Week 38

Another week? Wait a sec, I thought I was just in the cyber a few seconds ago.

Seriously though, the time is flying like never before. The time becomes progressively faster as the days fade on. Everyone always has said that that's the way it is here in the mission, but now I really do know it’s true. So with that said, I've been trying to enjoy every second I have here in Retiro. I know I'm not going to be here forever so it’s a matter of caring for every second. Retiro has crashed and burned during the last year and I am determined to bring it back into the light. So, just got to put my shoulder to the wheel and push along.

The week was somewhat average. It was just a frenzy of visiting and strengthening the members here. We really pushed hard to visit all the menos activos here. This week, I'm just going to give you the highlights of the week and the details that matter. 

Highlight 1

This week we started out by organizing a family home evening for the branch in the chapel. We made invitations and everything and went around to every single member and invited everyone. Eventually, Thursday night came and 17 people ended up coming. We had 6 less actives there. Elder Martinez and I started off by doing a special number playing 'He Sent His Son' (my favorite church song) on the guitar and singing along in Spanish and English. We then led that into an activity on “Choose this day”. We highlighted making decisions and stressed the importance that today is the day of our salvation. It was really fun. We ended the lesson and enjoyed eating cookies and other refreshments and played games for about an hour. The members loved it and we are excited to continue having activities to bring excitement and energy back into the chapel. REANIMATED CHAPEL! SUCCESS!

Highlight 2

Hermana Miriam has been going through some hard times! She went from being strong in the church to wanting to change churches completely. We went to visit her one night and she recounted what had happened with President Uribe the last sacrament meeting. Supposedly he had promised to help her get plants or flowers or something and a few days later he denied the whole thing. That upset her a ton and she declared that she would never go to church again until President had confessed that he was a liar and fessed up to his wrongs. We counseled with her appointment after appointment, she would not change her mind nor forgive. It is amazing to me how sensitive people are!!  We dragged Miriam and her daughter Estefania to the family home evening at the chapel and they really enjoyed it. We finally talked to President about the situation and he set an appointment to go resolve the problem. We had our hopes up that because of the family home evening and the appointment with President, she would get to church this Sunday. So,  we got to church and we waited for the people come and at the very last minute Miriam amazingly showed up! She enjoyed the meetings and we had lunch there after church!  PROBLEMS SOLVED!! CASE CLOSED!! We also had Michelle and Palmenia Saldaña at church. We are excited to see the Saldaña family progressing. 

Highlight 3

Last night we were walking around doing contacts on the dark foggy streets and as we turned a corner we saw a group of huge dogs attacking a poor little dog. We stopped for a sec and I guess you could say we felt compassion and so we entered in, throwing rocks and shouting driving the big dogs back. Eventually after having them circle around trying to get back in, we got to the small dog and carried it back to our sector. We dropped it off at Jorge's house and are letting it rest up. We don't know what to do with it, but we'll see how it goes. DOG RESCUE! YES!

It’s been pretty sad to see all our investigators dropping us like always. We have tried to go back to visit a few but they never let us in. However, we have been finding a lot of futures as of late. We are going to be finding and visiting a ton of people in the coming week. We are going to be progressing a ton with the menos activos. 

The world cup has started and I'm sure you all have been hearing about it. In the states It’s a pretty causal thing. Here, IT MEANS THE WHOLE WORLD! It’s like the super bowl x 3! We had to be in our house a 6 o'clock on Wednesday because of the Chile - Australia game. The entire city of Retiro lit up with yelling when they scored the goals! It’s a crazy time here in Chile. Soccer is HUGE!!

The week was pretty average but we had fun. Elder Martinez and I are having a good time. I am doing really good. I'm enjoying my mission right now very much. I am grateful for the blessings that are flowing out. I love the Lord and desire to be a better servant every second that I have.

Thank you so much for your support. I love you all so much. I think about you and pray for you. I love you and miss you!! Until next week!

Elder Haws