Elder Colvin 2.0 in Santiago: Trompos and Fardos

October 15, 2014

Today would have really been horrible had it not been p-day. ALL of our citas fell through and we just didn’t have much success. P-day was a blast though. It started with my miracle for the day:

Miracle 23: After 3 ½ weeks we finally got a cell phone!

Today we bought the Chilean national game, the trompo which is a spinning top. It is tough to learn to play! We also climbed Cerro Negro and got the grand view of our sector and it was very cool. I had a good time just having some good old fashioned fun with wholesome recreational activities. We also found some ruins that are now used as a crack den.

The happy climber.

This is one very wise senior companion to find this activity for a restless greenie.

A crack den with character

October 16, 2014

We had a great day today. We had really good 3 lessons and it made up for yesterday. Our best lesson was with the V. family.

Miracle #24: The father of this family participated for the first time, even saying the closing prayer. The 11 year old son said that he wanted to serve a mission and bore the most beautiful testimony that I have ever heard coming from a kid…EVER.

I was so happy after that lesson that I realized that I need to push through the bad days for days like today.

October 17, 2014

I have decided that I never want to open an area again. Having 6 lessons planned and only teaching 1 is the worst. To top it all off we got our brand new cell phone taken away. Apparently what happened is that instead of ordering sim cards for a new line/phone, they ordered a replacement for an existing line meaning when ours was activated, other lines shut down. So the mission office has to figure things out once again.

Not much happened of note today except we decided to just contact by the spirit and I had my miracle:

Miracle #25: We felt prompted to talk to a lady and she said that she had been watching us talking to her uncle and was hoping that we would talk to her. She had a lot of questions for us.

Before

During

This was a tree that we pushed over and broke up... super hard and fun

After

October 18, 2014

Today was so inefficient and I was disappointed with us. The best thing that happened today was that we spent the morning doing service that was fun for me (because it was physical) and it was rewarding to accomplish.

After that we studied more and left to a cita that fell through. We came back and basically just talked about how I am feeling about my mission. I feel very restricted right now because my personality wants to do and accomplish so much more than I am able or allowed to do right now. I realize that I have been called here for a reason and that I will be able to help someone here, but a lot of the things that I want to try are “not recommended.”

I suppose that my miracle of the day was during the only good part of the day. We were talking to the owner of an Almacen (restaurant) and we just finished and headed to an appointment. The cita fell through and literally 20 minutes later we passed by the same Almacen which was crawling with police.

Miracle #26: Leaving the Almacen right before an armed robbery took place. (Secretly I wished I had been there)

October 19, 2014

Today was rough because I had a fever last night and only slept for about 4 hours. My body is just exhausted today. We had our crazy miracle happen on top of setting a new attendance record in church (116). We had the mother of one of our investigators come to church. We had some good lessons even though I have been feeling drained and achy all day.

Miracle #27: Hermana F. came to church even though she told us that she wouldn’t come.

October 20. 2014

Today’s tracting day started with the miracle of the day and then fell a little flat until the end.

Miracle #28: A man called us over in English to talk to us. He asked us “Why the people of Israel were the chosen people?” Elder Soulier responded that, “It was because that was what God wanted, he chose them.” This man then told us that he has once spoken with an area seventy who told him that he could know if a missionary was guided by the spirit by asking him this question. He was told that such a missionary would respond the exact way that Elder Soulier did. It was absolutely incredible.

So we learned that this man is studying English, French, and cooking. His dream is to be a professional chef in the states. He was a really interesting person and we wanted to set up a cita with him, but unfortunately he lives in another area.

We did have another really great experience with our young investigator. We taught a family home evening lesson and the subject of the priesthood came up. I leaned over and told this young man that he would soon be old enough to receive the Aaronic priesthood. His response was the best! He turned to me with this look of wonder and excitement and asked if he really could. I have never every met a youth with as strong of a desire to do the right thing as this boy has. I can palpably feel the love that the Lord has for him and how happy He is with the desires of his young heart. Every time I see this boy he says that I am his best friend. All of the sucky hours and days are worth being able to see this boy’s glowing happiness when he talks about Christ and bears his testimony. I am starting to think that he could be the pillar of faith in his family.

Bus stop contacting

October 21, 2014

I had a good day today. We did horrible morning bus stop contacts, and then had district meeting where my miracle of the day happened.

Miracle #29: I got my birthday package 7 weeks early!!!!! It made me ridiculously happy and trunky at the same time.

We actually really did have a miracle:

Miracle #30: One of our investigators that struggle to understand concepts, understood all of our lesson, and our young boy that I wrote about yesterday is reading 10 CHAPTERS of the Book of Mormon every single day!!! I was blown away.

I am finally able to understand enough Spanish to converse with people who talk clearly. One major problem remains: I have always had a good accent when speaking Spanish which makes people think that I know more than I do. Thus, most people overestimate my abilities and start speaking faster when they hear me respond to them….then they completely lose me. I'm getting along great and the reality is that even though almost every day sucks, I'm still happy for 99% of the time.

Happy Early Birthday Elder Colvin

Cinder block houses might have worked better for Levi growing up.

Tomorrow for p-day, we are going to buy a fardo, which is a 45 kg. sack of TIES. I am pretty pumped up to get some cheap, horrible ties and be able to give it to members and investigators.