So… my greatest fear has come to pass and I got moved to the city. I’m now serving in Temuco (Cautin is the name of my sector inside the city). Here we have a ward that’s trying to not be downgraded to a branch because at the moment about 20-30 people are attending regularly.
Cambios were yesterday because they wanted to send the missionaries who were finishing their mission home as quickly as possible. That’s why I’m writing today.
Some fun stuff happened the last week. Friday a street dog (There are about a million of those) decided to kick some dirt at my companion and I and a large pebble like you would use for a sling shot went flying about 2 inches in front of us and smacked into the door of a business making a large whack type of sound. Luckely that’s about the dangerest thing that’s ever happened to us. Then Saturday we were eating at a members house and how that family does it is they give us the food and then go upstairs leaving us to ourselves. We were sitting there enjoying a soup they had made for us when we heard this SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK and some clanging and banging from behind the stove. The 2 of us were terrified and staring at the stove expecting a giant rat monster to emerge from behind the stove. After a couple of seconds to our surprise out emerged this cat with a small mouse in it’s mouth. The cat decided to eat the mouse underneath the table so it could enjoy lunch with us. Slightly gross but slightly hilarious. It actually reminded me of an analogy that another missionary told me about.
So there was this street cat that was pregnant and couldn’t find a place or food for her soon to be born kittens. A kind man decided to give them shelter and he continued to take care of them all after the kittens were born treating them like his own. A day arrived in which the man decided to have a party and he had invited all of his friends and the party was formal and extremely elegant and important. The cat wanted to show the man how grateful she was and help him in any way she could. So she brought a dead and bloody mouse to him setting it before his feet in the middle of this beautiful and elegant party. The man did not react how most of us probably would. He comanded that the cat be given double the portion of food and comfort. God is exactly like that man. He loves us and accepts us when we come to him. Then he gives us even more blessings for doing the best we can we the small amount of knowledge that we have. It doesn’t matter to him if we mess up or do a really messy job, what matters to him is that we try to do what we think is right.
Sunday we had commited about 6 people to come to the church and not a single one of them showed up. In fact there were even less members than normal. Me and Hna. Gourley also had to give talks. Then we were walking through the streets knocking on doors trying to find people to teach and people that I could say goodbye to and nobody was home. Then to make it even more interesting a bird pooped on my hair/face and hna. Gourley had to stand there in the street with me and pick it out of my hair using tissues for about 10 minutes. At that moment I laughed super hard and realized that I don’t care 2 hoots that my day seemed gloomy, because to me it was a good day. I knew that I had done my best and that God was pleased with me. We then continued forward and happened to find a member to say goodbye to and got to have a really good lesson with nelly. I know that Tolhuaca will continue to grow and I will too here in Cautin. #Nevergiveup