So there is a saying here in Chile that is "Walking more than a mormon" which is what you say to people who walk a lot hahaha. Good news though: This mormon won't be walking anymore because we got bikes again!!! I'm pretty happy, and we are just hoping that they dont get robbed again...

So on Wednesday this super awesome thing happened.  Its called the Census of Chile. What does this mean? That legally everybody HAS to be in their house and nobody is allowed to work or leave until after they get counted in the census. Which basically means that they cannot escape us when we pass by their houses and everyone answers because they think we might be the census people. It was great! We were able to contact a lot of people and find some old investigators and set a lot of appointments to visit them after. 

One thing that our president has been focusing on a lot recently is working with members. We have been striving to do it a lot more and we have been seeing a lot of good turn outs! This week we had 5 new investigators, all references from members and 4 came to church! It's awesome to see how much easier is is being a missionary in a good ward where the members do their part. 

So Saturday we had a BAPTISM!!! Joaquin was baptized, he is 10 years old and is the son of Natalia, a less active who we activated. He is the best and was so excited for his baptism and everything was going really well... until the morning of his baptism. That morning his grandma came to their house to "Invite them to go on a trip" which basically means she was trying to take Joaquin away so he wouldn't be baptized. Well he knew that, so he told her no and the grandma got really mad at Joaquin and Natalia. Basically she told them that if Joaquin got baptized they could forget about being part of the family and that they would never talk to them again. It was a very big test for Natalia because she is only 26 and has always been very close to her mom.  But she told us that she knows that the gospel is true and she feels so strongly that they need to keep strong in the church. They are such an amazing family and such great examples of keeping strong through (huge) trials. The baptism itself turned out great, the spirit was so strong and seeing Joaquin so happy made all the sacrifice worth it! 

Well love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Hermaña Wittwer

Hey everyone! This week has been full of lots of walking, a few fun service activities, and lots of good lessons. 

Last Monday we found some super awesome investigators. After the first lesson Nataly told us that she thinks we are an answer to her prayers and that she really wants help to have a strong family and raise her kids right. We are both super excited to keep teaching her and her son! The only problem is that she isn't married so we can't put a baptismal date with her... (have I ever expressed my frustration that NOBODY gets married in Chile? It's the worst!!!) 

So remember Jaime? He is our investigator who wants to stop smoking before getting married and then baptized. He got a blessing a few weeks ago to help him with that and since then we have called im every day to see how he is doing. And a really cool thing started to happen. Jaime also suffers from some major back pain but ever since he's been trying to stop smoking it has started to go away. It's almost scary how exact it is, but every day he smokes it hurts him and every day he doesn't smoke it is completely fine. He basically said to us "yeah, I think God is trying to tell me something..." He is so great and making so much progress and CAME TO CHURCH this week!!! We are now going to try to work on him getting married so he can be baptized :)

For Easter this year I decided to study the entire week about Jesus Christ. So in my personal studies I looked up every scripture there is under the heading "Jesucristo" and I read The Living Christ and a few other talks about Him. It was a great experience and I was able to learn a lot and feel the spirit. Its amazing, every time I study about Christ I feel so grateful for what He did for me and I am able to realize how truly important it is to share this knowledge with other people. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and its for that that I am a missionary. It's hard work and a LOT of people reject you, but the joy of seeing just one person come to the truth and change their life is worth every single sacrifice. 

Hermaña Wittwer

So this week was a little weird because I had VERY little time to work in my sector on account of interchanges with other missionaries, conferences, and interviews with our mission president, and general conference. But while there was little time, we made the most of it! Here is the update on our progressing investigators:

Solange and Jaime: Solange is great and is in Mosiah in the book of mormon and wants to get baptized BUT her and Jaime aren't married so she can't... however we started teaching Jaime and he is really great and also has desires to get baptized BUT he is smoking and doesn't want to get married until he quits smoking... so we are working on that! This week he asked for a priesthood blessing to stop smoking and it was a pretty spiritual moment when he received it.

Olga and Edgar: They are from Colombia and have been receiving missionaries for a while. They are so great they are basically already members BUT also not married. The difference is that they want to get married soooooooooooooooooo bad but they can't because of problems with their visas in Chile... Pray for them, we are hoping for a miracle!

Jose Canales: Jose is a very interesting investigator. He has received all the lessons and goes to church almost every week and wants to be baptized BUT he doesnt want to live the word of wisdom. We are going to try to teach him a little more about obedience and help him have more desire to live the gospel principles. 

Joaquin: Joaquin is 10 and is the son of a less active member we found contacting (funny thing, you find a LOT of less active members here contacting). They started going to church and he wants to be baptized, his only desafio of that he is 10 haha. We have to strive to teach lessons in really simple, fun ways so he pays attention. It's fun to have to look for creative ways to teach him!

Anyways other than that we have a lot of new people and are looking for more. Hopefully with more time in our sector this week we will be able to find some more! 

Hermaña Wittwer