viviendo en chile: Week 1 with Hermana Gaitan

April 29, 2015

The "s" key on my keyboard isn't working too well and I need to type fast so if I'm missing an s in some spots just fill it in. ;) Haha

Last week in the email that I wasn't able to end I had planned to say that I got a new companion-another Argentine. :) Hermana Gaitan is one of the sweetest people I've ever met! She's from Mendoza, Argentina and is about to complete a year in her mission in May. Our firt week was pretty difficult. Almost all of our lessons fell through everyday leaving us feeling discouraged. Sunday was one of the most difficult days I've had in the mission. We had planned a regular day of contacting, visiting people who had listened to the missionaries before us and lessons with invetigators and less-active members. Few answered the door and of the one that did, no one wanted to hear from us. We knocked on the door of a less-active member of our ward that neither of us knew. There wa a lady sweeping her patio and immediately said "No! No quiero nada con ustedes!" (I don't want anything from you) My companion asked if he knew Lara (the member we were trying to visit) and I don't know how but I think she lost the ability to hear in that moment becaue she looked right at us and kept on sweeping until she was out of sight. ;) We left, a little surprised at what had happened but had a good laugh anyway. :) We continued to contact and as we were walking to the house of a reference, that we had in our area book, an elderly woman yelled "hermanas!" We turned around and saw her with her cart of groceries. She asked if we could walk with her to the Gran Avenida and El Parron. We started walking with her and after about 30 minutes, reached El Parron. In these 30 minutes, we hear all about her life and the difficulties and challenges she has had. My companion invited her to come to church on Sunday. She said yes and left us with a hug and a thank you. We walked back, feeling better but still a little discouraged that we hadn't had a lesson all day and it was now 9:30pm. We started to contact again, 15 minutes later and more houses with no one answering. We decided to say a prayer. A prayer that in the last 15 minutes of the day, we could find someone who wanted to listen to our message. We started to contact houses again. As we were nearing our apartment, we passed a young woman with her head down looking a little sad. Hermana Gaitan and I looked at each other and decided to go back and talk to her. We asked if she was alright and she said yes with a smile. We started a conversation and she asked us what we were doing here in Chile. We had a conversation for 15 minutes and asked if we could meet with her another day. She was so excited to give us her address and telephone number! She then aked if she could invite her uncle, grandpa and family to listen as well. Her name is Valentina and she's 19 years old. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she gave us both hugs and thanked us. :) I don't know why it seems like always in the last minutes of the day, the Lord puts people in our path but I'm so grateful for thee days of difficulty in which we can more easily see the miracles. I know that we all have these days when everything is difficult and it's hard to see that there was anything good in the day, but I know that without this opposition, we could never know true happiness. The true happiness that the gospel of Jesus Christ brings. Thank Heavenly Father for the small miracles and remember "For it must needs be that there is opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holines, nor misery, neither good nor bad.." (2 Nephi 2:11) Look for good in every day. I love you all! Have a great week! Take care.

Love, Hermana Walker