Esperar- waiting for and hoping for

Arrived July 11, 2016

Love the family more than the crazy missionary theories and rumors in the mission. It is really entertaining for me about how much information missionaries learn and pass between themselves. Everyone loves reading talks, manuals and having gospel discussions between themselves. Some of my favorites are the institute manuals, The Continuous Atonement and CES devotionals to listen to. I just barely finished the Doctrine and Covenants with the institute gospel manual and it blew my mind what I learned. Next up is the Pearl of Great Price.

It is good to hear about the army game in the family and the fun times enjoying summer. I predict a gorilla in the future as well....

We had a great start to this week with our 4th of July party but then we got back to business. It was a kind of difficult week but we have felt really blessed.

People continue to ask what the weird things I eat are and I thought I had tasted if not all of it, then some of the worst. I was proven wrong when a less active lady made us “el equipaje” or the equipment (in English). It was all the things that somebody would not want to eat, the heart, the kidneys, liver etc. The necessary equipment within a living animal. We didn’t probe much into what we were eating, but my companion thought about tossing some of his food out the window while I ate as much as I could, but then I hid the rest of it in napkins. 

Something a little sad is how an active member keeps asking us to come by his house because he has a 7 year-old daughter about to turn 8. The general feeling of missionaries is often that anything concerning baptisms, doctrinal knowledge, service and money pertains to them. Missionaries shouldn’t be the first source of these things. Also I can’t tell you how many times people come asking us for money and tell us they have a sick family member and they are members of the church. Part of it is because we are white. I am glad people love missionaries so much. 

Wednesday we were thrown for a loop when President called all of the zone leaders and Sister Training leaders to his house at 5:30. We ended up playing basketball, ping-pong, talking and eating food the whole time. It was kind of their one-year party and that they were happy about how the mission has really turned around and improved. Elder Hola and I broke out our tennis skills and played some nearly Asian level ping-pong.  

We gave a few baptismal interview for district leaders this week and gave talks in church. We ended up only having 10 minutes for the both of us and the pianist almost skipped my talk but things went well.

Saturday we spent a full hour walking around the area to invite as many people as possible to church. Every week we get somebody different and it seems to be a first and last time for each of them. Paulino said he likes the church and will go if we get a car to take him. This is a big obstacle but we got him a ride and he came. Tonight we are planning a hamburger party and lesson with him. We are hoping his health will improve because he is in his late 70s or around there and things aren’t that great. 

At church we ended up having Paulino and then part of the Mendoza family. They are strange but always get us laughing. 

We have a new investigator Coronel Luna, the boss of some firefighters in Santiago. We contacted his house and he was very open to the message. He is kind of a miracle case and doesn’t have any problems with the word of wisdom or the law of chastity as far as we can tell for now. He was very excited in our first lesson and greatest of all he reads! Lately I have been contacting anybody I see reading a book or magazine “o lo que sea”.

In my talk, I talked about Hope. In Spanish you use the same word, esperar, to say you are waiting for and hoping for. It had me thinking about if in waiting for Christ to come if we are just sitting down or if we are developing  ourselves and others. We can have hope because (Isaiah 53:4 and 5) He not only carries our burdens and griefs but caries us as well. I love the Holland talk in April 2015 general conference about the brother catching his brother from falling down the cliff. We can have hope and I promise there is hope because with every step forward and upward we are getting closer to Him and when things get hard he wont drop us. The only times we fall are when we ourselves let go, and this only temporary. Fear not only believe, fear not only hope. Faith is hoping even when we do not see. I hope that we all have hope and are working not just waiting.

Transfers are Wednesday and we are told tonight by phone so Ill probably have a new companion and area to talk about next week. 

Pictures:

My poor old Book of Mormon that I have temporarily fixed with glue 

McDonalds with the district. Here only the upper middle class go to Mcdonalds. Its a high quality place here.

p.s.

Just got transfers and I’m staying!! I will be killing (missionary slang for being the last companion of an elder) Elder Oldroyd. On kind of a lesser note I will be in our area for a total of 4 transfers at least and that means about 5 months and lots of struggles getting new investigators, but we are happy for now :)