Talent show and tours

Hola Hola!! Its so great to hear that everything is great back at home! Everything is going well here. Sounds like a lot of fun going to the mountains for a nice morning run! The weather looks so beautiful! But i´m not going to use the work jealousy, don´t you worry. I´m just going to practice the Christlike attribute, patience. haha. This week was a great one. We had a lot of success. I´m loving working with Elder Alvarez. We work great together and he is helping me out alot. Tha argentines have a distinct spanish accent. Instead of saying Elder Millard, it sounds like (Elder Mishard). The (ll) and the (y) has a (sh) sound to the argentines. Since my last two companions have been argentine, my spanish has transformed a little bit and i´m totally starting to talk like an argentine. Everyone makes fun of me for it. haha. Anyways, lets get started with the good experiences of the week.

Elder Alvarez and I have had the blessing of teaching lots and lots of evangelicos, (evangelist). It has been a big blessing because for the Evangelicos, the music is very important. The majority of their worship is centered on music. I don´t know why God has put so many evangelists in our way, but it has been quite interesting teaching them. For them, they are not quite certain about their history, or where their religion came from. They are confused about what happened after the death of Jesus Christ, and do not have an answer to whether or not there was a gran apostasy. Many times, as we have taught the restoration of the gospel, it is as if a light has turned on within them. But other times, their hearts are so shut that it is impossible for them to gain a testimony. Elder Alvarez and I have been studying lot of the Bible to be able to teach all of them more efficiently.

Elder Bowen and his wife have been coming with us to visit Pastor Vergara. They created a great relationship right away. They will help us out alot with the whole family. The other day, we had just barely finished lunch, and then had an appointment with the Vergara family. The Bowens came with us. The lunch we had was huge by the way. We were super full. When we got there, we sat down, and started talking, not knowing what we were in for. The whole time we were talking, someone was preparing tons of food for us. When the time came, they invited everyone to the table and we could not refuse. So we sat down at the table and they brought us our plates. Now i´m not lying when I tell you this, these plates were absolutely Gynormous! Enough to feed a family of 3. We were now obligated to eat all of it. Oh the joys of the mission hahah. We are praying and searching for guidance on how we can help this family, and perhaps their congregation, recognize the truth and have sufficient faith to act.

This week was the epic talent show. We had lots and lots of people there. The best part is that Pastor Vergara had plenty of his congregation there. We filled the whole cultural hall. We all started with an opening hymn. THe hymn was How Great Thou Art. This song is special because all the evangelists use this song as well. After the introduction and opening prayer, Elder Alvarez and I had the opening numbers. We did a stellar arrangement of Come thou fount in English and spanish. Then another arrangement of Nearer my God to thee. It went really well! I have missed performing haha. THe show went really well! Pastor Vergara and his crew played a few songs. All I can say is wow!. Its like Gospel, soul music, but mexican style and in spanish. They had an acordian, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keyboard, and a choir. Good stuff. The show was so great because the purpose of the show came true. The evangelist congregation and our congregation now have a great relationship. The Vergaras and their congregation all want to come back for the next show!! Great experience. Lots of seeds of faith planted that day.

Yesterday on sunday, we did some tours of the church. The interesting part about the whole thing is that it was the anniversary of La Ligua. To celebrate, they had a huge concert in the center of La Ligua. The church is located right on the corner of the center. The artist that came to play was Gon Wana. He is basically a Bob Marley wannabe. So as we were doing tours of the church, there was a huge Reggae concert in the plaza. Suprisingly, we had lots and lots of success. We had the opportunity to do 7 tours in the space of about 2 hours. I guess Gon Wana works miracles. I´m a new fan of Reggae tours. haha.

Well Thats all folks. haha. I love you all! Thank you so much for all the support and love.

Que estén bien!

Elder Millard

Pastor Vergara and his family

Hola Hola!! Como están!! This week was full of adventures and surprises. But before I start, I want to congratulate Sheri on Graduating!!!! Thats so awesome!! So summer has officially started! Enjoy the warmth haha. Sounds like it was fun having Steph and Mark down for the weekend. Sounds like everything is going great back at home! As you may know, this was the last week of the change. My companion/child/hijito Elder Colman found out this week that he has to get surgery on his meniskus so he is on his way to Buenos Aires Argentina as we speak. Bummer! I Never thought my child would be going home before me! haha. By the way, this change has gone by in the blink of an eye.

So on thursday, Elder Baker, my district leader, called me and told me that I have to prepare a map marking where all our investigators are, for the new missionaries that are coming in. He told me that it is about a 99.9 percent chance that i´m leaving La Ligua. President very rarely leaves a missionary in an area for more than 4 changes. So he told me to pack all my stuff and prepare everything to leave this sunday night. So I did. I packed everything, and said goodbye to a few people... Saturday night rolls around, and they tell us officially what our changes are. My zone leader calls me and says, "Elder Millard, se....... Queda!! which means that I´m staying another change!! haha. Obviously the Lord has something else for me to do here in La Ligua. But Í´m pretty excited.

So it´s been a while since i´ve given an update on Pastor Vergara. We visited him and his wife this week, actually for the purpose of saying goodbye. I guess i´ll have to surprise them this week haha. So when we were there, they started talking about a documentary that they saw on descovery channel about how they have found a direct liniage from the Native Americans, to the Jews. In the documentary, they were talking about how the Mormon religion is the only religion in the world that has this revealed truth in their doctrine. This was another little eye oppener for them. They told us that they are members of their church right now only because that was the first church that they found. But they explained to us that they are still open to looking for the truth. They have been talking to President Gillespie about what would happen if they were to get baptized. (because obviously they are considering it). They told us their vision. Their vision is that one day, if they come to know its true, they will convert their congregation of 140 people and form another branch in the church. Pastor Vergara could still be a leader, and his congregation would all be members of the true church of Jesus Christ. The miracle is that they are considering it. They have tasted of the light and truth. They told us that they feel something unique special and different when we visit them. They would be an incredible family in the church. They are great leaders and love Jesus Christ. The thing is, it is a very complicated situation, but if it´s the lords will, great things could happen here in La Ligua in the near future. For the time being, we have the talent show planned for the 18th of June. His congregation and our congregation are going to meet up and hopefully create a bond of Christian friendship and trust. Planting some seeds. Hopefully we will see some fruits!

This last Sunday, the day that my companion left La Ligua, a miracle happened. It quite fitting actually. So to give a little background of the miracle, La Ligua has not seen rain in over a year. But lo and behold, this sunday, the same sunday that my comp was going home, the Lord decides to send a huge rainstorm! Tons and Tons of rain! Obviously me and Elder Colman were not prepared for this so we tried to avoid the exposure as much as possible, but the results were innevitable. We came home absolutely soaked!! It was super fun though. A nice change! La Ligua apparently was super sad that Elder Colman was leaving.

So today, I recieved a call from the Assistants. They told me that President Gillespie has another assingment for me. I´m going to be the new District Leader in the district Petorca!!! I´m super excited! It will be a little extra work but i´m grateful for this opportunity to learn, progress and serve.

I love you all! I pray for you often! The church is True!!!

Elder Millard