We saw several miracles this week.  

We have an investigator named Raquel, who is probably in her 60s. She has therapy every day for her knee, so we haven't been able to visit her much. We've visited 3 times but never been able to actually sit down and have a lesson with her. The first time, we talked with her through the window and left The Restoration pamphlet. She had many questions about all sorts of things and was very interested. The next time, she told us she read the pamphlet and believed Joseph Smith was a prophet, and wanted to know how much a Book of Mormon cost. We laughed a little bit and told her we couldn't sell her one, and she was a little disappointed. We gave her the book for free, of course. We were thrilled! After about a week, we stopped by yesterday to see how she was doing with the therapy and such. She had already read through First and Second Nephi! I can't even think of a word to describe our excitement. This sweet little lady is going to have the Book of Mormon read completely before we can even teach the first lesson. 

We have another investigator named Gerardo who's been hard to visit, as he drives a taxi during much of the proselyting hours. He has been very faithful about attending church every week for over a year, and many members think that he already is a member. Around 4:00 we were walking to an appointment far away from his house, but we ran into him, and he said he had the day off, so we could come visit. Our other lesson fell through, so we were able to go to his house very soon after. We had a great lesson with him about keeping the commandments and following Christ, and he accepted the extended baptismal date. At the end he prayed, and in the prayer he recognized that there had been a miracle, that God really must want him to continue in this path. He had had the decision of two roads in which he could take, and he had felt like he should take the one he doesn't usually take, and there we were! We are working with him to get him off of the 60 cigarettes he smokes every day, I will let you know how that goes.  

There's never quite enough time.

Elder Garrett

Ok, temblor. 

In the states we would've called it a fairly big earthquake, here they just called it a slightly big tremor. It was like a 5 something. We didn't even feel it, because we were riding our bikes, but all of a sudden everyone came out of their houses, all of the dogs started barking, and all of the car's alarms went off. Don't worry, there wasn't any damage. I survived, without knowing there was something to survive. 

We found out about cambios Saturday night. Elder Kelson and I are still here in Renca 2.2, and Elder Villagran is also staying. His companion, Elder Shelley got transferred to Conchalí. In his place is Elder... Huaratapayro... I don't know if I spelled that right, but I promise I can pronounce it right. He is from Peru, and is really short. He was Elder Kelson's companion a while back. So basically, not much changed around here.

However, the mission is already changing rapidly, due to the lowering of age requirements. In anticipation, we've already created two new zones. Most of the wards here will likely be receiving at least one more set of missionaries. 

The missionary department has been absolutely flooded with applications.  Currently 63% of the missionaries in our mission have less than one year, and 45% have less than 6 months of experience. And, we will have a huge surge of missionaries probably starting in January. It is going to be nuts.  

President just found out that they will be moving into a new mission home in a few months and many North American missionaries will come directly to their home as part of their MTC training rather than going to Provo. 

Ok, Elder Bednar came. It was really sweet. There were also 3 seventies and all of their wives. He came to meet with officials in Santiago about something, and decided to pay us a rare 3 hour visit. He later told President that due to the growth of the church, personal visits by Apostles are going to be increasingly rare. 

It was a really cool meeting, but very different than you'd expect. He really didn't stand in front of us and give a prepared speech. He had us study two talks about asking in faith before he came, and then we just discussed them. He asked questions and volunteers answered, then we were given the opportunity to ask him questions. So that was really sweet. He said if anyone asked him where the sword of Laban is he'd make them sit down and he'd tell them he doesn't know and really doesn't care. He told us not to ask questions that we could find the answer on our own. It was very interesting, and very cool, and the spirit was very strong. We didn't get to shake his hand, as he was in a hurry to get to another meeting in Santiago and there were probably 400 missionaries. It is very cool to hear the testimony of an Apostle.

He said when you teach someone, you should teach them like an agent who has moral agency, instead of like an inanimate object, hence the different approach to the meeting. Ultimately, the Holy Ghost is the teacher, as chances are good the people you teach will not retain the information you tell them. The Holy Ghost carries the message unto their hearts when they invite the spirit in by exercising their faith and agency. If you don't let them participate, it's hard for them to invite the spirit. 

It was a blessing to have a prophet, seer, and revelator in our midst and to feel of his spirit and hear his testimony of Christ.

We have a great ward mission leader in this ward, and on Saturday night, we worked with him and he introduced us to all of his neighbors. He had already given out several copies of the Book of Mormon to some of them. We were able to teach two lessons, and get one of his neighbors to church with him on Sunday. It was really amazing. He opened doors for us where we probably would've been rejected if it had just been the two of us. 

We've had many amazing experiences working with members. They can open doors and open hearts that we have worked with for weeks. We had a lesson with an investigator where we didn't say a word, only her and the member talked, and at the end, she committed to going to church on Sunday. 

We are working with him and the support of the bishop to put together a gigantic month-long plan/activity to get the ward and especially the young men and young women excited about missionary work. We hope that it will generate more collaboration between the ward and the missionaries. I will let you know how that goes. 

I was asked to bear my testimony at a family home evening we did with the ward on Thursday. I will share that same testimony with you. 

I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and we are brothers and sisters. When we really understand this relationship, we will have a desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our neighbors, friends and acquaintances. I know that when members and missionaries work together, we can help our brothers and sisters access the Atonement of Jesus Christ, find peace and happiness in this life, and live with their families for eternity. If it's important to you, extend the invitation to them to find out why it is important to you. 

I'm out of time, so enjoy winter.  It's getting hot in Chile.  My first Christmas in the summer is right around the corner. 

Elder Garrett

 

Queridos amigos, 

Wow. Fasting works.  After fasting and praying a lot yesterday, we almost immediately witnessed the blessings/miracles.

We met a guy named Luis yesterday, who let us in, and we taught lesson 3. At the end, we extended a baptismal date, and he accepted it. We asked him to say the closing prayer. He started the prayer with "Padre Celestial," which is normal. He began to sob. He thanked God for the tranquility that he could feel right then. The spirit was so strong, and we know he realized this is what he needs in his life. He gave a beautiful prayer. He thanked us so much for coming and we will visit him again later this week when he has more time. 

We've visited this Peruvian couple a couple of times. She is an inactive member, and he is a nonmember. They are not married and they have a son together. Eduardo is very interested in the church and always asks a lot of questions. Sandy wants to come back and to have an eternal family. Elder Kelson felt strongly impressed that we should end the visit yesterday talking a little bit about the law of chastity, and leaving the pamphlet with them. At the end, Eduardo jokingly told us to get them married tomorrow. We were so happy how it turned out, and will be making plans for getting them married and baptized shortly. 

There's so much more I could write, but I'm completely out of time.

I'll just bear testimony that fasting and prayer truly works. The things we prayed for are happening in this area. 

Elder Bednar will be here on Saturday, which is going to be very awesome. There will be something like 400 missionaries, at least. We are excited to have him here in Chile. It will be a great blessing.

We have transfers this week, although they're being delayed until Monday. At this point we don't know what will be happening. 

Elder Garrett    

We have had quite a bit of rain the past three days. Luckily, we also had conference. Yesterday we rode home from a session on our bikes in the rain. We were soaked and had to change our clothes before we left again. But how about General Conference? It recharged our spirits. I understood most of what was said. I think most of the translators were Mexican, much easier to understand. Elder Scott prerecords his talks in Spanish, so that was cool. We are very excited that Elder Bednar will be here on the 20th.

How about that announcement Saturday morning? There is going to be a surge of missionaries in this mission come next year. And we already have 200, more than half of which have less than one year in the mission. We are very excited. We have to let President know this week if the wards we’re in can handle two more missionaries. Sounds like John could be out in under a year. That´s pretty crazy. We were so, so excited. I am very excited for John, should he decide to leave earlier. The most important tools a missionary needs are 1. A testimony, 2. The Holy Ghost, and 3. The Book of Mormon.

Today while we were on a bus (the drivers are absolutely nuts!), a lady got mad at the driver and yelled at him and hit him with her purse 3 times. It was super funny, and yet we should've been scared for our lives.

This week was a little rough on us, but conference made us feel so much better. The spirit was so strong, and I received personal revelation through the Holy Ghost.

Sé que hay un profeta de Dios. Dios le habla y el profeta nos habla la palabra de Dios. Jesucristo restauró Su poder y autoridad, y llamó José Smith. Thomas S. Monson es el profeta de Dios hoy. Puedo sentirlo cuando habla. Compartan el evangelio con sus amigos!

 
Elder Garrett

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We had a really great week this week. But before I get to that, I have a cool story about a missionary in our mission.

He is either from Ecuador or Paraguay... not sure. He and his whole family were Jehovah´s Witnesses his whole life. He says he didn´t like the Mormons. But one day when he was 17 he decided to let the Mormon missionaries talk to him. He felt the spirit and wanted to keep meeting with them. His parents refused to let him meet with them in their home. So, he would sneak out of his bedroom window, which was on the second floor, in order to meet with the missionaries in a park. He decided he wanted to get baptized, but his parents refused. As he was under 18, he needed parental permission to be baptized. He stayed up all night one night practicing his mom´s signature, signed the paperwork the missionaries gave him and didn´t tell them he´d forged it.

His parents were very upset, maybe even furious, that he chose to get baptized. He snuck out of the second story window every week for church. His Bishop told him he should serve a mission, and he decided he wanted to. He gathered all of the clothing and other things he would need, and he and his Mormon friends would sneak them into the house through the second story window. He didn´t tell his parents he was going on a mission until the day before he was going to leave for the MTC.

When he told them, they were furious. They told him he didn´t even have any clothes to take, at which point he showed them the suitcases and clothing he´d bought on his own. His mom told him, "If you go, don´t come back." He was completely rejected by his family.

Now we get to the cool part. Four months in to his mission, he got an email from an ex-girlfriend. The Lord softened the hearts of his family. Not only did his parents get baptized, but, in one day, 32 members of his immediate and extended family got baptized.

We had a very busy week this week. We decided we really wanted to complete our goal of 140 contacts this week (10 each, every day). But, because we were so busy, there were days where we didn´t quite get them done. Yesterday, we did 42 contacts. We made it. There were even times when I was talking to one person and Elder Kelson was talking to another. That was a little tough, but I did alright. We knocked so many doors and talked to everyone we could. We were very much blessed to find several really good potential investigators.

The Bishop had asked us to focus our efforts on two certain streets. I have no doubt he was inspired, because we found a lady who has clearly been prepared by the Lord. Her name is Mariela. She attended a certain church with her family for about 7 years. She had some concerns, though, and talked to the pastor about them. She was concerned that it seemed like because she didn´t have much money she wasn´t really accepted there. Also, she was concerned because the pastor didn´t exactly practice what he preached. She brought this up. He told her that she was a child of the devil and that she was going to hell. She was shocked. Her family sided with the pastor and completely rejected her from the church, and from the family.

She told us she didn´t want to believe him, but was still worried nonetheless, not only for herself, but for her children. She really opened up to us and talked for quite a while. We taught her a little bit about the restoration. Not only did we give her the restoration pamphlet, but we also gave her a Book of Mormon, because she really likes to read, and really needs some peace and comfort in her life. On top of that, she asked us what her purpose in being here is. So, we also gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.

She is so meek and humble and she really wants to know where the truth is. She´s been investigating churches and reading the Bible to try and find it. We are very excited to work with her.

Other cool experience. We contacted this lady who told us we could pass by a certain day. She then told us she was actually Mormon. But she was inactive and had a bunch of weird ideas. She wanted to convert us to her ideas about God, and wanted to argue with us the whole time. We were patient, and started with a prayer. The Spirit seriously flooded the room. It was so strong that as we shared the message of the Restoration, she couldn´t argue, because she could not deny that she could feel the Holy Ghost. It was a really incredible experience, and we were invited back.

Watch general conference.

Elder Garrett