Two Months in Chile

The past week has been good! It all started with probably the most rain I’ve ever been in before, for the first couple of days. We contacted in it every day with little success, but I tried to look at the good in it and remember it as a fun experience. I don’t know why but all the houses that we got into this week, the people had babies and the babies just loved me! Wanted me to play with them the entire time haha either babies or freaking dogs that wanted me to play with them. So many dogs always... One of the things I missed a ton this week because of the rain was driving my car in the mountains after it rained, and it made me remember the experience where I thought that I had flooded my engine because we had been mudding in pouring rain and my car had shut off in the middle of a huge puddle. For 30 minutes it wouldn’t start. I remember praying after that 30 minutes because I couldn’t think of anything else to do. It started a minute after that, I know it was something small but that was a cool experience to have. I was so scared my parents were going to kill me haha.

This week we got the new kids in our zone! 4 new kids who, as I remember so well, are scared out of their mind and know no Spanish haha, but I told them it gets better and gave them some more comforting words. There is one of them in our district, Elder Parking, which is funny because I know and hung out with a girl who is his cousin! He went to East and plays lacrosse so that’s pretty cool too! We are definitely going to be good homies.

This week we had the baptism of Vicky!! I am so grateful I had the opportunity to baptize her, even though the water in the font was ice cold... As soon as we got in and until we got out we were shivering like crazy haha my voice when I was saying the prayer was shaky because I was so cold and I feel bad for Vicky because she had to get her whole body in it. But she was very happy after along with her whole family. Another amazing experience of how the gospel blesses lives. But after that I had an intercambio with Elder Yson! It was insane.  We had the greatest success I have ever had before contacting! In the hour that we were contacting we taught like 2 short lessons and found 3 other really good "news". That’s really good haha. But we are both relatively new in the mission so it was sketchy but the Lord blessed us and we killed it!

One experience that we had this week that was pretty cool: we were contacting for a while with no success so we decided to visit a member that lived in the area we were contacting. She had a friend there who was Evangelical but we decided to share a scripture. It was just a simple scripture but as we were sharing, she started crying. She thanked us after. We taught about how God gives us trials so we can learn and grow. Apparently she had been having a really hard time in her life and that had helped. It was cool to see that the spirit had touched her even though she wanted nothing to do with us. Also another investigating family that I want to talk about, they are an amazing family! It’s the parents and their two sons, their girlfriends, and two brand new babies of the sons. One of the sons is 17 and already has a baby, kind of crazy stuff but they are really smart and very good in lessons! A couple of days ago we had the opportunity to teach the dad for the first time. They are all very receptive but they have a hard time leaving their Catholic background. I know the Lord will prepare them when it is the right time.

I am starting to share more and more in lessons and try every day to say more things and improve in my Spanish. I am to the point where I can understand almost everything, but it’s hard for me to formulate sentences on the spot. But I have been practicing with Charlotte, the recent convert, teaching whole lessons to her by myself for practice! It’s been good and I’m improving. Missionary life is an amazing experience and I experience something new every day. It’s also an amazing opportunity to grow and strengthen a testimony. I have grown to love reading the scriptures and my testimony is strengthened every time I read them.

I’m going to wrap things up by saying how much I love all of you, friends and family, and I invite you, and all of you to invite others you know who aren’t having the easiest time in their life right now, to turn to the scriptures. Because I testify that they bring comfort. That is one things I know for a fact. Also General Conference is this upcoming Saturday and Sunday. Take the amazing opportunity we have to watch that. I never fully appreciated it before the mission but now I am looking forward to it so much! Also watch with questions already in your head, and they will be answered by the end. It’s a promise. 

Elder Clay