If you could send my happy birthday wishes to Grandma Davis, Chelsea and Emma, that´d be great! And also thank Sis. Val Dawson for the ward monthly updates. I mailed letters on Friday, so you should get them in about 3 weeks. A letter I got this week was postmarked in Illinois on Oct. 18, then Postmarked in Maipu, Chile on Oct 29, and I got it on Nov 8.--exactly 3 weeks after it was sent.
I wish i could have heard IMEA Hayden!!!! Ohhh I can´t wait to hear a recording when I get back. And Spencer, looks like you´ll be busy with 35 basketball games in 3 months. phew! Luke I´m happy you´re working hard in Soccer and BBall now! Sounds like the normal, busy busy busy life of the Moffat Family. Feed My Starving Children will be good as well.
Highlights of the week: I gave someone a Libro de Mormon, and had written my testimony in it and marked a few scriptures. It´s interesting why people stop going to church here. It´s almost a better excuse to say you´re lazy than some of the reasons I've gotten. example: "The missionaries were taking me to church on their bikes when I was little and had just been baptized, and one day they left church without me, so I had to walk home. So I´ll never go to church again." ...So... the church isn´t true because 2 20-year-old gringos made a mistake once... and yet you still believe in repentance. hmm. interesting. Stuff like that.
Other highlights: Capacitacion Especial y Greenie Meeting. Thursday and Friday we went to Maipú and had these trainings. It was cool to talk to my group from the MTC and see everyone and how their doing. I also realized that I want my Spanish to be a LOT better than it is right now. But on Sunday when I was having my own conversations with members, I could speak and understand well, and one person even was like, "your Spanish is not bad at all. I can understand everything you´re saying." yes. :) But anyway, at the meetings in Maipú we were well instructed in how to be a missionary, the Doctrine of Christ, and how to improve our weaknesses. Elder Holland is always a BOSS, and we watched a video of an MTC devotional he gave this past January. If that doesn´t pump you up, nothing will. Also 2 Nephi 31 is really awesome, especially if you just take it verse by verse, and analyze what it´s really saying. ohhh so good.
We also saw more miracles this week. The Miracle from a few weeks ago is still a miracle, but that guy is still not ready. We haven´t been able to go back, and we see him on the street sometimes, drunk as a skunk with his friends. oh well. But this week´s miracle seems really really legit. "R" requested a DVD a while ago, but When E. Fuhriman tried to drop it off, they were never home--all 5 times. But we were stopped in the street, and he´s like, "why did you never give me the DVD?" and we said, we tried-- can we come by tomorrow? sure! yessss. We went by, had a legitttt conversation. He had been baptized, only having read 3 pages in the LdM. Then he went inactive and partied and all that good stuff. But then recently, he decided to read it cover to cover, and he was like, this book is amazing. It´s incredible. There´s no other book that I´ve read that has been so inspiring. (Buenaaa!). He´s struggling at the moment, and knows what he´s doing is bad. He had been studdying with other religions, and they were like, oh, it´s not that bad, you can still be baptized in our church and it´ll be fine... he told us he knew that none of them were right, because he read the Bible enough to know that any church that justifies and excuses his rather large sins as not that bad could NOT be the church of Christ. He went through some questions he had, and liked our doctrinally and biblically based answers (Holy Ghost, Gifts of the Spirit, who can forgive people of sins and who can´t, post life where we go, etc.). He wants to increase his faith, and he wants to know how he can. Seriously, the fact that he stopped US on the street and is asking to learn more is a Miracle, especially here. How. He seems like a really nice guy.
A few more things. O. Z. house got tagged - we think by some members of the church, too. They walked outside and saw spray paint all over their fence/wall/sidewalk some pretty bad things. I don´t understand why people would do that. Honestly. O has done absolutely nothing besides helping people come unto christ, helping people recieve forgiveness from God, or at least tried. After all, it is up to the person to do their part. But O has just tried to help people. And then his house gets tagged with terribly false accusations, the devil´s number, all that. I can´t really see that happening in the states, even to a Bishop on the south side. maybe, but not really. Especially not in a place like padre hurtado. But alas, it happened. So we helped clean/sand it off. Also, I had a mini realization this week. I´ve heard a few people here say, "I respect you and that you´re doing the Lord´s work, but I´m such and such a religion, and I´ll die such and such..." When´s the last time you heard someone say, "I´m Mormon, and I´ll die Mormon"? we don´t say it in the church. It´s not our mindset, and I think I realized why. People usually say that because they don´t want to change, and hence, they´ll die the way they are right now. But in the church, we´re ALWAYS changing, always striving to better ourselves, our families, our relationship with God, etc. We´re never settling for good enough, because as good Ol´Jeremy Little says, "Good enough is closer to poorly done than well done." We´re continually changing and progressing, and so we won´t die the way we are now, hopefully. Perseverar hasta el Fin. That was just a little insight I had.
Well, that´s all I have time for! Love you and miss you!
Elder Cole Moffat
