Week 33 - Ping pong in Salamanca

I’m still in Salamanca and I’m still with Elder Eyre!  I wasn’t transferred like I thought I would. Most everyone else was transferred.  I love the members and my converts here.   Things are starting to pick up for us, so I’m okay with it.  I had packed all my bags thinking I would be transferred, but I’m staying. I’m the oldest missionary in my zone now.

Elder Braitwait stayed in the district.  He is training an elder from Mexico.  I find it hard to understand him because he doesn’t speak the Chilean Spanish that I speak.  My district leader and his companion left from Illapel.   This made me really sad because I like them a lot!   The mission white washed most of our sector.  They have a lot of recent converts and investigators.   I’m worried the new elders won’t keep up with them because a lot of them are youth and were friends with the previous elders.  The new elders seem to be really serious and that often doesn’t mix very well with the youth.  We’ll see.   I like them though!   Elder Lopez is my district leader.  He is from Mexico and is really soft spoken, kind, and charitable to others.   I see and hear him and think of our former stake president, Robert Weiler.

We are teaching a boy named "S"  He is 10 years old.  He wants to be baptized so bad, but his parents won’t let him.  They are both members, but inactive.  We are really trying to reactivate them.  They all know the importance of being baptized, but don’t want him baptized at this time.  We are still teaching them though.  His grandmother came to church for the first time in three years!

Today we had a lesson with "B".  He is on date to be baptized.  He likes to play ping-pong.  We have been playing quite of a bit of ping pong lately because we found out if you play ping pong before a lesson, the appointment doesn’t fall through.  We asked him to invite his friends for a tournament. Ten friends showed up!  We had fun playing and taught them all.

Week 32 - Eternal marriage

So many people live together outside of marriage.  This is a stumbling block for many in accepting the gospel.  We teach that marriage is ordained of God.  God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. See The Family: A proclamation to the world.  We claim marriage can be eternal when performed by those authorized by the Lord and that our family relationships can continue beyond the grave.  There are so many blessings we receive when we follow the Lord's commandments.

We invited a contact to church this week.   We also invited another sister from the branch.  When they got there we found both were cousins!

Two recent converts I taught accepted callings in the church.  Our church has no paid ministry so teaching and church operation fall to the members.  One is a secretary working with the young women's organization.  The other is a secretary for the elder's quorum.  It is awesome seeing them progress and become involved!

Saturday we were given permission to play basketball in the Illapel community basketball championship.  This was setup by the elders there.   They asked for more players and we accepted. We played in the communal stadium.  There were five teams of five.  I played with Elder Frampton who's going to walk onto the BYU basketball team next week.  I also played with another athletic elder, Elder Miller, who will be playing BYU football.  They dominated.  Our team was rounded out with an investigator, another Chilean and myself.   Our team ended up winning!

After, we went to dinner and then played another basketball game.  This time with people we were teaching.   It was a fun game.  We let them win and then taught a lesson.

Transfers happen this week.  I may be moved to another location.  Other than the first few weeks learning some Spanish in Santiago, I've just served in Salamanca.  I feel like I might be transferred. The people of Salamanca are wonderful.  If I go, I'll miss those I'm teaching and helping. But, I'd also like to see other parts of Chile and look forward to new challenges.  I really like my companion Elder Eyre.  Either way I'll be happy and sad.  It will be interesting to see what happens.

I'm currently studying the New Testament.

Week 31 - Investigator to member!

This week investigator "J" became a new member!!!  She chose to be baptized!  We had eight elders come to her baptism.   She requested that all of us dress in white.  Normally, just the person baptizing will dress in white, but all eight of us came dressed in white.

This meant we had eight elders in our house afterwards.  It was fun.  Mattresses were piled on the floor.  The next day, they were supposed to get going by 6:00, but the time changed here by an hour.   I woke up and it was already 7:00.  The other elders were a little freaked out at first, but got to where they needed to be.

On Sunday, we called "J" before church, but she didn't answer.  We stopped by twenty minutes later and she had just woken up.  She quickly got ready and arrived just before church started.  I laid my hands on her head and by the authority of the priesthood she was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  See Acts 19:1-7.  I am happy for her.

Fried sushi is soooo good!

We taught "R" this week.  One day we noticed he was really fidgety.  When we asked why, he asked if we believed in dreams.  We said yes.  He told us that he saw us in a dream.  He said he knew we were "angels" sent to improve his life.   He told us he would do as we asked and has been reading and praying.   He came to "J's" baptism.

We've been teaching "M".  She cuts the missionaries' hair in Salamanca.  She knows all the missionaries.  She is willing to listen and reads.  She came to "J's" baptism too.

Today is a holiday in Chile.  It is called the Feast of the Assumtion.  I wasn't sure I would get an opportunity to write.

For p-day, we played basketball in Illapel with a ton of youth.  They started playing English music.  It felt like home but was weird now that I am a missionary.

Week 30 - Hedgehogs to picarones

This week we played a game called the Olympics of Illapel.   Our zone set a goal of getting 1000 points this week.  Every time we invite someone to be baptized we earn 1 point.  Every time someone accepts we earn 10 points.  We are not competing against each other but working together to reach our goal.  We are inviting everyone.   I was on Intercambios with Elder Hermosilla and he would shout out to those on the street.  He asked if they wanted to be baptized.  We left every day with a bag of pamphlets.   We ask people if they would like a gift and give them the Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet.  We teach them that Jesus gave us the example of being baptized and ask if they would like to be baptized just like Him.  Many were baptized by sprinkling water.  We explain that we believe it is important to be baptized like Jesus but many were baptized by sprinkling water and they just say no.

One of my investigators hedgehogs had babies.  They aren't very soft.  They stab you when they get scarred.  It is kind of like having a prickly hamster.

We started teaching "R".  He goes to our English class.   He was super excited to get an English Book of Mormon.  He told us he doesn’t belong to any religion because there always seems to be something wrong.  He talked about some of the crazy things he has seen.  We asked him to read the Book of Mormon but told him to not take our word for it but to pray about it and find out for himself if it was true.  He said he would definitely do it!

"J" didn’t get baptized last week but we are working with her.  She is ready to be baptized and is pretty excited.  She is strong in the gospel and wants to go to the temple.  It is really hard for people to go to the temple here because it is so far away.  She is super excited for a friend that is going to the temple soon.  Her friend is leaving on a mission.

On Thursday we ate lunch really early.  Lunch is dinner here.  We ate at a sister’s house that lives in a distant town called El Tebal.  We left and started walking to the bus stop at 12:00.  There is only one bus that leaves at 1:30 and we needed it to get home.   Long story short, we missed our bus and started the really long walk home.  We eventually received a ride.   A member called to check on us and found we were walking.  

On Saturday, a sister gave us picarones (a type of doughnut made with squash and sweet potato). They are really good.

Week 29 - A week in the mission.

Tonight I'm going to a members home to teach a family home evening lesson.  Their two sons don't want to participate but I made a deal with them.  I'm going to make pizza.  They said if I make pizza, they will listen!

One of the sisters in the branch is upset with us.  Mission rules only allow us to go inside with a person of the opposite gender if there are three of our gender present.  Since we go out as two, we need a third person present to go inside.  She fixed lunch for us and her son was present, but halfway through he decided to leave.  When he left, we had to go outside.  This upset her.

Our newest member received the priesthood!  We are fasting with another investigator who is close to baptism.  We hope she will choose to be baptized soon!

We've started teaching a man who has gone to church twice!  He is older, and many of the older people here need glasses.  Unfortunately, most don't have glasses.  They struggle or are unable to read.  I'm not sure if he will be able to study on his own.

We started teaching a family.  We taught about the restoration.  The mother read something about another church on the internet and blamed it on us.  I don't know if we will be going back.

Today for our p-day we are going to Illapel as a group we call a zone.  Several missionaries make up a zone.  We are going to grill and have an olympics.  I don't know what games we will be playing, but it should be fun.

We found a Chinese restaurant in Salamanca.  We are super excited.  It looks super sketchy but we are way excited!!!