Dear family and friends,
A long time ago. In a galaxy
far, far away...there was a missionary in the sector of El Bosque who
had much to talk about. But before he tell the tales of his adventures
he had to answer the questions that his dear mother asked him in her
email. Because as we all know, an unhappy mom is an unhappy life. So he began by answering the questions concerning his health and companion.
He has been healthy his whole mission so far and is enjoying his first
latino companion. They, Elder Ashworth and Elder Terra, get along very
well and live in a little apartment with two other Elders. And because
the mom asked for pictures he will be sure to send them the next week.
Now that the questioning period of his email has
been concluded he will begin by telling of his experiences and
adventures of this week...(Pretty bad story telling huh?)
But in all seriousness this week has been full of stuff.
On Monday we went to a family night and when we
arrived they asked us to go visit a brother in the ward because he wasn't
feeling well. His name is hermano J. We went over and he had been
throwing up and was really tired. He asked for us to go get the bishop
so we did. when we arrived there was more people in his house then when
we left. Well be went upstairs to his bedroom and with the bishop gave a
blessing on the house. Because you could feel that there was something
in that house. Then we gave him a blessing. During the blessing it felt
like the floor was moving underneath my feet. Then after he threw up
some more and the feeling inside of the house was gone. It was like a
brand new, bright room. It was my first experience in helping get rid of
demons inside of a house and somebody. It was a testimony that the
priesthood is real and that there is power in it. Then afterward another
elder told me that he arrived before us and gave a blessing of health.
During the blessing something grabbed him around the chest and he wasn't
able to talk for a little bit. It took all of his strength to give the
blessing. It was a crazy day.
Then Tuesday we visited a possible investigator. We
visited with her and got to know her. Her name is Patricia. At the end
of the visit i shared the scripture Mark 5:36
with her that reads "do not fear, only believe". The scripture hit her
hard and the spirit was strong. She has been having a ruff time lately
that she started to cry after the scripture. It was the first time that
somebody cried from a scripture that i shared. That was also a testimony
of powerful the scriptures are in this life.
Wednesday
we had successful mutual. we had 2 young men and 5 young women, when
two weeks ago we had 0 youth for mutual. we talked and made pizzas and
the youth are excited for the next mutual this week.
Thursday
we visited an inactive member that we have been visiting for awhile. He
finally told us why he is inactive and that we are the first
missionaries he has let into his house since he went inactive. I also
learned that i was the first missionary to share a spiritual thought
with him in over 20 years. He is a great man and prayed for us for the
first time too on Thursday.
Saturday
was very long. We woke up at 430 in the morning to be at a church house
in Pudahuel by 8. Elder Evans of the Seventy talked to us. He talked
for 4 hours! It was a great talk. He talked about our purpose as
missionaries and that way too many missionaries focus on faith and
Baptism and skip Repentance, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to
the end. He also talked about teaching families and to work on rescuing more then baptisms right now. There are so many inactive
members that we can knock doors and 80 percent of them are members that don't remember anything about the church. It was just amazing. He also
talked on the doctrine or gospel of Christ in 2 Nephi 31 and 32. It was a
very spiritual meeting. In the end he told us why he came in the first
place. The twelve and the first presidency asked him to go to Santiago
and feel what the missionaries are felling there. That was his
assignment. Kind of an odd assignment. But he said that he would return
and tell the twelve that there are over 1000 missionaries in the Santiago area who are ready to make the changes necessary to help edify
this church.
Sunday i had to teach the Sunday
school for the youth again since it is one of my assignments in the
ward. we talked about the Atonement. It was a very spiritual class and
every youth was thinking at the end of the class about the magnitude of
the Atonement. We talked about the pain of the atonement and to try to
grasp the pain you need to take the worst pain you have eve felt and
multiply it by the amount of people who have ever lived on this earth
and will every live on this earth. Then i gave the story ´"The File
Room" and you could tell that they had never thought about the atonement
before and all them only knew the Atonement as the picture of Christ
when he is in the garden of Gethsemane. It was a great class and i look
forward to teaching the next class next week more about the atonement. I
know that it is real and that if we use it we will be full of joy. If
not we will suffer as did Jesus. It was a necessary thing because without
it we cannot live with our father in heaven again.
This was my crazy full week! I love you all! Have a
great week and look forward to the truth and light so that the shadows
of darkness and disappointment fall behind you and you are left with a
clear of the path you must take in this life.
Elder Ashworth
Wow! What a week ! - Brianna
