 4 cambios in Cautin or in other words 6 months and 3 cambios with Hermana Ellis! I’m extremely grateful to have the opportunity to stay here with such a great companion. Especially since Maxen is getting baptised this Saturday and I did not want to miss that. We also still have Alvaro and Gerald on the way to baptism for the 19th of June. This should be a good cambio.
The Progress of a Missionary
This week we have 3 investigators that have baptismal dates.
Maxen is still aiming for the 28/4 (Hopefully I’m still here since cambios are the 24th) He came to church for the third time on Sunday. We taught him the law of chastity on Saturday and since he doesn’t speak Spanish super well we asked him to type out what he understood the law of chastity to be in Creole in google and we translated it to English. Sadly it seems that either he understood really badly or Google did not translate well. (I think and hope it’s the latter) :b We asked him 2 times with an extra explanation in between. The first time the translator said something like, We shouldn’t harm/ harmful without sexual intercourse. Then the second time it said something like We know we’re in a Godly manner when it’s cool to do bad things… (Doesn’t make a lot of sense so we’ll have to see.) We ended up teaching him again on Saturday using a video made for the youth about limits and the law of chastity and some scriptures in creole and we finished with the word of wisdom. He committed to living both laws, but we’ll be reviewing with a haitian member from another ward that speaks spanish well so he can act as translator and help make sure Maxen understands.
Mission Stuff
So we’ve got 7 new investigators this week! I’m excited to help them progress. We changed up how we use the whiteboard for planning starting a couple of weeks ago using a diagram that Hna. May drew of a staircase because we should have people on every single step. It’s been kind of cool to see the people moving up the steps. Of course we’re trying to focus on their personal needs as well not just teaching the lessons, but in order to do that we’ve been trying to always go in following the spirit. I’ve been learning a whole lot about the spirit the last week. Before I kind of thought of him as a feeling that I get when I do something good or when I testify to somebody about the truth. Then I realized that he’s actually a person. He’s one of our 4 best friends. He is so patient! I’m amazed that he still accompanies me not to mention the other people as well even though we’re kind of brainless sometimes and we don’t listen very well.
April Conference
This week we had general conference, and may I just say… That was freaking AWESOME! I apologize if I might have just lost a little bit of reverence, but I’ve never enjoyed conference like I did this time. We got to participate in the Solemn Assembly and witness Presidente Nelson call for the transfer from visiting and home teaching to ministering, and I actually took pretty good notes and didn’t fall asleep for a single second. Honestly I’ve never really taken notes during a single class in school let alone take good ones for 8 hours of people just giving talks. I received answers for all of the questions that I had and I am very excited to re-study the talks over the next 6 months to continue learning for the rest of that time.
Investigators
So, this week we thought we found the most Golden investigator ever and he didn’t come to church and hasn’t responded to our calls. Then we had another Golden investigator who came to church, but we found out that he’s living with his girlfriend because he’s in the middle of a divorce with another woman. We also found a haitian that is super cool. His name is Maxen. The last new investigator that we found this week is not very religious but she would like to learn a Little bit as well as work on her English so we started teaching her the lessons in English and she’s polite and receptive, but we don’t know if her curiosity will grow into anything greater. Hopefully it’ll be that way, but we’ll have to wait and see.
20 Years Old
So I’m officially an adult! I guess technically 18 counts but in my mind 20 is even more an adult. It’s kind of weird because now when people ask how old I am I have to say 20 and that doesn’t sound right. Jaja!
:)
I never know what to put in the subject spot… So this time you guys get a smiley face 😀 So we had cambios again and I’m staying here in Cautin with Hna. Ellis. She’s going to be my first companion that I stay with for a full 2 cambios. I’m pretty excited cuz she’s super cool and we’re going to keep working hard.