Week 59 - Excited for Ammon!

I'M SUPER EXCITED TO HEAR WHERE MY FRIEND, AMMON, IS GOING!!!  Ammon received his mission call to serve in the Argentina Comodoro Rivadavia mission! That's at the southern tip of Argentina.  Someday soon we'll be able to communicate in Spanish.

Fog rolling in from the sea

This week seven investigators left us, so our teaching pool got really small.   That's OK though.  We found some really good people!  One couple is doing well and they are planning on getting married!

Another investigator is deciding whether he will get baptized.

One investigator has had a lot of problems.  She is really open and has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  She really wants to go to church but didn't make it this week because she wasn't feeling well.

This week I found out I really like sushi!!!  I ate it three days in a row!

Dogs are everywhere.

Week 58 - Wild cats and dogs.

This week we still were not able to teach one of our investigators.   It looks like we are going have to wait until he is ready again.  It makes me really sad.  He is such a good guy and loves the church. Others have told us he has returned to drugs.  He won't answer the phone and our appointments have fallen through.  We've been unable to talk to him.

Another investigator didn't come to church.  We hear he had family come to town.  We will see what happens.  He's already received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true but doesn't realize it.

We have a new investigator named "S."  She is a single mother of two girls.  She is a really good investigator, wants to go to church, and learn more about God.  Two months ago she started to go to an Evangelist church and began searching for spiritual things.  We'll see what happens...

Two weeks ago,  I gave "A" a priesthood blessing.   She constantly prays that her knees will get better.  In that blessing I felt the impression to tell her that through her faith her knees would be healed.  Her knees were the size of bowling balls.  I'm not sure what they would do in the states, but I suspect they would do surgery and perhaps put in new joints.  Her knees are shrinking back to normal.  She says that every day they feel better.

One day this past week we came home and found a wet spot on the floor.  It seemed like a very strange spot for a wet spot.  We thought something like the iron must have dripped.  It was just a weird water spot on the floor that we couldn't figure out how it got there.   The next day we come home and I see a cat in our house.  I stand there and the cat runs out the window.  I went into my room, and I see that my suitcase with clothes in it is wet with cat urine.  I got angry and put tape all around the window.  This particular Chilean cat didn't care though.  The next day it came in and left fur all over the tape.   The cat must have killed something in our tub because there was blood all over it.   It was a mess to clean up.  It also got into our trash.  We had a chicken bone in the trash that the cat found after spreading trash all over the room.   I'm learning to dislike pets between this cat and the wild dogs that bite and growl at us.  I guess we may need to close the window.

Week 57 - Noises in the night.

I got two packages in the mail this week!  I was surprised to see both.  Thanks!!!

The Chilean government has made it hard to divorce.  Marriage brings benefits for the children and spouse when someone dies, but since divorce is hard, couples choose to live together.  It causes a stumbling block for those wanting to enter the waters of baptism.  They must be married first.  In general couples stay together.  They just don't marry.

Today we didn't do anything fun.  After studies, I slept for three hours.  I caught up on the sleep I missed last night.  It was really nice!  However, I'll be in trouble when I try to sleep tonight.  I think I'll buy ear plugs if I can find them.  I hear my neighbors cooking with their microwave at 4:00 am. The walls are like paper.

This week we taught "G1."  He's been hard to find the last two weeks.  It's been sometime since we taught him.  We taught a lesson on repentance and he accepted the challenge to be baptized.  We missed him at church so I'm not sure what happened.

We're also teaching someone named "F."  He is following through on all our invitations.  He reads, prays, and goes to church!  He even said that he feels something different when he reads.

We also taught a guy name "G2."  He went to church this week.  We've only taught him once.   He has some really interesting ideas.

I had exchanges with Elder Savaria.  He's pretty cool.  He taught me to say straight out that I'm a representative of Jesus Christ.  It was pretty cool.

Week 56 - Transfers and shoes.

Transfers are a bit different now.  Everybody finds out who is going where before transfer day.  A lot of missionaries figured out who their companions will be.  I'm staying in Las Maravillas another transfer cycle.  We've found a lot of good people, so that's cool!

It's really hard finding investigators so usually we just end up walking a lot.  But, this week we found some!

We kept stopping by one of our investigators.  Our appointments with him kept falling through and we wondered what was going on.  It was frustrating. We saw him Sunday and walked with him.  He broke down and told us what was happening in his life.  He's run into a lot of problems -- really hard ones.  We gave him a blessing.

We've taught several others, but I don't know if they are progressing.  I'll let you know more when they progress a little further.

Argh!  I hear my home team, the Falcons, lost in typical style -- at the end.

My shoes are probably not going to make it much longer.   I hope I get my packages soon.  It usually doesn't take that long.  I think with Christmas it's just taking longer.  I look forward to a needed new pair of shoes.