Week 23 Vallenar

Aug 17, 2015

So this week has been absolutely amazing!!! I have seen a miracle in the mission. Everyone always says that when they get called to Vallenar its a terrible thing because its the "hardest" sector or the worst sector. This week proved to me that there really are people out there that are being prepared by the lord wherever you are. So the reason I say that is because an Elder from Vallenar centro named Elder Còmena passed a reference to us. He gave it to us about two weeks ago and we forgot to call them and set up an appointment. We had an activity in the city center and this "reference" or couple was supposed to come. We went but they never showed up. The following day we found ourselves kinda lost and didn’t know what to do. For those of you who don’t know, working is extremely hard in the morning because Chileans stay up late and party and they sleep in. With that said, its almost impossible to find someone to teach in the mornings. Anyway, there is a place in our sector called the "cabancha". It’s basically super far from where we live and I always thought we weren’t allowed to go out there. It is a bunch of farmland and very few houses but we decided to just go and check it out. We walked for like miles and found no one. A lot of the houses were abandoned. We met a few people but they weren’t able to help us. We had heard that the people we were supposed to meet at the activity lived out there but we had no idea where. We walked for like 2 hours knocking on random doors asking if they knew the "Familia Olivares" and no one knew. Anyway, it was finally about time to head back to the house and start studying but there was one more house in the distance that we wanted to visit. As we started approaching the house we saw two people. A mother and a daughter. As we arrived to the house they came out to greet us and guess what?!!!! It was them! We finally found them. Let me tell you, I have never met somebody more prepared by the lord than her. The mothers name is Claudia and the daughters name is Francisca. The father was not home but she said we could stop by the next day to meet him. We talked with her for a few minutes and she showed us all of her animals. They have goats, chicken, dogs, ducks...ect. She was already talking about how she had never been baptized and how she drinks but wants to change. She said her daughter told her she doesn’t like when she drinks and she doesn’t want to be a bad influence to her. They are not married but they said they would like to be. She is super receptive its insane! She said she wanted to go to church with us the next day. Keep in mind that we haven’t even taught her yet! The next day her and her daughter went to church with us, but her husband, Victor couldn’t because he had to work on the house. They loved church and want to come back. After church we went to their house to meet the dad. He is sooooo cool! He told us how they lived up north in Iquique and how they moved because there was a lot of drugs and stuff there. They both expressed that they want to change. They even invited us to have a BBQ at their house today as a going away party for Elder Còmena because he leaves the mission next week. They also want to feed us lunch one day as well as have us over for "once" Wednesday night with them. These people are definitely ready to be baptized. The lord truly does prepare people and I am so grateful for this gospel. I love being a missionary! Here is a little quote I wrote in personal study: "We don’t give up two years of our lives to serve the lord, he gives us two years to really live". Yes, I truly wrote it haha. Anyway, that’s the update. I’m going to go the BBQ now. Take care and love you all!

Elder Spanbauer