So down in the Southern hemisphere we`re in the middle summer, it`s deathloy hot, but kinda nice that I don`t have to wear 20 layers of close and all the fruits in season, yummm!!! (you can`t find fruit here unless it`s in season, not like the states where they have everything pretty much year round) The past couple weeks have been tough because as we go into summer vacation everyone is going out of town, mainly to the south of Chile where it`s super green and beautiful, for several months to be with their family and we`ve lost literally half of our investigators for one reason or another, so we are again in the process of finding newbies to teach. We we`re able to contact 2 AWESOME referals and I have so much faithi in them! One is Franco, he`s 18 and used to be Jehova Witness. He wanted to be baptized when he was 17 but his parents said no, but now is dating a member and now that he`s not underage he really wants to do it! He knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and we gave him a baptismal date for February. The other referal we got her name was Betty. She lives in an apartment building that`s closed with a gate so unless you have a key you can`t get in, but turns out everytime we walked by it was open! We went twice with no luck, finally yesterday we were gonna go for the last time before considering her as contacted since we could never find her and she was there! She answered the door with her partner and they let us in, not only that, but they have so many qualities we look for in people who are receptive and ready to hear the gospel: they`re newlyweds (rare to find married people in Chile and if they`re not married they can`t be baptized unless they do or move out to different apts), she`s expecting their 1st child, they don`t profess any religion but believe in God, and Alejandro her husband just lost his father a week ago! WOW! It was just so amazing to see all those qualities in one person and they loved our visit and want to learn more. Lastly, we found some investigators saturday, a man we contacted on the street. We taught them the restoration of the gospel and Pedro the father had really good questions. His partner (they`re not married) Carolina said she believes in God but doesn`t really do anything to show her faith so we invited her to pray and for them to join us at church the next day. Sunday came and we called them 15 minutes before sacrament meeting started, they said they were eating breakfast but that they`d get dressed and come!...and they did! They said they felt super comfortable at church and are looking forward to our visit this week! Seriously guys, the Lord will put people in your path who are ready to listen to the truth, who are looking for it, who need that spiritual aspect in their life-the hardest part is finding them, we need to be diligent, suffer with patience, be humble, and the Lord will reward us accordingly and guide us to His chosen vessels.
Another cool thing that happened this week is that IT RAINED! It`s a very rare occurence in Santiago cause they`re in a drought. I`ve actually been in more earthquakes than rain showers, it`s only rained like 4-5 times in the 11 months I`ve been here. Also, we did exchanges and I was able to reunite with my baby girl Hna.Broadhead! We were so happy to be companions aain even if it was for a day! She`s like my twin when she teaches and does contacts in the street, it`s funny to see how many habbits and things you pick up from your trainer.
Lastly, today we went to Patronato which is where they have all the clothing and shoe stores and I ran into my first convert Manuel Ortiz from Til-Til!!! It was so crazy!!! I was so happy to see him, I almost cried! We took a picture because the picture we took together the day we got baptized got erasewd cause my old camera was on crack and would randomly erase pictures and I was so sad. It was a nice tender mercy from the Lord :)
Love you all!!!
Spiritual cookie: "Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well."
xoxo,
Hna.Ibarra
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