¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
General Conference was SO GOOD!!!! The mission is already a spiritual high every day, but the conference just filled me to the brim!! I almost cried when Thomas S Monson said conference had come to an end and we would meet up again in 6 months. Holy cow. Like you said Dad, it did seem like there was a greater emphasis on missionary work this time, but it could just be that I´m on a mission and pay closer attention to that now. Last week in preparation, my companion and I taught about General Conference in every lesson. In Chile, the hardest thing to do is to get people to church, they just don´t show up. We commit them, we remind them, we call them the day before, we ask them what things could impede them and how they will overcome, we call them the morning of and we pass by their doors on the way to church, and yet somehow we still only get about 5% of our investigators to church!! I just don´t get it. We were absolutely determined to get people to Conference, though. We had printed off a paper where they could write a specific question they wanted to ask God and then had space to take notes, and we promised every investigator that if they came with an open heart, they would receive the answer through the Lord´s living prophets. It was funny, many investigators would say they were too busy to come to the conference, but then we would show them the paper and the promise and suddenly they´d say, yeah ok, i can come! Miraculously, after putting forth all of our effort all last week and in between sessions, calling and searching, we were able to get about 30% of our investigators to the conference!! That sounds weak, but you wouldn´t believe how happy we were to get them there and hear from them afteerwards about how they felt during and that their questions were all answered! We have this one investigator, Ximena, who has dealt a lot in black magic, like actual soul sucking rituals and stuff like that, and had a question regarding evil spirits. Then just like that, she came to conference and Elder Packard said a line about how anyone with a body has power over those spirits that do not have bodies! Exactly what she needed! By the way, I love teaching her, lessons with her are always a little more fun, like the spice on a dinner plate.
One of the things I picked out from this conference was exactly what you said, mom, about how I really, truly need to have love in my heart for all. The most important is that those I teach and contact must needs feel my love for them and the love of the message I bring. There is so much to study behind that and I am learning so much every day during my study time and throughout the day practicing and testifying. Also, my favorite talk of the conference was L Whitney Claton, the third talk overall. Something about it just left me so pumped afterwards. Dad, could you perhaps obtain an extra copy of the next Ensign and send me the conference edition in the mail when you get it? I really want to have those talks to read again, they were seriously so rich in content. Also, I would like to ask all my immediate family to write me about something they learned from conference, pretty please! Tell me about your facvourite talk and why! It will help me to grow and I would like to see your insights and apply them to the lives I will be touching down here! Anyone else who reads these letters is also invited to do so, it would be much appreciated!
Which reminds me, I just received letters in the mail last week from many dear friends from BYU that were sent at the end of August, so that´s about how long it takes to make the trip to Chile! Thank you so much for your uplifting letters and have patience as it may take a while to get return letters, but I really love getting your letters even if they are a month out of date! :)
Dad, I bought a flashdrive with my credit card, para que sepas. Also, I don´t know about the 5/5/5 thing, we use something down here called La Lista, which I like because it is not intended to get references from members for the missionaries to contact, but rather to get the members to do their own missionary work in the first place and then later ask for our help and we can go with them.
Fun story: the schools are on strike in Chile, so there are Chilean teenagers roaming the streets all day long doing all knds of naughty things, and the gang members often jeer at the missionaries and try to speak English cuss words and stuff, which can be pretty entertaining. Anyways, last Tuesday, a gang of 19-year-old boys called us over, so we asked them what they wanted, and the said they had questions. They were actually pretty chill, which is exceedingly unusual, and asked us who we were exactly and why we were here. They didn´t want to hear our message, but they did want to ask questions about the end of the world and stuff. They were sincere and humble when they asked why so many people freak out about stuff, and if the calamities were actually going to happen, in reference to the worldwide earthquake that was supposed to happen last Tuesday and the 2 suns in China, I guess, and of course, 2012. We were able to have a decent 5 minute conversation about what the scriptures say about all this and why they shouldn´t worry and what they should be doing in the meantime with their lives, and they took it all really well. I don´t know how big a deal was made of the expected earthquake or 2 suns in China in the US news, but here it was pretty big.
Ok, update on Regina, the lady we found in the blackout. It turns out the husband is hardcore Catholic "in his own way," which means he doesn´t go to chrch or worship or anything, but he believes in tradtion and will not allow us to enter their house. He is completely against us. Regina came out to the gate to talk to us the next time we came and told us the problem, and how sad she was because she knew that we were from God and told the truth. She read the chapter we left with her in the Book of Mormon and knows it is true, too ,and that Joseph Smith is a prophet and the Lord has restored his church on earth again. All that from only one lesson with her. We opened up to 2 Nephi 2:11 and read that with her, and she said "my husband is the opposition." Haha, we kind of chuckled and said, "we weren´t going to say it." Then we read 1 Nephi 3:7 and she agreed that somehow a way would appear that she could hear our message and come to church, but it will be hard. She did say we are free to teach the daughter though, but her husband will not allow her, Regina, to listen yet. The daughter, Elisabeth, is really hard to get a hold of, because she is a student and has a job and normally gets home around 9 or 9:30, which is when we go home. However, we know there´s a way in somewhere, just as Nephi indicated.
I love you all so much!
Love, Elder Kimball
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