Semana 10 in Rosal II

"So on the fourth of July I didn´t really realize it was the fourth of July. But the hermana we ate lunch with remembered. She had steak and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy sauce and brocoli with ceasar dressing. I haven´t had ceaser dressing in like... a year so that was cool. The hermana is the secretary for the area presidency in Chile. So I took advantage of the situation to ask some probing questions about the church's history in Chile. She told me that there are 32 closed chapels in Chile, all because of a lack of good planning. She said in one part there are two chapels NEXT DOOR TO EACH OTHER!!! Nice. And one is closed. Good call. She also said that the missionary who baptized her husband (who is still active unlike many others in his situation) told him: "Well if you want to you can just get baptized, and if you don´t like the church you don´t have to go back" so that was pretty interesting. She also said that a bunch of people got baptized in exchange for free appliances, and also because they lost ping pong matches, and that there was a mission president who told his missionaries that all that a person needs to know to be baptized can be learned in 5 minutes. So they would invite people to be baptized in contacts. Also she said that because of the language barrier, they did baptisms for the dead by going to cemetaries and writing down their names from gravestones then baptizing vicariously in the chapel and counting it as a convert baptism. The adress written down to contact the new member was the cemetary. haha Chile.

"So yeah. Lots of meetings this week. So I didn´t tell you last week but along with becoming a senior companion and training, President Jones also called me to be a district leader. He told me in our interview that this is the most responsibility that any missionary can have at one time, especially cuz they are both new assignments for me. He said that either one of the assignments by themselves would be a lot to handle, but I have both at once. I told him that I feel pretty overwhelmed and stuff but he said that he trusts me and the Lord trusts me so I don´t have to worry. I just have to learn how to prioritize and organize bien mi tiempo (my time better) and work as hard as I can and the Lord will take care of the rest. I am doing my best to trust in that promise and keep working hard. So this week was pretty hectic. Tuesday I had a leadership meeting with Elder Williams (our zone leader) and Elder Ballard (the other district leader in our zone, he goes home next month) where we talked about our districts and how to be better leaders. Wednesday we had our zone meeting. Thursday we had interviews with President Jones, and Friday we had the greenie meeting for greenies and trainers to help us out. I learned a lot. I am just feeling like I have so much I need to do (teach my comp Spanish and how to be a missionary, and how to teach and everything) plus I need to be studying the leadership manual I got from the office and prepare classes for district meetings and also worry about the missionaries in my district. It´s just pretty crazy. I think sometimes the Lord just gives us assignments like this so that we know right away that we can´t do it on our own. I know that I am not capo (able or capable) enough to handle all of this, but that is the first step that is necessary to receive the Lord's help. So that is good.

"This week we went to an inactive sister´s house to talk about that permaneced iniciative (reactivation efforts) and bring her back to church. She had a Lladro in her house. I was like "¿is that a Lladro?" and she was like "Yes." I thought that was cool I haven´t seen those in a while, since we left home for the airport. Also yesterday Liliana came to church. She is progressing really well. She is ready to get baptized, it´s just this whole wanting to do it in a river thing that is holding her back. I explained the situation to President Jones and he said he would call her and talk to her. Also I think Elder Mcbee had his back operated on here in Chile and he is resting in the office, but i´m not sure. Also last night we had an awesome family home evening with Familia Casas. I think I told you about them. Victor (the dad) is a member and his wife Irene and son Fabián aren´t, but we are teaching them now. Fabián is the man. He is kinda atheist but he is a great kid, he doesn´t smoke or drink or even dance inappropriately. And he likes ska music. What else could one ask for. So we had a FHE with them and Familia Costa (the ex ward mission leader´s fam). I taught them how to make brownies using Elder Mcbee´s recipe and they were SO GOOD!!! And Hermano Costa gave a class about the atonement and we watched "To this end was I born" (por esto he nacido). It was good. I have a lot of hope for that family. They want to be an eternal family so I am pretty psyched about that.

"Elder Cannon is doing well. His Spanish is improving more and more every day. He always has really creative ideas of how to help the investigators and stuff. I am really grateful to have him as a companion. Other than that we are doing well. We are trying to visit 10 inactive families cada semana (this week) to help them out, and we are working hard."