Keep Up the Prayers

So this week was really good....until Sunday. The whole week we were in houses, finding new people and doing a lot of teaching. We are really excited about some of our investigators and they’re all willing to learn and try these things out (read, pray, go to church) and they all say they like what we’ve been teaching. Several have said this is so much better and makes a lot more sense than what the Catholics do and have taught me. We were expecting upwards of 8 or so people in church. We called a lot of our investigators Saturday night to remind them about church and told some that we were going to pass by to go to church together. Saturday night was filled with parties, sickness, and accidents. A really promising investigator named Ivonne told us when we called her that she was at a party and wasn’t sure if she could make church but that she would try. We’ve been teaching her, her little sister Margarita, a cousin, Maria Jose, and her friend Karen. None of them showed up to church, but Ivonne did attend another ward in another area. We have another investigator named Blanca that we have high hopes for, we just can’t get her to church. Last week she didn’t come cuz she was too scared to leave her house, and this week, Saturday night, she got really sick and couldn’t make it Sunday. Another named Alejandra was ready and willing to go, but Saturday night, at midnight her daughter, who has downs syndrome, hit her head on a table and cut it open, so they had to go to the hospital. Her daughter is fine, but Alejandra obviously couldn’t make it to church. Another named Marcela told us she was going to come with us, but there was a misunderstanding about an appointment that we had with her, which caused her to wait all day for us Thursday even though I told her we were going to pass by on Friday. Anyways because we didn’t pass by she got offended and made plans to visit her son outside of Talca. All these people are still listening to us and enjoy our visits and are doing what we ask them, they just didn’t make it to church. We’re not too bummed but we just have to keep working with them and eventually things will work out. We did have two people in church. A friend of Alejandra, named Paulina, that we met on Wednesday came with her daughter, and another lady who’s daughter and grandkids are members came. So it was a bit of a disappointment yesterday, but we found out today that we’ll be here for another transfer, so we’ll be able to work with all these people more. Elder Mayberry is leaving but they had three baptisms yesterday so that was a cool way to end his time of 6 months here.

In answer to some of your questions, Talca is starting to be cleaned up more, but a lot of buildings are being completely torn down so there’s still a lot of rubble in the streets. Thursday and Saturday we did a big clean up service project for a family that took a while, but we helped them a lot. A huge wall of adobe bricks fell so we moved all that and all the dirt and wood. There hasn’t been anything crazy happening here. There’s still aftershocks almost everyday, but they’re almost all really soft and sometimes I don’t even feel them. It’s true that there’s been a lot of natural disasters around the world and crazy stuff happening. The crazy part is Christ says that these things are just the beginning.

Again to answer your questions, my blankets aren’t causing any more allergic reactions, but the fleas have returned haha. I’m just going to endure it until winter when they leave. I’m very excited to hear that my snuggie is on the way!! I’ve missed that blanket, and I’m sure you guys have been using it and will be missing it now haha. For now just wait on the sleeping bag, it’s really big and so I want to see if I freeze during winter before having you send it. I think I’ll be fine with a hoody, sweats, underarmour, the blankets I have, and my snuggie, but I’ll let you know.

That’s awesome that you’re the favorite of the kiddies mom, but we knew that before. Sometimes I worry if Talmage will still give me those monkey hugs that he did before the mish, but I’m sure you’ll all help him remember who I am. It’s Cadence and Addie, I think, that’ll be a little shy with me at first, hopefully not. Well sounds like you’re all doing great, we’re doing great here too, and are looking forward to more success this transfer. Keep up the prayers and pray that these people will have a desire to go to church and can receive protection from Satan, because it’s true that he exists and he works hard on these people.

I love you all tons and I’ll talk to ya next week!!

Tanner