Monday, October 28, 2013

Hermana Mercado's 60th Letter from Chile!


Good things. We found two great nuevos this week! Priscila and Juan. Priscila is a relatively young mother with a 14 year old daughter. She is very open to listening to all religions and the message of the restoration peaked her interest. She is willing to find out if it is true. We were even able to give her a tour of the chapel this past week!

And Juan. When we met him, we were actually just trying to find an address, and stopped to ask him for directions. We thanked him for his help and asked if there was anything we could do to help him. Well, we could share a little bit of our message. So we started to share about the Book of Mormon, which sparked a lot of good questions from him. He says his not that interested in religion, but he is interested in learning more and in reading the Book of Mormon. He also has the cutest 5 year old son, Isaias. Good stuff.

And we had 4 baptisms in our ward this week! Two jovenes, Vanesa y Antonio and a mother and son, Ximena y Aaron. One baptismal service Wednesday and one Saturday. Although none were our investigators, we contributed with a musical number in each baptism. 

We also had divisions with Hna Carter, our Hna Lider Entrenadora. I love that woman. She is so great and gave us a lot of good advice. 

And I forget if I mentioned it last time, but Elder Holland is coming to Chile. No big.

--Hna Mercado

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Hermana Mercado, Hermana Rodriguez y Anacaren

Sunset on the Coast

The Bishop's family

Hermana Mercado's 59th Letter from Chile


Things were really good this week. We've been making good friends, finding nuevos, and teaching more consistent lessons.

We started teaching Luis this week, the man who stopped us in the street the other week to come and visit him. He is divorced and all his children live in Santiago so he's a bit lonely. He is looking for peace. He is a very philosophical man, and asks very interesting questions. Anyway, we shared the restoration with him, and he is very willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

And Carlos died. Well, half-died. He gave us an answer this past week that he does not want to get baptized right now, but he wants to keep coming to church and learning. It was an intense lesson. We got it out of him that he knows the church is true, and he knows he should be baptized, even he has the desire to prepare for baptism, but he just says that he needs to put some things in his life in order before he does get baptized. What those things are, he did not say, but he says he might discuss them with us in the future. But he doesn't want to put a date. So, we're going to stop teaching him for a while. But he still came to church. Ugh! We don't know what to do with him.

We just hit a bump when we took turns being sick the last two days of the week. Luckily, I was able to get a priesthood blessing from the elders and I'm feeling a lot better now (just a little headache and cold now) but Hermana Rodriguez fell sick yesterday and still isn't feeling so hot. We're going to try and get her a blessing today.
Funny thing. The bishop asked us (the Hermanas) to sing a musical number in sacrament meeting, so we did. After, an investigator who is getting baptized this week came up to us to ask us if we would sing at her baptism. Later, an Hermano came to ask if we would sing a song at a ward activity they are having this week (a despedida of a couple of members who are moving to Florida), and then our lider misional asked us to sing in the other baptsim that we are having this coming weekend. Well, that was interesting. The Hermanas are in high demand this week.
--Hna Mercado


Monday, October 14, 2013

Photos from Quisco, Chile!

Hermana Mercado y Hermana Carter

Sister Missionaries' New Casa

Saying goodbye to Elder Peterson

Hermana Rodriguez y Hermana Turville

Elders playing with a stray dog.

Pyramid of Hermanas!

Hermana Mercado's 58th Letter from Chile


Well, Hermana Turville and Hermana Aspajo have joined us here in Quisco. Now we have a party in our house. Hermana Turville is from Utah and is crazy. But I like it. It keeps things entertaining. Hermana Aspajo is from Peru and is a little bit on the quieter side; likes to keep to herself. We'll see if we can help her to open up a bit more.

Things are going good. Since we've split the sector it feels like we are kind of doing a whitewash because we had been working more in the other  part of our sector where the Hermanas are now. So this week we've been getting to know our area a little better and doing lots of contacts. It's a little bit of a challenge because there are lots of areas that don't have a lot of people, but we've been becoming more familiar with where exactly are the areas that are populated. And we've seen miracles. My favorite had to be from the other day that we were in one area contacting people and looking up a reference. Well, the reference turned us down flat, so we decided to contact all the other houses in the street, which all turned out to be vacant or the people were just there on vacation so they weren't very interested. But after we came out of the street an older man with a walking stick came right up to us and told us that he would like us to visit him so he can learn more about our church. He is alone and says he would like to have a group to be integrated with. That was easy. We have a cita set up to visit him this week. I love when God brings the people to us when we're having a little trouble finding them ourselves.

Things have been a little intense with Carlos. We've already taught him all the lessons. We had a very straight forward lesson with him the other day. He says he's going to take 10 days to make a decision whether to be baptized and move forward or stop meeting with us. We'll see how things go. I feel like he knows that this church is true. He's had too many spiritual experiences with us to not be able to recognize that. But he's scared to make the commitment; scared of making the commitment and falling away. We've done all we can to calm he's fears, to teach him clearly the doctrine, testify of the truth and the blessings, but now it's just up to him to decide what he wants to do.

--Hna Mercado

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hermana Mercado's 57th Letter from Chile

This day is crazy. Today, the whole mission got together for the reunion de cambios. Hna Selk is training again (she's a champ). Two new zones were created. Our zone split. Our sector has been split as well and we have two more Hermanas coming to be with us in our sector. We moved into a bigger house this past week to prepare for them and it is pretty sweet. We were told we were going to have P-day Wednesday this week due to the meeting today, but at the end of the meeting they informed us that in reality, we would still be having P-day today. So doing internet here in Maipu (I'll send pictures next week. Didn't bring my cord or anything) before the 2 hour and a half trip back to Quisco. That's going to be interesting helping the other Hermanas with their luggage :) 

Also this past week was fun as we were finally able to return to Santiago to finish the errands for Hna. Rodriguez's carnet (registro civil had been on strike). The lines were ridiculously long. 6 hours standing! But we had some good conversations with the people in line. And on the way back we ran into some of my people from Nueva San Martin! I actually don't remember their names, but they were the son and daughter-in-law of Laura, an awesome member who was always willing to help us out with rides for investigators and noches de hogar. They had been inactive when I was there, but they informed me that they are asisting again now! And they informed me that Jose, (his dad, and Laura's husband), who's not a member, is going to be baptized next weekend! I could not believe it! When I was there, he was so hard! He didn't want to hear anything! But I remember that with Hna. Herrera, we began to gain his confidence, and started to try to teach him. It's a miracle. It's just a testimony to me that Heavenly Father can change hearts. 

General Conference was awesome. I'll give more info on what I learned next week. Love you all and the gospel is true!

--Hna Mercado 

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Hermana Mercado's 56th Letter from Chile

Last P-day we got together with the zone and la zona talagante to hang out at the beach. It was a good time. I got to see Hna. Carter. She's one of the Hermana Lideres Entrenadoras and she's a champ. She must be slowly dying of exhaustion with all of the divisions that she has to do. 

Tuesday we had nothing fijo, and nobody could see us that day. We finally were able to set up a cita with one of our investigators in the evening, Carlos. He had a fecha, but due to complications with when his children could come out to visit him to accompany him, it has been postponed. But now he is having doubts. He really wants to be sure that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and know that there is a living prophet today so that he won't fall away after he is baptized. Anyway, we could not for the life of us find a woman to accompany us. It came down to the final hour and we decided to just go and see what we could do. When we went to the chapel (we always have our lessons with Carlos in the church) we found the Elders finishing a tour with one of their investigators. They were able to stay with us so we could teach Carlos. We had a great lesson on what we need to do to receive revelation, and we are helping him to prepare for General Canference to be able to hear the Prophet.

Wednesday, we did service for a reference that we received. Valesca. She has a nephew serving a mission, but she's baptist. She and her family have just moved to Quisco into a house that was abandoned, and they needed help cleaning out the backyard. Her huband, Miguel, has tattoos all over his face. She quite a few tattoos herself, but they say that they got those in their rebelious days. And Miguel is from Venezuela, but he's lived here so long (15 years or something) he sounds Chilean now. Anyway, after helping them out, they offered us lunch, which Valesca had already prepared (but we also already had lunch programed with a member). So as not to offend anyone, we just ate lunch twice, but miraculously, both places didn't serve us very much, so we didn't explode. We resurrected Rene that day as well, an investigator who had had a fecha but that we hadn't been able to see for a month or so (he was avoiding us a little bit). But we've got him reading and praying again, and he came to church! 

Thursday, planificacion semenal. Friday, we had a tour of the chapel with Carlos.That went well.

Saturday was Hermana Rodriguez's birthday, a baptism of twin girls in our ward (they asked us to sing) and a noche de hogar. To top off the day, Hna. Rodriguez got to talk with her family for 15 minutes. Not for her birthday. She had gotten had gotten permission for President to talk with them when her brother got his call (he's her only sibling, and he's been having a little it of a rough time without her), and justo, it came on her birthday. It was a precious moment. He's going to be serving in San Francisco Oakland California!  

And that about sums it up. The mission is awesome and I'm super excited for General Conference!

--Hna. Mercado