Week 21

First off, thank you so much for all your letters! My heart has been truly touched through your messages. Every time I sit down and read your inspiring messages I am lifted up and the burdens of the work become weightless. Thank you so much for your love and your support. I love all of you so much.

It is great to hear how everything is going back at home. The same things that always happened when I was home are still happening with all of you. I find it so cool that so many new things are going on and that you are all growing as well.

I’ll be very honest, this week wasn’t the best or the fun-nest week. We have just had a lot of trials in the work lately. We have had to step back and re-analyze almost every action we take here in Nonguen. Things have gotten hard in the sector and we aren’t really finding anyone to teach. The members have been very slow to help and it’s gotten frustrating. We've had pressures rise, and we are almost desperate as a companionship. We have had to go back and start with the basics, which is: work with the members; build their testimonies so that they can share them.

Monday.

P-day was just a preparation day! We had a good time in the centro. Us three elderes of Nonguen spent the day with E Duncan and Montaña.  We went around and did a lot.  We ate lunch, bought a few things, and went home to clean up a bit. We went out to work and visited a bunch of members. Luis Ferreira and his family also invited us to have an asado (barbeque) the coming Saturday. We were stoked.

Tuesday.

We had district class, and had another special workshop deal with that. We had some great lessons and I learned a lot. We had a nice and relaxing lunch in the house since the member couldn’t be there while we ate. We picked it up before and ate at home. We didn’t have too much happen in the afternoon. We had a lot of visits with investigators fall. We went around and everyone turned out being ''busy''. It was a long day of walking and contacting. In the end we had a meeting as missionaries. The Hermanas, us elders, and our ward mission leader. We just had a coordination meeting.

Wednesday.

Went over to the Campos family to do some service. Turned out we needed to help her neighbor get some stuff done. She’s a very sweet and very old lady. She had a lot for us to do. We had to cut down about 20 trees and start building a fence on a huge hillside. Halfway through, my face turned into a waterfall of sweat. I’ve never sweated that hard before. It’s amazing what humidity and hard work does to you. We had a day working to inspire members. We visited a lot of less active members as well. We also had a good visit with Valerìa and Cesar. I admire them for their drive to get an answer to whether the church is true for themselves. They are slowly starting to grasp our messages and the doctrine of Christ. We committed them to continue working to get an answer, and go to church.

Thursday.

Again, in the morning, we went and helped the old lady out again. We finished building the fence, and we headed off to a delicious lunch at the Ruminot's. We had an average day of work and everything that we had planned fell through again. It is so frustrating having people commit to our visits and then in the last 5 minutes they make up an excuse to why they can’t. Eventually we met up and did some divisions between us elders and the high priest's group. I went with our ward mission leader, and again no one we visited could let us in. It was frustrating.

Friday.

We went and helped hermano Mella build his second floor for the morning. We're getting some serious progress done. We almost have all the walls put up. We had an extremely frustrating day with all our visits falling. We had a ton of contacts throughout the day. We visited the Adrian family and visited hermana Guillermina.

Saturday.

We had a crazy interview with one of the investigators in Collao. He at first prayed to find the church of God, and he was led to the church. But because his brother is Gay he had some problems understanding the law of chastity. He thinks that his brother should be able to get baptized too because he was born gay. We had a long and very intense conversation. In the end his heart was too hard and we ended with him just done with investigating the church. After, we had a barbeque with Luis Ferreira and his family. The stuff he cooked was unreal. It was soooooo good. Saturday was kind of the last straw for us. All of our visits fell again and we were frustrated. We had hermano Ruminot with us the whole time and went and worked for most of the day. We were so grateful for his sacrifice of time. We, however, were able to find and teach a less active member in Villa Valle. That lesson went well.

Sunday.

We had a disappointing meeting in church. Our investigators all left on vacations. It was so frustrating. We had lunch and then planned for the week. We had correlation and divided up and went to visit people. I left with our Elders quorum president and visited a few members. After Elder Layton and I met up and we worked the rest of the day just us two, because Luis Cabezas, the High Priest leader had a full list of people he wanted to visit. He and Elder Sanchez were together all day. Elder Layton and I were able to find a family of old investigators through inspiration. They are great, and we have confidence that they are going to get baptized.

We had a frustrating week. This ward is losing interest in us and our appointments are falling. This week we are committed to work from the basics and build back up from the start.

Andrea and Marcelo are hard to find. But as we've visited them lately, Andrea has received her answer that the church is true. She knows she needs to get baptized. She just has to take a leap of faith to get married.

Armando and Rosa are slowly losing interest. We weren’t able to visit them because they weren’t there during the week. We sense they are losing interest.

Valeria and Cesar are doing well. As long as we continue having the support of members with them, things will go good with them.

These last few weeks have been very trying. Everything seems to be fighting against me. I don’t know what to do but pray. I’m only relying on my faith and my testimony. Times are tough but I’m pushing on. I try and stand a little taller every day. Thank you all for you encouragement and support. I need it so much more than you can imagine. I love you all so much. I testify this is the work of our Savior. I know he watches me and is mindful of us every day. He is our Redeemer. I love him with all my heart. I depend on him, and I will serve him to build his kingdom with every ounce of energy I have.

Thank you all so much. I love you, I miss you. Until next week.

Elder Ethan Haws