Hey heyyyyyy! HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!!!!!!!
Our New Year's Eve, President Warne told everyone to go out and work early to take advantage of the time because we would have to go home at 6:30 that day. So the sisters left at 9:30am and the Elders at 10:00 to go work. Hermana Chapman and I went out and shared a lot of quick messages on people's doorsteps because nobody let us in. But we took out a bunch of teaching appointments, so during this week we have lots to do.
We went indoors at 6:30, studied for an hour, then we had to do our monthly planning. Then we cleaned the house. At around 9:45ish, Hermana Vera started making cookies, Hermana Cortez went upstairs to paint her nails, and Hermana Chapman and I played this game where you put a cereal box on the floor and you have to bend over and pick it up with your mouth without your knees or hands touching the floor. Then you rip off the part you bit and put it in the box. So as it gets smaller, it gets harder to pick up. It's so painful but it's tons of fun. hahaha!
At 10:00, our doorbell rang, and there was a family from the Hermanas' sector who showed up with a glass pan full of barbecued stuff, a salad, a bottle of Pepsi and a bag of bread. Hermana Cortez was so happy she started to cry. hahaha it was really cute.
So with the hour we had before bedtime, we spread a blanket on the floor to sit and eat. Then we talked about goals for the new year, and the things we learned from the last year in the mission.
I really think that the mission has helped me to find myself. It's shaped me into a better version of myself, and helped me to solidify my testimony even more. I always knew that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of Christ restored to the earth, but I didn't know how to explain why. Now I can sincerely say that I KNOW why. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not so much a belief now as it is my reality. I KNOW that Heavenly Father is real, that Christ lives, and that we can return to live with Them if we complete Their requirements while we are here in the Earth.
I'm looking forward to five months of miracles in the mish. And long into the future after my mission as well.
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This week we found some pretty cool people. There's a guy named Marcos who doesn't consider himself to be very religious, but he´s receptive! We talked about the Restoration real quick, then asked if we could go back. He told us that we absolutely could! His wife seems more religious than he is, but even so, he´s a good guy.
This week we found some pretty cool people. There's a guy named Marcos who doesn't consider himself to be very religious, but he´s receptive! We talked about the Restoration real quick, then asked if we could go back. He told us that we absolutely could! His wife seems more religious than he is, but even so, he´s a good guy.
We found another lady named Pilar. She's got four kids and a brand new baby that isn't even a month old. Hermana Chapman had the idea to go talk to her, so we did. We talked about how families can be eternal thanks to Jesus Christ and His Gospel. She liked the message, and she invited us to come back another day. Wooooo!
Also, we came across a lady named Teresa. She is VERY family-oriented, so we introduced FamilySearch.org to her and she got really excited about it! We went to her house to help her get her account started, and she clicked on the lds.org website and started looking through the different tabs. She loved the music section. We're going back to her house this week to see how she's going with her family tree, and we'll see if she looked around more on lds.org. =D
This last week, I did divisions with Hermana Vera, and we had an appointment to go visit a kid who looks a bit rough around the edges, but he´s actually REALLY receptive. We've actually visited him a couple of times, but he was never there. Just his mom and his uncle. They didn´t ever let us in, but they did tell us, "convert him! Teach him! He's a bad kid! He's A lost cause!" They were trying to tease us, but we kept going back because we felt that there was an element of truth in their jokes.
Finally, we found him in his house. And his mom and uncle as well. They let us in and we sat to start the lesson just as the uncle came into the house. He started talking about all kinds of things that had nothing to do with what we wanted to share. It was just a whole load of contradictory doctrines. I felt like it was an invitation to bible bash. He then told us that he knows that Christ lived here on earth, but He wasn't the son of God, nor did He do miracles. He also said that God doesn't exist in the first place because we have too many problems in life, and that he's perfectly happy being an atheist.
Normally when people throw things like that at us, I just ignore them, but I felt my blood started to heat up. However, I didn't raise my voice, though. Rather, I looked him in the eyes and channeled what I was feeling in that moment into a testimony. I started with, "Problems are necessary for growth. Also, Christ suffered our afflictions so that He could know EXACTLY how to help us when we suffer with the same thing. And we can use the lessons we learn from those problems as tools to help others. We can empathize with them much easier and rely on that Atonement that the Savior performed to strengthen us. I know that this is true because I´ve experienced it firsthand. I wouldn't be here dedicating 18 months of my life for a fairy tail! I'm here because I KNOW that these things that we are sharing are true, and it´s because I have received a personal witness that these things are true. Nobody can make me deny that. I have felt it. And ANYONE who is searching for an answer can find it as well." I said other things, but the first part is mainly what I remember.
The uncle just stared for a minute, then he started to apologize. He didn't interrupt us again after that.
I´m grateful for the uncle´s tangent, though, because without it, I wouldn't have had that drive to testify like I did in that moment. And for the first time, the mom took interest in what we were saying, and was all ears.
Unfortunately with how long the uncle talked, we were only able to introduce an overview of what we are going to teach, and we talked a little bit about the Book of Mormon. We invited the kid to church, and he said that he would go. His mom looked him in the eyes and said, "Go. You NEED to go." She told us that she would never go to any church, but she wanted her son to get a start there.
He didn't end up coming to church, and he didn't answer his phone. BUT, we know that he felt something. We're going to pop by his house today and see what happened.
On a last side note, now there's a new rule in the mission about the words we use in Spanish. It just started with the word "bakan" (which means "awesome"), then everyone asked about a zillion more words, so this morning a list showed up of the words that we`re not allowed to use. Frankly, it makes me feel kind of panicky because I learned Spanish here in Chile, and there are a lot of instances where I can´t differentiate between Chileno terms and regular Spanish. So here's to re-learning. O_O hahaha! It´s going to be hilarious to see this adjustment take place between the Gringo missionaries.
Hermana Chapman and I with the Parras on Christmas Eve.
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