Buddhists, bus robberies, and baptisms!

This week was soo crazy......CRAZY AWESOME! A funny highlight was that we contacted a Buddhist guy, he`s Chilean, we were walking past his apt and the door was open and I saw huge pencil sketches of dragons and asian art on the wall. I told him I thought they were cool and he told me he`d like to talk more with us but that he can`t come to church with us because he`s made certain vows and is a Samurai....uhhhh....ookaaayyyyy??? Hahaha!

Later in the week we had an exchange with our Sister Training Leaders in Compañia. On the way to the city I was chatting with Hna.Fullmer about the dangers of Chile because she mentioned how she thought it was safe and not a lot of robberies. As I began to correct her and tell her stories of things that have happenned in the mission pertaining to robberies, break-ins, and missionaries getting jumped the bus stopped at a stop and when the doors opened some guy reached over the crowd of people, ripped of Hna.Fullmer`s Young Women`s Medallion and jumped out running!!! Her plaque flew off in the air and the people on the bus all started to yell that there had been a robbery and we`re freaking out! It all happened so fast that I didn`t even have time to react! NEVER in my year of being in Chile had someone ever tried to rob me  (I guess cause I got the tough miami look on my face ;P ) but I guess there`s a first time for everything...where`s the Samurai guy when you need him?!

We had an awesome ward activity we put together as missionaries with our ward mission leader, it was called C.C.M.M.-Centro de Capacitacion para Miembro Misioneros (MTC for members) and we had them live a day in the life of a missionary through games. They all got mission calls, divided into different missions and got plaques. Then they started with their morning exercices and we tied their legs with their companion and did a 3 legged raced finding candies around the halls of the church, then study time where the different missions had to answer questions from the Book of Mormon, then they had lunch and had a race between the missions of who could eat a donut hanging on a peice of string without hands the fastest. At the end we had a spiritual aspect and saw a video called  "The Work of Salvation" and then they wrote their testimonies inside a Book of Mormon to give it to someone they felt impressed to share the gospel with. It was a hit, everyone had a ton of fun, plus I made brownies and got lots of compliments haha! 

Then sunday we finally had Carolina and Benjamin`s baptism!!!They looked so beautiful dressed in white. David came to support, he doesn`t feel ready for baptism yet, but he`s almost there. He`s seen the changes the gospel has made for his family and the blessings it has brought them so we`re going to keep working with him. It all turned out great and Carolina shared her testimony in the end and in tear said said "Yo se que esta es la iglesia verdadera." No other words can make a missionary happier besides hearing someone accept a baptismal invitation or that you got mail hahaha!

Later that sunday the Catholic church had this Quasimoto procession parade thing with horses and wagons and people on horses and bikes with flags and banner and jesus and virgin mary pictures, it was pretty cool. 

Lastly, we met some cool people this week, a contact named Elizabeth who was walking home from work. I talked to her and she said that she was having a bad day and felt it was a sign that I talked to her. She said she once knew a priest who would shake her hand and this great peace would come over her, she said she had this same feeling when she was speaking to me. Also, today we were in the Metro and Hna.Fullmer and I saw 2 tall gringos and thought "they`re not from around here." That`s when the woman yelled "SISTERSSS!!!!!!!!!" and gave each of us a HUGE hug and pulled out her camera and started talking pictures with us, LOL! Almost died laughing! They`re from Kaysville and have a daughter serving a mission in Georgia now, they are in Chile trying to start a pinewood durby local and use it as a reactivation tool and are also doing contacts and have handed out tons of pass-along cards and church DVD`s and we were talking to them for a while and it was just incredible their personal iniciative to embark in the Work of Salvation, what a wonderful example of member missionaries! It`s my personal goal in life to do small things like that to share the gospel with strangers.All in all it was a crazy wonderful week!

"Spiritually mature obedience is “the Savior’s obedience.” It is motivated by true love for Heavenly Father and His Son." Elder Robert D. Hales

xo,
Hna.Ibarra