Trix Are for Kids... Week 64

March 28, 2016

Hello, hello how are you my friends? 

So another week has gone by in the good ol barrio of Villa Sur! Wow, I have now 7 months here and I feel like the ward is going to start asking me to pay my tithing here.

So semana santa turned into semana chanta because well... no one really has any faith anymore in God or Jesus Christ! Dad tells me all these stories about his mission with semana santa, but I promise you that nothing changes here! There are a few people that do some things for the Catholic Church, but no one really believes anymore... it's really sad. The biggest thing that took place in Chile this week was that Chile played against Argentina and lost 2-1! That was Jueves Santo! I was on divisiones that day with an Argentino too ha-ha! I was a little disappointed that the talks were not focused on the Atonement and the resurrection in particular. After all, it was Easter Sunday. But, our Stake President got up at the end and turned the focus on the Atonement. It's funny now that I'm on my mission I realize how studly people are spiritually...I also have realized that Mom blows us all out of the water as far as scripture knowledge and spirituality...don’t worry I still love you all! I personally have been so blessed because of her scripture knowledge and dedication to the gospel. I have the best mom ever!   

I also had a leadership meeting with all the DL's and ZL's and Asistentes this week on Tuesday! I learned a ton! I just need to keep focused on my District and what I can do to help them achieve more and baptize more. It's amazing, but I always leave from these meetings thinking, I could be even more consecrated as a leader, I guess that's how it should be! It's a lot like triathlon and running... you can always get faster and better there is never perfection. The key is not to beat yourself up. I think the biggest thing I pulled away from the leadership meaning is that humility is the key to having success and genuinely desiring the salvation of the people in your sector and really wanting to help your elders in your district reach their potential! VAMOS! 

We have two chilenos that are going to be baptized in the upcoming weeks! Jeremy and Victor! Jeremy is a 13-year-old kid that we found 2 weeks ago and he'll be getting baptized after conference this Sunday. Victor is this next weekend! 

Hey, enjoy conference! Crazy to think this is my 3rd conference in the mission. It's even crazier to think that I was in the same ward the last conference! 

I've started saying "coo-coo for coco puffs and tricks are for kids" when the Chilenos say "hello, hello my friend" in the street... Elder Cachari still doesn't get what I'm saying, fun stuff. 

I don't know why you guys get to Nicaragua and then all the sudden you wonder if I give service to the poor here in Chile….gringos. Ha-ha sometimes we do, but it’s hard to get permission to do it! BAUTIZAR NO MÁS! 

Tenha uma boa semana!

Elder Weaver!

You Will Be Condemned for Gossip...

Dear Family & Friends,

This week was a week of frustration and happiness. The fact of the matter is that I can never stay unhappy in the mission even though there's always something to resolve and always something to do in an area that has more that one problem.

Let's start off with the most embarrassing thing that happened this week. I  MESSED UP IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE MISSION ON TUESDAY IN OUR MISSIONARY PURPOSE! I have said the missionary purpose perfectly every time I've been asked to do it, but on Tuesday they asked me to do it in front of 200 missionaries in our mission conference and I messed up! Elder Cachari cursed me before and said, "I know you're going to mess up Elder Weaver" and the Zone Leaders were like "NO PRESSURE!" I skipped repentance and just jumped straight to baptism. Yes, it was embarrassing, but everyone said that I saved myself with the spiritual thought afterword and that I was cool, calm, and collected. I said, "debido a que me equivoqué con el arrepentimiento, voy a compartir una escritura acerca del arrepentimiento. Es que a veces como misioneros hablamos de bautismos con todos, pero fallamos en el paso del arrepentimiento antes de bautismo, y como yo salté el arrepentimiento... saltamos arrepentimiento con los investigadores y nunca tenemos investigadores reales. (Because I skipped over repentance, I will share a scripture with you about repentance. This is what we sometimes do as missionaries, we talk about baptism with everyone, but we fail in teaching the step of repentance before baptism and jump right to baptism.  Just like I skipped over repentance…we do this with investigators and then never have real researchers.) “ Ha-ha, I kind of saved myself, I shared Alma 26:27 ( Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.) and changed los lamanitas en los chilenos. I can't believe I biffed it like that. Oh well! 

So as far as the gossip goes, I'd just like to say something that every true converted latter day saint knows... there are always people in the ward that talk about everyone and think they are perfect and think that they have the right to talk bad and spread rumors about everyone else... somehow, someway, these type of latter-day saints think that they are converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ when they don't have a clue the damage they are making in the lives of other people! EVERYONE SHOULD JUST MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS! SALVATION IS PERSONAL! I promise that we will stand face to face with our Savior and He will show you the damage you have made in the lives of other people just because you are over judgmental and lack CHARITY! Unfortunately, our ward has people who have managed to kill a ward that should have 150 people attending to a ward that has 85 attending on a good day. 

Elder Marquina and I have always had fear with our converts that these people were going to cause damage to our convert’s lives... that came to pass this week. THE WEEK AFTER OUR  CONVERT’S DEATH OF THEIR DAD, THIS PERSON FOUND IT APPROPRIATE TO TALK BAD ABOUT THEM AND POST LIES ON FACEBOOK ABOUT THEM. I called the bishop that night after talking with our convert’s and told him things like this should not happen, especially with a new convert and I expect apologies from all involved. He totally agreed, but as you can imagine with prideful people… they don’t ever think they are wrong! 

Fortunately my converts are extremely humble and the sister is very mature and handled the situation just fine. Further more, Elder Marquina called them that very day out of nowhere and shared D&C 122:7-8 (7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. 8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?) without knowing what was happening with them. HEAVEN SENT, GOD takes care of his children in mysterious ways! 

Our convert’s were thinking about going to a different ward in the stake just to stay away from the drama, but they decided that wasn't the answer. The truth is…I laughed as this sister was talking about it because she’s like my Mom in a lot of ways.  It was hilarious to hear her talk about the stupid-ness of the drama in the ward. She said, "We aren't little teenagers Elder Weaver!" She also loves cooking, but hates thinking about WHAT to cook... just like Mom. I was sent to this family for a reason. I Love them so much! 

All is well in the little ward of Villa Sur now, but watch your mouths people and don't be hypocrites that judge! You will be condemned! 

It was a great week of work and we found miracles, we will be baptizing more. Haitian Nation is on the rise. 

1 Nephi 4:13  13 Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief. (the gossipers in the whole church)

Signing out, love all of you! Disfruten Nicaragua! 

Elder Weaver

Haitian Nation- Week 62

Family, Friends, and Those That Read These Emails...

I AM GOING TO LEARN CREOLE! I gotta do it. A huge miracle ocurrió ayer people! A Haitian that we are teaching told us on Friday night that his friend from Haiti was coming to Chile and was going to live with them, and that his friend is Mormon and was a missionary in Haiti. The thing is that Haitians think that all the churches that aren't the Catholic church are basically the same... so a lot of times they say they're a part of our church and that they do missions like us because they preach in the street for their church... so the news didn't really draw my attention too much. Either way we passed by yesterday to see if it was true or not. IT IS TRUE! THIS HAITIAN IS LEGIT!!! HE SERVED HIS MISSION IN HAITI AND FINISHED IN MAY LAST YEAR! HE DOESN'T SPEAK ANY SPANISH WHATSOEVER BUT THAT'S OKAY! It was so funny to talk with this guy, his name is Jean L. and his buddy translated for us and that's how we communicated. We were pretty skeptical and so we asked a lot of questions. He got to the point where he was so frustrated that he finally proved to us he had been to the temple and gave us a stare like "yes, I'm Mormon and I really did serve a mission." THIS IS THE FIRST HAITIAN I’VE MET THAT IS ENDOWED!!! The whole house was super pumped and all his buddies were like " YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH EL ES MORMÓN! El ES MORMÓN!!! WOOOO VAMOS A LA IGLESIA EL PROXIMO DOMINGO!" The thing is that Haitians don't speak super well in Spanish and the language barrier is real, unless they've lived in The Dominican Republic for 11 years like my convert Remy (who is super active and fiel)! Holy cow though, this guy is going to be Branch President here in Ochagavia because there are SO MANY HAITIANS! Elder Cachari and I are super pumped, because if we just enter into all these Haitian Huts and get all the millions of Haitians that live in each house gathered... this guy could translate in Creole! I was called to Chile to preach to Haitians... I'm almost 100% sure. They're so incredibly humble and just awesome people! 

Yesterday we had stake conference... actually all of Chile had Stake Conference, because we had a special broadcast from Temple Square and Elder Nelson spoke and so did some other members of the seventy and Presidente Soares spoke as well! They really stressed the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy and keeping the commandments. I loved the meeting and the coolest part was that Elder Nelson gave his whole talk in castellano! He's such a stud! We had very few investigators in the conference but it's all-good! This next Sunday our chapel is going to be filled with Haitians!

We went to the temple with our convert Miriam on Saturday and she did baptisms for her Mom, Dad, and Sister that have passed away! She absolutely loved the temple (who doesn't?) and she wants her whole family to get baptized in the church, but her husband is kind of a problem! We're super pumped that we could go to the temple with her just a week after her baptism and we went with Osvaldo and Katuisca as well! 

Speaking of Osvaldo... this guy is my hero. I seriously think he's got a stronger testimony than me. We had a family home evening with him this past Monday for Maycol's birthday and he was so happy. On Tuesday night he called me and was super, super sad. Turns out that his Dad died on Monday night. The worst part is that he was killed. Osvaldo's sister found him Tuesday morning in his bed covered in blood. Why are people so horrible? The world is seriously messed up. His dad is 79 years old and lives in the campo... they killed him for a gallon of gas in his house. That's all they took. You can imagine that Osvaldo was super sad and started crying. I just gave my testimony to him on the phone and cried with him. I told him that we should go to the temple this Saturday, and he agreed... but the rest of the week I lost contact with him because he was in an area without service. Turns out that when I saw him on Saturday he was tempted to revert back to his old way of dealing with things…but he didn't! He had a lot of anger more than anything and he told me that he just prayed a lot and he knows that our Heavenly Father has totally helped him cope with the loss of his Dad! He was sad going into the temple, but in the temple I sat with him and read (D&C 121:1, 7-8)

1 O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?

7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

 and told him to change hijo mio into Osvaldo Cordova... he thought I was a prophet and said that there couldn't be a better scripture. He left the temple all smiles and happy! It’s unreal the testimony this guy has! Pray for him and his family! 

I love this gospel. I love testifying to people that I know my Redeemer lives every single day. I love my Savior, I know that I can only improve and be with my family forever with this true gospel and the atonement! I love the small miracles I see everyday! I love carrying His name on my chest every single day!

This is the truth. 

Have an awesome week people! HAITI!!!!!

Elder Weaver 

Last Minute Milagro...Week 61

March 7, 2016

Wow, what a week! The last week of this change and I was dying to baptize, but nobody was looking too firm coming into the beginning of the week. Heavenly Father is a father of miracles and really loves us. He pulled through and we had a baptism! Sister Albarrán is now a member of La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Últimos Días! 

As always there's a lot to tell, but very little time. Long story short…we couldn't even pass by Miriam's house until Wednesday and even then nothing was 100% that she was going to get baptized this weekend. I was in the most ghetto sector in the mission the whole day with Elder Walker and was DYING!!! I wanted to know if they were able to get the baptismal interview completed. I called in the night and she had her baptismal interview! Unreal, this baptism is one of the most surprising baptisms I've had in my mission! She accepted everything and was baptized by Elder Cachari on Saturday! Elder Cachari finished his first change in the mission baptizing, couldn't be happier! 

I know that Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. Sister Albarrán has really been struggling with many things in her life... she’s had some really hard circumstance, but she definitely felt the spirit and knew that baptism was the only way to feel clean from all her sins and to start over again! We're working with her 16 year old son Victor so that he can be baptized this month of March as well! 

There's really not much more that I can say!  I was so excited for Sister Albarrán and Elder Cachari! All the hard work, fasting, and prayers paid off! Oh, I'll be staying in Villa Sur for 6 more weeks! Wow, 7 and half months in one sector is a lot! Heavenly Father must really need me here is all I can say! I'm looking forward to this change and I feel like we will be able to baptize 6 of our investigators this change! 

I had divisiones in La Victoria Thursday! After 6 months in Ochagavía I finally go to go to La Victoria! All I can say is that Satan himself walks the streets of La Victoria! Look it up on Google and look up the story. It is literally a neighborhood filled with drugs, alcohol, prostitution, it is unreal! It's crazy because it's right across the streets from my sector, but it's 87643290864 times more ghetto and I thought my sector was ghetto! There are communist symbols in all of Santiago, but wow... La Victoria is a completely different world. The police don't even go in there. There's a ton of people to talk to though because everyone is out on the street all day! 

I will just reiterate that Ochagavía has taught me a lot. In Villa Sur you can't depend on the ward to carry you... you have to carry the ward. The worst news is that we lost our Mission Leader this week and a lot of members that attend every Sunday were called to stake callings.! Hay que trabajar no más! 6 more weeks! 6 more weeks!

LOVE ALL OF YOU! THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!!! 

Elder Weaver

Week 60...

February 29, 2016

Wena Wena mis wachitos,

So this week was pretty dang cool. We got to listen to Elder Bednar on Wednesday and let me tell ya I loved the meeting. He was down in Good Air, Argentina, but it was still cool to see him through broadcast. He was speaking to all of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia, more than 6000 missionaries. I learned so much, and we all left the meeting super motivated and ready to take out the trash. I was super impressed by his wife though! Wow, Sister Bednar is amazing! It just goes to show that my wife needs to be and will be 99094059304530954 times the person that I am. I nearly cried her message was so good. She actually said a lot of what Mom tells me... She talked about how as a mom she just wanted to be a fly on the wall watching her kid get ready every morning, watching her kid teach lessons, and watching her kid go through tough times on the mission and see how he reacts. She told us to be the missionaries that our Mom's think we are! No worries Momma, I'm doing' ya proud, heck everyday I come home dead tired and unfortunately you're not here to talk to. The one person I have to talk to is my Heavenly Father and I just talk to him for 20 minutes every night talking about my day and my stresses, my blessing, all the miracles, etc. If I could do one thing in my mish, it would be talking to my Mom on those really hard days. 

Speaking of Prayers... Elder Bednar talked about prayers and faith. He said something that I have been chanting for years! WE DON'T NEED TO HAVE MEETINGS TO TALK ABOUT ALL THE PEOPLE WE NEED TO HELP IN THE WARD!!! For the love of Mike, we always pray for the people that didn't come to church so that they'll be able to come the next week, but NOBODY EVER DOES ANYTHING! He says a good prayer would be saying "Heavenly Father, here we are, in church, and we realize that a lot of people didn't come to church today. Help us to get out the door quickly so that we can go to these people's homes right after this prayer and check up on them to see how they are. We have a lot of faith that if we ACT and if we WORK then you will help them to come to church next week. We only need your help in one thing... help us make sure that we don't all go to the same person's house to see why they didn't come to church. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” 

I love the Apostles; I know they are men called of God and that they are special witnesses of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary and giving this message every single day to so many different people. I know my Redeemer lives; I know that He knows each one of us individually. I know that families can be forever, and I know that people can change their lives completely through the priesthood, with the true gospel of Jesus Christ! People can change for the better with good Christian beliefs, but a person will always have struggles and stains from their past sins because they have never received the fullness of the atonement in their lives. THIS IS THE TRUTH. I have no doubt that Jesus Christ guides and directs this church through a living Prophet and 12 apostles on the earth today! 

The good news is that our Haitiano investigator told us that he's ready to be baptized. It was a huge miracle, he literally explained perfectly what repentance is and he just wants to be clean and follow Christ! I love it! We also have a family we have been teaching, we thought they were the most put together people in this sector... yeah, well we passed by Tuesday and it turns out…they aren’t as together as we thought…'m not lying... they seemed so well put together. The wife wants to be baptized though and she LOVES THE CHURCH!

Love Ya All!

Elder Weaver

Week 59

 Mis Queridos Familiares y Amigos, 

Another week has passed by here in Villa Sur, or as Elder Cachari siempre dice (always says) "Villa Flyte" (flyte is a Chilean term that they use to describe crazy or out of touch). First and foremost I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST MOM IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  The 19th I was thinking about you! Can you believe that a year ago Presidente Doll let me make a video to send to you on your birthday while I was in the CCM? Crazy how time flies! I wasn't able to do that this year, but I was still thinking about you and all that you do for me! I LOVE YA A TON MOM!!! 

In other news, it's a bummer to hear about how Preston ended his wrestling season. That kid is such a fighter though! He's definitely a Weaver! He got beat because he literally lost consciousness out on the mat… I can only imagine the amount of pressure and pain he went through, but HE NEVER GAVE IN AND NEVER GAVE UP! That's the Weaver way, no pain no gain, and no mercy. The kid will be State Champ next year when I'm there to see him! What a stud!  He’s so freaking ripped too!!  So proud of that kid not only as an athlete, but his pure goodness as a person.  I love that kid!  

So this week another interesting thing happened. On Friday we went to an appointment with a group of Haitianos that we're teaching. They were sitting outside their house (because it's hotter than heck here) and were eating sandia, (watermelon) super tranquillo, enjoying the shade and sunshine. They invited us to sit down in a lawn chair with them to share "la palabra de Dios." (The Word of God) Suddenly a flyte came out of his house, the house right in front of the Haitianos. He started yelling at me and getting up in my face and saying SO MANY CUSS WORDS. Elder Cachari didn't understand a single thing he was saying because the cuss words are different here in Chile than they are in Bolivia, and flytes are super hard to understand because they have no education and they speak even faster than the typical Chileno. I was calm and started talking about Jesus Christ with him, he wasn't having any of it though and he was also super drugged out... to the point he was foaming at the mouth. He told me that if I didn't leave "his sector" right there and then that he was going to put a cap in my head or "da un palazo a mi cerebro." He threatened that he was going to grab his palo (stick) from his house. He went into his house and the next thing I know he came out with a huge freaking 2 by 8! He came running at me and I got up from my chair to defend myself. The coolest part is that one Haitiano got up first and totally defended me. The fylte didn't do anything to him, and he ended up putting his palo away. He kept screaming at me though and saying that he was "el diablo." (The Devil) Next thing we know he was outside watering his plants with a hose and I was looking at him and just knew he was going to mojarnos (get us wet). Sure enough he did, he totally drenched me with water and Elder Cachari too. Then kept screaming "he vivido aquí 20 años, yo y mi perra, yo y mi perra! Ésta es mi población!" (I have lived here 20 years, me and my dog, me and my dog. This is my area/home!) Of course he had cuss words mixed in there... he was totally drugged out though and it actually just made me laugh. We went into the Haitian hut to have the lesson to avoid any other problems... 

The only other thing I can say about this week is that I'm real tired. I can't lie, I think the one thing I will look forward to when I get home is being able to go to church and actually enjoy all the meetings. SUNDAYS ARE SO STRESSFUL ON THE MISSION! I have to worry about investigators going to church, menos actives going to church, then when I’m finally there…I end up giving talks/lessons because others just don’t show up. I know that God is the only one giving me strength, because honestly, no normal human being would put up with the stuff that goes down here in Villa Sur. Sometimes I just want to break down and cry because of the lack of any desire or understanding to be obedient to Gods laws, or because they don't want to get up in the morning to make it to church by 10AM. It just all kills me. The one thing that keeps me going is that I have converts like Osvaldo, Maycol, and Remy that are very active members and set an example to even those who have been members for many years in the church. It’s a miracle.

Speaking of Osvaldo... He had his cousin come over to his house last night to get a lesson from us. Not going to lie... it was super sad. Him and his kid who is 4 years old just live in poverty. He wants to change his life, but it's just so sad to see the way people live here in Ochagavía. Osvaldo just wants to save his whole family... he's such a stud. 

GOTTA GO! LOVE YA GUYS! HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!!! 

Elder Weaver