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.