Week 24

Churrasco sandwich

Hello Family!

Thank you guys for your messages you sent me and all the inspiration you give me. I love you guys so very much. The stories you sent were amazing about Heidi and Logan. That is a powerful witness. Thanks for all the other updates, it’s so good to hear what’s been going on.

This week was ok. In terms of the success we had, we didn’t have much. It was a relatively slow week. We're restarting here in Retiro. The investigators that we had when I got here aren’t really progressing. The excitement of the members is falling. Things have been declining in progress and people are starting to not go to church. When I got here everyone said that Retiro needed a new start. They still say it. It’s what Elder Price and I are trying to do. However, it hasn’t been easy to start so far. Our numbers this week were really low because our main focus was finding new people to teach. Throughout the week we didn’t get into more than 3 houses. It was hard facing all the rejection but it’s just part of the process. This week we are ready to face the challenges and work with everything we have to find those who are waiting for us.

Monday

P-day was good. We had a fun activity in Parral. Our zone is in Parral and the zone leaders and district leaders work there. Retiro is just a little off shoot of the zone. We played some soccer and ate some Argentinan Mayonessa... (breaded meat sandwiches). We bought groceries and headed back. We wrote letters in the cyber here in Retiro and got ready to work. I had a good afternoon. We met a recent convert, German. He’s 15 years old and he is one cool kid. I’ve become friends with him pretty quick. While we worked throughout the day our plans fell. We turned to contacting a ton of houses. I don’t know what happened, but my Spanish starting working really good. I started to say things naturally. It felt really cool. I realized the more I am myself and the nicer and friendlier I am with people, the more receptive they are to us missionaries.... Go figure! We found a lot of futures and we felt content. That night as we finished we stopped by a little shack that sells completos and stuff. Elder Price introduced me to what they call a Churrasco.  It’s the best sandwich known to mankind!

Tuesday.

We had a so so day. We had a great district class, and had a good lesson on verification. We were able to continue to visit a lot of members, recent converts and less actives. Like the Saldañas, and the rest of German's family. Not much else turned out for us.

Wednesday.

We did a ton of contacts. We went around one of our main areas in the sector called Santa Amilia. We found a few futures but didn’t find as much as we had hoped. That night we had a great family home evening with a less active family called the Campos. We had a great lesson on the Atonement. Then we had a huge feast of Sopaipillas! The next morning we had to be in Chillan for zone conference. We had to take a taxi over to Parral and spend the night over there. It was the worst night’s sleep I’ve ever had. They gave us a mattress and that was it. It was freezing cold and I slept for no more than two hours.

Thursday.

We woke up early and headed to the conference in Chillan as our zone. Elder Zeballos from the 70 was there and he gave a great talk about giving our best efforts. He also spoke on a lot of things about our mission work and it really impacted me. I felt the spirit so strong. We had a good lunch in the gym right after and then headed home to Retiro. We went out to work for the rest of the afternoon. Our plans kept falling so we went around trying to visit a lot of people. We contacted once again but everyone was 'busy'. We had a good planning session that night and were ready for Friday.

Friday

It was a really long day. We hit it so hard. We ended up with a solid 32 good contacts. I can’t count how many people we actually talked with. We contacted and contacted and contacted. But no one let us in until our set appointment with a new investigator named Rodrigo. We met him on Monday while getting Churrasco’s and he invited us over. We were stoked. When we got in, he had prepared a full on once for us. Rodrigo and his wife, Carla are pretty young they’re like 23... We had a great night and we hit it off well. We shared the Restoration and invited them to church, to read, and to pray. We were exhausted after the long day but were so excited to have new investigators!

Saturday.

We had an ok day, we didn’t have too many lessons. We visited the dad of the Saldaña family and German and mostly contacted the rest of the day. We tried to visit as many people as we could to get them to church. We tried to visit but most people just weren’t there.

Sunday.

On Sunday morning, our branch president, President Uribe called and assigned me to give an unspecific talk. I had to choose the.. how do you say it in English... la tema? (help dad)....... (the topic) and I chose to give it on conversion in preparation for the second coming. I prepared it in the 30 minutes we had for study in the morning. I was able to give the talk and I don’t know what happened but the ideas just flew out and I was able to speak what I wanted. It was amazing. I felt really good about that talk. It was so much better than the first I had to give. We had to teach Sunday school on the atonement as well. We had a good combined last hour on repentance. I learned a lot. 29 people came to church today. We had lunch with a couple Alejandro and Evelyn. They are investigators still but they know the church is true. They even want to pay tithing. They just need to get married. They gave us some deep fried fish and tons of fruit. We planned for the week and went out to work. We went around but everyone was out of town or with family over. We eventually went to German's and shared a good lesson out of the book of Enos. I love that chapter in the book of Mormon.

Monday.

We have had a really relaxed day here in Retiro. We cleaned the house a bit. Went to Parral, and Elder Price bought a guitar. We are now here in a cyber by the main street here in Retiro writing letters. It’s been good fun.

This week was really long and we worked pretty hard. But things didn’t really work out like we wanted. I’m learning a lot about what giving your all is and what it means to be a successful missionary. I’m learning a lot about how to restart a branch. It’s really a blessing to be here in Retiro. I’m learning things so much faster day by day. I feel my language is starting to take shape, and working by the spirit is becoming clearer to me. I truly feel my Saviors love for the people I serve. I love them. I am so blessed to be a missionary here in Chile. I love the lord. I love this gospel. I am so grateful for my calling. I love you all and I hope your week goes great.

Elder Haws