May 20, 2013

May 20, 2013

“Hello, hello, 1, 2 tree, 1, 2 tree. Wa’s cho name? Wa’s cho name?!”

That is the typical flyte Chilean greeting when they see gringo missionaries. They always say the exact same thing and somehow it never gets old. They stop, though, when they realize that you are actually willing to come over there and talk to them. Actually, they sometimes run away. Fun stuff.

So it has been an interesting week. Everyone has been super excited for cambios all week; we have really just tried to focus on keeping everyone else focused on the work--the tip was whenever thinking about any cambio stuff to instead think about how many people you were going to bring to church. The goal was three, and Elder Saenz and I were able to step it up and bring four to church, which hasn’t happened for a while. We are still having trouble meeting new people to teach, but we are going to make the changes so that we can really keep progressing.

This week, we are really looking forward to the baptism of Romina. She and her husband, Francisco, have been meeting with us for more than a month now. He is a less active member from San Pedro, and they are just great. They finally came to church again this Sunday--which was great! They almost didn’t show up--Elder Saenz and Emannuel Balcon, a joven from the ward, went by for them before. The Santa Cena was about to start and they still weren’t there, but they finally showed up right before. Sweet, sweet alivio. So she is set to go for Saturday. Felipe has permission from his dad, and Cristofer wants to baptize him, so that would be sweet, as well. Sebastian is still not married but making progress--they are going to set a date with the register civil soon—hopefully it will be set for June! And Nora is Nora. She might lose her chance to talk with missionaries pretty soon here.

But the big news of the week is that Elder Saenz is headed out. Poor guy. Real bummer. We have a great, great sector, a really fun ward, and he is sad, but excited to leave, as well. It will be a bummer to say bye to him. Also, I thought I was going to see Elder Ulibarri in the office today, but the punk was at President’s house all day, so I just left him a letter. Hopefully he gets in touch.

New comp--I will meet him tomorrow, someone new to the mission! Very excited for this chance to work and learn with someone. Hopefully we can learn a lot together and really be examples for the district. I’m very excited and have lots of ideas I want to apply.

I have been thinking a lot about conversion and the difference between conversion and testimony. Actually, I gave a talk on it yesterday, and it went pretty well. I’m feeling a lot more comfortable giving talks in Spanish these days; there are definitely a couple of phrases I can’t even remember how to say in English anymore. But then Grandpa just sent me a talk on conversion today-- neat how the Spirit really works and how the needs in the mission, which are always changing, are dealt with and directed in different ways. For example, this week we had an FHE with Pablito, our recent convert neighbor who is this little old man who just loves but doesn’t really understand much. HE wanted to give the message in his OWN FHE so we went, just us missionaries, but Elder Saenz and I decided to be more productive and bring Felipe, as well. And Pablito PERFORMED. Whipped out some 2 Nephi 31, a perfect message for Felipe, well presented, and really just helped him feel better in the gospel, helped Felipe learn more what he needs, and helped us as missionaries really see his progression and just love him even more. Great man, really led by the Spirit to give a great message. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

Hopefully everyone has a great week, is enjoying the weather up there; every once in a while just drink a little hot cocoa, or better yet, hot Ecco, if you can find it. And those Delta biscoff cookies. They sell them in Lider! Huge find--delicious with Ecco.

Anyways, have a great week!

Love,

Zach