"jerseys, empanadas, cowboy hats, and spurs"

buenas!

after thinking about what to write to everyone, i realized that this week was full of awesome miracles and only good experiences and of course a few funny ones. to start, our investigator hector pinto, came to church for the second sunday in a row! we went to visit him with the branch president the other day and had a great opportunity to serve hector.  he is struggling a lot economically and doesn't have much. he got divorced a few years back, lives alone and doesnt have a job right now. its sad seeing him how he is, but i can tell that the gospel is changing his life already. although he doesnt have much as far as the worlds standards go, he does have a strong desire to learn about the gospel, he has lots of faith and trust in god, and he came to church twice which shows that he is willing to act on the faith he has. he is a good humble guy and if everything goes as planned, he should get baptized on the 26th of septiembre. 

 while on divisions, elder silvera and elder loveridge found a man named gustavo and invited him to get baptized in septiembre also. after lots and lots of praying and contacting and trying to find at least one person tha t would listen to us, we now have two, and i realized that was another big miracle. we have been working hard to get baptismal dates, to find people that are going to progress, and to help the zone do the same, but recently i noticed that we were doing things for the wrong reason. ive become a little too concerned about the numbers and dates that we pass to president and the assistants, and i've forgotten that these people are real people, not just a bunch of numbers.

the lord doesnt care about numbers and percentages and statistics. he cares about the love that we show for our brothers and sisters here. i realized this after reading the talk called loving others and living with differences from the october conferencia 2014 by dallin h oaks. i invite you guys to read the oct 2014 general conference ensign again. 

we had a good activity today. we went to this place called pelequen, just outside of san fernando. its a huge flea market that sells everything in chile from soccer jerseys, to empanadas, to cowboy hats and spurs, and all kinds of other native stuff. we spent about 2 hours walking all the way up the market and then all the way back down. its about a mile long, and then we ended with a tour of this huge catholic cathedral. we saw the priest blessing the niños with holy water, the people w orshiping the virgin mary and all the saints, and all kinds of other chilean catholic apostasy. it was really interesting but it was insane how different the feeling was (the lack of the spirit) from the temple or from our chapels. it was a cool experience, and it made me feel grateful to be a member of this church.

that was our week all wrapped up. it passed by so fast, just like usual. it was great to hear from you guys, love you all and hope that you have a great new week!! adios!

love,

elder pacheco