Hola y muchos saludos a todos!!!
Well another week has come and passed. Another week that was way short but at the same time sooo long. Leaving Monte Águila was really hard and kind of stressful jaja. After email, we ran around the whole town for the rest of the day saying goodbyes to members and converts and so I didn’t get all of my packing done until way late. But it was worth it. The day of the cambios started off a bit gloomy as it was raining and it continued to rain the whole day. Finally, a long morning and a few bus rides my new comp and I get to Santa Juana and me and my luggage are completely soaked. And there began a slightly hard week. But first off my companion is Élder Villegas from Ecuador. He´s really tiny and looks like he´s 18 years old but he´s actually 25. He has about six months in the mission and has a lot of desires to work and baptize and is a really good guy. As far as Santa Juana goes, it's a small pueblo but to me, coming from Monte Águila, it doesn’t seem so small jaja.
It has a lot of potential and everything but right now it is stone cold dead so we are going to revive it this cambio. While talking to Elder Villegas on the bus ride from Conce to Santa Juana, I came to find that there weren´t any investigators. They hadn’t brought anyone to church in over a month, and they haven’t baptized since 2009 (so for at least 7 months). Yeah, that was a hard pill to swallow but it's not important because things are going to change here in Santa Juana starting now. So anyways, since there are no investigators, after we ate lunch and I unpacked, on Tuesday we spent the day out knocking doors in the rain until like 8 pm and then we spent the rest of the evening introducing me to some members. Wednesday we had district meeting in San Pedro (at the chapel were I slept for a few nights after the earthquake) and I found out that it's not just my sector, but pretty much my whole district is dead. Oh, and Elder Leiva is still in my district haha. He left from Cabrero to San Pedro to be in my district again. Anyways including my sector, there are 3 other sectors in my district (that’s huge!!!) and not one of them had investigators in church the last week and only one of them baptized the last cambio. Actually only one of them at the moment has any investigators at all to speak of. That’s a huge difference from my last district where every sector was baptizing. So we set some goals and made some commitments to change some things to resurrect our sectors and the district.
After the district meeting we had a pretty tough day Wednesday. It rained the entire day and we spent the entire day, afternoon, and evening on the streets knocking doors. We found a few that were somewhat receptive but we didn’t enter a single house the entire day. And even though we were wearing our rain gear we took it to and beyond the limits. When we finally got home at like 9 45 pm, we were soaked from head to toe and freezing cold. Even though it was somewhat miserable and not very fruitful we were at least satisfied from a good hard days work. I had never knocked so many doors in one day or gotten so wet before in my whole time here in Chile. Hey those are some of the experiences that you just gotta have in the mission =).
On Thursday the rain finally stopped and the rest of the week went by pretty much the same. Looking for people anyway we can. Knocking doors, talking in the street, looking up innactives and past investigators, and asking references from members. We didn’t find anybody amazing but we did get to enter some houses and teach a few lessons and we have some follow up appointments for this coming week so now at least we have some people to work with while we keep up the search for those that God has prepared here in Santa Juana. And even though my comp had a hard time here last cambio with a companion who was disanimated and didn’t want to work, he's excited and ready to work this cambio and really wants to baptize before he leaves Santa Juana, so we are going to do our best to end the drought here this cambio.
Unfortunately even though we worked like dogs the last week we weren’t able to get anyone to church on Sunday. But that’s ok because now we have a few people and some good references so we will be sure to bring people to the chapel this coming week. The rama here is tiny and there are no priesthood to speak of. The only active priesthood holders are the branch president, the branch mission leader, two old guys, and one other guy who goes like every other week. Then there is one girl youth and one boy youth. The rest of the branch is relief society and young adult girls jaja. Actually its not just the branch but the whole town is full of women. My comp said that there are like 4 or 5 women for every guy who lives here in Santa Juana. Maybe that’s why Im the first gringo missionary to be here for over a year jaja. So anyways there were only 25 people in the house here that they call a chapel on Sunday and I had to bless the sacrament, present myself, give a talk, and say the closing prayer. I just love little towns =). Well even though I've only heard bad things from other missionaries about this place and that it's been dead for a while, I'm doing my best to not let that affect me or my animo. My comp and I are stoked to be here and are pumped with the goal to be the ones to end the drought and quench the thirst of baptisms here in Santa Juana. Well I got to go but I love you all, I love my God, I love my Savior, and I love my mission!!!!
Hasta la proxima semana, Élder Harper =D
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