Week 80 - Good Vibes Only!

written: 7/11/2022

Week 80

A busy and exciting week! We got the chance to meet a lot of cool new people and see some awesome things happen! 

This week we had our first zone conference with our new President, President Gervic! He is really awesome and I'm excited to keep learning from him. He is young and seems like he knows how to have fun but also when to be serious. He had some great ideas and his family is awesome as well. We were originally supposed to have the zone conference this upcoming week but due to the crazy weather and snow in Coyhaique, they changed it. It would be cool to be in Coyhaique to see the snow and experience that, but I'm definitely glad that I got out of there when I did because bad weather as a missionary is not a good combination. 

We were finally able to have a video call with Cesar, who I think I've mentioned before. He was in teaching before the pandemic. Around 2 weeks ago we talked to him about baptism and he said he's still ready and he wants to be baptized. However, we lost communication with him and we couldn't get ahold of him, as he is always working. But this past week we had the video call and he said he's ready for his baptism and we set all the dates we need (lessons, interview, baptism and confirmation). He is going to be baptized this Saturday! We were able to have a lesson with him on Sunday after he attended church in person for the first time since I've been here! He knew everything and had 0 problems with anything we taught and he was a pro going over the interview as well! They're super excited as a family because his wife has been a member for years now and now in a few weeks Cesar will also baptize his 8 year old son and they already have plans to go to the temple in one year!! The entire branch is so excited as well because they've been waiting for this baptism for years! 

Two other cool stories of finding new people. One is Karina. We had 30 minutes before lunch and we decided to go out and knock some doors. We knocked around 4 or 5 doors and then we got to her house and she opened the door 2 seconds after we knocked. We introduced ourselves and asked if she had time for a message. She let us in and we taught her and her 9 year old daughter. They have talked to Jehovah Witnesses and also attended our church one time years ago but they haven't gone to a church in a while. We taught about the doctrine of Christ and we explained how she could choose to be baptized this time after having faith and choosing her own church and she said yes, and she accepted a baptismal date! Later we found out that her partner doesn't like churches so that might make it difficult but nevertheless a spiritual lesson! The other is Aguy, a Haitian! We had a small time a the end of Saturday for Facebook finding and I saw a post from Aguy which was a Haitian preacher and it made me remember that we had talked and he had interest. I saw our conversation and saw he hadn't responded in a month so I decided to just call him randomly, something I've never done. He answered and I asked him if we could come see him tomorrow and he said no problem, and sent us his address. We went last night and he told us he's talked to missionaries before the pandemic and he showed a facebook story of a missionary that served here. We had a great lesson and he reminds me so much of Evens, our friend from Portal Del Mar. He has a lot of questions and loves the Bible but his questions come from a place of wanting the truth and not of contention! 

I have been focusing over the last months of having joy in the work, something I known I've mentioned. I have been seeing the positive effects it also has on the district that I'm in and how they're also having joy in the work and how happy we all are and the successes we are seeing. Doing good things and being happy is the best. Good vibes only! 

Love, Elder Collin Steele 

pictures include: 1st Zone Conference with President and Sister Gervic