Hi, Everyone!
Another great week here in Valle
Hermoso. Nice and grey and cold. Still some sun, though; we hear that winter
gets pretty miserable here. As in: You are never, EVER dry nor warm and the
winds don’t help. Sooo, that should be good times rollin’.
It has been a tough month for the
zone. We have been running around, trying to help the hermanas, figuring out
the best way to help them help themselves. We have been having some success, as
well—Sebastian, our favorite lil’ man, brought his pareja to church! So we are
going to teach them and then marry them and then baptize them. In that order.
Also, Romina and Francisco are great. We are working hard to keep finding new
people here, as well. The demographics of Valle Hermoso are very different than
those of Talca--here there are very few Catholics; almost everyone we meet is
Evangelico of some sort, usually Pentecostal. They are very devout Christians
that are very confused and absolutely refuse to listen to anyone. People tell
us a lot that they don’t like our church because we don’t believe in Christ, we
believe in Joseph Smith and “the book he wrote,” and we can literally explain
it well, to their face, and they will still refuse to believe us. Oh, well!
Hard to say how receptive any of us would be to missionaries having grown up in
their position.
We almost painted a house this
week... but then it was cloudy, and Chileans don’t do things when its cloudy.
We went one day and worked with Pablito Diaz--that was fun. He wanted to
accompany us so badly, and he really was great. Very, very nice, little, old
man who really doesn’t cachai much but keeps on keeping on. So we had some good
teaching experiences with him.
Probably our coolest experience from
this week was teaching an Antigua we found named Mirta. We started getting to
know her and learned her husband had died suddenly about a year ago. She has
shared with missionaries for ten years or so, on and off, and has only come to
church like once. So, we went in, learned this, and figured she just had no
desires and was just buena onda. But we started asking questions and then bore
testimony of God’s plan for us and how she can be with her husband again. She
started to tear up; Elder Saenz asked her if she had ever heard that before
from the missionaries, and she said she had not, or at least she had not
understood. That was a shocker, and we continued to talk. She is stubborn and doesn’t
understand much, so it looks like we are just going to leave her for a while
until she can find some desire, but it was a neat experience and a reminder of
how we really find the needs of others and help them see how they can fill
those needs with the Gospel.
I am happy with how we are working
and excited to keep working hard this week. I am excited to keep working
diligently and with all of the corazon. With how little time we are given in
our lives to dedicate completely to the Lord, there is not a moment to waste.
We have great potential to really change people’s lives, and it all comes from doing
small and simple things with consistency. So we are going to keep working hard
and lifting the good people here in Valle Hermoso!
Have a great week!
Zach
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