Monday, August 15, 2011—Miracle Sunday

It has been another wonderful week here in the mission. Sit back, relax, and listen as I tell you about it.

On Tuesday we had a mission conference. A couple weeks ago I was playing the piano while waiting for my interview with President. Sister Gillespie heard and loved my song "Rock of my Soul" and asked me to put an arrangement of it together to sing at the conference. However, she called back a few days later and said that President only wanted hymns. They asked me to find a hymn and put an arrangement together for the conference.

There wasn't much time to practice so I thought and prayed hard to know what to do. Then it came to my mind to look at the "meters" page in the back of the English hymnal (that page doesn't exist in the Spanish version. Since the hymn "If You Could Hie to Kolob" doesn't exit in Spanish either, and because it is such a beautiful hymn, I decided to make a version of that song. We sang (I played the piano) "All Ye Who Are Called to Labor" (I believe that is how it´s called) to the tune of "If you coul Hie…" It turned out really well in the end. My zone did a fantastic job.

The conference was wonderful and as usual, I left the meeting feeling energized and excited. President always seems to know exactly what I need to hear and how to help me be a better disciple and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, in the conference, we learned about some changes that have been placed in the missionary program around the world. Now, every companionship of missionaries has a portable DVD player and a set of the Preach My Gospel DVD´s in their apartment. Of course, they came with strict rules and guidelines for their usage. However, these tools are to be used during companion study. I have already seen the difference in my teaching style by having watched and used these DVDs in my studies.

Sadly, Cecilia and Tamara are not progressing. They are still smoking and don´t seem to be putting in the necessary effort to progress. They promised that they would come to church, but did not come. In fact, I called them yesterday to wake them up and they blocked my call. Then when I called back, they had turned their phone off. Elder Rowett and I then went over to their house to get them, but when we knocked, nobody came out. When then headed to church, praying and hoping for a miracle.

To get to the church, we had to walk through the feria that they have every Sunday, right outside of the church. While walking through the feria, we ran into a young man named Marcelo. About a week ago, Elder Rowett and I were walking down the street and Marcelo came up, shook our hand and told us that he was going to come to church that (last) Sunday. He then walked away before we could talk to him. Blessedly, we ran into him yesterday in the feria. After talking with him for a minute he asked us "well, are you going to invite me to church with you?" We quickly invited him with us. He asked us if it was okay to go, even though he was dressed in old, dirty, worn-out clothes. We reassured him that is was okay and he came to church with us. Not only did he come with us, but he loved it. He practically asked us if he could get baptized yesterday. We told him that he would need a little time to prepare and we agreed on a baptismal date in mid-September. What a blessing the Lord gave us!

Not only did Marcelo come to church, but also three---yes THREE--- other investigators. One of them is the ten-year-old daughter of a member that we have been teaching. The others are slightly more interesting---Mario and Lucia. Mario is a very interesting man—or rather is very interesting men. You see, he is schizophrenic. Okay, it isn't that bad—he does not have to personalities, he just has some problems. We have been teaching him for a couple weeks. Yesterday he came to church to "look for a wife" as he told us. Towards the end of sacrament meeting, he slipped out and came back a half an hour later with hair gel and cologne, trying to look all nice to find a wife. We kept our eyes on him and this week we will be talking to him a little more about that.

Lucia. Lucia is incredible. Pure gold. I want to tell you about her, but my time is up and I have to be obedient. I will tell you about her next week.

I love my mission so much! Every day I realized something more. Every day my faith and love grow.

Monday, August 8, 2001—Fotos

Me in Cecilia´s helmet

Big St. Bernard in the street

Delicious chorillana -- french fries, sausage, scrambled eggs, fried onions, beef.... mmmhmmmm

Cleaning

Conejo

Gorro

Mi Concina

Pata de pollo

Stairs

Where's the stair?

Yummy!

Monday, August 8, 2011—The Book of Mormon—A Powerful Tool

I am doing very well and am loving the work. This is a very short time that I have to serve the Lord with "all my heart, might, mind and strength." Every day I realize more and more how short the time is that I have. I do not want any time to merely "pass by." This is the Lord´s work and I am but a tool in his hands. I know that I have a lot to improve on and I am working hard to be able to do it.

One evening this last week, we were visiting a member and she started to talk about qualities that she respected in people in general and in members. She talked about honesty and love among other things. However, what hit me was what she said about "doing things thoroughly." She said that when people are given an assignment they should do it thoroughly and even better than expected. I started thinking about that a lot this week. I asked myself "I am doing my job thoroughly?" As I have thought about all these things, I have felt a stronger desire to work hard and do a thorough job.

In Preach My Gospel it says that The Book of Mormon truly is the most powerful tool that we have for conversion. Every chance that I get, I testify of the truth of the book and its history. In the street and in houses I always challenge people to read and pray, because I know that by doing so (with a true heart and real intent) they will receive a testimony of these things. However, my story from this week is a rather personal one. There is an Evangelical man (pastor, we believe) named Juan in our branch limits. Every time he sees us, he comes to us to try and contend. He has brought up arguments and points. He has quoted the bible to us for over ten minutes, telling us how we are wrong (he truly has a great knowledge of the bible, but his understanding is small). Well, our "confrontations" with Juan this week have been very interesting. Every chance he gets, he tries to destroy our faith and beliefs. Despite all those things, none of them have been able to affect my testimony. Why? –Because I know that The Book of Mormon is true. The Lord has answered my prayers many times and confirmed the truthfulness of that book.

In the letter, dad talked about not having very much missionary success. As I quoted above, The Book of Mormon truly is the most powerful tool that we have for conversion. Along with that, the members are so very important and need to be involved. As a mission we have a little piece of paper that we call "la lista" or the list. We missionaries, or the ward missionaries, visit each member and present them with the list. We tell them that is a family mission plan. They fill the list with names of friends, loved-ones and neighbors --- all those aren´t members (or are inactive). We then tell them to put it in a place where it can be seen (like the fridge). It is now their responsibility to pray for the revelation of how to help those people to receive the Gospel. In my mission, I have combined the list with The Book of Mormon. In a visit with members, we watch a few videos including one called "By small and simple things" which is about a young woman giving a BOM to a friend. We then invite the members to give a BOM to a friend. This has worked very well for us. I hope it helps you.

Yesterday was a very sad day. None of our investigators came to church. It makes me so sad. We work and pray so hard all week and they even promise to come to church. However, when Sunday comes, they don´t. Hopefully this next week will be better.

Cecilia and Tamara are still struggling with the cigarettes, but I have hope and faith that they can give them up.

Got to go. Love you all. I love my mission!

Monday, August 1, 2011—Patience

Hola hermosa familia mía,

To answer mother´s questions and calm her worries, I am doing very well--extremely well actually. Even though I have been getting up earlier, I feel better and more awake than I did before. Also, this last transfer I have been watching what I eat and making better use of my exercise time!

After spending nine weeks in the MTC and eating their food, I weighed in at 215 lbs when I left. Six weeks ago I weighed myself and I weighed 198 lbs. I just weighed myself today and I weighed 188 lbs! Don´t worry mom, I am getting and eating plenty of food I am just eating smarter and of course taking all of my vitamins.

This week, we were not able to teach Miguel and his family. Miguel got home after nine PM every day this week. Also, they did not come to church. However, they are doing well and we will teach them this week

Yesterday, Cecilia came to church. Tamara was going to come as well, but got hit by a ball at school and did want to show up at church for the first time with a black eye. They are doing very well. However, they are still smoking. We had a long talk about the Word of Wisdom and how they could quit smoking. At the end of the lesson I made a deal with them. I told them that we would "be in it together." I committed to stop eating candy and they committed to stop smoking. I just pray that they will have the force and the desires to continue progressing and make the necessary changes in their lives.

This last week, I focused on developing my patience. As I have prayed to develop a deeper patience, it seems that the Lord has helped me by giving me many experiences that tried my patience (people in the street saying things, investigators saying other things, etc). In one lesson with an investigator, he did not understand the importance of The Book of Mormon and said that he did not need to read it. We explained over and over again trying to help him understand where the book came from and why he needed to study it. Stubbornly, he refused. After much internal praying for the patience and the right words, we were able to help him understand and feel the importance of reading. I know that if I had gotten more frustrated or had given up, we would not have been able to help this man. However, because I was striving to have patience, we were able to be blessing for this man and his eternal progression.

Again, I had all the plans to write you a super long letter, but it seems that these computers from the 90´s had different plans for me.

I love all of you so much. * * * Thank you for all that you do. I love my mission!

Monday, July 25, 2011—They Came!!!

Thank you for the nice pictures. I cannot believe that it has already been a year. I only have one more year to dedicate myself full-time to being an official representative of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no time to lose. I am savoring and treasuring every moment.

This last week, we started a new transfer (my eighth). As with all new transfers, I set new personal goals for these next six weeks. In PMG it says that our goals reflect the desires of our heart. As I set my goals I prayerfully thought about what my desires are and what the Lord´s desires are for me. One of my many goals has to do with more effective use of my time. As part of that, I have started to get up earlier to study. There is not very much time to study. I know enough to know that I don´t know enough and therefore I am trying to get in more studies.

One highlight of this week was an interchange with an elder named Elder González. Elder Gonzalez is from Fontana! His parents are both from El Salvador. He is an excellent missionary and we had a great time together on Saturday. Saturday we had a meeting with or ward mission leader (the following is an excerpt from my letter to President Gillespie).

This week I was able to see the Lord´s hand in His work during our branch mission correlation. This last week we have been trying to find a good member to fellowship our family of investigators with baptismal date. We had been praying and searching to find the member that would be just right for him. In our meeting with the ward mission leader, we told him about the situation. He suggested a few names and then moved on. None of the names really felt like the right one. Then a few minutes later, Raul (ward mission leader) told us another name as an afterthought. The name hit home to me. I felt like he would be the perfect person. We had an appointment with the family that night and blessedly the brother could go with us. During the lesson, the brother and our investigator became good friends and the brother said exactly what our investigator needed to hear. The Lord truly inspired our ward mission leader to help us find the right "fellowshipper."

In that lesson with Miguel and his family on Saturday, we talked about baptism and keeping the Sabbath day holy. During the lesson, Hno Vicencio (who came with us) told Miguel about his conversion and experience with keeping the Sabbath day holy. Miguel told us that he knew that what we said was true because he had felt something different ever since we started sharing. He said that he knew that he needed to go to church and would be going to church with us on Sunday. At the end of that lesson, we all knelt down and Miguel offered a beautiful prayer. After the prayer he told us that he had felt something powerful.

Yesterday, Miguel and his wife and daughter came to church!!! I was so happy to see all of them there. My heart and soul filled with love and joy as I saw them come in. We have been working really hard and praying even harder and finally yesterday we were able to see some fruits of our work.

I love my mission so much. I love the Chilean people. I love the language. Speaking of the language, here in Chile they use a lot of English words. Some common words:

Ayer fui a su casa para el pajama party.

Mi mamá tuvo su baby shower la semana posada.

Siéntense aquí en el living (room)

Yo trabajo full-time. Él trabaja part-time.

Quiero una bebida lite.

Monday, July 18, 2011—Be Thou Humble

Another change has ended and a new one shall begin. The Lord has surprised me by keeping both Elder Rowett and I here together as co-companions in Las Torres. It is definitely alright with me because I love this branch, I love Elder Rowett and we are getting a lot done together.

This week we had a very strong, spiritual lesson. After a few weeks of trying to contact a reference from other missionaries, we were finally able contact Miguel and his family. In our first lesson, we had about five minutes and shared the story of the Restoration of the Gospel, leaving Miguel and his family with a Book of Mormon. The following day (yesterday) we taught them a more in depth about the Restoration. As we taught the family, the Spirit bore witness of the truth. Miguel told us that he had felt something different. He said that while we were there, he had felt the truth of our message and of his need to be baptized. In that strong moment, we invited him, his wife and his daughter to be baptized and they accepted! I love the power of the Holy Ghost and its pivotal role in this work.

Another night this week, we were able to visit a family that we have been trying to visit fore couple weeks. We visited Maria Teresa and her daughter Jeraldyn. In that lesson, we also bore witness of the Restoration. After hearing the message and feeling the Spirit, they too accepted the invitation to be baptized.

Right now, we have seven investigators with baptismal dates. It truly has been incredible to see the Lord´s hand in His work. However, now we just hope to see the progress of these souls.

Yesterday, we had plans for everyone to come to church. We had members passing by to pick-up the investigators, we called them all, and they were all very excited to come. However, only one investigator showed up to church. Some of our investigators were called out to fight fires, others slept in, and others with other excuses. This week we are focusing with all our might on helping these people attend church.

These last few weeks I have been studying in PMG about Christ like attributes. I have been thinking a lot about which Christ like attribute I want and need to develop. Although I am constantly working on developing a deeper love and charity, I have come to the realization that I need to develop my humility. Christ was such humble servant to all. I have been thinking to myself, "Why do I want to have success? What gives me my drive and passion? Do I work so that I will become a district leader, a trainer, or a zone leader? Asia have asked myself these questions I have sadly had to answer that yes, part of the reason is because of pride and the desire to have "outer success." It is the urge of the natural man to be known for his successes. As I thought about this in my personal studies, I read my patriarchal blessing in which it tells me to remember that no matter where I am called to serve or what I am called to-do it is never insignificant. My desires to lose my pride and my plans are as follows. Firstly, I will pour out my spirit in prayer to forgive me for my pride and to ask Him to be more humble. Also, I will do as Christ did and serve others. In my studies I am taking note of how Christ shows His humility. I will not look for my ways of doing things; rather, I shall look for ways to learn from others and always ask, "Father, what would you have me do." I know that I have a lot to improve but I know that the Lord will help me.

Right now, La Fútbol Copa America (the American Soccer Cup) is taking place here in South America. When the soccer game is on, all the streets are deserted. However, when Chile plays (like yesterday) the streets are deserted, but the whole country is unified. In about95% of the houses, people are watching the game. We don´t need to watch to know what goes on. Last night we paused on a lookout point and listened. We heard the reactions of the wide audience reverberating across the hillsides. When the other team scores, the entire hill, the entire country screams in horror. However, when Chile scores the country erupts with cheers of pleasure. It was so cool to hear as simultaneously every house on the hillside cheered for their team.

I love my mission. I have so much to do, so much to learn, so much to love.

Elder Rowley

Monday, July 11, 2011—Cecilia y Tamara

Another beautiful, great, wonderful week in the mission.

 

Last Monday we had a successful night after ending our P-Day.  We had a couple lessons including one to a couple of our investigators named Cecilia and Tamara.  About a month ago we were talking to people in the street and we talked to twenty-two year old girl named Cecilia and gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon.  In the following visits, we met Tamara, her seventeen-year-old sister and their mother, Cindy.  We found out that Cindy was baptized in the Church, but over the years, fell away from the Church because of her marriage and other life problems.  However, Cindy is very supportive of her daughters and is excited to come back to the Church.  Last week, Cecilia accepted a baptismal date and on Monday night Tamara did as well.  If all goes well (as I am praying it will) they will be baptized on the 7^th of August.

 

However, Cecilia is a firefighter and she has firefighting exercises every Sunday morning.  Not only that, but she is now sick with pneumonia.  I pray that we will be able to teach her well enough that she will feel the need and desire to attend Church and make the necessary changes in her life.

 

This week we had to drop one of our investigators.  Last week we saw Carola going to church, but not to ours.  She was going to a church that had Mickey Mouse painted all over the walls—you see some pretty strange things down here.  When we saw that, it broke my heart.  After promising that she come to church with us, we see her going to the Mickey Mouse church.  We visited her a few days later.  (Actually, I was on exchanges in a different area and Elder Rowett was with another Elder.)  In that lesson, her husband came out and started yelling at her telling her very rudely to "get to work" and telling us to leave.  It was a very sad moment.  I pray that the Lord will soften his heart that we may share again with her soon.

 

This week among many spiritual experiences that strengthened my testimony happened during my personal studies.  I was reading in chapters nine to thirteen of Third Nephi.  I read about the darkness and destruction that followed Christ´s death.  Then after three days of darkness, the voice of the Lord is heard.  I imagined how it would have been to be trapped in that thick darkness, wondering who had survived.  I then read how Christ came down from heaven and the first thing He tells the people is "I am the light and the life of the world."  It struck me how true that statement is.  Three days without Christ—three days of utter darkness. I remember that I talked about this last fall, but as I read and pondered, I felt the light of Christ fill my soul and renew my testimony that Christ is my personal light and Savior and that it is only through Him that one day, I will arrive to the father.  I love my mission and the testimony and strength that I feel every day.

 

Life is beautiful.  I cherish every moment, I live for every second.  My only desire is to serve the Lord and by so doing, show my love for him, for all of you, and for all of my brothers and sisters.  I know that I have so much to do, so much to change; but I also know that I have come a long way.   I love you all so very much.  I love my mission!