I'm official in Chile!

Hey Everyone,

I'm official in Chile!  I received my carnet (Chilean ID card).  It's sick!!

We had a service project this week where we pulled a ton of weeds and dug a up a bunch of dirt.  It was tiring but a great way to start off the week.

The highlight of the week was Lici getting baptized.  She was so excited all week, she could hardly wait.  When she came up out of the water, she gave us all a high five!  Her story will be one of my favorites in Chile.  Her next door neighbor, Dora, is a member of the church.  When we knocked on Lici's door for the first time, she opened it and said she wanted nothing to do with the church.  Two days later I had a horrible day because of bad news about two close friends.  I remember feeling like I didn't want to work that afternoon and wanting to just stay home.  We had a Noche de Hogar (family night) at Dora's house and I wanted to cancel it because I wasn't in a good mood but at the last second I decided to go.  We got there and Lici showed up.  We hadn't invited her or talked to her about coming.  She just felt the need to go to Dora's house.  She walked in and told us she needed to get baptized.  Crazy!!  We easily could have missed out on that experience just because I didn't feel like working that particular afternoon.  Lici's baptism is proof of the blessings that come from just being out there working, even when you may not necessarily feel like it.  

President Catala taught us another great lesson at zone conference this week.  He gave an example of us standing on a scale between our investigators and Christ.  The investigator is almost 100% natural man.  Christ is 100% spiritual.  They kind of balance each other out.  We are part natural man and spiritual man.  If we become less of the natural man and become closer to Christ, we tip the scale in the investigator's favor and make it easier for them to come unto Christ.  

Please continue to pray for us here in Chile.  Especially Sandra, Estefan, Cyntia, Genesis, Antonela, Rode, and Loretto.  They all really need the prayers right now.  

I love you all,

Elder Vincent

Lici's baptism with Elder Espirtu

Hermano Pasmiño baptized her which was awesome

Good week

Top of Penco

Hey Everyone!

We had another good week of missionary work. Wednesday we taught 8 lessons and found 2 new people who want to learn more about the Gospel.  That night we had Family Home Evening with some ladies who don't go to church very often.  They are all about 60 years old and CRAZY!!!  We had the funniest conversations!  We also talked about the Word of Wisdom and they all committed to go to church on Sunday.  

On Sunday, I spoke in Sacrament meeting and also taught the Sunday School class.  My Sacrament talk was from Jacob chapter 5... how great will be our joy if we bring even one person unto Christ.  In Sunday School I used President Nelson's talk from our last General Conference about the importance/value of the Book of Mormon.  He starts the talk off with a story about an African King he met (awesome story) and after asks us how much the Book of Mormon is worth to us. It's really interesting and worth the reading.

Making humitas (tamales) with Lici and her baby Emily

We also spent time this week helping Pablo rebuild his brick oven, and we helped Dora make humitas. The week flew by and I'm looking forward to this coming week, especially Lici's baptism.

THANK YOU for all of your support, letters, and for praying for the people we are working with.

I love you all,

Elder Vincent

What I showered with the other day

Family

Hey everyone!  I hope you all had a great week.  We've been busy here in Chile!

I've learned recently that my attitude greatly influences my relationship with my companion.  If I treat him like a kid when he makes an immature joke, then he acts like a kid.  But if I say something like "hey, good one!" then change the subject, he starts talking about something more mature.  So, I realized that I really have the responsibility to make sure our relationship is good.  I wish I would have seen this earlier.  

I got robbed last week while writing at the cyber cafe.  Luckily we chased the guy down and got everything back!

We had two awesome highlights this week...  First, Diego was baptized!  It was a special experience for him and I'm so happy for him.  His dad isn't a member but was there to support him along with 10 other family members. 

Second, is an even better experience, and something I will remember for the rest of my life.  I received a call requesting me to go to the police station at 4pm to translate English for the police.  We got to the little plaza where the police station is and there were police waiting outside for us to arrive.  We made this huge entrance as they escorted us into the station while everyone inside was staring at us.  They put me and my companion into a room with a computer, tables, and lots of chairs.

The police officer said "Elder Vincent, this is Cristobal, he lives in Belgium and only speaks English and German.  He was born in Chile and was put up for adoption 29 years ago because his father lost his legs in an accident and couldn't provide for him.  We were able to find his biological family and they are going to meet him for the first time in 29 years and we need you to translate."  Then the family came into the room.  Mom, dad in his wheelchair, his 7 brothers/sisters and all of their kids.  There were about 20 in total.  Every single person in the room - family, police, etc - was in tears.  I was able to translate for them and talk about their lives, jobs, families, etc.  It was incredible to see Cristobal's joy every time I said "this is your next brother" and with the biggest smile he would say "I have ANOTHER brother?!

Nobody can argue that family is not the most important thing in the world.  I am so grateful for my family and the opportunity I have to help unite other families.  This is something I will never forget. 

I hope all of you can remember the importance of family and that you can help others understand its power and importance too.  It is the greatest gift we have from our Heavenly Father.  I love my family and love all of you like my family. 

There are 4 people that want to get baptized in the next 2 weeks.  Please pray for Lici , Antonela, Genesis, Ana Maria, Sandra, Luis, Orillana, Sebastian and Marcelo. 

Have a great week!  All my love,

Elder Vincent    

Family night at the Salazar's

Domingine and Rodrigo

A friendly (?) spider on my suitcase

Happy New Year!

Hey Everyone!

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone made good goals for the year and had a fun New Year’s!  

I was thinking about what I was doing last New Year’s and how different this New Years Eve was haha!  I made all my goals for 2018 and it’s cool how I get to just focus on the mission.  I’m going to work super hard, focus 100% and give everything I have to the Lord.  

We have 7 people wanting to get baptized in the next few weeks.  We’ve been working with Ana Maria and experienced the craziest miracle this week.  We were singing Christmas hymns to her 94 year old mother and Ana Maria’s kids called on the phone.  They could hear us in the background and she said she thought they were going to be mad that we were at her house, but instead they responded saying how nice they thought it was and we have their support.  So Ana Maria has a baptismal date for the 6th of January!  I’m super excited for her. 

Penco ran out of fresh water for the week. 

The city put out these massive plastic water tanks for people to fill their buckets but they’re super dangerous because people are fighting over the water.  Sometimes I think Chile isn’t such a bad country but then stuff like this happens and reminds me why it’s a third world country.  The water in the tank is so bad but we have to drink it and “shower” with it. 

Please pray for all the people we are working with… Ana Maria, Miguel, Lici, Estefan, Sandra, Diego, Domingine, and especially Marcelo.  

Thank you all for your letters and support.  It means so much to me.

Love,

Elder Vincent