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