E-mail from May 4th...
My most dear family and friends,
This week was definitely a long week. Elder Ortiz and I worked super hard and unfortunately all we accomplished by Sunday was that one of our inactive families attended church and one of our recent converts as well.
You'd think that I'd be super down in the dumps right? WRONG. Okay, not gonna lie... yesterday was one of the hardest days on the mish so far. We just rode our bikes around everywhere and NO ONE WAS FREAKING HOME. ALL OF OUR APPOINTMENTS FELL. Then contacting yesterday wasn't great either, we had a fair amount of rejections. Luckily, I'm keeping tally of how many rejections we get a day now and so when I come back home you guys can look at my planners and see exactly how many rejects I got a day! Elder Ortiz thought it was dumb to count rejections, but now he's always asking me after someone rejects us "¿qué cuenta los rechazos?" I respond "¡tenemos diez ahora! Mejor que ayer!" He laughs and we keep going trying to give something that is more important than anything else in this world to these lovely people of Padre Hurtado. I'm happy, but if you don't ask yourself at least once on the mish "why the heck am I out here on a dirt road in the middle of the day, in chile, yelling halooooo, when I could be in America, speaking English, and mountain biking right now?" You probably are 1. A freak or 2. You really didn't have that hard of a mission. So there's my two cents of that, ya'll can judge me as ya will, but the mission isn't always sunshine and roses. If you think otherwise you're just nieve.
We did get 12 new investigators this week! One of them is gone though because he was arrested on Saturday night for robbing an almacen. His name is "M" and he's schizophrenic. We taught him on Thursday and he has a sincere desire to turn his life around. He was a reference from the hermanas in our district. He has problems with drugs, but more specifically paint. He feels horrible for the life he's lived and he committed to baptism. He seemed awesome when we left him on Friday and he was going to go to church this sunday. He didn't show up though so we went to his house to check up on him. When we got there the carabineros (police) were talking with his sister outside and we found out that he's in a jail cell in melipilla now... So there's that. We're teaching his Mom too, and she has BAD depression. It's seriously so sad to see the lives that a lot of our investigators live. We're going to continue teaching her and I just hope she can find the hope and happiness that the gospel offers. We've had a lot of powerful spiritual experiences with her, and Elder Ortiz even started crying yesterday when he was telling her that "Nunca vamos a abandonarle. Todo va a salir bien hermana Ana!" In other words, we're never going to leave you. Everything is going to turn out fine!
We had another great experience with an older couple. They're Catholic and they let us in to their house last Friday night. They're pretty normal people actually! He has problems with smoking, but other than that... completely normal and no huge issues! WHAT A RELIEF! We found out that their son passed away about a year ago. They really don't know if they'll see him again. We talked a little about the plan of salvation and once again Elder Ortiz started crying when he looked at Maria right in the eyes and said that he knows that they will see their son again! I did the same thing and they totally felt the spirit. They committed to read the Book of Mormon and we hope to continue to see them frequently. Their appointment fell this Sunday though... so that super sucked. Super powerful lesson with them though, and it was definitely one of those days when YOU LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY.
So that's about all. Today we went for a hike as a zone and that was super fun. The Andes mountains are unreal, but the smog is so bad here that you can hardly see them most days. It's getting colder here, but the weather is super bi polar. I'm happy, I'm alive, and I know the gospel is true and that The Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. A lot of people think "they know Christ." I'm sorry to say it, but you don't know Christ until you've been to the gaul of bitterness and found the truth. The truth being the gospel of Jesus Christ which is found in La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Últimos Días.
I hope everyone has an awesome Mother's day! To all my missionary friends reading this... enjoy your family!
Con Muchísimo Amor,
Elder Weaver
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