I was surprised to hear that you guys already got my package haha i was worried that it would never get there. I did receive my package, but the Chileans went through it cuz all the wrapping paper was ripped, but don´t worry i made sure not to look and I put the presents back in the box. Nothing was stolen, i think it was just to see what was inside. I´m super excited, but we´re still waiting on Elder Balkman´s presents. I assume that they´ll be here this week, cuz we´re going to have a conference this wednesday in Talca.
As for baptisms, we don´t count numbers, we call them by their names so here they are: Escarlet, Patricia, Maria Isabel, Estrella, Ivonne, Alejandra, Gustavo, Kiara, Fernanda, Camilo, Sebastian, Carmen, David, José, Christian, and Jorge. That´s 16 in all to give you a number :)
As a district leader I have to make sure that the missionaries in Lontue, Molina, and Rauquen are all okay, I have to interview their investigators that are being prepared for baptism, and I teach a class every tuesday with the other missionaries. That´s about it haha.
Elder Balkman and I are working really well together so yeah we were really happy to have one more transfer together. We´ve made so many sacrifices and have felt that we´ve worked really hard. We´ve definitely seen a lot of opposition with our investigators, but we feel that is just a testimony knowing that Satan is not happy with our work right now. We had a lot of success this week, and this month looks like it´s goin to be a good one. We´ll give a few gifts to Christ this year!!
I got to do my first interview this week, and it was a very spiritual experience. It was with a sister that i was able to teach a few times doing mini transfers (i don´t know how to call that in english) they´re called mini cambios here. She´s a lady that has had to pass through so many trials to be able to be baptized, and sadly she passed through another one on Sunday, but i´ll tell about that later. She told me that she´s been having a lot of dreams ever since the Elders began teaching her, and they´re really cool so i´ll tell about them. First off a few years ago she made a deal with her cousin that if one of them died, then the other would have to come and search for the other, so they could go together. Her cousin was baptized in the church and 3 months later died. Two weeks later Angelica had a dream where her cousin told her that she was sent to look for her, and that whatever she needed to do she should do it quickly. She obviously woke up scared. She later had another dream where she saw a river with a bridge over it. On the other side was her cousin, she called out to her and told her to hurry and finish her work cuz on the 5th of December at 5:00pm she was coming to bring her to the other side. When she tried to cross the bridge, an angel appeared telling her his name was Thomas Smith, and that he had sent his sons to her home to teach her how to cross the bridge. When she tried to cross he told her that she needed to bathe herself in the river first and then she could cross, but that his sons would lead her to the river. She later dreamed and saw Thomas Smith again. He pointed to his right and indicated to 7 different missionaries saying these are my guardians that i have sent to teach you how to cross the bridge. All the Elders she saw were every Elder that had entered into her home to teach her. She said I was there too. We talked a lot and throughout the interview I felt the spirit very strongly, especially cuz she said she didn´t want to be baptized because of a dream, but because she knew it was true and she wants to obey the Lord. Now for the bad part of the story...
We had the baptism planned for yesterday, and she had asked me if i could baptize her. I was obviously excited and ready to go to Lontue to baptize her after church when the Elders there called me and said they couldn´t find her, and couldn´t get a hold of her. They passed by her house because a member had called them and told them that her family had recently gotten home. When they knocked on the door the husband, who is abusive and just a bum, told them that she had gone to Curicó, but they think he was lying, but we´ll see, they´re going over today to see her. So many I´ll have a baptism next week in another sector.
This week we worked sooo hard with those who had baptismal dates to help them come to church and continue progressing. On Sunday we were greatly rewarded for our work and fasting. We had 6 people in church, and all of them have baptismal dates for this month. We could easily have 6 or more baptisms this transfer together!!! Pray for Roxana, Paulina, and Claudia that they may be able to forget about their traditions and just follow the answer that they already have to be baptized. Also Camilo´s brother, Nicolas, came to us and told us that he wants to be be baptized, he also has a date for the 19th. Pray for Manuel that he won´t have to work, so he´ll be able to attend church on Sundays, and for Luis that he may stop smoking. We have several other people, but these are our most promising for this month!!
Today we went to Teno to play soccer in a stadium. it was way fun, but we all realized that after not running for months it was a lot to ask our bodies to be running for 2 hours straight, i´m going to have to excercise a ton when i get back, and use Aunt Julie´s treadmill haha, oh speaking of the Morrill´s will you tell them thanks so much for the T-shirt that they sent, that was soo cool and nice of them.
I´m having the time of my life here, and it´s just awesome feeling the spirit testify of my words, even if the people i teach don´t accept this message, i leave with the satisfaction knowing that it´s true, but there really is true joy seeing people make changes in their lives and see the blessings come, it´s just evidence that this is the gospel of Jesus Christ and we´re loving it!!
love you all tons and thanks for all your support, i´ll make sure that if we´re starving, i´ll spend all your money haha
tons of love
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