FASTING REALLY DOES WORK MY FRIENDS

Hola hola!!

It sounds like things are going good down in California. Here things are going pretty good as well; it was a good week. Things could have been better but so far we are progressing along here little by little. We once again spent a lot of time this last week knocking doors and going to visit the innactive and less active members. With the innactive members we haven't had much progress getting a hold of them or getting them excited to go back to church but we still aren't going to give up going through the member list because this branch needs a lot of strengthening and has a TON of innactive members that need fellow shipping. While doing divisions with Elder Hillman we actually found this one innactive member with quite a history. He was the branch mission leader, branch president for years, district secretary (a district is the equivalant of a stake), in the district presidency and now after decades of devoted church service he and his wife are innactive. Why? according to him pure laziness. He thinks that because he worked for so long in the church he's now ok to just chill back in his house and spend the rest of his days in oblivion without going to church. He thinks that he's earned a well deserved rest. When we tried to explain to him that he still needs to keep coming to church to take the sacrament and renew his covenants he told us that he could bless the bread and water in his own home and take the sacrament every week. When we tried to explain to him how that doesn't fly he was stubborn and wouldn't have any of it. But at the end of the visit we did soften him up a little bit so we will see how it goes. We're not going to give up on him just yet. It just makes me sad to see members who were so strong just fall away and lose their faith. It just really shows how we always have to be on guard and never stop working to maintain our faith and keep our change of heart, because the minute we let our guard down and get lazy is when the adversary will strike.

As far as investigators go, we did a lot of door knocking and actually had reasonable success. Fasting really does work my friends. Every time I do one my testimony grows of it as a spiritual and missionary tool and sanctifier. Anyways, doing contacts we found a whole family who was investigating the church before but when the husband got really sick they couldn't keep going to church and then they moved and lost contact with the missionaries and the church. They unfortunately weren't able to come to church this Sunday but they are excited for us to start visiting them again and to start going to church again because I guess they had a really good experience with the last missionaries who were teaching them. So we are pretty excited about that find and are praying hard that the Lord helps them to develop their faith and feel the spirit bear witness to them of the truthfulness of our message. The journey begins again =). Victor is doing well too but it's going to take a little longer than I thought with him because he is full of crazy ideas and it's hard to teach him sometimes. But he understands the importance of having a living prophet and he understands the importance of baptism so we are going to work with that. He actually wants to get baptized right away but we told him that he had to quit drinking first and we taught him the word of wisdom. This week again he came to church (although we did have to go get him) and he said that he would quit drinking so we are going to do everything we can to help him follow through and prepare for baptism during this coming week.

Also this week we were let into houses a lot more and we had a lot more teaching appointments where we were actually able to teach and although all of them aren't going to continue, it just felt awesome teaching so frequently again. I love doing it and it's my job so that definitely helped my spirits last week. Unfortunately Sunday was slightly frustrating because Victor was the only one of our investigators who came to church but we should have a lot more who come next week. Well I don't have too much more time today but I just want to let you know that we're working hard and even though everything isn't going perfectly, we are happy. Happy and ready to get in the water! It's time to end the drought! Ok well I got to go now but take care everybody! Read your scriptures and try extra hard to look for the influence of the holy spirit in life. He's with us a lot more than we think, we are just too distracted and dense to notice it sometimes. Oh and enjoy your halloween! It exists here but as I learned last year it's nothing compared to the states. Bueno les quiero mucho, cuidense y CHAU!!!

su chileno preferido, Élder Harper =)

FOR THE LORD THERE IS NO LOST CAUSE

Hello!

First off thanks for the emails everybody! I loved all of them. Well pday once again, the weeks go by so fast. Anyways this week was a lot better than last week. If not that much in results at least in spirits. First off I will tell you about our investigators that until recently we had. We talked with Veronica and her Mom last Monday night and we talked a lot about baptism and testified and what not but it's still a no and this time the Mom put her foot down on the issue. She said that she could keep going to church and talking to us but that she can't get baptized until she's older. We tried a lot of tactics but her mind is made up and for right now she's not budging. That's a bummer. As for Karina we haven't been able to get a hold of her or her husband since I last wrote so there is no news or progress there as of right now.

Anyways, with that start-off to last week, it was rough for the first few days but we had a fast as a district and even though it didn't help all that much with the results, it did help me out with the morale. My companion Elder Maldonado is an obedient hard worker and a good missionary but he is a little down and frustrated about the dry spell here in Loncoche and the one that he has been having in his mission right now. But despite that, I'm not too worried about him and we've been working on more meaningful prayers and are going to have weekly 24 hour fasts now so that should help us out. The other missionaries in the house, Elder Hillman and his son (trainee) Elder Calaway are doing good and are also working hard. Elder Hillman has been here for six months and his animo is still good, he just needs to be less conform with the results. But we all get along great in the house. We all laugh and joke around together and are all obedient so it's a good house. Elder Calaway, the new guy, reminds me a lot of me. He just started in this zone and unfortunately has to see all these branch problems his first cambio, like I did, and he doesn't have too much confidence in himself or his spanish but he's a good guy and I know that he'll turn out to be a good missionary.

As far as the work went this last week people are still setting appoinments with us and then aren't there or don't come to the door when we go. Even though we are still talking with everybody we've changed our tactics a bit. We've been going down the ward list visiting all of the innactive members, which is the majority, and although most of them haven't been home, we have found a few and have appointments to visit them this week so we will see how it goes. I think that we need to do a lot of strengthening of the branch before we can trust them to take care of good investigators and new converts. So we will keep up a lot with visiting the innactives this week. Also we have put up flyers all over the town and are now teaching English classes on Saturdays. Our first class was last Saturday and it didn't have all that great of a turn out but we are going to keep advertising it a lot and we will see how it goes.

The best experience that we had last week was finding a new investigator, Victor. Victor is quite the character. He is a very very poor guy who is very dirty, always is wearing a yellow hard hat, and lives alone in this tiny wooden hand made shack surrounded by a shanty wooden fence and a yard filled with all of this junk that he just loves. We found him because he was yelling things about gringos and the states to us so we decided to go

over and talk to him. He is kind of crazy, drunk and is obsessed with the states, airplanes, and NASA. He actually has a NASA tie that missionaries gave him two years ago and has a collection of little model airplanes and space shuttles that he loves and treasures. These missionaries who gave him the tie were teaching him and brought him to church but he never got baptized, probably due to the alcohol. But he says he wants to get baptized and I could hardly believe it, but he came to church with us on Sunday and I think that he was even sober. In church you could tell that people were kind of looking down on him due to his dirty clothes(hard hat and all), terrible smell (which filled the chapel), and famous drunkeness but that doesn't matter.

Although members of the Lord's church and even some missionaries might judge by the outward appearence and reputations, every human being is a child of God and everyone of them deserves the chance to hear the message of the restored gospel and to apply the healing power of the atonement in their lives. For the Lord there is no lost cause and if it be his will, and if Victor is willing, the Lord can change him and take away his addiction to alcohol to replace it with the love and mercy of the Savior. These thoughts filled my mind as I sat next to him in the chapel and the spirit testified to me powerfully that this was true and that this man is a truly beloved son of God. So even though it might not work, I'm excited to give Victor this chance and to help him use and feel the power of the atonement in his life. Well I gotta go now but I love you all, I love this work, and I love the Chilenos. The work isn't easy and the Chilenos can be very frustrating at times but I love them and have been called to preach to them for these two years. So I'm going to make the best of these next 9 months to do so. Until next Monday CHAU!!!!!

Elder Harper

AS WE BLESSED A TINY PIECE OF BREAD AND A LITTLE CUP OF WATER IN THAT HUMBLE HOME I FELT THE SPIRIT STRONG AND HUMBLED FOR THE OPPORTUNITY I HAD

Hola Hola a todos!!

Loncoche Loncoche. Man what is there to say for this week? Well it sure was a busy week. We spent the whole time running from house to house trying to find people, talking to everybody in the street and knocking a lot of doors. You know just the normal missionary stuff. The only bad part is that we didn't get many opportunities to teach this week. Almost all of the appointments we set with potential investigators we found during the week last week fell through so unfortunately we used a lot of time running from one end of the pueblo to the other to citas, only to find that they weren't home. But I didn't let it get to me, we just worked that much harder to find those who are actually interested and not going to blow us off.

As for the investigators that we already had before I got here, they are both in complicated situations. The strongest one is Veronica. She is a twelve year old girl who always goes to church, is working on her personal progress and even when she blows off doing her homework, she will read and mark the Book of Mormon. She knows the church is true but... her parents are Catholic and want her to wait until she is older until she gets baptized. If she really pushed the issue with her Mom I think that she could get permission but she is also afraid and doesn't want to enter the church alone without the support of her family. It's slightly complicated so we have been doing a lot of praying and working with them, but this week is go time. We are going to talk seriously about it with the Mom this week so we will see what happens if it comes out yes or no.

The other investigator' name is Karina. She is like in her late twenties with 2 kids, has all of the lessons and wants to be baptized. There is just one major problem. She is conviviendo (living with) a very very innactive member of the church and she wants to get married but he doesn't. He is a really nice guy, we even went fishing with him last p-day, but he doesn't believe in marriage. He is an agnostic who believes in God but not Christ and has a bunch of weird conspiracy theories but last time we met with them we watched the restoration video and then committed him to read and pray about the ook of Mormon, and that is one powerful book so we will wait and see what's going to happen there.

Even though I´ve left Santa Juana Satan is still trying really hard to drag me down along with the branch and the other missionaries here in Loncoche but I did have a great experience on Sunday. After church we went to this very old members house who has Parkinson's disease to give him the sacrament. Although he is in bad shape, he brightened way up at our visit and although he couldn't talk very well he was talking up a storm asking about me and telling me about his life as a member of the church. I felt the spirit warmly in the room at seeing the crippled and aged man express his love for the gospel and for missionary work. Then as we blessed a tiny piece of bread and a little cup of water in that humble home and helped him take it I felt the spirit strong and humbled for the opportunity I had to administer the holy sacrament to this veteran of the church here in Chile. Hearing the stories and seeing the decline of the church and the apostasy of the members rather than growth in these small pueblos really does start to take a toll on the morale after a while, especially when only a handful of the hundreds who have been baptized this last decade are active. But seeing the humble faithfulness of that old man gave me a little boost of hope and encouragement here for the little pueblos in the south of Chile. No matter the calamities and defamings of men and devils, the Lord's work will go forth nobly and independent. That includes Santa Juana and Loncoche.

Just like old times with Pitruf, there is drama and divisions going down in the little branch here in Loncoche, which is probably exaggerated by the members, but nonetheless has discouraged the other missionaries here. I've been in too many small towns now to know that drama can be smoothed out and that we can't let the petty offenses and differences of the members discourage us and stop us from putting all of our heart into the work here. We just need to do the best we can to empathize with the members and at the same time smooth their ruffled feathers and preach to them the atonement of Christ. Because no amount of shame or offense taken in the chapel due to wounded pride is worth abandoning applying the healing powers of the atonement in our lives. Well I just want to let you guys know that even though it hasn't exactly been an easy start here in Loncoche, I'm still excited and ready to tear it up here in this pueblo. So until next week take care and remember to look for and recognize the holy spirit everyday in our lives. Without his guidance and comfort.. well.. we're just sad. So do everything you can to have it. les quiero y hasta la proxima semana chao!!

Élder Harper =)

I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT WE HAVE A LIVING PROPHET AND APOSTLES THAT RECEIVE DIRECT REVELATION FROM GOD TO LEAD AND DIRECT ALL HIS CHILDREN HERE ON EARTH

Hey Everybody!!!

Well this week was a pretty good week I guess. I mean how could it have been bad ending with such a great general conference? I just love hearing the inspired words of our leaders and just soaking up the spirit of the occasion. You really do leave it wanting to be a better person. Anyways about my week.

Tuesday, the day of cambios, was a long day of traveling. In total like six hours in a bus and for four hours of the journey, from Conce to Temuco, I was alone which was really weird. Finally at like 6:00 pm we got to Loncoche at the end of the mission safe and sound. My new companion is Élder Maldonado. He is from the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and has about 6 months out in the mission. He is excited to work and from what I've seen so far he teaches pretty well. Oh he also speaks English pretty well and understands everything in English so usually in the street we speak Spanish and in the house we speak English. The house here in Loncoche is pretty old but it's huge. It's the biggest house that I have been here in the mission so far and the shower is hot and working which is the most important thing jaja. There were only two missionaries in the house but with the addition of me and another Elder we now make four missionaries here in Loncoche. The other companionship is Elder Hillman and a new gringo, Elder Calaway, who he is training. Lucky for him everyone in the house speaks English. I will tell you more about my comp and the other Elders the more I get to know them.

Now Loncoche is a pueblo but a pretty good sized pueblo and is much bigger than both Santa Juana and Monte Águila. We have a chapel here. It's small but it's a real chapel, and there are about 45 to 50 members who attend church regularly here in the pueblo. Probably about the same size of the branch in Pitrufquén. From what I've seen of the members so far they seem pretty loving but I will tell you more about the branch as I get to know it, but I am definitely way stoked to work with a new branch and new members. It's been a few months since the Elders have baptized here and since we made a new companionship here as of now we don't have many investigators because the ones who are here were spit between the two companionships. But we do have some people to work with and we are excited to get out there to find new ones.

Well last week was a short work week because of the cambios and general conference and getting to know the new investigators and members of the branch but thats ok that it was a short work week because conference was awesome! Saturday we four from Loncoche went to Pitrufquén to watch the 3 Saturday sessions of conference. It was total dejavu as we set everything up to watch it in English in the same exact room of the chapel that we did 1 year ago. It was really weird but cool to walk the streets of the pueblo again, be in the chapel, and see some of my old buddies and understand them jaja. It was really cool especially talking to Gercy and Alex again. I didn't get to see them for very long but Alex plans to meet up with us one P-day when we go to Temuco. It was awesome watching the sessions in English and feeling the power and spirit of the inspired messages from our leaders and I definitely left it feeling invigorated. Then when priesthood session ended at 10:00pm there were no buses back to Loncoche so I slept in my old house and in my old bed in the Pitrufquén house. Oh and Élder Terrazas is my zone leader here so it was good to talk to him again. Then the Sunday sessions of conference were good too but on Sunday we went back to Loncoche to watch them with the branch via internet but unfortunately we were not able to watch them in English. But we did have one investigator that is progressing come to one of the sessions so that was cool.

Well everybody, I'm out of time this email but that was a basic recap of my week. I just want to let you know before I go that I am so grateful that we have the restored church here on the earth today and that we have a living prophet and apostles that recieve direct revelation from God to lead and direct all of his children here on the earth. They are such a big blessing in our lives, for if we follow their council and guidance we will receive eternal life, but if we reject them, it will be a whole different story. Ok now I really have to go but we will talk more in just one short week. Until then les quiero mucho!!!! CHAO!

con mucho cariño, Élder Harper =)