The work here is going forward! We had a baptism last week of Javiera, and it was really good! She brought her friend named Madeleinne, and now we are going to start working with her. We put a baptismal date with her last week, and now we are going to start teaching her in Javiera’s house combined with Javiera and her grandma to give testimony and validity to our lessons. I’m really excited to see how she progresses. Hopefully the YW here will rally around her like they did with Javiera. For some reason, the women here in Chile are way stronger than the men. At least in numbers. The hombres are either super strong in the church, or really flojo and sit on the fence. I am going to start using that example you taught me about sitting on the fence this week with some of the members here. They use just about any excuse to stop going to church or say they are waiting to get back active. The time to act is now.
Also, this past week we have been really focusing in on another of our Fechas. His name is Lucas, and his family is so cool!! They have been menos activo for a long time, but only because they don’t go to church. They have always been really good with helping the missionaries, giving references, having FHE´s in their home and everything, just not going to church. But yesterday night we were talking with his mom, and she really opened up and we had a good talk with her. The Spirit was really strong as she told us that there is nothing holding her back anymore, and that she is going to start going back to church even though she has had bad experiences with the members. And she is going to start working to go to the temple. During one of the last lessons we had with her, she was teaching her son about obedience. While she was talking I saw her dressed in white going through the temple. I really hope I can see that happen in real life too!! I love this family, and I have been so blessed to see the change in their home as they have started to put into effect the basic points of the gospel. This is the family you are going to meet when we skype!! They are so cool!! And they understand English pretty well haha. I’m excited for you to meet them!!
We are working alot with our other progressing investigators and finding solid news to help them progress too. Our goal for the week is to set a fecha with at least 1 of our families we are working with! We found another family this week from a reference. We were told that a member lived there but he has been really inactive. We had passed by probably 10 times, and stopped going by for a while. We decided that since we were close by we would go by again and just try to get into the house to teach something. His pareja let us in, and we started to get to know them a bit, and then her marido got home with their son! They are a really cool family and said we can come back by anytime! I’m starting to learn the importance of getting to know the people we teach really well before we start teaching them! It makes all the difference!!
Well, that has been my week here more or less! I got kissed on the hand by a drunk, and that was weird, but I’m still loving it!!
I love you all and hope that everything is going well for you!
Elder WIllis
Elder Zachary Willis -Rancagua Chile 