I got my hair cut today too!!!! I really needed it.
This is the 2nd of a new month which is another milestone for me... I am getting very, very close to the end. This is last week of this cambio. Seven Sundays and I'll be home... crazy!
This was not great as far as numbers go, but really good in terms of important things happening. The biggest thing that happened was Saturday morning. They held a Stake missionary activity for the youth between 12 and 18 years old, I think. They got a lot of youth out which was very cool. They started out with the video of the Restoration and a short message and then they held 3 workshops, 2 based on chapters in Preach My Gospel. The first was about preparing yourself for a mission - physically, financially, spiritually, morally, etc. The second one was on teaching skills and how to teach better. The third was on the purpose of being a missionary - why are you a missionary and what are you there to do. I was assigned to a group and went around with them to assist and get things going. After that they split into 2 big groups. One group walked to another ward that was 45 - an hour away with a huge Bible and when they got to a market in that area, there was a guy there with a big Book of Mormon and they tried to make some contacts and then they walked back. It was to represent a day for a missionary with lots of walking, contacting, haring the gospel, etc. The other group stayed at the Stake Centre and did an Openhouse of sorts. We tried to find some people and invited them to come in. We didn't get too many people but a few. We held 3 short classes on the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One elder who was supposed to teach wanted to go and look for people so I stayed and helped teach one of the classes. They ended with a short devotional and then they ate. It lasted from about 8:30 - 4pm.
After the Stake activity, we went and ate then came back because the other elders in the ward had a baptism so we attended. It was really good. She's cool. Her name is Maira. We were happy for them and helped them get things ready.
We've also been doing MLS - the program the church uses to consolidate the records of the members. Memberships records would be printed from this program. Here in Chile they don't seem to keep it up to update very well so we've been helping organize and update it. This Sunday we got all the callings in there and ready to go. There's a section in Preach My Gospel that asks if you're being a Help or a Hindrance for your Bishop, so we're trying to be a help for him. It might be a little more work for him at the moment, but it will help him in the long run.
Yesterday, Sunday, we went to the hospital to visit man. We didn't really know him so it was more for his son and daughter-in-law and grand kids. He's near the end of his life and they wanted some people to pass by. It was kind of awkward, but we went and I think the family felt some support.
We had a kind of funny incident with the family Solar. They were inactive and have started coming back to church. He had been drinking and we asked him to stop drinking which he did, but there was still some wine in his TV cabinet, about 5 bottles. We told him he needed to get rid of it because it not good to have it. It's a temptation and you'll got kids at that age where it can only cause problems so it's not going to serve any good purpose to have it there. I told him he should dump it down the sink, but he was set on gifting it to people. I also kind of against that because it just encourages others to drink, but I'd rather that than him have it right now. So we were over there and their daughter Josefa, whose about 6, crawled in the cabinet where the wine was and was playing games on the phone. She was playing for awhile and moving and wiggling around a bit and then she stopped, looked at her dad and said, "Dad, can't you get rid of these wine bottles? They're really annoying me." It was so perfect... the perfect comment! We just laughed so hard. Brother Solar just didn't know what to say. He just went, "Oh, yes, I guess I'll do that." It was pretty funny.
So, last week we baptized Lorenza last week. This lady just makes me so happy all the time. She's 89, but she's super active for her age and she such a happy person. Every time we go there she makes me feel happy. On Sunday she went to church with Jocelyn, her grand daughter and Daniel, her son and the bishop welcomed her to the ward and asked for a vote of fellowship. Typically the person stands, but she just jumped out of her seat like a champ. It was so great... so funny! She was all smiles and so happy. I just love that little old lady, she's so great.
Also, her son set Sept 18, the Chilean Independence holiday, to get baptized. He asked if he could do that. It's a big huge party, generally with lots of drinking so it's not a very busy day for us, so we're happy to do a baptism that day. Then he wants to have a BBQ after, so we're looking forward to that. Cool stuff.
Talk to you next week. Caio!
Love Jord
No comments:
Post a Comment