This week was Great! Cautín really is progressing. After yesterday we
have 3 investigators with baptismal dates that I really think will get
baptized. Alvaro, Mariela (Hna. May helped us teach her), and Ricardo.
So Alvaro was living with Daniela (They aren’t married), but Saturday
he moved out and is living with his Grandmother in Padre Las Casas so
that he can live the law of Chastity and get baptized and he also
proposed to Daniela and they’ll be getting married in January or
February of 2019! Their son Javier who’s 8 also wants to get baptized!
We’re super excited for their family!
Then Mariela is totally golden and has been so receptive with
everything we teach her not to mention she always does the things we
invite her to do and marks things and writes down questions so she’s
ready to ask us about it when we come back. She really does want to
learn. I think she’s going to be really good at magnifying her future
callings cuz she’s really good at working hard and doing things well.
Ricardo is really trying to make some good changes in his life and
he’s working on praying and reading the scriptures every day as well
as giving up an addiction to coffee and tea. He’s already made some
great progress and says that he sees the difference.
It’s really cool to get to hear their experiences because it
strengthens my testimony. I gotta say I’m kind of sad though cuz I
think there’s a very good chance that I won’t be staying here in
Cautín to see their baptisms because I already have about 6 months
here, but we’ll have to see what God decides and I’ll make sure that I
remember that He knows best. 🙂 So we have cambios next Tuesday and
they’ll be letting us know what’s going to happen this Saturday. The
suspense always kills me in the last week! I will survive though.
I’ve realized something as I’ve been here. From what I noticed, in
Utah when people receive callings or assignments they accept them
because that’s what you do, but sometimes they do it complaining or
thinking that they aren’t qualified they don’t put in as much effort
if any. (I did the same thing a couple of times back in the day). Here
in Chile they usually accept the call then work at it and when they
realize that it’s super hard and they don’t have a lot of fruits for
their labors they ask for their release. Obviously these both are the
extreme cases but they do happen. I then realized that every single
calling that we receive in the church comes from God because he needs
us to do it, for our growth and that of others. The thing that he asks
us to do is accept the call and magnify it. If we don’t do that we
will be denying blessings to ourselves and others. As far as I know
there is no good reason to do that. Maybe in some cases there are
exceptions, I don’t really know cuz I don’t have a lot of experience
in life but I figure that in the majority of cases that is how it is.
The best that we can do is follow the Holy Ghost and do what God asks
of us and he will prepare the way.