D&C 130:21 -- Obedience to each commandment

Hey Family!

   Well the major event that happened this past week was the baptism of the family that we have been teaching!  As you can see in the photo that the father (Jaime), mother(Silvia), and son(Cristobal) were baptized Saturday night. The youngest (Pia) will be baptized on the first weekend of December because that is when she turns 8 years old.  The baptism was pure Spirit and I will never forget the joy that was felt there.   I baptized the dad while Elder Sosa baptized the mom and son.  Then we switched yesterday and I confirmed those that Elder Sosa baptized while he did the same to the dad.  The ward was very excited to see this family make a huge step in their life and many told us that this gave them more desires to share the Gospel with others.  I don´t have much time left, but just wanted to let you know about and see the family that has helped me realize more and more that the Lord needs me here in Quillota.  This is truly His Work and He always knows where we need to be.  This week we need to work very hard in finding new investigators who are waiting for us.  The days are getting hotter and hotter here while I imagine that where you all are it is getting colder and colder.  Have a good Halloween!  The Chileans also celebrate Halloween but not as amazing as the United States, but that´s ok because it means that more people will be available to listen to our message!  

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

Romans 10:14 - "How shall they hear without a preacher (missionary)"

Hey family!

   October has flown by, just like every month in the missionary.  Each day gets hotter and hotter and my companion and I are preparing ourselves for the summer that is coming. The good part about the change in the weather is now that it is warm enough to play basketball or run in the morning for the 30 minutes that are given to us.  We take advantage of it as much as possible.

   A little update on my investigators. The only set of investigators that we have who have signs of progression is the Cortez Family.  They are a family of 4, 2 parents and 2 children, 3 of which are able to be baptized because they are older than 7 years old.  We have seriously seen miracles with this family.  I know that I have mentioned experiences with them in the past emails, but since I have more time this email I´m going to try to give the whole history of them.  Everything started with the Zone Conference we had with President Kähnlein around 5 weeks ago, which happened on aMonday.  His main focus during the whole entire conference was on finding the chosen families who are ready to hear and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives.  Immediately after the conference, my companion and I made a goal to find one of those chosen families.  1 hour later, while looking for a less active family, my companion accidentally knocked on the wrong door, thinking that it was the house of the less actives. Out of embarrassment, he started walking away when I told him the truth, but than I told him that we should wait and see what happened.  He happily agreed and we excitedly waited there.  2 seconds later, the dad of the family, Jaime, opened the fence door and excitedly told us to come in.  During this first visit we met him and his son, Cristobal.  They explained to us that their family had met with missionaries once before but then they never returned to the house and the contact was lost.  We quickly explained our purpose and set a follow up appointment for when the entire family would be home.  

   The next appointment was with the entire family, on the following Saturday.  We were able to meet the mom, Silvia, and the daughter, Pia.  During the second appointment, we watched the Restoration video and shared about the importance of our message.  We could tell that the son, Cristobal, was interested in the message and wanted to know more but the parents didn´t have the same desire to learn but they still wanted us to continue coming over because we were nice and funny. We invited them to church on Sunday but they didn´t have enough time to clear their schedules in order to go.   Throughout the next 3 appointments, we began to focus a lot more on Cristobal and the following Sunday he came arrived at church for the last hour.  We were very worried because this was the 5th Sunday of the month which meant that all the members were together for the last hour.  For the 3rd hour, all the adults in the ward had a little conference about who would clean the chapel for the rest of the year.  Instead of settling the matter very peacefully, the members started arguing and contention was there.  Cristobal wasn´t too impressed but luckily we had a baptism (for Nico) right after the meetings and he felt the Spirit there.  

  The following week, we met with the family twice and taught only about the importance of prophets.  They accepted our invitation to attend General Conference and the whole family arrived for the session when President Monson talked! They absolutely loved his words and immediately gained a testimony.  After conference we had an amazing lesson that was centered on the covenants we can make in the temple in order to be sealed for time and all eternity.  They accepted to invitation to be baptized the 20th as a family, and every lesson since than has been pure Spirit.  Whenever the family has a doubt or fear of being baptized, they begin reading in the Book of Mormon and then it disappears.  Due to lack of teaching, we moved to baptismal date to the 26th and they will for sure be baptized as a family that day.  They committed to live each commandment that we taught them and tomorrow they will have their baptismal interviews.  Pia turns 8 in December and her dad or brother will baptize her.  In one year from now they will all be sealed in the Santiago Temple!!!  Due to time, I haven´t been able to include more details but I want you all to know that every aspect of Missionary Work (ex. work with members, videos, commitments, family home evening, prayer, EVERYTHING)  has been used to help this family and now I have a strong testimony of the divine power of Missionary Work.  

   Well I included a few photos so that you can tell how happy I am.  I hope everything is going great in your lives!

1. A Primary kid who came with us for a few hours this week.  

2. Posing in front of the Reloj de Flores (Clock of Flowers)

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

I'm not disobedient

Hey family again,

   I´m not disobedient because my companion and I received permission to spend 1 hour on internet in the night time.  I´m sure that you all are dying to know if my companion survived his deathly wound.  The truth is yes and he didn´t even have to get a shot.  We went back to the hospital for another hour of waiting and then they confessed that they had no supply of this shot.... Patience is a virtue and the Lord will bless us for the 3 and a half hours that we waited! I´m sure that someone saw us in the hospital sitting against the wall so that the tv wasn´t in our site and now they have a desire to listen to the message.  Keep the faith!

   One more thing. Nina mentioned in her life update that everyone would be together for Thanksgiving and maybe we could all tune into Google Circle to have a video chat.  I was actually thinking about that and wanted to know if everyone will be able to access internet on Christmas for the family video chat.  If not, I could ask President for permission to do my ¨family time¨ on Thanksgiving instead of Christmas, but I would only be able to do it if someone in the family isn´t able to on Christmas.  I need to know within the next week so that I can call President soon and ask. Does that make sense? If not, ask Mary.  I´m sure she understands. (If you don´t understand Mary, let me know now.) 

   The Lord is hastening His Work!  Did everyone give a reference to the missionaries this week? If you didn´t..... I´ll send Banjo to make sure you do it. 

Have a good week! Love,

Elder Weidman

Alma 37:36 True Consecration!

Hey family!

   Quick update.  I'm only on for 5 minutes today.  Maybe a bit later I'll get back on but who knows.  My companion got bit by a dog yesterday so now he needs to get 5 shots.  The first one is today and we were waiting in the hospital for seriously 2 hours.  They told us we could go take a quick break but now we have to return.  The size of the bite is TINY yet he needs those shots just in case.  Just in case I don't get back on - The investigator family went to church yesterday.  They are preparing for the 26th for their baptize.  Dad - Elder Lopez was in my zone last change! That's awesome that you were able to meet him.  A great elder who ended his mission working till the last second.  If anyone else has questions, send them my way!

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

Mosiah 28:3 - ¨Salvation...declared to every creature¨

Hey there family!

   Well I don´t know about everyone else but I´m quite sad that this weekend has come to a close.  It´s worse than when Christmas is over and you realize that another long year awaits you until you can wake up to the smell of Dad´s famous pull aparts.  Heavenly Father talked directly to me and I was able to obtain a handful of answers to my questions.  I hope it was the same for you and know that we still can receive answers due to the amazing internet that we have at our fingertips.  

   I barely have anytime to include this email.  We had a District Activity today and in order to do our usual P Day chores, we need to cut a little time out of Internet. I hope that you all have the same response that Mary had ¨Das aight. We understand, dawg¨. I´m glad that her amazing ability to make me feel good about myself hasn´t changed :)  

   Conference did miracles for our family of investigators.  Before conference, only the son wanted to be baptized.  Now all 3 members of the family who are over the age of 8 have desires to make this covenant with God.  MIRACLES!  They were able to be taught by the world´s best teachers and the Spirit testified to them of the truth in their words.  What an amazing work this is.  

   Let´s put the things we learned in conference into action by giving a reference to the missionaries this week, whether the reference be in the city where we live or in another city. I promise that the Lord will bless you all with VISIBLE blessings.

Love you all!

Elder Weidman

P-S- The photos will come next week!!

D&C 88:6 -- He Comprehended All Things

Hey family!

   Today is the last P day of the month, which means that we have to fill out a million forms for the zone.  This month it´s my turn to fill out the most complicated one so I won´t write a too lengthy email.  I´ll mainly include pictures and explain how to use a Trompo.  

Update:  Yesterday Nico was baptized and what a great experience it was.  Both his parents who aren´t members came and when he came out of the water, they both began crying.  His father told us that he was so proud of his son because he had made his own decision to be baptized. We are working hard so that they whole family can have the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  My companion and I have seen a huge change in Nico that only comes from the application of the Gospel.  I´ll include a picture later on in the emails. 

   This week we had changes or transfers (whatever you want to call them) and my companion and I will have another 6 weeks together.  Most of the missionaries in our zone stayed here in Quillota but we welcomed 2 sisters into the zone who are going to reopen an area that was closed last change.  We were given the duty to help those 2 missionaries arrive to their sector and it was great being able to go to the Change Meeting and see old companions and other missionaries. Our focus this week for the zone is preparing ourselves, the investigators, and the members for General Conference this weekend.  I´m anticipating this Conference a lot and know that if we all come prepared, we will receive the exact revelation that is needed in our lives.  

   I hope that everything is going well with the family!

Love,

Elder Weidman

Ok the photos will have to wait till next week because my camara just ran out of batteries.  Gosh and I even took pictures of myself throwing a trompo!!  Well... Keep the excitement until next week!  

Moroni 9:6 -- "Let us Labor Diligently"

Hey dearest family,

   How is the life of everyone?  You all missed out on the delicious asado (barbeque) that I ate this week.  You know how in the United States the barbeque only lasts for July 4th and maybe leftovers the day after?  Well, here in Chile the meat started cooking on Monday and didn´t stop until last night!  I´ve had more share of meat for the year and am content with no more meat until Christmas. (Is anyone as shocked as I am that Christmas is only 3 short months away?)  I´ll describe how each asado goes.  The man of the house starts the whole meal by cooking Chorizos (sausages).  Once those are cooked after 5 minutes, he throws on the slabs of meat (cow or chicken) and then we begin eating Chorazcos (Chorizos in bread with ketchup and mayo) while we wait for the meat to cook.  During this whole time that the meat is being cooked, the woman are inside making the salad and potato with mayo mix. Depending on the family, there can be more vegetables if desired.  Once everything is prepared, we sit down and have a delicious meal until we can´t fit anything else in.  That is when the fruit comes out.  A little something to top everything off.  Or that´s what I thought until I saw the ice cream!  Those are the usual details that are including on a holiday meal here in Chile.  Usually there are empanadas as well full of meat, boiled egg, and olives (bleh).  To make things short, I ate this food practically everyday this week.... but don´t worry because the amount of walking that we did burned off what was eaten.  

   We weren´t able to find 15 new investigators this week, but we worked extremely hard to try to accomplish it.  The hard thing was that most Chileans spend the rest of the tarde after lunch sleeping until the nighttime.  Then the whole night is spent drinking and having a good time in the eyes of the world, something that we try to avoid at all costs.  Nothing bad or dangerous every happens to us, but every once and awhile someone will yell Gringo (the Chilean word for white person) at us and try speaking in English, but that never works because they have no idea what they are saying.  We wave our hand with a happy smile and continue walking.  

   A little update on our investigators.  Remember Nico?  He had his Baptismal Interview yesterday and will be baptized on Sunday!  We had an amazing, spiritual lesson with him last Friday and in that moment he made the decision to be baptized.  His friend, Seba, will baptize him and he has asked me to confirm him the Sunday after.  We have changes this Wednesday but I believe that I will be staying here after only 6 weeks.  Nico is now more comfortable with the members because we have focused a lot on having the members come with us in order to make a friendship with him.  Our other baptismal candidate for this month is a boy name Dav.  He was the joven that went to church last Sunday without us inviting him, and stayed for all 3 hours.  He has a baptismal date for this Sunday as well but we will need to work really hard so that he is fully prepared to make this covenant. We had the chance to meet his mom yesterday and she is fully on board with his baptism.  She is very interested in the message that we share and knows that it is the best thing that her son could learn. Dav´s dad died a few years back and he has been taking care of his sick mom ever since then at the young age of 13. He loves the church and has attended all 3 hours the past two Sundays.  Due to this weeks of Independence, we weren´t able to have much contact with him but his desires to be baptized are still present. Hopefully in the next email I send, those 2 will have already made their baptismal covenant.

   This week our ward had an activity to celebrate the dieciocho.  We were given permission to spend 2 hours there just to watch and we enjoyed every second of it.  I´ll try to explain all that we saw.  We came after the asado because we had already eaten enough meat for the day.  Some of the members were playing with trompos, toys that look like dradels (spelling?) that you wind up with a rope and then throw down at the ground to make it spin.  The Chileans play an awesome game with these twos.  They begins by placing an old trompo in the dirt in front of them, and then everyone makes a circle and begins throwing their trompos at the one in the center.  The person who breaks the old trompo with the tip of their own trompo wins.  (Last Pday, a member gave us 2 trompos as gifts and we practiced for a bit.  It took me many tries to get the trompo spinning but I had no hope in throwing it where I wanted it to land.) The other activity that we saw was kite wars.  Each person would deck out their own kite but putting a point on the tip and then, once the kite is in the air, they would try to cut the line of the other kites. Hilarious.  The rest of the activity was spent playing musical chair and dancing The Cueca (a Chilean dance that every Chilean knows).  That is a short summary of the activity!

   Have a good week!

Love you all,

Elder Weidman