querido familia y amigos,
thanks
for sending the email about the trek mom, it sounded so cool and
spiritual and it made me think about our trek and how good and hard and
fun it was. glad you guys had a great time.
this
week we had a miracle. it wasnt a big one, but we finally found one
person that is willing to let us into his house and actually listen to
us for the first time in 3 weeks. these last 3 weeks have been a huge
prueba of my faith looking back, but we now have a good investigator
named aldo paraguez who lives with his 7 year old daughter and his 4
year old son. unfortunalñey he is divorced and seems sad, like
somnething is missing, and he has no idea that the thing missing from
his life is this message of the gospel that we have to share with him.
im excited to keep working with him, and invite him to be baptized and
recieve this gospel in his life so that he can truily be happy. that was
our small miracle this week. we also were able to go to a baptism that
the hermanas had in the zone this saturday. a little old lady named
maria got baptized and it was a really special experience. i was asked
to conduct the service at the last minute and i was super nervous
because ive never conducted a baptism but it all turned out well and we
got maria confirmed yesterday in sacrament meeting.
the
low point of the week happened today... we got the whole zone together
in the chapel today to do a zone activity. we had everything ready and
planned out to have a flour war with socks filled with flour to throw at
each other and play dodgeball and jst get messy and have a fun time.
but about 10 minutes in, one of the elders from panama slipped in the
wet grass, slammed his shin on a metal grate covering a gas line, and
broke his shin....there is a hole in his shin about the size of a
quarter and about half an inch deep, straight to the bone. we had to
stop the activity right away, call the mission nurse and then send the
elder to rancagua to the hospital to fix his shin. pretty lame way to
spend a p day, but accidents happen. well see how hes doing on thursday
in the zone conference well be having.
this
week i got sick of writting in my journal, and decided to start doing
video entries each night, explaining my day, and just talking instead of
writing all the small details. thanks for the idea mom and dad. thats
pretty much my week. we did a lot of contacting still, but now that we
have found aldo, im alot more excited to go out and find more people.
ive
been studying in preach my gospel everyday for the past week and a half
and have realized so many basic and simple but essencial truths in this
gospel. one of the principles that has stuck out most to me is enduring
to the end, not just going through the motions while waiting for the
end. there is a big difference in those two sentences, and i feel like
as members of this church we get them mixed up too often. the main
difference can be desvribed in one word, which is conversion. ive
realized that in the mission we come across a lot of people who are
waiting for the end as baptized members of the church, but they arent
converted or consecrated, they are just convinced is all. i hope that we
dont ever fall into that trap of being convinced instead of truly
converted to be able to endure to the end as faithful disciples of
christ. i read a talk that i love called becoming a consecrated
missionary by tad r callister. find some time to read it and then live
it.
well hope everyone has a great week this week. thanks for the emails and updates and letters everyone. love you all!!!
love,
elder pacheco
