Week 48

Transfers! Here we are, the end of another 6 weeks! Another adventure begins!!

We received the call this morning about what would happen for the next 6 weeks. Not to my surprise, I will be leaving Retiro to head to Villa Coiquen in Chillán. It is a great change. I am so excited to get out of the same motions and start over again. It will be great to go out and meet more people, and save more of Gods children. I will miss the people of Retiro and all that has happened here a lot. I have changed so much here. Through trials and hard times you really do grow stronger. That was the whole purpose of me being in Retiro, I think. I think it was only to put me to my limits and to see what I could still do. It brought out every single one of my weakest points and highlighted them in front of everyone. Now that it’s all past, I think it’s time for my mission to really take off. I'm so excited for this start.

Highlights:

This week was interesting. I’d say it was fun. Our leaders strongly committed us to reach our standard of excellence to find 10 new investigators. Elder Martinez and I went out like it was war or something. We were really determined to find those people. We definitely pushed it hard this week.

From our efforts we ended up finding 5 people.

-Juan and Marisol, a catholic couple who let us in while we were looking for other people.

-Marcela and Carlos, her son.

-Alejandra, the replacement for Lorena at OMIL from the Municipalidad.

We didn't fill our goal but these investigators are really good. We feel great that we could find them and have great lessons with them.

The week was full of using all our efforts to find these 5. Elder Martinez and his new comp will have to continue to take care of all our efforts.

We did a ton of work with the members this week. We visited them a ton and shared many messages.

There is not much to report for this week. It was really spent on finding these investigators. It was a very busy week. I felt like it was one of the craziest I had during my time in Retiro.

We committed all those investigators to church but no one showed up. That was disappointing for us. The attendance in church was low as well. I think that was the only downside to the week.

Other Strange Things:

Its warming up! Last Friday and Saturday it started feeling like spring weather. And today we have clear skies and it is warming up fast. I am looking forward to breaking out of the wet cold winter here.

To those who are curious, we did feel a little bit of the earthquake in Santiago. We were in a short lesson with Juan and Nancy, and all of a sudden Juan shouted, ''It’s shaking!''  The whole house swerved for a few seconds but it wasn't anything too big. It freaked the Chileans out because they are paranoid about things like that, but I thought it was way cool! It shut off all the power to 80 percent of Retiro.

On Saturday night we had a FHE with the Uribe's. For our dessert I helped them cook up a classic that I enjoy in Utah. We made a chocolate shake and had french fries. They all kind of freaked out and only President gave it a try. He liked it! All the Chileans think I'm weird for liking something like that.

Well, it’s another chapter for me and my mission. I am so excited to start again in Chillan. It will be a great adventure. I can’t wait to tell you how it all goes next Monday.

I love you all. Thank you for all that you do. I miss you all so much. It is so good to hear from you every week. I love technology, that we are able to communicate each week.  It is a huge blessing for all of us. Until next week. Have the best week ever!

Elder Ethan Haws