Week 82 - December 5th, 2016

This week, we had a miracle! Rosa got baptized last Friday!!!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!! It was really cool, because her baptism date was kind of like there in the air for awhile like she really wasn't sure but we had a really good lesson with her Monday and she decided that it was time soooo she was baptized! She will get confirmed next week because we had a stake conference last Sunday. But that is the big news for this week! 

We had an activity in Viña today with all the missionaries in the 5th Region so that was fun. I got to see 2 of my old companions! And I also heard that one of my converts in Miraflores got the Melchizedek priesthood!!! They plan on getting sealed in March!!! WOOHOO! BUT that's about all that has been going on. I don't have a lot of time to write today, but I just wanted to give a small update! Have a great week! Thanks for all the support! CHAO!!

Week 79 - November 14th, 2016

We had 3 investigators go to church yesterday, Catalina was confirmed member of the church, and we had twins that are less active go to church!!! WOOHOOOO! Hahaha so this week has been really busy and really fast. 

This week is exchanges!! But I think that E. Islas and I will be together for another change. Anyway, we did a service project this past Tuesday with all the Elders from my Zone in the Laguna verde!!! So that was fun, we had a huge BBQ and we cut trees, weeds and cleaned up garbage. And it was the Birthday of my companion. Hes growing up so fast 😂 Hahaha just kidding. 

We found lots of new people to teach and we set a date for baptism yesterday with a man who is dating a temple worker!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! Hahaha thats what we need. More single temple workers that only date non members! Hahaha just kidding.......... ANYWAY, other than that I have been doing good. We played ultimate frisbee today hahaha which was fun. But that's all! Thanks for the emails and support:) CHAO!

Pictures!

We love our missionary.

Week 77 - October 31, 2016

Its been a week of finding new investigators, we have 7 new investigators!!! The trick, now, is finding them again hahaha uhhhh 😑. BUT we had three dates for baptism! We are teaching a new convert´s sister and she is willing to go to church and everything, shes just really lazy hahaha. We also found Jazmine and Karina who know basically nothing about Jesus Christ so we have been teaching and helping them, and they are very receptive they just need to go to church!!!! 😭 AHHHH! Make sure to pray for them. 

A new family moved to our sector and they are really motivated to work so we have been working with them a lot. They are a huge blessing for this ward. There are over 2000 members here and only 80 that are going to church:P Sooo I hope that it helps. 

Something that I have been studying a lot lately is Pride its basically the cause for everything that goes bad in the world: its the way Satan wants to dominate us because that's the way he went from the level of Jesus to the devil. It's the cause of contention. All the fights, grudges, etc. 

The way to stop being pride is to recognize it in ourselves first. It's really easy to see it in the people around us but its hard to admit it in ourselves. We need to be humble and trust in god. When we realize that and actively try to improve, we will find happiness even in the hardest of times. But thats what we have been doing this week! Thanks for the support and stuff haha. Have a good Halloween!! CHAO!

Week 73 - October 3, 2016

This is what I learned from the Conference: 

I really liked the talk from Elder Uchtdorf about being grateful. I cant remember exactly what he said but I related it with less active members. Because God gives us sooo much and we get upset when somebody doesn't say hi to us or with the leaders of the church. STUPID THINGS. We just need to be grateful for what we have! He has given us sooooo much. The scriptures, the Book of Mormon in particular, the church, prayer, the Holy Ghost, SOOO MUCH and all we do sometimes is complain. We get soo used to having soo many blessings that we start to forget the diamonds that we are walking on and only look at the pebbles. I loved that part. The way to be active in the church is to never stop being grateful for what you have. And I know that we will be able to find joy even when we have lots of problems. 

That was one  of the main topics for the conference: Long-suffering with joy. We had a Zone Conference and the President`s wife talked about the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is for moments and nothing more. Joy is eternal. Its the reward for being faithful in the church. So if you want happiness then do whatever you want. But if you want joy: Follow Christ. 

Even when we aren't feeling happiness or we have lots of problems, difficulties, afflictions, trails, etc., we can still find joy, and its by knowing that we have problems to progress and that we have a loving Heavenly Father that will never leave us if we don't leave him. We can only find joy through our faith in Christ and being grateful for everything he gives us. I love you!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!! CHAO-ITO!

Week 71 - September 19th, 2016

So I was writing a really long email but about 2 seconds ago the iPad I was using to write this died.

NOOOOOOO. Dang it. Soo as I was writing before. Yesterday was the Independence Day of chile so we ate a lot of BBQ. It was amazing hahaha we ate empanadas de pino (which are basically bread filled with meat, hard boiled egg, an olive, and onion), churiso (mini sausages), BBQ lamb, chicken, cow, etc. YUUUUM. It was great, but today everything is closed that's why I'm using an iPad because we received permission to use the computers of the members.

A miracle happened this week!! We were contacting some houses without luck and I was just saying how in this time of the day there is nothing to do, WHEN all of the sudden a black suburban pulled up to us and a lady said to us Hola! And we were like how are u? And she said would u like to know? Uhhhh OK. And so we went over to talk to her and she told us that she is Colombian and said that she was baptized in the church over there. She has been living in chile for about 11 years and just moved to this sector because she got separated from her husband. And she told us that she saw the church and felt the strong desire to return and that was what she was thinking when she saw us!! She lives here with her 3 kids and has a Colombian restaurant in Valparaiso. She went to church yesterday with one of her kids and we have an appointment this Tuesday! WUUUMP. Haha so I'm really happy, she has a strong testimony.

Weeeeell, that's about the most exciting thing that has happened. We had to be in the house 8 because of the holiday so we got to study a little bit longer. Something really sad happened yesterday, a recent convert died. He has been struggling with alcohol for about 2 years now and it finally took its toll. It's really sad to meet people with addictions because they aren't bad people. But that's about all that's happened!!!!!! Pray lots for us this week so that we can find more people to teach!!!! Have a great week! Chao!!!!!!!

Week 67 - August 22nd, 2016

This is the last week of the change(transfers)! It went by really fast! 

Well, these past couple of weeks have been really good. We have found a lot of good people to start teaching. Yesterday one of our investigators, Jocelyn, went to church for the first time!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! We found her about 3 weeks ago. She is the partner of a less active. Soo they aren't married but they already have 3 kids together. We did a really good lesson with her. I'm sad to say that I just understood this recently but we have been really trying to see who are the people that want to find the truth and not who are just reading and praying out of curiosity. We asked her why she has been praying and reading and she said that she was really trying to find the truth and than she said, "even if my mom doesn't want me to go I feel like I really need to go to church now." And I was like WUUUUMP there it is! 

Soo we started asking all of our investigators this and we are finally progressing with them. Yesterday, we found Gustavo again after a long time of not teaching him. HE IS EXCELENTE. Haha he has been reading the book of Mormon everyday for the past couple of weeks and is already in the middle! He also said that he really wants to go to church and everything! THAN after him we went looking for some people that we contacted in the street last week and we found Angelo. He already has the Book of Mormon, D&C, the pearl of great price and the bible from the church! He has a friend that is member and has been sharing lots of things from the church with him so he knows a lot about the church. He told us that he is catholic but he doesn't really like it, and that he really likes the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. And sooo we were like, "What is stopping you from getting baptized?" And he was like..... I smoke and my work doesn't let me go to church. The smoking part is really easy to fix, but the problem is finding time to go to church. Because even if he is reading everyday and praying, he cant progress. Make sure to pray lots for him that he will be able to go to church!! We set a baptismal date for Sept 15th so pleeeeeaaaase pray lots for him! But thats the latest news. 

OH I'm also going to start learning Portuguese I've decided. There is a new member in the Branch who is an ex-missionary and he is from Brazil sooo I'm going to practice with him. But that's about it! Today we are going to visit Jocelyn and make sushi with her and her partner. Hahaha soo that's always good. Have a great week! Thanks for all the support. CHAO!!!