Hey guys! so the reason Im writing this late, is because we went to Tumbes for P-day, and just got back to Talcahuano. We went and took tons of pictures and walked all along the coast! I will send some pics, but I seriously took a bunch of awesome ones! I am going to love having these when I get back :)
Some awesome things happened this week. First one was last monday evening. We had an appointment up on this way high hill far away that we normally would have taken the bus to get there, but for some reason decided to walk... after walking the whole way we were close to the top of the hill, and walking on a dirt path along the road we saw 10 feet or so off in the bushes this guy crouched down in the bushes and in the dirt just bawling. He was crying and had his face in his hands. My first reaction, was surprised and a little hesitant, but we walked off the path over into the bushes where he was and started talking to him. Like saying Are you okay man? And trying to find out what was wrong. While he was crying he started to tell us that his 2 days before that, his wife (who was 7 months pregnant with twins) both the babies had died. This guys name is Juan Pablo. He is only 24 years old, and his wife about to have their first 2 children... they both died. He was clearly in the lowest of lows. My heart just broke for this man, I wanted to just sit down next to him and cry with him. It was heartbreaking. He is just this poor young college kid whose world I imagine seems to have just come crashing down.
Well, we told him who we are, and that God had put us in his path, because there were NOT MANY reasons that we would be walking this way at this time. We gave him a pamflet of the Plan of Salvation, and told him to read this, because it would tell him how he would be able to see his twin babies, and life with them again. That they were not lost. We just testified, and got his address so we could meet with him a couple days later. WHAT A MIRACLE! I had complete compassion for this man, but in a way... there was part of me that rejoiced a little, because I knew or at least hoped that this man would be sufficiently humble to accept this message that I know HE NEEDS. Well turns out we wrote down the wrong address and could not find him the next day. After a few days we saw him walking down the street he said he lived on. We just wrote the wrong house number. He said he read the pamflet and really wanted us to come back and teach him. Everytime we go back, he is either busy or we are on our way to another appointment, we have not been able to meet with him yet, but I hope that when we do, everything goes well! :) This was a way cool experience though.
We find people every once and a while that are in the lowest points of their lives, and I do rejoice because I know that our message is what they need. Chist is ALWAYS the answer. We have found a few more people to teach and its awesome when we do. This guy Michael is 20 years old and really seems interested in our message, and has the 22 of Nov as his baptismal date. He even came to church yesterday with his less active mom :) but for now we are still hoping he progresses and will be prepared to be baptized.
Church yesterday was great. We had 90 people in sacrament meeting!! That is more than double normal! The bishop, and everyone else were stunned how many people were there, and they were so pleased :) I am really starting to see huge growth in this ward. We had 2 investigators, and 10 less actives come. (all in addition to the other less actives we found last week.) With 4 missionaries working in this ward, I think its going to really benefit the members here. Our goal is to keep finding less actives and investigators and get the ward attendance into the 100`s. I totally think we can do it!!!
Well I hope you guys had a good Halloween weekend. On halloween it was apparently some huge Evangelical holiday here too. So most of the stores were closed, and there was hardly ANYONE home or in the streets. P.S. mom I hope you had a GREAT birthday!!! In honor of you we had a pancake party ;) haha we really did make pancakes that night! :)
Those are the highlights of the week! I will answer everyone`s individual emails back too... dont worry! Pray for the members here, and that we can keep finding less actives and strengthen the church here! :) Love you guys!!
Elder Hartvigsen
No comments:
Post a Comment