20 May 2013

Kami Letter from Antofagasta (dated 5/20/13)

Heyya all! 

This week was another great week for me here! It´s tough for sure, but miracles do happen! :) We are trying our hardest to find more people to teach, because we don´t have too many investigators right now. We do SO many contacting and tracting, and only maybe 1 person would let us in. 

Funny story, one guy that we ran into was a Testigo de Jehovah (Jehovah´s Witness) and he was trying to convince us that God is named Jehovah, only 144 people are going to heaven, and that we interpret the bible wrong. I couldn´t help but think how sad and hopeless it would be if only 144 people were allowed into heaven. What would be our purpose in life? Even, what´s his purpose in studying the bible and sharing his religion with people if even he won´t get to heaven for it? We read him part of the intro of the book of mormon, and he seemed a little surprised because it wasn´t what he thought it was. But yeah, not much from him. He wasnt interested, so we let it go. 

We had a zone fast this week too, for help with finding people. Here, I really like how they do their fasts. Remember how I told you last Sunday that we eat a huge lunch, and a small dinner if any? Well, they fast after lunch, until lunch the next day. I like that a lot, it´s "easier" ;) Anyways, we started the fastWednesday after lunch until Thursday lunch. Thurs mornings we have our weekly planning as a zone. My comp and I were planning, when some elders in another zone called us and told us they found a girl for us to teach, who´s a great investigator. We decided to stop by her house. YES SHE IS GREAT! She´s been going to church with her friend in another ward for a long time, has all the pamphlets and has read them all, and is super interested in the church. Her friend´s ward is far away, and wants to go with us because it´s closer! It was awesome! We will teach her again later this week, but she is great!
Along with the fast for new investigators, I also wanted to fast for help with the language. It´s something we kinda struggle with because we´re both new. I could tell each day that I can understand more and more, but still not everything. These past few days, I can tell I can understand a LOT more too. A LOT. Like pretty much everything! It´s so nice to not be so clueless ;) haha 

We had been a little discouraged about our investigators too, because it´s so hard for us to communicate and find people. But we were doing our exercises the other morning, and a thought had popped into my head. Maybe our purpose in this sector isn´t to find that "one person" to baptize. Yes, baptism is important, and I think as missionaries we automaticallly think that´s our only purpose. But really our purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ." I shared it with my companion and we are trying other things now too. Visiting more less actives, members, and still tracting. But since we changed our focus on not only searching for new people and not finding them, but to help others too, we had an easier week, and were more excited and happy. Not so discouraged and frustrated :) 

Wednesday night, we started an english class! we had about 10 people there, so a pretty good turn out. We had fun too! Most people were from the ward and their family or friends, but a few non-members too. We will teach every wednesday. last week we only did the basics "hello" "my name is" "i am from" "i am __ yrs old" and the numbers. They want to learn body parts, time, weekdays, and months, so i think we´ll do that this week. It´s super fun!

Funny,when we would do contacting, we would say "hi! we´re missionaries....." and they would reply that they´re not interested, busy... but when we´d say "ok, but we´re also teaching english" Theyd get so much more excited and talk to us for a bit. haha :) 

Yesterday, for our lunch with a member, we ate SHARK!! well...maybe...they told us it was shark, and were serious. even the wife who is more quiet and serious said it was too. But when we told other people, they laughed and said there isn´t shark here and that they were joking! So i´m not positive..but it was really yummy whatever it was! I´m going to say it was shark though ;) haha

Last night, we didn´t have much to do, and had like a half hour until we had to go back to the house. There´s this HUGE catholic church close to our house, and it was open, so we decided to look inside. WHOA those things are so cool!! the architecture is amazing and the stuff is really cool. The minister guy talked to us for a little while, and ended up giving us all these flyers and pamphlets. and even some extra to give to other people... haha but i like stuff like that from other churches, it´s interesting to look at. haha 

So, i´ve started to get some recipes and such.. and already have a couple ideas of stuff i want to make you all when i´m home! ;) i´m excited! but also, i have a list of food i miss and will want too. haha mexican food i miss a lot. my comp and i always talk about how good it is and sad they don´t have it really here. 

That´s crazy how the kids are already pretty much out of school,and bentley´s graduating!! that was so fast! wowww! Have a fun summer break, and at the cabin and stuff! I miss the cabin too. and just hanging out with everyone. playing cards and such ;) haha 

you kids in seminary and preparing for missions... i recommend you memorize all the scripture masteries. they´ve helped me so much here! even if i don´t remember the scripture (or not know it in spanish) i know they key words and reference and can look it up. 

also, there´s a talk by David A Bednar that´s super good. We have this binder full of talks. It´s called "Becomming a Missionary". When I read it this week, I thought of you all and thought how great it would be for you all to read it. There´s also one, called " The Fourth Missionary" I don´t remember who it´s by, and it´s not a conference talk,so I don´t know if you can find it or not. But you can read it when I´m home if not :) Study the scriptures, write down thoughts you have, read the conference talks again, apply from each one how you can improve... and look for miracles! there really are miracles everywhere. it´s amazing!

well, that´s about all for this week ;) enjoy the last week of school!! 
Miss and love you all lotss!!! 

bye!
--Hermana Severtson

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