I’m glad everybody is doing great. I totally was thinking about Skyler on Wednesday, wow I can’t believe that we are serving together right now at this moment. I can’t believe that he is district leader too. He will find that it’s a whole different thing in the field, I can’t wait for him.
This week for me has been a great one. First of all I hit my 11 months in the field; it was way weird to think about. We also had capacitations this week with the president and it went really well, he had planned to talk about the Book of Mormon but instead we talked about other stuff so sister Laycock had us write in our journal on what we learned because she knew the capacition came from God. And so I learned a lot about how to keep the right attitude and how to stay happy in those hard moments.
Also this week scheduled a baptismal date with two girls, one who is 15 and one who is 8. It’s hard to teach the 8 year old sometimes because I swear she has ADD so we try and teach her little at a time and I try and be more entertaining when I teach. So she is excited but she still needs to learn tons. Also the 15 year old girl and her mom were found when we did a family home evening with their neighbors and they invited us over. The lessons that we have with them have been awesome and they truly want to change their lives around. One time we went over to teach them with a joven from the ward who is her friend and we taught about many things and tried to answer her questions. The spirit was their so strong and at one point in the lesson the 15 year old girl ran out crying because she told us that she felt that God had left her totally alone in her life but then we asked her if she thought she might have left Him? Her mom also said to her that maybe she was supposed to learn from what she went through and then said she I can’t do this and ran to her room crying. We kind of felt bad but we knew it was because the truth can sometimes be hard to hear. But it was all good because at the end she came out and didn’t want us to leave. As we were teaching we knew that they had felt the spirit and the mom said so too and as we were teaching and testifying, I looked over and the joven we brought with us was crying. He said later that he never felt the sprit that strong before. It was an awesome lesson. I truly felt guided in every part of the lesson.
She and her mom are really in a dark hole in their lives. They both love when we come over and the girl wants us to come over every day. The girl has been smoking and drinking since she was 12 with her friends that we also met. She also told us later that the reason that she was crying the other day was because she was raped when she was younger and she also likes girls a bit but also guys she said. And she doesn’t go to school because of some problems, and so yeah you can say she has a lot of problems.
But we went over on Saturday and taught her again and invited her to the church and we had a great lesson about baptism and she said after that she wanted to be baptized. She said she wants to change her life completely and so she talked to her mom and she went to church yesterday but she said that we have to have patience with her because it will be hard for her to quit a lot of things. We also tried to invite her mom as well but she says it is impossible to quit smoking but we testified that it is possible and that it’s just how Jesus says in the scriptures to us; Come unto me so I can heal you. I told her that Jesus can truly heal her and anything is possible with the help of the Lord, we just have to do our part and go to Him.
I’m really excited!! Elder Mortensen and I have seen so many blessings and miracles in this change. It’s been great and we have many investigators who are on their way to be baptized.
Yesterday we were in the mountains to get an investigator and we set an appointment with him and for some reason we both got the urge to go as far as we could up into our sector because it goes way up into the mountains. So we finally got to the top and the sight was amazing especially because it was at night and we just sat there thinking and talking and it was so peaceful. It was like a breath of fresh air. So many thoughts popped into my head. Just seeing all the people in Santiago, you just start thinking a lot. I wish I would have had my camera but it was so cool. It was so crazy to think how we are in charge of getting the gospel to all of these people and I thought of how amazing it is that God knows and loves all of his children. It just seemed unreal to me but I knew it was true. What a peace that is! Also looking down it was crazy to think how people are so busy in their lives that many don’t even take time to look up to God, and I just thought how I never want to be caught up in the things of the world and be distracted because it’s so easy to do so in a world like this. I don’t want to ever become unfocused in my life as a missionary or as a child of God. The blessings are too great to do so.
We then said a personal prayer and then one as a companionship to ask the lord how we can live up to our potential and thanked Him for the things we learned. I’m learning a lot being here in Chile, in this sector and with my companion. God has a reason for everything and I hope I’m learning what the lord wants me to learn being here.
We too on Sunday learned about being doers in elders quorum, we truly all love being in our comfort zones and we can and should pray to Heavenly Father to know the things we need to do to get out of our comfort zone. We all have a circle and we have to get out of it to be able to grow. I liked what you said Mom about how many of the things the Lord asks us to do is out of that comfort zone. But truly when we act we receive the blessings, because every blessing that we receive is through obedience. We give our will to our Father just as the Savior did.
I loved reading Dads letter about Elder Cook. It was funny because when dad asked a question to him, he didn’t get the answer he wanted or not much of one. I didn’t expect him to be a quieter guy. I truly look up to those men and can’t believe all that they do. Their meetings in the temple must be amazing. Reading the stories of the earlier apostles and the power they had to do the things they did, it’s amazing to think that you all got to hear a special witness of Jesus Christ one with the same authority as early apostles.
That’s awesome that Kenny’s talk went well, he is a stud and is doing awesome. That would have been cool to hear him give it.
Well sorry I’m getting this letter to you all so late but we went rock climbing with 4 other elders and we got back a little late. It was way fun but I found that I turned into a little wimp but don’t worry not too little of a wimp. lol I got to work out more so I don’t come home super small.
I love you all and keep up the great work!!
Live up to your potential.
Elder Pedersen
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