Green Hill far away

We had another good week here in Colina. It's starting to get pretty cold here but that's good. We have all sorts of problems on our bikes, but oh well ha. It ended up actually being a pretty good thing because I'm a lot more used to walking and knocking doors than riding on bike. I'll start with Roberto. He recently found a new job so he is a little bit harder to find now a days but he is still progressing really well. He worked saturday night but still wanted to go to church the next day but couldn't because he had to work a little longer. Anyways we taught him plan of salvation and he really liked it. All of his neighbors love him, he is just a really solid guy. The branch president is working like crazy. He gave us some families to visit and we talked with all of them. He's got a good vision and we are trying everything to work with him and help the branch. Elder Mackay is so great. We get along perfectly. I really hope we can be together for one more change. We found this awesome green hill the other day so that's the plan for this p day to go hike up there. Dieter F. Uchtdorf But perhaps there is a different metaphor that can explain why we obey the commandments of God. Maybe obedience is not so much the process of bending, twisting, and pounding our souls into something we are not. Instead, it is the process by which we discover what we truly are made of.

More similar than we think

This week there was a ton of rain. Where I'm at it wasn't too bad, but a lot of santiago got flooded. 

The highlight of this week was definitely Roberto and his family. The lessons with them are so awesome because all the family gets together in a smaller room and there is always such a special feeling. They were going to go to a family night in the church but there was too much rain. Sunday morning they all got ready and got in their car to leave to church but the car wouldn't start. At least the intention was there, right? In our last lesson Roberto told us that his whole life he feels like he has been searching, and he feels that he is beginning to find what he has always been looking for. 

Our branch president is a total superman. He is working like crazy trying to raise church attendance. He interviewed three young men and set goals for them to go and serve a mission. There has been a lot of changes here in the branch but it looks like everything is falling right into place.

We had a cool experience when we talked with a man that was Islamic. We asked him a lot of questions and learned a lot about him. After listening to him I learned that we are a lot more similar than we think. The base is that god loves us and we pray to him for help and guidance.

A priesthood holder came in. He knelt down, blessed some bread, and handed her a piece. She ate it. He knelt down again and blessed some water and handed her a small cup. She drank it. Thereafter, Diane had two thoughts in rapid succession: First, “Oh, he [the priesthood holder] did this just for me.” And then, “Oh, He [the Savior] did this just for me.” Dale Renlund 

I love you guys have a great week!

Last testimony

For the first time in a while it rained this morning. It's started to get a little cold here.  On thursday we had a zone conference. It was good to hear from president and his wife. At the end of every zone conference the missionaries that are leaving give their last testimony. I couldn't believe that this last conference was our turn. It was so awesome hearing the testimonies of all the friends that I came here with. But also the date was strange giving a last testimony with so much time still left. Oh well. On friday I had an interchange with Elder Clarine. It was way too fun. We ended up teaching a lot of good people that day. He's been in his ward for a little time now and everyone their loves him. He is such a good friend and being in the same district as him makes the mission a whole lot better. On sunday the plan was to go to church with our investigator nicholas. He is 18 years old and is so awesome. I think I talked a little about him the last time. He lived up by antofoghasta and went to the church a lot there, and reciently moved to colina. Anyways we live pretty far from the church and the plan was to meet forty five minutes early to walk to church. We called him and he was still sleeping but said he wanted to go. So we waited and ended up only being like six minutes late to church. But when we got to church we saw that our president was sitting in the stand. It was the worse luck. He ended up kind of getting on our case, but it was a good thing because we were also able to talk about some other important stuff going on in our sector. We are teaching the most special family of all time. We've met with them a few times and all of them are really receptive. The mom is less active and her husband and four kids are investigators. The dad, roberto, started off being a little hestitant but has really opened up and is really considering everything. For example he refused to pray at the beginning but now at the end of lessons we pray on our knees and he says the prayer. On our way to their house me and mackay both got the feeling to change the lesson plan to alma 7 and talk about the atonement and baptism. He didn't commit to a date but said he would really think about it. He also said we made him really want to read the book of mormon so that was good.