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| President and Sister Arrington with Elder Hutchins |
HOLY CATS!!!! I am here, in the grand country of Chile. For those of you who remember I went to Nicaragua, the circumstances here are substantially better than they were there.
The Spanish is difficult, but not as much as I thought it would be. Apparently when my companion first arrived into the field for the first month he understood next to nothing and could only introduce himself and bear a short testimony at the end of each lesson, so I have a jump start thanks so my parents, my Spanish teacher, and the spirit leading me to go to Nicaragua and pick up some Spanish there.
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| Ward Building |
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| View from our Apartment Window |
So this week, my first week in the field we had some crummy stats. the only thing we did well on was references and contacts, but nobody opened their doors. So far, I have had two lessons with investigators and one of them is getting baptized this Saturday. Hmmm we can do better. I know that I am here to find certain people and let me tell you, me and my companion are doing all we can, while constantly looking and searching for ways in which we can improve. The focus of our mission right now is to activate the less-active members, apparently in my mission there are over 400,000 members of the church and less that 10 percent of them are active!!! Well that is about to change.
My companion is Elder Froerer. He's from Utah and is six months into his mission. He is a good trainer. It's funny the contrast from CT to Mexico to Chile. It went from hot and humid to nearly perfect to winter. The house I am living in has a bedroom that is a large concrete room, and the house is without heat, so in the morning when I wake up from my nice warm bed I freeze in five seconds flat.
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| view in Chile |
Oh right, I have some good news for everybody, as of right now Chile is having a...... MAIL STRIKE so for the time being I can neither receive nor send mail of any kind except for email. I did hear however that it was my very own father who sat next to President Monson during the temple ground breaking.....wow.
The food here is good, but apparently really fattening. My companion has gained about 15 pounds in six months.... oh boy. So the mission field is both harder and easier than I expected it to be. It is much easier to testify to random people in the street and while tracting than I thought it would be, but it is harder in that less people listen to the joyful message that we bring. But I guess I should have seen it coming. Regardless I will continue to testify with my companion of the truthfulness of this Everlasting Gospel.
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| Chili has their priorities right |
One thing I realized this week was that no matter where you are in the world, no matter the country, the language, or the ethnicity, the church is the same. The structure is the same here in Chile as it is in CT or Japan or Brazil or France or California. It is the same because it is not the Church of any one man or group of men, but it truly is the church of God and God is a God of order and he has created it. God lives, brothers, sisters, family and friends and this is his established Church on the earth today. John Tailor once said something like 'For me it is the kingdom of God or nothing'. We need this attitude. We may not know, but it is true. Have faith and remember faith is not a perfect knowledge, but hope. So I plead, have hope, hope that these things are true and act accordingly. Fight for this gospel, for it is the only fight worth fighting. Study the gospel doctrine because when we put the things of God first, all of the rest will be added unto us. Keep the faith, hold to the rod, and God will be with you. It is given to us to be the light of the world, and well, the world is a dark place, so shine bright, let others see your good works and glorify our Father who is in Heaven. I love all of you more than words can express.
Love,
Elder Hutchins
