Cinco de Mayo - A Special Day

So this week was a pretty good week because... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!  WOOOO! Nancy was baptized this week.  I was able to baptise her, but the only bad part,  the font didn't have hot water, and because it's starting to get cold here,  the water was ice cold!

 

Elder Arenas, Nancy Cordero, Nate

 

 

[Nate said that her baptism date of May 5 was extra special for him because he was baptized and confirmed on May 5 twelve years before and he was also endowed on May 5 last year  (No we did not plan that, it just happened).  Now he can add baptizing someone on that same date.  He says the only thing missing is getting married on May 5 someday.  Maybe so.....]

Other than that I have had to go to the doctor a lot this week.  It has been pretty fun.  My companion has high cholesteral so we are doing a lot of tests trying to figure out how we can help him.  We went to the doctor on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday we went at 6 in the morning.  [The doctor they are seeing is the MTC doctor who is American so Nate is the official translator for these visits.  He says that it has been challenging for him to remember his English.  WHAT?? ]  Before we went the water heater broke, and we have a plugged drain in our house so water ends up filling the kitchen floor.  So we have had a very exciting week.  

Really other than that nothing too exciting has happened.  We were super happy for the baptism, and we are working hard trying to help people progres. We have quite a few people with potential so we will see what happens this change.  I didn't get changed.  I'm still in the same sector with the same companion.

But that's pretty much all for now.

Love you tons and miss you all!

Mission Birthday

¡Hola todos!  Thanks for the birthday wishes, and the support and prayers that you all give me.

 

But here we go.

So this week I learned a valuable lesson to not judge other people because there is a member here that I thought was all serious, and that he wouldn't know how to have fun, but he went with us to a family home evening, and he was the most fun out of all of us!  It was a good lesson for me to learn.

Nancy is still progressing to be baptized this Sunday, but we still have quite a bit to teach her, so we are going to have to see how well she feels about it, but I think we shouldn't have any problems so we shall wait and see.

Also this week we were able to put another investigator with a baptisimal date.  Her name is Margarita.  She is very nice, but she has a very large past.  That's what is so wonderful about the gospel!  And really we didn't have to ask her to be baptized, she asked us when she could be baptized!  Also yesterday we had a family home evening with her and a family in the ward, and it was really good, and I think that she was able to feel the spirit well.  I'm suprised every time at the end of the family home evening how the members always say something at the end that is exactly what the investigator needs to feel.

This week as well was my birthday!!!  Woo Hoo!  But to start off my day we went to the doctor... My companion has a list of problems so we went to the mission doctor to see what we could do.  The mission doctor only speaks pretty much English so I had to translate.  Let's just say at the beginning it was hard because I had forgotten how to speak English haha.  But I feel like I did a pretty good job translating things. But other than that my birthday was pretty boring.  In the mission you still have to work and do everything normal so it really wasn't a big deal.

The ward had a priesthood activity this week, and they are trying to start to try and activate more people, and also help us out more!  I was very excited for that.  Also this week in church there were 74 people!  and we had 4 investigators in church this week!!!  I was very happy for that, and can see the blessing for the work that we are trying to do here, as well as the members!  

Changes next week!!!

But I think that's all for this week!  Love you all tons and miss you lots!!!

Broken Promises

¿Entonces, donde vamos a empezar hoy día?

 

This week was pretty crazy! But it was a pretty good week too.

So this week we have been trying to get our investigators to come to church. We had 5 of them committed to go, and only 2 went... so now we had to change their baptismal dates, but Nancy is still progressing and she went to church. The only difficulty that she is having is trying to quit smoking, but other than that Nancy should be baptized the 5 of May if there aren't any other complications.

Dora and Doysi.  We committed Dora to go to church Sunday, and she told us that we could call her and wake her up, but when we called, she answered and then hung up right away, and then she turned off her phone!!! Ya so we are going to change her baptisimal date to the 25 of May.

With Luis and Fresia, we committed Luis to go, and we found 2 cars that could take him to church, and then on Sunday morning, he changed his mind.   They have a date for 25 of May if their papers come in before that date.

Then we have Andrea and Pedrito. We had to change their date for the 25 of May as well because they didn't go to church as well... why do people work so much!

So on Wednesday we had a conference with President and the office members to learn more about the "keys to baptizing a lot".   It was a really good conference and I learned a lot. We had lunch too, and they sang Happy Birthday to all the missionaries whose birthdays are this month (I was included).

Then on Thursday we had a fun experience. Let me just start off by telling you if I wasn't a missionary I would not be able to handle half of the situations that I have to deal with. So we went to visit an investigator, and he told us to pass and come on to the porch. Then as he stumbled out of his house it was obvious that he was drunk. So we sat down and talked a little when his wife left, leaving us alone with him. That is when he told us that he is having trouble with his wife, and that he wants to leave her. After talking a little bit more, he told us that he was sick of living, and that he was going to commit suicide. Then he pulled out 2 pills from his pocket and told us that he had already taken 8 of these pills and if he took these 2 more he would die. So we then asked him when he was planning on taking these pills, and he told us that as soon as we left he was going to take them. So of course now we can't leave... and the stress of the situation comes. As I said before if I wasn't a missionary I'm sure I would have freaked out, but with the help that the Lord gives we were able to face the situation calmly and try to find out what to do. So we started trying to call his kids, and his wife, (of course his wife doesn't have a cell phone). After trying all of these things, I finally ask to go to the bathroom and call President. So President asks me questions to try and figure out the situation, and tells us that we should try and find someone to come watch him (which is what we were trying to do.) After some other counsel we go and try to call more people, when his wife shows up. So my companion goes to tell her what he is trying to do and she took it like it was nothing! I was a little bit upset by that, but left running to another lesson.

We also started to try and get the members to help us more, and it is working. We had more lessons with members present, and we have a lot more lessons scheduled for this next week. I just have to bring cookies and juice and they are willing to help. That and this week we did a lot more service for the members. Overall it was a very good week.

But that's all for now. Love you and miss you tons!

Power of the Priesthood

¡Hola!

 

So not much has happened since Thursday. But here we go.

So on Wednesday we went to teach Pedro, the 9 year old. But it ended up that we couldn't teach him because his grandma suddenly got sick and had a lot of chest pain right before we got there. So they were going to take her to the doctor. We offered to do the one thing that we could do, give her a priesthood blessing. So we gave her the blessing and left, but they said we could come back on Thursday to teach Pedrito. So we went back, and his grandma asked if she could talk to us. So we went to see her, and that's when she told us what happened. She said that shortly after we had left, she felt a ton better, that the pain practically went away. Also she told us that because she is in her bed almost all day she gets a rash type thing on her legs, and so she has a nurse that comes to clean it and help her. When the nurse came to check she said that the rash was completely gone! So then the Grandma told us that the only thing she could think of was the blessing that we had given her. For me this experience was a testimony that the Power of the Priesthood is real. That the power to perform miracles is on the earth, and that we as Latter-Day Saints have this power to help other people.

Also in this very short time between letters, Nancy went to church on Sunday, and she really liked it.  I am very grateful for a sister who helped us by sitting with Nancy because I was playing the piano and my companion was passing the sacrament. But other than that nothing else crazy has happened. Sorry this letter is so short but I'm out of time haha.

I love you and miss you tons!

Service and the Temple

First, mom and dad, sorry I forgot to tell you that my p-day was changed this week to Thursday, because we went to the temple on Thursday. Hope you didn't freak out too much when I didn't write you. But oh well can't do much because I'm in Chile so....

 

Here is my letter.

¿Hola como están todos? yo decidí que es mas fácil a escribirles en español porque me mente ya siempre esta pensando en español. But I'm sure if you try and translate that with a translator it's not going to work haha.  [Actually it works pretty good]

Wow so now I have to write about basically two weeks, it's been a crazy 2 weeks let me tell you. So let's start with last week. We did a lot of service last week. It was really fun. One hermana wanted us to help her pick fruit, so we went to help her do that, and to pick the fruit pretty much we had to climb up on the roof. The roofs here in Chile are a little bit different. They are all metal instead of shingles.  Needless to say I was a little bit afraid that I was going to break her roof, but it held.

 

 

Haha a funny story that happened, I don't remember if it told you this or not, but we are teaching a little kid named Pedro. He is 9, and we are teaching his mom too, but we were teaching him the Plan of Salvation. Let me tell you this kid is ridiculously smart, but he plays way to many video games as well. But I think he was the first person that I have ever taught that understood right away the importance of Adam and Eve to eat the fruit. I almost fell out of my chair when he said "so if they never ate the fruit then they would have stayed on the earth alone forever" YES!!! That is exactly correct!!! It was so awesome, but the funny part was when we started to teach the Kingdoms of Glory(?) (I am getting more and more confused with how to say stuff in English haha) and like I said this kid first thing he asked us was "are there going to be video games in heaven?" We told him that there could be we don't know and he then said, "please! please! please!" Haha then we taught him about the Reino Telestial. His response "Sí hay Tele´s!!! Translation: "Yes they are tele´s!" Haha it was so funny.

We did more service this week too. So another sister asked us if we could help clean her roof and the gutters and stuff, because it's going to go into the rainy season here. So once again I found myself up on the roof trying to get all of the dirt out of a gutter. It's a good thing I brought gloves with me to do service (thanks dad) but it was fun.

Then of course Saturday and Sunday, GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! I can't belive that I have been another 6 months! AHH I only have 2 general conferences left! I almost have a year here in Chile!!! That's crazy, but the conference was amazing!!! I love listening to the talks, and now I realize how much they teach the lessons that we teach to our investigators. But remember the man that we went to last Sunday, we invited him the go to priesthood with us, and he came, and brought his son and a friend. It was so great!!!

Another story, in between the sessions on Saturday, we went to teach a lesson with 2 investigators, Dora and Doysi. During this lesson we didn't really plan to have a lesson with them so it was all really fast, and the spirit led everything but it was amazing. We got there and asked if they had any questions, and we answered and one thing led to another, and we ended up talking about the Book of Mormon again. But I knew to help them progress we needed to put them with a baptismal date. so we extended the invitation and they accepted to be baptized but then the date came. I had been looking at the calender trying to see how many Sundays there are and stuff, and I felt that the 5 of May is the right date. So I extended the date, and they were a little hesitant to accept the day because it is pretty close. But the other thing is that neither of these women are married, and with Dora we already had talked to her about it, and she said that her husband didn't want to get married yet. So with that in my mind I said to myself, "May 5 is the day I felt, and I know that the Lord is going to help us to try and get that date if we do our part." So we left and went back to conference with another lesson with them on Monday. We went there on Monday, and it ended up that they weren´t there, but the husband/boyfriend (because they aren't married but have kids) was there.  We ended up sharing with him, and when I started talking about how the families are important to God his face changed, and we could see that he was thinking about it. The Lord answers prayers!

So now we are in this week. So ya on Monday we didn't have our p-day, and it was an amazing day. We taught 4 lessons and found more people to teach. Then Monday night I got a call from one of the assistants saying that we are going to do intercambios. Woo! So on Tuesday one of the assistants (spies) of president, Elder Berrios came. But it was really good. We had a really good day, and I learned a lot from him. But I don't know why president wanted him to do intercambios with me. Oh well.

But the best thing of all this week. I got an early birthday present! We went to the TEMPLE today!!!! It was amazing! I wish we could go more often! But you will never guess who was in the same session as me, Elder Fernandez! My companion from the MTC! It was super fun but super weird because everything was in spanish haha!

Nate and Elder Fernandez

But that was pretty much the past 2 weeks! As of right now we have 7 investigators with a baptismal date! We are working hard and trying our best to keep helping the people here!

I love you and miss you all!

Trying to Reactivate

¡Hola todos!

 

So this week was a pretty good week. New companion, a zone activity. All kinds of fun stuff.

This week we had our schedules changed practically 40 times. First they changed when we were going to have district meeting. then the 28th there is a day here in Chile called "Youth Combatants Day" or something like that, where pretty much it gets really dangerous and there are a lot of protests and stuff. So we were going to enter the house at 7 at night instead of 10, but after 10 calls from the leaders they finally said, "just work as normal, and if you see anything dangerous go to your house." So that's what we did. It ends up that nothing happened.

Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday is Semana Santa, which is a big deal here, but the Youth Combatants Day really ended up being the 29th and this day we really had to enter the house at 7. So many plans changed haha, but during Semana Santa, they play videos about the bible the entire weekend. It was pretty interesting. During this time we saw "Jesus" walking through the streets with his cross. That was an interesting thing to see.

On Sunday we had a cool experience. We were following our plans, and we had plans to go visit some references, but it turns out that they weren't there. But by a list of circumstances I felt the impression that we should go ask a family if they knew where another less active family lived. While we were there another member came, and asked us if we could go visit her husband (he is a member as well, but has some problems), while he was home alone. So we did. We ended up sharing with him, and helped him start to make the changes necessary to return to the church.  We also found another less active woman during all of this. Making it a very unplanned way to find, and help a lot of people.

On to the stuff you want to know about my companion. He is from Cartagena, Columbia. He is 23, and has the same time here in the mission as me. He has been a member for 3 years. There is a member here in the ward that served in his ward. He works hard, and is a good elder. We have our differences, but still we work well together. It just seems like I still need to learn patience haha. But that's ok. But I think that's all for now.  

Love you and miss you all tons!

 

 

Zone Activity

 

Filling the Font with the Fire Hose!

¡Hola! Como estan esta semana?

 

So this week was kind of crazy, but it was still a really good week, and... I HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!

Victor was baptized this week! Haha funny story about the baptism. So the baptism was scheduled to be at 5 on Sunday.  My companion and I went to start trying to fill up the font at 3. Little did we know how difficult it would be. First our chapel doesn't have a font so we had to go to a different chapel to use their font. Well the drain to the font was broken so it wouldn't plug to keep the water from draining. So we ended up putting a rock in a cloth to try and plug it better. After that we discovered that this chapel doesn't have hot water. None at all. So we started filling the font with cold water at like 3:35. Ya well at about 4:20 we realized that there was no way that the font was going to be filled by 5. That's when the missionary "nothing is going to stop us" side kicked in. So we got the fire hose, and used that to fill the font. It still took some time but we finished filling the font at 4:45. The baptism went really well, and there were a lot of people that showed up. The bishop also baptized his little girl.

 

 

 Victor's Baptism by Ward Mission Leader

Victor with his girlfriend who is a member

 

 

 

Other than that we did a lot of planning and calling for the baptism to find out where we were going to have it. We have 6 other investigators with a baptismal date so we are going to see how well they progress.

Also this week we passed a lot more for the members, and from 2 families we recieved 13 references, and we are going to have Family Home Evenings with them. We were also able to meet up with some of the investigators that we weren't able to see last week.

And, today we had changes! Finally I stayed in a sector haha. I am now senior companion. My new companion is Elder Arenas. He is from Columbia. He is 23, black, and tall.  We got here to Chile at the same time, but other than that I don't know very much about my companion. I`ll let you know next week.

That's all for now. Love you and miss you all tons!!!

 

 

Nate and Elder Malerva

 

 

Lady we live behind