"Labor all your days" in Santiago Chile: Week Three and a Baptismal Date!

So Monday last week after I emailed you guys I went on an adventure! We went to the Plaza de Armas to have lunch with some of the Hermanos in our Ward at Burger King. We had to get permission to go an everything it was super exciting. Honestly Burger King here is a bit ridiculous. It´s like 10 dollars for a combo! After lunch, we hopped on the metro to go to San Pablo so we could mail letters back home. That´s right family! You will finally get some letters soon! So that night was super awesome and we worked hard and I had accidentally made an appointment the night before with Claudio for Monday at 6. Well from 6 to 7:30 we are supposed to do weekly planning and it just kind of spaced my mind the night before. It was no sweat though because we just flipped the schedule around and worked from 6 to 8 and planned from 8 to 9:30. So went to to our 6 o´clock appointment with Claudio and he wasn´t there... But since we were out we just continued on as planned. We went to visit one of my contancts who is named Herna. While we were at her house, a lady was walking to Hernas house. I thought it was Herna because she looked familiar and it had been a while since I had seen Herna. I asked her if she could chat for a few minutes. She said sure and much to my surprise her she quickly got her kids from Herna´s house and proceeded to walk to a different house. I realized that this was an inactive lady named Bernarda that we had talked with a few days ago and thats why she looked familiar and she had said she was super hard to get a hold of. So it was a miracle alone that we got to visit with her. We also got to meet her nephew Brian who was super cool and he sat and we had a quick lesson with them! It was super cool. I know that we had no idea why we were out at that time but it was no coincidence that we were in that exact place at the exact time we needed to in order to talk with Bernada and her nephew Brian. We were able to set up another appointment for Sunday and we left feeling great. I really have a testimony that when we are just trying to do what is right that we will be guided by the Spirit and that most of the time we won´t realize until after something happened that the entire time we were being led by the Spirit.

Tuesday was kind of a sad day. We went to see a contact named Lorenzo and his grandma opened the door and said she wanted to talk with us. She proceeded to tell us how she was baptized in our church but that she doesn´t go anymore. It was a really sad visit because this ladies life has just been consumed by doubt. And it all started with a doubt of one thing. Because she let that doubt consume her and not act in faith and pray to her heavenly father she has just completely consumed by all sorts of doubts. She told us that she feels sorry for us and stuff but honestly my heart was breaking for her because everything in her life is a doubt. Finally we just left her with our testimonies that we know that the church is true and that if she would just pray to her heavenly father with all the sincerity of her heart that her doubts could be put at ease. This experience just reminded me of a quote I love by President Uchtdorf that says "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." This is seriously some of the best advice I have ever gotten. Whenever you have a doubt about anything just pray and your heart will always put at ease and something will always help resolve your doubt. After we talked with her I was reading in Alma 24 at dinner and there was a scripture that really stood out to me because of this situation and that was Alma 24:30. That night we went and had a short visit with Alex and Carola and shared Helamana 5:12 with them. That´s probably my favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon. We also talked with Fallon for a bit and she´s doing great.

Wednesday was a really rough day. Nothing seemed to work out and about all we did all day was sweep fallons patio and play with Martin for a sec while we visited with Fallon for a second. We were obedient and worked hard but I was just kind of in a slump and it was just kind of a hard day. But hey they happen!

Thursday was an awesome day! We worked really hard and our numbers were so much better. So a couple of weeks ago I contacted a guy that turned out to be drunk and didn´t want to talk about God at the time because he was drunk. We ended up running into him again last week when we went to the house of a lady on our ward list and he quickly turned us away. We saw this same guy on Thursday out in the street and this time he came up to us and he was drunk yet again... He chatted with us for a sec about how he was a musician. Then this girl was walking by and he decides to call her over and he points to me and says "this is a good looking guy." Then he pointed to my companion and says "This is a good looking guy" and then he pointed to himself and says "And I´m a musician." I was trying really hard not to laugh cause I had no idea what he meant by that but after a couple more seconds the girl politely excused herself and we went to end our conversation with the drunk guy who´s name is Guiermo. But he said nope come into my house for a second I want to pray with you. We said ok and when we went inside we met his mother. His mother is the inactive lady that we´ve been looking for! Then we walked into the next room and he said "and this was our angel." When I walked into the room, I saw a guy who had a severe mental disability. I will admit that I was a bit taken by surprise by it and I feel bad for that cause he was a super awesome guy. He didn´t have much control over his arms and they were constantly moving but when we went to say hello he was so sweet and asked us how we were and shook our hands. That was about the extent of his ability to communicate with us. Then Guiermo asked if I would pray with his family. I said of course and proceeded to offer a prayer. During that prayer I felt the spirit so strongly and I felt so much love for these people and I knew that they needed to hear the gospel. This was a really good experience for me to have and it is a little bit weird but it touched me. As we left Guiermo said "Thank you for blessing me and my family." That made it worth it. That night we met with Hermano Paraguez and just bounced around some ideas for how we could work better with the members because that is something Elder Bullock and I want to work on.

Friday was awesome! We had a conference with a member of the seventy named Elder Viñaz. We talked about the atonement and it´s significance in our missions. It was a super awesome think to be able to just sit there and think about and to hear others experiences. Now I didn´t understand everything Elder Viñaz said but I heard what I needed to hear and thats for sure. We also talked about Baptisms and prospective elders. He put the numbers up on the board for the number of baptisms in our mission over the past two years and the number of baptisms of men over the age of 18 and the number of baptisms that became elders. I did the math and figured out that only 23% of our baptisms the past two years have been men above the age of 18. And I did even more math and figured out that about 12% of those men above the age of 18 became elders. That means that only 2.7% of our baptisms become Elders. That lesson really just inspired me that not only do we have to do better about teaching men, but we also need to stick with our converts after baptism and focus on reactivating men in the ward who can become Elders. Every house needs a priesthood holder.

After that conference we had a crazy experience with this guy in the park. He called us from across the park and came over to talk to us. This dude was definitely drunk and who knows what else. He proceeded to tell us that he was telepathic and that he was reading my mind and I was a troubled young man. And then he told us about how he couldn´t read or write but he had is mother write for him and he had written this ginormous book that he called "The Book of life." And he told us that he had power in his hands. It was kinda weird and funny at the same time but it was for sure uncomfortable. I tried to tell him in the nicest way possible that we had an appointment (cause we did) and we would love to talk with him another day. He proceeded to tell Elder Bullock that I was a bad spirit. Which is kind of funny because a little bit earlier when he shook my hand he told me it was an honor. This dude was all over the place. Finally we said our goodbyes and went on our way.

That night we taught Alex and Carola the word of wisdom and... THEY SAID THEY WOULD LIVE IT! They are so getting baptized. Friday was a super awesome day with just a little bit of everything. Oh yeah! I got a letter from my dad and Kirsten too and they were FREAKING AWESOME and super motivating so thank you! No package though :/ I´m sure it will be here this week!

Alright nothing really happened until Saturday night but Saturday night was amazing. We went and visited with Patricio and read the Book of Mormon with him. After we finished reading he said that his testimony was increasing every time we read with him but he felt guilty. He said that he should be reading more. This poor guy has to work all day, go to school at night, provide for his family, and go to a lot of medical exams that are going on with his son Martin but he is right. The thing was is I could totally relate to him. It´s tough to do those little things like reading your scriptures and stuff when life seems so busy BUT they make the BIGGEST difference ever. This is something I have come to have a really strong testimony of out here. Right before we went over there I was reading in Alma 37 and I knew exactly what scripture I needed to share with him. I read Alma 37:6 which says, "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." And I just bore my testimony to him that I know if he can just find a little time in his day to read he will be blessed imsensely. The great thing is that the reason he has that guilt is because he has the desire to grow closer to Heavenly Father and do what is right. I told him that Heavenly Father knew that and knew his heart and would help him to find time to read as he prayed for help. I felt like a really connected with him right then. That was a moment where I truly felt like I was being guided by the spirit because I didn´t know what I was going to say but I just knew I needed to read that scripture with him. It was no coincidence either that I decided to read some more of the Book of Mormon at dinner either.

Alright so Sunday morning was awesome and church was great. We went to see Bernada and Brian that night but they weren´t home. Bernardas daughter told us to come on in anyways. WE asked if there was a male above the age of 18 to make sure that it was cool for us to be there. She ran and got her boyfriend who´s name was Juan Pablo. Her name was Catalina. We just explained that we had to verify that there was another man in the house and told him he could stick around if he would like or go back to doing whatever. He decided to stick around. We also got to meet there little 2 year old. I don´t remember his name but he was fun. We taught them the first lesson and it was super awesome! The spirit was soooo strong. Unfortunately Juan Pablo had to leave for a few minutes to take care of some business with there son and he missed the first vision. But both Catalina and Juan Pablo were so attentive the entire time which is rare for such young adults. We asked if we could meet with them again the next Sunday and they said YES! So now we have 2 more new investigators and maybe next Sunday we can meet with all 4 of our friends in that house and have a lesson with three investigators and a less active! That night we had a lesson with Alex and Carola with Hermano Paraguez. WE finally had a member to help us teach! That morning in church it was the fifth Sunday and for third hour we talked about tithing. WE had planned to teach the law of chastity that night but we knew Alex might have some questions about tithing. So we were ready to teach both lessons.

Once we got there he did indeed have questions about tithing so that is what we taught. At church during the lesson I was trying to think if I had any testimony building experiences with tithing and then I realized something major! After I had finished up my second semester at BYU, I had a lot of unpaid tithing from my job out there. It wasn´t the easiest thing to do but I knew I needed to pay it. I paid all of the tithing for the paychecks I received second semester. At this same time I was looking for a job to try and save up a little bit more money before my mission. I didn´t put two and two together at the time but after I paid my tithing I had 3 members of our ward tell me that I could work for them and help me out. That was seriously one of the biggest blessings in the world and it meant the world to me! I told that story to Alex and I think he really understood that the blessings for following God´s commandments are real and that they are different for everybody! Hermano Paraguez was a HUGE blessing during the lesson. He helped explain things a ton! And he practically taught him about the fast offerings and fasting. I mean it was seriously a killer lesson. At the end Alex asked "Do you have to pay tithing before you are baptized?" Right when he said that the thought popped into my head ask him to be baptized! I knew we were waiting for the law of chastity lesson for that but I knew I had to ask then. I did some quick math and my head and I knew he had to get married and stuff so I decided a month and a half would be a safe date. I knew the 18th of October was either a Saturday or a Sunday. After Hermano Paraquez and Elder Bullock explained the answer. I asked Alex if he would be prepared to be baptized on the 18th of October and he said YES! The spirit in that lesson was so strong. And afterwards while we were eating once with them Hermano Paraguez just kept killing it and inviting them to ward activities and everything else. He really connected with them. Our ward mission leader is amazing! Sunday night was just an amazing way to end the week and I invited my first person to be baptized!

The quote for this week is by Boyd K Packer. "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior." I love all of you guys a lot! Have a great week!

Elder Shell