FINAL GOODBYES. PART OF MY HEART IS DEFINITELY GOING TO GET LEFT IN CHILE

July 11,2018

This week there was a lot of "final" stuff! My final testimony at Zone Conference, my final interview with President and my final visits with some investigators. 

This week, we've been working more closely with Rene and Mikaela and thanks to it, they've been progressing more and more. They're serious about getting married but we just need to wait for Rene's [chemotherapy] treatments to be over. When they found out that I was going home next week they were quite sad. We'll be having a visit with the sister missionaries that will be taking over our area today. 

A funny story: the other day, the four of us (me, my comp, and the sister missionaries) were walking home at night when this taxi driver stops and says "Hey, I'll take you guys to the end of the street, if you'd like." The other 3 are like, hmmm, but I go, "Ok, cool!" and get in the front seat and then they follow me in. We just start shooting the breeze with the driver and it turns out he lives in my first sector and knows a tiny bit about the missionaries. When we got to the end of the street, we get out. When I get out they start asking, "So, did you know him?!?" "Well no, but he seemed cool" and then I turn to the sisters and say, "But never do something like that alone!"

Monday was Zone Conference, and President wanted our entire jumbo group to be together so he made it a full mission conference. Since there are 22 of us going home, the time for testimonies took a good 2 and a half hours. I was a little worried about what I was going to say but when the time came, I was able to express my thoughts and feelings on the mission very well and concisely. 

I also had my last interview, yesterday, with President Gwilliam. In the interview he said that he had prayed the night before and in the morning to know what he needed to say to those of us he would be interviewing today. He said that the answer that he received for me was to tell me that the Lord had accepted fully my offering. He said it wasn't something he could say to every missionary he has had (though he wishes he could) but he could say it to me. That was a really nice moment and since the zone conference and the interview, especially, I've felt very good. I feel peaceful.

A little funny conversation:

Bishop had asked us to help translate John's (our Haitian convert) interview last night. We were waiting for bishop to show up at the church and our Haitian RM, Davidson, who also speaks English, is playing ping pong with my comp. John's feeling the nice flooring of the stage.

John: "Wow, Sa a se bél (Wow, this is beautiful)

Davidson without taking his concentration off ping pong: 

It's the Church of Jesus Christ.... (in english)

I don't really know how to conclude this email, it being my last. All I can say is that if I thank my Father in Heaven for this opportunity He's given me to serve a mission every day morning and night, it still wouldn't be enough. It's by far the greatest decision I've made in my life and has rendered a plethora of spiritual growth and life skills. Part of my heart is definitely going to get left in Chile. 

-Elder Sierra

ELDER SIERRA TO THE RESCUE!

July 4th, 2018

Ok I'll have to tell some good stories here! 

Last P-day, I and 5 other missionaries were walking to some soccer fields in another part of the mission to play a game of Americans vs Argentines. On the way, we saw this woman, some yards away, and she was yelling things like, "Hey let go, let me go, stop!" and this guy was grabbing her jacket and not letting her go. Then a car goes by swiftly and pulls over and a woman from inside the car starts yelling at the guy, saying, "Hey, what's your problem!?" "What's wrong with you?" So, as we make our way towards them, I go up to the guy and ask "Oye, ¿hay un problema aquí?" (Hey, is there a problem here?) and then the guy just goes off on me shouting all kinds of grocerías (vulgarities) and then finishes it off with a priceless example of flaite language (Chilean street language): "No sé, tú querí problemas VOS?!?" (I don't know, you want problems?) and is all up in my grill. 

So, I really had no idea what to do, 'cause I really hadn't planned out in my head farther than what I had just done. So, I just looked at him with a strange face like #thuglife#tupacvive#estandartedelibertad and then I think he noticed the other 5 guys behind me 'cause he decided to back off and walk away. 

20 seconds later, as were we walking off, I break the silence by saying, "So you guys had my back?" and they just burst out laughing. Good thing was, they did have my back. Especially this guy.
​And that's the story of how I fought off a potential Chilean rapist! 

Elder Sierra

4th of July cookout at the chapel

ROLLERCOASTER OF A WEEK AND HAITIAN SMOOTHIES

June 27th, 2018

Not gonna lie, this week was a bit of a rollercoaster. Every time things start to look good, they kinda get bad again. It's been hard to stay in contact with our investigators, since many of them are busy. We did find one that was really good, Onial. It turns out, his phone just wasn't getting our calls. Many people who are poorer here only have "Whatsapp", so they can't call us and our calls may not go through. 

It's been tough getting people to church. In the morning, it gets really cold so they either get sick or they're Haitian and can't bear the cold temperatures that they're not used to. 

This time of year, in this area, it seems like it's especially hard. It's weird because my last area was 20 minutes away by city bus but it feels like a different world in terms of missionary work. 

Alexandre's been progressing a good deal. He came to Spanish class and we've taught him a couple times more and we've read the Book of Mormon with him. He's had some questions, but things are going well. We're, hopefully, going to have our Haitian RM with us in tonight's lesson. It's harder to help him with more complex questions or doubts with my basic creole. 

Overall, things have been a bit crazy and there's been some disappointments. 

Yesterday, after an appointment fell through at about 9, we went to see a reference, close by, that had never been home before and we found him! He's a Colombian and is quite friendly. He invited us in and explained that he was actually baptized when he was 14. The situation slowly turned into something we just hadn't expected. He pretty much had gone inactive because, well, he's gay, and members accused him and his young men's president of being more than friends when they weren't. So he started going to Evangelical churches and has stopped believing much in the idea of a true church. He's impressive in the sense that he's gay but still tries or recognizes he should be chaste. 

He then explained how he got back into smoking drugs and not being chaste (he gave us many details we definetely would not have asked for). He saw the misisonaries as a sign that he needs to return to God, but is not for the whole chuch thing. 

Bascially, we decided we'd come back to answer some questions he might have but it doesn't look like there's much to do there based on his disposition. It seems like many people here (probably everywhere) decide their own truths after they get mad at something. If they get mad at God for the death of a family member or some tragedy, they stop believing in God. Or if they get mad at a church for being rude or something, they stop believing in the role churches play in religion. From what I've seen, that's how 90% of the cases are and it's hard to help people with a mindset like that. 

That same night, one of our favorite members got his truck stolen and it's the truck they use to sell gas, that being what he does for a living, so that was sad. Also, we thought we would have been the missionaries with the strangest story, but right after that, we see we have two missed calls from the sister missionaries and it turns out they were in a lesson when a nasty case of domestic abuse broke out. It was really sad and the sisters were affected hard. 

So after all that, it was just a tough end to the day/week coming up on P-day. We're not really discouraged but it's been hard nonetheless.

Happy news: Last night we made a haitian-style potato smoothie! That's right! Potato, carrot, banana, milk and some sugar! Haitians would give it to us and it was so cool we had to make it ourselves. We tried making it and it was a wild success. It makes for an easy and good breakfast and it's storable for the next day. I will certainly be making them in college.

That's about it. Today, we're planning on wathing the Sweden vs Mexico game and then having some arepas with a Venezulan, soon-to-be convert, that my comp and I interviewed for baptism. Have a good week. See you all soon!

-Elder Sierra

NEW INVESTIGATORS, RENE STARTS CHEMO AND WORKIN' OUR TAILS OFF

June 20, 2018

Hey, so this week was interesting just in that our teaching pool has been moving around and we've had some ups and downs. 

Ramses and Watson have not been progressing as much as we had hoped. It's not too much their fault since their parents go to a different church. While that's a bit sad and we might have to consider dropping them, we did find a new investigator through them, Alexandre. He's their friend (26 years old) and he seems very interested. We're going to teach him today. 

Our other promising Haitian investigators have just seemed to fall off the map. We've pretty much lost contact with them so that's been the mainly discouraging thing this week. 

We did, however, find a new investigator, Jackson. He lives in the same house as our Haitian RM Michel and he helped us teach him. It was actually a fantastic first lesson and Jackson accepted a baptismal invitation. We'll be hoping to set a baptismal date with him tomorrow. 

Rene and Mikaela have been doing surprisingly well, considering their circumstances. Rene started with chemotherapy on Sunday. We visited him the same day and it was very sad to see him suffering so much. He was in the fetal position in his bed kinda writhing in pain. We saw him Monday, though, and he was much better. They're still set on getting married and baptized once the whole ordeal is over so we just gotta be patient, I guess. 

I'm just hoping we can continue to find people to teach and help these last few weeks. I'm also thankful to be with such a good companion these last two transfers. Elder Pardo's really someone who wants to learn and work hard so, despite this being on of my more difficult areas, we've been having a good time workin' our tails off! Hope you all have a great week!

-Elder Sierra

JUST TRUCKIN' ALONG

June 13, 2018

We've just been truckin' along this week. 

We've been teaching this Haitian, Salomon, and on Thursday, we met his roommate Keke who immediately was very interested in listening with Salomon. Now, we've taught them together a couple of times and they've both accepted a baptismal date. 

Over the weekend, Santiago got whipped by a cold front and in some parts it even snowed, which is super uncommon. Due to the drop in temperature it was hard for most of our investigators to come to church, especially since most of our investigators are Haitians who are used to tropical climates. 

We also got to see Jofhner and had a very good lesson with him. We went over Faith and Repentance and read from Alma 34 with him and he started to tear up. We then invited him to be baptized on the 1st of July and he said he'd tell us on Sunday. However, the problem is: He got sick on Sunday because of the cold and we haven't been able to see him since. We're going to do all we can to stay in good contact with him. 

Today we went to the Temple and then, as tradition states, had our lunch at Carl's Jr. 

That's about all that happened this week. Hope you all have a good one! 

-Elder Sierra

HECTIC WEEK: MOVIE NIGHT, BAPTISM AND A CHAPEL OPEN HOUSE

June 6, 2018

So, this week was super hectic!

First off, Friday one of the ZLs was being picked up by his parents so that meant we had to be in a trio with the other ZL until Tuesday. We decided to take some supplies and camp out at his pension for the trio because his house is a 2 min walk from our area and ours is a 25 minute from our area.

My comp and I both packed a small suitcase and walked to our rendezvous with the ZL. On the way, my comp says, "Wow, this is my first vacation in the mission!" 

This week, the ward held a movie night on Friday, a baptism from the Hermanas' area on Saturday and an open house chapel on Sunday. So it was quite hectic. 

So some updates with the investigators:

Ramses and Watson were both able to go to church this Sunday! It was their first time and they liked it quite a bit. We just need to get them going to mutual. It's kinda tough because this ward is basically devoid of youth but we'll figure something out. 

Rene and Mikaela went to the sisters' baptism on Saturday and liked it. They also went to church! They seem to finally have finally established more of a habit of going. 

Also something really exciting happened! During the movie night a Haitian we hadn't met before walks in. We start to talk to him and it turns out he's an RM! He served in Haiti and has been back for only 10 months. He's way cool and wants to help us teach our Haitian investigators! 

Anyway, that's mostly everything. I'm in the last transfer of my mission now so it's just time to empty the tank, now that I'm on the last stretch!

Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Sierra

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS AND THE WORK MOVES FORWARD

May 30, 2018

This week things have finally seemed to pick up after our hard work! The ward mission leader's wife's birthday was on Monday and, since mine was on Thursday, they invited me over to have some food and cake. After my birthday on Thursday, we started finding some great investigators one right after the other!

Solomon is a Haitian who went to a chapel open house close by. We received the reference for him and have been able to teach him a couple of times. He's really cool and we're going to invite him to a baptismal date this week. He already accepted a baptismal invitation. 

We were able to get back in contact with and thus start teaching another Haitian we had contacted. His name is Jofhner and he actually almost got baptized in a different stake! Instead, he went to take a job out of town. Well, it turns out that job was garbage and now he wants to do things right! He told us he wants to get baptized and that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and he talked about how he felt something different when he read the Book of Mormon. He hasn't committed to a date yet, though we were only able teach him once. 

Our other good new investigator is Onial! We've gotten to teach him twice since last Friday and he's really interesting! He asked all kinds of really good questions and when we gave answers he really seemed to stop and think. He was already baptized in an Evangelical church, which is usually a problem for Haitians, that is, getting baptized "a 2nd time." He really understood the principles of authority, though, and he accepted a baptismal date for the 1st of July. The only tough thing is that he works two Sundays out of the month, but we'll see. 

For my b-day, my comp made me some gluten-free cake from a mix President sent us and we had sushi the night before. 

Sunday, Mikaela came to church! Rene couldn't because he was sick. Then, at 3rd hour, she went to the Relief Society and I went over to Hermana Brown (sister missionary) and said, "Hey, I'll accompany your Haitian investigator to Priesthood if you accompany ours to Relief Society." And then she said, "Don't worry, I got your black" 

Anyway, things are getting better here. We'll see if I stay here to hopefully see some baptisms of our Haitian investigators.  That's how things are, hope you all are well!

-Elder Sierra