Week 15

This week was kinda crazy, we had a zone conference and we had branch conference this week, which meant that there was a ward activity each night! but it has been starting to warm up expect for a couple of days it has been really rainy woohoooo!

So we really have been pushing for our eternal investigators to get a wedding date. so maria and her partner, juan were supposed to have chosen a wedding date by yesterday, but sadly they didnt ... but we had a great lesson with juan about how we have living prophets. i guess he never had been taught about it and we were asking him what would this mean to you, and he was like that would be awesome because no other church has a living prophet. so we really think that he is going to start progressing soon and will actually want to get married. And this is really good because maria is so ready to be baptized that she is even thinking about leaving her fam... we keep stressing to her about faith and patience, but it has been nice that the light at the end of the tunnel is starting to appear. our other eternal invst. silvanna, the mom of benjamin we gave her the challenge o pick a spefic date for her wedding too. this has been a little harder because her partner matius literally runs when we come over... idk maybe we are going to have E watts tackle him while i give the lessons, well see. but we have a cita planned with them this week when he will be there so we are really hoping that we can get him to stay (just imagine us singing the sam smith song to him)

So some sad news... david went to jail. we had a cita with him on monday and as we walked in he said you  guys have bad luck, theyre coming to pick me up right now... ya so we quickly got to sy a prayer with him and send him on his way. we cant visit him yet because i dont have my chillean id and E watts is expired. so we are trying to work with the leaders of the ward to get people to write letters of support. but we have no idea how long he will be in there, but we just have to make sure he gets a BoM ASAP.

As for finding it was still kinda hard this week because we would sacrfice over an hour to go to the ward activites to really gain the members trust. but we were able to get in a couple of houses and we have one lady that looks like she will progress and we have our next cita with her tomorrow! but seriously we were not taking no for an answer when we were talking with her at her gate, and luckily after like 15 mins of talking her into letting us in she gave in! her name is bernadita ortega and we think she will be able to be baptized the 27th but it all depends how tomorrow goes! but we really have been uping our contacts and we have even invited people to be baptized in the street lol one erson said yes and we are also visiting her tomorrow so itll be intersting to see if that tactic works out.

The activities were really fun this week ill attach the videos that i have of the talent show/kareokee show and the game we did at the FHE that we were in charge of. but it was really funny because one of the recent converts asked me if for the talent show i could sit in a chair on the stage while she sang to me... i was like uhhhh i dont think so, and when her act came on i was soooo glad i said no it wouldve been terribly awkward. and then there wasa another RC that did like a dance that was a little more pg 13 needles to say we were looking at the ground during that one and we need to plan a cita with her about the LoC lol. 

So during the zone conference it was really cool, we got to watch the leader trainning from the apostles and it was about how the best way to improve our faith is by trying to improve our sabbath day observance. i thought it was pretty cool out of all the things they could talk about they chose the sabbath day. so as missionaries we are trying to better sanctify the holy day!

I hope that you all had a great week and i am so grateful for all the support that you all give!!!!!!

Week 14

hola hola familia!! this week was a pretty good one, and a little frustrating, mostly because of the 18th, with all of the fiestas patrias. It made it really hard to set up citas with people during the end of the week.

So we still are kinda confused with davids situation, but from what we have learned this past week he definitely is going to jail... we just dont know when and how long, but there is hope that it will only be for three months, which would be awesome. we passed by on the 18th to eat some empanadas with him to help him not feel super down during the festivities, it seemed to really boost his spirits because that day was bring up old emotions and feeeling from his past. But it looks like really David will be baptized in the future after he has finished his jail time, so we will keep passing by.

Yesterday we had an awesome lesson with Maria Lopez and her partner about marriage!! it is pretty funny to think of two youngins trying to teach mid thirty year olds about why they should be married but luckily the spirit was very strong during the lesson and juan agreed to choose a date this week, for the wedding!! so this means that maria can finally get baptized! and its good that they are putting a date soon because maria was almost ready to leave the fam just to get baptized and we kept saying maria this is not going to be better in the long run. but we are super pumped about the wedding and hopefully it will be soon enough that we can attend!

The Branch had a huge 18 party on the 17th. seriously it was a huge hit there were almost 170 people when the attendance is usually 115 for sacrament meeting lol. it was really fun to see the traditional dance of chile and hear the national anthem and learn once again that chileans cannot sing to save thier lives. but it was a really good time. ill attach the photos and vids after this email. On the actual 18 we didnt do much to celebrate... one family had us over and we got a couple of empanadas but no huge asado :(... 

We really are just searching for people to teach right now. it has been really hard because we havent really been able to get into any houses and teach and a lot of the contacts that we have on the street lie to us... so it has been kinda frustrating that we dont have any people that really can progress right now. so please keep us in your prayers as we keep searching for people, but i have realized that this is the majority of the mission, SEARCHING!

The scripture that best describes this week is alma 8:10-11. but atlest the animo is HIGH!!! we still have a lot of fun trying to find people and we are really staying happy so we figure if we can keep this up and stay obedient that lord will place the prepared souls in our path. hope all of you have had a great week!!!! ¡Viva CHILE!

He's fine!

yea so apparently there was an earthquake south of conce that was pretty big. but all is well here! we didnt feel a darn thing :( we were contacting this random guy and he was like, DID YOU FEEL THE TEMBLOR?¡ and he told us to just look at the cables of power lines next time... but yea we are just dandy over here in linares!! here is photographic evidence that all is well. 

PS tomorrow is the 18!!!!! (equivalent of the 4th of july, but more chilean)

and today marks 3 months on the mish

Week 13

hola hola familia!! i got my new comp elder Watts and am still in the same area! he is from chesapeake VA and attend the air force academy for one year playing football there. so yes he is really big and jacked.

so this week has been a lot of work... I have taken over for kinda planning and taking phone calls during this first week because my comp is new to the area. and the one thing that i have learned that chileans talk really fast on the phone because they dont like using up minutes, but somehow i am able to comunicate. And also this week i have gotten really good at reading the map. finally all of the boy scouts orientering is paying off.

So David isnt in jail right now, so wohooo! we dont know really if the trial is completely over but he came to church this past sunday and gave a really powerful testimony during gospel principles. he talked about how he has found more joy as he has become closer to christ. he is so aawesomke, but we need to change his fecha to later this month because we think he is still on 1 cigarette a day... but his faith is a lot stronger now so i belive it will be easier! but thnk you for all of the prayers to help with his trial. 

We had a super awesome lesson with a recent covert named valery about fasting. and it was really fun to teach about the power of fast because it was the same day that we finished our fast for Davids trial. Basically we promised her that if she gave an honest fast this week that her jefa would give her sundays off if she asked and fully explained why she cant work on sundays. we belive it worked because for the first time we saw her at sunday!! just another testament about how sometimes we are stuck ijn tough situations that we need to make a plan and act.. something that a lot of the people here need to learn!

we had a really fun lesson this week with a super super old menas activa. she told us about how she hasnt gone to church in 10 years!! we were like hna you really should go to church and read the BoM. we asked her to find her Bom and she said oh its just upstairs and its kinda lost, so we gave her 7 minutes to find it and as a premio would would sing her favorite hymn. she found it and we sang. it was prety fun but in the end she still wouldnt come to church... so we were kinda bummed about that but atleast happy we could raise her spirits.

But really this week has been A LOT of work. but i love it i really feel like a real missionary! we really have been pushing to better the ward in the obra missional, and i think that they are getting really excited about it! I also fell like ive learned a lot of things that we were supposed to have been doing... oops but now i am doing them so i really think that it will help us see more success. One of which has been doing a lot more contacts, which i now love to do. seriously they are so funny because people will try to say the most random things to us like oh im never home, and then we say why have a house?¿ oh these funny chileans i love them so much! But thank you for all of the support that you all give! i hope that you are all having great weeks of school and work and that fall is treating you all well!

Week 12

Wow we just finished my first cambio in the field! it feels like it was super long and super short. But my Father, Elder wolfe is leaving me for  better things as he got called to be a ZL! Im getting a new trainer tomorrow named E Watts hes from virginia so and was in the navy, so this should be fun! But this will be an awesome opportunity for me to learn a lot because i will be teaching him the sector and the people.

So something really awesome happened this week, we had a new investigator randomley come to church last sunday. like he just felt the need to go and went. his name is david. we started teaching him this week and man oh man is he a prepared and humble soul. he told us about he used to have a pretty good life, couple kids a good job and a wife, but then he lost it all to alcoholism and drugs. he told us about how this has happened to all of the men of his family and that he wants to change this. he keeps telling us about how he wants to feel clean and to save his soul, so needless to say the very first thing we taguht was the atonement of Christ and how we can all be clean again from our sins if we follow the doctrine of christ. he really has been progressing well and has been able to keep the word of wisdom! he currently has a baptism date for the 19th! but theres one thing... he is currently under house arrest because of a DUI, so he just has to be home from 10-6 at night. And he has a court case on the 11th and he said that it potentially could be a year in jail. so we dont know what will happen in the end so we are making sure to teach him the plan of salvation this week so he can have hope if he dopes have to do time. but please keep him in your prayers we can all learn from him as we should all strive to save our souls and try to feel clean again.

We had a noche de hogar with david and another recent convert at our ward mission leaders house. it was kinda interesting because the hermanas we going to teach hte lesson for it and they chose to teach families are forever... while our investigator and recent convert dont really have families, needless to say the conversation afterwards was interesting but luckily with the spirit there we were able to kinda save the lesson. but in theend it was awesome because it really gave david a good opportunity to start making some new friendas in the church. and it was funny as we walked to the N de H he told us pointing to a house, there used to be a lot of parties there. lol but really he is progressing so well.

So we have been working a lot with another menas activa and her husband who isnt a member this week. theyre names are bernadita and sebastian. they are kinda a younger couple with two young boys. But they are super awesome, we painted their house this week and they cooked an asado, and i got to try blood sausage for the first time (it was interesting). but we also had a noche de hogar with them and we really got the spirit working on them, bernadita started coming to church again but we still need to work on sebas. he has trouble with keeping compromisos, so we are thinking about really keying in on how he should do these things not for himself but his family, because even if the church wasnt true, it still is the best way to raise a family.

thats pretty much most of the week! there was a lot of walking this week because david lives kinda far away but its totally worth it! Its a super rainy day here so were going to go get some hotdogs! but really i love you all and am so glad for all of the support that you all give me! its crazy to think that all of you are starting up school and that its labor day! really hope all of you enjoy the three day weekend.I still cant believe i finished my first cambio out here in the field and i am super happy that i am staying in this funky branch. I love them all so much here. Know that i love and pray for all of you!!!

Les Quiero MUCHO

Elder Livingston

Matthew's new companion!!!

Week 11

First off i would like to say, we got a baptism!!! woahhhhhh. i dont know why i thought that when missionaries had baptisms it would be a kinda chill day. man was i wrong. earlier in the week we had called the RS prez to help us out with refreshments for after the baptism, you know since were just two young men. and we found out that she didnt call anyone till thursday night! so we had a couple of sisters just saying oh arent you guys just going to buy everything and do it? and we were like uhhh no we are broke and litterally have no time. then the primary prez came to the rescue¡!¡! seriously she saved us with a simple cocktail like hing after. But the actual baptism was very sweet. Elder wolfe baptized benjamin and you could feel the spirit so strong there. and it was so cute to see how happy he was after he was baptized. and it was super awesome because his moms partner came and he was really grateful with us for doing the baptism. so we are really hoping that we can focus on him this coming week and help them really get a firm date for their wedding and maybe a date for baptism. Also remeber that other eternal investigator that i told you all about, Maria Lopez, ya she broughth her partner to the baptism and to church. so we also want to do the same with them. but we have heard that he read some anti mormon literature, so we have our work cut out but hey anything is possible with the power of GOD!

But for the majority of the week i was actually in conce. there was a conference for the new missionaries. it was super fun. luckily i was one of two missionaries that had to travel 4 hours to get to this conference adn we got to sleep on the floor of the assisants house the night before the actual meeting. But it was so cool, we had a lot of classes taught by president arrington. he is a super super cool president. my favorite class was on the doctrine of christ. we talked about how our investigators have to be active if the are going to be active members, and that being fully active in the church before being baptized is a part of repenting. also it was really fun to see my twin (elder Cowley) remember him? well it was super fun being able to tell all of the stories we have gained in the short time on the mission. but after that meeting they said that we are no longer new missionaries! i still find that hard to belive but i guess it is true especially since this is the last week of this cambio.

So the night that i got back we didnt really have any plans because we were not sure how long it would take for me to get back. so we went to a couple of houses as usual and talked to them, and at the end of the night we thought hey we should try to visit that one menos activo who is never home. so we went up and amazingly she was home with her husband who isnt a member! their names are vanessa and eduardo and seriously they are such a cute family. during the lesson i was litterally playing with their little daughter while E wolfe was working his magic but in the end we were able to really bring the spirit into their house and you could feel it so strong as we told him to pray to find that his loving heavenly father has a specific plan for him. seriously it was sucha cool lesson that came out of nowhere. we are planning on veisiting them soon this week!

bonus story- we were trying to find luis and his big family but he wasnt there so we tried the nieghbor who was supposedly a member adn out came a snake (adolescent girl who is no good) and we were like are there any members in your house¿? and she brought out her gma who is a testigo de jehova and they let us in so we were like this will be interesting. and it was the girl told us about how she thought god is a woman and there was some scripture that proved it and i asked if she could share it and she was oh no like i forgot but some pope said so, and then later on in the lesson she told us about how she can like talk and feel dead people... we invited her to pray so well see if she does and the grandma was surprisingly super receptive! 

But really all is wel here! finally got some rain pants! but now it is hot and sunny so thats good i guess. but really so grateful for all of you!!

Besitos

Elder Livingston