A Vision In White

This weekend was pretty awesome! We had a ton of baptisms on Saturday. The services was beautiful but something happened that no one expected but that we all should have expected. I do not know how we thought that we were not going to face any problems in the baptism, baptizing so many. 

We had the baptism font all filled almost up to the tip top perfect. We started with all of the talks, prayer, and songs and then when we went to do the baptisms - there was nothing.......no water.....it was all gone. No one understood. Everything was double checked too just so something like that wouldnt happen. But it did. 

The font usually takes up to 2 and a half hours to fill up......so there we were with a bunch of people waiting to be baptized and their families waiting to see them be baptized......

You would never have guessed what we did next. We got a hold of a fire hose and blasted the font with water from the fire hose.......haha it was so stinkin funny. 

But instead of waiting 2 and a half hours more we only had to wait about 30 minutes.....everyone was pretty chill though. Our Mission Leader is awesome and was saying stuff like dont count the victory until they are in the water!!! It was a trial, but we should have known that Satan was going to throw something at us. 

It was pretty cool because Gerald the convert who was baptized just in October was a witness for the baptism :) 

I love Collao. We are going to be in a trio with another Gringa now. Her name is Hermana Godown. It will be my second trio but I am excited for more hands in Collao. It looks like we are going to be doing lots of divisions. Oh and there was another investigator in church with a baptism date. She has been coming to church for a good while and will be for sure getting baptized the 26th of Dec. 

It was a bit painful inviting people to be baptized this week for dates that I wont be there. Just kind of like a knot in the throat. But I am just as happy to leave a bunch a seeds for those who follow. The harvest is ready!

There will be lots of White on Saturday!

Cristhofer is doing awesome! He dropped his girlfriend that he had had for 4 years and coffee in the same night. He even gave her his coffee to as a goodbye gift. She was not helping him keep the commandments and he prayed about it, and gave her the boot. It was pretty dang dramatic though. I got a few nasty phone calls from her. But we just ended it inviting her to church.

He understands the Book of Mormon so well! It is insane. The first part of our lessons, he teaches us  what
he learned in the Book of Mormon and then the 2nd half we teach a new principle. He always tells us how we have to endure to the end. And he studies the missionary hand book! He is always checking on us to make sure we are keeping the rules. He wants to go on a mission. And he is always making Mormon jokes as he learns the church language. It sounds so easy, but it was a painful change for him. He says he can not deny it after all of the signs he has had that it is true. He says he does not want to end up like Laman and Lemuel.  He told us that the best thing we could have taught him was the influence of the spirit and who is his real foundation, Christ. That is what has really helped him to make it through his trials. Oh and on top of everything…..he quit his job. His boss was using some bad language and he said he was not going to put up with it. 

Sorry that is my slobby update for this
week. We traveled with a family to Chillan which is way far from our sector so there was kind of a time crunch.


Love,
Hermana Lance

6 Souls in Church!!!

(This post took place the week before the previous post!!!!)  

We had 6 investigators in church on Sunday with baptism dates programmed! Not only that but Chile finally is off of strike and is marring people! They started today! :) Mariela and Luis will get married on the 12th and we are invited :) They have to wait however to be baptized on the 28th because this weekend is stake conference and then the next weekend our ward has a trip to the temple. The same thing happened with Claudio's baptism but they are both all very committed to get to the 28th :) 

Okay before I get to the other investigators I have to brag about Geraldcito the convert from Hermana Parkin and I. HE IS GOING TO THE TEMPLE. He had beaten us to it. We were having a lesson in the church Friday night and a member from the Bishopric came in and started giving him more details about the trip and we were so surprised and happy and he told us he was the first one to sign his name up on the list to go. 

Okay so the other 3 investigators that came to church are:

Andrea: 18 years old single mom

Cristhofer: (yes that is how you spell his name) 24 years old 

Roldolfo: 23 years old

They are all pretty dang young but they are all way awesome. I wish I could say we did something way cool to find Cristhofer but we did not. He actually contacted us. We were just being diligent and obedient. We were following our plans and were we were suppose to be at the hour. I was actually doing a mini exchange with a missionary in her training still and we were contacting a guy when Cristhofer came up to us. He asked if we were Mormon missionaries and we told him yes and he asked if we could talk to him after we finished with the other guy. So after we finished talking to this guy who wanted nothing to do with us we went looking for Cristhofer and we could not find him I even asked my comp just to be sure that she saw him too. But then he got out of his car and waved us over.....a bit creepy. Plus he had a skull on his shirt and he was pretty dirty. I kept asking him comp how she was feeling to see if she had a bad impression about going and talking to him. 

We went and he had just finished working and that is why he was so dirty. He told us that his friend (who was waiting for him in the car) and him were new in town and that they are catolica but that were not happy there and that they were always interested in what we share. 

So here is the cool part. During the day I had been making calls and setting up appointments and we had a productive activity set for every hour except for 6 o clock. So every contact I was trying so hard to commit someone to having us over at 6 o clock and no one would accept. And it is a good thing they didn't because Cristhofer asked us if we could come over around 6 to visit them. 

We had the whole missionary movie of when two elders in Russia got kidnapped playing in our head but nahhh nothing like that. 
He accepted baptism a week ago but did not come to church because he said that he needed to work.....he is his own boss though so he can control that. Also he did not read or say his prayer that we committed him to do. We we met up with him the 2nd time and checked to see if he completed with his commitments and when he told us that he hadnt we got on to him pretty hard. And he even said that he knows that is why his day was horrible in work because he chose not to go to church. But the next time we met with him and checked his commitments he completed them AND MORE. And he was so excited to tell us too. We called him on Saturday to see how he was doing for church the next day and he said there was no way he was going to work because he was so blessed during the week for doing his reading that he was not going to risk any more blessings. He asked us to come visit his friend. Which is Roldolfo. He told us that he is going to bring all of his friends to church. 

This is a fruit of the spirit. Wanting to share the gospel with others. 

There is so much more great things to say about them all but time has run out like always.....chauito!

We had a BODA!!!!!!

(This post happened a week after the following post!!!!)

Mariela and Luis got married. They got married at 9:30am Thursday morning. We were invited and it was so great to be able to be there for them on this great day. They invited us all out to lunch afterwards where they invited all of their non member family members to their baptism on the 28th. I was so stinkin happy I can not even explain it. I woke up so excited and could not stop smiling for even a second. I had sweaty palms during the whole ceramony. They were so happy. Of course it was nothing compared to a temple sealing but they already know that that is where they will be this time next year. 

So that definitely wins the most exciting news for the week. I know I have always been a bit bummed for having all of my sectors being so stinkin close to one another and not seeing much of Chile. But it has been a huge blessings. I see at least one person from an old sector if not every day, every other day. And being the neighbor to Nonguen and living with the Sisters there. They are always bringing me goodies and cards from the members there to pass on to me.

I am not blind to the time I have left in the mission. I know it is ending quicker than I think and usually towards the end of the mission everyone starts to measure how well did they do....did they do enough....number wise....talent wise. But I have found that there is one question that really rises above the rest. 

How well did I love? Did I leave the world any better than it was before?

These are the questions I like to ponder. And I invite you all to ponder daily. They invite us and drive us to be better disciples of Christ. Something that will never have a time limit....you can not count down the days to the end of this glorious title.

Les quiero harto,

Hermana Lance

Finish Strong

So they sent me off to this capacitacion of the mission with all the missionaries who are finishing soon. It use to be called Trunky Training but now it is called Finish Strong. It is suppose to help all the missionaries that are finishing to talk about their fears and concerns and not with their companions who are no where near finishing the mission at times. It was more interesting for me to hear the comments of other missionaries. 

To me it all has to do with enduring to the end. It is not just making it to the end but doing it well. No one starts anything to just start something. A race, a project...nothing. I did not come on a mission to start one but to complete one. No one ever really remembers how you started but they remember how you finished. 

President talked about something that really caught my attention. There are only two real questions we have to face...will I finish or will I fail. There isn't too much in between. 

This week I had been studying a lot about Christ's final hours. He was tempted. But he resisted. A lot of missionaries finishing seem to find more temptations with obedience. They have been doing the same thing for so long and a change in the schedule they tend to look for. But just like Christ we have to resist. 

Also, Chirst never feared death. Why not? Death to him was only a requirement for resurrection and to return to the Father from whom He had come. Something beyond what he had before possessed. This is what gave Him power to lay down His life voluntarily. 

From my Finish Strong I basically came out with the impression of the importance of setting goals for after the mission while still in the mission. The spirit we are promised as missionaries is so strong and it is important to take advantage of it for all of the hardships and choices that will soon come after the mission. 

Have an awesome week. I love you all! 

Hermana Lance