Elder Millard with his mission president

Elder Millard with his mission president

Monday, January 23, 2012

More miracles in Chile!

Hola Hola!!! This week has been unforgettable!! Elder Lloyd and I are getting along extreemely well. We are becoming great friends. He is such a stud, and we are having alot of great times and success together. We are still doing our morning and nightly exercises together, and we are starting to see some fruits!! We even have the perfect diet down, complete with Eggs in the mornings and frozen yogurt and fruit at night. He is well on his way to getting back into shape for Stanford Football. I love exercising because I have so much more energy now to work all day and be more focused and awake.

My toe is doing great!! I can almost walk normally now. These last few weeks, I have been putting my whole foot in an ice bath at least once a day, and it seems like it is progressing alot. I rarely feel pain, which is a miracle!! I have another appointment to get an
X-ray on the 31st, then a follow up with the doctor on Feb 1st.

Antonio and his family are progressing so well!! As you all know, Antonio has some serious problems with smoking, drinking, drinking tea and coffe. We have done everything to help him out. We taped a Jesus Christ passalong card on his cigarrette boxes, we have brought many members of the church over that have experience leaving those things behind, and we gave him a powerful priesthood blessing. After the blessing, he has had so much more self control to resist temptation. He has not smoked for over 6 days now. He still has a way to go, but i know he will do it. God led us to them right on time. They were in a familial crisis, and did not have a way out. Now that they are applying Christ´s teachings, they are now seeing the light of hope shine into their lives. They have descovered the seeds of happiness. The whole family is now determined to do nothing more but to follow our savior Jesus Christ. They are a miracle, and i love them so much.

When Elder Lloyd arrived here in Viña, something very strange happened. It seemed as if every single appointment that we had fell through. We knew that the lord was only testing us and if we kept giving it our all and kept pushing through, we would see the blessings. These last couple of weeks have been so successful for Elder Lloyd and I. All of our appointments are there and are excited to share with us! The lord is leading us to so many prepared people.

We were talking to everyone and found a family whos dad served a mission, and the parents were sealed in the temple. Sadly, they are inactive right now as of 8 years, but the great part is that we found them and when we passed by, the spirit touched their hearts so much. They said that back in the day, when they lived in Villa Alemana, they had hundreds of missionaries pass by their house to reactivate them, but nothing happened. But now, since we found them and visited them, the spirit touched their hearts and they want to come back to church. They have 2 daughters. One thats 14 and the other is 8. The daughter asked us how they can be an eternal family. We helped them understand, and now they have desires to come back to church, the girls want to get baptized, and they want faith again in their family. We are super excited to see their change!! ETERNAL FAMILIES!!!!

What I am going to share with you now is a miracle of miracles!! As I told you last week, Elder Lloyd and I fasted to find a family. Well have you ever heard of the saying, "when it rains, it pours"? On Friday of this week, the family that we had lunch with called us and asked us if we could come to lunch a little later, at 2:30. So instead of stopping to work at 1:30, we passed by a few future investigators. A few days back, we talked to a lady that lives in a place called Población Naval, where all the men in the Navy live. We decided to pass by her since we had all this surprise time at our desposal. We came up to the main gate of the gated community, and pushed the corresponding numbers into the intercom. She did not answer but as we were there, someone was coming out of the door so we decided just to sneek in and knock her door. We knocked her door and she was alone with her kids so we could not enter in the house to share. We are going to come back another day when her husband comes back from his 3 month voyage to France. So here we were, in this gated community, on the second floor of the department building. The thought occured to us that we should hike up to the top of the appartment building and talk to the people up there. We obeyed the voice of the spirit, and walked up to the fifth floor. The first door that we knocked, there was an 11 year old boy that answered. We asked him if his parents were there, and he said no. We then asked him if anyone else was there, and he said that his older brothere was there, so he ran and got him. They took a long time, so we decided to knock the next door. As we were talking to the neighbor, I saw in the corner of my eye that the older brother had finally come to the door so I jumped to the door right away before he closed it and went inside. I talked to this 18 year old kid while my comp was talking to the neighbor. This kid, Nick, is such a cool kid. He lived in the U.S. for a couple of years so he could speak english. After my comp was done contacting the neighbor, nick let both of us in to the house to share with them. At this moment, there were just Nick (18), Diego(11) and Cristobal(11). We shared with them for a little while, when suddenly, their parents showed up at the door (Cristian, y Teresa). Next thing you know, we were sharing with the whole family of 6!! We gave them a Book of Mormon and set another appointment to pass by, since we were already super late for lunch. Then next day we passed by, and shared with them about the restoration of the gospel. The lesson was ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE!! They were so interested, asking great questions, all participating and they all understood, which is the important thing. They are such a great family!! They are super happy, really respectful, super receptive, and we now have a huge confidence with them. They told us that the next time we come over, we need to call the momy and daddy. They told us that as of a couple of months, the mom´s dad died and also the dad´s dad died. So they asked us where their parents are and if they would be able to see them again. We got them excited to hear about the plan of Salvation, which we are going to share with them next time. At the end of the appointment, they all accepted a baptisimal invitation!! The lord has blessed us so much and Elder Lloyd and I are on fire with excitement and ANIMO!!!

All I have to say is that I am so grateful! Grateful for the mission, the neverending blessings of the Lord, my family whom I love so much, the Gospel, my life... I´mm really happy right now and thoroughly enjoying my experience here in the mission.

I love you all!

Chao

Elder Millard


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