Año Nuevo

Well, today is New Years Eve... a normal day for us basically. We have to be back in the house at the latest by 10:30. 

It was fun to do a Google Hangout with the family on Christmas. We ended up eating "lunch" at about 7:00. Then we visited Leontina briefly, and headed back to the house. 



David Memmott picked us up and gave us a ride.  David is the brother-in-law
of my former voice teacher, Jeannette Memmott.  It's a small world.
 

Speaking of Leontina, she will be getting baptized on Sunday. Feel free to keep her and our other investigators in your prayers. 

Great things are happening here in Centenario. We have found some great people that have been prepared by the Lord for us. 

This family I told you about last week, the Aburto family is awesome. We joke that the dad is going to be the next bishop here. We taught the Restoration to the daughter and the dad, and their main question was how to know for sure that it is true. We know the dad has already started reading the Book of Mormon. The daughter called us the other day and told us she wanted to introduce us to a friend... when we got there, she had about 5 friends. She had told them about us and then they invited us over. They asked us questions about what we teach and stuff... and Vania (the daughter) taught them about the Spirit World. This family has spent a lot of time talking and searching about religious things. They really want to find the truth as a family.

The other day, all three of us had prayed for help in finding people, without the other two knowing. I prayed that we could be the answer to someone's prayer. Almost five minutes later, this lady with arthritis let us in. We gave her a blessing, and taught a little bit of the Restoration, and she felt really good. We'll be going back this week.        

We were knocking doors the other day, and I was a little frustrated. I had knocked about 20 doors, and only talked to about 3 people. But my companion was setting up all kinds of appointments. When we arrived for one of the appointments, the lady let us in, and we talked for quite a while. We asked why she'd let us in. She said she had prayed for direction from God for her life, and when my companion showed up at her door, rather than reject him as she probably normally would have, she just let him in. We were the answer to her prayer. 

I have learned that God really does prepare people for us. We have received countless blessings these past two weeks. I know that this is His work. 

¡Que tengan un buen año nuevo! 

Elder Garrett

Feliz Navidad

 

Well... today is Christmas Eve. That's pretty nuts. 

Today when P-Day ends, we have permission to spend time with members and to eat with them. We are allowed to be out until 12:30, and we get to sleep in until 9 tomorrow. So that's pretty sweet, and then tomorrow we get to call home, well, with google hangout, which is even better. My english might be a little bad, Jake might have to translate. Haha...just kidding. We're teaching Elder Verón English, so we do speak a little English.

So this week was a little crazy. We went down to Santiago on Wednesday. When we got off the Metro (subway) in Santiago, the clouds were seriously dumping on us. We got soaked running to the bus station to catch a bus north. That is very rare here, especially this time of year. We were stuck in Santiago in traffic for an hour, and then had another hour in order to get to Los Andes. When we got to Los Andes, it wasn't raining, but about 30 minutes later, it started pouring. We had to ditch the bikes and walk with umbrellas. In a lesson, the power went out. We sang "La Luz de la Verdad" in the dark... which is supposed to be funny... This was the 20th, so we joked about the end of the world beginning. We started walking home in the dark, but all the lights came on after a while. 

The next day, the clouds cleared, and there was snow in the Andes. I sent a picture. About 3-4 hours later all of that snow had melted. And it turned hotter than ever. We had two days where it was cold... which was awesome... but we're back to full out summer. 

Snow... first day of summer... end of the world. But down here

we only had rain... lots and lots of rain.  

 

So we have good news. Leontina is getting baptized in two weeks. She is really excited. She has started inviting family and friends, and is talking to people about her new beliefs, and inviting them to listen to us. That is really exciting for us. 

The other day, I knocked a door. A girl opened the window. I introduced myself, and asked her if she'd ever met missionaries before. She didn't answer the question, just told me to come back the next day. 

So we went back the next day. We taught her and her mom, Vannia and Laura. They told us they are baptized Catholics who are no longer Catholics. They are really, really great, and very receptive. We gave them both the pamphlets for the Restoration and for the Plan of Salvation. 

We went by again last night. We figured her husband would be there... we were a little worried about what he would be like, if he would be supportive or not. And then we got there and turns out he's super chill. They had read the pamphlets and said they had no questions, it was all clear. The husband... can't remember his name... invited us to come back and eat with them... they said he almost never invites people to eat. So that was sweet. Unfortunately, due to mission rules, we can't eat dinner with them, only lunch. 

Also... We were going to take the bishop's daughter with us to this appointment. She couldn't go, but it turns out this family is friends with the bishop and his family.

We have a lot of hope for them. 

Anyway, Merry Christmas. I will see some of you tomorrow. 

Elder Garrett   

Four days left to live...

 

With the 21 of December approaching, we will be baptizing by the minute. Haha no not really. 

It seems like every other person we talk to asks us about our beliefs regarding the 21 of December and the Second Coming. Everyone tells us they don't believe anything will happen... and yet... it seems like the candle making industry has had a boom due to the three days of darkness we're going to be seeing this week. 

Anyway. If we do survive the 21, we are hoping to have three baptisms in January. We will be working a lot with these three people so that they can be ready. One of them has already quit drinking... now we've just got to work on the cigarettes. They are planning to get married and baptized in January (Luis and Alejandra). Leontina will also be getting baptized in January. 

We had a little Christmas party in the mission home this week, which is a 3 hour round trip from Los Andes to Santiago and back. The problem is that it was really hot... so we couldn't sleep very well on the way back. They served us a lunch and we sang Christmas songs and watched some videos about the life of Christ. 

Cool experience. One day, we were knocking doors... and no one was home. We were getting frustrated because we felt like weren't doing anything. I left a passalong in the gate of one of the houses that had an offer for a free DVD of The Lamb of God. Two days later, we were riding our bikes, and two women ran out in front of us and stopped us. It was the lady that lives in that house. They wanted the DVD, but the number on the card didn't work. So we set up an appointment to bring them a DVD. We had a great lesson with one of them on the Restoration. At the end, I asked her what she would do if what we had taught was true, if she knew that the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. She said that first, she would learn everything she could, then she would follow it, and then she would share it with everyone she knew. That was really exciting to hear. 

I was not expecting anything to happen with that passalong card... kind of a miracle. 

Well, merry Christmas. Enjoy the four days you have left before the 21st.

Elder Garrett

Los Andes

We had 4 investigators in church on Sunday... that's new for me. I'm not used to that.

Luis and Alejandra have made great progress. Luis has stopped drinking, and is working on smoking. We have noticed great changes in him and his behavior. He has also noticed this. He is much happier, and is spending more time with his family. We are very excited for them, and hope that they will be able to get baptized in the coming weeks. 

Both of my companions, Elder Riches, and Elder Verón (de Paraguay) had their birthdays this weekend, as well as Alejandra, so yesterday we ate lunch with Luis and Alejandra, and we made a birthday cake that was sent to Elder Riches last week. Fun times were had by all. 

Leontina really wants to get baptized, but wants to ask forgiveness from some family members before she gets baptized. She is working through the repentance process to prepare for baptism, which we think will be in the first little bit of January. 

I guess that's about it. Oh... there's a Burger King in this city....

Feliz Navidad 

Elder Garrett

 

Goodbye Renca Hello Los Andes

Well, I guess the big news is that I got transferred. I'm now in Los Andes, about as far away from Santiago as you can get. It's a completely different Chile. It's not smoggy, and it is a lot hotter than Santiago. It will be a fun Christmas. Lots of sweat. It's not a big city here... there's a lot more country. And you can see the mountains, unlike in Santiago because of the smog.

We took a bus for about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get here...

I'm in a trio now.

A lot of cool things happened this week, but If I have a little more time I'll write a little more.

Oh yeah, I contacted a nun the other day.

Elder Garrett