Thursday, February 19, 2015

February 4 - 18, 2015

February 4th

So, as you all might know now, Elder Fernelius se fue...
Since the last time met, I didn't have time the last week, nor do I have very much time now. However...
Thursday was pretty good. We talked to our investigator with a baptismal date, only to find out that she was moving out... So that kind of killed her from our investigator list. We've been working a ton with a list that I printed out from the Ward List and Rescate so we can find more people that haven't been going to church and to use it to find more people that we can teach. So we've mainly been using that to contact.
Friday we contacted all day... Not a single lesson. We were supposed to go with the Bishop to see David's mom in Pinaflor, however the bishop didn't tell David's mom that we were coming and she got super mad at us for not letting her know. So we didn't go.
Sunday, we got with Ignacio and David and talked about a Youth camp that was going to happen Tuesday, so we could get permission from their parents to go. We talked to both of their parents, got the permission, and now they are at the camp right now!
Monday the only lesson that we had was David, he invited us to breakfast. However that was the only lesson because the night before we got sudden phone calls telling us that we had interviews with the president the following day. Those were really, really long interviews...
Tuesday, we talked to Liliana, a person that was once a member of our church but denied her baptism and took lessons of the Bible from the Jehovah's Witnesses. We're giving her the lessons again, and she has told us about her desires to be baptised again. I just need to confirm if her records are still in MLS to make sure if she needs to be baptised again or not...
Today, we went to say good bye to a missionary that goes home in less than a week. That was cool, he told us about his experiences and how much he's grown on the mission... I really hope that I can be as proud of my mission as he was.
Well, that's about it, a lot of contacting and trying to find news.

February 11th
Thursday, we finally found out that Liliana is still a member! So now all we have to do is just get her to church... We also contacted a really cool menos activa that hasn't gone to church for a while named Ivonne, let's see how she goes...

Friday a lot of contacting and divisions with Elder Jackson and Elder Soulier. Jackson came here, and we had a lot of fun. We finally got a hold of Ignacio's mom, she accepted a return appointment, so we're going to start giving her the discussions! Woot woot! 

Saturday we met a native Mapuche! His name is Fabian, and he's a menos activo. Really likes animals, has an entire pond in his backyard dedicated to just turtles. Cool guy, we're going to visit him again at the end of this week. 

Sunday we did a TON of contacting again... Vacations have been destroying our numbers...

Monday we had a full day, however a lot of people bailed out on us. Good news is, we went pizza shopping with a young man in our ward named Matias. We had a pizza competition in our ward Tuesday.

Tuesday, PIZZA! AND BACON! Bacon here is unbelievably expensive... It was about 4 mil (like 8 bucks) for a pack of bacon with 4 slices. totally worth it though!!

That's about it today. Found out that my second comp, Elder Prada is going home next month... He's going to finish his mission with only 18 months in the feild due to back problems... I'm going to miss that kid. 

Anyways, that's all folks! 

Joshua and Elder Aguero


February 18

So!
Thursday, WE HAD ROOT BEER FLOATS. It was delicious... Then we had a cita with a recent convert named Birmania, we talked about the blessings of the temple because she's going to be able to go soon! And a ton of contacts again...
Friday, we had David, who's one of our recent converts, we talked to him about enrolling in seminary, because classes here for that should start up pretty soon. We also had once (it's like a dinner, but a lot smaller because the biggest meal of the day is lunch) and we had a long discussion about the 12 tribes of Israel (something that I still can't really understand)
Saturday we talked with the Cisternas, a menos activa family that we are teaching (and they came Sunday!) that have a ton of ethuziasm (destroyed that word) to come back to church.
Sunday, CHURCH! The Cisternas, Liliana (less active), and Macarena went to church! And on the way back from Maca's house for lunch we ran into a call/delivery sushi place! Then a lot of contacting occurred...
Monday, we talked with Ignacio. he's been having some family problems recently, but we are working with him. Then we had a Family home Evening with a member, with the goal to get Hno Parra to start his home teaching visits (no one does it here...)
Yesterday, we talked with Liliana again. She loved church and the talks, we just need to keep her coming.
Other than that, this week has been full of walking and contacting. Lots of work to do, not much time to do it.

Emails from January 2015

January 15

Last week, we had a baptism, divs with our District leader, had lunch with a menos activo that has the entire bible memorized, went to church, I confirmed David into the church, destroyed a really cool pen that I bought last week during P-day, and learned how to convince a Testigo de Jehova that the Book of Mormon is true. In other words, nothing really happened last week. 

So this week, to start it all off, President came to our house! He had to talk to Elder Dawson about some medical problems that he has been having. And while he was there, he decided to do an inspection of the house... Brilliant idea! We failed, without mercy. Because it is the oldest house in the mission (about 40 or so years), it has a history of missionaries just destroying it, therefore it is probably the worst looking house on the planet. That was fun

This week we've started out our lessons really well, so far we are rocking about 10 lessons in 3 days! 

On Tuesday we got with David and showed him the hour version of the Joseph Smith movie, that turned out really well. He understood what the purpose of Joseph Smith better and why the church is true. 

Yesterday we didnt have pday, not really anyways. Because the house was old and a disaster, Pres took away our ability to do any activities. We went and bought things, then back to the house to clean.

Other than that, not much happened. 

January 21

So this week has been rather intersting... A lot of drama, but other than that a good week. 

Thursday we had a couple of lessons with David and Maca, both were great. Maca's mom has had some issues recently because of a surgery that she had. Her liver had a massive tumor on it and they took the entire thing right out. She recovered a lot quicker than everyone thought she would, so they let her go home about a week earlier than excepted, which was really nice for the family. 

Friday we went with Cata to get her endowment done! And better news yet, her mom went with her! (One of our recent reactivation). It was a really cool experience. However... EVEN BETTER NEWS TO COME! I SAW DAVID ALLEN IN THE MTC! Dude... I miss that kid. He's going to the Chile Santiago West mission (where all of the rich people live haha)

Saturday we worked our behinds off (well, my comp did). I went to the marriage of David Diaz in Nocedal while my comp stayed in the sector visiting people. I did divs with the other Elder in our sector, Elder Figueroa. It was a really cool wedding, got to see a lot of people that I knew, and arm wrestled Nicco a couple of times (yes jacob, I am practicing!)

Sunday, we had the highest assistance we have ever had since I've been here. That was pretty cool. We finally ended the week good with 20 lessons and 7 divisions.

Monday nothing much happened. We ended up doing a lot of contacting and finding people

Tuesday I gifted David a Triple with the Book of Mormon, D and C and Pearl of Great Price. I lost to David in an arm wrestle so I had to give him a freaking tie... That was great. (It was a tie from a Fardo so I really dont care about it)

Today we went to the Costanera in Provedencia. That was cool, we found a coupon for Burger King and took advantage on that. We bought so much food for so cheap... Loved it. 

I'll send photos next week, this computer has some virus issues and i dont want to risk it.

January 28

don't have time this week, but changes happened... I got a new comp, Elder Aguero from Peru! He's a very good kid, and we'll see how he turns out. So far he's pretty cool, I'll keep you updated. 

I'll get you guys updated next week, I literally have no time.