Oh, Alexander and Brian didn´t get baptized. Which kinda sucked. Their dates fell through because their Dad doesn´t want them to be baptized into our church. They tried to defend themselves and their testimonies but the guy is super stubborn. Pray that his heart will be softened! Elder Ortiz and I worked really hard with these kids and it definitely was lame to get the news that they couldn´t be baptized. We're going to talk with their Dad this week, so we´ll see how that goes.
This is Elder Weaver's 4/62015 Letter. Sorry I've Been Slacking...
Friends and Fam Bam,
Primero que nada, YOU GUYS TOTALLY FREAKING ROCK! Thank you so much for the "care package." Everyone in my zone was super jealous of me. When I shared Mom´s cookies with them, they said "I want to be in your zone for the rest of my mission if your Mom keeps sending you chocolate chip cookies like these." Haha, and they weren´t even fresh! Still, everyone absolutely LOVED THEM! They all said that Mom´s cookies were the best they´ve ever had. Not to mention the rest of the package... HOLY CRAP. Mom must know me or something, because I loved everything that was in that bag. Thank you for the yoyo´s too. I´m thoroughly enjoying mine. It also draws the attention of a lot of the people here, so it´s actually a great contacting tool. Obviously, I know when to be playing with it, and when not to be... so for any ex-missionary out there reading this, no se preocupe, I´m not letting a yoyo distract me from the work. I saved opening the letters from all of you guys until Easter or Día de La Pascua because I wanted that to be my "gift" Easter morning. Thank you so much for the letters, I really really loved reading them. Mia is so freaking cute. There´s a family in our ward who have like 3 daughters and a son that are all super young, and one of them is named Mia and is about 10 years old just like my sister Mia. They act EXACTLY THE SAME TOO. Their Mom is Colombiana and their Dad is from Chile, and all of their kids are super cute kids. I kid you not, this Mia girl is just flat out cute. The whole family is great too because Hermano or Presidente Gonzalez is a couselor in the Stake Presidency here in Peñaflor. Anyways, I got side tracked there, but you guys are great! That package was super super "genial."
Now, General Conference was just an absolute spiritual high, am I right? Guess what? ALL THE GREENIES GOT TO WATCH IT IN ENGLISH! In reality, all the Americans used to be allowed to watch it in English, but President Barreiros changed the rule this time. Some of the Elders and Sisters were definitely not happy about that... Even Elder Ortíz and Elder Barraza who speak fluent spanish were super mad they couldn´t watch conference in English. They said that the spirit just isn´t the same watching Conference in spanish. Both Ortiz and Barraza understand English perfectly, so that´s why they enjoy it so much, by the way. So my favorite talk? I don´t really know... they were all super good. Families were definitely the focal point Saturday Morning, which was awesome, because families and marriage truly are the key to eternal happiness. When you think about it, our whole Gospel revolves around living with our families for eternity which is just something that really makes me feel great.
Something else that was cool was seeing Linda K. Burton and Jorge F. Zaballos speak in conference. I got to listen to them talk to us in sacrament meeting my 5th week in the CCM! Anyways, I think I´ll focus on the talk by Dale G. Renuld.
I love the quote "A saint is a sinner who keeps on trying." Ain´t that so true? There isn´t a single soul in this church who is perfect, but a true saint is someone who is constantly trying to improve and NEVER EVER QUITS! I also love how he said God cares more about who we are now and who we are becoming than who we were. We can all look back and say "twas I, but is not I." I also love how he said that the moment we decide to try again is the moment that the Atonement begins to go to work in our lives again. If we don´t try, we´re just latter-day sinners, and if we don´t perservere we´re just latter-day quitters, and if we don´t live by what we believe, we´re just latter-day hypocrites.
Michael T. Ringwood´s talk was also super awesome. Truly good people are people without guile. We should also be striving just to be good people because we want to be good people. We shouldn´t be striving for positions or titles or rewards.
I could go on and on, Elder Bednar´s talk was super awesome, Holland´s was amazing as always. I JUST FLAT OUT LOVE CONFERENCE. We weren´t allowed to go to Priesthood session though. That was a little lame, but that´s alright. I´m sure it was awesome, and I told Elder Ortiz that my brothers and my dad were at the stake center watching priesthood session and after they would go to Chili´s and get some food, and then order a chocolate lava cake for dessert. They would also be watching the Final Four basketball game while enjoying their food. That was definitely something that made me smile. Weaver traditions are just the best.
So today we had Changes meeting. It was my first one in the mission and it was pretty great. Obviously, Elder Ortiz is going to continue training me for these next 6 weeks, but the next changes meeting will be interesting for sure. It was also really cool to talk to everyone from the CCM and see how they´re all doing. A kid that I went to BYU with over summer term is actually in my mission! Elder Pomar! So that was super cool to talk with him.
| Hermana McNevin y Elder Weaver |
Other than that, everything is super great here in Padre Hurtado! I absolutely love the mission. It´s still hot here, but it´s cooling off! Hermana McNevin and I are in the same zone by the way... I don´t think I ever told you guys that. So we got to talk a lot this weekend over conference about our families and Colorado and BYU, it´s acutally kinda a blessing to have someone from your high school in the same mission as you, nevertheless the same zone. She´s doing great and her spanish is definitely better than mine! But seriously, I´m way better at speaking than I was even 6 weeks ago. Even Elder Ortiz doesn´t understand this one guy we teach named Christian. He speaks total Chileno and Elder Ortiz literally can´t understand what he´s saying. It´s funny to see a fluent spanish speaker just nod his head and smile like a greeny while this crazy Chileno rambles on and on... haha. Fast doesn´t begin to describe how they talk down here. As my spanish improves too, I can definitely start picking out grammar mistakes and mispronounced words while they speak. It´s funny, Chilenos truly do talk horrendous spanish.
Love all of you guys a ton! I´m into my second change! I´m alive, I´m super happy, and I´m working super hard! I count my blessings every single day and there is always at least one miracle I receive daily!
Love all of you guys! Keep me in your prayers and keep sending support! I love the letters from all my friends and family!
Les Quiero Muchisimo,
Elder Weaver
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