On wednesday I went on a mini cambio to the sector Esmeralda to do a baptismal interview of the daughter of an active member family who had apparently not been baptized... She had no registro of her baptism and they remembered it had happened and didnt know what to do. The girl had gone inactive for a year and a half due to problems with other members and is now back in church and wanted to "start over", didnt have a registro, so.... Oh man. It was just a complicated situation haha. Anyways. So then there were problems with the bishop and he was getting angry and upset about it, and I went and talked to him while i was there on the mini cambio, and then he got mad and upset with me because i was being fuerte with him trying to solve the problem but he was not willing to work it out at all and just refused to even talk to me about it... it was stupid. It was stressful. It was annoying. And in the end it turned out that the girl didn`t even need to be baptized again, they just had to fill out a new registro. bah.
There are still lots of little details that the church misses here in Chile so that the church can have "Crecimiento real" (in the words of Elder Gonzales (seventy)) and that is one of the problems. There are WAYYYY too many people who have no registros but were baptized, the Member List Services are just jacked up, and almost all the wards have an assistence of about 100+ or - , but have HUNDREDS of members listed. In Curicò The ward had assistence of 100 and a list of 1,700 members listed. Ridiculous. So basically we have 1,600 menos activos in our ward. A friend serving in the US recently emailed me and mentioned that in their ward they have TEN menos activos... I couldnt believe it. haha. Anyway. It was just a really frustrating annoying experience. But yes i learned lots from it.
and p.s. while i was there on the mini cambio a drunk guy like attacked me haha. He kept grabbing me and just wanted to talk to me but he kept grabbing me and putting his arm around me and all this stuff. So finally we just had to run away a little bit haha. It was funny.
Moving on... on Thursday i had another interesting experience. Eating lunches here can be a stressful experience too haha. Because the Chileans are very proud and sensitive about their food. So long story short, if you eat the food too fast, they (without asking) keep putting food on your plate. Even if you dont want it or dont have more room. And if you dont eat ALL the food, they get offended. But if you eat your food too slow, they also get offended and they assume you just dont like the food. haha... So you have to eat JUST right or else it could be problematic. SOOO on thursday in lunch the hermana gave us a soup to start. And i like soup. And it was a great soup. It tasted really good. But im just not good at eating really hot things or really cold things because ive got a sensitive mouth i guess haha. So i was eating the soup a little to slow..... So my comp had finished his soup already and was just waiting for me to finish to they could serve the next plato... and the hermana got REALLY upset and mid spoonful (as i was bringing the spoon to my mouth) the hermana reached over, grabbed my plate, and took it away from me and said "fine if you dont like it or dont want it you dont have to eat it! We`ll just move on to the next plate!" and then grabbed her own plate and said "and im not gonna eat anymore either because now im mad!" and i was only like halfway done with the soup! so anyway i tried to defend myself and said "no hermana i like the soup a lot! I want to eat it! Give me my plate back i want my soup!" but she refused. and we just moved onto the next plate. So. Lame. Thats never happened to me before in the mission hahah....
Then on saturday there was a baptism in the zone! Yay! And so we ended up going to the baptism. It was a woman who got baptized..... and de repente I ended up singing in the baptism! haha. I did a solo. And I said "Cuando Me Bautice" o sea "When I Am Baptized". haha. And it turned out pretty good. The service also turned out well so we were happy.
Also on saturday morning Elder Holt and I had an awesome surprise! We were sitting in our study room studying in the morning, and all of a sudden the phone rang, and it was an hermana from the ward. So we answered and she said "Are you busy?" We answered that no, we were just studying" and she said something along the lines of "Oh good. Well elders i just wanted to call you this morning and wish you a WONDERFUL day. That you find lots of investigators, that your citas dont fall, and that the Lord blesses you lots! We love you, are grateful for your work, and we support you!" And that was all! You have NO idea how pumped up that got us hahah. It was the best thing in the world! We hung up and just stayed their open mouthed and speechless. That was ALSO the first time THAT had happened to me. But it was the best feeling ever and brought the spirit into our house so much! haha. For real. and it only took like literally 30 seconds to a minute. SO. I invite you all to take like 2 minutes out of your day, find out the local missionaries phone number, call em, and give them a little pump up message like that. Seriously it was the best ever. Youll make their day. and invite the spirit alot into their lives. And youll receive the spirit in your own life for doing it. So go do it! Thanks.
Then on Domingo we had an awesome day... We had a baptism! haha. So Paulita got baptized on sunday!!! During the week we met with them and the mom said that the original baptism date (14th of december) Wasnt going to work because not all the family members were going to be there. So... we worked things out, and decided that yesterday after church would be the best thing. So yesterday we had her baptismal service! And skipping alot of details... it was just one of the best, most spiritual, heart wrenching baptisms ive seen haha. It all turned out great and perfect and fantastic. I sang another solo in Paula`s baptism too! :) This time I sang "Yo siento su amor" o sea "I feel my saviors love". But so her family were all there and stuff.... and the spirit was there so strong in the service. haha. Theres lots of details but nothing id like to share in the email haha. So ill have to share it later. Just remind me if one day you`d like to know haha. But, ill send some pictures of the baptism to see.
And that leads me back to monday. This morning we had to wake up and be in the office early to do a practice for the christmas devocional. I was assigned to sing in a choir for the christmal devocional, and i will also be singing in a mens trio hahahaha. hahaha. I dont even know what more to say about that. But im excited and it should be fun. It practiced and it sounded good. Room for improvement..... but it sounded good :) haha.
anyway. Ill send some pics. I love you and miss you all. Hope all is well. Enjoy the christmas season. Share the gospel with everyone! Especially now. And especially because the Lord has told us to through his prophets and apostoles. So lets be obedient and do it! Love you and miss you all. Have a great week! Hasta la proxima!
Elder Heyman
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