Chile - Punta Arenas - Week 38 - The miracles come after the trial of your faith!

Happy 10 months! can't believe I've been gone this long!

This week was one of my favorite weeks of the mission, don't know why, but it was awesome!

We knocked a ton of doors again. One day we knocked probably 50 doors, only 15 of them answered and all of them rejected us. Doesn't sound like fun, but we had a good time. It felt good to give people the opportunity to accept the gospel, even though maybe they weren't ready for it at that moment. Every rejection is one step closer to finding those who are prepared! 

One day we went to eat lunch with a member and we asked her if she knew any less actives that lived close by. She gave us a few names and we decided we were gonna look for them! The first house we knocked, a man answered the door and told us we could come in! Awesome! We walked in and met a woman and asked her if she was Karina (the name of the less active that the member gave us), and she said "no, I'm her sister." Turns out the sister just got home from her mission 6 weeks ago and was here visiting! We talked to her for a while and then met Karina who came out to talk to us. She was really quiet, but receptive. The man who answered the door was her husband who isn't a member and not really interested either. When we shared a scripture with them, he left the room. We visited with both sisters for a while and invited them to come to church with us on Sunday, and they both came!

A few days later, we knocked the door of a less active family. The grandmother Erica, lives with her daughter Pricila and her granddaughter Safca. They have been inactive for quite a few years. I had only met the Grandmother, Erica, one time. She was really nice to us, but made it clear that she wasn't too interested in coming back to the church right now. That was about a month ago. Last week we knocked on her door again and she answered! She told us we could come in. Her daughter and her granddaughter were both there too! We talked with hermana Erica for awhile, Pricila and Safca left the room. I was kinda bummed but grateful we got to meet them at least. After awhile they both came back out and started talking to us! Pretty soon we were laughing and having a good time, and then Hermana Erica invited us to stay and eat. We had already been there for a long time, so we decided that maybe we should go and come back another day. She said "if you want me to go to church with you guys, you are going to eat my food." Alrighty then! We ate with them and then shared a scripture. At the end we invited them to come to church with us. Pricila was a little hesitant, she asked "do I have to wear a skirt?" we told her she didn't have to if she didn't want to. Safca said "I want to go back!" Pricila said "Well if you really want to go, I'll go with you, but I'm only staying for sacrament meeting." Deal! Everyone agreed to come to church. We asked them if they wanted us to call them in the morning, or pass by to pick them up. Pricila said, "no, we just need to go on our own." After that I kinda lost faith that they were going to show up. I prayed and prayed that they would come to church on Sunday. AND THEY DID!!!!!! all of them came, even wearing skirts and they stayed all 3 meetings!!!! They were going to leave after Sacrament meeting, but Safca wanted to stay and go to YW, so the other two stayed as well! In Relief Society we ended up talking about why we came to church that day. When Pricila and Erica had to answer they said they came because the missionaries motivated them to come back and that they did it for Safca. They both ended with a few tears. I seriously have never had such a big smile on my face! Pure happiness! At the end of the meeting hermana Erica gave the closing prayer! Afterwards we hugged them goodbye and thanked them for coming. They said "No, thank you for helping us come back." They invited us to come back and eat with them on Wednesday! Seriously one of the happiest moments of my mission. I love teaching new people, but nothing beats helping less active members come back and reminding them of the promises they have made with Heavenly Father!!  

 

This is why I am a missionary!

Hermana Segura

I'm still not sure what this is, but I ate it and it was delicious!
Some kind of giant crab thing! Super good!
This is what she served us when she said we had to eat it or
she wasn't going to come to church with us! Ha! 

And then this was our dessert! Was just as good as it looks!