Santiago, May 19, 2014

Hello Family!

So I bought a creme for my feet. It's really great. I no longer have dry skin down there and what not. It's so appropriate that Isaiah talked about the feet of those that preach the gospel.

I did exchanges with Elder Parada... Again. This was the third time on my mission. The cool part was seeing how much we've changed over time, from having a couple months on the mission to now. The work is much easier now, but it's still just as fun!

Our counselor is moving this week. Flavio, even though he's called as the second counselor, is acting branch president, EQ president, Ward Mission Leader, and just about everything else. We're going to miss him, but it'll be interesting to see how the branch reacts to make everything work out. We went this week with President Levrino and his wife to visit the family of the real branch president. I was kinda expecting a lesson on fulfilling responsibilities, or something to that effect, but instead they shared about faith and hope. It's interesting how the solution to all the problems in the church and in your personal life don't have to do with correcting them directly, rather just living the gospel and letting everything work out. The Spirit will guide you through the rest.

We had a really cool family night with two of our investigators - two girls that got baptized. We had planned to watch Finding Faith in Christ, but we couldn't get the remote to work in order to change the language. Then, out of nowhere, the language changed. Miracles happen. The mom hasn't been too keen on giving them permission, but she had a change of heart! Two miracles in one night was pretty great. Then, yesterday in the baptism, the water heater worked! It was around the first time in weeks that it worked. In the zone conference on Saturday, Sister Levrino talked about the privilege of seeing miracles every day. They really do happen every day.

The sister missionary leaders also worked a miracle of their own. They had an idea of something to do for president, since this was his last zone conference in Santiago. They asked us all to bring a written testimony and a picture of a baptism. In the 30 minutes before the conference and in 30 minutes of their lunch, they made an amazing scrapbook! Not gonna lie, it was impressive - between collecting all the stuff, helping the missionaries that forgot to do it, and doing it all without president knowing while he was in the same building was really cool. Just goes to show that like Elder Ballard said, the sisters really are God's secret weapon.

One of the parts that stuck out to me from the conference was when president shared 1 Nephi 3:7 - a scripture that I think everyone has heard hundreds of times. He focused not on "I will go and do," rather, "the Lord prepares the way." He said that if we say that we couldn't go to church or we couldn't talk to everyone, or we couldn't fulfill whatever commandment, we're saying that God was wrong. That kinda hit me. There really isn't any excuse for not keeping a commandment, because God is never wrong.

In stake conference this week, they talked a ton about the basics. President gave a talk on the Book of Mormon, and how important it is to read every day. He talked about the part in Moroni 10:3 when it says "if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them," and how it's a privilege to read it. If we have a Book of Mormon, it'
s because our Father decided that we would treasure it and make use of it. Makes ya think about just how important it is to make use of what he's given us!

Anyway, that's what happened this week! I hope you're all doing well!

Landon