Week 8

 Week 8:

I have officially been in Chile for a whopping 12 days!!! Wuju vamos Chile! This week there has been a lot of preparation for the 18th of September!! It is like the 4th of July of Chile. So there are Chilean flags everywhere and crazy like flea market type things in the park. Everyone is excited. Apparently they eat lots of asada and empanadas and a special kind of juice. Not exactly sure but I'm excited! I'm not quite sure what the rules are for missionaries because it might be dangerous for us cuz everyone is drinking and partying for like 3 days straight. We'll see though. 

This week on Wednesday we had a 2 day mission wide conference with Elder Costa of the 70! On Wednesday we traveled to Viña via Metro and it was super pretty! We had 3 meetings while we were in Vina and the main message was that we are not here to baptize people. We are not here to force anyone to make covenants with god. Our goal and purpose is to Invite. Invite others to come to Christ. All we have to do is worry about if we are doing our part and inviting. And no matter what is happening or not happening, we need to have our thoughts centered on Christ, gratitude, and service. 

After the 3 meetings we had dinner with the entire mission and then members picked us up and drove us home. My comp gets really bad motion sickness especially in cars and so the entire way back she was trying to not throw up haha. But we got dropped off at our apartment 20 minutes before our day ended and Elder Costa previously (in the conference) challenged us to invite 2 people to church when we returned back to our apartments. This seems like an easy task, but here in Limache once it is dark it is like a ghost town. No one is outside. And so we knew it was going to be difficult, but my companion was literally going to vomit. So we were walking to our apartment so she could collect herself and on the way up the stairs there was a man behind us. So we talked to him while we were going up the 5 flights of stairs and by the time we got to the top, my companion had invited him to church. One down, one to go. After my comp laid down for like 5 minutes, we went back outside and literally as we had walked maybe 10 seconds outside our apartment gate a car pulled up to a house. We talked to the man and invited him to church. Then we turned around and went back to our apartment when it was exactly 9:30. It seems insignificant but wholly cow was that a miracle. 

There was an earthquake Thursday morning at 3:30 am! I thought my companion was shaking me awake or something but after I woke up it kept going for probably 2 minutes. It wasn't big enough to actually be concerning but it was kinda spooky haha. 

This week something interesting happened that really strengthen my testimony in an unexpected way. Hma Durkin and I were making contacts in the calle (street) and we started talking to this man. Hma Durkin said after the fact that when they made eye contact it was a different kind of eye contact and the first question she asked him after the "hola, cómo está?"was "cómo se siente?" (this never happens) And the conversation went almost immediately to a gospel conversation. Hma Durkin shared a strong testimony that this church is the true church on the earth with God's authority and permission. But this man pushed back on every question asking difficult doubting questions about the church. I could feel that he was listening to our conversation but his heart was very hard. Nothing we had said or the spirit had said through its presence had penetrated his heart. I tried to share a few words about special it is that we have covenants that bind us to God and Jesus christ that give us added peace, comfort, and ability to do hard things. And I was very close to crying probably 3 times because of how much i realized how true our message is and that we are called by a divine source to do this work. I was sad that this man didn't want to hear our message because it would change his life infinitely for the better. It was an interesting testament to me that we need opposition in all things to know what is good and true. I am still very sad for that man and I pray that he will think about the message we shared with him, but I know that our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ, and that is what we did. We did our part and now we have to leave it up to God. 

Something even more awesome happened to two sisters in our District Hermana Christian and Hermana Ribeiro. They were in Viña for the conference with Elder Costa and they spent the night in Viña. And they wanted to do the challenged that Elder Costa extended too so they were contacting in the streets of Vina. And they were talking with a man that had just lost his daughter. And the sister missionaries were thinking this is literally perfect because we have the good news this man is looking for. And in the middle of their conversation, another man came up to them and said super plainly and direct "My name is ___. i am a member of their church. Their message is really important and it changed my life. Listen to them." And then that man left. I don't remember his name but that man had the same first name Hermana Ribeiro's father who has passed away. And Hermana Ribeiro says that she knows that was her father helping her from the other side. Isn't that so special?! I know this work is the work of God and that there is no other church on the earth that is as correct as this one. This is the true church. God does love everyone. And with high love come high expectation. He expects each of us to be diligentlystriving to follow Jesus Christ and keep our covenants that we have made with him. I testify of the power of covenants that they really do bind us to God and bring unique and special blessings into our lives. I hope all of you had an amazing week and will have another amazing one this week. Don't forget to show your gratitude to God :) 

I love you! God loves you!!