More miracles

Hola Hola!! Como estáis po! It’s so great to hear that everything is so great back at home! There was some crazy news this week! Everyone is getting engaged haha. The house looks soo weird! I love it though! Can´t wait to see the finished product. Wow I cannot believe how fast time is flying. Your summer and my winter is almost over! But here in Ovalle, during the day, it still feels like summer. This was such a great week! Let´s get started.

We had our mission conference this week in… are you ready for this… Coquimbo!!! It was so weird going back to the place of my birth! I got to see the Coquimbo cross again, be with my fellow Coquimbanos, and just cruise around my old stomping grounds. The conference went great. We learned a lot about being prepared. I will definitely work on that more. It is so important to be prepared, because if you are prepared, ye shall not fear. The whole mission is getting portable DVD players so we can study the preach my gospel dvds during companionship study. It will be a great resource and a great way to learn and practice. The next day after the conference, President Gillespie did something super cool. He came to Ovalle, and did a fireside for all of the investigators and recent converts. We had a couple of investigators there, and they absolutely loved it. President Gillespie is a powerful man!

Our investigators are doing incredible!! Maria and Pablo, the ones that have had problems with the word of wisdom, finally have got the determination to quit. They made the goal to stop smoking, drinking and drinking tea, today!! So, when they are successful in dropping these addictions, they will be able to be baptized on the 27^th of this month. I´m so happy for them. It was like a spark that went off inside of them. They suddenly have so much enthusiasm to live the word of wisdom and be baptized. Our prayers have been answered!

Elder Petersen and I have come to the conclusion that God often times puts certain types of people for specific companionships. For example, Elder Alvarez and I were teaching a ton of Evangelists. Now, Elder Petersen and I have found tons and tons of teenagers and young un-married couples. We are teaching three couples that are living together, that need to get married in order to get baptized. We are also working with 4 stud teenagers, all guys 16-18 years old.

Spiritual experience: So, here we were working this last Tuesday. Our appointment fell through, and our backup plan was to do tours of the church for an hour to find new investigators. When we got to the church, there were not very many people on the street. We both looked at each other, and decided that it would be better to go contact in another area. We both felt like we should go into the rich neighborhood right next to the church. In this neighborhood lives Ruben, the kid that i´m teaching how to play the piano. So we walk over there and start knocking doors and talking to everyone. In the rich neighborhoods, we seem to get a lot more rejections. But its where we felt the lord wanted us to be. We knocked about 12 houses, and either they were not there, or we got turned down. On the 13^th house, we yell “Alo” and a teenager walks out. He was a way cool guy. He came over, shook our hand and started talking to us for a while. His name is Leo. We found out that he was good friends with Ruben, and that he was really interested in the church. He already has a Book of Mormon and has read it a little, and he told us that he wants to meet with us. So we set up an appointment with him and Ruben to have a lesson in the church. He was really excited about it. And obviously we were too! When we walked away after having set up the appointment, Elder Petersen and I were super excited! We gave one of the biggest high five/ hug combos I ever seen. So the day rolls around when we have the appointment to meet with them in the church. When they come in, we do a quick little tour of the church, we sang an opening song on the piano, then started the lesson. We taught him about the restoration of the church, using a lock and key as an object lesson. He was so into it! He had so many great questions and was very excited about the whole thing. When the time came to talk about the book of Mormon, he told us something that absolutely caught me off guard. He said “Elders, I have already read the Book of Mormon, I have pondered it in my heart, and have prayed to God to know if it is true. God has answered my prayer, and I know with a certainty that these things are true.” After hearing this, my smile was from ear to ear. We testified also of the divinity and truth of the Book of Mormon, and of the veracity of this message that we shared. We invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. The Diamonds out there, and the Lord will guide us to them, if we have faith, and if we listen to his voice.

Well that’s all for this week! I love you all!

Cuidense Arto!

Elder Millard

FAITH

Hola Hola!! Its so great to hear that everything is so great back at home! That St. Geezy trip sounds like it was a blast! Sheri, thank goodness you are safe! That is so crazy that happened! It seems like you and cars are not getting along very well. Maddi, good luck with your volleyball tryouts this week! I know you will do great! Atta boy rob, busting out the fast offerings! There will be plenty more where that came from! Haha, good times. My winter is feeling more like a summer here in Ovalle. It is super hot during the day! I´m totally rocking the short sleeves again. My arms have missed the sun. In the night, it still gets a little cold. This change is just flying right by! This week in particular was a great one! I´m going to share a few great experiences that I’ve had these last few days. Let’s get started.

President Gillespie wanted us to focus on a Christ-like attribute in particular that we could work on developing. I chose to work on my faith. I have seen a big change in our success from just having a little more faith. Faith has more to do with just believing that things will come to pass. It is controlling our bodies, our minds and our hearts, focusing on what the lord wants us to do. If we have a thought that is contrary to what the lord wants, our faith is compromised. So I have been focusing a lot on that. Controlling my mind, my desires, and my will, and giving it all to the lord and his work. Its incredible how often we use our mind unconstructively. A lot of times, I would be day dreaming when I could be going through a lesson or a contact in my head. I could be letting my mind wander instead of going through what I learned in my personal study in the morning. Our mind is such a powerful instrument! I have seen incredible results from controlling my mind and showing more faith to the lord.

This last Friday, we were talking to every single person that we passed by. In one instance, we were passing by this teenager. He looked like a hard core punk. Normally we would not talk to those people because we have had some bad experiences with the type. But we told the lord we would talk to everyone! So we stop him and start talking to him and surprisingly he was a really nice guy! He was super interested in what we had to say to him. He does not have any religion in specific. They all say that they are Catholic, but in their own way. We started talking about the Book of Mormon. Our mission has these really cool cards that you can give to people that have a bunch of soul searching questions. He chose to answer the question, “Why do I have to get baptized?” He then started to explain that he is not baptized and he is very interested in learning more about it. Wow, this was quite the surprise. You really cannot judge people from just looking at them. You never know what they have been through or what they want. We invited him to come play basketball with us the next day. He is a huge basketball fan, and he was pretty excited to play against two tall gringos. The Lord really puts people in our path, we just need to have the faith necessary to act and talk to them, even if they don´t look like the type.

We did a sick tour this week with a Carabinero (police man). He is the 3^rd chilean that I have seen on my mission that is actually taller than me! He was the nicest guy in the world! The thing is, he is training to be a carabinero here in Ovalle, and he won´t have too much time to listen to us. He´s sick though; someday he will find the gospel and accept it.

A lot of our baptismal dates are falling through! Maria, Pablo and Felipe are all having big problems with the word of wisdom. They say that they are not too willing to let those things go because they always drink and smoke with their friends. And Maria said that every time she tries to drop tea, she gets super sick. They are all severely addicted to 3 tea, smoking and drinking. We are doing everything we can to help them get over them, but ultimately it is up to them to make the decision. Manuel, our other baptismal date is getting ready to move this next Sunday. Elder Petersen and I are working hard, trying to find the diamonds in the midst of all the rocks.

Love you all!

Que estén bien! Chao po!

Elder Millard