Dear Family and Friends,
Well another week has gone by in the BEST MISSION ON THE PLANET-- SANTIAGO OESTE! This week was pretty crazy. We literally had meetings out the wazoo this week.
So, this week we got 7 menos activos (less-actives) into the capilla (chapel)! DID YOU HEAR ME CLEARLY. 7 Menos Activos! Not to mention the 6/9 recent convert ratio! It was a really good testimony meeting too, and I was mostly just happy that my main man Jaime Hector came to Church! This guy is blind and he paints and sings. You should see some of the paintings that he has, they're incredible. He's a really, really great guy and he got baptized about 13 years ago. He's been inactive for 2 years, but he came to church this Sunday! He's really struggling right now because now that we're lighting the spiritual fire back under him he's sad that his family aren't members. They're all atheist actually and they want nothing to do with us... we're going to keep trying to get them involved though. They really appreciate us meeting with Jaime because he's 78 years old, can't walk very well, he's really sick too, and to top it all off he's blind. His main questions have been "if God loves me so much, why do I have basically every affliction known to man right now? Why am I blind?" We've had some great lessons with him though, and I read him D&C 121 where Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail and wondering where God is. He was really touched, and he came to Church! BOO YA! I sat by him in Church because he was sitting all alone, and he about made me die laughing during sacrament becuase he had so much to say about everything. He didn't feel prepared to take the sacrament, but I basically forced him to. We're going to he working with him so that he receives the Aaronic priesthood. SHOUTOUT TO PAJARITOS BARRIO (Pajaritos Ward) they actually gave him a ride to Church and didn't slack off! It's nice to have members that are willing to help the missionaries get their ivestigators and inactives to church by offering rides!
Other than that, I didn't have any CRAZY experiences this week. Pedro is our prime investigator and he should be baptized the 21st of this month. He is a really, really great guy and really intelligent. He's a lawyer, and he really is just so kind. The problem is that he talks our heads off and he has REALLY, REALLY, REALLY difficult questions. I applied what I said last week though and just went simple with him. He basically was asking how the Book of Mormon was translated and how it came to be and how he's not so sure if The Book of Mormon is really a true document of the people in Ancient America. I finally got him to stop all his jabbering and just said that I can not prove to him that the Book of Mormon is true. I told him that instead of spending all of his time on the internet trying to find out more about the Book of Mormon, maybe he should READ IT and THEN PRAY to get the SPIRITUAL FEELING that the Book of Mormon is true. I said that asking to prove the Book of Mormon to be the word of God is like asking if God exists or if the Bible is true. (Both of which he believes in) and he agreed full heartedly with me and he's going to actually start reading and praying to know if the BOM is true. He basically already thinks our church is true, but he just thinks it's true from a logical standpoint and not from a spiritual. That's the cool thing about our Church though.... it makes sense logically and spiritually. It all just comes down to if you really believe that Jesus established a Church while he was on the Earth.
We did find a new investigator this week named Robinson. He belongs to La Iglesia Africana. He has dreads and a huge turban that holds all his hair in. He's quite the character, and he talks in this Jamaican accent while he speaks spanish... he's an interesting fella. His Uncles are members of the Church but all inactive. He basically just was wondering why we try to baptize BEFORE people actually FEEL that the church is true and before they actually want to change their lives. I said that I'm not here to just baptize whilly nilly, I'm here to make sure that my investigators actually FEEL the truthfullness of the gospel before they make a huge convenant like baptism. He was really impressed by my testimony and he invited us back to see him this week... he'll be hard, but I think I can get him to change his ways of belief. He thinks Jesus was black and that Adam and Eve were too... so you can imagine that he's kinda hard to teach.
Other than that, I just feel like I'm really finding out who I am on the mission. I pretty much have to lead every single lesson and I do EVERYTHING. I make the calls, I do the paperwork, I organize EVERYTHING: At times I'm stressed as can be, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. Someone's got to take the bull by the horn. That's what I'm going to do for the rest of my mish.
Love all ya'll, this gospel is true. This mission is awesome! I literally love my district and my zone. All the AP's are leaving this change and I love them too and it's going to be sad to say bye to them. They picked me up from the CCM after all.... I also had another interview with President this week during one of our Meetings and it went really well. He's a great guy, but his portuguese overbears his spanish and it's rather difficult for all of us to understand him.
PS We had a carne asada last week for P-Day with Chilean sausage and then we had Mexican food today with some other Elders in our zone because My Comp is in Santiago for a meeting of careers. P DAYS ARE SO AWESOME HERE!
LOVE,
ELDER WEAVER
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