Dear Friends and Family!
Wow entonces this past week was amazing! We tried out a lot of new things out this week to test it out and we had a lot of success this past week!
But just to get the stress off of your shoulders since you're probably wondering if Shirley got baptized or not. . . well, the answer is "no" still. But! it's all right! I will explain everything!
But one of the new things that we tried out this past week was to do 2 day divisions/splits with the missionaries in our zone. Normally, we as zone leaders just have to do splits with our district leaders. But because our zone is one of the smallest zones, it's really easy for us to do more than just with our district leaders. We realized that our mindset about divisions was a little bit bad as usually we would just meet up after lunch and work with in splits till the next day before or a little after lunch the next day. We realized that that only allows a short amount of time to get to know the missionary and let alone to work with them. As well, I think some times we look at it as a thing of a checklist to do which we didn't like that mentality at all so we wanted to change it. We realized that we have been able to have a lot of success and that we have a couple sure baptisms this transfer still, but looking at our zone we realized that maybe we were being a little prideful in just trying to better our sector.
So we decided to extend the idea a little bit and do 2 day divisions. That way one of us could be in the other sector and really get to know him and work with him and help him learn how to have success in his sector. And, wow, after the results we saw this week it was dramatic! IT was amazing! WE loved it! And we got to love our missionaries even more!
So we started Tuesday night and Elder Daniel committed to go to Avenida Matta 2, another sector, to go be with Elder Pederson. And that I would be with Elder Humphreys, (a missionary that I was with in the CCM). So we started Tuesday afternoon and I brought Elder Humphreys to my sector and it was a blast! Since we've known each other since the CCM it was great to meet up again after such a long time. But the interesting thing was that Tuesday and Wednesday there were more protests in our sector, but this time they got a little ugly. The police had come and thrown tear gas bombs all over our sector. And wow, they don't have that name just to call it fancy or anything! It literally makes you cry! The protest had covered over 3/4ths of our sector, so we were only able to work around a few blocks even though we weren't in the strikes or anything. The tear gas had covered the air of our whole sector. And wow, were we crying like babies all day long! Ha ha. Never thought I would be able to say that I have tested what tear gas is like! HA ha!
Then Wednesday we went by Shirley's who we wanted to challenge to get baptized that weekend, but she still hadn't been able to talk to her mom to let her know. And she was determined that she wasn't going to get baptized until her mom knew beforehand. But she told us that she was able to communicate with her brothers and her dad at least. She said that when she told them that she was going to get baptized in the Mormon Church they started to say some ugly things about the Church. But as Shirley listened she said she had a prompting to correct them. She said she built up the courage and instead of just hearing her family bag on her decision she decided to TESTIFY! She told us that she told them that she knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. She said afterwards the family calmed down and accepted her decision. She said she felt amazing inside after giving her testimony. It was awesome to see her telling us that story as we could see that she really has a big testimony of this gospel.
She couldn't get a hold of her mom till Saturday afternoon who in the end supports her decision and even though everything was ready to go it was too late to throw off a baptism service that same day. And this next week is Stake Conference where no one will be able to be baptized because there's no sacrament meeting and that means no one could get confirmed so we put the date for her baptism for the 27th of this month. And she is super excited! She was going around all over church yesterday telling how she was going to get baptized on that date! Ha ha, we are stoked for the end of this month!
Then after that first division I met up with Elder Daniel and we were able to work a few hours and teach Erlipper who is progressing really well, but didn't come to church yesterday. And then we went on another division with Elder Perugorria and Elder Perrier. This time Elder Daniel left again and I was with Elder Perrier who is from Switzerland! HA ha, he is a stud! I love that guy! He is really new in the mission and I love being with him. We were able to gain the confidence in a member who left with us from 11 in the morning till 9 at night! HA ha! IT was a blast! And we were able to find a new family of 5! IT was a miracle!
Then Saturday we finished the divisions with them and found out that the divisions helped Elder Humphreys and Pedersons so much that when they both got back into their sectors they went to their best investigator, challenged him to get baptized, and Saturday he got baptized! Woo hoo, it was a miracle! Because that sector hasn't had a baptism for more than a year! IT was awesome!
Then Saturday we took Jean Paul and some other retention to the temple to go do baptisms for the dead! And I was able to see Scarlett, Mary, and Diego from Talagante! Thee 3 of them got baptized after I left! Aww IT was amazing to see them inside the temple! It was a sweet experience to see 4 of my converts in there!
Then Sunday was amazing! There is the Rañiman family that we have been able to reactivate, but the dad isn't a member. He is a jokester and never took anything serious, but we taught the Restoration yesterday and I don't think I have ever taught that with so much power! He has been receiving missionaries for years! And finally in 2 weeks he and his wife are going to get married! So thats why we wanted to have such a great lesson with him. And for years this man has denied to pray to all the missionaries that have passed by to visit him, But we were really direct and we told him that we weren't leaving until he prayed. We bowed our heads and in silence waited. At first he just laughed at us, but we kept in silence as the rest of the family bowed their heads as well. After a few minutes Gabriel, that's his name, gave the first prayer in his life! IT was incredible! After, the rest of the family was crying to see how this man had just been changed through this simple prayer! Truly, it was a miracle! We are hoping that he can progress now and hopefully get baptized shortly after his marriage!
WE are soo stoked for this month! We have 3 baptisms planned for the 27th with Shirley, German y Marria! and we are trying to shoot for one more! There are soo many miracles!
I love this work!
Love Elder Cowan
No comments:
Post a Comment