Week 22: Lluvia, Lluvia

[FYI...until I figure out how to change the address on the blog where ALL letters AND packages should be mailed, here it is:]  

Mission Chile Santiago North 

Maria Graham 312
8420164 Recoleta
Region Metropolitana Santiago
Chile

Before church

my companion, always laughing!

Lluvia, Lluvia [rain, rain]

Bienvenido a Chile!














San Cristobal [A large hill in the center of downtown Santiago with The Cristus statue at the top...I remember making this very same hike to the top when I was 16 with the youth group] 

con Hna Sandra

japonese garden

for all the hermana M's out there

hermana M really likes this photo

foto profundo

sabotaging mí foto profundo

it's the li'l details

giant pool [this LOOKS like one very similar to the one our family went to near Christmas 1979]

locks of love

Hello all! I don´t know what else to say so I will probably always say, ´HELLO ALL´. Está bien. This week was full of greatness! And I don´t have time or energy to tell all of them so I'll just talk about a few rn. (Yes Blake, I DID use ´rn´for right now). 

Did I tell y'all about Roxanna?  She's the viejita [old lady] who we found crying about a stray dog in the street, which is off, beause there are quite a few stray dogs in the street, but that's alright!  She has a big heart!  Well, we visited her yesterday to try and teach her The Plan of Salvation, but as soon as we popped up on her doorstep, she started rambling about how much she hates the dog now! HAHAH!!  She went on for quite a while about this dog and it's really causing this poor lady a lot of stress...she's not bathing, shopping, or resting from cleaning up from the doggy . In the end, I just told her that she's gotta take care of herself before she worries about the doggy! Seems like we need Sister Allred's rescue friends to take care of these stray 1,000,000 dogs so old ladies won't go bazurk here. Anways, in the end, we shared that video Mountains to Climb, which really calmed her down and opened her heart a little more.  It felt nice to help her!

Did I tell y'all about Jannet?  She was the reference that became a widow at 20 y.o. and was feeling pretty lost with her 1 y.o.  The missionaries had taught her about the Plan of Salvation and that has stuck with her for the past 20 years!  From the first contact with her last week, she was listening to Sam Smith [singer] and she said, ´I worship Sam while you all worship Joseph!'  PHHAHAAH.  For those of you who dont know, Mormons do not, DO NOT worship Joseph Smith.  But I thought it was funny.  Anways, we´re teaching her and her family now. 

Fernando and Caren...young couple, he's a police officer, and they're SWEET!  I got to know them the other day as we were teaching about the Book of Mormon, and in the end, Caren was all like (and this is serious) ´We've wanted to get baptized so many times in your church but never have!´  LOL!  I guess they didn't get around to it,  but now they are and I've got a lot of faith for them because they do too! They are super willing to find answers for themselves, which is the key, so they're set. 

Rober y Naty are progressing toward baptism. Rober was all like the classic, ´Why are there so many churches? Why do we need the Book of Mormon?´ And so we reminded him of the Restoration, and now he understands it all really well!  We'll have a Family Home Evening with him.

Yerko is the PERFECT recent convert, who we think is working on his mission papers 2  MONTHS AFTER HIS BAPTISM!!

And dear Marco. HE is AWESOME!!  We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him, and ayyyy!  He was nervous at first, but we resolved his questions.  When we got to the question of what repentance means to him, he just cried and cried, remembering the time they went to see the temple and how he choked up.  AH, I can't describe very well, but the spirit!  The spirit was so wonderful!!   HE WILL BE BAPTIZED THIS WEEK IF ALL IS WELL! And he is so happy. 

Marco and his mom

[Audio Recording transcription]:  Luisa. Oh Luisa Luisa!  She's hilarious!  It was at the end of the day and we had 30 minutes.   We've stopped by so many times before and she's never been, but finally, she was!   I had her introduce herself, and I introduced myself, and from the beginning she said, 'And I will NOT go to your church, but I like for you guys to come here.'  So we said, OKAYYY!  And immediately I said, 'And what's your reason?' She said, "Well, I'm Evangelica. (I still don't know what that means...I think it means just non-denominational or Christian...I don't know. They sing and dance, so maybe that's it.)  And I was like, 'Yeah, well, I'll go to your church if you go to my church yeah?' and my companion was lookin' at me like..''nooo', but, I don't know...this LESSON!  I've never felt like this before.  Like, she had so many doubts, she was just throwing out so many things that she didn't like about the Mormons.  Her cousin or a relative is somebody in the church like a Stake President or...I'm not sure, and she said 'I don't like how you do baptisms for the dead...it doesn't say that in the Bible', I said, "In fact, it does say that in the Bible, and we'd be happy to talk about that the next time.'  She asked, 'Where is it in the Bible?', I said, 'I believe it's in Corinthians,' and my companion said, 'It's Cor 14', and she just kept talking, talking.  She had a lot of doubts, but I didn't feel like it was fighting, because... it was very animated, I guess. Cuz she was saying her doubts, and I was responding, and then another doubt and I was responding. And I've never felt like this before....the answers just coming to me.  And she...I don't know...she was surprised.  I was thinking...'like, this is really cool! All these answers are coming and the Spanish is coming too', and so...that was a COOL experience!  To be able to answer her, but not offend in any way, not be like that, but just for it to come so quickly.  And in the end, she prayed for us, which happened to be VERY animated. And she heard about one of the previous missionaries who had broken her foot, and so we told her about that, and she prayed for that Sister that she'll be better, five times, getting louder and louder, 'please heal her, please Please, PLEASE HEAL HER'.  omygosh!  I was trying so hard to contain myself, be respectful and keep my laughing inside...it was just a very interesting experience.  And at the end she sang a little song, I felt the spirit, it's not like how we do it, but, it was great!  Anyway, it's time to go...I will talk to you all later...ciao, ciao! 

[back to her letter].  It was a little hard to get to the people this week because of the buckets and buckets of rain, but honestly,  I just love the rain!  We just sang, 'COME COME YE SAINTS NO TOIL NOR LABOR FEAR...BUT WITH JOY, WEND YOUR WAY!' etc, etc.   That's our song for the next 3 months in this weather.  

But Everyone...I love missionary work!  I love it,  I love it!!  It's hard.  It's not fun much of the time.  But it's becoming very very wonderful!  That's all I have time for... But DANCE IN THE RAIN!  And pray we don't get hit with a big earthquake.  Maybe a little one.  Because that would be cool.  Pray for help of all those getting hit with these natural disasters! 

Herman a Moon