Mosiah 2:21-22 -- Obey the Commandments

Hey family!

   This week is going to be a quick email due to all the forms we have to send at the end of the month.  As you can see in the photo, Pedro was baptized yesterday and a youth from the ward named Francisco baptized him.  Pedro is more than excited to work in the Church and help find more people that are in need of this Gospel.  After his baptism, he bore his testimony to the members that we present and confessed that a big reason why he liked the Church so much was for the hugs and greetings that were given to him as he entered the first time.  The Spirit overwhelmed him due to those caring acts from the members.   

   Cristian´s parents are progressing very quickly.  Yesterday they were in the church building for practically 4 hours due to the baptism and then another 30 minutes with us in their home in the night time, yet they are still begging us to come back!  I love the dedication that they have to learn more and start correctly on this path.  The mom, Gloria, has difficulty understanding about terms such as Priesthood and Apostasy but she feels the Spirit every single time we come.  Jorge, the husband, works everyday during the week until 10 at night, therefore we only meet with him on the weekend but Cristian teaches him every night what we taught to Gloria and then on the weekend we answer the questions he has.  They are very excited for the 9th of February, when Cristian will baptize them!

  I hope that everything is going great in everyone´s lives!  

Love,

Elder Weidman

DyC 58:2-4 "After much tribulation comes the blessings"

Hey Family!

   This week was full of up and down.  The down was that I found out that my memory card for the camera has a virus which means that I have to some how get all my photos of Quillota onto another memory card without passing the bugger along with them or I will lose most of them.. But the up was the entire week!  Nah I´m not frustrated or nothing with the memory card.  There things that happen and you just need to keep pushing forward and laugh.  But the week was amazing due to the recent converts Pablo and Cristian.  They both continue to battle head to head with the darkness but now they have the gift of the Holy Ghost and are leaving the temptations behind them.  Cristian had a huge drug addiction before meeting with us (his life was a disaster due to the drugs), but now whenever Satan sends the desires to him, he throws them out of his mind by reading the Book of Mormon.  And when I say read, I mean deciphor (spelling?) and apply like Joseph Smith did.  His strong desire to read the Book of Mormon has fortified my own testimony of the scriptures written in the Americas.  Pablo is still fighting the war inside the walls of his own home, but he still loves his wife 100% and has the faith that she will accept this beautiful message. His reading in the Book of Mormon has dramatically increased also.

   One of the best parts of the week was yesterday when both Pablo and Cristian brought someone to the church.  Pablo brought one of his friends who is less active in the church and led him to all the classes.  He kept telling us that we can´t let his friend, Luis, slip out of the hands of the church again.  He is determined to bring this brother of faith back into the church.  Cristian brought his mom to church who attended all 3 hours, and we practically didn´t have a moment to talk to her because all the sisters of the Relief Society rushed her into the classes before we had the chance to meet her!  After church, we passed by the house of Cristian and there met his parents, who are amazing like him! We taught them the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ and the Spirit was overwhelming once we finished telling the true story of Joseph Smith.  They admitted that they believed every word that we said and then accepted the invitation to be baptized the 9th of February!  They both have seen the miracle change that Cristian had due to the application of the Restored Gospel and want the same thing in their lives. 

  We ended the night yesterday by teaching la Familia Balboa, Cristian´s ex girlfriend´s family.  Remember how I mentioned about the father awhile back, and how he didn´t want much with the Church?? Well this week he excitedly told us that he wants to be baptized and yesterday he accepted the invitation for the 9th of February! Through prayer and love, we have been working extremely hard to bring the Gospel into Antonio´s life.  Now he has accepted the invitation and will take the proper role as father in his family so that they go to the temple in one year!  

  Oh I forgot to mention about Pedro!!  A tender mercy from the Lord.  Pedro is a man of about 70 years who was walking in front of the chapel last Sunday and felt the impression to enter.  He walked up the stairs and entered the Sacrament Room just in time to take the Sacrament.  He stayed for all 3 hours and loved every single second!  We have met with him many times in the week and he is truly changing his entire nature and behaviour to be baptized the 26th of January, Sunday! He has amazing questions that make us study even in the night time before going to bed to teach him the true doctrine of Christ. I´ll explain more about him next week.  

   This week, I received a confirmation of the power and miracles that come from Priesthood Blessings.  The Priesthood is God´s power and authority that He entrusts with us so that His children can be blessed beyond measure through their faith.  I had an experience this week that I feel is too sacred to share in the moment but I testify that with the Priesthood, we can perform the same miracles that Jesus Christ performed.  We must never be afraid nor embarrassed to give or receive a Priesthood Blessing. 

Have a good week!

Elder Weidman

DyC 88:81 -- To Testify and To Warn

Hey family!

   How is everyone?  I´m sure you all are just dying to know how my week went by so I´ll tell you that it was great due to the baptisms of Cristian and Pablo! I´ll try to include a photo if my computer lets me.  The baptisms were great due to the amazing dedication that both of these men have, especially since Satan tried all he could this weekend to stop the baptisms.  Pablo´s wife still doesn´t want anything with the church due to the family history she has in the Catholic Church.  We pasted by Pablo the night before his baptism, and  walked up to the door but stopped immediately when we heard the angry, screaming voice of his wife.  We thought for a few seconds, deciding if we should knock the door or not, and then asked Heavenly Father what He would have us do.  Feeling the the strong impression to knock the door, we confidently followed the prompting.  Pablo came out and told us that it would be better if we took a walk rather than enter the house.  We walked around his neighborhood for 10 minutes and he told us about how his wife still is against his decision to be baptized, be he assured us that he knew it was the decision that God wanted him to make.  He has 100% faith that his wife will follow in his footsteps in the near future, and that is why he must put God first in this situation.  He quoted the scripture in the Bible that teaches about leaving your own family in order to serve God and, even though he won´t leave his family, he understands that this scripture applies to him in the moment.  Saturday arrived and him, his wife, and Pablo Junior arrived 30 minutes early and we were able to give a building tour to the wife.  She had no desire to talk to us nor with the members, but she came in order to support her husband. Pablo asked me to baptize him so I had the chance to see his wife´s face when he came out of the water and she was very happy in the moment.  She knows that this is what he wants to do and that it will bring true joy to him.  

   Now the story about Cristian.The baptism of Cristian went by perfectly and smoothly.  He also asked me to baptize him and afterwards he told me that he threw down all the sins in the water and didn´t let them rise with him out of the water.  He also admitted to me that he wanted to dedicate himself to the church. Everything was perfectly fine until we arrived to church on Sunday 30 minutes early.  The brother of Cristian´s girlfriend told us that Cristian and his girlfriend´s family had fought that same morning and that they had thrown him out of the house and told him not to go to church...  At first I thought he was joking, but then he swore to me that it was true and I began worrying.  We called a member to go pass by Cristian´s house to see if he was there but no one responded when he went by.  We continued calling people to find out where he was, but no knew so we offered a prayer and then started the sacrament meeting.  2 minutes into the meeting, Cristian came walking into the chapel with a collared shirt and tie (first time ever!) and he sat right next to me.  He had a smile on his face and let me know that everything was fine. I gave a look at the Bishop letting him know that the confirmation was still a go, and everything went great after that.  Cristian and his (now ex) girlfriend´s family are still not talking, but this didn´t effect his desire to continue in this path.  He took so much time getting to church because he walked due to the fact that the other family wasn´t going to give him a ride.  The Lord answered our prayers!

Thanks for everything!

Love you

Elder Weidman

Isaiah 40:31 -- The Lord Will Renew Their Faith

Hey Family!

   I hope that everyone had a great New Years. I was able to spend mine with Elder Cordoba, a missionary that I met in my first area a year ago who made a huge impact on me.  We had my first division together, a day full of miracles, and now we had the privilege to spend New Year´s Eve together.  He has an amazing talent of talking really fast, like a radio announcer, so it was hilarious when the clock striked 12 o clock and he began his new year´s speach. I can´t believe that I can understand what he says without problem. The gift of tongues is always in action here.

   Yesterday both Cristian and Pablo came to church because they both have the desire to continue coming to Christ´s Church after their baptism.  Cristian had his Baptismal Interview yesterday and passed with flying colors.  Pablo will have his interview tomorrow and we are practically positive that he will pass without a problem. The conversions of both these amazing men are completely different, yet the way that they accomplished it is the same: through the fulfillment of commitments. Let me tell you a little bit about them both.  

Cristian is the a member´s boyfriend.  Around 3 months ago we knocked the door of member and her family by the Spirit and found out that they were members who had strong desires to return to the church.  The mom, daughter, and son are members but the father isn´t. Now the members of family are 100% active and the daughter even introduced us to Cristian because he had a few questions about the church.  We started sharing with the father, but then realized that Cristian had more desires to find out the truth.  He isn´t doing this for his girlfriend, rather for the relationship that he has with God.  He confessed to us that his past life is full of lies and sins, but he has tremendous faith for a new life.  He had a problem with practically all the commandments when we met him, but due to his quick dedication to gaining a testimony of the truth, he immediately left the worldy desires behind to come unto Christ.  His main theme that I have seen through his actions is ¨Only through sacrifices come the blessings¨.  Everytime that we taught a new commandment, Cristian would align his life with the Gospel principle and leave the worldy sin behind. Without second thought. Never looking back nor falling into old tempation.  He reads the Book of Mormon everyday and is keeping his girlfriend´s family active in the Church. He will make a covenant with Jesus Christ on Saturday.

Pablo is a loving father and husband who has always had a general nature to choose the right and exercise the Light of Christ for the better.  He has always gone to different churches, yet had never gone to our Church before meeting us.  Baptism has always had huge importance to him in order to be saved but he never did it in another church because he felt that the authority was never present.  After having gone to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints continually for two months, Pable now knows where the authority is found, and he knows due to the prayers he has made to God. He has had to leave behind family traditions, confront his fear of telling his wife he will be Mormon, and overcome the fear of praying out loud in order to make this decision.  I had the opportunity to hear his first prayer outloud and it was one of the most humble, yet most powerful prayers I have every heard.  He will make a covenant with Jesus Christ on Saturday.

I love you all!
Elder Weidman