May 4-10‏

I LOVE THE MISSION!! I’M SO HAPPY! I CAN’T HELP BUT SMILE! I AM COUNTING MY MANY BLESSINGS THROUGH OUT THE DAY AND NOT LETTING BAD THINGS GET THE BEST OF ME. THE SPIRIT IS IN FULL ABUNDANCE!

This week we taught Cristel more about the importance of prayer and how prayers of faith brings many blessings. She smokes 20 cigarettes a day which is equal to two packs a day. I’m not an experienced smoker so don’t quote me on that.

Last week our numbers were really low and we were not having great success. We were trying to make fixed appointments with those contacts that would let us and with our investigator. One missionary taught me this tactic of making appointments in the street to use my time wisely and to pass for those contacts as soon as possible so they wouldn’t forget us, and the hope and love they felt. We have yet to master it but everyday is better. It’s so important to see and focus on the improvement of the ward, the investigators, and yourself. Our new zone leader, Elder Merrill, said that if we were doing all we could diligently, the Lord would not leave us alone. We had 2 days to find and teach 10 people. We tried our faith and fell short. We were bumbed, but our hearts were determined to just work harder and stay focused. I didn’t like those two days because I was more focused on the number and not on the souls that I wanted to help. This week our district leader, Elder Castro, promised us that if we worked hard this week we would be able to find the families and complete our goals. This week we achieved our goal! Wahooo!! The people we found are beautiful and I am honored and humbled to teach them about the restored gospel.

Gloria is a ancient investigator that immediately let us in when we knocked on her door when she saw we were missionaries. I was so grateful because I was really cold and wet from the snowy rain and the wind.

Rosa (age 83) and Maria (age 81) are good neighbors and the are just the cutest. They are catholic widows with big families and they have a love for Jesus. They loved the spirit of the hymns as my companion and I sang hymns to brighten their day. I pictured them entering the waters of baptism too even though I didn’t challenge them to be baptized yet, Elder Castro reminded me that even though they are older they don’t count for baptisms for the dead yet. Haha he is so funny.

We found the coolest less active family called Ojeda. Francisco is the father with his wife Tamara their son Gonzales (20), Pablo (18), and daughter Bania(11). Gonzalez is the boy that I contacted in the street with Hna Aguilar but this was the second time that I met him in the street and so I made an appointment with Hna Rivas. We passed by and they received us and we hit it off great. I already feel like they are another one of my favorite families here in Chile. We taught them about Lehi’s dream and they were able to evaluate themselves and were they were at in this period of their life and were they wanted to be. Gonzales attended the church with us this week and he greeted everyone with a big smile and hand shake. It was great and now we have a Family Home evening in plans.

I received my Chilean ID! I’M OFFICIALLY CHILEAN! Wahoo!

We had a great meeting with our ward mission leader ‘fill-in’ Hno. Opits and I hope he becomes perfect.

We taught Jose an ancient investigator and challenged him to be baptised and he accepted.

We found Joselyn and Fernanda and taught them. They are great and have a lot of great questions.

We had a Family home evening with the Millaquipai family with our investigators Jaime and Yessenia. The topic was the Book of Mormon and I loved how Jaime shared his feeling on the book and how it is by faith that he believes that it is true. Yessenia knew and answered all of the questions right in the game and she bore her testimony of the truthfulness of the book and how it answered all of her doubts. The members were shocked and I think they were able to evaluate their own faith and testimonies.

Sunday was great because Fernanda gave her first talk on Gratitude. Hno Humberto gave his talk on our freedom to choose and one man gave his testimony on family responsibility and the importance of Seminary.

I Love you! Have a great week!

Hermana Wade