Coquimbo Letter #8

Date: January 03, 2011
Area: Coquimbo, Chile
Companion: Elder Haney
 

Caleb’s Coquimbo #8
January 3, 2011

¡Feliz Año Nuevo Todos!

I´m in the second year of my mission now! Haha. I´ll start off with what we did for New Years. At about 8:00 at night, we went to the church and help set up some more for a dinner that they were having. So Elder Haney and I, with Elders Stephen and Hughes (from Llano, in our branch) got permission to join in the dinner. it started at 10:00 and had a good amount of people. The salad was lettuce with artichoke and tuna with shrimp on top, then the main course was chicken with chop suey and rice and potatoes, then good ol´fruit cocktail and cream to finish it off. Then we all cleared the cultural hall of the tables and chairs and watched the fireworks in Valparaiso on a projector at midnight. Then the district had a dance afterwards and us elders left. We stayed at the zone leaders pension again. Chileans are crazy on New Years! There were random fires on the streets and fires on the hill under the cross and loud music playing out of every other house. We fell asleep at about 1:00, then when we woke up in the morning at 7:00, the music was still going! Crazy! Then we walked to the church to do weekly planning and the streets were basically empty and there were still a few house with music going and only a couple drunk guys passed out in the sidewalks. Then for lunch on the 1st, we had it at Alexis´ house (1st counselor who speaks English because he served in the Philippines) and I had an assortment of tacos; I made fish with palta (basically guacamole), fish with beef, beef, and chicken with beef. It was a delicious lunch!

Alright, now for some spiritual experiences that I had. This week taught Hugo and Patricia, a family we found last week and the husband (Hugo) isn´t a member. After talking with him, we found out that he goes with her to church when they go, and he even went to church when he was out of town because he knew that she would go! So we taught them and set a baptismal date for the 29th, which happened to be his birthday! Then the next lesson, she came out with a picture of them two in front of the Santiago temple. I got hit with an impression "The next time they go there, they will be in white and going through", and I set it as a goal for me, to get him baptized then through the temple so the family can be sealed. He read the assignment we gave him and some questions which we were able to answer, and then after watching "Together Forever" he was basically begging for scriptures about the Plan of Salvation. We are teaching them tonight, so we´ll see how his reading went!

Ignacio, the young man we´ve been teaching read and like what he read! Then when we watched The Restoration, his eyes teared up a little bit and he said that he believes that it truly happened. And we set a baptismal date for the 22nd! His only doubt is the church that he goes to now and what the pastor says about us. But, when he truly prays about what we are teaching him, he will receive an answer of his own and not need to got to anyone for an answer, but have his own knowledge.

On another note, we taught Tomas and Nevenka this week and tried to set a Baptismal date with her. She said she has a desire to. But they need to get married first! So when we tried to set a date for baptism and for them to take out a date to get married, Tomas said "There´s another way you can get baptized, move out!" trying to joke, but she didn´t take it that way and started to cry! So, we weren’t able to set a date. But we know that when we are finally able to bring a young member couple with us to teach, they will be able to testify about how living the gospel has helped their relationship and Tomas will finally want to get married (she already has the desire to).

Well, that was the highlight of my week. I hope everyone enjoyed New Years, sounds like in Colorado it was a white one! Here, it was a hot one! Love and miss you all! Make this New Year better than the last!

Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Whittle