August 2015

David Andres Espinance sent us this picture of Elder Pineyro and Joshua

August 5th

I didn't get a group email from Joshua this week. He said that he didn't have a lot of time. I thought I would share something interesting that he sent in his email to me. (At least, it's something that is important to me.)

Also! I should advise you that there is a very high chance that my trunky papers (in other words, the paper that the mission wants me to fill out letting them know which airport I want to go to and what my
plans are) will be coming in 2 weeks, just because flight tickets are starting to get super expensive. Just a heads up.

Love you mom! Tell everyone else that I miss them!

Elder Faber

David Andres Espinance sent us this picture of Joshua

August 12

 "The Encounter With the Jehovah's Witnesses"

Well, this week has been pretty interesting to say the least. It all started with a new policy that President wanted to start, and then it kind of backfired on us. Let me explain: President Cook wants us to
start creating friendships with other churches, so we have permission to assist their meetings (without wearing name tags) and talk with the members and the pastors/leaders/pope or whatever they have so we can get service, and to show that we aren't a "closed" church. So here's our story...

Thursday, we had a lesson with Juan Ossorio. We went back over the 10 commandments, and he remembered the majority of them! But then we had to chew him out because he wasn't reading the Book of Mormon. Luckily, he has been reading!

Friday we taught Claudia Feliu, a lady that Romney had found with his last comp elder Littlefield. It was a pretty cool lesson, we taught about Christs Atonement, and tried to invite her to baptism. She said
that she would, but at her own pace. However, her mom, Carolina, is an ex-Mormon Jehovah Witness (didn't deny her baptism and is still in MLS; therefore shes still technically a member). She also happens to be very active in her church, but cant seem to convince Claudia to be baptized with the Witnesses. So then we started to teach Claudia because her mom thought it would be OK for her.

BUT!

With Presidents idea in mind, when Carolina invited us to church, we decided to say "yes".

Saturday we had a lesson with Waldo, who is an 80 year old man who plays Ping Pong like a pro. We taught half of lesson 1, mainly because he stopped paying attention halfway through the lesson and tried to change the topic. Romney then had the brilliant idea of inviting him to church, and surprisingly, he accepted! We were thinking, "if this guy comes to church, hes totally getting baptized". At night we talked with Guillermo, and went over the baptismal interview questions. He passed, but there is still the issue of getting his divorce taken care of.

So, unlike the rest of Christianity (except the Adventists), the Jehovah Witnesses have their meetings on Saturday, because they deny the Godhood of Jesus Christ and think that his resurrection doesn't
change which day the Sabbath Day should be. So we met up with Carolina, and went to church(ish). It was a rather cool experience, it really does put you in the shoes of your investigators. During the
meeting they noticed that we didn't have a "Bible" or a hymn book so they gave them to us. However...

At the end of the meeting we got swarmed by Witnesses. Witnesses everywhere... It was like a sea of people that were just drowning us. "How good it is that the Mormons are finally getting to know the
truth!" and "You two will be baptized soon!" and "its good to see potential members!". Luckily, after like 15 or so minutes of people saying hi and such, it calmed down to just us and 3 of the Witnesses
"missionaries". They were really cool people! They walked us home and offered us to play soccer with them. They even offered us a tour of their equivalent of the temple. AND when we told them we didn't have anything to eat when we got home the went and bought us "once". They were super nice.

Sunday I went back to the only true church that exists on the face off the earth. It felt sooooo good being back in the chapel... We didn't get to teach too much the rest of the day tongue emoticon Mostly just walking and contacting.

Monday we ran into the missionaries that walked us home on Saturday. That was interesting! Apparently one of them was so impressed on how willing we were to go visit other churches that she as well started to investigate our church on the Internet, and told me how surprised she was that the church had such a large Welfare Program! AND SHE STARTED TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. I helped her understand a little bit of what was going on in 1 Nephi 13. Amazing how just trying to be nice works miracles? And they also gave us their sector map, with all of the times and places were all Witnesses will be at at any given time.I have no idea why they did, but they did.   At night we did a Family Home Evening with Patricia and Javier, and it turned out really well! Talked a lot about the The Family, a Proclamation to the World. 

Yesterday we found out a surprised. After Waldo beat me in Ping Pong 20-8 (that sucked...) we talked about how he felt at church and everything, and then he told us that HE WAS ACTUALLY BAPTIZED
ALREADY... The we found Karmen Gloria again and taught the Restoration. She promised us that she would go to church, so lets see how that goes. Then! Guillermo, we taught the importance of enduring to the end, and finally we finished with teaching Juan Osorio the importance of prayer.

So, that's my week! Hope you enjoy my stories, and let me know if you have any questions!

Love you all! Thanks for everything!

Elder Faber

Picture taken by Paula Morgendorffer

August 19

To start off, its been a good week smile emoticon

Thursday we taught Karmen Gloria with Javier, a kid that has been straying from the church a bit, but we convinced him to start coming out with us so we can keep him out from worldly distractions. It went
well! Javier got to share about how important Christ is in his life! Also we found a lawyer and we took him to see Guillermo about getting divorced with his last wife. This might take a bit, because the
process could either last a week or several months up to several years. So we don't know. But were working on it!

Friday we did divs all day with a kid named Nico, who's planning on going on his mission soon! grin emoticon With him we taught Claudia Huenchuman, who's less active about prayer, and he bore a really powerful testimony on how he feels while he prays.

Saturday we didn't get into any houses... But there were some really good contacts.

Sunday we were able to teach Jorge again! And then... The Farewell meeting... Elder Aguero and Prada are leaving Chile... My comps are leaving!

Monday, we went hard with contacts. We found a lady in the park named Lesli, and we had a really good Plan of Salvation lesson with her! She was pretty cool, and shes going to be going to the Capilla Abierta in 2 weeks! Then we taught Coni, who was baptized last year. We taught about prayer and learning in the church. Then, we ended the night with a really cool kid that Javier (who we did divs with) recommended to us! His name is Frabicio, and holy cow that guy is prepared... More to come!

Yesterday we taught Waldo! That was cool, Javier showed up with Frabicio, and we had a lesson between us three grin emoticon Then to finish the day we taught Juan Osorio Sr. about the temple, and we are going to set up a temple trip!!! grin emoticon

Today, we had some really good contacts, and I hope that we get a lot of fruits from our labors the next couple of days.

Love you guys!

Elder Romney and Joshua with some kids in the park.

August 26

I'm still with Romney this change! Wahoo! We've had some pretty good success together grin emoticon

Anyways, Thursday was really good. We taught Frabicio, and holy cow... That was a good lesson. We taught the Restoration, AND HE ACCEPTED THE BAPTISM INVITATION!!!! We put a date for the 4th of October grin emoticon That kid is so prepared

Friday we taught Guillermo about fasting. We step up to have a group fast before going to the temple, but unfortunately they got sick Saturday so we couldn't do a temple tour tongue emoticon But other than that, we
taught Claudia Huenchuman about the importance of the scriptures by using a trick I have in Alma grin emoticon Ill have to show you guys what it is later. And, then we taught Claudia Feliu... She is very good, but her
mother... Very, very active Jehovah's Witness, and she absolutely destroyed the lesson... Too many questions off topic can really chase the Spirit off.

Saturday we taught Juan Osorio Sr. Hes starting to go inactive... And he was just baptized too!

Sunday we taught Jorge Alvarez again. He's really cool, and he's loaded with experience. We've probably learned more from him than he has from us haha. He went over how the small and simple things that he did to change his life slowly really do make a long run (Sounds like Alma
37:6-7 don't it?). Hes good, HE JUST NEEDS TO GET BAPTIZED

Monday we did a family night with Javier, his mom, and Frabicio. That was pretty cool, Frabicio got to see how we get families together grin emoticon We talked a lot about how to better the bonds between family members.

Tuesday we taught Waldo. That was interesting. He keeps destroying me at Ping Pong... I lost to an 83 year old man 21 to 8. But we need to figure out if hes a member or not, Ill keep you updated.

Love you guys! Now I'm a district leader of 3 wards, Brisas 1 and 2, and the zone leaders. I hope I can do it!

Elder Faber

Yessenia Monja Perez sent us this picture of
Joshua and Elder Lewis