April 21, 2015

WOW MCKAY!!!!! YOU’RE GOING TO COLORADO SPRINGS!

You better start studying the word of wisdom, because you will be teaching that a lot over there...

I wish I was there to see you to open the call. The Lord has picked that mission for you! There are people prepared and waiting for an Elder Stewart to teach them the restored gospel. Go get em, raccoon.

On a side note, are there raccoons in Colorado? Because that would make you like 10 times the raccoon you were before...

Ahh I am so excited for you McKay. The mission is the greatest. So many miracles.

For example

This past week we also had a family home evening with a less active family. We were teaching a doing an activity where everyone had to right a little note to God. And then we compared that to the scriptures that God also has written notes to us through his prophets and they explain exactly what He wants us to know.

During the activity we asked the mom to share what she wrote in her note. And as she was explaining, something really weird happened. In mid-sentence she stopped, as if listening for something, jumped up and gasped in shock, tears filled her eyes as she said,” talk to me talk to me!”

We were very confused at first, but then she explained to us that she had lost her hearing 5 years ago in one of her ears, and as she bore her testimony of God,( which she hasn't done vocally in about 5 years as well) she heard a pop and she could hear perfectly again!

It was a special moment for her and for the whole family!

AS a mission this week we all got together in Chillan for the special conference with Dallin H. Oaks. For those who don't know he is one from the quorum of the 12 apostles, and he visited Santiago this past week and spoke to all the missionaries in the country.

Friday afternoon we embarked on the 2 hour bus ride to Chillan with the other 18 people in our Zone and split up to different houses of the missionaries in Chillan to stay the night. We went to the house of my old zone of Chillan Viejo and we got to hang out with some old friends! Elder Lake my MTC companion and Elder Miller, who was in the same zone as me months ago. (He lives just outside of Seattle, I think that his family is in the same stake as Scott’s family) that night we had a house party with a disco ball, laser lights and the best of EFY and mo-tab.

At the start of the conference the next morning, there was so many difficulties with the broadcast and the sound system. The conference was starting and we could not hear or see what was going on. President Arrington and some other missionaries who were good with technology were fumbling with cords and pushing lot of buttons, for a good 15 minutes, but without any real progress...

The problem was getting pretty serious this was a battle. Technology vs. An apostle of the Lord. Finally president turned too looked at us, and said “it looks like we cannot fix the problem, but I know the Lord can. So of you could ask him that would be great”

Instantly all of the 200 missionaries in the room bowed their heads and began to pray to ask for help so we could listen to Elder Oaks.

Not even 2 minutes later the screen lit up, and the blurred and muffled sounds emitting from the speakers evolved into the crystal clear voice of the announcer.

Elder Oaks spoke on the importance of our calling as missionaries, that we are called to serve full time so we need to be focused on the mission at all times.

He explained

-to reach full conversion one needs to not only do and act, but feel and desire. The only way to know what is true is through the Holy Ghost, which testifies of Christ.

-That the sacrament meeting and the ordinance of the sacrament should not be taken lightly. That it is a chance every week to be spiritually renewed and energized. He also said that in the upcoming conferences we would be hearing a lot about that topic (so be prepared)

-he gave us a special promise. He said that if we are exactly obedient with the mission schedule and in our personal and companionship studies, we would be led by the spirit to people that will receive a true conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was a really good conference.

After the meeting, because we live so far away the mission gave us extra money for lunch, so our zone went out to eat at Donatello’s a very fancy pizza and Italian restaurant. We ate a lot of pizza that day.

April 14, 2015

Happy Monday family.

I hope this really fast email finds you all healthy, content and full of life. Because I am.

Today as the sun rose I sat meditating over the peaks of the Andes, above a vast crystal blue mountain lake, inhaling into my lounges the clean and untouched air only hearing the crisp, winter wind hum through the canyons and brush against my face.

So you could say it was a pretty neat experience. We went to explore the Andes Mountains today.

I do feel very in touch with Mother Nature lately here in the farmlands of Linares.  In the house one of the missionaries always listens to meditational music and sounds and we have bought incense to burn! We have started a garden in front of our house and we are seeing a lot of progress. We have planted sun flowers, beans, lintels, mint, tomatoes, bell peppers, and normal chili peppers. And even though we planted very very late in the year and it’s starting to get cold we have faith that the strongest will survive, and bring forth fruit!

In our Zone we are working with a Missionary couple from Tucson AZ! They live on the east side of town and I am sure that you guys would know them (or at least dad would know them)

They are the Minch family…

They are awesome. This week we ate in there house and they made us cheeseburgers and French fries with blueberry muffins! Haven’t had a meal like that in a long time.

I actually am restricted from eating a lot of things because I am with my companion Elder Wiese. He has allergies to just about everything that Chileans eat.

Here’s the official list.

-peanuts almonds cashews. All types of nuts

-beans, peas, lintels, and all other types of beans.

-pineapple, watermelon, banana, melons, kiwi

-chocolate

He has a huge epipen in his backpack at all times just in case something happens. I have been official trained to stab him in the thigh for any emergency.

This week my testimony was strengthened on the principle of fasting. We fasted this week so find a guy to teach that would be willing to progress in the gospel and revive the priesthood in the future to edify and uplift the branch...because that is what we lack here. We worked all week to find this person, and even though we found a lot of great people and we were working diligently, no one seemed to fit the category of who we were specifically praying for. We knew that the Lord would prepare a way.

So there we were Saturday night, we had 20 more minutes until we had to be in the house. We said a Little prayer and then a name suddenly popped into our heads. Andres!

He was some guy that we contacted a couple days ago that didn’t seem too interested but gave us his direction to pass by another day. Luckily he didn’t live too far away from our house, so we went over to the direction that he gave us and he let us in and we taught him an amazing lesson, and he is now more willing and open to listen and learn more about the gospel

Step one has been initiated!

Miracles.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks is coming to Chile Friday and we are going to listen to him! WHOOHOO!

Love you

April 7, 2015

General conference was great!!

Knowing that it was my last general conference on the mission I went hard. I prepared with personal questions and came to be inspired from our modern day prophets and apostles. AND I WAS FLABBERGASTED by the spirit in all the best ways.

I also was impressed that the church is in with the times with their new camera angles and hash tags.

#LDSconf #graciasaqueÉlvive

Our zone has been inspired and we are literally hash tagging every possible phrase.

#zonalinares #laFedemiPuebloSeraLeventado#cambiarelmundo#trabajareHuasoaccent

I hope you all loved conference as much as I did. I know that some people think because it’s general conference it is a break from church for the weekend. I have come to realize that these days are one of the most important for our spiritual progression.

These guys are inspired men people! Listen to them!

“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” Amos 3:7…#classicscripture

This week we also had an awesome zone conference in Parral with President and Hermana Arrington. There they organized an activity to put to test our faith to find prepared people to teach.

President chose 2 missionaries to leave the church building where we were, and find someone out in the Street to bring back to the church. Then another set of chosen missionaries were to teach this person and invite them to a baptism in front of us 40 other missionaries.

We sent them off with a prayer, knowing that they Lord could do all things...

“And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.” Moroni 7:33

We all quietly studied with our companions just in case President picked us to teach this person that we had the faith was going to come..

Then within about 10 minutes the missionaries walked through the church doors with a women named Cecilia.

She was on her way home from serving breakfast to the poor and homeless when the missionaries stopped her and asked her to come and be taught. She gladly accepted.

A companionship of sister missionaries taught her and she expressed to all of us her desire to be closer to God and her Hope of seeing her son again, who passed away 2 years ago. We got to watch and listen as the missionaries bared their testimony on eternal families and the Lords restored power here on the earth again. The spirit was very strong.

That was not chance. That was the Lords hands working through the faith of all of us.

Today we went to the Andes Mountains and adventured. We weaved our way through herds of cows, goats and sheep that blocked the small rocky dirt road... our goal was to cross over to Argentina but we didn't make it that far, so we just stopped on the side of the road and hiked down to a beautiful crystal blue river and ate sandwiches.

I love you all!