April 30, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is life (as a missionary) as it should be lived. Fantastic week, Elder S and I are really working together really well, and I absolutely love seeing the Lord´s hand guide and lead us throughout the day.

First story: We were teaching about the Restauration the a young couple named W and S. When we got to the story of Joseph Smith and the first vision, the spirit absolutely filled the room--it was really an incredible effect. We talked about the feeling of peace and joy that each one of us had felt, and then went on to describe what it meant. When we invited them to come to church, S said "Yeah, we´ll come, because I really felt something when you talked about Joseph Smith. I want to find out more about this." Great experience.

Another lesson that shows how the Spirit works in us happened when we were teaching the R family. We started out watching a video, and then opened up for questions. As we went through answering their questions, each one of us--Elder S and I--said things that were a little bit random and that had never occured to the other one. But it turned out that those random bits were the answers to questions that different members of the family had had trouble expressing. I think teaching by the Spirit could be the coolest thing I´ve ever done in my life. :D

This week we got to meet the mother of J, a missionary from the ward who is currently serving in Argentina. She isn´t a member, but she very warmly let us in and showed us pictures of her son. He is doing fantastically, he left for his mission 6 months before I did and is having great success. It felt pretty special sharing with her--I thought of how important it would be for me, if my parents weren´t members, that the missionaries had passed by and shared something with them.

We met an awesome older lady named Y when we helped her carry her groceries to her house. She is cleaning up an old, unlived in house that hadn´t been used for years, and so now we are helped her to clean up all the trash and weeds out of her backyard. She talks a lot about how much God loves his children, and sings songs that remind me of the Sciptures Scouts while we clean.

We had stake conference this week, and got to hear both President Gillespie, the mission president, and Elder Corbridge, a general authority who is leaving Chile speak. Elder Corbridge´s talk was incredible--he talked about the things that matter most, when you take away the smoke and the mirrors and are left with knowledge, faith, character. It inspired me to make sure that I don´t get distracted by all of the small, seemingly important things to do and forget the goal, the purpose, the vision behind it all.

To finish off--some of the amazing people we are teaching right now include a couple of jovenes, or youth. Two of them in particular, A (whose mother is also sharing) and K (whose mother is a recent convert), really amaze me. A already wants to be a missionary. K asked me for some paper so she could take notes in the conference. Both of them already have really strong desires to follow Christ and to do the right thing, and are helping their mothers to remember to read the Book of Mormon and say they daily prayers. When I think about the kind of things these two kids, each of them only 12 years old, will do for other people and in the church in the next years of their lives, it makes me so grateful that there are youth like that in the world. It also made me think about my brothers and sisters, who are also jovenes, youth, with so much promise and potential ahead of them.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason Ray

April 23, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Hearing Mom´s stories of packing up the house and leaving is pretty crazy... but I think it´s a lot easier for me, now, since I accepted the move a few months ago and now I don´t have to live through it. I´ll keep praying for all of you, and keep sending me pretty pictures from Oregon :D

Great week this week, although you´ll have to take my word for it since once again I am seated at a computer that can´t handle pictures. Oh well, double pictures next week, I guess.

The week started out great--Monday night we had family night (in Spanish it´s Noche de Hogar, or Home Night) with a family in the ward and a few of their friends, talking about patience. It was a fantastic class, and R and A, a single mother and her 12 year old son, liked it a lot and agreed to meet with us the next day. Meeting with them the second time was proof that God places people who are really prepared around members of the church, because He wants them to find the gospel and He trusts us to be able to help them. They came to church this Sunday and loved it. A, the 12 year old son, has already said that he would like to be a missionary like us--12 years old, hasn´t even been baptized yet, and he already wants to be a missionary! Pretty incredible family.

On Tuesday we had a mission conference. We talked more about working with members, the power of music, and the Book of Mormon. As part of the discusion on the Book of Mormon we watched a movie called "Journy of Faith" about the scientific and archealogical evidences of Lehi´s journy, it was quite interesting. Another part of the conference was the hymns--each zone chose and practiced a hymn that talked about Christ to celebrate Easter. Our zone picked "Abide With Me," and I ended up singing the second verse as a trio with two other missionaries. It came out pretty nicely, and I think I¨m on the right path to getting over stagefright!

Skipping forward--today, the entire zone came over here to Quintero and we played sand volleyball, which quickly became handball, like soccer but throwing instead of kicking (it isn´t North-American football because there was no tackling), because we didn´t have a net. We then made sandwiches and went exploring along the coastline, it was quite fun. Pictures next week :D

Last night, we met and shared with the parents of J, one of the missionaries from this ward, who is currently serving in Argentina. He was baptized several years ago and his parents didn´t follow his example, but his mom showed us some pictures and he seems to be doing great. It feels like an honor to be able to share about the gospel with the family of someone who is doing the same thing I¨m doing, in a different country. If I had been the first convert in my family and was now on a mission, it would make me exstatic to hear that my family was sharing with missionaries back at home.

Last story. Saturday morning, we decided to pass by one of the member´s houses to see how we could help them and to talk about how they could share the gospel. They were in the middle of a big house-cleaning, and so we ended up helping them wash the car. Then we started talking about their live and their story in the church. After a few minutes, they started talking about how they weren´t sure they had a testimony, and about how sometimes it was hard to do all the things we know we should. Thoughts:
1. I am so glad that I have the privelege to serve a mission and to be taught so many things by the spirit. At this point in time, and I¨m sure this will only become more true over the next year and a half, my testimony of the restored gospel has become unbreakable. I know this is true.
2. We shared with them about how to gain a testimony, simple things such as reading the scriptures and praying earnestly. I have seen this before, and I know that these simple, daily things will, in the end, be the most important things, as this member gains a testimony that will help her stay firm in the gospel.
3. God was watching out for His child that day. We decided on a whim the night before to pass by this member´s house--now I can clearly see that it was inspiration. He knew the they would need our help at exactly that time, and He made it happen.

And I know that he will do the same for me, for all of His children. That´s the joy of the gospel. That´s the wonder of the message of the Restoration.

Love you both a ton,

Elder Jason Ray

April 16, 2012

Jason wanted us all to see how beautiful it is where he is living now

Dear Mom and Dad,

I forgot to sketch up a summary of my week like I usually do sunday nights, so I might be forgetting some vitally important and life-changing moments in this letter. But oh well, here goes.

We had a fun service project with the High Priests on Saturday. My companion and I, together with four frail older men, jumped around cleaning pigeon droppings off the roof of a non-profit organization, a center that helps people with physical disabilities. Walking around on this roof wasn´t the same as when I painted the house and had to walk on the roof, because it was a metal roof with only a few support beams. If I put my foot in the wrong place, it would have gone right through. But, I learned to walk on the support beams, and we scooped up several kilos of pigeon unmentionables. I took a looong shower afterwards.

This Sunday, by choice of the bishop, was testimony meeting. What really stood out to me was how many people stood up and said "I know this is the true church." It got me thinking about why that was important, why it is so special that the church is true. I thought about Joseph Smith in the presence of God the Father and Jesus Christ, hearing from Christ´s lips that the truth was not at that time found on the earth. I thought about Peter, James, and John, John the Baptist, Moses and Elijah coming to the earth to restore the Priesthood and the saving ordinances, the ordinances that cleanse, purify, change, enable, and eventually bind us together as eternal families. I too, know that this church is true, and that by direct command of Jesus Christ I must declare that truth to all the world.

A family that we have been teaching, the R family, came to church with us this weekend (everybody but the husband, who had work last minute). When we stepped into the chapel, two of the mother´s friends who were members came up to say hi and welcome her in--friends we didn´t even know she had! They were also very excited to hear that there was primary and YW/YM every week, since they had two kids of ages 9 and 13. I hope to bring a lot more good news here.

I had a great experience with the Ensign, the church magazine, this week. I was feeling a little stressed for everything that was happening, being new here and training a new missionary (even though he hardly needs training, Elder S is great) and still waking up in the mornings without being able to understand spanish perfectly. I decided to read the cover article, about grace, by Elder Bednar. It was an answer to a prayer I didn´t even know that I had been offering. God already knows that we are too week to do everything he asks us to, but that´s ok because He is strong enough to make up the difference. E´ Bednar then shares a few scriptural examples of people who prayed for strength to be able to do as the Lord asked, such as Nephi bursting his bands or the people of Alma lifting their burdens with ease. Since then, my prayers have taken on a different tone, asking for God to strengthen me and fit me for a task He already knows I need His help at. I highly recommend both the article, and prayer in this way--praying for strength.

To end the week, a little bit about another man we met this week, named E. He came up to us in the street the day before easter, and invited us into his home. Incredibly intelligent man, he is the editor of a newspaper here in Quintero and has a million stories about every topic in the world you could ever think about. He, also, came to church this sunday (and was very surprised by how young the Bishop was), and I´m excited to keep sharing with him.

Living the dream. Viviendo el sueño.

Elder Jason Ray

April 9, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well, this letter is going to be a little bit short, because we had a zone activity in Viña today, and we spent two hours traveling there and back. I´m also going to leave you with the tempting little tidbit that I have amazing pictures of Quintero, but the computer doesn´t like me so you are going to have to wait another week to see those. But anyway, onto business.

I think we ended this week a lot better than we started it, we now are teaching a lot of great people, and we know our way around town. A few of these great people:

J and T, his mom. T is about 70, but the past 14 years of her life have been a gift from God, since she had a deadly cancer. She now takes care of her son, J, who works in the city government. More new farther along with them, amazing people.

L R and family. An older daughter, who is married, was sharing with missionaries about a year ago. The whole family is now sharing together, and the mother told us the last time we were there she wants a closer relationship to God.

E B. He lived in a monastary for 8 years, and now writes for the city newspaper. He has an amazing understanding of the scriptures and life, and almost got mad at us when he thought we weren´t going to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon.

I have to say, working with a new missionary, "fresh from the MTC," is quite a fun experience. He has so much animo, excitement for the work and for everything we are doing, and he has a great vision for what his mission will be like. Being a trainer is also a very humbling experience--it shows me all day every day how little I really know, and how much I rely on the Lord for absolutely everything. But, I can also see that it is helping me to become a better person, little by little.

I wanted to close today--Easter Weekend--with my testimony of Christ. One of the big reasons that I came on my mission was for love of Christ and appreciation for his sacrifice. I think that testimony has deepend and gotten stronger, and continues doing so every day. I know that Christ lives. I know that he gave everything he had for us, out of his great love, and that he has prepared the way for all of us to return to live with Him and with his Father, and to live in celestial glory. I know that He knows each and every one of us, our sorrows, our needs, our pains and joys and difficulties and questions and everything. And I know that, through faith in Him, faith enough to put our own will aside and follow him with a repentant heart, follow him into baptism, follow him through his holy spirit, He will pull us out of the deepest holes, out of the farthest paths, into where He is; He will comfort us and succor us, and make us into more than we all.

He Lives.

Elder Jason Ray

April 2, 2012

Jason and his new companion

The crew he left behind in his old area

Dear Mom and Dad,

So, my first week of training is over. It was quite an adventure, and I´m excited both for the new area and to be helping Elder S, my new companion, to learn how to be a missionary.

But, everything in it´s proper order.

Bright and early Tuesday morning, I said goodbye to O´Higgins and went to the mission office in Viña with Elder M, who was also being transfered. After we got there I bounced around saying hi to everyone I knew, then met all of the other missionaries (6 other Elders and 4 Sisters) who were training. I went to lunch with a couple of them, then we had a meeting with the assistants where they talked about the responsability of training. The biggest point I got out of that was that, even more than the first few months of my mission, my biggest concern is absolutely not me. I need to be conserned for my investigators and for my trainy before ever thinking about myself, because the first few months in the mission are so important in a missionary´s development.

After that, we had about 3 hours until we were going to meet up with the new missionaries and see who our companions would be. We ended up playing basketball with someone who was over there shooting hoops--yes, in shirt and tie--and then playing foosball and pingpong after he left.

On the walk over to the mission home, where all the new missionaries had finished eating, everybody´s heart was pounding. I think that I was only slightly less nervous than the first time I went to the mission home, six months ago. We got there and sat down with president for a few minutes. Some of his words of wisdom: "No pressure. A trainer is the most important companion in the entire mission, but no pressure." Then we entered the yard where the other missionaries where waiting singing the mission hymn. There I found my "son," Elder S from Uruguay. He is the first in his family to serve a mission, a convert since age 11. He was captain of his high school team and worked for a few years as a model (my favorite story--he would go to parties and stand in the corner so that people could come up to him, say "wow, you´re a model!" and take pictures with him). He is incredibly excited to be working here now.

Opening a new area is interesting. For the first few days, we just kind of wandered around, looking for members and recent converts and talking to everybody we could in the streets.

To welcome us into the area, Elder R, the missionary who was already here when we got here, set up a fake lesson with a member of the ward. For an hour and a half we tried to figure out why in the world he was involving us in teaching the law of chastity to a man who had no idea what the Book of Mormon was, who had a daughter in the mission but wished she had kept studying instead of going to Argentina, and who interrupted us every thirty second when we were talking. Finally they admitted to being members, put the picture of the temple back on the wall, and we all laughed at how absolutely gullible we were. It was a moment to remember...

Finally, General Conference. I got to see four of the sessions in spanish, and priesthood session in english. I compared it mentally with the last time I saw conference, in the MTC--instead of being in a gigantic, stadium type room with thousands of other missionaries, watching on a big projector, I was in a small, out of the way side room with about 10 other missionaries, watching on a small church tv. It still felt like a very holy experience, like one of the moments that I´ll remember tangibly for quite some time.

The biggest point I got out of conference was the importance of seeking out our brothers and sisters who are members of the church, but who have fallen away for one reason or another. We are going to ask the bishop in this ward for a list of less-active members we can visit--I am excited to see the kind of miracles that God has in store for the people here in this ward, and that we will get to be a part of.

I love this gospel. I know it´s true. I know that I am in the right place, that God guides my steps, and I am so grateful for everything He has given me.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason Ray

March 26, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

HUGE week this week, and I´m going to finish it off by telling you about the changes that just happened, because I am leaving O´Higgins. But first, other news.

I am actually getting better at soccer. I can now make the ball move forcefully in a chosen direction (this action is commonly reffered to as "kicking") about 90% of the time, and when Elder M acted like a really lazy goaly, I scored a few shots. With another year and a half of practice, I should come back playing at about the level of a third grader--but with a lot of Chilean flair.

We had two minor earthquakes this week. The first one was on Saturday at about 4:30 in the morning, and lasted two minutes. 5.2 on the Richter. I woke up and was quite scared, because the bed was shaking enough I thought it was probably an earthquake, but I was too tired to wake up my companion so he never felt it. I waited for about ten minutes to see if there would be an aftershock, then went back to sleep. Hey, it was 4:30 in the morning. The second was an actual earthquake, though it happened hundreds of miles away in the south of Chile. It was still decently strong here, I heard somewhere in between 6 and 7, but neither I, nor my companion, nor the 15 year old young man from the ward who was acompanying us noticed it, even though it lasted two and a half--three minutes. When we came out of the side passage where we had been, someone in the street asked us if we felt the earthquake. He could hardly believe when we told him that none of us had even felt it!

My companion and I taught a pretty awesome lesson to a nine year old girl this week. We were teaching about the Restauration (Restoration for you English speakers) of the Gospel, but to help her understand everything, we illustrated the whole lesson using pieces of candy. Whenever we mentioned prophets she got to eat a piece of candy, so I think she was quite happy with what she learned.

I went to Rodelillo this week in interchanges, just a couple of hills over from the one where I live and work. While I was there we did a service project, painting a room in somebody´s house. While we were walking to the service project, the other Elder decided that we should kick a soccer ball on the way there. It was fun and entertaining until we got to a really big hill and I lost control of the ball. I ended up racing the ball down two and a half city blocks, finally stopping it before it got away and made it´s way down to the Plan (the flat part of Valparaíso before you get to the hills). It was quite an adventure, but in the end I didn´t have to buy anybody another soccerball, so I´m ok.

In this same interchange, we were about to go teach a recent convert when we looked through a crack in the door to his yard and noticed him sitting outside reading the Book of Mormon. I´ll send a picture that we sneakily took, too--it was just such a precious, beautiful moment to happen upon.

We found an awesome family this week--J, P and B, their 19 year old son. They had a near relative who was a member of the church, so when we knocked on their door they let us right in to talk for a bit. B impressed me quite a bit. While we were talking about the gospel and how the Book of Mormon was the key to their knowing that our message was true, B taught himself and his family a couple of really incredible truths while just sharing his opinion about the way things are. I am so grateful for the promise that all who read the Book of Mormon really can learn that it is true, because I know it will help B and his family to find the same joy and happiness that I have found through this gospel.

Last interchange story, this time from Placilla, a little town half an hour away from Valparaíso. We taught a woman named Señora Q. She had, years before in her life, been really active in the Baptist church. She had already read the Bible several times cover to cover, and understood the scriptures faster and better than anybody else I had ever met, including other missionaries. She understood the promise of the Book of Mormon, that in order to know it is true you have to read it and pray about it, but she was unwilling to pray because she didn´t want to open the door to her past, to a lot of disilusionment and shattered dreams. We encouraged her a lot to pray and ask if our message was true, but she still had trouble opening up enough to give it a try. It made me really grateful for the things that I already know to be true, and that I was able to learn them and their truth in a relatively painless manner. I do hope and pray that Señora Q does decide to pray about it, though, because there is a whole lot of happiness waiting for her when she does.

And now, at long last, the moment you have all been waiting for--what is going on with changes! I am leaving the wonderful ward of O´Higgins, leaving behind Elder B and a couple of really great converts. I´ve already said all of my goodbyes, all that is left is for me to pack my bags and head over to Viña del Mar tomorrow morning. I will be going to a little city a few miles away from Viña called Quintero. I am going to open the area there, which means that I´ll start working in a place that hasn´t had missionaries there before, or at least hasn´t had them for a few months--I am also going to be training a new missionary, fresh from the MTC. I kind of feel like I am starting my mission all over again. Going to a new place, where nothing is familiar, with a new missionary who has even less of an idea of what he is doing than I do. However, I know that with God´s help I can do it, that He trusts me with this responsability and that He will help me to be able to do it. I am excited to be able to serve in this way, excited to serve my Lord and serve my brothers and sisters here in Chile. All I know about the missionary I´ll be training is that he is latino, because there aren´t any gringo missionaries coming into the mission this change. I´m ready to start!

Its absolutely amazing me that God has given this wonderful, fantastic privelege of being His servant and representative to me, a 19 year old kid from North Carolina. But I know that this work is true, that this is the true church, and I wouldn´t rather be anywhere else in the world.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason Ray

March 19, 2012

A staircase. I think I´ve climbed this one about three times now... it´s pretty typical for the area we are in right now.

Dear Mom and Dad,

Great week! But I wanted to start off, before talking about what happened, by thanking mom. When I was about 6, you decided that, because I knew how to read, I was going to start singing the hymns with you in church. I resented it and tried to talk you out of it, and when I thougth you weren´t looking sometimes I wouldn´t sing, but finally I gave in and began to sing the hymns in church. Thirteen years later, the hymns are a powerful part of my testimony, and every time I sing a hymn to start out a lesson and can feel the spirit flowing into the room, or every time I am able to serve in the ward because I know how to lead music, I am so thankful that, when I was six, my mom made me sing in church.

On a slightly less serious note, I have developed a new way to shake hands with kids. I take their hand and immediately start to throw it up and down as hard as I can, which is either funny because they go limp arm and just giggle, or because they start to throw their hand up and down as hard as I am throwing mine and I pretend that they are really strong and that they are about to rip my arm out. It´s quite fun, and I think it´s a trick that might work in English, too!

This Sunday, we had lunch with a really young new family in the ward. They got married and moved into the ward a few weeks after I got here--she now works in the Primary and he is in the Elder´s Quorum. Lunch was great, we talked about funny stories from his mission and about the atonement. I was left thinking that we had just had lunch with the promise of the church in Chile, that these two newleyweds would grow to be the leaders and shapers of the church, all because they had made the first few steps right--he served a mission, they got married in the temple, they magnify their callings and share the gospel with their neighbors. I was left thinking that that was how I wanted to be, that those were the types of choices I wanted to make.

After lunch, we shared with another family in the ward, Hermana V and her three children. We had never really shared with them before, but it was wonderful to get to know them better. The husband/father of the family was inactive, and had been for some time, but the mom and three kids faithfully went to church every week. The 12 year old S is now working on visiting other members of his group to help them get back to church, and 15 year old M brought one of her friends with her to seminary (D, a little more about him later). The whole day left me feeling really content and happy with the faith and hope that there is in and for the church, it was a good day.

Earlier on in the week, we met a kid named E (well, I say ´kid´ but he´s 19--who am I to talk), who had recently moved in from another ward. He got baptized a little under a year ago, and when we asked him what we thought the church was, he gave the most inspired and inspiring reply I had ever heard. "The church is everything. You can go there to meet people, play sports, eat some food sometimes, but you also go to learn things, to make and renew covenants, to learn about God and work towards heaven. It´s like a big family, everybody helping each other and lifting each other, everybody moving together towards salvation." We are hoping that the next stop for him will be a mission, because he´d be great as a missionary.

Final news of the week--D, the friend of a member who started going to seminary about a week before we met him. We went to seminary one day to get to know him, and it turned out it was someone we already knew from the street--a kid who had lived in North Carolina for 5 years and is our neighbor. The next day we went over to get to know him a little better. We ended up in a very serious conversation with his mom (he got home a few minutes in) about her hopes and fears for her son. He had a traumatic moment several months ago where he decided that he absolutely needed to meet his biological parents (he is adopted). His adoptive family started looking and arranged a meeting. After meeting his mom, he was really struck by her style of life, and began to think that his destiny, as well, was to end up living on the street, stealing to pay for drugs. His parent´s pleas hadn´t been able to reach him, and they weren´t really sure what they could do. We started talking about the gospel, about repentance, about Alma the Younger going from "the very vilest of sinners" to an amazing prophet. I felt like I was being taught, as well, about what the gospel can do, about how the church really will give D the happiness and peace he needs, that he has thought of looking for in absolutely the other direction. He came to church with us yesterday and played soccer with us this morning, and he seems to be loving it all.

This Gospel is amazing. This Church is too.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason ray