¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Thank you so much to Brandon, Marta, and the kiddos for the birthday package! I got a good laugh about the missionary action figures! The best part is what it said on the back of the package - "Love them!! Feed them!! Listen to their message!!" Haha, that's all we really ask, after all.
Speaking of missionaries, I never got word on if Chris Sherwood put in his papers or received his mission call or anything. Let me know, please!
The moment we had all been waiting for for a few months now finally arrived, and we met President Kähnlein and his family last Tuesday!! They are so great, as I'm sure every mission president would ever be, but it just feels special to know that God has specifically called them because they correspond to the missionaries and members and nonmembers of this entire area. It's incredible to watch in plain view how delicately the hand of the Lord works within His own vineyard. After all, something I have come to learn in the last while is exactly what Moses 1:39 says, "this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." What's the most important word in that scripture? MY. This is His work, not ours, and He governs EVERYTHING. If we're not willing to be obedient and simply do what He asks us to do in Preach My Gospel and the mission manual, how can we expect His support in His work? As we gain His trust by loving Him with everything we have and then showing it, He will bring about the miracles, place His choice children in our path, touch their hearts with His Spirit so they can hear and recognize His voice, not ours, (D&C 33 :6) and it turns out that we hardly have to do much more than be obedient and exercise faith. Anyways, I was about to tell you about my new mission president...He is Argentinian, but was in Chile for work when he was about 20 years old, got contacted by missionaries, felt an incredible attraction to the Book they held in their hands, and then read and prayed about the Book of Mormon for himself. After intensely searching to receive an answer, he felt with a surety that it was true, and that therefore Joseph Smith was a prophet and had restored the church of Jesus Christ by the very hand of God. A year later, he was called to serve a mission and initially was assigned to the great mission Chile Viña del Mar, but after a month, he received a package from the prophet letting him know that his assignment had changed, and he hopped on a plane to serve the rest of his 2 years in Tempe, Arizona. His wife also served a mission in Argentina, and now they have 4 young children who we also met. The oldest 3 are boys of ages 11, 9, and 7, and the youngest is a girl at age 3. It will be so cool to watch them grow around a giant group of missionaries and see the influence we have on their lives, especially since they are future missionaries, too.
Last week was just incredibly full of miracles, always daily. What's really neat is that it looks like every companionship of missionaries in our zone of Coquimbo is going to have at least one baptism each in July. We're all so united and have great desires to go and do, and it's wonderful to see that the Lord approves of our efforts and brought forth fruits. We have been practicing refining our contacts in the street to be able to find by the Spirit and present our message without many words and be able to discern and satisfy personal needs of every person we talk with. We have already seen a great difference in the quality of our contacts and have a lot of great future investigators who actually show signs of interest because we were able to use the Book of Mormon to satisfy their needs, and we'll pass by this week to see who actually reads like they said they would and who results. One man we talked to, Luis, showed a little concern for his children who are growing up in the midst of so many voices in the world that can lead to bad or good. That morning, Elder Córdoba and I had practiced in companionship study contacting a someone as if they were worried for their children and wanted to provide a better path for their children to take in life. We were thus prepared for that contact and were able to offer the Book of Mormon as a refuge for his children and a guide for him as a father. It's interesting to note the difference in attitude these people have from the beginning of our contacts and the end, because sometimes they're a little annoyed and in a hurry, but as we listen to them and discern through the Spirit, we all leave the conversation edified by the Spirit.
Sorry, I don't feel like I wrote very much, but we got to get going. I pray for you always. I love you all!
Love, Elder Kimball
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