Hey family! Yes, I did get the package. Thank you for the SOCKS más
que nada. ohhhh so good and very needed. I´m also enjoying the
dulces and the camels!
This was the week of Miracles. I don´t even know where to start.
Sunday: After church, we had a little bit of time after church and
before lunch, so we did 3 contacts and went to visit a
not-so-progressing investigator, and he really opened up to us and
asked us what we think he can do to kind of get out of this rut he´s
in. 3 contacts and a bomb lesson all before lunch! That very rarely
happens. Then after lunch, I checked the mission email, and President
King had gotten an emergency reference from another mission president.
President King forwarded me the reference and said, "Will you please
follow up on this and see if you can get in touch with this sister.
Maybe you and your companion could take the truck and go perform this
act of love." So we called the sister, got the address of where her
dad was, and off we were to Peñaflor, in the country. The old man was
stuck in bed and was physically deteriorating. He had left the
hospital a long while ago --like a year-- because they could do
nothing more for him there. So, Abraham was just laying in bed all
day every day, waiting to pass away. What a sad situation. and the
worst part, he was in denial and had not accepted his sickness. That
just made him more frustrated and impatient, even though his mind had
reverted back to the stage of a young child-- 7 years old, I think is
what his caregiver said. So we gave him a priesthood blessing by
request of his Member- daughter. We talked with the caregiver a
while, sang some hymns, and prayed with them. I don´t know if went
there for him, or his caregiver, or for us, but I was definitely
edified. I was reminded yet again of the great plan of happiness, my
gratitude for my knowledge of it was strengthened. The sister wants
the missionaries in the sector to keep passing by, too. Act of love
successfully performed.
Monday: Busy, busy office, and we only had time to go out and have a
previously planned Family night with a recent convert, Aldo, and his
family. Then we had to go back to the office to finish up-- stuff
needed for tuesday morning. But we shared the Plan of Salvation with
Elder Wharton´s little pictures, and Aldo had a good, necessary
review. We also found out that he changed jobs last week. He´s now
working as a security guard at the Area Office/ Temple! How cool is
that? On the way back to the office, we passed by Nilo´s family (the
man that died last week). They wanted us to come in so bad, but we
couldn´t because there wasn´t a man there. So we talked a little bit
with Jesica, Nilo´s daughter; Elsa, his wife; and Camila, Jesica´s
daughter. We were talking a bit, trying to help them while not being
able to go in, and there were some wonderful teaching opportunities.
Jesica told us that she had actually read from Nilo´s copy of the Book
of Mormon. "No entendí mucho, pero me sentí muy bien." What a
wonderful opportunity to let her know that those feelings were from
the Spirit, telling her that what she was reading was true. As we
left, Camila, who was sitting in the back the whole time, stood up to
come shake our hands, which in that situation was a great sign of
respect.
Back at the office while Elder Wharton was doing the stuff
he needed to do for Tuesday Morning, I starting making a hard core
Excel sheet with all the missionaries and the status of their visas
and when we need to start applying and when it expires and when they
can go get it, and if we´ve paid or not, etc. For all 180+
missionaries. The new area office (oh yeah, no hay Área Chile. Ahora
somos Sudamérica Sur) is asking for a little bit more detailed reports
with the visas, so I had to embark on this new project of recording
all this stuff. It´s a pretty amazing spreadsheet, I have to say.
I´m actually thankful I tood the Excel class at BYU. I am actually
using some of the things I learned.
Tuesday: Tuesdays and Wednesdays the Zones in the mission have their
weekly meetings. And Elder Wharton is in charge of pedidos and
delivering the mission mail/packages/ cualquier cosa to all the
missionaries. Hence, now that I´m his companion, I get to go with him
and do a little mission tour every week. Tuesday morning we went to
San Antonio on the coast! I took pictures and thought of you, Dad.
Very very hilly. But pretty neat. I talked about Tuesday on a
recording I´ll send to you.
Basically as a brief overview, we helped move some missionaries to another pension, and as we were driving
back, Elder Wharton and kind of realized together just how blessed we
are. You´d expect that the office missionaries might get out about
half the time that normal missionaries do, and so the numbers would be
about half of other missionaries. We get out in our sector qutie a
bit less than half the time as normal missionaries, but the Lord
definitely blesses us in our sector. Somehow, when we really only get
out to work when it´s dark out, we´re able to contact and find
families to teach, and have lessons, and just all around be really
blessed. So we left to go to a cita, and no one was there. We were
there for a reason, so we decided to knock the doors around it. First
few, not so good contacts.... but then there was this guy that has a
Mormon friend and has seen the Book of Mormon, believes in prayer and
that God answers prayer. And he actually told us that he believes
that if he prays about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, then
God will answer his prayer if it´s actually true. YES.
Then we
remember that there was this sister in the ward that really wanted to
go out and work with us this week, so we call her, and she´s like,
"Thursday, we´re going to work. starting at 4:00. And if you don´t
have citas, I have some friends we can visit." AWESOME. Then we were
walking home, talking about how the Lord just blesses us, and this guy
stops us and asks us where the closest chapel is, because he´s a
member and has been inactive for a few years, and wants to go back to
living the gospel. YES! So we´re like, for example, that guy. The
Lord blesses us and puts people in our path. So then we walk past
this one guy, and Elder Wharton turns around and starts talking to him
while he´s waiting for a bus. Turns out, he´s an inactive member,
too!!!!! And he´s been inactive for like 4-5 months because he doesn´t
like his Bishop (see Elder Hallstrom´s talk from last conference).
But we got his address sent it to the missionaries in the south, where
he lives. And then we got home, And that was Tuesday.
Wednesday: another pouch run. lots of office stuff, Then we were
going to another previously planned family night with the Pereira
Family, and they weren´t there. Again, the Lord directs us and knows
what´s going on. So we decide to do a few contacts before going
somewhere else. And we contact this joven named Cesar, and he told us
to come back the next day, Thursday. That´s about it for Wednesday.
Thursday: I´m going to record this one, because the day was literally
just one giant miracle. Good lunch, leave with Karim (leaving for his
mission this wednesday) and Valeria, a YSA sister in the ward. We
work with them for FIVE HOURS. they take us to some old investigators
they knew of, so we got actual useful information about the sector.
One of those old investigators, we got in and taught and shared
basically lesson 1. And Karim and Valeria just taught and testified
and used scriptures and asked questions and were simply MAQUINAS.
Then we got into Cesar´s house with his family-- AWESOME lesson, and
hopefully they come to church this Sunday. They had actually talked
to the missionaries a few months ago. The Lord made that whole lesson
possible when the plans fell through on Wednesday night. Then we went
over to Jesica, Elsa, and Camila, and Karim and Valeria just took out
the trash and it was a wonderful lesson. Day FULL of miracles. 3
lessons accompanied by memebers, 6 news.
Friday: again lots and lots of office stuff, people to go get their
visas, some complications, going to gov´t agency buildings for other
reasons, etc. We didn´t even get out into the sector.
and here we are, today, Saturday.
I stand all amazed at the love the Lord offers each one of us, and I
stand all amazed at the loving and merciful hand of the Lord here in
Maipú in His work.
Until next week,
Elder Cole Moffat
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