I'M LEAVING WITH A PEACE THAT I POURED OUT MY HEART, SOUL, TESTIMONY AND BLOOD : ) FOR THE PEOPLE OF MONTE AGUILA.

Querida familia y amigos,

HAPPY LATE 4th OF JULY!!!! My fourth of July was crazy but also awesome! But I´ll tell you about it later in the email. First I just want to say congratulations Sam!!! That's so awesome that you're baptized now; Im really proud of you. And it sounds like you guys had a good week with Grandma and the Dixsons at home and an awesome fourth. That's really awesome that Dad and Bay got to go up to Parowan to be in the parade with Grandpa. I'm sure that was an awesome experience and it sounds like they loved it. Especially Grandpa I imagine. It also sounds like Abbie is having an awesome time and working her tail off over in Peru. I'm so excited that she's having this amazing experience and more than anything the opportunity to serve. She´s seeing a little bit of how the rest of the world lives and it is a very humbling, learning and enriching experience to be able to help them out and serve them. I´m sure that she´ll never forget the experience that she's having there. Well as far as my week went, it was pretty crazy but also very good. By the way, so you know, excuse my spelling because there is no English spell check and Spanish has completely destroyed my spelling and grammar in English. But anyways here it goes.

The World cup craze is officially over here in Chile. Everyone is still watching it but the energy and the excitement are gone. Chile lost in the second round to Brasil. I mean it was expected but it was still a very sad day for Chile last week when it happened because futbol is everything here. But while it was still going on I was really impressed with the feelings of pride and patriotic unity that it brought out in the Chilenos. It's finally over for the Chilenos which kills that conversation starter for when we are out contacting jaja.

On Thursday us and the Cabrero missionaries went down to the hospital in Los Ángeles to donate blood for the hermano who is dying of stomach cancer (and whose house burned down). He is actually in surgery right now but he needed blood donors before the operation so we volunteered. It took us like all day because we had to wait two and a half hours to do it down there but it was worth it. Now I can say that 

I´ve given everything, even spilled blood for the people here =) half a liter of blood to be exact haha. The only thing that went weird is that they told us that we had to fast before going in so none of us ate breakfast. Yes, they were wrong and the doctors told us that we were supposed to eat a good breakfast before going in. It wasn't a big deal but all of us were very dizzy and weak in the end jaja. Then afterwards we went up to visit the hermano who had just been told by his wife that they lost their house. They were both hugging and crying softly together when we got up to his room but he was cheered up and very grateful to hear the news about our blood donation. Then I told him that after the operation and transfusion, his hair was going to turn blonde, his skin white, his eyes blue, and that he would speak in a gringo accent after receiving our blood. Jaja. He really seemed to enjoy that. Then we said a prayer together and left. The family is being taken care of well and the city is supposed to start constructing a new house for them this week so we will see how that goes. I'm glad I was able to help out and give my blood for them. By the way, for future reference what's my blood type mom? Jaja.

Well it rained again this week for a few days but then it stopped again. It's winter, what can I expect. Also during the week a lot of our investigators kind of stopped progressing but things went well with Filomena and Carolina. Carolina stopped drinking, smoking, and taking coffee. She even went to a party with her friends and refused drink and cigarrettes despite the teasing from her friends. Then the zone leaders came to do their baptismal interviews on Saturday and they passed!!! Also, on Saturday morning we got our cambios. Hickman is staying in Monte Águila and I´m leaving. They are sending me to a little pueblo called Santa Juana, which is like 45 minutes or so south of Concepción and right on the river Bío Bío. I´m stoked to be going to another pueblo and to be staying in the north for the rest of winter instead of going to Temuco but it's sad leaving Monte Águila. I know its my time to leave and I feel ready to leave but it's still hard. There are a lot of people that I really care about here and a lot of people who care about me. A lot of people cried when they found out that I´m leaving, including the Hna Iglesias, Carolina, Raquel, and Viqui (the sister of Raquel). So Last night and today I´ve been doing the despedidas, saying good bye to everyone. I don't know how I´m going to finish doing that and packing tonight but where there´s a will there's a way jaja.

Despite yesterday being sad about me leaving, it was also an extremely happy Fourth of July. Despite my doubts, my investigators and God proved me wrong. Filomena and Carolina were both baptized yesterday!!! Wahoooo!!!! Who needs fireworks when you´ve got two baptisms! Jaja. Although the baptismal service was a little difficult, it went well and everyone felt good in the end. We waited an hour after church ended to do it because they didn't want very many people to be there and it was definitely an interesting baptism. Carolina was absolutely terrified and almost didn't go through with it. She had a near drowning experience as a child and as a result of that, is absolutely terrified of water. Just looking at a pool or body of water makes her scared and she was absolutely frozen by fear at just the thought of being dunked under the water. So Filomena went first and Hickman baptized her. The first time he said the prayer, I thought he did it fine but at the end when she came up out of the water, one of the witnesses stopped him and told him he had to do it without pausing or stuttering. That put him very nervous and he ended up saying the prayer another 10 times or so before he got it down perfectly and baptized her. To give Hickman credit, she did have a long confusing name and of course he was nervous because it was his first time baptizing. In the end, he did good and Filomena looked content while her sister was still just about dying of fear. It freaked her out that Filomena had to go under the water twice.

When it came to Carolina's turn, she looked at me and said ¨No.. I can't do it¨. Elder Leiva and I spent 5 minutes talking to her trying to convince her but it was hopeless. She was scared to death. We finally suggested that we all kneel down and pray together. I offered the prayer. During it I expressed thanks to our Heavenly Father for her desires to start in the path of righteousness and be baptized for the remission of sins and I asked him to bless her with calmness, tranquility and strength to follow the example of Jesús, conquer her fears, and be baptized. That helped her enough to get her to and into the font but she insisted that Elder Hickman, who is a life guard, be in the font as well, even though I would be doing the ordinance. It took like ten minutes to get her all the way in and she was clinging to both me and Hickman the whole time. Finally we got in position and she started to say once again that she couldn't do it. But then Elder Leiva said some comforting words to her that were perfect for her to hear and then she looked up at her son who was standing at the glass calmly watching her. Her kid Axel is 4 years old and is more ADD then almost any kid I know. During church and Filomena's baptism he was freaking out the whole time but at that moment for once he was calm and quietly watching us at the glass. I think that helped her a lot because she then closed her eyes and said she was ready. So I said the prayer and dunked her deep to make sure we wouldn't have to do any repeats. She came up spluterring and almost crying but when she finally realizad she wasn't drowning, she starting laughing and smiling and couldn't believe that she did it. Even though it was kind of difficult, it was an awesome baptism experience and she and Filo felt great for getting baptized and Caro for conquering her fears as well.

Well Im just about out of time at the computer and I have to go finish saying goodbye. I still need to go see Carolina and Filomena and the family Iglesias. I love Monte Águila and the people here so much and even though it's hard to say good bye, I´m leaving with a peace that I poured out my heart, soul, testimony, and blood :) for the people here of Monte Águila. Maybe I wasn't a perfect missionary here and maybe I could have worked harder and done more but at least I was able to help change some lives and leave some sort of impact as small as it may be here in Eagle Mountain.

con mucho cariño, Élder Harper =)