This Saturday, we got the assignment from President to go to a little town outside of Quillota called San Pedro. We had to meet up with the branch president and the secretary, tour the town a bit, and then look for houses that could be rented out to the missionaries. The only problem was, we had no idea where San Pedro was, and ended up staying on the bus until we got to Limache, the next city over that is part of a different zone. After contacting a few young men who had a lot of interest in meeting with the missionaries there in Limache, we finally made it back over to San Pedro. I really liked it, it is a small town--smaller than I have ever been in before--but it had a good feeling to it. I offered myself to President to go and open it (opening=being the first missionaries to get to a place where there weren´t missionaries before), so we´ll see if that is also the Lord´s will.
We had the fun experience of running into an inactive member named W this week. He is the ward financial secretary, which is odd, because he can never go to church in the morning--he takes care of his frail wife and can´t leave her in the morning to go to church. But we had a very spiritual moment as he shared his testimony of the church, sang a hymn, and said a prayer. He also gave away 15 years of church books and magazines to C, a member who was accompanying us (he was thrilled, he is a convert of only 3 years and was ecstatic to suddenly have a gospel library that it normally takes years and years to collect). He also gave us a few hymnals, which was great because Elder R lost his, and now we have an extra one to give to whomever we are singing with.
My third story also involves C (he´s great, he loves accompanying the missionaries and never says no when we call him). On Thursday night, while finishing one lesson, I looked at my planner and realized that we really didn´t have time to teach all of the lessons that we had that night--particularly two very important lessons with people who are progressing towards baptism. I started thinking that we should look for a shortcut to get to our next lesson, and had a really strong negative feeling. So, we went the long way around, and what do you know--we ran into C, who helped us to do divisions and get to both of the important lessons. I just love seeing God´s hand in these small but important ways! it is such a privilege.
The lesson that I got to teach that day was with R and L. We talked about the plan of salvation, they absolutely ate it up and thanked us for having shared such a beautiful truth with them. R gave her testimony of the plan of salvation, the Book of Mormon, and the church, and I have to say, I feel incredibly grateful to be blessed to teach people like Rita. She has only been meeting with us for a little over a week, but already, her faith is huge.
Another person I feel privileged to be teaching is JC. We met with him this Sunday and taught him about obedience, he started telling us a little bit about his life and his quest to follow Christ. Not only is he now completely committed to follow God´s commands, but he also wants to strive to live like Christ, helping everybody that he can, even giving his time and his resources to make others´ lives better. To finish off our lesson with him we sang "A Poor Wayfairing Man of Grief," it just seemed really appropriate, and was a beautiful final touch to the lesson.
This next weekend, Y, E, and C (different C) (the Mexican Singers, as we call them) should be getting baptized. They are quite excited, and we are too!
Viviendo el sueño (and on the crest of the wave),
Elder Jason Ray
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