Melipilla, Chile: Semana 2

Now this made my P day!  

What a week! There are so many amazing things that happened this week, I don't even know where to begin. Melipilla is near the coast so there is literally a perfect sunset here every night! The ward here is the best; the members have been so nice and welcoming. It truly is a ward family here in Melipilla. The members are always looking to serve and find ways to help the missionaries, from joining us for lessons with investigators to feeding us lunch everyday.  Lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Chile so we are always well fed for lunch by the members of our ward. As for dinner, well, I may have had an entire box of Frosted Flakes last night! I guess my mom was right when she told me that I needed to learn some basic cooking skills before I left on my mission. My dad just kept saying that I would have a mamita and not to worry about it. Well, Dad, I hate to admit it but Mom was right. During our our lunches with ward members, I am always asked if I know of Elder Zwick or President Zwick, of the Santiago South Mission. Grandpa Zwick and my dad have a legacy down here and I am honored to wear the Zwick name on my tag! 

On Tuesday, we had a mission conference in Maipu with President and Hermana Mitchell.   It was so cool to be able to meet all of the Elders; this mission is full of studs or as we say down here... full of "maquinas!" President and Hermana Mitchell taught us that we need to put Christ and His Atonement at the center of everything; that we can access the Atonement and the endless blessings that it brings through faith and repentance. Through constant faith and confidence in Christ and repentence DAILY, we truly can become more and more like Christ.  As we become more and more like Christ we start to access the Atonement. Through the Atonement, we truly can resist temptation of any kind, find peace in our struggles, overcome fears and turn our weaknesses into strengths!  President Mitchell truly is a straight maquina! At the beginning of the conference, we sang "Jesus es mi Luz," about 30 seconds into the hymn, President Mitchell got up and said "Stop, Stop, Stop!" He went on to say that we are singing about Christ so we better sing like it! We were singing about the greatest man of all time, our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Savior of the entire world! We can truly do anything through faith in Christ. I encourage you to continue in faith and confidence because He truly does live! It's okay to have some doubts about it because we all do at times. But I promise that as you continue in faith and do your best to repent daily, you will feel yourself draw closer to Christ and be more like Him. As we become more like Him, the Atonement literally changes our lives. 

But this was an exciting week of finding and meeting a lot of new people! I need to try and learn Creole because Melipilla has tons of Haitian refugees; they literally are the nicest people ever and they love Jesus Christ!  We also taught a group of people from Bolivia. This week also consisted of door slamming, people pretending like they are deaf, people telling us that our Church is no good, people telling us that we are too young and don't know anything.  My comp and I just laughed it all off and kept working! We even kept going after not one door opened for an entire street block. It was cold and frustrating at times when I only speak a little Spanish and not a lick of Creole!  Elder Holland said "Just pull up your socks and get to work. Don't look back... you can rest later!" On Saturday, we helped this lady move in the morning with ward members. It was a blast and I got to try my first empanada. It was so good that I had to ask for a second one! Everyone here in Santiago is getting excited for the 18th of September; it's equivalent to our 4th of July but it lasts for seven days. So I better gear up for a lot of empanadas and La Cueca. I saw a bunch of people doing La Cueca at the plaza and I about died laughing!  La Cueca is the Chilean national dance and my dad won a contest for it when he lived here; I saw my parents dancing La Cueca once in the kitchen and it was an absolute classic. I have been hearing about empanadas and La Cueca my whole life and now I am here witnessing it in person! 

The best day of the week by far was Sunday! Three of our new amigos actually showed up to church. It was such a good feeling to be able to sit with them at church. Then after church we had a miracle happen! The old missionaries in this sector of Melipilla told us about this guy named Rueben; they left his number in our phone and told us to call him to try and teach him again. So my comp called and set up a time to visit him on Sunday.  We knew he was Haitian so I figured that I would probably just be sitting there smiling during the lesson and nodding my head in agreement. However, when we arrived at Ruebens's door he opened it immediately and said, "What's up man?" He spoke perfect English and loves basketball! We connected instantly; he loves our Church but he just had so many questions. He asked us, "Why are there so many different religions and how do I know if this is the true one?" We taught him about the Restoration and Joseph Smith and then we explained the Book of Mormon.  He said he felt like it was true but he wanted to know for sure. We then asked him to read Moroni 10:3-5. He read it slowly and when he finished reading those verses, he looked up and said with a huge smile on his face, "Man this is true, this is real!" He said he had never felt this way before in his life. The Spirit was so strong. We then felt prompted to invite him to be baptized on the 27th of September! He didn't even think twice about it. All he said was "Of course!" I have never felt the Spirit so strong and I have never been so happy! We hugged, cried and laughed; I will never forget that night with Reuben. The Spirit and the Book of Mormon is what converts people. The Spirit converts and this is God's work! God is truly in the details of our lives and through Christ, anything is possible. Miracles are real. My favorite way to strengthen my faith is always to read the Book of Mormon. As Uncle Kip says, "Hold onto the Iron Rod with two hands, not one!" 

Here are a few scriptures for the week:

John 16: 33
1 Nephi 21 through 2 Nephi 2
1 Nephi 8
Helaman 5: 12 

Love you all,
Elder Zwick