SATURDAY AND SUNDAY WERE DEFINITELY PAYDAYS FOR ME AS A MISSIONARY

Hello family!!!!

Well it sounds like you guys had a great trip to Arizona even though it was a little short. I'm glad that you guys were able to go through the temple for the first time with Blake and see his farewell. Oh and good job Blake. I heard you did awesome on your farewell talk. I just love hearing about you cousins and friends that are getting out here to the mission field. I'm way stoked for you guys to join me in the front ranks of the army of the Lord and it's also cool that everyones getting called spanish speaking haha. No hay nada como ensñar el Evangelio de Cristo y además en español. Bakán!

Well I would have to say that we had a pretty dang good week this week. Actually the week itself was just like a normal week but this weekend was absolutely awesome. First on Wednesday we had a noche de hogar (family night) with the non member sister of one of the members here in Monte Águila. The sister loves us and loves when we come and visit and will even talk about the gospel with us but is stubborn and for some reason isn't here or there with baptism. So in the Noche de Hogar we watched the Joseph Smith movie (the one they show in Salt Lake but in spanish, a member gave me a copy) and she loved it, and I think even cried a little bit at the end. She said it answered a lot of her doubts and that she thinks it's true but that she's not ready for baptism. So she is progressing a little bit but very slowly so we will see how it goes.

On Tuesday we didn't work because we had district meeting in the morning and then entrevistas (interviews) in the afternoon. The entrevistas went well but were really short and the president didn't say anything about cambios. But like an hour ago I heard from a semi reliable source that it looks like I'm more than likely going. I have mixed feelings about that because I´d be leaving some good investigators that we could baptize behind but I also feel like it's time to go. But who knows. We will find out on Saturday night what's really going down with the cambios and of course, like always, I'm going to work like there are no cambios this next week.

And then on Saturday we had Irma's baptism!!! Her husband kept to his promise and didn't go to his house in the campo to work so Irma could get baptized. But it almost didn't happen. Elder Glover, our district leader, came down to give her the baptismal interview and it took like an hour and I was just sitting outside waiting. In the end it turned out that she had had an abortion 40 years ago but she still felt terrible about it and couldn't forgive herself. I think that was one of the reasons why she wanted to get baptized so bad. To wash that away. Anyways Glover called the president and talked to him for a while and in the end we got the green light to baptize her on Saturday. On Saturday Elder Glover baptized one of his investigators and I baptized Irma so we had a double baptismal service.=) The branch President and his counselors didn't show up so we had to direct the service. But despite that, we had a good turnout at the baptism and the people giving the talks showed up, so in the end it went just great. It felt great being back in the water again and knowing that I was a tool in the Lord's hands to help show this daughter of God the path to eternal life and help her get started on this path. I love baptisms =).

And then to end a great weekend, on Sunday we had 6 investigators in the chapel! It was awesome. I won't really talk to you about all of them yet until they start progressing more but one of them was a pretty funny story. On Thursday we were walking through the plaza and saw a Group of punk flaite looking kids lurking around and one of them was skate boarding. So we stopped to watch him for a little bit and then we started talking to him about skate boarding and eventually the church. He then asked us if he could go to church and what he had to do to be baptized, while all of his little buddies were cracking up in the backround. But it was cool, we went along with it, taught him, got his address, and then told him that we were going to go pick him up Sunday morning at 9 30 to go to church. My comp thought that he was completely full of it and just joking around to make his buddies laugh and I half agreed but some part of me thought he might be serious and told me to pick him up Sunday morning. What do you know when we drop by his house on Sunday and he is dreesed and ready to go to church haha. My companion could not believe it. So anyways we went to church and he really liked it and afterwards started asking questions about the requirements for baptism and going on a mission. Then after church we went to the missionaries house in Cabrero with the investigador (Kevin) so he could check out the skate ramp that the missionaries made there (that was part of the deal). When he finally went home he thanked us for everything and told us to pick him up for church the next week. He lives in Santiago and he's only down here visiting for a couple of weeks. This kid is already ready to accept the gospel. We told him to look up the missionaries and go to church in Santiago and he's going to give me his email before he leaves so I hope everything works out for him in the end. He's a great kid even though he looks like just another little punk on the outside.

Well to tell you the truth I could tell you some other stories about what happened Sunday but I'm just about out of time for this week. But yeah it was a good week and it ended great. Saturday and Sunday were definitely paydays for me as a missionary jaja. Well I got to go but as always I love you all and I will let you know about Pablo and about what's going on with my other investigators and the cambios next week. So until next Monday les quiero y cuidense mucho. Chau!!!!!

Con mucho cariño, Élder Harper =)