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