SHE BEGAN TO CRY AS SHE TALKED ABOUT HOW WE TAUGHT HER ABOUT ETERNAL FAMILIES AND HOW IT DOESN'T END WITH THIS LIFE BUT CAN CONTINUE FOR ALL ETERNITY

Hola y muchos saludos a todos!

Well this week was very long but in the end very very good. We had to get up early in the morning last Monday to head out to Conce and be in the stake center of the Talcahuano south stake by 9:30 am. Our bus was a little late and I had to drop Elder Villegas off in San Pedro on the way so I got there a little late but it wasn´t that big of a deal in the end. Anyways it was basically kind of like the MTC for three days. We were taught the new concepts, watched parts of a movie called The District 2 that follows a district of missionaries in San Diego around for a cambio filming them teaching and putting into practice the new ways of teaching, and then practiced in groups teaching with these new concepts and focuses everyday. From Monday to Wednesday we always started at 9:30 and went until about 5:30 to 6ish. Then when we finished we went to our assigned sectors with our assigned companions for the week to put into practice what we were learning until we turned in like normal at 10:00 pm each night. My assigned sector for the week was Las Salinas in Talcahuano and I worked with Élder Valverdes, another Ecuatoriano that has like a year and a half in the mission. The capacitations were really good and I absolutely loved the movie, The District 2, and liked the practices but not all of the lessons were taught all that great. The Zone leaders were assigned to teach and capacitate on all the 8 new concepts, like two or three concepts a day, but not all of them had prepared all that well and did a good job. But some of them were great and in the end I liked the experience and learned a lot. Also, since all of the leaders of the mission were there from North to South I got to see a lot of my buddies that I hadn't seen in a really long time. Almost all of my group from the MTC was there and I got to see Élder Rodriguez for the first time since my second cambio. He´s the Argentino that speaks fluently in English that lived in the same house as us and helped me out a lot my second cambio in the mission. Even though I like the capacitations, I didn't really enjoy so much the experience working in Las Salinas and sleeping on a tiny air mattress in a house built for two with 6 missionaries. But at least I had an air mattress so I can´t complain too much. But everyday when we got to the sector to work like at 6 thirty or so we basically just visited converts, members, and old investigators for the three days. We did that because Élder Valverdes was in the sector for 4 months before so he just wanted to visit people. But Oh well, I have since had the opportunity to apply the things I learned here in Santa Juana in my own sector =).

Also, I didn't get much sleep from Monday to Wednesday because we were in the house with over six missionaries and four of them were Argentinos, two of them finishing the mission this cambio. I don't know if all Argentinos are like this but the ones in this mission love to talk and joke around, especially with other Argentinos. So when they are with their own kind it's just all a big party. So basically they stayed up to like 3 o'clock every night drinking mate herbal tea and laughing loudly. But it wasn't so bad. I didn't get upset or anything but I was dang tired when we finally got back to Santa Juana on Thursday morning. Then when we got back, Thursday and Friday were just ok. We just spent the whole time checking up on our investigators but a lot of them we weren't able to find or the lessons with them were just ehh. But Saturday was amazing. We went to visit this agnostic couple that is extremely nice and friendly that we´ve been teaching for the last couple of weeks and we had an amazing lesson. When we got to the house, the husband´s cousin was in town visiting with her daughter and they happen to be members of the church. So we had a good time talking and then we taught them about eternal families and watched Together Forever and they loved it. There are also a lot of other things that went on during the lesson and elements about the family that are important to why things are just working out perfectly right now but I don't really have too much time to go into it this week. Anyways, what's important is that the member cousin got them excited to go to church with us this week and they all went along with one of the husband's daughters, who was also in town visiting. It was fast and testimony meaning so I was nervous that there were going to be a lot of long pauses and silences since it's such a small branch but in the end it didn't go over that way. We actually went a little over the hour. Anyway it was one of the most powerful testimony meetings that I´ve been in and the spirit was felt strongly by all, both members and investigators. Actually, at the end of the meeting the wife of the couple we are teaching got up and bore her testimony. She said in her testimony how gratetful she was that we got to her home to bring them the gospel and Jesus Christ into their lives. She said that she was just so excited to build up faith in Christ when there was nothing before and to start in His path. She then began to cry as she talked about how we taught her about eternal families and about how it doesn't end with this life but can continue for all eternity. She said that she had never imagined or hoped for that before and that when we taught her that she believed it because she felt a burning inside her chest. She then said that she was excited to keep coming to church and to hopefully get sealed in the temple some day.

At the end of the testimony the whole chapel was teary eyed and we were stoked because it was only her first time going to church and she already said that she knows it's true. The only problem with them now is that they are not legally married. This would discourage most missionaries but they told us that they want to get married so that they can get baptized and married in the temple and if they and us exercise faith, I think we can help them reach that goal. God did it for Marcos and Marcela in Galvarino and I know he can do it for Juan and Laura (the investigators). Also all of the other investigators that were there loved the meeting and felt the spirit and one of them, who is a 20 year old, actually ended up going with some of the other young adults of the branch to a huge Young adult devotional in Concepción and it seems like they all made friends very fast. And it was only her first Sunday in church as well! We have a cita with her later tonight so we will see how she enjoyed the devotional then. On Saturday night I was a little nervous about church the next day because the president called to tell us that he was going to be out of town and he has no counselors so I had to bless the sacrament, preside the meeting and teach priesthood while my comp conducted the meeting. But in the end, my nervousness was in vane because all the meetings went smoothly and it was probably one of my favorite Sundays in church that I´ve had in the mission so far. Oh and in total we had 6 investigators in church.

Also I had an extremely humbling and spiritual experience that brought me into a better perspective with things on Friday night but I just got the impression that I probably shouldn't share it just yet so I will save that one for later maybe. Well I must say that even though I´ve gone through some rough patches and trials here in Santa Juana that it looks like things are looking up here and that the Lord has prepared his children to receive His gospel here in this pueblo. Things aren´t going perfect and none of our investigators have baptismal fechas yet, and we could teach a lot better but as long as we just do our best and have faith I´ll leave the rest in the lords hands. Besides even though it's stayed cold we´ve had sunny cloudless skys here for the past few days so things are looking good for next week. Thank you all so much for all of your prayers, love and support and I will talk to you all next week. Until then CHAO!!!!

con mucho amor, Élder Harper =)