Week 64--100 DAYS!

I just realized today that according to the date on my proselyting certificate thing, I have 100 days left in the mission! OH MY GOSH!!!!!!

Hashtag...

ButWhosCounting

Allons-Y

Lets-a-GO

PedalToTheMetal

Here´s to the best 100 days ever! =D

Sooooo as the title says, all of our baptismal dates fell through this week. We had four. Buuuuut not going to lose hope. We are pretty confident that we'll be able to replace two of them in a snap. But we think that our other investigator is giving us the slip, and the fourth fecha was already really weak... 

So we are not going to have a baptism this transfer, but that's okay. We're filling up our little goal paper right now so that we can leave this sector better than we found it when transfers get here. (Hermana Darrington and I are trying to predict what´s going to happen here with the transfers. She hopes she'll die here, but I don't know about that. She's got two transfers here and I'm still working on my first. hahaha)

We had Stake Conference on Saturday night and yesterday and it went pretty well. They put a lot of emphasis on Family Home Evening, paying tithing, self-reliance and battling the spiritual decay that's happening in the world right now. There were a lot of good talks. Olga wasn't able to make it to the conference because she woke up sick this morning. Blaaaah! 

But anyways, Nicolas, one of our converts, got ordained to the office of an Elder! 

WOOOOOOOOOO! Cristobal and Brian came back from vacations and Cristobal is just as strong in the Gospel as ever. He brought his book bag and pens with him so that he could study the scriptures during the trip.

So funny story, we went to the bishop´s house last night and noticed that Yamara (his wife) had two dead turtles perched on top of their TV. They were all dried out with their eyes sunken in. It was a sad sight. We asked what happened and she said that they didn't know that you have to put something in the tank to regulate the water temperature. So they died.

But they have names now. Darley and Darrington.

...You know, some missionaries have babies or at least puppies named after them. But I get named after a dead turtle. 

Ah well.

We did a mini Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening for you Gringo folk) with the Gomez family last night and her oldest son Danny came over to visit his mom for the first time since I've been here. Turns out, he auditioned for "The Voice: Chile" and he's going to be getting his callbacks in Santiago in March. We talked music for a bit, then he went and got two plastic cups and we sang a duet. (It started as a tri-harmony but Hna. Darrington lost the beat. Whoops.) XD It was SICK! And Danny´s a less-active so we´re going to make sure that he's around when we do FHE lessons with the family. We're trying to get them to the temple right now. =D

So WE got contacted by two kids right as we were leaving our house the other day, and they said that they were not part of any church, but they were preaching from the Bible and wanted to share a message with us. I think it took the guy a while to realize that we're missionaries, but the girl knew right away. She didn't say a word, but the guy started talking to us. He was polite, and we were, too. Amazingly, the conversation didn't turn into a heated attack like other people have typically thrown at us. Everything was calm. 

But anyways, the guy said that we can´t know anything except it be by the word of God that is already written in the Bible. Then he told us that the Bible is God's work, and it is all complete and perfect in the Bible. And he said that all we had to do to be saved was believe in Christ. We asked, "What about baptism?" He said that it isn't necessary because people have just taken the verses about baptism way out of context. He told us that the reality is that baptism is unnecessary because it's just a public showing that one has repented of their sins and nothing more. And that people just interpret the Bible is their own way. We said, "But other people read the Bible and their understanding is that it's essential that we be baptized, or we can't enter into the kingdom of God. It would be important to know whether that´s true or not and not just rely on one's own interpretation. But somebody can know the truth by praying. But also, we have a living prophet who can keep us on the right path and keep us from becoming confused. And if we don't know if he's a true prophet of God or not, we can just ask God directly in prayer, and He will tell us through the power of the Holy Ghost whether he is false or not. But we testify that he is a true prophet. The Spirit has confirmed it to us."

Hermana Darrington and I then shared our testimonies about the things we believe. And looking at their faces, we could see that the girl was actually listening with interest. The guy continued and said, "No. The Bible says that there are no prophets. We don´t need prophets today." I said, "Why did we need prophets back then?" He said, "Because people were really rebellious." We said, "And we're not rebellious today?" He was quiet for a moment, then started repeating what he said before. We just testified and invited him to pray and ask God whether or not what we were telling him is true. Then he pulled his phone out of his pocket and said, "We have to go. Have a good day."

That is the first time I´ve ever been contacted in my own house as a missionary. 

I know that we can find out whether something is true doctrine or not if we first study it out in our minds, then ask God about it. He won't leave us running in circles. He knows what we need. =)

So yeah. That was that.
I love you! Chaooooooo!!!!!!

-Hermana Darley

I love some of the graffiti here. This is only part of it.