¡Viva la Viña!: The Fuerza Of The Lord!

September 8, 2014

Hola familia!!!

I hope this finds you all well and good! Here, it´s a beautiful day as the sun is just starting to break through the fog. We haven´t had sun here for like 6 days so I´m rooting that in an hour or so all the clouds will be gone and it´ll be a beautiful day! I´m counting down the days for Spring... haha.

Yesterday the time changed here so it´s nice having more light in the evenings. But I don´t think I ever remember the time changing in September, or at least at the very beginning of September... Did the time change there too?? Who knows, maybe I just have a really bad memory... It´s weird the things from home that I just can´t seem to remember anymore. My compañera was asking me what my favorite movies were yesterday and I couldn´t for the life of me remember hardly any. The thought of sitting down and watching a movie seems like really weird. I don´t think I could right now. I think it would just give me anxiety sitting and not doing anything for that long of a time! haha. So I guess it´s good that we have a lot of work to do here.

This week we had the ¨estand¨ which we had to do for 4 hours everyday. It´s this big stand that has a question like ¨How can I find peace and happiness?¨ ¨How can I know if God has a plan for me?¨ ¨How can I raise a family strong, safe, and firm?¨ and we just stand there with it and talk to the people that stop and ask about it. It´s a great idea but because Limache is more campo (rural) and less busy with people walking through the streets, we didn´t have that much luck. But we did find two really good future investigadores so I mean if even one of them gets baptized, it's definitely worth the hours of nothing. But I memorized a few hymns in Spanish during the time so it wasn´t for nothing.

Because we were doing the stand all week that meant that we didn´t have as much time to teach and find new investigadores. But we did start teaching this new guy who went to school with one of the youth in our ward. He´s an interesting character. He´s read a lot about religion and philosophy. Like a lot. I´m talking everything from Greek and Roman philosophy to ancient Indian beliefs. And it´s like he takes it all as truth and so he´s concluded some of the weirdest things and his answers are always contradicting each other.. (When I asked him who is God, he replied with God is everything and everywhere and at times I myself am God.) But we taught him the plan of salvation and it actually went really well. He said that a lot of it seemed familiar to him. But if he prays, really wanting to receive an answer, I know he´ll get one. So we´ll just see where it goes. For the mean time I have to admit it´s kind of entertaining talking with him. Odd ball for sure, but a good guy none the less.

Also Saturday Ignacio got baptized!!! This was the highlight of my week!! He was one of the investigadores that we were teaching when I was with Hna. Ulloque with ALL of Limache. He´s a friend of Rodrigo, one of the YSA in the barrio. Ignacio was a little duro (stubborn) at the beginning. Did I mention that he counts the tithing for the Catholic Church... But one lesson we had, he came to us and was like, I don´t want to get on my knees anymore, I know the church is the true church. I don´t want to wait, I´m getting baptized! And it was just like that. It´s kinda funny because I think we taught him the restoration like 3 or 4 times and it was just like he wasn´t getting the importance of authority and we´d always just be like pray about it. And that was the one thing he wouldn´t do... haha I would have to make deals with him to get him to pray at the end of the lessons. But then he finally prayed and he received his answer! Gosh. It´s so crazy simple I love it. His baptism was super lindo (beautiful)! Marcel, this viejito (old man) that has been a member for almost a year now, gave a talk. He´s a hoot. He literally is like Mr. Bean, talks like Mr. Bean, is goofy like Mr. Bean, Chilean Señor Porotoes. Anyway I don´t think he really understood how to give a talk but he got up and just talked about what his baptism meant to him. He told us that he´d been having a hard week and that the people outside of the church are bad and mean to him but that his Padre Celestial gives him the strength everyday to continue on. He talked about the strength--FUERZA--that he has in his life with so much animo and so much sincerity that it moved me to tears. You know, I think I´m a little jealous, for lack of a better, more righteous word haha, of all the people that join the church when they´re older. Because whenever I listen to people talk about their baptism, it´s like the moment that changed their life. It´s the moment when they´re life went from good to amazing. They talk about how they still have the same problems and worries but they have this fuerza from the gospel that fills them with hope and happiness. They can see this grand difference in their life and they hold this memory and their baptism and really the gospel of Jesus Christo so close and dear to their heart. It motivates them in everything they do. I was born into the church, baptized at 8, so I don´t really have that. I was thinking about that a lot, but I realized that for me, it´s my mission more than my baptism that´s really my conversion point. My mission is a lot longer than a baptism (talk about pruney)but really it´s changing me. I can relate with the fuerza that Marcel was talking about because I feel it everyday serving the Lord. I love it and I hold the gospel even more dear to my heart, right now than ever before! I love this gospel and I love seeing people really change and become new creatures in Christ. Gosh. Good stuff.

Well that´s about it for this week but I love you all so much!!! Say your prayers and read your scriptures :)

Con todo el amor en mi corazón,

Hna. Evans