Glad Tidings of Great Joy

This past weekend we had stake conference. So much focus was put on ministering and family history work. Another temple is going to open up soon here in Chile, so they have the stake goal for 10,000 names ready for the temple by then. The promised blessings that come with doing this work are incredible. I hope all of you are sacrificing a little time to do this, because you will be blessed because of it. One of the speakers said that we are a people of covenants and one of the covenants we make is to sacrifice, just as we see lots of examples of that in the Scriptures and the life and death of Jesus Christ. She encouraged all to sacrifice a little time for this work, then explained that we would come to realize that it is not even a sacrifice. That is how the commandments of God are. They are always there to help us and make our lives easier. When we realize that, we will enjoy and always strive to be keeping His commandments. I read a lot in Romans this week. Chapter 12 is a great...

While doing contacts yesterday, a very old lady opened up the door and after offering service, she asked us to start a fire for her in her heater. She lived there with her son, who was gone at work. While my companion worked on getting the fire going, I shared a spiritual thought with her. I asked her if she had any questions or things she wanted answers too. That is something I have started to do when the opportunity arises. I want to be able to use the scriptures to give answers, so I figure the best way is to try it out. I am not very good at it, but practice makes perfect. Anyways, she told me she wanted to know the origins of God. I did not have a very good response for that one and was not ready for that question at all. I gave her the best answer I could and shared my testimony with her. She was very very old and fragile but it was nice to get to talk to someone for just a bit and have a little conversation. We got to do a little act of service, so that was nice. We also fou...

We had some awesome experiences this week. We are working on visiting more and more less actives using a ward list and names from members, and we are already seeing a number of them start to come to church! It's a little different than baptizing someone, but it is still satisfying and super important. Mo nday night we were out in the rain looking for less actives and had two that were super receptive and we went back and visited them this week. We gave one a blessing, and invited the other to some activities of the church. One had a son that we are going to have a lesson with this week. During that time, we talked to a man I met in my first cambio and set up a time to visit him. His name is Rodrigo and he is 48 years old. He has had his struggles and challenges in life, but he desperately wants to change and came to us to help him. I'm really excited to help him take the necessary steps to make a change in his life. His baptism date is set for the  5 of May  right now, and...

As we are beginning to teach a little more, we are recognizing the Spirit more and more, and so are our investigators. We have had multiple people tell us that they can feel something different when we are there, or that we found them in just the right moment or time of their lives. One thing that is starting to happen is that people are asking us to pray for them. This is because they recognize us as representatives of Christ and the Spirit that we have. This has given me more confidence in my calling as a missionary, and in my ability to speak and understand Spanish. I still have lots to learn and improve, but I'm feeling more and more comfortable in the Spanish aspect of my mission. That being said, we just received a new invitation from our President of the mission today. That all the missionaries who have more than 6 months in the mission or already know Spanish, dedicate their hour of language study each day to learning Creole. There are many Haitians here in Chile. That ...

Happy Easter!  What a chance we had to hear from our leaders in General Conference. We received some mighty new changes and exciting announcements like a temple in Russia! I am grateful for the chance I have to serve as a missionary in this time where the Lord is moving His work along so powerfully and quickly. This week we also had Zone Conference! One thing that was stressed was talking sooner and more frequently of baptism. We have already began to apply this, and I hope to see more success and miracles as we work harder and harder. God is in the small parts of our everyday lives. Cambios was last night, and Elder Price and I are both staying here in Estanque. That means we will have the chance to continue to work with our investigators whom we have found and prepare them for baptism. I'm grateful for the chance to stay here a little longer! The weeks are flying by. We have set the goal for 3 baptisms this cambio, and we will have to work hard to accomplish this. ...