Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Aug 24th

Hola!

This week was pretty good, I am liking how things are going here in Maipu. Its basically the same thing as Armenia because its like 10 minutes away.. So its just different neighborhoods but basically the same thing. We have the same amount of members here and there are a lot of great members, so thats great. I am with Elder Gonzalez, he is from Mexico, he is big and tall and we get along pretty well. He looks to joke around and have fun but we work super hard, we are having a lot of success here finding people to teach, we are busy all the time running to appointments that we have. I love having a lot of people to teach that are progressing. We live in an apartment that is across the street from the church. It is a pretty nice apartment, its a double decker just like the last one, the zone leaders live above us. It is super big and kind of old, its hard to keep it clean and no one else really makes an effort to keep it clean so its just always a mess. Its fun to have the zone leaders above us. They are Elder Laiz from Buenos Aires Argentina, and Elder Soto from Peru. They are both cool. But I miss Elder Dana and Allred a ton!.. It was super hard for me to say goodbye to Armenia so fast after being there for so long, I dont get to say goodbye to any of the members and I have been missing it a lot this week. But this sunday it was District conference (the same thing as stake conference but for districts) so I got to see a lot of the members from Armenia there and a lot of them wrote me notes and were really said that I left. We had an investigator come to church on Sunday!! WOOOO! Her name is Guadelupe, she was  a reference from a member and SHE called US and asked us to come visit her. How strange is that?! But she is awesome, she is fighting against a lot of depression and she feels the need to join a church in her life, so we shared with her about the church and the restoration and the BOok of mormon, and its a lot of new stuff for her all at once but I think she is liking it all. She came to church and seemed to like it, so we are going to see how it goes this week teaching her. We have a few other progressing investigators but none that came to church this week, but we are hoping that they will progress more and come to church this week. We found 2 different people this week that are depressed in their lives and dont have the desires to keep living, and I really know that God sent us to them to give them hope. I felt like an instrument in the Lords hands when we talked to them about Gods love for them and the reasons why we are here on this earth.. And I really feel like we said to them what Jesus Christ would personally say to them if he were there to give them the motivation that they need to keep living. So those were some spiritual experiences that I will never forget. We are having a lot of success and I feel like it is because we are being exactly obedient. I dont think I have ever been so exactly obedient before on my mission and now I am seeing the blessing big time. People are coming up to US on the streets and are calling US so that we come visit them, instead of us calling them and us knocking their door. God surely is blessing us. I have a lot more motivation now.. A lot of the pressure and stress that I was feeling last week was all taken off my shoulders.. I am super grateful. 

Funny/scary dog experience!: There was a 19 year old boy this week named Juan José that came up to us that asked us if we could visit him at his house. So we set an appointment and we went over there later that day but he wasnt there. But, his dog was there, and his dog came bursting out of the house and almost attacked us, and we got out of there by inches. The next day, yesterday, we went and tried to visit him again and Juan was there outside of the alley way that leads to his house. So he invited us to come to his house to talk so we followed him, but we were super hesitant because of the dog that tried to attack us. But it was all good, he put his chairs out in the backyard and we sat down. He went inside for something, and while he was inside, his dog came out. And his huge mean dog started inching toward us.. growling and bearing his teeth.. and we were cornered. haha. We were literally in the corner of his little back yard and we had no where to run, and we yelled "Juan jose!! Juan jose!" but he didnt hear or something, I dont know what the heck he was doing in there but for like 5 minutes we were there in the corner as the dog came closer and closer.. and my big mexican companion was freaking out and I just kept telling him "easy.. easy.. dont move, dont move" haha. They were the longest most stressful 5 minutes of my life. Then, right before we were doomed to be mauled.. Juan Jose came out and yelled at the dog and it left. So we talked to Juan, we taught about the restoration, he has a lot of problems with drugs and stuff so we are going to see if he progresses or not, and we finished. And we walked out to the front and we waited for Juan to come because he went inside again and he was going to accompany us out of the alley to the street. And then I saw the dog come bursting out of the house again, and it looked in the back yard and didnt find us, and then it realized that we were out front in the alleyway, and came running at us. I pushed my companion behind me and said "its coming!!!!" and I was gone. haha. When it comes to dogs you only have to be faster than your companion. And we ran out of that alley way so fast but not fast enough, my companion turned around and tried the "I am bigger and scarier than you" technique and just threw his arms up and yelled as loud as it could "FUERA!!!" "OUT!!!" haha. and it worked, it got scared and we escaped. So that was an adrenaline rush, we almost got bit. 

The new zone is pretty cool, today for p day we had a zone activity where we played volleyball and ping pong in the church and a member made us choripan, which is like super good sausage on bread, and while we ate it we watched 17 miracles. It was way fun. I have pictures but my camera isnt working with this computer. Dang.

That was my week, things are going well! I had a lot of hard experiences but  a lot of spiritual experiences. But thats how it is, right? If you want to learn things in this life, or if you want to do something thats worth while, its going to be hard. Like my dad always says, all things that are worth while are hard. I hope that you are all doing great, thank you for your support and emails. Have a great week!

Elder Miles

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