Dear Mom and Dad,
Good week! It ended with an amazing baptism and confirmation, but we´ll get to that last :D
This week the bishop asked us to go visit a guy named DL. He was baptized years ago in Australia, but his records didn´t exist, so he asked us to go figure out what DL knew so that they could get a new record created. We also got to meet his wife, RL, who got baptized about a year ago when they moved here to Chile. Really interesting family. DL found the church while he was traveling all over the world, he wasn´t just in Australia but also in Japan, China, Asia, Europe, the US, and then back to Chile. He had kind of forgotten about God while he was traveling, but when he got back to Chile he decided to find the nearest chapel, and showed up one day with his wife (she´s also Chilean), RL, who liked it and then got baptized.
Talking to the mamita, the sister who we pay to wash our clothes (now that is charity in action!), we decided to go visit one of her neighbors, P. The mamita (whose name is P, what a coincidence) said that she had passed through some hard times and could really use some help from God. It turned out that she was already a member of the church, although she hadn´t been in 20 years, but her boyfriend was also incredibly eager to learn more about God and to follow him. He was also very insistent that they learn together as a family, it was really a beautiful thing to see.
Here in El Mirador, there are a lot of apartment complexes that have gatemen. Usually we just tell the gateman which apartment we are going to, but this week we ended up talking to one of them for a good 20 minutes (in the end we never made it to the apartment we were going to, it was funny). He told as about his goals, his dreams, and also the hard life he has had. He showed us his hands at one point--they were scarred and marked from years and years of hard work for his family. When we shared with him that he could find peace, rest, new life, and even eternal life in God, he started crying. It was really a sweet moment, and made me think about all the other people that are ready to hear our message, that maybe I haven´t looked at and considered talking to before.
We had a really huge blessing this week--Elder Viñas, from the 70, came to give a couple mission conferences. He talked to the leaders of the mission about how we should avoid needless and useless traditions that take our time and attention away from missionary work, and he talked about the level of dedication and preparation that we should help people to achieve before they are baptized. The really amazing part was after the conference. Elder Viñas wanted to talk to a couple of random missionaries to get a feel for how the mission was doing. President Kähnlein chose my companion and I as 2 of the 4, so I got to have an interview with a general authority. The spirit was really strong, two things that he said stuck out in my mind. 1) Help people to feel the spirit so that they will want to act, and 2) use the Atonement as my big motivation. Using the atonement, I can motivate myself to do about anything.
So, last up, Y was baptized and confirmed this weekend. She is absolutely glowing with light now, it is so incredible to see the change that has taken place in her, how happy and excited she is, how much faith and confidence she has in the Lord, how much commitment she has to keep moving forward. I had the privilege to confirm her and bestow the gift of the Holy Ghost on her, and the spirit moved me to say some pretty incredible things (not that I can remember most of them now, but I think they were meant more for her than for me).
So now, time to get back to work. I love you all,
Viviendo el sueño,
Elder Jason Ray
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