Howdy Friends and Family,
This week has been one of the longest weeks of my mission. The hard part is that it's not going to get any less stressful. I have officially killed off my second comp in the mission, Elder Johnson will be in his house tomorrow, and I'll be here in Cerrillos with Elder Pomar. The worst part is that Elder Pomar will be doing all of his go-homer stuff this change as well even though he goes home August 9th. The reason this stinks is because go-homer stuff throws everyone off their groove and off their routine. This last week I was almost always on divisions with another ZL's who's comp is going home and we can never just do the whole missionary routine. Another thing that is driving me nuts is that our pension is an absolute mess and we got even more stuff because Elder Johnson's just left with us. Our pension has never been big enough for 3 comps, so being in a trio was HORRIBLE only in the sense of living in a clean pension. If anyone knows me I can’t stand living in a mess of any kind. The good news is that we were able to enter into whatever house we wanted for about 2 weeks… just gotta look at the positive side of things.
The last Sunday of Elder Johnson was pretty dang memorable because we had a whopping 11 investigators that came to church! I've never had more than 8 in the chapel my whole mission but we had 11! We're hoping that out of those 11 we can see some of them enter the waters of baptisms. They all have their challenges that they need to work through. But it was cool to see them all flood into the chapel.
I had the most spiritual lesson of my mission this week as well. We're teaching a Boliviano named Rolando and he has had a really, really, really rough life. He told me his story and it all started when he was abandoned as a baby by his real Mom, then he was put under a mattress and left to die as a baby, and then someone found him and basically rescued him, and then he was adopted, and then his uncle sexually abused him as a 5 year old... I’m telling you it was hard for me to keep back the tears. He's in Chile trying to pay off a debt that he owes in Bolivia and he said he's been in search for God since he was 5 because of everything he's been through. He let us pass by a few weeks ago and that's where he basically broke down and cried and told us everything. He said that in all his years with his other church he never told anyone anything that had happened to him as a child, but for some reason that day he felt that he should tell his story... to complete strangers and Mormon missionaries no less. He's been listening to us ever since. He's still hard to crack completely because he's got some ideas deeply ingrained into him, but he came to church, and he's loving the Book of Mormon. It's going to be a process, but I’m confident he will recognize the truth and enter into life saving eternal covenants. We are extremely blessed as a family, I am extremely blessed as a person, and I am so grateful for everything that Heavenly Father has given me in my life. I've have had it easy.
Elder Johnson was an awesome comp and he went out fighting. He'll be at BYU and he'll be someone I want to meet up with after the mish without a doubt, really great guy. It just sucks to kill comps...
President Barreiros is in his last cambio. He will be going home July 1. The mission is in absolute chaos because about 30 missionaries go home with President. We aren't getting 30 new missionaries and a lot of sectors are getting closed. The pressure is really on all of us to keep the animo up and to not let the mission get trunky with President and all the other 15 ZL's that are going home with him. He had a special meeting with all of us as ZL's and AP's this morning to basically say, "This is it, let's go and take out the trash. President Woodward deserves a good mission and we're going to leave him with a good mission. The young ZL's, I need you guys to step up your game. The old ZL's that go home with me... need you guys to go out fighting." It got us all pumped, but at the same time you can feel the stress and the pressure that's on everyone.
It's an exciting time to be a missionary in the Santiago Oeste Misión but it's insane at the same time…ALL THE HERMANAS FROM MY GROUP ARE GOING HOME AND ALL MY OLD FRIENDS THAT I LOOKED UP TO AS LEADERS ARE GOING HOME AS WELL!!!
I love all of you, and would appreciate the prayers! ENJOY SUMMER BREAK! I’ll be here enjoying in the cold Chileno winter!
ELDER WEAVER
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