Sunday, May 13, 2012

Cat Contact

¡Hola po!
Oh, I always forget to tell you. I think grandpa asked this along time ago, but the word ´po´ has no significance, but the Chileans put it on whatever word they like. It's like an emphasis. There are so many Chileanismos it makes it that much more difficult to understand--and then my companion is from Colombia, but was living in Spain and so some of her words are different too.  But I love learning the different things. Well, Dad I have to say that I miss you guys but I don´t  miss hauling in food after a long night of helping mom. It makes me tired just thinking of it.


Right now it is starting to get cold here, in the mornings we can see our breath and at night we put so much clothing on it's like we are camping! I actually really enjoy it...for now! :) The only thing is I really hate getting out of bed in the mornings because the house is cold, but my bed is soo warm.  Once I´m out of bed I am totally awake. It rained pretty hard a few days ago, but today is really beautiful and now there is snow on the mountains and it looks a lot like home.  Leaves falling and brisk sunny days. I love it.
Wow, this week was another really good week. Busy like always and there are so many people to visit and teach. Sometimes I think that we might be missing somebody and I worry that we can´t do it all. We have this project to find young single adults because they are trying to start a singles ward program here in Chile.  Part of our weekly goals is to find and teach so many young single adults.


Yesterday we had lots of time to knock doors. But yesterday happened to be the Super Bowl of Soccer games in Chile. The two rival teams in Chile played and we knew that no one was going to want to talk to us for about a 2 hour period. So we decided to contact (chase down) any young person we saw. We would stand on the side walk and wait 'til we saw a group of young adults and then once we knew what direction they were going we would walk after them. How fun. Who else has tactics like this? haha Missionaries! LOVE IT! It was actually quite funny and awkward at the same time, but we talked to a bunch of people. The only thing was NONE of them lived in Graneros. It was like after a while the first question we would ask people is if they were from Graneros, and then if they lived in our sector. There were actually 5 that I think were really good kids and I really hope that they attended the activities in Rancagua and get exposed to the young single adults there.

So another really funny story about contacting, except this has nothing to do with people. Actually a cat. Well we knocked this house, well you don´t actually knock you yell. But the only person that came out was this cat that was desperate for attention. I don´t like to touch the animals here because they carry cualquere tick or fleas or whatever, but I was scratching the kitties head with my pen to give it some kind of loving. After about a minute of waiting for someone to come out of the house we decided to leave. Just as I turn and leave, the cat leaps into the air and digs its claws into my jacket like I am a tree. My hands were in my pockets so I couldn´t do much but scream because I was so shocked at what just happened. The cat let go and fell off of me. Oh my heck, my companion and I laughed for about the next hour about that cat. There also were people in the street that saw everything as well and were laughing. Wish I had that moment caught on camera.
There isn´t really anything major that happened this week. Our Cristina was confirmed yesterday and Miguel passed the sacrament for the first time! That was actually really cool to see. Also one of our investigators, who has been investigating the church for a long time came to church with his wife and kid who are members. We are trying to reactivate his wife, kid and then get him baptized. It was cool to see him there yesterday because this was the first time that I felt like the whole family came on there own, without the missionaries calling constantly or passing by there house multiple times in the week. I mean I don´t mind doing this, whatever it takes to get them to church, but then when they start doing it because they WANT to....this is the part about missionary work that I LOVE the most! When you watch your investigators or less actives gain a testimony for themselves and starting living the gospel. You know once this has taken place it doesn´t matter if the missionary leaves, the person is going to live the gospel because they have their own conviction of the truth. I love this part because I know that the Spirit is working inside of them and helping them to change and become better. This is conversion and it is truly amazing.


Actually here in Chile I can understand a little bit why it is difficult to go to church. For some going to church means a thirty minute walk. And if you have small children it makes it that much more difficult. But then when you see the family in church together and you know that getting there was difficult.....wow..how completely amazing the gospel is. Because I know that they are receiving so many blessings, and even more because they sacrifice a little bit more!

I love you guys and I can´t thank you enough for sending me on this mission! It makes me that much more happy when I hear all the blessings that you guys are receiving. Thanks for the pictures....I LOVE SEEING YOU GUYS TOO! No worries I´m going to buy a camera really soon. But first polar leggins and long sleeve shirts! It's getting cold!

All my love from Chile and back!!

(Received April 30, 2012)

No comments:

Post a Comment