Puerto Varas Pinball

3/13/23

 On Tuesday morning our zone met up in Puerto Varas to watch transfer news and eat breakfast together. I'm staying in Puerto Varas! I'm super stoked, I have grown to love a lot of the families here. My companion got sent to Punta Arenas (the very south of the world,) and I'm a little worried for him because he was dying of the cold here, up North where it's "warmer", during the summer, and now he's going to be the on the closest land mass to Antarctica during the winter. Prayers for Elder Viloria!!

On Thursday, the transfers happened. Over half of our zone got transferred, so there were a lot of missionaries to send out, and a lot of missionaries to receive. We arrived at 9 In the morning, and from then until 7 we were scrambling around. The office must have felt a little funny organizing everything, because they sent the missionaries coming into the zona to three different bus terminals, or in normal city buses that could arrive at any point in the city🤦‍♂️ missionaries leaving the zone were also leaving from a few different points, and so we spent the day running from terminal to terminal or in the streets looking for missionaries that may have gotten off the bus. The fact the everyone arrived and got home is a huge miracle, this is the Lord's work😂

My new companion is Elder Rolfson from Castlerock, Colorado, and he's a beast. We've hit the ground running and have have some very powerful lessons, it's been fun. Thiare and Paz committed to baptism, and there were 12 people at church😳 Huge miracles. 

Highlights:

- Lunch with Hermana Claudia Jara. She was talking about Zodiac signs the whole time, and trying to convince us that the 12 Zodiac are connected with the 12 tribes of Israel. ♒️🕉♋️ she was flaming me, because I'm Leo, and so obviously I want to be the center of attention because my element is fire. (Or something like that)

- followed very distinct prompting and found the old, inactive young men's leader, Ricardo!

- Some powerful lessons with the Gaete family. Super inactive family that came to church for the first time in years

-Noche de Hogar with the Gorostiaga and Cardenas family. We had amazing Cujen and an amazing conversation about the commandments.

- We asked Barbara Cardenas when she knew she wanted to be baptized, and she told us that she followed the invitation to ask God, and she felt a burning feeling of pure joy in her chest. 

Love y'all! A cool study I had was comparing the story of the brother of Jared and his family preparing to cross the sea to our own life. He was promised that it would be a hard journey, but necessary, and that the challenges could all be overcome if he would act with Faith. In a similar way, when we were in the premortal world, we knew this life would be hard, but that the challenges were necessary for our growth, and we knew that we could have joy and direction if we followed Christ. Mormón 5: 18 compares the fallen nephites to a ship without Sail, anchor, or something to direct them, and so they were tossed to and fro. We are currently in this life, with challenges, and if we do not have a sail, anchor, or compass to guide us, we will be lost. 

I thought about it a while, and realized what the sail, anchor, and compass are for me, and I invite all y'all to do the same🚣‍♂️

Love y'all!