Hey everyone!
Wow it was a crazy week! Seriously I think if i had to use a word to describe it it would be "dynamic" hahaha. Me and elder gomey had just a ton of fire! The beginning of the week the zone leaders gave everyone kind of a crazy unatainable goal of 10 news and 10 lessons with member in one week, but me and gomey decided that the Lord would provide a way and we committed the district to work for that goal. The results were crazy! I swear this week we would knock like 3 doors and get in a house no problem! Im not sure if just more people are around for summer or what but we found new investigators like crazy and this week is just full of lessons with them know! Its such a huge change from what my life was in LA hahaha. We are teaching like a million lessons now! I did the math and we found 4 times as many news in one week here as we did in a whole transfer in via ohiggins!!! That being said the problem here is way different. Many people are willing to talk to us and listen for a while, but as far as following committments and giving us a firm return lesson, not so much. It is kind of a big game of sorting and prioritizing the people who want to progress and the people who just kind of didnt have anything to do that day so they let the mormons in hahahaha. We also were able to have a lot of success in bringing members to lessons this week, but the hard part is that i think we kind of worked them too hard this week and it might be kind of tough to get them to come with us this week considering theres like 20 of them hahaha. It was really cool to see the difference in the lessons we had while working with members. The Spirit is just there much more strong and the testimonies of teh members help so much! Seriously we found so many people we had to make a big list of all of them in order to remember! The last 2 or 3 days of the week were pretty discouraging but not too bad. It just seemed like that even though me and elder gomey had so much fire and were working so effectively, the opposition rose a ton as well. IT seemed like every person we had so much hope for earlier in the week something bad happened like a sick baby or an antimormon in law and we ended up with zero investigators in the church with us which was a big bummer. Its ok though! When challenges come its usually when we are really close to something good! Also ive been thinking that noone in the scriptures is famous for being faithful, choosing the right, and working when everything was peaceful and easy hahahaha. For that we are going to hit it even harder this week and keep up the fire and excitement we had this week and work on helping all those new investigators get to church! As far as stand out people this week we found this lady named Irene who's house had burned down 3 months ago when it was struck by ligthning! She told us she believed in God but never really had a church or faith or anything before. She didnt say it but i think she maybe took that lightning strike as a sign hahahaha. Cool part was that she prayed with us and it was the first time she had prayed in her entire life! As far as other cool stuff that happened we went to lake Colico! It was really pretty! Ill put in a pic of it and also a river that we passed by on the way. All the water here is either crystal clear or like sky bright blue! Its absolutely gorgeous! Its getting really hot here but we got a new fan for the house which saved us. Me and Gomey went to Nueva Imperial which is on the other side of teh country! not saying much for chile hahaha. That was fun and i got to work with elder Oliveira from brazil again and hes a friend. We also kind of heard a rumor from the senior couple that works in temuco that they are bringing us a fridge because its possible that next transfer theyre going to open up another sector in cunco! Totally a rumor dont believe it. We are suppossed to be getting 34 new missionaries next transfer, but our house and sector is so small i just dont believe it. We had interviews with the president which was awesome and got me really excited. He said some really nice things to me and told me its possible that i could train next transfer (wow another rumor). He just gave me a ton of encouragement and thanked me for the work ive been doing. it was way nice! Hna Bluth brought us all giant chocolate chip cookies too! So as a mission we are trying to read the entire BoM in 90 days so this week i finished 1 nephi. Luckily, i also had to give a sunday school class on the first part of 1 nephi (also a surprise talk hahaha that happens a lot here). I got to study and think a ton about the example that nephi is of someone who obeys, works, and is so concerned for his fellow man. I love how he goes into jerusalem the 3rd time to get the plates and how he says he pretty much had no idea how he was going to do it, he just straight up walked into the city. Pretty cool example of faithful obedience. I think me and gomey kind of saw that this week when in the begining we had no idea how we were going to have 10 news and 10 lessons with members, but we saw immediately that the Lord provided a way. Pretty cool. Nephi rocks. OH ya mom you asked why i said the BoM is the sword of missionaries! Short answer is that it is the keystone to testimony and conversion. Its actual tangible evidence of the Restoration. You can find imediately that people with an honest heart and real intent will read it and feel something different, while everyone who wont do that is just wanting to contend with or waste time with the missionaries. Also noone can prove it wrong which is cool. All in all it was a really good week! Im loving working and everything that comes with the adventure that is my mission, even though there are a ton of ups and downs. The cool thing is that every day is a new day! Im loving my time here but i think this week we are going to keep up the fire but at the same time im going to try to make it more fun. Gomey can be a little serious sometimes and i want to try to teach him the joy i learned to have w elder Parkin in my training. Love you guys tons and i love to hear from you all! Trevor
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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
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