¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Another week has flown by here in Nueva Aurora, which amounts to 24 full weeks in my beautiful "birthplace" in the mission. It is also the final week I will have spent there...because today is transfer day! On Saturday night when we get home to the pension, our zone leaders call us to tell us if we stay or if we go, but no more than that. That way, I could tell all the ward members and investigators on Sunday that I was not going to be staying. On Monday, we meet up as a zone and learn our new assignments. This morning, I was told where I´m going, but I do not know who my new companion will be! They used to let us know, but this transfer, the mission president wants to avoid gossip amongst the missionaries by sending us to our new areas first and learning who our companions are when we meet them, which will be tomorrow. It´s actually a brilliant move on his part, because many times impressions are made by what you hear about your next companion from other missionaries before you even meet him.
I will sort of be joining Elder Daniel Burnett, because my new zone that I am being sent to is Villa Alemana (German Village) in the little country town of Olmué!! I am super super stoked because I´ve heard of Olmué before because a couple of my converts have family out in Olmué where they have gone to visit, and it is supposedly gorgeous, green, and spacious. It is in the interior, north of Santiago and east of Viña del Mar, so I will be leaving the beautiful ocean side with the wonderful views that I could never get tired of. My zone leader in the Viña del Mar Oeste zone, Elder Roach, became a zone leader when I first came here, and we have spent these 4 transfers together, and he will be going out to be my zone leader in Villa Alemana! He has three transfers left, so it is very possible that I will have been with him for the last 7 transfers of his mission, all the time he being my zone leader. That´s really about all I know with regards to my transfers, so I will inform you on all the news next week! Stay tuned!
Last week, there was a forest fire just outside of Viña. It was interesting because it created enormous clouds of smoke and ashes, but the wind guided the clouds around my area in Nueva Aurora and down into Viña central, Con Con, and Quintero. The missionaries there couldn´t see 10 feet in front of them because it was so thick, so they all went home to their pensions early, but in my area it was perfectly clear, so we were fine. It was kind of cool, because my area looks down on Viña and Con Con, so we could see the clouds of smoke moving towards them and then enveloping them and everything, but we never had any problems.
We found an investigator last week that was trained in sword fighting, specifically in the art of the samurai. It was so cool, because he owned 3 katanas, the samurai sword, of different sizes, and when I asked if I could hold one, he said do whatever you want with them! Green flag. Needless to say, I had some fun pulling them out of their sheaths and fighting my companion to the death. The guy was so chill and really meant "do whatever you want with them." Pictures will be included.
We were teaching one family last week that was having trouble accepting that the Church of Jesus Christ actually believes in Christ, and so we shared with them the Book of Mormon to show how it really is another testament of Christ. We read in the introduction the invitation to read, ponder, and pray concerning the Book of Mormon to find out from God concerning the Book, and as we were talking, the dad opened up the Book of Mormon randomly to Alma 7:12 and read it to himself. He then stopped us and said that he felt that God had sent us to him in that moment because that scripture was exactly the answer that he had been looking for in his life. He then realized and told us that the Book of Mormon truly did testify of Christ, because he opened up the scriptures randomly and was filled with so much hope on the spot. God truly does know each of us personally and has given us the scriptures to answer our questions and bring our lives in harmony with Christ!
A couple of weeks ago, I contacted a guy in the street who had friends when he was a kid that were Mormon, but never knew exactly what they believed or why they were so sure of what they believed, and why it was so important to them. I ended up giving him a Book of Mormon with Moroni 10 marked, and then taking his name and address down to send it to Quillota, where he lives (he was visiting friends in Nueva Aurora) so that the missionaries over there can visit him. Then, last Monday, in the middle of a crowd of people in central Viña as we were making our way to the grocery store, the same man came up to me and asked me if I remembered him, to which I said, "of course I remember you, Bernardo!" He then told me that he read that chapter I left with him, and then couldn´t help but start reading the whole book from the beginning, and said he had read all the way to 2 Nephi 6 in four days! It got me so energized to keep going and talking with everyone I see, and it was so cool that we randomly ran into each other again.
To answer your question, mom, I asked a few different people here if the water at the beach is warm or cold, and I gathered that it is between cold and lukewarm. I love you all!
Love, Elder Kimball
No comments:
Post a Comment