GOD LIVES AND HE WORKS MIRACLES IN PEOPLE'S LIVES, SOMETIMES WITH THE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LEAST EXPECT

Hey hey hey familey!!!

Well another cambio come and gone, chau cambio number 6. This cambio was literally two weeks longer than the last one but somehow it still went faster than the last one. Anyways, I´ll start with the cambios and how my week went.

I am staying and my companion is going to Cabrero. Yes, he is being switched from Monte to five minutes down the road to Cabrero and of course, will still be in the same branch haha. We couldn't believe it! Also, both of the gringos, Elder Elder and Elder Glover, are leaving Cabrero and some other missionary is coming from outside to be
Leiva´s comp. It's kind of weird because neither of them know the sector yet but I guess the President knows what he's doing. So I'm staying in Monte and will be finishing the training of a new gringo missionary, Élder Hickman. As if that wasn't a Challenge enough, President decided it would be a good idea to make me a district leader my second cambio as comp mayor! I guess that's what happens when half the mission has less than a year out here. President has to subir (uhm..bump up) new missionaries as leaders if they are ready or not. I really don't feel ready at all to be district leader and I'm kind of freaking out a bit about it and am really nervous but if the President thinks I can do it, so does the Lord. And if the Lord thinks I can do it, then I guess whether I think I´m ready or not, it doesnt matter. I just have do go out there and do it. And even more, my comp isn't going to know very much Spanish at all so it looks like I´ll be having to do most of the contacting and teaching myself. This next cambio is not going to be easy but I´m sure it will be a good learning experience. I just hope I don't blow it as a district leader. So I will be doing a lot of praying and fasting and working my butt off this next week and this next cambio jaja.

Well anyways back to my week. On Tuesday we didn't get much work done because after district meeting in Los Ángeles, we went to visit Maria (the girl I baptized with Sanabria) in the hospital in LA. She is having heart problems and is going to have surgery this next week. When we visited her she was doing fine and the doctors said the surgery should go well and that it's not life threatening or anything. We are just keeping her in our prayers that everything goes well and that she will be able to stay Strong. She also had her copy of the Book of Mormon in the hospital with her so that made us feel better. That took most of the day because they made us wait in the waiting room for like two hours before we could see her but it was definitely worth it.

After Tuesday the week wasn't all that great but Sunday went well and we did see a Miracle or two happen, which made the week really good in the end. The Miracle that happened is kind of a long story but I'll give you the short version of it. It started like five weeks ago when we met this little girl named Karina (shes 17 but looks like shes 14) in the street with one of our investigators. So we talked to her and told her she should go to church with the investigator. She told us that she was Protestant and that she went to church three times a week and would never change churches but that she would come to ours if we went to hers. We told her maybe and kind of just forgot about her because it didn't really look like she showed potential to progress at all. But for a few weeks after, we kept running into her and talking to her in the street and from talking to her we found out that she was pretty hard core in her church and she told us that her pastor healed her and all this stuff and even though she was cool we didn't pay much attention to her because with how devoted she was to her church we thought there was just no way.

Anyways, long story short, we kept running into her in the street and she asked for our phone number and pamphlets to read about the church and stuff and in the end she called us a couple of weeks ago to tell us that she knew that we weren't going to go with her to her church but that she still wanted to come with us. Elder Leiva thought that she just had a crush on me and that's why she wanted to go but in the end he was wrong. Anyways, she went to church and she liked it and afterwards she said that she still didn't really believe it but she wanted to learn more. So last week we taught her the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon and challenged her to read and pray to know the truth and she said she would. She was kind of skeptical and kept going off about her church during the lesson so we weren't like really excited about it or anything but we had hope that she could change. I just thouht that if there was any way she was going to get baptized that it would be a very slow and long process.

Anyways, on Saturday we met with her again and she said that she had read and prayed but wasn't really sure if she had an answer yet. She said she thought that she had her answer but that she wanted to think about it more first because of how hard it would be for her to change. She was raised all her life in her church and was devouted to it. Like one of the most devouted Protestants I´ve met here in Chile. She sang and played guitar in her church and participated in all the activities ... the whole nine yards, and her mom is hardcore in their church too and hates Mormons so she told us she had a lot of thinking to do. Yesterday she came to church on her own and was making friends with a bunch of members and stuff, which was awesome, and then after church she told us she had her answer. She said that she had a dream where she saw two churches and loved them both but knew that she had to make a decision between the two. She then said that she didn't remember the rest of the dream except that in the end my companion, Elder Leiva, baptized her.

So she said that she wanted to get baptized and all that she had to do was break the news to her mom. This whole time we had been teaching her on park benches and she had been sneaking around so her mom had no clue. We were way stoked but a little nervous about her getting permission from her mom. Anyways, she called us this morning a couple of hours ago and said that she had a nice long talk with her Mom and she got the green Light to get baptized. So we set a fecha and if all goes well she will be getting baptized on the fifth of June and even though Elder Leiva got cambio´d he's just in Cabrero so he is going to be baptizing her. It's crazy when things like that happen. It makes me love being a missionary. Even though the week as a whole wasn't that great, Sunday and this morning made it all good =). Pablo is still good and went to church but his Schedule is so busy we couldn't teach him last week or the week before so we really need to revive his progress this week. Well that's all I got for you today folks. God lives and he Works miracles in peoples lives, sometimes with the people that you would least expect. Ok, well until next week, got to go but I love you all. Chauz!!!

Con cariño, Élder Harper =)