Week 34

Sunset in Retiro

Those numbers keep climbing!  34 weeks down!  Crazy stuff!  It’s already the start of another week.  It’s already been a week since Mother’s day! That is crazy to believe.

The week was better. We saw a little more progress in the members and were able to find some new investigators!  Anyway, this is how it went!

Monday

Monday was pretty relaxing for our P day. We didn’t do much besides go to Parral and shop around a bit.  We went there pretty early.  We realized that we had a lot of time to walk around and stuff.  We decided that we would just go and buy our groceries for the week.  While we were at Líder (the Chilean Wal-Mart)we decided to be cool and get a frozen pizza for lunch.  We got home and cooked that pizza up.  Because we don’t have an oven, we just microwaved it.  It only kind of worked.  Oh well.  After a good American lunch we went to the cyber café and wrote our letters. After the letters we got home and prepared and went out to work. Work was pretty normal. We contacted some people and visited a few members. The pizza was the most exciting part of the day.  When we were entering the house our district leader, Elder Hancock called us and informed us that we would have a mini cambio the next day. I would be getting Elder Kemner. He is really new in the mission field with only 3 weeks here in Chile.

Lunch

Tuesday

We had a great district class. Elder Hancock taught us about extending commitments in a more efficient manner. I enjoyed it a lot. After the class we set off on our mini cambios. Elder Kemner and I headed off on the bus. While we were on our way back to Retiro we introduced ourselves and got to know each other a bit. He’s from Blanding Utah, and was in the military for the last two years doing jump school/training. He has been practicing jumping out of military planes and doing crazy stuff like that!  He’s a Paratrooper.  It took me completely by surprise.  We got to Retiro and dropped off his stuff at the house. We only had 20 minutes till we would cook lunch in our house so we went out and did some contacts for a little while.  When we got back we made a bunch of stuff that we had on hand; a few hamburgers and completos. We finished and prepared for the day. We went out and contacted like madmen.  Elder Kemner and I talked about the fears I had when I first started, and we related to each other a lot. Elder Kemner took courage and went and contacted everybody. It was cool to see. Because of that, we started talking to this older lady in front of her house and she let us in. We had a good lesson and found common ground pretty easy. She is really catholic. We taught a little bit of the Restoration, and invited her to baptism. She wouldn’t agree, but she accepted to read the pamphlet. We continued on our day and had a meeting with our Branch mission leader Luis Ivan, We planned for our upcoming activity on Thursday. We planned a few other things as well like working with members and with less actives. Soon we were out again contacting and making our way to the church to leave with the Uribe boys Pancho (Fransisco) and Felipe. We went to go contact a reference that Pancho had. We walked up to the house on the cold dark alley and an old lady opened the door. We stood there, greeted her, and introduced ourselves. She stood there for half a second and then in mid sentence she slammed the door while she said ''Im busy''. Felipe was shocked.  He didn’t know that kind of thing happens every day with us.  I just turned to him and said. ''Bienvenidos a la misión.'' (Welcome to the mission.) We walked back to Bicentenario and visited a couple other youth in the ward. We finished and finished out the night by taking our clothes to the Abarzua's.

Wednesday

We went around and met with the rest of members that had only been given the invitation to the activity on Thursday. We couldnt find a lot of them in their houses so we had to call them on their phones.  We prepared our activity a little more and did a lot of contacts. None of our investigators were home, so really it was a day of preparation for the activity. 

Thursday

We had a good lunch with the Bravo Retamal family and had a good conversation. They were excited for the activity. We went around in Santa Amelia and looked for a few references that we had received. We found the one lady out in the street playing soccer with her young son. We set up an appointment with her the next morning. We went around working for the rest of the afternoon and soon enough it was time for the activity. We headed over and set it up. We were going to watch The Joseph Smith movie and have some treats. We waited for a bit and only Miriam and her daughter Estafanìa, The Abarzúas, and the Bravo Retamal family showed up. We watched it and had a good time. It was a good get together.  

Friday

That morning we went and visited with one of the families from one of the references. We got in and they had apparently prepared lunch for us. In the family there is the older couple Bernarda Fuentes, and Vinceto. Their son was working but his wife Loreto was there. We had a bit of lunch and shared a few things and got to know them. We hit it off well. We are excited to work with them.

The day was really regular. That night, we went to visit Geraldina and her family. We went in and started to share a message. Surprisingly they opened up to all their doubts. They hardly believe that God even exists. They refused to go to church or commit to anything. It was weird and wasn’t fun for us to see yet another family have so many doubts. We finished up and left to our house. We will still visit them every once in a while but it’s going to be a long and slow process.

Saturday

We had a really regular day. We tried to go contact some future investigators, but their addresses were all false. We went and visited Eliana. We had a great lesson and shared a couple videos. She really enjoyed it. We are working step by step to help her get back to church. We had a day of just contacting people, and trying to find some more investigators but a lot just didn’t happen. We finished up by meeting with our Branch Mission Leader and cleaning the chapel.  

Sunday

 We had a good church meeting. It rained in the morning so not very many people showed up. It was frustrating. We planned well for the week and we are very excited to start this next week. We went out and visited some members and ran into the Campos family stacking firewood. We helped them out and shared an awesome message. We are determined to bringing them to church this next week.

We are excited as always to start another week and see what it brings. I have been really learning about one thing these past couple weeks. It is about opening our whole heart to our Heavenly Father and letting our Savior guide our steps. I have been wearing out my knees and trying to see how bad I want to be an instrument in the Lords hands. It is all about our desires and if we are willing to be led in the places we need to be at. I am learning tons out here in Retiro. It is really hard. I think I am really finding out who I am and how we need to work with the Savior while I am fully in his service. I am so grateful for a loving Savior who has trusted me to represent him. I am so grateful to be in his service! It is the opportunity of a lifetime. I look forward to every moment I have to learn more about Him and how to serve Him more. I hope we can all turn to his care and depend on him. 

Thank you so much for your letters and all your support. I am so grateful for all of you and all that you do. I love you so very much. My prayers are with you. I miss you and love you all. Until next week!

Elder Ethan Haws