Week 58

Wow! This week was PACKED. There is so much that happened. It was probably one of my best weeks here in Chillán, progress and work wise. We found so many people this week!  From investigators to less actives, the members were helping us find tons of people. I’ll explain some really cool experiences of how we found these people.

At the very start of the week on Monday, we had Mitzi go over to a FHE with some other members and investigators that the other elders are teaching. We helped her get over there and then we took off to another FHE that Jose Arias had invited us to. He said that he was going to invite someone over so that we could teach. (Just a review, Jose Arias is an awesome semi-recent returned missionary that served in Argentina. He is about one of the most powerful people I have met in Chile. His knowledge of the gospel and his enthusiasm for missionary work is incredible. It has been a privilege getting to learn from him. I learn tons from this guy.) It turned out, however, that the people didn’t show up. We ended up discussing developing Christ-like attributes during our life and as our time as missionaries. We got down into great detail.

So, the people he invited are a family that has been inactive for a while. The dad, Juan Luis was baptized a little over a year ago; he went inactive because of work and some other family situations. Jose Arias is now their home teacher. He approached us to help him rescue this family. Their oldest son, Jonathan, is 16 and has been investigating the church for a very long time. Elder Sanabria was even working with him for a while. So we decided that during the week we would help Jose Arias out and work with this family.

Later in the week we passed by and had a great lesson. Jose Arias accompanied us as well. We were very direct. We asked very specific questions. We found out that in the first place he doesn’t even know who Jesus Christ is or what he really did. He doesn’t believe in prophets or authority. It gave us the direction to take right away. We shared our testimonies and invited him and his dad to accompany us to church on Sunday. We also specifically invited him to a ward FHEon Friday, a soccer game on Saturday, and church on Sunday. Through a miracle, HE CAME TO ALL OF THE ACTIVITIES AND TO CHURCH BY HIMSELF. His dad also came to church with him on Sunday. It is a great blessing and we are seeing the progress we are making by working through members.

Mitzi has been giving us some trouble. Now that she has dropped alcohol and cigarettes, she is going through some tough times with all the medical trouble from all of the drug abuse. She seems a bit more stressed and worn down, which is normal after dropping those things after being addicted for so long. We also invited her to some various activities at the church and to sacrament meeting but she didn’t show up to any of them. Out of the blue this Saturday, her brother came by and took her off to his house for the weekend. We were very disappointed and are a bit disheartened. We have to start all over again with her church attendances and basically build all the way up again so that she can get baptized. We will see how committed she is to continuing and hopefully she will be able to still progress fast and still get baptized this month.

We had a mini cambio this Tuesday and our District leader, Elder De Leon came to Chillán, and I headed off to Quillón. Miracles happened when I was gone. Apparently they left and visited a few people with a member named Julia Arriagada. After a very disappointing visit where they were basically thrown out of a house of an Old Catholic lady, Julia threw out references to people that she had known that lived close to where they were. I can’t remember the initial name she threw out but they went out to look for it. My companion Elder Bird has some documents of all the members in the phone that we have and he looked up the possibilities of the people that lived where Julia said. They found one and went and knocked on the door. A woman came out and was hesitant to let the missionaries in, after some persistence they got in and began to teach. This woman’s name is Carol. She lives in a huge area of houses that is concealed from the street. When you approach where she lives there is a house and next to it there is a metal wall/gate. When the gate is opened, there is a line of about 10 houses or so. She lives in one of those. She is a member of the church. She was baptized when she was 11 and went inactive at about 15 because of family and drugs. Apparently it was a good lesson. The Elders began to teach, during the lesson Elder De Leon said a specific line, ‘’Salvation is real and it is in your own hands.’’ Carol began to cry and hugged Hermana Julia. Apparently Carol had been praying the night before in a time of desperation to know if there was salvation in this life and if was possible to find it. She said the missionaries were an answer to her prayers. I got to visit her on Friday and she is an awesome person. She has a very energetic 7 year old son, and has a very small house and is living with her…. Ugggg…. How do you say ‘’pareja’’ in English…… Spanish is just too good now. She is living with another guy and they aren’t married. So, they need to get married and she is very excited to coming back to church and finding the joy and peace of the gospel. She came to the ward FHE and to church on Sunday!

During the mini cambio they also found another less active through another member in the night. Her name is Jaquelin. She has been inactive for about 10+ years and has an 11 year old son. She didn’t show up at church this week but she is very promising and is very excited to coming back to church.

It was pretty cold this week. Some cold fronts came through in the first part of the week and it just made the whole week cold. Hopefully the week warms up again. I really like the warmth.

It was Elder Bird’s birthday this Wednesday. Last Sunday I coordinated with Jimena Vergara, and some other Hermana’s and we set up a ‘’FHE – Surprise birthday party.’’ Elder Bird said that it was the first surprise birthday party where he had no clue that it was going to happen. It was a great party. The members really love Elder Bird. He has been here for almost 6 month now and knows all of the members very well. It was good to see how much it all cheered him up. It was a good night.

Elder Bird’s birthday party

It was a very successful week. We had 10 less actives in church this Sunday!! We taught a lot of lessons and saw some serious blessings being poured out on us.

I know that the Savior has His time and knows us personally and is waiting to mold us to who He knows we can become. I am grateful to be in a position where I can be His clay and be completely reliant on His guide. I know He lives. I know He guides. I know that our Heavenly Father hears and answers honest and humble prayers. I know that their love is infinite.

So it’s been great writing you all. It’s been great listening to this one guy out in the plaza where we are ROCKING his saxophone to ‘’How great thou art’’ for the last forever.  It’s always a pleasure to hear from all of you and listen to all that is happening in your lives. I love you all so much. I miss you all, and I look forward to seeing you again. Until next week

 Elder Ethan Haws 

"A cool lizard we spotted a while ago"