Iorana korua
Well, let me just start off by saying that I am not dead, and the Island
has not been submerged by giant waves. there were tsunami alerts, but tsunamis
dont really make it all the way out here, so everyone is ok.
On Monday we got to go to Orongo with J. (J´s brother). Orongo is the
giant Volcano here on the Island, and it has a crater inside. Only Rapanui
natives can enter but, J let us come with him, and it was awesome!!!! It
was really quiet and beautiful. it is left untouched by the touristy people. It
was a very spiritual experience because it is also the place where supposedly
there is the highest concentration of Varua (spirits of the ancesters).
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| The crater at the top of Orongo |
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| Elder Williams, Elder Adams, and J at the Volcano Orongo |
On Monday, in the letter from the President to the whole mission, he
included a story about missionaries that purified themselves, or in other words,
they fasted, made a list of all things they did that distanced them from the Spirit, and then they stopped doing them for forty days. On Tuesday we started
our fast to try the same thing. We´ll see how it goes!
That day we did a service project for Ida in our ward. We also started our
new English class. Everyone here asks us to teach them English, so this week we
started teaching English to the community in the library. About 20 people came
which was awesome. At the beginning of the class we told the people "we are
missionaries and our number one priority is to teach the gospel, so dont be
afraid if we leave you with things to read or if we want to teach you our
message in your houses, that´s just what we do."
On Wednesday we found out their was a tsunami warning. we called the
mission office to see if everyone was ok in Santiago. It was all good. We were
worried about the missionaries on the Island of Juan Fernandez. About 4 years
ago almost the whole island died there because of a tsunami. Everyone in the Mission is fine though.
We taught L this week. He´s not doing too well so we are just starting with the basics with
him again.
We taught J R. He´s a guy we met playing soccer. He is R´s
brother in law. He´s gone to church a couple of times, but its difficult to find
time to teach him. He is very concerned about his income and he works a lot. We
were able to teach him about the 10 commandments, and the Sabbath Day. What a
great commandment for those that work a lot. He said "I am just so tired all of
this work" and we said "well, you can follow the commandments and take Sunday
off. God wants you to rest". He said he´s going to stop working on Sundays, but
he didnt come to church this Sunday because of a prior commitment
On Friday we celebrated the 18 of september!!!! its Chile´s Fourth of July
and it lasted 3 days. We started off by passing by Main Street where we saw all
of our investigators watching the parade. We reminded them to go to church. In
the afternoon we were in the house of J and we ate shish ka bobs and played
this fun game where you through metal plates in mud (chilean horseshoes).
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| Elder Adams and friends playing Chilean horseshoes |
On Saturday we were making some phone calls in Tehai when a Swiss toursist
asked me if he could use my bike to retrieve a camera filter he left in his
hotel. I was thinking "I dont even know this guy" and then I thought "what´s he
going to do, take my bike on the plane", so I lent him by bike. He came back 10
minutes later and we gave him a pamphlet. maybe he´ll get baptized in Switzerland!!
On Sunday we had a pleasant surprise when an Area Seventy that was on
vacation visited the Branch. He had forgotten to pack a shirt and tie, so we
asked him to bare his testimony in his down jacket. It was a very powerful
testimony and a very spiritual Sacrament Meeting. Elder Adams and I played a
musical number. We sang and hummed How Great Thou Art while I strummed quietly
on hermano Tuki´s guitar. We were a little concerned because we had both been
sick during the week and our voices werent doing too great and there was an Area Setenta and we werent a hundred percent sure that we could play the guitar in
the church. Everything went fine and there was an awesome Spirit after we
performed.
We found out that Ingrid, the Relief Society President goes back to Chile
next week!!! We are going to miss her a lot and she has realy helped the Branch
and it is going to be a lot harder without her. We called the counselor of the Mission President to tell him what was up, and he said that a senior couple
arrives soon in the Mission but President Videla doesn't want to send them here!
so....WE´RE IN CHARGE!!!! just kidding, the Lord is.
We taught M last night. she accepted Diezmo like a champ, but it
looks like her work situation might be challenging, so we might need to
wait more on her baptism. The good thing is that she wants to get baptized and
she is very excited.
That´s pretty much it for this week. There were a lot of people partying
hard during the 18, but we were still able to have 6 investigators in the
church. We are doing well, and we are ready to rest this pday, because things
have been crazy and this week will be even crazier.
I´ll just end with my testimony about Joseph Smith:
He is a prophet.
If you´re not sure, read the Book of Mormon with that question in mind, and
then ask God.
Love,
Elder Williams
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