Serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Concepcion, Chile from November 2013---October 2015

Monday, February 16, 2015

#Embark

Fantastic week. Every single night I laid in bed thinking about the day, what great things happened, what miracles we witnessed. And I could not but smile and say to myself. We did good today. Never have I had so many lessons in a week. We had more or less 7 a day, ending with a 43 lesson week. The attendance in church jumped from 123 to 143. We had a baptism this week, funny story about that. Elder Call is the man. He has 6 months in the mission, comes from a super campo area, he told me that the first day he worked here, he entered more houses that he had in his whole mission! We found 6 new houses of people to teach, three new houses of less actives, and got all of our converts in our sector to come to church. I thought back last night about how incredibly tired I was, and I remember thinking, I guess I just won´t have time to rest for a while...

Well I think I will share the spiritual before the funny right. I wish to talk about something that happened in Sunday. Well this past week, almost all of our youth were at PFJ, or EFY, and in so they all gave their testimony after the bread and water. It was a sight to see, youth that I had visited that showed no desire in the church, ro to serve missions, or to even share with us during lessons, were up front crying to the congregation. As many know, the theme: Embark in the Service of God, helps the youth to understand the importance of serving a mission. Their testomonies reminded me of what great experiences I felt through efy, and ignited the flame to continue my service in the Lord. Sometimes I feel that we forget how blessed we are to serve the Lord.

I was reading some Doctrine and Covenants, and came across a scipture that touched me quite a bit. DyC 15:6, and then again repeated in 16:6. 

 6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen.

It is such a blessing that I have in my own live, one that took me a real long time to consider a blessing, and not a commandment. Something that the President told me in interveiws that really is a big concern about our mission. And that is the obedience. Many missionaries are not being as obedient as we should. And so he shared a scripture with me about the Obedience. The jist was that we first of all, must change ourselves before God will empower us with the authority to goven the church. And then shared a quote I really enjoyed: 

Ezra Taft Benson

Ezra Taft Benson
“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that 
moment God will endow us with power.”
   
So. As I was saying, let us #embark onto the Lord´s work, and do it his way. Become the Preach
my Gospel missionary.  When we love the Lord, obedience ceases to become a burden.

Oh, and the funny thing. We partially flooded the primary because the water started leaving to fast 
and flooded out of the font...But we cleaned it before the second hoour was finished so hardly 
anybody but the primary knew what happened...

Love you all very much,
Elder Siaosi

                                                                        me and Elder Call


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Cambios



We do not have much time, we had more transfers. Elder Tafur is leaving and Elder Call is coming. A missionary from Kentucky. I am still in Chiguyante. Loving it. Miss you all so much!

Elder Siaosi

Monday, February 2, 2015

Not what you want, but what you need.

Another wild and crazy 7 days. Learning so much while I am here with Elder Tafur, for there is much to learn. I will keep it short and sweet. This week we worked harder than ever and when, everynight it came time for bed, I just laid out and died of exhaustion. Everyday, running around all day talking to everyone, so many lessons, and meeting so many new people! Actually, when we hit Saturday in the morning we had 6 investigators that were planning to come to church that week! It was amazing. Well we get ready in the morning to visit them all to recommit them to come to church and to have them come with a baptism date in mind. Every single one was not there, or called us and said that they were not coming!!! The worst ever right. After a whole day of nothing right we felt fairly horrible, a little depressed to say. Just wanted to go home. 

And then here comes the best part, we were actually fasting so that we could bring people to church that want to be baptized. Ahh yeah perfectooo. So after visiting some people the day comes to a close and we head home. It is about 10 at night right and before we left we always knock at least one door before we go. So we walk to the end of the apartments, walk up to the third floor, and give it a little knock. Then the whole day changed. We found them. Cristian and his family, his sister, mother, and grandma. Within 15 minutes they were all commited to church with desires to get baptized. They were touched by the Book of Mormon. The next day they all came. They stayed for three hours. And they asked us the pass by at 8:30. The Lord works in small and mysterious ways. And I cannot help but say that God does have a sense of humor. He just sits there watching us be brought down, because he loves to help us back up. I was grateful for the fast. I´ll send a picture of the hosue he lives in, I took a picture just because I knew I wanted to send it to you all!

I want to cite a quote that I heard that I love.
                      A man is never taller, than when we is on his knees
Sometimes we hope for that things that we have planned out in this life. The things that we want, that we desire. Yet the Lord knows what we need. He knows our limits.Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. I am grateful to be here. It is a struggle. But it is worth the price. When you wake up in the morning, get on your knees and ask God for all the things you need. And in the night, get back on your knees and thank the Lord for all he gave.

As always, miss you all. Only 9 more right haha. 
Love,
Elder Siaosi






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