May 28, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

This was an excellent week. Normally when I say "This was an excellent week," it means that we had good lessons, felt the spirit, and I am becoming more and more a disciple of Christ. This excellent week was more like one of those weeks that a Mormon movie company will want to borrow and make into a hilarious comedy. But anyway, it was an excellent week.

Monday after we finished grocery shopping, we decided to make pizzas. A rather simple endeavor quickly became an adventure, because the oven in our little house doesn´t work, and one of the other Elders (I won´t say which) added twice as much water as was needed to the dough recipe. The result was a 30 minute battle with a sticky mass of dough, adding more and more flour until everybody in the house was out, and pizzas made on the stove and in the microwave. But, they did turn out rather delicious.

Fast forward to Friday. We had a great Family Night with the V family, a single mom and her three kids who are so solid and righteous it amazes me (every time we do a family night with them and an investigator, the investigator ends up going to church and wanting to get baptized). We watched the video of the restoration, and then the two investigators--M and F--stayed there for two hours after we left.

Another really important thing that happened Friday--T R stopped smoking! She managed to get down from four to one and a half from Sunday to Thursday. Then everyone was praying really hard Thursday night, and Friday she didn´t smoke anything for the first time in 30 years. It was a moment of rejoicing and of faith, because the promises that we had made to her that Christ would help her to drop this vice were all fulfilled. Last night we asked her how she was doing, she said she still had a desire to smoke but kept going strong.

One more story before I start into the mormon missionary comedy. We met the D family, made up of the grandparents, a son and his girlfriend, and their newborn baby (7 days old!) All but the girlfriend are members. We shared a little bit with them and heard their dream and vision. Right now they are living in a thrown-together shack while they hand-build a couple cabañas (little houses). Within the next few months they want to build houses, the son and the girlfriend are going to get married, and they want to begin plans to be sealed in the temple within a year. Amazing story, amazing courage. Before their thrown-together shack was completed, they lived in a tent for two months--and all this time the girlfriend was pregnant! But every other word they talked of their trust in God and His power to help them and bring them through this hard time.

OK, now I can start the mormon missionary comedy. It started out with Saturday Morning. We had to go to the chapel to clean out the baptismal font, but it was absolutely pouring rain. We bundled up with everything we could (first time in my life I´ve used an umbrella) and headed off across town. We made the mistake of trying to go through the main street, which looked pretty much like a river. We tried jumping across large streams of water, several times didn´t quite make it, and got to the chapel soaking wet.

After cleaning out the font, we took a bus to a small town outside of Quintero to have lunch with a member family in the ward. We got lost and chased by dogs, got there late, and found out that they had expected us to go for lunch the day before. Luckily they had saved everything for us, so we heated it up, ate, and left.

When we got back to Quintero, four different appointments we had set fell through (that isn´t too uncommon, but it makes the story sound better :D) We headed off to go share with a less-active member family that lived nearby to the appartment block where we were working. I was tired, wet, and worn out at this point, and when a lady on the side of the road said "cuidado con el perro" (careful with the dog), I didn´t pay enough attention, and there went my goal to be in Chile for two years without ever getting bit.

The lady invited us in and rather frantically made sure that the dog bite wasn´t serious (it isn´t), and while she was talking it slipped out that she, too, was a member of the church, but that she had been inactive for 20 years and was now drinking and smoking like no tomorrow. When we told her that God had inspired a dog to bite me to make sure that we would stop by there and help her get back to church, she started sobbing. (Make sure you imagine this story with my leg up on a table, pant up to my knee, making sure a dog bite isn´t serious).

When we got back out on the street and headed for our next appointment, the wind had picked up quite a bit. When we got back to the appartment complex, which is right on the edge of a cliff down to the sea, the wind was so strong that we almost couldn´t walk against it. We stopped by one of our investigators, and to help them get from their house to the house of their sister, we had to link arms and make a headlong plung into the wind, several times almost falling down.

Finally we got home, and the next day started. But, because the wind and rain was so strong, none of the people that were going to get baptized that day could get to church--they were all terrified to take the small children out of the house. So the baptismal service was cancelled and moved back to Saturday, and we enjoyed a great Sunday with 1/3 of the members (all the members who owned cars, plus a few others).

If I can find a computer that works, I´m going to send a picture of Elder Sosa and I smiling after this mormon-movie-comedy day and a half. It was awesome, easily the most entertaining week of my mission.

But then, the day ended like all mormon movies should. We stopped by M, the lady whose dog almost ran off with my leg, and she immediately said that she wanted to get back to church. She is planning on going this next weekend.

Then we stopped by the R family and, wonder of wonders, the father of N, who is T´s nephew and legal ward, agreed that he can go to church every Sunday, and he will be getting baptized with his family on Saturday. Then, an even bigger miracle--E, husband of K, the first one to decide she wanted to get baptized, said that he wanted to be baptized and that he would be willing to work towards a goal, just like his wife, sister-, and mother-in-law did. This was a huge miracle, because the first few times we met him, he would hardly give us the time of day.

So at the end of the week, we were about as worn out as we had ever been before in our lives. I got bit by a small angry dog, and our faces were pelted with sand and small rocks by a gale-force wind. But, the gospel is still true, Jesus still lives, and it was a really fantastic week.

Please, let me know when the movie company calls.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason Ray

May 21, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

I didn´t take any pictures at all this week, but I´ll have some good ones next week. So this week you can imagine Elder S and I showing off our sweaters in the morning cold.

We had a fun activity this week in the church, based off of "Who Wants to Be a Millionair," but called "Who Wants to Gain Salvation." There were questions about the scriptures, about the church, and--my favorites--about the members of the ward (now I know the first name of the first counselor!) They only let he missionaries compete in one of the questions, and I lost a pretty epic race against Elder Nord. Learn from my mistakes, and remember that there are 66 books in the Bible, not 56.

The purpose of the activity was to welcome home R G, the newest return missionary from the ward who got home this Tuesday from Argentina. When we met her, she told us about her last few months in the mission. Like Elder S and I, she opened an area. But unlike our case, instead of arriving in a new area with a couple of missionaries who had already been there for a while, she and her companion were put in a ward where there had never been missionaries before. They had the name and address of the bishop of the ward, and absolutely nothing else. It sounded like quite a fun experience, also like she was a very dedicated and diligent missionary. During that first conversation, she also mentioned that she had a couple people in mind that she wanted to invite to church right away, good example of how to return home well from a mission.

These last few months, the entire mission had the goal to read the Book of Mormon in the same time that it was translated. So every day for the last few months, I´ve been reading 8-10 pages every day. This Wednesday, I finally finished. I decided to take Moroni´s promise for a try, and after I had finished, I knelt down and prayed asking to know the truth. After praying and asking to know, I started thinking about all the stories from this book. About Ammon standing for an hour in front of King Lamoni, who was to nervous to open his mouth and ask him how he had such miraculous power. About Nephi and Abinadi, both of whom told those who would have touched him that if they did they would be struck by the power of God which was in them. About an angel appearing to Alma the Younger on a lonely road, telling him to change his ways or be struck down. About Helaman going forth with 2000 young men, inexperienced and untrained in battle, who fought with such power and strength from God that they caused armies ten times larger to surrender their arms. About Christ coming down from heaven to the temple after His death and resurrection. About Mormon and Moroni watching their beloved people destroy itself with pride and secret combinations. And as I thought about all of these stories, an illuminating, clarifying light filled my heart, like cold chills but without the cold. Yet another witness that this book is true, that it contains God´s words, and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet and really did restore the true church.

R and A, a family that one of the members introduced us to, passed their baptisimal interviews this week. All week long we went over every step necessary, teaching and talking about all of the commandments and little details that we hadn´t talked about earlier. From time to time I would ask a question like, "will you commit to read the scriptures every day?" or "will you live the law of chastity?" and they would respond by saying "please, Elder Ray, thats obvious and of course we´re going to do it. Now get to the good stuff." It was a delightful experience. Everybody who meets them can tell how prepared and ready they are to be baptized, and how much of a blessing baptism will be for them. And I keep thinking about how, if it hadn´t been for the V family, we never would have met them. I am so glad that they decided to share their testimonies with their neighbors and invite them to learn about the gospel.

K, V, and T R also passed their interviews. When K (26) came out she tried to pretend like she failed the interview, but when V (13) left her smile was so gigantic that she couldn´t even try to say anything other then "I passed." But the biggest miracle was T. T R has smoked since she was 13 years old, and even though she had gone down from 15-20 cigarretes a day to 5-6, she still entered the interview feeling like she would never be able to stop smoking and like she would have to watch her daughters get baptized without her. She came out knowing that God would help her and that she would be able to do it, and is now planning to get baptized with her family. Last night she finished the day with 4 cigarretes--today we are going to pass by and help her figure out how to get down to 0.

Through this whole experience, teaching R and A and the R family, what I´ve learned is this: God has a plan for each and every one of His children, and it is through His power that His plan will be accomplished. The same is true not only for my investigators, but also for my own life. God has a plan for my life and for my mission, and it is through His power that it will be accomplished.

Love you all lots,

Elder Jason Ray

May 14, 2012

It's a good thing he told us they live a couple of blocks from the ocean or we would start to think they were on vacation. :)

Dear Mom and Dad,

It was great to see you yesterday! I´m glad to know you are doing well. Enjoy Seaworld.

Fantastic week, it had its interesting moments (Elder S vomited everything he ate for a solid 24 hours after eating an uncooked hamburger) but ended pretty great. Other than Elder S getting sick, here are some other stories.

The R family. This week, we started helping them to stop smoking. In two days, T and L went from 15-20 cigaretts a day to 8. Then they kept lowering one a day. If all goes according to plan, they will smoke their last cigarett ever tomorrow! Their faith during this whole process has been incredible. Every single member of the family agrees that they have seen changes through the gospel--less fighting and disagreeing, less anger, more love, more peace. And once they stop smoking, more health and more money, as well! I love this job.

The adult daughter, K, said something that I loved during one of our lessons. "Una vez que you me bautice, voy a ser una mormona de las buenas." Once I´ve been baptized, I want to be one of the great mormons. And that coming from the lips of a woman that, a month and a bit ago, didn´t believe in anything!

We said goodbye to the A family this week (the gringo family who invited us over for hamburgers). Normally whenever we have lunch with someone we share a scripture or a hymn afterward, but this time they asked if they could share something with us. They then played and sang the A family song for us, which they composed one day when they didn´t feel like going down to the beach. It was pretty cute, the four tiny little kids pitching in to sing the chorus. They head back to Utah tomorrow after 4 months here in Chile.

Then Elder S got really sick, and it was probably an undercooked hamburger that they gave us. But they were such a nice family that Elder S keeps insisting it had to have been something else, since the hamburgers were fine :D

We had a Mini-MTC activity on Saturday. We forgot to take into account Mormon Standard time, so we were waiting around for quite a while before any of the kids showed up. But, with a little schedule adjusting to make it all work out, we had a great day--several classes, activities, meals, and a special devotional with President Gillespie, ending off with a few hours of splits with the missionaries. There were 10-15 youth there, and I think it was a good experience for them. The best part was when we were all telling stories after lunch, one of the Elders gets up to demonstrate exactly how epically one of his companions got knocked out playing kickball, and just as he gets to the climax everybody realizes that President Gillespie was standing there in the doorway. He laughed too :D

Last story of the week. We ran into someone on the street the other day named C. He had recently come to Quintero, but in a stopover in another little town on the road he was assaulted at 3 in the morning, stripped of everything he had, and left on the side of the road. He ran into us when he was looking for work. We met with him for the second time yesterday and, when we were talking about how crazy his circumstances are and how it must be God guiding him to the truth, he said that he already knew that, he already wanted to be baptized, and he hoped that we would keep coming and help him to do it.

This work is amazing. And it is true.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason Ray

May 7, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

I do love life. I also love my mission. I was talking with Elder W, one of the Elders that lives in my pension, about how much what we are learning now will help us when we get back... long story short, I think my life has already been forever changed, and I´ve still got time to learn a whole lot more!

On a random note, it rained for the first time yesterday. Elder S and I were both pretty happy with it--walking from appointment to appointment in the rain just feels cooler, for some reason--but it didn´t last too long. Just enough to make the air smell fresher.

We are planning an awesome ward activity this week, a mini-MTC experience. All of the youth and young adults in the ward are going to come to the chapel really early on Saturday morning. We´ll have breakfast, some studies, and then classes and activites like in the MTC. To top it all off, President Gillespie is going to come speak to everybody right before we divide everyone up and head out to do proselyting. We´ll have four missionaries and a bunch of priesthood and relief society leaders there to go visit investigators, members, inactive members, everyone. I´m really excited--the whole ward is getting behind it to make it turn out well.

One of our lunches this week was a memorable experience. The A family, from Logan, Utah, spent a semester here in Chile--CA is a professor at Utah State, and they did a switch with a Chilean professor. While they are here (just four months, one semester), they are staying at a beach-side appartment with a view I would kill for. They invited us over for lunch, introduced the family (the two parents and four small children, all of whom are blonder than me and completely out of place in Chile), and then gave us an American-style lunch of hamburgurs with potatoe chips, all out on a balcony with a view of the ocean. I´ve decided that when I get back I´m going to change my major to business, with the eventual goal of feeding missionaries in a Chilean beach-vacation resort.

We were part of ward council this week, for the first time in my life actually. The Bishop talked a lot about what we can do to help the strength of the ward, how the ward is important as a social unit in addition to being a church. He talked about how important it is that the leaders of the church help people out with a smile and a listening ear, how much of a difference that can make in somebody´s life. Next week we are going to have a big brainstorm about the things we can do to help people stay active, get active, or get more active than they already are. It made me think a lot about what my personal responsability is, regardless of my calling, to help other people to feel welcome and loved in the kingdom of God. Interesting idea.

So, one of the coolest things we are doing right now is teaching the R family. This week we had two lessons and two Family Home Evenings with other members of the ward--in one of the lessons, 12 members of the family were present. It is amazing seeing the progress of each individual member of the family, and how they all help each other out to come closer to Christ. Everybody in the family is getting excited (to one extent or another) about this message--KR, the married daughter of 28, wants to be baptized and is already trying to convince her husband to follow her. T, the mother, said that her husband is becoming more and more interested as he notices what a difference the gospel makes for his granddaughter and his nephew. That same granddaughter convinced her mother to come to one of our visits, the nephew brought his sister, and so the chain goes. And when I think it what a difference the gospel has already made for them--the peace and happiness that is beginning to enter their home--and what will continue to happen as they are baptized, I am so grateful to be here, to be able to help people in this way. I am also grateful for the gospel in my own life.

I know this work is true. I know I have been called of God to be here, to teach His truths, His gospel.

Viviendo el sueño,

Elder Jason Ray

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