February 4, 2013

Hey there everybody!

Another week seemed to pass by so quickly! I´m still here in Los Angeles fighting the deathly heat! Where are the clouds and rain of the Chilean Wintertime?... oh, I suppose I still have to wait for a few months for the rain to come back! Jajajaja,

Well, as you can see from these pictures, we had another baptizm on Saturday! :) His name is Pedro York Estéfano Cheguan Contreras.... a very long name, but he goes by York. We found him looking for an inactive family on the ward directory, and we were able to work with the leaders of the ward to reactivate the parents while we were teaching the gospel to them and thier son. It was amazing to see the change in this family. Originally the idea was that his Dad could baptize him, but due to the chilean laws, the parents have to wait 9 months until they can get married now.... it´s rather strange, so the parents decided that it would be better to baptize their son now instead of waiting 9 more months. The incredible change was that in about 2 weeks the Mom was able to quit smoking entirely and the father stopped drinking. This really is the Lords work, and with the spirit we can accomplish great and marvalous things in our lives! :)

We are still facing a lot of opposition here in the heat of the summer... Everyone seems to be out of town and those who are still here are leaving! When I was with Elder Hinckley, about 80-90 members went to church every week... but yesterday there were only 46 who showed up to church... YIKES!!! The Bishop is a little disappointed with the members who should be showing up but they decide not too... but he is a very wise man and he was able to give a great testimony to the members about the Sabbath-day. This heat is not only affecting the members but a bit of my comp and another missionary in my District... they have been acting kinda a lot lazy lately.... it is a little frusterating when I want to go out and work and have fun working and to be able to teach and share and testify... but my comp doesn´t want to do all of that.... I have to help him out to see the importance of what we do. I love him to death, but he needs to snap out of this lazy stage! But I´m glad that when he does work, he can work with happiness. His excuse is that he is "old" in the mission... but I have less time left than him.... he is rather silly!

I´m just glad that I have a love for this work and that it is one of the funnest and most exciting things that I can be doing with my life in this moment. There is nothing sweeter than to see the gospel change the lives of others! I hope all of you are doing well and that you are having fun in the cold! I love you all so much! Take care!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett