FYI I got a letter from Val Dawson. And thanks for all the email updates!
This week was pretty crazy! As in, my companion and I went out for about 1 hour last night just to maintain contact with investigators/ less actives, and that was the only hour we got out into the sector this whole week!! We had a large group leave, and an even bigger group of missionaries come in! 10 left on Monday evening, 7 left on Tuesday Morning, and we got 4 Latin Missionaries Tuesday afternoon, and then 17 American missionaries Wednesday morning! It was super busy. I got to go to the airport on Tuesday morning with the 7 Latins, and it was quite an adventure. Even after we told a certain missionary that she could take up to a certain limit, she came to the airport with about double... that was some repacking fun! What an adventure. Then we followed the spirit to president´s house and made it there (We didn´t really know how to get there... at all), and trained the 4 Latins. Wednesday was fun, because we had to go from Maipú to La Reina in Metro and bus (literally from the southwest corner of Santiago to the far East side, see picture)
It was pretty interersting. And really hot. But then we trained the greenies and came back to the office (via bus and metro), and got out everyone´s suitcases. 17x3 is a lot of suitcases to set up and organize. Then comes the whole beginning of the change craziness of emailing all their parents, printing out office lists, their picture things for president (that I had to completely re-do because the old ones were bad), and just lots of stuff.
I´m also Elder Morgan´s companion, now. He´s the housing and medical guy, and we had to move out of a house and close the contract that´s had a LOT of complications. Also, we have to prepare for Zone Conference next week with a GENERAL AUTHORITY coming. I think he´s a member of the Area 70. Basically, LOTS to do.
But, I also changed wards. I´m now in Barrio Esquina Blanca (literally White Corner Ward) with Elder Morgan. And we have a baptism tomorrow! He seems like a really good kid, and he basically lives here with his cousins, who are really strong members. From what I´ve heard from the other Elders, he´s really sensitive to the spirit and is really just a great, spiritual, 14 year old kid. I´ll send pics!
Also, today is the Stake party for 18 of September (Their version of 4th of July), and it´s going to be HUGE! So, go eat a hotdog with guacamole, tomato, and mayo to celebrate!
Last night we had a pretty good talk about Faith and how to help the Church here in Chile. We didn´t really know where we should start, or even how to go about helping everyone. There´s so much that doesn´t depend on us, which can sometimes be unmotivating. That lack of motivation is really a lack of faith. So we need to just do everything that we can, and trust that God will bless them and help them progress. But then where to start? Basically, we looked at Alma 38, in particular verse 12 where it says, "Use boldness, but not overbearance." And so we had a long talk about what it means to be bold vs. overbearing, or rather "pesado" as they say here in Chile, and how we can do that to help the church. We discovered that one of the differences between being direct/bold and overbearing/pesado is love. We just need more love when we do it. We need to have faith that we will see results when we are lovingly bold. Food for thought. Something to work on.
I love you and miss you all!
Love and dieciocho,
Elder Moffat
