First however, I will share a few neat things that did happen. I got my second haircut in Chile and I can oficially say that Mom or Dad either one of you have cut my hair ten times better than anyone barber in Chile so far. Granted the first time was prolly my fault as I had no idea how to say I wanted my haircut, but this time I definitely understood the lady and she understood me it just wan`t too important to her how my hair looks hha. However it`s grown back fast the last week and it looks better, I`m super glad to have short hair again haha. Also I made panakes yesterday with some left over Just Add Water pancake mix that Elder Loveridge left in our house. With some chocolate chips thrown in and some Manjar on top it was pretty darn good haha.
On Thursday I finished the Book of Mormon (in English) for the first time in the Mission as a challenge from President Warne, my Mission President, to finish it before April 30. I can say that it was the most contructive reading of the Book of Mormon I have ever done in my life and I learned more from this experience than I could have ever imagined. I urge anyone who has not read this book to do so, and to ponder the message that it contains. I am now reading the Bible in English as well and hope to finish the Old Testament by the end of this change with Elder Silvestre. Also in my reading of the Book of Mormon in Spanish I started over (for the third time haha) and am currently in 1 Nephi close to starting 2 Nephi. But I really have come to love studying the sciptures, there is so much knowledge and teachings that we can learn from in them in the historical parts alone.
As I said in the beginning of this email there were several experiences that I had this week which have greatly impacted me and I do whish to share them with you. The first was on Friday night. We went to visit the Family Milanco, who are in the new part of our sector that we gained in the last change, we didn`t know the family at all but we shared a scripture with the mother of the family about how "we cannot control the actions of others, all we can do is control our reactions and our own actions" that is found in 2 Nephi but I can`t rementer the exact scripture. After we shared the scripture she just started crying. I din`t really know how to react but then she said (in Spanish), "Everytime that there is something I´m struglling with or that is hard in my life, the missionaries show up and give me the exact message that I need to hear. I know you don`t know anything about us or our personal problems but this scripture is exactly what I needed to hear right now." This experience really fortified my testimony of my work here. I don`t know why this scripture impacted this woman so profoundly because she didn`t expound on it, but I know that my companion and I were guided by the Spirit of the Lord to this message and that our testimonies reguarding the message helped her to feel the Spirit and truthfulness of our words. I am so grateful that the Lord in His mercy touched this woman with our message.
The second experience I would like to share happened yesterday in the Primary. My companion and I teach a Primary class every week cause a lot of the teachers don`t come to church haha. However, we a an investigator (who has practically been one of the strongests sisiters in this area for the last six years) in the meetings with her two daughters, one 11 and the other 5. The family is super awesome and the kids are baptized besides the youngest because she is only 5, but the parents aren`t married and cannot be baptized until they do so. Anyways, we were finishing up the meetings and all the kids were leaving and the last one in the room was Michu, who is the 5 year old daughter. She is probably the cutest little kid I have ever seen, and she walked up to us and said, "I want my parents to be baptized." I don`t know why it impacted me so profoundly, but for this sweet and innocent little girl to say this in such a simple sentence when we had not talked about this with her or the family at any point in the three times that we`ve taught them or in the Primary classes was truly powerful to me. I am so grateful for this family and the words that this little girl spoke, because I truly felt the Spirit very powerfully after hearing these words.
I don`t have a lot more time but I would like to end as always by sharing a scripture. I wich to speak a little a bout charity this week. As I finished the Book of Mormon I was strongly impacted by the words of Moroni near the end of the Book of Moromon found in Moroni 7. In verses 46 and 47 it reads: "Wherefore, my beloved bretheren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherfore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail, but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." As a missionary, charity is so important. I am trying harder each day to focus more and more on what other people need of me and less of my personal desires for the day or week. As this scripture says, "charity is the pure love of Christ... and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day it shall be well with him." I encourage each of you to develope more charity, and promise as you do so you will find happiness that cannot be described. Until next week!
Elder Conger
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