MAY THE LAST MONTH BEGIN!!! GOIN BIG O GOIN HOME!!!

Muchas holas a todos!!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!! I hope that you had a good one. Well it sounds like you guys had a busy weekend. Congratulations to Bre. 
Can´t believe she´s getting married so soon. Congratulations to Andrea for going through the temple, and the last stretch before the mission begins, jaja, lots of waiting. I remember it like it was yesterday, man time goes by fast.

Well my week here was pretty good. It rained the entire week on and off everyday and today the sun came out finally yay! The first time I´ve seen the sun since last Monday. God has given us a break from the rain on pday jaja. But I think I would prefer the rain on pday and the sun for when I'm out knocking doors. Anyways it was a good week.

On Tuesday we found a lot more people in Tijeral to teach so for now we are going to be going there 3 times a week to work. Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday. On Thursday we had capacitaciónes with the Presdent and the whole southern half of the mission in Temuco. The assistants gave a little spiel and then to practice we went out with different companions and had a competition to see who could get into the most houses to teach something in an hour and a half. It was a lot of fun and opened the mind up to ways to work around people's excuses to get in and teach something. Plus, it forced us to be more creative and try new strategies. I really enjoyed it and we were able to find a good family who wants the missionaries to keep coming back and teaching and we felt the spirit strong in the house.

Afterwards President and the Hermana Swenson talked. The hermana Swenson speaks spanish but even still when she talks to all of the missionaries she speaks in English and has a missionary translate for her up front, usually a latin missionary who speaks English. This time she asked me to come up and translate for her, which I considered an honor because I don´t think my spanish is all that great and she usually doesn't have gringos translate for her, so yeah, that was a good self esteem boost jaja. Then afterwards President Swenson took all of the missionaries who are finishing the mission in July and August out to dinner since we won't be able to have the traditional final supper with him in the mission home before we leave. He took us to Ruby Tuesdays in the casino in Temuco and maybe it's not the best restaurant in the states but man I felt like a high roller there jaja. I guess that's because the best place to eat that I've been here in Chile so far is the Pizza Hut in Temuco or some good completo stands. After dinner we went back to the chapel where President gave us some advice and we had a group discussion, and then we ended with a testimony meeting. It was awesome having that time with President and the Hermana Swenson and being with lots of my buddies from the mission, almost all of the missionaries who got here with me. And the testimony meeting was, well, awesome. Afterwards it was too late to grab a bus so we went and picked up my companion and then the assistants drove us back to Renaico and stayed there with us for the night before heading back up to Conce.

The rest of the week we spent looking for new investigators and sifting through the giant teaching pool we have to see where we need to put our focus and who out of all the people are really going to progress. My companion is new so he can't really tell who is a good progressing investigator or not very well so it's been a slow process but we are getting there. Unfortunately out of all of our investigators, not really any of them progressed much this week because they either went out of town for Father's Day (yes they celebrate it here) or didn't come to church because of the rain. One of the better investigators we had didn't come because he went to go visit his father in jail who has a three year sentence. His family situation is sad but his brother already got baptized and we are now working on him and his Mom. His mom is tough but I think we will be able to get him (Nacho) baptized this cambio. There are a ton of incomplete families here, and lots of weird investigators. We have the biggest most hodge podge teaching pool that I've ever seen jaja. Which is fine, like I said before, we just need to help them start to progress and start sifting out the wheat from the chaff.

This Sunday was rough, both for Renaico and Tijeral, due to Father's Day and the rain. In Renaico only 48 members went and 3 investigators. In Tijeral only 13 people went to church and none of our investigators. This Sunday I went to Tijeral with a member and my companion stayed in Renaico. Also both me and my companion gave talks. Tijeral is the smallest branch I've ever seen but I guess it's a small town. Even though it's even smaller than Santa Juana. It has a legit chapel but like a playhouse version of the chapels back in the states jaja. It's tiny. In the salon sacramental no more than thirty people could fit and after that there are no more than three classrooms. This Sunday there were such few priesthood that the branch president had to come down from the stand and pass the sacrament. His wife says that she will bake us a cake if we find and baptize someone who could hold the priesthood. They want priesthood holders so bad; I hope to be able to help them out with that, cake or not.

Well I'm starting to get my bearings now in both Renaico and Tijeral and I like both pueblos. But I can't lie, these past two weeks I've been a little sector trunky, trunky for Villa Obispo jaja. I miss it. It's just weird getting to a new sector and meeting the members and knowing you're only going to be there for six weeks. It makes it harder to get closer with the members and what not. But now I'm getting used to it and am starting to like and even love these two pueblos. Since i had to get cambiod out of Villa Obispo, no matter what, I'm glad that President sent me here to Renaico for my last cambio. I know that it was for a reason and so I just got to do everything to fulfill his purposes and God's purposes for me here in Renaico. I love you all very much and ask you to pray for me so that the spirit can guide me to those chosen souls who can come unto Christ through baptism this cambio here in Renaico. May the last month begin!!! Goin big o goin home!!!

con mucho amor, Elder Harper