iorana korua,
This week was definitely an adventure, and many things happened that are
great for the Island.
On Tuesday we went and visited Luis Chavez. He doesn't have any family here,
so the church is basically in charge of him, and since we do almost everything
in the church, we are in charge of him. We had to go to his house and bring him
his clothes and food and stuff because he is now in the hospital.
That afternoon, we visited M who is working in her camping hotel. It
looks like she´ll be finishing that job at the end of this month, so she´ll have
more time to hear the lessons and progress towards baptism. We also ran into a Finnish tourist who said she wanted to grill us about Joseph Smith. We left
quickly after hearing that.
On Wednesday, we got a call from a guy named Lr. It turns out that
about 3 months ago I did a contact with him and his mom, and I had left a card
with my number on it. He wanted to see if we could help him with English. We
stopped by to get to know him. He was really nice. He wasn't too interested in
the gospel, but his mom was, so we are teaching his mom while we help him with
English a little bit.
That night, we had an awesome meeting with R. The best part about it
was when Rp arrived. We had invited him to come to the meeting (because he
is the Young Men President) and he actually came!!!!!!! He hasn't come to a
meeting in a while. The Spirit was really strong and we had some great ideas to
help the members stay in the church for their classes. We were also talking
about having a Ward Choir and changing the church schedule and having the
classes first. We are pumped.
On Thursday we had really awesome lessons. We taught J about
forgiveness. He is running into some problems with his sister M. M
is R´s wife. J doesn't want to go to church because he wants to avoid
problems with M. We had an awesome lesson, and he said at the end he was
going to go to church. He didn't end up going. We visited him again on Sunday to
see why he didn't go to church and he told us that he had offered to throw a
birthday party for an orphan here on the Island who had no one to celebrate
with. We were thinking "that´s a pretty good excuse". Now he understands that he
has set aside the problems with M and focus on God.
We taught LP as well. he is doing great. We taught him about el
sacerdocio de Melquisedek (I don't know how to spell that in English so I put it
in Spanish) and he is going to start getting ready for it. On Sunday, he had an
interview with my companion (the second counselor) and he committed to paying
tithing. He is doing really well considering that about 6 months ago he was on
the street drinking.
We also taught S and her family that night. They all prayed to know if
they needed to get baptized. No one received an answer, so we explained to them
that we must ask with faith. That means that we might need to ask more than one
time. We invited them to do it again, but to ask in a kneeling prayer in an
environment without distractions.
On Friday, we got rid of a giant mound of dirt and plants that was at the
entrance of the church, and we turned it into a little flower garden with a
stone wall. The things we have to do here in the Island are awesome.
That same night, we had a ward family home evening in the church. We got
there early to await a sister from our ward who was going to help us make pizza
for the treat. She didn't show up, so I made the pizza on my own. It turned out
good, and the ward loved it. P, the construction worker who is visiting from
Santiago gave the message. he talked about baptismal covenants and taking the
sacrament which was amazing because he has been less active for more than 20
years!!!! The island has really changed him. Friday was his last day here, so
the activity was a goodbye party family home evening. Lots of investigators and
converts came, so we were way happy. President called us during it to talk to
us, and he called right when everyone was laughing during the games party of the
family home evening. He was a little concerned but we explained to him what was
happening and he was okay.
President called because he was concerned about the branch. I, our Relief Society President called him this past week and told him that he had let
us hanging out here in the Island. He hadn't been calling us or sending people
to check on us and that he had left the missionaries doing everything. She had
also complained that M was doing too much in the church and that because of
all of the church stuff we, the missionaries, didn't have enough time to do
missionary work. The President called us to give us some counsel. It is true
that we feel that President isn't communicating enough with us, but that part
about M doesn't make sense. He has given one talk and he doesn't come to any
meetings. We are still working hard though. We had a baptism while the Relief Society President wasn't
here, and she hasn't been on the Island for the past month. We called her the
next day to tell her that if she has concerns about the branch she needs to talk
to us and Brother Tuki. If she calls the mission president it looks like the
church is a disaster. We´re still trying to clean up the results of that phone
call.
On Saturday, we helped M prepare her first talk in sacrament
meeting. We are asking her to speak about forgiveness to help J and m
who were both going to be in church this Sunday.
Sunday morning we found out that there was an election for the Rapanui. They are determining if they are going to allow the national parks association
in their island or not. According to Brother Tuki, if there are elections, the
church can be let out early so they can vote. We thought that we were going to
only have sacrament meeting, but Richard announced after the sacrament that the
meeting was over. M was there with her mouth open thinking "i thought I
was going to give a talk today?" we tried to change Brother Tuki´s mind, but he
wanted to end, so we did.
The election was crazy, we didn't even go near the city center because there
were people protesting so the Rapanuis didn't vote. It was crazy. they had the
cops there and everything. If you want a real political thriller, research
Easter Island.
Sunday we taught C, a less active member, and we taught T. He
isn't listening to his parents and doesn't want to study or work or anything. We
taught him that laziness doesn't come from God. We hope that our message got
through.
That's pretty much it for this week. This week I learned a lot about
patience. Sometimes you just need to kick back and watch the Lord work at His
pace, instead of interfering with your pace. I know that this is His work and
that He is in charge. I think Him for His spirit that guides us in our paths as
we do His work.
Love
Elder Williams
P.s. President called me earlier this week to tell me that I am going to
Santiago this week, so my time in the Island is now over. they are buying my
ticket, and I should be in Santiago before Halloween.
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