Elder Benjamin Sierra's Missionary Blog

January 17, 2018

6 MORE MONTHS?!?

This week, we went the Temple! We had to get up way early to get to our 9:00 am session on time, but the metros were all full so we ended up not getting there in time! We just went to the 10:00 session. We also went to Carl's Jr! It's a lot different from the ones in the States, though. It's actually really nice and fancy and kinda expensive, but after so long, you'll do just about anything for a good milkshake!

Things have been going pretty dang well. We've been having relative success more and more, lately, and have been finding lots of people to teach! We've actually had this entire week filled with appointments and almost all of them are with members accompanying us. Actually, yesterday, we found TEN new investigators, which is pretty uncommon, but 9 of them were all at once in a Haitian home!

Basically, Haitian immigrants in Chile often live together in big homes, each with their own room. So in a really big house you'll see about 15-30 renting out there and in some cases, many more. The other day, we set an appointment with a Haitian, named Eddy, and when we went by yesterday he invited us in and sat us down in their patio where there were 8 other Haitians just looking at us and smiling. We thought we were just going to teach the one and then we realized we had a lot more of an audience! In that moment I kinda felt like standing on top of my chair and yelling loudly with the Book of Mormon raised above my head, like the paintings we see, but I refrained.

We actually had a great lesson with all of them paying attention and trying to understand (some of them didn't speak Spanish very well) and I threw in some random phrases in Creole, especially at the beginning, and they were all super astonished by it! Anyway, we asked who would like pamphlets in French and they were all about it and they want us to come back on Saturday. We happen to have a really cool Haitian member who said he'd help us out. We're gonna have to see how this plays out!

We also had a neat experience one day when we stopped by a member's home. They're actually Venezuelans and they're really cool and faithful members. Anyway, we were asking about some reference and asking for help with some investigators and then they said, "Hey, Elders, did you have dinner yet?" and we were, like, "Nah, but don't worry, we'll eat at home," and they insisted saying, "No, we want to feed you guys. We actually have very little food, but what little we have we want to give to you guys, like the Prophet Isaiah!" We told them, "Ummm, but... we have food!" and they were like, "we don't care." So, they cooked us up some delicious Venezuelan food and they actually did have enough for themselves, even though they said it like that. However, it was still really cool to see their faith. They're an amazing family and the best part is their last name is Sierra, too!

Those were some of the big stories for this week. We've been having lots of good experiences with our investigators, especially José and Camila. They're very focused on getting baptized; they just have a lot to overcome. But, they're quite committed and they're trying to better their circumstances so they can get married.

We're also teaching a new investigator that we set a baptismal date with but she's a bit more timid. Her name is Fransisca and she's 13. She's living with her grandmother and a member in our ward has been her friend for a while. We're trying to get her ready for the 24th of February.

Anyway, that was pretty much our week! Here's some photos!

-Elder Sierra