I KNOW I SAY THIS LIKE EVERY WEEK BUT MAN, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

HOLA HOLA!!!

Well Monday has come once again. Time really does fly here on the mission and it just keeps gaining speed which is scary. Another cambio is coming to a close, just one week left and we will know what the cambios are on Saturday. And I´ve been in Chile for almost six months now! Which means almost 8 months in the mission. I can´t even believe it, it feels like I was entering the MTC yesterday… Well that's enough of that now, I´ll tell you about my week. Once again it was a bitter-sweet week but this time mostly sweet, haha its never boring here in Chile.

On Tuesday, Wednesday, and half of Thursday it rained, which was kind of a bummer because when it's raining in the middle of summer people just don't come outside or open their doors to us. And all of our citas fell through both Tuesday and Wednesday so it was hard to work effectively. If it was just for the rain it wouldn't have been so hard been I also came down with strep throat so I wasn't really able to eat or talk very much for a while either. But it's not raining anymore now and the strep is improving so No worries :).

And it was ok because we had the baptism of the Margarita on Saturday! Yay! But because her schedule is complicated it had to be at 10 in the morning so besides us four missionaries, there were only six other members of the ward there. And none of her children family showed up, so that was a little hard for her even though she told us she was not surprised that they didn't show. Even though not many people showed, her best friend that introduced her to us and is a strong member of the church came and that seemed like it was enough for Margarita. So it was a small and short service but it went well. I was a little worried because she weighs like about 300 pounds (not even kidding) and my 5 foot 5 comp baptized her but it went fine and she didn't drown in the font because he was able to lift her back up haha.

So I was happy and content about the baptism but a little frustrated as well on Saturday night about the lack of support for the baptism, but mostly about how all of our best investigators were dying and it looked like we weren´t going to be able to bring anyone to church on Sunday. But we had a cita with a contact we had made last week at like 8 oclock so we went to that but weren't really that hopefully about it. The contact had been with a Mom who seemed slightly interested in the gospel but she told us her daughter might be more interested in hearing us so we set the cita (appointment) to meet with her and her daughter.

So when we got to the cita Saturday night, the daughter answered the door and told us that her mom was busy but that we could talk to her. So we gave her a little 5 minute run down of the restoration right there on the door step and she liked it and asked us if she could go to church with us because she always passes it in the street and has always wanted to go inside but was to embarrased to do so. At this point my jaw dropped because no one ever asks us if they can come to church with us. So we were pretty stoked, but when we got to the house Sunday morning to pick her up, we heard her arguing with her dad inside which made us worry. But like 10 minutes later she stormed out of the house and said let's go so we went. She was crying and it took a while to calm her down but I was very impressed that she wanted to go bad enough despite the disapproval of her father.

Church went well even though I was way nervous because I had to give a talk (my first talk in sacrament meeting in Chile) but it went well and the spirit helped me with what I needed to say. After church, when we were walking Wendy (the investigator) back to her house, she told us that she wanted to get baptized and to not worry about her Dad because their parents are divorced and her dad was just visiting from Santiago for the weekend. So we set a baptismal date for the 13th of March and we are going to her house to teach her more tomorrow.

It's moments like those that make you feel very small and cause you to really marvel at the perfection of the plan and power of God. Because we didn't really do anything, she was ready when we knocked on her door. Things like that make you feel really humble and even unworthy. Because after all of our work for the week, on Saturday night we were left without any progressing or new investigators. But the lord truly does lead us to those who are prepared. You just got to have faith and patience. It's really hard to maintain faith and to have patience, it's much easier said then done but I´m working on it and the Lord is helping me in what I lack. Haha I know I say this like every week but man I love being a missionary! Well I've got to go, but I love you guys and keep looking for those missionay moments back at home. You never know who is ready to hear the gospel.

Con amor, Élder Harper :)

p.s. good luck Dad and Baylor with Lacrosse this season!

And thank you very very much for the package. You guys are really too much it felt like Christmas all over again. So thanks very much for the package the house and the other missionaries in the house say thanks for the candy as well haha. Chao!