Santiago Chile

Santiago Chile

Saturday, March 5, 2016

March 1, 2016 - Paint and Birrell

Hola familia y amigos,

Whoo, this week, a lot of things happened.
Highlight of the week was seeing his friend from home, Elder Birrell!

On Wednesday, there was an Area wide conference with Elder Bednar. All of the missionaries in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile listened to the teachings of Elder Bednar. That conference changed my life. It was about how the Spirit is the teacher, and how we must ask inspired questions instead of playing the "guess whats in my head game". It was a great conference!

On Thursday, we taught Miguel Angel. He is doing really well. He hasn't been able to go to church because of his work, but now he has Sundays free. He now officially has home teachers assigned to him as well, so we are very happy. After you ask for something 10 times from the Elders Quorum President, he always comes through.

On Friday, we had interviews with the President. This was my last infield interview with him. He asked me how I am dealing with the difficulties that present themselves in my last two months. I told him, that I've seen everything fail in a million ways before in my mission, so now it doesn't affect me anymore. so many appointments have fallen through, so many people have gotten close to baptism and then changed their minds, and it has been hot for so long that these problems don't bother me. They are just part of the day.

That day in the afternoon, we taught the Murillos family. They are a Chilean family that has almost come to church 4 times. They are so close, and they committed to come this Sunday.

On Saturday, we got to teach Luis. He is an older man that recently is getting better from a stroke. Pilar came with us, because she also suffered a stroke a couple of months ago, so she helped him understand how the gospel could help him. 

On Sunday, we went in the morning to go and pick up Luis and go to church with him in Taxi. When we got there, I got to play the hymns this week, so that was fun. The Murillos family and the Alberto family didn't come to church. They did call a new bishop. They called the second counselor of the bishopric as a new bishop.He's about 35 years old, and he has two little kids. He was a convert to the church that got baptized when he was 14. We have a really great relationship with him, and he confides in us a lot, so we are really excited to work with him and help him in what he needs.

On Monday we found out that the Alberto family had left to go to the beach the day before and had gotten sick, so they didn't go to church. We also found out that the Murillos family got up early, got dressed in their Sunday clothes, left to the church, and got there at 10:15 and saw that the meeting had already started, and because they did'nt want to interrupt, they didn't enter, but kept on walking to go and buy some groceries....so close.

This morning, for P-day, we climbed Cerro Renca with Elder Birrell! It was a ton of fun to catch up with him and see that he is doing well. He looks really happy, and his companion is one of my good friend, Elder Smith. We had a fun time with him, and it shows that Elder Birrell is going to be an excellent missionary.

Elders Birrell and Williams, two Bothell Boys in Santiago!

Elder Williams and Elder Barillas in painting suits.

That's it for this week. I know that this church is guided by revelation from God. I know that this is Christ´s church and that He really does speak to us so we can carry out His work according to His plans.

Love,

Elder Williams

February 23, 2016 - Hot, hot hot!!

Hola familia y amigos,
Elder Williams and his companion, Elder Barillas

This week has been really hot! Thank goodness 'Ive gotten used to it. I think when I get home I will feel cold for like a year or two until my blood cools down to a normal temperature.

On Wednesday we had a nice day. We taught Enrique. He is the father of the Alberto family. He is really progressing. He is reading the Book of Mormon and he wants to get baptized. He´s not too sure about when, but he is really thinking about it.

We also found some new investigators that night. We were knocking doors, and a guy let us in.  He was really friendly and he really like to talk, and as we finished up teaching him, we invited his wife who was (who had woken up from a nap during the lesson) to join us in the prayer. When he left to invite her, she came storming in saying "there is no way I am going to pray with you guys! I am a Pentecostal and you haven't even mentioned the Holy Ghost in your little lesson." She continued to say more false things about what she thought we believed. We tried to explain to her that we had taught about the Spirit. We had just read John 3 which talks about the baptism of the Spirit when we had finished the lesson. She wouldn't take it. We invited her husband to give the last prayer and he said no, and then she said "that´s it then! That's my sign! I am going to leave my husband because if he is not capable of praying he is not capable of me!" 

These are just some of the crazy things that happen to us during the day.

 
On Thursday, we taught Mario. He is an older man that his an extreme desire to get baptized. It's hard to teach him, because he has a lot of health problems, but he understands everything we teach him. The stake patriarch came with us to the lesson. It was awesome!

That same night we had a family home evening with Pilar and the majority of her family members that are not members! It was a big success. I made brownies. It was a nice way to break the ice with some of them, and clarify that their grandmother/mother is in a good church.

We also were able to teach Hugo and Lorena that day. They are the Chilean family that we found forever ago. They were really progressing well, but they left on vacation. They are still doing well. they read the Book of Mormon every night to their daughter.

On Saturday, I had to do a baptismal interview for the sister missionaries and we also had a great lesson with Luis. He is an investigator that we taught a month ago that was really promising, but we lost him because he was visiting family members, but now he´s back, and he seems really open to investigating the church. We are going to have Pilar come with us one day, because she also suffered a stroke like him, and have been through similar problems.

On Sunday, 4 investigators came to church. Two of them were people that we invited. Katia, an old investigator came because the EQP invited her, and a Haitian woman showed up during the meeting, and she didn't speak barely anything of Spanish. she went to the gospel principles class and I was thinking, "what are we going to do"? I just felt like I had to do something, so I left the class with Elder Barillas, we found a brother with a car, and we went to go find Marjori. She is a less active member who is Haitian. We got to her house and her baby was screaming. We said that we needed her help, and she said she couldn't, but we asked again, and she agreed. while she went to go and change, the baby stopped crying, and in the car ride to the church and the rest of the meeting, the baby didn't make a single sound. It was a miracle. It was also a miracle to see the face of the Haitian woman light up when she saw someone who spoke her language enter the room it was a nice experience!

That night, we had a very powerful lesson with the Alberto family. Enrique wasn't there, but his wife and daughter in law were. They still haven't felt like they had received an answer so we are working really hard with them, so they can really feel the truth of theses things. They have to learn to nourish the seed so it begins to swell with in them and become desirous to them.

It was a crazy week this week, but I am so thankful to be a missionary for Christ´s church. I know that this is His gospel.

Love,                                                                                                           
Haircuts and completos!
Elder Williams