D y C 118:3

Hey family!

   I don´t have much time to write today but I wanted to send an update about the investigators we have.  

   Susana is progressing amazingly.  She came to Church yesterday, went to a baptism of another ward, and passed her baptismal interview!  I´ll explain more about her in the next letter because her conversion story is amazing, but something really awesome is that she left this morning to stay in a place called La Laguna Verde for 3 days.  She wants to eliminate all worldly distractions and read the entire Book of Mormon in those three days.  Also she will be fasting for those three days, and wants a question answered by God (we don´t know what the question is, but she said that it won´t effect her baptism).  She will be baptized next Sunday by a ward member and has already begun bringing her friends to church.

   The Navarro Family, the familia Argentina that I talked about last week, came to church yesterday and the ward welcomed them with open arms!  The son has only one desire in the moment: go on the mission.  The parents have only one desire: baptize their daughter.  The daughter only has one desire: be baptized. And the littlest daughter has only one desire: sing I am a Child of God everytime that we pass by.  The two daughters remind me a lot of Lucy and Gracie. The older one is a little shy but a talker once the ice breaks while the younger is always making everyone laugh by her goofy comments and actions.  They will be a huge addition to the ward.

   I hope that everything is great back home!  

Love, 

Elder Weidman

P. S. I tried getting a good picture of the stairs of death but I didn´t come out to well.  I´ll grab a better one later.

Mosiah 5:13 - Serve to know

Hey family!

   It´s been a great week and I´ll explain in the next emails, but I want to send the photos first because sometimes it takes forever to attach photos.  Here´s the first photo that has a good view of the whole area : the downtown part with the hills behind.

 

A view my sector from up top. There are some ships i the sea and a little above them are buildings in the distance.  That is Con Con, where I was a year ago.

Preaching the Gospel in the hills is my favorite hobby.

Last photo: A delicious, healthy breakfast to make mom proud

Those are the photos that I have in the moment.  

   In our area we have many investigators and future investigators that have a lot of potencial like I said last week, but, for the moment, the problem is contacting them which is difficult due to vacations.  Right now the summer is coming to a close here in Chile, so everyone is trying to use up that last that they have until school starts in March.  We are contacting around 20 to 30 people in the street each day, but a lot of them are from other sectors in the mission because Valparaiso is a tourist spot.  Even though our hours are spent walking the streets, we are still animated and never let the lack of lessons bring us down.  As Elder Holland says, all missionaries must experience a part of Christ´s Atonement in order to truly sacrifice themselves on the mission.  We can never stop working and must diligently put one step forward.

   We finally had contact with Susana on Friday!  She is too amazing!  She had been reading the Book of Mormon the entire time that she was out of town, and immediately said that she wanted to be baptized when we saw her.  We taught about the Restoration of Christ´s Church and also about the Word of Wisdom.  We asked her if she had a problem with this commandment and she then picked up a tea package, threw it on the ground, and said ¨not anymore!¨ On Saturday we taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and really focused on the consequences of sin and the importance of the Atonement.  Listening about Christ´s suffering immediately made Susana cry and she said that she wants to do everything possible so that He doesn´t suffer for her anymore.  Her love for the Savior radiates from her face whenever she talks about Him.  Unfortunately she couldn´t come to church yesterday but she will be baptized in March.

  One other story. Yesterday we met a family from Argentina who have been in Chile for 2 months now.  They were baptized 2 years ago, but due to problems, they inactivated six months ago. The son of 20 years has always wanted to return to the church because he wants to serve a mission.  He knows that the church is true and couldn´t stand not taking the sacrament, so on Friday he found the address of the chapel and then waited outside until a member came by.  The Bishop was the first member to pass by, and then the son told him all that had happened.  The Bishop invited him to church and the entire family came yesterday, all thanks to the son.  When we passed by yesterday, the family was incredibly happy!  I felt the impression to share this story to show how the son led his family back to the church.

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

2 Nefi 2:8

Hey family!

   Valparaiso is still living up to my expectations.  It seems to get better each day.  I forgot my camera chord, but next week I´ll be sure to send a few pictures.  I tried getting the best camera shot of the area and feel that I accomplished it.  Each day is bright and sunny with a nice oceany breeze.  There are many tourists here that come from all around the world so we have had many opportunities to translate for many English speakers.  Also about twice a week we get phone calls from people asking us to give health blessings in the hospital and I love being able to always be ready to use the Priesthood worthily. We see faith put to the test as we enter the hospital and see the afflictions that come from sicknesses, but it will always be a blessing to know about the Plan of Salvation.

   Susana, the lady from last week that yelled at us and told us that she had a dream about us, has fallen from off the face of the world.  She left to go visit a sick uncle in Viña Del Mar and has not returned, but everytime we talk with her on the phone she lets us know that she is reading the Book of Mormon.  We just have to wait and continue praying for her. 

   We have a lot of future investigators that have showed a lot of potencial this past week.  This week we are going to home down on those who are willing and ready to make a covenant with the Lord.  Hopefully my email next week will be more detailed with investigators!  Due to lack of time,  this email is short but my happiness is big!

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

Valparaiso!

Hey Family!

   Well I forgot to look for a scripture for today´s email since I´ve been busy getting used to my new area in Valparaiso.  I´m going to try to send some photos because I love the sights here.  We practically live in the downtown Valparaiso but our area covers 4 hills that are extremely steep.  My dream the entire mission has been to come to Valparaiso to preach the Gospel and it seems that it was in line with God´s will!!  All of Valparaiso is separated into 2 zones therefore our zone is called Valparaiso Oeste.  Our area starts on the shore line of the sea (every morning we  run along the shore line for 30 minutes while the sun rises!), then continues through ¨El Plan¨ (downtown), and ends at the top of some hills.  We share the ward with 2 other missionaries who live and work in the hills only.  The part I love most about Valparaiso is the huge amount of people that live in the hills.  The houses are literally stacked one on top of the other.  I´m going to try to send a good number of photos so that you can see the amazing lifestyle of the people who live here.

1. The view from our apartment.  We live on the ninth floor of an apartment building in the downtown.  The little tents are street stores that stretch down for around a half a mile. 

2. Every morning we run alongside the sea rocks.

3. Baptism of Freddie. That´s my companion Elder Baird.  He´s from.... SPOKANE WASHINGTON!  He doesn´t know if he knows Danny or not but he says that he lived in the Spokane North Stake. He´s from the North Point Ward.

4. A picture of one of the hills. The ways to climb up the mountains is by steep stairs or straight up paths.  When ever we take buses or taxis around, I feel like I´m on a rollercoaster for the steepness of everything. I´ll grab a photo of some of the paths and stairs for next week.

5.  The building in the middle that has a hole in the center is for congress.  Our apartment building is the building to the right that is red and white and that has a tree blocking half of it in the photo.

Those are the pictures that I have so far.  Also I have an amazing experience that happened on Saturday.

   We left lunch and began walking down the hill to arrive to the chapel.  Before he had even reached the stairs to walk down, a woman yelled to us from her porch asking for a Book of Mormon.  Elder Baird and I looked at each other and excitedly entered the gate to give her what she desired. She invited us in and then confessed that she had had a dream about us where we had led her across a bridge.  We testified that that bridge was the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that the first step was Baptism and Repentance.  Susana (the woman) accepted a baptismal invitation for the 16th of this month and then committed to go to church on Sunday.  She fulfilled her promise by staying for all 3 hours yesterday and even brought a friend with her! The whole ward exciting met her and invited her to continue attending every week to which she accepted.  A blessing for God!

I love you all!

Elder Weidman

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