Hermana Iroz, Hermana Bigo and Hermana Mercado jump for joy!

Cosechon with the Zone

Hermana Mercado, Hermana Iroz y Hermana Bigo

Hermana Mercado's 30th Letter from Chile

It has been confirmed. I will be staying in Ciudad Satelite, and I will be training two gringas. I did the math. I'm going to be the only Hermana training two greenies. I feel inadequate at the moment, but I know that the Lord qualifies us for the work, and with his help, I can do anything. It will be interesting and fun. I will just have to take it one day at a time. 

This past week has been a little crazy. With the special changes going on, and so many Hermanas training, Hermana Bigo from the sector 'El Abrazo' came to stay with us for a week. Her companion already changed sectors, and she is waiting for her greenie to arrive Tuesday. Last Wednesday, we all went to a training for trainers. There were about 35 trainers! It is insane how many missionaries are going to be coming. Almost all the Hermanas are training.

Anyway, this week with three Hermanas has been interesting and fun. Hermana Bigo really wants to learn English. She has successfully learned how to say "I'm tired". She has named Mom's chocolate peanut butter bars "chocolate super vacan", and the other night I was able to describe to her (with the help of a dictionary) the story of Thumbelina. "Hada" is fairy and "topo" is mole. Thumbelina really is a very strange story when told out loud.

Besides having fun, we've also been working. We were able to find a few new people to teach this week. One great experience was we were supposed to meet with a new investigator one day, but when we past by she wasn't home. Later that day, we were walking to one cita, and we saw a woman crying in the park, so of course we rushed over to see what was wrong. It was the new investigator we were supposed to be meeting earlier that day. She said she hadn't been home because she's having problems with her husband, and she was just thinking of calling us, but she didn't know where she was to give us directions or anything, and then we appeared! Heavenly Father is very wise. He's got everything under control.

--Hermana Mercado 

Hermana Mercado's 29th Letter from Chile

This week has been good and challenging. We had a cosechon this weekend with our zone in our sector, and we hope to see some fruits from the contacts that were made. A cosechon is when all the missionaries in the zone go to one sector (in this instance, Ciudad Satelite) to prosylite(sp?). We divided up our sector into about six mini sectors, gave each missionary a map, and a list of names and directions to pass by (menos activos, antiguos, contactos). Members from our ward helped out too! Each missionary had a member go out with them, so we were able to make even more companionships. We were able to receive several names of people who are willing to let us pass by again! We are are going to be doing a cosechon in each sector of our zone these coming Sundays. 

Another good thing that happened this week was with a menos activo we found last week, Samuel, a joven of about 13. We had been given his name by his uncle about two months ago, but whenever we passed by his house, he was never home. Well, we finally found him at home last week, and we were able to pass and share a little bit with him and his Mom (also menos activa). Anyway, Tuesday, we didn't have Samuel in our plans for that day, but we felt like we should pass by to invite him to mutual. Then we began thinking of which joven could help us out to invite him. In our minds we thought of Cristobal Torrejon, and since we were going to do service for his mom that morning anyway, we could talk to him and ask for his help at the same time. When we got there, instead of helping Hermana Torrejon with the crafts we had been planning on (she was busy with other things) she asked us if we could help Cristobal with his Duty to God. One of his metas was to invite someone to come unto Christ. He was a little discouraged because he had tried to invite his less-active older brother to church, and that had ended in an argument.  The stage was set perfectly for us. "You know Cristobal, we have an idea." We told him about Samuel and asked if he could help us invite him to mutual. He readily accepted. He was a little nervous, but excited, and we practiced with him about how he would invite Samuel. Well, later that day, we passed by Samuel's house with Cristobal, and he was home! We introduced Samuel to Cristobal, Cristobal invited him to mutual, and he accepted! About one hour later we saw Cristobal and his mom passing by in their car to go pick up Samuel for mutual. We were so happy! It was just a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is aware of each one of our needs. Samuel needs friendship and support to be able to take the steps to come back to church, and Cristobal needed an opportunity to serve. They helped to fill each other's needs. It just worked out perfectly!

Also, on Sunday, before our cosechon, we didn't know what to do because our citas had fallen through. We left the house to go try pass by some back-up plans we had set-up, but before we got to far, we thought that we should try to pass by a menos activa, Maria Eugenia. We've passed by many times, but she's never been home or her children tell us through a window that she's busy. Well, just as we were walking up to her house, a car was parking right outside. It was her! And she invited us inside! We were able to share a little bit with her and her children. They don't have a lot of interest in coming back to church right now, but at least they are more receptive to receiving us. A seed has been planted. Heavenly Father always knows where we need to be.

Oh yes, and I don't remember if I said last week, but we have an extra bed in our room now. We are going to have a trio. But now we've been told that the situation is that one of us is going to be leaving the sector to whitewash a new sector and train, and the other one is going to stay and train two gringas! Pick your poison... Just kidding, but seriously, I don't know which one is more challenging. Probably training two greenies at the same time. Which is why I'm probably going to be the one doing it. But we don't know yet! We shall see. We have a training session for the trainers this week (aka all the Hermanas) and special changes next week to welcome all the new missionaries. It is going to be crazy!

--Hermana Mercado 

Hermana Mercado's 28th Letter from Chile

This week has been a little tough. Quite a few of our investigators have died. Olga, are one set fecha, is going to be moving because she is having problems with her daughter. Because of the problems, we haven't been able to pass a lot and teach, and she hasn't been to church in a couple of weeks. The goal is to find out where she is moving so we can send her information to the missionaries near her new home. 

But Isidro continues to progress. He says he's beginning to see the Book of Mormon in a different light. He was actually praying one day because he was overwhelmed with a lot of things, and then he began to read the Book of Mormon and found exactly what he needed. We started to teach him the plan of salvation this week, and you could just see he's eyes light up with understanding. It is just clicking for him and he's really excited that he's learning. 
I hope we can find more people like Isidro. We're looking.

The English classes could help with that. We had a lot more people come this past week. But before the classes this week, Tuesday I was on divisions with Hermana Alcarraz, from Peru. We were contacting/knocking doors and she saw a car outside one home with "Peru" on the back of it, so of course we had to knock. It was Antonett, the one non-member who had come to our English class the week before! She invited us inside and we were able to share a little bit with her and her family. Nothing too serious, and when we invited them to learn more she said she would talk with us in English class. We didn't get the chance, but the Elders told us they saw her walking around the church, looking at the pictures and stuff. We're definitely going to try to talk to her this week. 

Well, it looks like Hermana Iroz and I are going to be staying in Ciudad Satelite for one more change. And I might be training! President King said in his email to be ready to train in March, but I'm going to wait for the phone call from him till I believe it. We do have a third bed in our house now, so it looks like we might be a trio. Oh boy. Training in a trio. That's going to be interesting. 

--Hermana Mercado