CRAZY WEEK! SENT MY COMPANION HOME AND BEGAN TRAINING MY GREENIE

December 20, 2017

Wow, where do I begin!?!

Things were crazy this week as my companion was going home and doing lots of farewells all over the place! He was to be picked up on Monday at 5:00 in the morning. We get home Sunday night and he hadn't packed and the house was kinda dirty so my comp packs all his stuff up while I clean the house and get things ready for my new missionary's arrival. After all, it's not like I was gonna be able to sleep with my comp packing.  I finally got to bed at around 3:30 in the morning. I don't think my comp even slept. We went to bed, but I think he went downstairs and drank máte. The poor boy was anxious. 

He left at 5:15 am and I went to bed to get up at 7:30 am to go to my training for becoming a new trainer. At 11:00 am, I got my new comp, Elder Contreras!  He's from Houston, Texas, and both his parents are from Honduras so he speaks Spanish pretty much perfectly! He's also pretty good on the bikes so things are just awesome! I was pretty dead Monday, though, from the lack of sleep and just going hard all day. When we got home, I went to bed pretty quick and still felt like I was pretty tired the next day. It was a TOUGH day. We looked for tons of references and contacted a lot of people and no one would let us in, but we did get some return visits. 

It's out third day together and we've worked a TON! I hadn't been able to work so much because of the craziness with my previous comp so it's really awesome! We're getting back in contact with our investigators and we've got the week pretty full with appointments in just a couple of days! 

Marjorie is doing really well. We taught her about temples and she said that she thought that going through the Temple was a great goal! We hadn't even said anything yet! 

I'm really, really sorry that I don't have any photos yet; my camera died right before I got my new companion and it was my last pair of batteries. I'll buy some more, though, and we'l get some dank pics of us, our tree, the Christmas conference, cookies, hot cocoa and Christmas. 😀

Ok, I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting something, but I'll figure it out and then include it in next week's letter! I'll probably even do a recording! Love you all, Chao!

-Elder Sierra

SOUPY COOKIES AND A BAG OF SWORDFISH!
December, 13, 2017

Dear Family,

So this week was kinda cool, I guess. Actually, I guess it was pretty dang good; Marjorie got confirmed! 

And then we made those salted caramel cookies at her house with another member as an FHE. Unfortunately, when we made them, we threw in too much margarine and it was a bit melted so the dough was a bit liquidy and we had to put it in a cupcake pan! Then they turned out kinda weird... still tasty but like a cookie with a 'cakey' part on the bottom. It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh. We also taught Marjorie about temples and she thought it was awesome and cool because she said while she was in the baptismal font, she felt the presence of her grandmother who had always been a big spiritual influence for her while she was growing up. So, she wants to do her proxy baptism!

My companion has been a bit.... anxious; the poor fella's going home in, like, 5 days. If you ever get the chance to be with a missionary ending their mission I wouldn't quite recommend it. Homeboy's been a bit crazy. I am training this next transfer though! That's gonna be rad! There's a 80% chance he'll be a latino, which is chill, but I kinda feel like I can help an American more because their experience will be closer to my own. It's gonna be tough for the poor guy because transfers are a WEEK before Christmas! What a struggle. Actually, on top of that, my two other house mates are kinda lame and don't "feel like" decorating the house or doing any Christmasy! And my current comp is going home! So, when my kid arrives we'll get right down to planning some Christmas stuff to do Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm thinking of a Christmas Eve dinner and then some peppermint popcorn with Elf or something in the morning, if I can get permission from President!

A funny story: the other day while we were doing a contact, talking to this one woman, another woman exits her apartment with a bag of swordfish and gives it to the woman we were talking to. Then we start talking to the other woman and she says, "You boys want some swordfish?!" and we're like, "Uh, yeah!" so she gives us a whole kilo of swordfish and we baked it that night with cheese and spices on top! Pretty bomb! 

There's not too much to tell this week because it was kinda slow with a bunch of meetings for my companion and a zone conference, but this next week we have a lot of stuff we're doing so I'm pumped! Love you all and have a great week.  Enjoy the Christmas Season and #Lighttheworld!!!

-Elder Sierra

MARJORIE'S BAPTISM....HOMBRES TRABAJANDO
December 6, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was pretty great, mostly because Marjorie got baptized!!!  Everything went according to plan except there were a few hiccups on the actual day of the baptism. The mission had no baptismal clothing so we had to ask a sister in the ward for her temple clothing and then, when she got to church on Sunday, we realized that there was nothing for her to wear underneath. So there we were with the font filled while some members went running to grab clothing for her. We just put on a 10-minute Mormon Message and by the time it was over, we had everything figured out. 

The baptismal service was fantastic! We involved some members and I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. The baptism itself went well, too; there was no mistake or anything. After the welcome to the ward, Marjorie decided to bear her testimony and it was awesome! She talked about her conversion story and how she felt that the Lord had prepared her even before the missionaries met her and that she felt like, before fully accepting the Gospel, she was partially blind and didn't know why she didn't accept the Gospel sooner! It was really beautiful. Her mom was there, too, (she's not a member) and she cried. It was sweet. 

Marjorie will be getting confirmed this next Sunday. We visited her yesterday and she said her friend had given her some random book about prophets and how there was a woman prophet today, and what-not, and she was like, "Nah, this book contradicts the Book of Mormon so it's stupid" We were pretty proud of her! 

Today, I was with Elder Tanner, an elder I've known since the MTC, because my companion is doing farewells in another ward with an old comp of his. It turns out, we've been in the same ward on two different occasions so we're going to take advantage and visit a couple of families. We already had lunch with one family. 

In the morning we had nothing to do so we went on a bike ride to explore the very edges of the mission, which really wasn't that hard. Then we ended up almost getting lost, but in the end we just got a bit sunburned. (Actually, I got tan and Elder Tanner got sunburned.)

That's about the week. We're going to keep going at it with our investigators, however, a LOT of them are just super busy right now  because many have end of year exams, so it's hard. I think Imma get some stuff to make sugar cookies and go deliver it to all our investigators to keep in contact with them. We'll see how things go!

Love you all. Have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

HOMBRES TRABAJANDO (MEN WORKING)

NEW MOTTO: "JUST ROLL WITH IT!" PLUS, VALENTINA GETS BAPTIZED

November 29, 2017

Dear Family,

It was a pretty good week! 

I guess I forgot to mention that Valentina, the 9-year-old daughter of Alejandro and Maria Paz, was getting baptized. Elder Leles and I reactivated the family and then we left and the next Elders taught Valentina. It was cool, though. I gave the message on the Holy Ghost and it was awesome to see them again. It's kinda funny because Capitan Avalos (the ward I was in) borders my current ward (Nocedal) which borders my last ward (Lo Blanco). It's been a good gig staying in this stake so long! 

This week we had Thanksgiving and every district got an apple pie on Thursday! Except MY district, so I called them up and asked what the deal was?! It turned out, they just missed us, so we got hooked up and we got some ice cream, too and it was lit! ​

I had some left over candles from my B-day so I used them to spell "Eat Pie". 

Things in the area have been good. We've been finding new people and Marjorie had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors! She's been spiritually ready for a while now, but just had some little doubts here and there. She'll be getting baptized this Sunday after the meetings! 

It's been a bit tough recently because my house is composed of 4 missionaries and I'm the only who's disciplined enough to follow the missionary schedule well, or even do simple things like clean the dishes right now. The ZLs and Assistants are aware of that now and have told me I just need to admonish them. Imma just start reading Alma 5 out loud or something, but things gotta change, partially because President told me I'll be training this next transfer 

So, I want the house culture to be a lot better before then.

There's not too much else to talk about. My comp's losing his mind about finishing his mission in 3 weeks. I recently had interviews with President and his advice was "just roll with it." So we'll see where things go! 

It's been a good week, though. Have a good one everyone!

-Elder Sierra

Elder Leles and me at Valentina's baptism.

CHALLENGES AND DELAYS BUT THE WORK'S MOVING FORWARD

November 22, 2017

Dear Family,

This week in Nocedal showed a few more challenges that I'll be facing during this transfer. I mentioned last week that we have a Haitian woman and her daughter who are fantastic. (They really are!) The problem is that we coordinated about 5 appointments with the member they live with to teach them but every single one fell through... *SIGH* They even went to church last week. That's 6 times IN A ROW!  And Brenda was going to be baptized on the 25th (the date the previous Elders had set) however, after our first visit we found out she still smokes socially. *DOH*

Josefa, the little 10 year-old girl that we're teaching, had her second lesson on Monday. She's on fire too! She understood the Plan of Salvation REALLY well and after the lesson, they invited us for "once" and when her baby cousin was misbehaving she was like, "Nah, it's all good; she doesn't know right from wrong!" My comp and I about cried!

We also have our investigator with a baptismal date for the 3rd of December! Marjorie! We were able to find her finally and talk to her. She's been receiving the missionaries since May and has read through ALMA in the Book of Mormon! She has a firm testimony about it but has had some doubts in terms of baptism. In our first lesson with her we just ended up talking lots about baptism and she was like, "Yeah, I'll get baptized" and we were like... "Is the 2nd cool?" and she said yes. We then had an FHE because she thought the idea was super interesting. We got a guy and a girl that are also 20ish to come with us to have an FHE with her and it was awesome! We saw the video "the Mediator" and when we read Alma 34:15-16 she said "I think I'm the most sure I've been about baptism!" YAS!!! 

We'll be seeing her tomorrow and I'M PUMPED.

Apart from that, the ward's been good, however, they did throw us under the bus our very first Sunday! The ward secretary told us right as the meeting was starting that we had talks...

Luckily, I had pre-prepared talk; I just didn't have the notes with me. It went pretty well and it was a good first impression! 

It was a good week and hopefully we'll keep gettin' things rolling!

-Elder Sierra

MAKING SURE MY COMP DOESN'T DIE BEFORE HE DIES WITH A BAPTISMAL DATE AND TONS TO DO IN THE NEW AREA

Dear Family,

So, after one week in our new ward, Nocedal, we've found almost all the investigators that the previous elders left us (which is quite a few). We even got to see one of them today and he passed us a form listing a bunch of receptive contacts they had done. It had about 30 names in total so we just have TONS to do! 

We have 2 investigators with a baptismal date right now, both for the 25th of November, but one of them will probably need a later date. The that is on track is Brenda, a 26 year-old woman and she is a machine! We're were going to teach her yesterday but she got home late from work so we could only get to know her, but it was easy to tell she's very prepared! She even wears a CTR ring! We have an appointment with her tomorrow and if all goes well then she'll be ready for a baptismal interview this Saturday! 

We then have a Haitian woman and her daughter that live with a member and have gone to church, each, about 4 times, even to our recent stake conference! Their Spanish is a bit of a barrier but we have a fantastic recent convert who's also Haitian and helps translate. The mother, Andrizi, has a baptismal date, but has received very few lessons so she may not make it on the 25th. However, if it falls through, it's okay because we'll work on a date for both of them! 

There's also another person who we are going to start teaching! A ten-year-old girl named Josefa. Her mom is a recently reactivated member. When we visited the bishop he gave us the referral so we passed by and the mom answered and was just like, "Hey, I need you guys' help! You need to teach my daughter so she can be baptized. She wants to learn more about the church!" We're going to go by today with Bishop. 

There's even a man who's the husband of the first councilor's mom. He has Alzheimer's and repeats the same things every 10 minutes or so. He's told us the same stories about him living in Argentina and how the best soccer team in the world is Boca Junior (the rival of my comp's team ) However, after a few times he remembers certain things and recogonizes stuff. When the wife mentioned that the missionaries about a year ago said he couldn't get baptized because of his condition I was curious (my face: ). I called up my pal, President Gwilliam, and asked him about it, and he gave me a resounding YES in favor of the man being able to get baptized. We haven't passed by yet, but I think they'll like the good news! 

So that's where we're at! We actually have about 6 other families in our teaching pool (our sector is very populated). They aren't progressing quite as well but still are doing pretty well. It's been a stark change from my old neighboring ward. 

It's really hot though! We're already getting into the 90s and summer's just getting started! We're going to teach more in the mornings and less in the afternoon hours (4-6) and swap that time out for some studies because those hours are just killers! 

My comp's a funny Argentine. I'm just trying to make sure he doesn't die before he dies! It helps a lot, though, that we have so much to do!

That's about it! Everyone have a good week!

-Elder Sierra

A 'DIET WHITEWASH' AND A NEW ARGENTINE COMPANION

November 8, 2017

This week came with some unexpected events! 

It started off pretty well. Last Wednesday, we had a great lesson with some younger sisters who were actually Adventist. One of them had gone to a chapel open house and so we had met her already. She liked it a lot and wanted to learn more! To be honest, my least favorite demographic to teach are people my age. It's weird, but I get more nervous because it's less common and the only people my age I know are usually missionaries. Anyway, we go to visit her and she and her younger sister are super receptive and invite us in. It was pretty late starting so we only had time to go over the Book of Mormon and answer some good questions about things like baptisms for the dead. They have an appointment for today again so that'll be neat. 

The week came and went and we had a couple of neat conferences in the mission but nothing too hardcore. Then came transfers and I was 92% sure I was gonna chill another transfer in my sector but then it turned out I DID have transfers, but "without suitcases", which means that I'll be staying within the zone. So in our house, we don't live in our ward; we live in a neighboring ward and we live with the missionaries from that ward. It turns out, the missionaries in THAT ward both got sent out so I then went to one of the office missionaries and was like, "Hey, you should tell me if I need to pack my bags, because if I go to Nocedal (the ward we live in) I don't want to pack up for nothing." And he was like, "Oh yeah, you've got a point..." So he told me I got sent to the ward that I currently live in and have done about 3 splits in already, so I already know a few members there. I'd even conducted the interviews for the last two recent converts!

I call it a "diet whitewash" because a whitewash is usually two missionaries being thrown into an unknown area and hopelessly trying to find their way around and meet the members and investigators. My situation is way easier and much more comical.

My new comp is an Argentine named Elder Topalda and this is his last transfer! He's pretty fun and it seems we'll get along just fine. He also likes máte so what can go wrong?!  

Although I knew where I was going, it was still kinda weird the first day. We actually tripped the alarm system in the chapel because they never mentioned they had one! We have two investigators that are going to get baptized on the 25th. One is more than ready and the other is very unready but we'll see how things go. The good thing is that one of the missionaries that left Nocedal (my new ward) is still in the zone so we're good. 

Anyway, that was the week and it's been good, and very unexpected! Hope you all have a good one! Chao!

-Elder Sierra

P.S. My sister-in-law asked what kind of nice places we had to visit in the mission. I told her we had a hill. LOL That's about it! Here's a picture of the hill with a Chilean flag for Independence Day.

My new companion, Elder Topalda and me:

My new bike!

Members and a former companion at church.  Then celebrating Chilean Independence with a 'horse'!

SWEATING, WALKING, JUMPING OUT OF WINDOWS, WOULD-BE ROBBER...ALL IN A WEEK'S WORK

November 1, 2017

So this week lots of sweating and walking finally paid off! Actually, we did a TON of walking! Since it was the end of the month we were running low on money and since we still don't have bikes, we've been taking lots of public transport. We had to go across the zone this Saturday for a Church Open House and ended up having to walk for about an hour and a half there and then back! However, it was worth it because we helped bring a lot of people to the activity. 

This week, we got quite a bit done! Silvia came to church for the third time and finally stayed for Gospel Principles! She liked it a lot and we've been teaching her twice a week for about 3 weeks now. She's doing great! And even better, she's been telling others about her baptismal date for December 9th! When they start doing that you usually know they're going all the way!!! We had a lesson with her the other day and she just needs to quit smoking but she doesn't smoke a ton- just 2 cigs a day and she says she really wants to quit. 

We also found some investigators, like 8, but 3 are really cool! One was a Haitian girl, Flor, who's around 25 years old and speaks very little Spanish. She was a reference from another missionary. We went by and she was pretty happy to see us. We came in and shared about the Book of Mormon (or in her case, Le Liv De Mormon) and we were able to use the intro to help her understand it well. This Sunday we're coming back with a missionary that has learned Creole on the mission. We'll see how it goes! 

We also got another reference from a chapel open house we helped out with a week back. We were helping by the baptismal font, dressed in white and explaining baptism and confirmation. Her name is Valentina and she went through the tour and seemed super cool when she passed by our part. Afterward, we received the reference and we stopped by. She (16) and her young sister (13) greeted us and were super friendly. They invite us in, but we had to decline because it was just them and their mom at home so we taught outside.  We taught them about the Book of Mormon because it was right before we had to go but it went super well. They had a ton of questions about different subjects because they have a friend who's Mormon from another ward. They're also both Adventists (aventistas?) and go alone to church every week!  Amanda (the sister) asked about baptisms for the dead and I explained super fast and she asked, "Well, does it mention that in the Bible?" and I'm all like "Boy does it!" 

It was a great meeting and they invited us to come back in two days (today). 

So this week, things kind of bloomed in our sector and we're hoping to capitalize on this momentum. Transfers are coming soon and I'm really hoping I don't get transferred (If I fo I'll probably punch a wall or something). In the meantime, I'll leave you with a couple of stories of things that happened to us this week.

The office elders came by and needed to do a training video about smoke detectors for an upcoming zone conference and it just required clips of us doing standard and boring things like opening windows and I said, "Hey, we have two mattresses outside. How about I set them up and I jump out this window?" And they said, "Sounds like a great idea!" So, we did and it somehow made it into the video.

It was pretty safe.

Halloween night, we were checking on some references on the way to an FHE (Family home evening). Well, the reference was in the heart of ghetto-ville and I was like, "We'll probs be fine." And then I was thought, "We're probably getting robbed." There were lots of peeps in the streets. This flaite (Chilean slang for sketchy, shady young street thugs) begins walking up to us with his hand under his shirt and I'm like, "For reals?" But, we just had books with us so I was chill about getting robbed. So then he comes up to us with his hand under his shirt, pulls it out super fast and there's nothing there and he laughs and we laugh and we chat for a little bit and then leave.

I'm sick of walking so much but in light of all these blessings I guess we're chill....

Hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

IT'S A LOT SLOWER WITHOUT A BIKE...

October 25, 2017

Dear Family,

This week was a bit slow. We had two chapel open houses so, basically, we lost two days of work. In addition, being on foot is neat (bikes can be a headache sometimes) but also slow because we live 30 minutes from our sector, so it's more time lost. 

Anyway, Silvia is doing very well! We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she understood it very well and agrees with it. Really she agrees with everything that the Church believes in because it just all makes sense to her and many things from all the other Churches she has investigated do not. I'm thinking we're going to have to help her obtain a stronger spiritual testimony but where she is at right now is great. She's been going at it with her reading and she said she's going to stop smoking. This next lesson we'll set some goals with her. 

We've been trying to find a chance to teach María and her family but she's been busy and we haven't had much time available when she's not busy either. We're hoping to see them this week. 

This week in Church we (the ward mission leader, my companion and me) were all asked to give talks about the missionary work in the ward and hopefully get more involvement from the members and more references. I gave a talk on misconceptions and principles about being a member missionary. I think it went pretty well. We'll be visiting members to come up with plans on how to work with friends and acquaintances to get more references. 

A new member moved into our ward who was baptized not too long ago and is a little inactive but wants to come back! He invited us over for lunch and is pretty cool. He had a HUGE library of blu-ray dvds and lent us Interstellar so we could see it today! He even gave us a reference for the woman whose house he's renting right now! 

Things are going pretty well over all. It's getting pretty hot but we're just truckin' along. This next week should be a lot better. Also, next week we have a Zone Conference and then another conference with the entire mission combined with the entire Santiago West mission over in their mission, so that should be crazy! Maybe there'll be a new reveal, who knows?

That was pretty much my week. Not a lot, I know, but that's because I didn't feel there was tons to write about yet! Anyway, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

GOING HAM IN THE WORK, A PROMISING INVESTIGATOR AND WE RUN INTO OUR NEMESIS...TWICE!

October 18, 2017

This week was another tough week! We did lots of contacting and are slowly but surely growing our teaching pool. It's been tough because we've been without bikes these last couple of weeks and we live a 30 minute walk from our sector and the stake center is about an hour by foot! We have to take taxis or buses but it gets a bit expensive after a while. We're running out of cash but we talked with the missionary marriage(?) (matrimonio misionero) [translation: missionary couple =)] and they're gonna hook us up with a bit more cash 

We've been working with some cool Haitian investigators and one of them is very interested in the Church. However, when we invited him to a baptismal date he said he was already baptized in the Evangelical Church and doesn't feel like he needs to be baptized again. *sigh*

We talked more about authority and he was like "Yeah, like I get it! You guys have the authority to baptize and so does my pastor in Haiti! So, I'm good, sweet!" *SIGH* 

My companion happens to carry his line of authority and then he finally understood better but he kinda was uneasy. We left him with a passage from the Book of Mormon and we're going to wait for him to get a spiritual confirmation before pressing it much harder.

That was all right, HOWEVER, we had a BOMB lesson with Silvia! For the second lesson we had with her I was on splits in another sector and it was on the Plan of Salvation. My companion invited her to a baptismal date and she was like "Nah, I wanna wait until I get back from my vacation in the States." (She's actually staying with the family that sent the referral for her.) She's going to be in the States for 2-3 months so that's not really ideal. 

That's the set up and then we had another appointment with her and we were going in to teach lesson 3. It so happens that we were on splits again but this time, I was there with a missionary who's in training. The lesson was FANTASTIC! Like straight outta The District! As we werre finishing up our conversation went more or less like this:

"Hey, so our purpose is to help people be prepared for baptism."

"Yeah, great. I plan on going to church in Colorado with my friend!"

"But, we have lots of confidence in you and think you'll be ready for baptism Dec. 9th. How's it sound if we set a goal to prepare you for that date and if you want to be baptized then, you can."

"Yeah, for sure!"

Then she even agreed for us to make her a baptismal calendar that'll show all the stuff [she needs to do] and what day that she's set for baptism! We're pretty much stoked for her and it looks like she's very likely to get baptized! 

Not a lot else has been happening but randomly one day, we saw the guy that robbed us of our bikes! The first time was in a well-lit, nice area and we were able to get an idea of where he lived. The second time it was night in the most ghetto part of our sector! We had to pass by him to get home and he totally saw us and we were all like,  , but we passed by and nothing happened! 

Well, that was our week! Things are good and we're just in it going ham.

Love you all. Have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

GREAT NEW CONTACTS, CRAZY COINCIDENCES AND LIGHTENING STRIKES TWICE IN THE SAME PLACE!!

October 11, 2017

Dear Family and Friends,

This week, the work's been rolling along lot better. We've been finding some new people but haven't been able to teach our new family again. We're going to do a service for them tomorrow so maybe we'll get a chance to teach them then. We've found a couple more Haitians and have another 2 in our teaching pool that are doing great as of right now, but we were only able to teach them twice. In all, we have roughly 3 groups of people, making 8 individuals in total, that are ready for a baptismal date and that have already accepted a baptismal invitation, so "SE SUPONE" that things are gonna REALLY get rolling this weekend because we have appointments with all of them. 

One of them is Silvia Arraya. She's an AWESOME reference we got from Denver, Colorado. She has a Chilean friend there that introduced her to the Church. Silvia's around 50ish and really cool. We called her the day after getting the reference to see when we could meet and she was like, "OH MY GOODNESS! I LOST ALL HOPE OF SEEING YOU GUYS!" and I was like, "Why? it's only been a day" and she was said, "No, I've been waiting for months!" What?! Well, we planned a date to see her and taught her yesterday. It was one of the best first lessons in my mission and she was very happy to see it. She said she wanted to have a church, a place to direct her faith, but didn't like any of the ones she had visited before. She loved hearing the message of the Restoration and is excited to read the Book of Mormon. She really just understood everything very well and had some great questions. 

Super neat story: On Sunday, we had nothing to do for 3 hours and so we were going from park to park, plaza to plaza talking to everyone we saw. NOBODY wanted anything until we got to this one guy smoking a joint, Fabio. He was the nicest flippin' dude we had talked to that entire day and we had a very good contact! He said he was from a different part of town and was with his mom for the day. When we were about done talking to him we asked him if his mom would be interested in our message as well and he was like, "Maybe". We asked for her name and he's said "Silvia"..."¿Silvia Arraya?" "Sí" and we were like no way! We already know her! He was like, oh neat. It was pretty cool. Fabio wants to stop smoking weed and be an airline pilot. We sent his reference to his respective sector. 

One last story: 

We were walking with an investigator to an FHE (Family Home Evening) and we were with our bikes, but walking. This sketchy dude comes up, my comp says hi to him. The dude seems normal and walks towards my comp and so I keep talking to my investigator. Then I didn't realize he had started walking back towards me. With one hand he grabs my bike and with the other he points a knife towards me and says "*bad word* give me your bike", then takes it and rides off.... And you know what the sad part is? IT WAS THE SAME GUY WHO ROBBED ME LAST TIME... WITH THE SAME FLIPPIN KITCHEN KNIFE! 

NOT COOL

So, right now, we're bikeless which is kinda hard but really not that bad. 

We were able to have a good day yesterday anyway so, yeah. 

It was a good week. I hope you all have a good one! Chao!

-Elder Sierra

THEY WORK PICKS UP AND ELDER SIERRA LEARNS TO MAKE YERBA MATÉ

October 4, 2017

Wow, so this week we had lots of work to do and had some cool experiences. With my new companion, Elder McKane, we started working on getting some contact with our investigators because the independence days and my former companion leaving the sector kind of slowed us down. We got a couple of lessons in with Alexander, however, after the last one, we think it's time to drop him. We're going to leave him with a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon, but he recognizes he isn't doing his part and told us that, basically, he doesn't want to do his part either, so it's pretty sad, but there's nothing more we can do. 

Despite losing Alex and not being able to find some other investigators, we've found some great new ones that we're really excited about! The other day, we decided to contact on a less familiar street and nobody was home or, if they were, they were not receptive. We literally got to the last house and a woman came out and greeted us surprisingly nicely. We introduce ourselves and it turns out that she used to see the missionaries in another part of town. I said, "Great! Did they ever share anything with you?" She said "No, they just ate with us." *facepalm*

Ok, so we talked to her and it also turns out she needs to finish an extension to her home that would basically triple her living space and right now they're very cramped. We asked if we could share a message with her family and she said, "Yes, when they're all home. Come back Sunday." Sweet!

We came back on Sunday and got to teach a lesson to her family of 5! (husband and 3 kids) We chatted with them and taught the Plan of Salvation and they were all very interested and had many good questions on baptism, death, and authority! At the end, we extended a baptismal invitation to them and they all accepted! 

It kinda seems like a normal story, but in our mission, it was kinda crazy to find an entire family where all were interested in the Gospel and were able to listen to us together!

Apart from that, we've found some very nice Haitians that have visited an LDS church before and we've set up some times to meet with them. They're really excited to learn more about the Church. 

In other news, Elder McKane is a Maté enthusiast (Yerba maté is a drink made from steeping dried yerba mate leaves)and he taught me a little on how to better prepare it. (I had always been bad at it) Ironically, he's way more into mate than my Argentine companion was! We got some nice flavors, Forrest Fruits and Guaraná. There's also a cool family in our ward that "deals" maté for us. They go up to downtown and pick up maté there for cheap and we pay them back. So when I get home, I'll be a master "cebador".

Sidenote:

Since I've never been a big NFL fan my comp has been training me to be a Kansas City Chiefs fan. So every now and then I say things like 

"Well, are you a Broncos fan?" 

"Yes"

"Well I was gonna say it could be worse..."

And then my comp gets really happy with me. 

And a funny story!

Today, we watched the 6th Star Wars with part of the Zone because my comp loves Star Wars but had never seen it. We were watching the movie, all chill like, and there's the part where the Ewok shows up and is speaking his gibberish and then out of the blue he just perfectly pronounces "Chucha"- a Chilean swear-word- and everyone just dies! (Translates to "Dang it") It was used in perfect context and everything! Good thing there were no Chileans there! 

Well, that was my week! Sorry I don't have any pictures but I'll get some next week!

Love you all. Have a good one!

-Elder Sierra