Hey family. I hope everything is going well with all of you.
Here is the story of the week- There are a bunch of apartment complexes
down near the end of our sector. Hna. VM had been wanting to knock them for
DAYS becuase she loves knocking doors. Apartment complexes are like my worst
nightmare though because it´s just contacting contacting contacting with no
pauses. And contacting is not my favorite thing in the world. So we went down
there are asked the guards if we could knock the doors but every single one of
them said no. Finally, we went to find some other houses to knock and Hna. VM
wanted to try just one more. I was a big pain about it because we had gotten
rejected and kicked out once and I always felt really uncomfortable. But she
made us go over there and ask. When she did, the guard just nodded and said
¨si, pasen.¨ It was pretty strange but we (and by we I mean VM) were excited to
go up. VM contacted the first two doors and the third door was my turn. When
this boy answered the door, I completely froze because I had no idea what he
said to us and we just stood there in awkward silence for a couple eternally
long and uncomfortable seconds until VM finally took pity on me and contacted
him. It was such a weird door contact but he let us in! And I cannot even
describe to you how prepared he was! I´ll change his name for privacy´s sake
but Cristian seriously had been incredibly prepared for this gospel. He was
super receptive and when we told him about the guard, he said that the guards
NEVER let people pass by and so God must have wanted him to hear this message.
We met him on Monday and since then have tuaght him many times and he came to a
baptism with us and church! It has been such a miracle. And the coolest part
is that he knows it! When he was at the baptism, he was telling our zone leader
all about how he knew that this church was true and that all these things have
been God preparing him.
Also in that apartment building we found a man who had taken the lessons
YEARS ago and always had an excuse for the elders. He moved away and never
really saw the missionaries again and so when we knocked on his door, he knew
that God had not forgotten about him and that us coming was a sign from God. He
said that he knew that we had been sent to knock on HIS door and for no other
reason. We haven´t seen him again though because his work schedule changes all
the time and we just found out that he is convive (not married to his partner).
PUCHA!
Please please PLEASE always say hi to the investigators at church. And the
menos activas. We had 5 people at church (but one was a snake- only interested
in us and left when we didnt pay him sufficient attention) and I was so grateful
for the people who would take care of our investigators or just make them feel
welcome without smothering them.
About the excuses when we are contacting- they are so funny! We have
started keeping track. The most comonly used one (besides ¨estoy ocupadita¨) is
taking care of the guagua (baby). They are all trying to be original but
everyone uses it. Also they have this sing songy way of saying it too ¨estoy
ocupadiiiiiiita¨ The second to last sylabol is always super low. It´s hilarious
to us.
I love you all!
Hna. Catron
P.S. Lisa McGhie always does these cultural ps things and i like it.
Hopefully it will help people who might get called to this mission. This weeks
is that there are little parks around the city and they all have exercise
equipment in them. It´s funny though because they have NO resistence and so I´m
not so sure they really do anything. More like adult jungle gyms. About 7 at
night you can see TONS of people using them and it´s always really funny to me.
P.P.S Chilean word of the week- Pucha is ¨dangit¨ but probably a little
less bad. One more is flaite which means gangster kind of. Not quite the same
as in the states but close.
Here is the story of the week- There are a bunch of apartment complexes
down near the end of our sector. Hna. VM had been wanting to knock them for
DAYS becuase she loves knocking doors. Apartment complexes are like my worst
nightmare though because it´s just contacting contacting contacting with no
pauses. And contacting is not my favorite thing in the world. So we went down
there are asked the guards if we could knock the doors but every single one of
them said no. Finally, we went to find some other houses to knock and Hna. VM
wanted to try just one more. I was a big pain about it because we had gotten
rejected and kicked out once and I always felt really uncomfortable. But she
made us go over there and ask. When she did, the guard just nodded and said
¨si, pasen.¨ It was pretty strange but we (and by we I mean VM) were excited to
go up. VM contacted the first two doors and the third door was my turn. When
this boy answered the door, I completely froze because I had no idea what he
said to us and we just stood there in awkward silence for a couple eternally
long and uncomfortable seconds until VM finally took pity on me and contacted
him. It was such a weird door contact but he let us in! And I cannot even
describe to you how prepared he was! I´ll change his name for privacy´s sake
but Cristian seriously had been incredibly prepared for this gospel. He was
super receptive and when we told him about the guard, he said that the guards
NEVER let people pass by and so God must have wanted him to hear this message.
We met him on Monday and since then have tuaght him many times and he came to a
baptism with us and church! It has been such a miracle. And the coolest part
is that he knows it! When he was at the baptism, he was telling our zone leader
all about how he knew that this church was true and that all these things have
been God preparing him.
Also in that apartment building we found a man who had taken the lessons
YEARS ago and always had an excuse for the elders. He moved away and never
really saw the missionaries again and so when we knocked on his door, he knew
that God had not forgotten about him and that us coming was a sign from God. He
said that he knew that we had been sent to knock on HIS door and for no other
reason. We haven´t seen him again though because his work schedule changes all
the time and we just found out that he is convive (not married to his partner).
PUCHA!
Please please PLEASE always say hi to the investigators at church. And the
menos activas. We had 5 people at church (but one was a snake- only interested
in us and left when we didnt pay him sufficient attention) and I was so grateful
for the people who would take care of our investigators or just make them feel
welcome without smothering them.
About the excuses when we are contacting- they are so funny! We have
started keeping track. The most comonly used one (besides ¨estoy ocupadita¨) is
taking care of the guagua (baby). They are all trying to be original but
everyone uses it. Also they have this sing songy way of saying it too ¨estoy
ocupadiiiiiiita¨ The second to last sylabol is always super low. It´s hilarious
to us.
I love you all!
Hna. Catron
P.S. Lisa McGhie always does these cultural ps things and i like it.
Hopefully it will help people who might get called to this mission. This weeks
is that there are little parks around the city and they all have exercise
equipment in them. It´s funny though because they have NO resistence and so I´m
not so sure they really do anything. More like adult jungle gyms. About 7 at
night you can see TONS of people using them and it´s always really funny to me.
P.P.S Chilean word of the week- Pucha is ¨dangit¨ but probably a little
less bad. One more is flaite which means gangster kind of. Not quite the same
as in the states but close.