Glad Tidings of Great Joy

Feels like an eternity since the last email. We passed the 18 of September without any problems or crazy experiences. It was the Tuesday before cambios, so we were able to use the time for my companion to despedirse to the members. The Monday before, we had a very nice, relaxing Pday and went fishing with a member. I can not say I was able apply the techniques I learned from my father growing up, and perhaps that is to blame for the lack of success on my part. However, a member caught one fish and my companion another! A very large trout with red spots. Not the typical rainbow trout but supposedly they have those here too. With the lack of fish catching I was able to just relax and enjoy the beautiful surroundings and reflect upon life. Had a good conversation with my companion, Elder Azeredo as well. By the way, I can skip a pretty mean rock:) I'm working backwards here I guess. On Sunday, we got a phone call from President Isom. Elder Azeredo was being moved to Puerto Var...

Elder Brighton ran out of time last week before he wrote his group letter. They took a trip to a nearby volcano. We are writing on Saturday this week because the next week is the week of the 18th of September. It is more less the equivalent of the 4th of July here except the celebrations last all week and businesses will not be open on Monday. We are even told not to do contacts on the 18th because of potential danger from intoxicated, partying Chileans. More on how it all goes next week. We finished teaching Gloria all of the required lessons before she can be baptized this week. Now she just has to continue to come to church and then will get baptized. Yesterday we (and she) found out that her husband surprised her with tickets to Santiago to visit her mother who she has not seen in over 2 years. She is so excited and I am really excited for her too. She asked us for the address of the chapel there so she could go with her mom! That is great. She is really preparing for her bap...

The month of August has passed and with it I hope the cold and rain too! That is a hope in vain, but we did have some beautiful days this week and the sun is out now. Spring is coming and lots of trees are budding out in flowers. I might have to bust out my short sleeve shirts for when I shed my jacket in the afternoons. We had a lot of opportunities to teach our investigators and also to get to know them a little better. Gloria taught me how to make sopapillas, and Raul and Ana showed us around their home and kitchen where they make sausages to sell as their source of income. We also had the chance to offer little acts of service to Moises and various hermanas in the ward with different things. The better I get to know and love these people, the more my desires to help them grow. It is such a grand opportunity to meet and serve so many people.  I try everyday to better myself and search to do what the Lord wants me to do. That is not something just for missionaries, but ra...

This week we were able to see an example of the Spirit really working with and changing someone. Hermana Alicia, the mother of Darlin, called us out of the blue asking when we were coming again and when we showed up later that night was thrilled to see us. She offered to say the first prayer and finished in tears of happiness and gratitude. She still has a lot of progress to make to start coming back to church, but the desires are there now and they have come from the Spirit and not from us. She has started to read the Book of Mormon regularly with her daughter. Hopefully this helps her to progress and have desires to baptize soon so she can enjoy the blessings of the Holy Ghost in her life. She told us she wanted to wait until she was older to make the decision and at first I thought that was okay, but the more I have thought about it I have realized there is a reason we baptize as an 8 year old, one being to have the Holy Ghost to accompany and help us throughout all of our lives. ...

On Saturday we had the chance to help one of our investigators, Moises, load up a yard of firewood in the back of his pickup and then drive over to his daughter's to unload it. It was a small act of service, but it showed him that we are really here to help him out and want the best for him. We taught him a few weeks back about keeping the sabbath day holy and told him we would do whatever it took to help him have time to assist to the chapel on Sunday. Even though he wasn't able to go yesterday, it was apparent that our sacrifice of time to help him touched him and he continues being receptive to us. This week I have been reading in 3rd Nephi when Christ comes to visit the people and spends 3 days teaching them. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the influence it has had on my life and my mission. I know the book is true and I love to study it. I am grateful for the example Jesus Christ gave us of unselfish service and love. For His sacrifice and forgiveness. For ...

Yesterday we had 3 of our investigators come to church despite the change in time and losing an hour of sleep. That was super exciting for us. That means that 2 of our investigators now have dates set for their baptisms! If everything goes smoothly, Darlin and Gloria (probably with her son Angel) will be getting baptized the beginning of September! We are so excited for them and your prayers on their behalf would be appreciated.  We had a week of almost all beautiful weather here. Hopefully that is a sign that winter is coming to a close!! We've still got a little longer to survive though. With the time change, we will have an extra hour of sunlight while we are out and about so that will be a blessing.  We got to start teaching 3 new investigators this week. Two of them live in a part of our sector that is more countrysideish and we were contacting there for the first time the other week and finally found them in their house with time to listen to us. It became clear ...

This week flew by rapidly like they always do! It was a week with its ups and downs like normal. We had a couple of lessons with our investigators Gloria and her son Angel and they went very well. She is so ready to accept this Gospel, but it seems the adversary is not ready for it. She accepted a baptismal date for the  1 of September !! Only problem is that she has not yet assisted to church  on Sunday  so it is not an official fecha yet. She had planned to come, but  Saturday  night/ Sunday  morning had to go to the doctor because of a problem with her liver and was not able to come to church. But I know that when she starts to assist that she will love it and be welcome with open arms. We had two lessons with a member present, who is actually a relative of some kind and it helped so much. It always grows my testimony to hear the experiences and testimonies of the members here. Gloria and her 11 yr old son Angel will baptize soon and I am excited for...