Last Visa Renewal

A great week! It’s really hot here in Santiago but I am loving it! This week has been a good one and with lots of cool experiences to share!!

To start, last Thursday, I had to go to the downtown area to renew my Visa for the second and LAST TIME here in Chile! It was the worst. 6 hours of waiting in line...... Such a long day. We got up at 6 to head to downtown and from there we had to go to Migracions and then to a police check in thing that took 6 hours of waiting outside in the sun! but as always, I got to meet some cool people. A Venezuelan man that wants to learn English, and many other cool people that have migrated to Chile for work!

On Friday, I had divisions with the other zone leaders in my sector and I left to go to their sector for the day and it was really cool! Learned a lot of good things and we were able to play soccer for their activity with their ward!

On Friday, we also had a transmission from the Area which incorporates Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The area authority talked about the importance of the Temple, Sharing the Gospel, and observing the Sabbath Day and invited everyone to put goals down! Really cool transmission

Saturday, we had a cool transmission with our stake leaders and we talked about upcoming ward events, missionary work with members, and other missionary events coming up.

On Monday, we had missionary divisions again with the Assistants and it was great! I stayed and we talked with some new people and one guy in particular whose name is Eduardo. He had told us that he had spoken with Missionaries and had even come to church for 6 months but never got baptized! He was really good friends with the missionaries and then after they had left, he stopped going to church. We got to talking with him and we set up a return lesson. He was a really cool guy and we had a great conversation about religion and life!

This week, in my personal studies I have been studying about the importance of the plan of salvation. I’m trying to complete the invitation that Elder Christofferson gave us which was to write a one page summary of it! As I read a lot and studied, I would like to share some of my personal feeling and thoughts on it. The cool thing about this plan is that it gives us more knowledge about what happens after this life as well as what happens before and what we should do during this life! Thanks to modern day revelation of prophets and apostles as well as The Bible and the Book of Mormon we know more specifics as to the things that will happen and that already have occurred. We came here to be able to return to live with him and by living the principles that Christ taught us, we can do just that (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy ghost, enduring to the end) The happiness that God wants us to have eternally can be attained through that! Completing his will here on earth and through righteous living allows us to have that. That’s why righteousness and obedience to the Gospel are so important because it’s just that that allows us to be with 

him. 

My favorite mate

Soccer, Haitians, and Yummy Food

Ok so this has been a great week! We saw some miracles and we were able to have lots of wins!

Last week we had some challenges in the work. It seemed that we couldn’t get anything to go our way. Almost all of our set lessons that we had with people fell through, nobody came to church on Sunday. At the end of the week, we were a little beat up. 

However, on Monday, we had a great day. I was with Elder Leles, a Brazilian, on divisions in my sector. We had a lesson with a man by the name of Renee Jonas. we shared lesson one and we were able to draw out on a paper the different parts of the lesson and really try to help him understand it and he did! He speaks good Spanish and is a Hattian that had lived in the Dominican! He even wants to be baptized!

Afterwards we had a Family Home Evening with the Bishop and a part member family (Enrique is the dad and is a member, and Fernanda is his girlfriend who came to church before) We shared a short lesson, watched a video, and then played some games with the family. It was really good having them over and having the two families build a relationship together.

The following day, we had a great day as well. We taught a mom and son that had come to a church activity before and we were able to have a good lesson and invite them to the church! The son recently had a major surgery after falling out of a building! It’s a miracle the guy is alive.

Then, later we had lesson with Sadrac, who is a Hattian that is cousins with our recent convert who was recently baptized! We had a good lesson and he is really looking forward to his baptism. He has a little over 1 month in Chile and is still learning Spanish, but he can speak a little bit of English with us which is nice!

Today, we played soccer and it was fun but really tiring in the sun! It’s still really hot here in Chile!

I am really happy and grateful for the opportunity that I have had to be a missionary. It really is neat to help people and to be a servant of the Lord. I know that this is his church and that there really does exist a church that is true. Many have that doubt amongst a world of many denominations but I have had some time to really think, study and pray on this and I know it to be true. This really is the Church of Jesus Christ.

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A drug dealer, a Lamborghini and Elder Halverson

Wow, I am really looking forward to writing this week as to tell about the great things that happened. This past week was a week that really stood out to me! I think about how impactful it really was! Last week, we had some great lessons that really stood out! 

The first with a lady by the name of Mari.She is the lady that works for the UN in Haiti but moved to Chile and she speaks perfect English! So, we taught her the plan of salvation and everything seemed to click. as we talked about a life before, Adam and Eve, and our purpose here on earth! She really felt the spirit and was impacted by it a lot! She even accepted a baptismal date and really wants to work towards it.

We also had a lesson on Saturday with Alfonso who has a planned baptism for the 25th. He now doesn’t have as many doubts and is learning a lot and has sincere desires to change and become better! 

On Saturday, Elder Scott and I ran into a Black Lamborghini parked outside a paint shop which is very rare to find here in the south Santiago area.....Perplexed, we walked up to it and proceeded to talk to the guy about his car. (we think he is a rich drug dealer) We started talking and stuff, and he let us get in! So I got in the car put my hands on the wheel and had Scott do a photo shoot of me with our brick phone. LOL. These guys got a kick out of two American Missionaries taking pics of his car with a flip phone. hahaha. It was really funny! 

Last Thursday, we had a lesson with a member reference of a guy named Michael! He has a date and is a really nice guy!

Ok on Wednesday, we had a Mission reunion with the Rancagua Mission and I got to see Elder Halverson! Best Valentines present ever! :) I hugged him and felt right to the bones! He is skinny and is doing great! Such a cool mission moment meeting back up with him! We only had a little time but we talked a little and caught up.

Seeing and hearing Elder Christofferson was great. He is an Apostle of God! He spoke with power and his insights were great! He shared about grace and repentance and about how baptism is the final step of repentance! It was powerful.! It really got to me!