Hey everyone!
This week was kind of uneventful,so I'll try to stretch it out, but I think we all know I never have a problem talking a lot hahahahahah. All of you guys sound so great! Please keep writing me a ton. I love it! More the better! MACY THE SNOW QUEEN what the heck right when I leave -- not fair hahahah. I wish I could see it! Also girls camp sounds way fun! Mom, it sounds horrible for Jake. Wow that's super rough! its good your class is getting better slowly hahahaha. Wish I could have heard all the farewell talks too. That sounds way fun. I love thinking about how we are all serving together at the same time. It's such a cool thought. When you think of all the missionaries in the world, you realize you have a really cool team. Dad work sounds hard! I told Elder B. you read his emails and he was flattered hahahaha. He and Elder A. are some of my best friends and examples here on the mission. It actually wasn't that hot this week because there was a lot of wind which was really nice. Now it's hot again hahahaha but I think it's supposed to rain this week again. So this week started off kind of rough because we pretty much only had J. as a hope of someone who really was going to progress this week, and then she canceled on us last minute! She was the only cita we had that day and we had been contacting for 3 hours and because when she bailed we had 3 hours more to go! She told us she wouldn't have time all week! She really is busy with work so I dont blame her, but still we were really discouraged. I felt pretty sick of my sector at that moment and pretty dang tired, but we kept on chugging and knocking doors like we always do. I remembered what I've learned and been taught that the last little bit we can do is the most important. I can really testify of that now because of my mission. Every time I've been at my very lowest the Lord has sent me a really big miracle. When J. canceled, I was wondering if I was really giving it my all and doing my part and if I was making a difference in the lives of people here and was kind of bummed. Then we decided to go over to a less active member's house and she let us in right away. She was super sad because her boyfriend of 5 years and father of her 2 year old broke up with her that day. She said she was just barely thinking about how she didnt have the will to keep going when we showed up. We shared something short with her about our testimonies and told her that we are always there for her. Then after I gave her a blessing of comfort. It was so special, and made me remember that just because I don't see it or because we don't have as much "success" as other sectors, we are still being rewarded and blessed for our work, our obedience, and our faith. That blessing for me was almost as special as I imagine a baptism would be. The very next day we had absolutely nothing, as often happens here hahahaha so it was looking like a full on day of only contacting. We started and the first street we knocked a 21 year old girl who lives with her parents, husband (shes actually married wooo!!!), and son let us in! We only talked with her but she is so awesome! She understood really well which doesnt happen very often and was really receptive and interested! We challenged her to baptism and she accepted willingly! The best part is that we found her again later this week and answered a bunch of her questions and got to know her better. She is way cool! She was out of town for day of the dead so couldn't come to church but is coming this week! We have a lesson with her tomorrow but I'm going to miss it for an intercambio booooo. We picked out some really good fellowship for her too. I really think she could be the miracle baptism of my time here. She's kind of my last hopeish. Who knows! She's really great though. We had interviews with the president which was fun! He and Hma Bluth are really dang awesome! I was able to tell him about how much I'm loving it here and about how much ive learned. I think he knows this sector is pretty rough so he was sympethetic about it. He asked me how many lessons a week we have and i said "5" and he told me the goal church wide for every comanionship is 20! I had no idea hahaha I said I would love to have that every week hahahah. It was really cool and spiritual though. Hma Bluth made chocolate chip cookies wow they were good. It was good but the whole process kind of killed our whole day which was a bummer. This week went dang fast though. Our mission is really focused on numbers. It's kind of sad. There are a ton of wards here that have like less then 30 percent of their baptized members active. [It's really 12-15%.] It's really a big bummer becasue the leadership of the mission pushes numbers really hard. That's one reason I love Elder Boyer and A is because while they are leaders here they are still so Christlike and loving, and really don't push numbers at us. I love those guys. Ok one more miracle. We were kind of losing hope for M and P but this week on last Friday they told us they were totally coming to church for sure out of nowhere! Thanks for your prayers I think that did it! M told us about a ton of blessings theyve seen since weve started teaching them. Way cool. I still worry that they do stuff just because they like us. Hopefully not. Important thing is that they came to church woooo! Another not so good thing is that the gospel principles lesson was on the gathering of Israel which I barely understand -- what the heck. They didn't make it to sacrament but next week hopefully! They stil have a way to go. I'm really trying to increase in my love for the people here because I've noticed a lot of missionaries here lack that. It's just hard when you don't have a lot of people to love and the vast majority are less than nice to you. I'm really interested in learning how to have more charity in general. Send me some tips. That was my fast too. We kind of had a let down this Sunday with our ward leadership because we've been planning this awesome activity to invite everyone to come and meet, including members and non-members with the missionaries in our house, so kind of like a double ward missionary night. We had everything figured out before Sunday including posters and flyers printed out and when we changed one detail, it got shut down. It was really really frustrating because we were told we were the ones that had to do everything to organize it, which we were happy to do, but then our idea got killed. We still don't have a ward mission leader to work with us either. It's frustrating when all we have to show in our form of progressing investigators is like one name on it every week. I love our bishop and sustain him, but this week was rough. I guess what I would say is that never ever assume that the missionaries in your ward aren't working or something. I dunno. Just help them out they need it. They literally are working full time walking a ton everyday to help your ward. Sorry to whine a little bit. I don't know if I have a ton more. WE made chorizo sandwhiches for halloween it was fun! We went to salta de laja again which was awesome again! It was a really fast but good week! Only have two more with elder p most likely! Im doing good and loving it! Love you guys. Love from chile, Trevor
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Elder Trevor SmithElder Trevor Smith is a Mormon missionary in the Chile Concepcion Sur mission, the same mission where his dad served. Although this is Trevor's own mission, he grew up hearing about the beautiful land of Chile and the loving people that inhabit it. These are the letters from his experience there. Archives
July 2017
|