Week #16

Hey Everyone,

Okay so this week went by so fast with having P-day Tuesday.  And this week we are having another conference as a whole mission with Elder Evens of the Seventy.  It is crazy because these type of conferences rarely happen and we are going to have two in just two weeks.  The last conference was so great and so I am really looking forward to this conference.

So this Sunday was a little hard since none of our investigators or menos activos came to church, but we were able to have some really great lessons this week.  When Elder Christensen came he talked a lot about how much the missions in Chile have changed since he was here.  Because when he was here they had a lot of baptisms, but now he says we don’t have nearly as many baptisms, but we are reactivating his converts from before.  We have been working with that a lot. Here in Chile there are a lot of members, but a lot of them are inactive.  I have loved being able to work and help others come back to church. I have realized  that for me it is just as rewarding as teaching a new convert, because we are helping them to change just as we would a new convert.  We are also working with members and recent converts more to help them become stronger in the gospel.  It is so important that we are constantly building up our testimonies.  Something that I have learned here is that if we are not working on building our testimonies, then we are loosing them. Some of the less actives here were strong members in the church, but little by little they stopped going for one reason or another.  Some stop because they are offended and others because of work or they just didn’t have time.  It can be easy to get caught up in the world and in our own little lives and stop doing those things we need to be doing to build up our testimonies, but that is how we loose them.  It doesn’t happen over just one event in church, it happens little by little.  My challenge to you this week would be to think about what thinks your are doing to build your testimonies in your lives right now and what things you could do better.  We have such a blessing to have this gospel in our lives and we need to treasure it and be constantly working on it.  I had a seminary teacher who always would say that what matters most is what direction we are facing, because if we are not building up our relationship with our Heavenly Father then we are going the wrong direction because our testimonies don’t stand still.  We have to be continually using them and building up.   

Okay so a miraclye we had this week happened this Saturday night.  We had an appointment with Belen and Jonathon, who we haven’t been able to teach for 2 weeks because they were out of town.  We went to their home and they weren’t there and so we decided to stop by the Relief Society President and share with her.  We got to talk with her and share gave us Pizza, but like actual real pizza like we have back home.  We never get that here so we were so excited.  (no the pizza is not the miracle).  Anyways it got late and we realized that it was time to leave but she was preparing one of her kids for bed so we had to wait a little bit because here in Chile everyone has gates around their house so we had to wait for her to let us out. We left with not even enough time to get home in time when we ran into Belen and Jonathon and were able to talk to them and set another appointment with them. Right as we stopped talking with them a collectivo(taxi) pulled up and we barely got home in time.  I know that the Lord is aware of us and had a hand in our whole night.  He made it so we were able to run into Belen and Jonathon and helped us get home in time.  I know that he blessed us because we were working very hard to be obedient and get home in time. 

We got to teach Belen and Jonathon yesterday and it went so well.  They are getting ready to move to Nancagua, a different part of the mission at the end of year which is a little disappointing, but they said that they have friends there who have been members for three years and just went through the temple that they have been talking with.  They both say they feel like these things are true and that this is what they want for their family.  They have so many questions and truly love hearing about the gospel.  They both still have to pray to know that this is what they should do and if these things are true but they feel really good about the things we are teaching them.  I am so excited for them!

Well I am out of time But I love you all and I will talk to you next week.

Love,

Hermana Stringham