¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
What a week. Where to start...
As the mission goes on, you always must be in earnest search for new things to incite energy and enthusiasm, always searching for new ways to invite the Spirit, cultivate companionship unity, find new people. I think the mission is teaching me to be more creative. One of the most important lessons of my mission, if not the most important - actually yes, the most important - is obedience. Sometimes I wish I could just tape my mission or walk around with my journal in hand to be able to record all the tiny little lessons that you learn daily of why you need to be obedient, patient, loving, diligent, creative, humble, confident, and moderated. Last week, we were asked to pass by a lady's house to give her a priesthood blessing, but when we got there we realized she lived alone. We don't enter in houses without a third responsible male present, so there's the quick question of obedience on the spot. We're also not cold, squarish pharisees who only see the law, so we sought a solution to be able to give her a needed priesthood blessing. With a prayer in the heart, we asked if there were any male neighbors who could accompany us inside real quick, but she didn't know any of her neighbors. Just then, Ramón, an 83-year-old man, stepped out the front door of the house to our right. We asked him his name and how his day was going, to which he replied he was listening to music and felt like stepping outside. Thinking to ourselves, "daily miracle," we invited him over for 5 minutes and mentioned the restoration of the authority of the priesthood that gives us the ability to have given the sister a blessing of health, and he told us how he had never really been interested in religion all his life, but that sounded like something worth listening to, so we will now be passing by him to share our message. And of course, behind every old man is a glorious family just waiting to hear our message, so we'll see what the Lord has in store down that little lead.
This morning we got together as the Coquimbo zone and played volleyball! It has been a long time. It was actually very entertaining, and with 14 elders we all had a great time. One of the zone leaders, Elder Tonks, played volleyball in high school also, so we were able to play each other at the net and set up some good plays. It got me thinking, I haven't played ultimate frisbee in an even longer time. That will be a glorious day.
Well, Tiffanie absolutely made my day with that spectacular start to her mission. While reading that letter, I could just feel my batteries getting all charged up and ready to go, go, go! It kind of sounds like instead of burning Charlottesville to the ground, they might be putting it under water pretty soon.
A tough little roadblock we're having here in the promised land lately is getting through to the hearts of the heads of the family. It seems like all the fathers of the families that we teach don't like us, don't care, want to sleep, or work way too much, and that causes problems in the progress of the family. From experience, I have definitely seen that our message brings families together, actually forever, but when one half of the family listens and progresses and the other half doesn't know what's going on or why, there grows discord because they're not in-tune with the music of faith. For example, Nancy listened to us, prayed to know if what we share is true, received a definite answer from the Spirit that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true, and then opened her eyes to the great reality in front of her, and then did everything she could to get baptized last Saturday, which she did. The problem is, her husband, Rodolfo, professes himself Atheist, and wasn't a part of the conversion process of his own wife, and now thinks she's crazy when she tells him there are living prophets and apostles and thinks we've brainwashed her when she tells him what she has felt in her heart when she puts in practice what we invite her to do. After 33 years of marriage, all Nancy wants is for it to last forever.
Nancy is a true champ, though. It was a great privilege to see her be baptized on Saturday, and she will have very powerful experiences when she goes to the temple to do ordinances for her loved ones who have passed away, because many of them have been present, supporting her and guiding her, as she has taken these steps of faith. As Tiffanie said, it's rare to find a Latino who doesn't think that every church is true, even within the true church sometimes, but it's always a treasure to find someone who can learn that truth from the Spirit instead of just from the mouths of missionaries. Nancy understands that very well and will be a great future relief society president, I'm sure.
More good news! I convinced Elder Córdoba to go running with me, so we're now leaving the pension in the mornings to limber up the ol' legs of mine, although he only agreed to running 10 minutes a day. I'll take it! I love you all so much!
Love, Elder Kimball
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