First off I can´t believe that Drew and Andrew are home, that really freaks me out hahaa but it was awesome to see you guys with them and see how awesome and happy they look. That´s great that AF did so well, but that´s too bad that once again we couldn´t take state. Bishop Brailsford actually wrote me this week, but didn´t say anything about his son, maybe he wrote me before it happened. I´m going to write him and let him know that I´ll be praying for Blake and the fam. I really feel like everything is coming to the last stretch and seeing the pics of Nate, Drew, Andrew, and hearing about AF baseball let´s me know that I´m the last one left out of our group of friends, and that I need to work as hard as I can. I hope the kids enjoy their last couple days of school and have tons of fun in the summer!
First off Elder Weston and I are tearing it up. The first couple of days with a new comp are always kind of awkward as you get used to each other, but last night we were laughing and joking and we found it funny how fast you can just love people in the mission and become friends. The people I’ve met here in Chile these past few months have become some of the people who have had the most influence on me and I know that the mission is inspired by God. There´s no other place where one can come so close to Christ, our Father in Heaven, and our brothers and sisters. I love these people, tanto los misioneros como la gente de Chile. I love Mondays too the reason being I get to hear from many people that have been so important in my life here, I get to hear from all of you, the friends, and I have felt my testimony strengthened that we are a FAMILY and that we are all fighting to get back to our Father. I´ve felt the spirit way strong while reading yours and others emails today, and all this while Kanye West rapped on the radio here in this little internet place haha. I love you all tons and hope you all know it.
The sector here is progressing so well and it´s been amazing to see God´s hand in our work this week. We continue to teach Ricardo who has progressed so fast it´s amazing to him and to us. He attended church three times before we could even teach him, but in the matter of two short weeks we´ve taught him all the lessons, he´s accepted everything, and he was actually interviewed today by Elder Dalton and passed his interview. He´s already had a lot of opposition from his family, but he says that he has to follow what his heart has been telling him while attending church and learning about the restored gospel. He´s awesome and with the help of the ward will endure. We also have another kid named Javier. We´ve been teaching him for weeks now and he had come to church once before. We´ve been trying to teach his parents or atleast talk to them to get permission to baptize their son, but we haven´t been able to. They give Javier very very little support, and he´s very timid and so he fears his parents getting mad at him for listening to us. On Thursday God gave us a little miracle in that his mom came home right as we were leaving. We stayed for another half an hour and were able to talk with her and answer a lot of her doubts that she had about our church. Some of which made us laugh. She thought that for every baptism that we got, the church would give us a ¨bonus¨ in our pay check, she was also told by her grandma that we sacrificed chickens and used the blood in our worship services, etc. Anyways it was a bunch of bull, and we just laughed it off and taught her the truth about why we were there. We ended the lesson all smiling, with permission to baptize Javier, and she ended up with three church pamphlets in her hands. He showed up to church on Sunday by himself, which was awesome cuz we tried calling him and he didn´t answer so we thought he wasn´t coming. We also are advancing really quickly with a little girl named Naiza. Her whole family is inactive and there´s very little support, but their little kids Naiza (11), Dania (8), and kenny (5) are so sweet and innocent. Every time we go over there we leave amazed at how reverent and smart those kids are. Naiza and Dania have come to church twice now, and are starting to meet the kids of primary and make friends. This was another miracle that they showed up cuz we called their uncle in the morning and he told us that they were still asleep and not coming to church. But God had other plans and we saw them in sacrament meeting. All three of these investigators, Ricardo, Naiza, and Javier, weren´t there when sacrament meeting started and we were bummed, but they all showed up within 5 minutes of each other. God is doing miracles here.
There´s another awesome family that we are teaching. They have a ton of money, are all blonde and have blue eyes, and some of their relatives are members of the church. When we go to teach them i seriously feel i am walking into the home of some gringos cuz they eat peanut butter and stuff like that. Chileans don´t eat that at all and nobody has blonde hair or blue eyes, so this is a very unique family. Their kids Josefa (14) Monserrat (11) and Benjamin (8) are all awesome. They race BMX bikes and actually went up to Viña del Mar in a national competition and took 1st place in their categories. We went over on Saturday and taught a lesson on how they could receive the spirit more in their home through praying, reading, going to church, and finally having the gift of the holy ghost through baptism. They received what we taught really well and the mom, Gabriela, asked a lot of questions. She´s reading the Book of Mormon now. We asked them if we could go over early Sunday morning and make them a gringo breakfast and then go to church together. They told us that they were probably going to go to Concepción in the morning, as a family and wouldn´t be able to attend. Later on that night we said a prayer and asked God for a miracle for that family that they could attend church with us. We said amen and called them to see if their plans had changed and they told us to come over at 8 am to make them breakfast and that they were going to church with us. I hung up and we both ran down the street jumping and yelling to the heavens haha we were so pumped. We went over and make a pretty decent breakfast if I do say so myself. Eggs with cheese cooked in, bacon, toast, yoghurt with cut up fruit, and hot chocolate. Chileans don´t eat big breakfasts so they were way full by the end. We took pics, but they’re on Elder Weston´s camera, so I’ll send them later. Anyways church was a success and the spirit was very strong cuz a kid had his farewell this week. It was another confirmation that missionary work is inspired and what God wants us to do. Hearing him speak made me think of when I began my mission, gave my farewell talk, and that whole beginning process. 20/20 hind sight vision is perfect and I feel like I have changed so much from how I was and how I feel and think about life. The gospel gives a light to our lives that nothing else can. It gives us purpose and a plan for our families. It literally provides one with EVERYTHING they need to be happy, and I know that God loves His children and for that reason he has called HIs missionaries so all may come unto His son Jesus Christ and be saved in this life and receive Eternal Life after death.
I love you all tons, hope you have a great week!!!
Tanner