H
ey Everyone! Greetings from the lovely city of Copiapó!
So for those of you who are wondering what happened to Elder Walker and why he hasn't been writing anyone lately it's because I got transferred and have been working hard in my new sector!
Two Saturdays ago we got a call from the Asistants to the President that I would be changing from Arica to Copiapó and that my new companion would be Elder Pineda! We then ran around Sunday saying goodbye to all of our investigators and the members of the ward. We went back to the pension and packed up all of my stuff. Then, at noon Monday I hopped on a bus and started my 22 hour journey to the southern end of our mission. The nice part about traveling in the buses here is that I finally had some time to think about my mission and myself a little bit more.
We finally arrived in Copiapó at 6 in the morning where I met my new companion! He's from Panamá and has been in the mission just under 24 months, which means I'll be killing him this transfer. For those of you who aren't up to date with all the mission slang, don't worry, I won't be commiting homicide anytime soon, but I will be sending my companion home to his family!
When we arrived at the bus station the Ward Mission Leader picked us up in his truck, we ate a small breakfast at his house, then went to unpack. When I showed up in Copiapó it was raining a bit. This is huge. We're in the driest desert in the world. Let's just say that there was a lot of mud in the streets. Copiapó a couple of months ago was hit HARD by some floods that came through. There are tons of homes that were effected and the city is still working to rebuild itself. One of the side effects that we are still dealing with write now is dust. The floods brought in tons of mud, which then dried up, and now is being blown every direction by wind and cars. It's also alot colder here in Copiapó than it was in Arica.
The ward here is awesome though! There are always members that want to teach with us and we recieve tons of references from the members! This Saturday we're going to have the baptism of Natali and she's really excited! She's SUPER prepared and is studying the lessons that we give her. I know that the Lord is always preparing people to recieve the gospel and all we half to do is find them!
Yesterday we had a special conference with Elder Zeballos from the quorum of the Seventy. We had about 70 missionaries grouped together in our Stake Center and it was pretty awesome! After the conference we left spiritually and mentally recharged and ready to work. In our first appointment after the conference we challenged an investigator to be baptized and he very enthusiastically said yes! We put a date and he's excited to be baptized now!
We then went to our next appointment and talked to them in the doorway. They live in the part of our sector that is way up high on a very steep hill with a dirt road. While we were talking an Abastible truck passed us. Here in Chile there isn't gas in pipelines like in the US, so to take hot showers or use a gas stove you have to hook up a propane tank. There are these trucks that you can call and they'll deliver gas when you run out.
So one of these trucks passes us and we're all wondering if they're crazy for coming up on this hill where there is such little space. A couple minutes later we hear someone yelling "Mormones! Mormones!" Turns out, the little truck got stuck and we ended up going and helping them. We tried everything to help the truck get traction and get out of the ditch, but nothing was working. Finally the thought came to my mind, "Hey, we're servants of the Lord, just like Ammon was. (see Chapter 17 of The Book of Mormon) Why don't we use this opportunity to show the power of the Lord?" So we gathered everyone together and said a prayer, before giving it one last attempt. We then prepared to give it our all and what do you know happened? The truck broke free of the ditch! We then gathered everyone together, offered a prayer of thanks, and gathered phone numbers from the group of people so that we could teach them in the future.
I know that the Lord still works miracles today and that he is here to help us when we ask him! I know without a doubt that the Gospel was restored on the Earth and that we have an amazing opportunity to share it! Don't let it go to waste!
Love you all!
Elder Walker
That's right, this week we had a Baptism! We've been working with Nataly and she made the important decision forward to be baptized and recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost! She's super excited to keep moving forward in the Gospel and learn as much as she can! Some parts of the city were hit hard by the floods that happened a couple months back and as a result, the hot water heater in the chapel, well, lets just say that the baptismal font wasn't exactly a jacuzi for the Baptism. Remarkably though, afterwards, she told us that she didn't even feel the water when she went into the font! Small and simple miracles!
