Aventura de Chile!: Week 73

Soooooo here's the buzz from what's going down in Chile.

Two weeks ago, it rained on Sunday. Nothing unconquerable for a missionary, but it rained a lot. haha Hermana Christensen and I were marching around on the sidewalk soaking wet and singing "Called to Serve" at the top of our lungs. Our umbrellas didn't do any good because it was windy as well.

Anyways, when it rains here, the church attendance goes down. Whether it's a drizzle or a downpour. Rain = less people in church. =(

So as such, they didn't have teachers in two primary classes or in the nursery. Guess who lost that battle and went to teach nursery? This girl.

BUT the kids were impossibly adorable, so I didn't dislike it at all. Hahaha! Actually, I enjoyed it. We found two markers in the clerk's office and I just drew for the kids for two hours. It was great!

I also got bit by a stupid dog two weeks ago. It didn't break the skin though. So no shots! Wooooooo! But it was ridiculous because the lady was outside her house baby-talking her little poopsie-woopsie and telling me that he doesn't do anything, and then the dog bit my foot and ran away. And the lady went chasing after the dog and picked it up saying, "My baby!!!! Come here my precious baby!"

Lady. Your "baby" just bit my foot off. Where's my hug? =(

Anyways, aside from that, nothing out of the norm happened here. Just crazy rain.

Oh man! We had the coolest experience with an investigator named Aileem.

So the last time we went to visit her, we asked her about her experiences with the Book of Mormon and she said that she had read a little bit, but she didn't know how it could help her personally. We said, "This book can show you how to put your trust in God to overcome your challenges, it can teach you about the Savior, This book can teach you how to be a better mother..." She stopped us there and said, "Really?" and she opened it up and started flipping through the pages. She said, "Where? Can you show me?" In that moment, I had an impression come to me and extended her a challenge. I asked her to think of a question (such as, "How can I be a better mother?"), say a prayer, then enter the Book of Mormon with your question and find your answer. She was very interested in that commitment and said that she would do it for sure.

The next time we went to her house, we didn't even ask her about her commitment yet and she said, "I have been trying to help my daughter with her struggles with peer pressure and staying out of trouble, but I don't know how to help her. She's a good girl and she wants to be able to resist the peer pressure. I didn't do the scripture challenge that you left me, but can we say a prayer and do it together right now?"

Hermana Christensen and I were kind of taken aback. We were going to have to put our own challenge to the test.

And holy cow it WORKS!

Haha. Nah. I knew it works. But it was still amazing when we did the challenge with her. We found the chapter in Nephi where it tells you that the words of Christ will tell you all things that you should do, and that the Spirit can also be a huge help. And the very next verse talks about prayer. Aileem said, "So I can pray with her!" She got really excited and showed her daughter the chapter and said that they were going to pray together and read the whole chapter. Then she shared an experience of how she had always said recited prayers her whole life, but then she decided to pray like the missionaries taught her to pray, and her 5-year-old son told her, "Mom, I want to cry. What you said in your prayer was so beautiful."

She said that she wants to pray with her kids like that regularly now because it makes her feel so peaceful. Oh my goodness. It was such a short lesson, but SOOOOO cool!

We found two new investigators this week. Norma and Bruni. It's hard to say where the progress will be going with Norma because she's always working, but Bruni is retired. She lives with a few little grandkids and I swear that this lady is pure sugar. If she were to scrape her knee, she would probably bleed honey. She is SOOOO sweet. We've had two lessons with her thus far and she's reading what we leave her! Not only that, but she looked up the Bible scriptures that corresponded with the lesson, and she understood and remembered things as we taught her! We invited her to be baptized, but she told us that she has already been baptized (when she was a baby). We explained The Plan of Salvation to her and we're going to explain The Restoration in the next appointment. We invited her to church and she said that she'll come this next week because yesterday was her birthday. We called her and sang "Happy Birthday" to her and she was so happy. =)

We've had two lessons with Javier and we explained the Plan of Salvation. He didn't come to church again and since his friend moved from our street, he kind of disappeared off the face of the planet. (His phone is broken as well. I've seen it. It's smashed.)

So we're praying in the meantime that we can get ahold of him again. He's a good kid. We're going to get him an English copy of the Book of Mormon so that he can start reading it again.

In other news, Hermana Christensen's teaching skills have improved so much just in the last week. She started reading the Book of Mormon from start to finish in Spanish, and she reads out loud. So her vocabulary has expanded and her pronunciation is getting better as well. She's such a trooper. And she doesn't even care about the rain or how cold it is outside. This girl is always smiling. =D I love it.

I want to finish off with a short testimony:

I know that my Savoir lives and loves every one of us. I KNOW that my Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of His children and that there is nothing - absolutely NOTHING - that compares when you come to understand even a fraction of His love for you. I know that Joseph Smith was His prophet in these latter days and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is THE true church. The ONLY true church of God on the face of the earth. Why? Because it is the exact same church that Christ Himself established during his time on earth. And because He loves us so much, he restored His church to the earth through a living prophet. I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today. His name is Thomas S. Monson. He has the Priesthood keys that are necessary for receiving revelation for the world and guiding the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love this Gospel, I love that I can be with my family forever and I love that I have had the opportunity to serve a mission.I share these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Anyways, that's it for this week. I'll see you later.

¡Chaooooo!

-Hermana Darley