Good Week, February 11, 2013

James Van de Graaff from Northbrook, IL surprises Cole!
James served his mission in Chile years ago

Well, this week we focused on The Living Christ with the members, and we had some pretty neat experiences!  Missionary work works better when the members become the source of the new investigators!

There´s a young man in our ward named Rodrigo, a convert of 3 to 4 years, who is going on his mission in a few weeks to Cusco, Peru.  Well, he´s very excited, had his temple recommend interview this week, and went through the temple on Saturday.  His family couldn´t go through with him, because they´re not yet members of the church.  So, he asked us if we could go through with him.  We asked permission from President, and he said yes, considering the circumstances.  The Relief Society president also came.  When Elder Gehring and I got there, Rodrigo was there waiting in the changing room.  A temple worker came up to us and was like, "Elder Moffat.... you.  Rodrigo has asked that you be his escort through the session today.  Quick, get changed so we can start!"  It was a really neat experience going through the temple with someone for their first time (my second time in Spanish!).  I just love the temple.

Afterwards, we went over to the distribution center to buy some things, and there was this GIANT man who we knew was definitely NOT chilean. (in fluent, not too gringo spanish) "Where are you from, Elder?"  "Chicago"  "Oh really... Elder Van De Graff is over there around the corner in the chapel.  Well, to you he might be President Van de Graff. You should go see him!"  Well, I only know one Van de Graff family, and so I figured it was probably them, so we headed on over there.  And sure enough, James Van De Graff is there!  They were having a mission reunion from the Misión Chile Viña del Mar ´79-´82 I think.  He was actually one of the people who planned it.  We talked for a bit, it was great.  We also talked with a few other people there whose spouses were the RMs from Viña, and they didn´t speak spanish (so they were really happy talking to 2 gringo missionaies.  Elder Gehring made some connections some of the people from Mesa (Richard Skousen?).  They all knew his dad and grandpa ("Grandpa Lou!")  So it was a fun time.  What are the chances, right?

Well, that´s all I have time for this week.  More to come next week, from Republica.

Love,
Elder Cole Moffat