Hermana Mercado's 62nd Letter from Chile!

This week was much, much better. We didn't have to take any crazy trips to Santiago, so we had a lot more time to work in our sector. Found a couple of new people to teach. Lincye, a 20 year old girl we found knocking doors. She has a one year old son and is very open to talking with us. Really sweet. Also Juan Carlos, who we received as a reference. He's a 50 something year old gardener. He is an interesting man. When he took the hand of Hna Rodriguez he said she is a fearful person. When he took my hand he said I have a lot of sugar in my system and I need to drink more water.

We had another baptism in the ward this week! Leonardo, an investigator of Elder Calixto y Elder White. He is amazing. He's given his testimony twice already in sacrament meeting. He's a colectivero, 30/40 year old man with a lot of enthusiasm. His wife, children, and mother came to his baptism. I'm pretty sure they're all going to get baptized as well. Carlos came to see the baptism! it was the first time he was able to see one, so that was good. But he hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon. He says everytime he tries to read it, his head hurts. Ugh! Excuses, excuses. I really have no idea what he wants. So we are just going to press forward and see what we can do to help him.

This Sunday was the primary program. So cute! Rene came! We were able to have a tour of the church with him after sacrament meeting and as we were finishing in the baptismal faunt, he told us that he wanted to prepare to be baptized the first week of December. To say the least, we're kind of happy :) 

And tonight we have to travel to stay the night in Maipu so tomorrow we can get up early for the meeting with Elder Holland. It is going to be amazing! But I have a feeling I'm going to be very tired.

--Hna Mercado 

Hermana Mercado's 61st Letter from Chile!

This past week was interesting, challenging, but also gratifying. We lost a lot of time with going to Santiago for my visa (I had to renew it), a multistake activity in San Antonio, and ugh! I feel really bad for our numbers this past week. There are no excuses. This week we are going to work even harder. Hna Carter gave us good advice to follow the steps in "Nuestro Compromiso al Señor", so we've put goals and made plans of how we can exercise more faith. 

Satan has been working really hard in our ward, especially now that we have 8 missionaries. Trying to tear it apart from the inside, attacking the leaders of each organization in a different way, especially the bishop. I have never met a man with so many challenges, so much opposition. But he stays strong. He is such a good man. But this past week we became aware of another major challenge that is occuring among the youth in our ward. My heart hurts. We are doing all we can to support and help the bishop, but sometimes I feel inadequate. Please keep el Quisco and Obispo Rivera in your prayers.

Good things. Even though going to do visa errands is never fun, it was nonetheless fulfilling. We did good contacts while waiting in the tremendous lines. I met a woman from Bolivia, and we also met a woman from the states who is married to an Argentinan. I also had some time to get to know my nieta, Hna Nelson, a little better. She also had to go to Santiago that day to take out her visa. She's really sweet, speaks Spanish very well for only being in the field for less than two changes, and has no fear in contacting people.

It was Halloween, and also a long weekend because the 31st has been made a Protestant holiday. So, for the long weekend, Quisco filled up with people again. Lots of little children went out to go trick or treating in the late afternoon. There were lots of people drinking too. It was getting a little sketchy, so we went home a little early that night. Hna Turville played a prank on us where we got scared pretty bad. I thought it was pretty funny, but Hna Rodriguez was not amused.

Saturday there was a multistake young single adult activity in San Antonio. We the missionaries were there to help them do contacts and give away a Book of Mormon. Cualquier referencia! It went really well. One woman that we contacted (two jovenes and I) said that we had come en el momento preciso. I was also able to see a lot of jovenes from my first ward because their stake came out to this activity.

Victor Lopez, one of our menos activos that we have been visiting came to church on Sunday! And Carlos, one of are investigators that we had left because he didn't want to commit to baptism yet, well we felt really strongly that we should have one more lesson with him, on faith and repentance. In the lesson, his challenge/doubt came out and we were able to clear things up for him. We were so close to commiting him to a fecha. He has committed to preparing for baptism, and committed to praying about the fecha we have put for him (25 de Nov). Even though this was a challenging/frustrating/emotional week, the Lord continues to bless us for our efforts. I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore, but I continue to be amazed at how merciful he is.

--Hna Mercado

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

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

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