Week 27: Reasons to clean your piso

Day 14 here in the flood. Haven't seen the sun in weeks. I can't really feel my hands. I live in a freezer. Though, there is hope. My study of the Old Testament is benefitting me. I'll have my ark built in no time.

The rainy view from Elder Hendrix's piso.

This week was super good! Great things are happening here in the north!

My first week here was quite discouraging. We have no investigators, no less actives to visit, and nobody willing to let us in. Contacting in the street is very difficult. It's always pouring rain and nobody is ever outside. However, last week we were deep cleaning the piso (it was absolutely awful when I got here) and we actually found a huge stack of 400 old teaching records in a closet. The missionaries in the past did not take care of this piso at all. It's so gross and there's just random stuff everywhere. But we have been working a ton with all those teaching records we found. We spent most of this week making phone calls, trying to see if the records are still accurate. Some of them were from 2002... I have no idea how missionaries would just forget about them. Maybe if you kept your piso CLEAN you could get work done and find people ready to hear the gospel haha... Moral of the story: clean your piso. Anyway, I probably made 100 phone calls one day this week with no success. Like 90% of them weren't working phone numbers, and the other 10% just didn't want anything from us (Spaniards make it really clear when they don't want anything to do with the missionaries). Well, I came across a teaching record from 2003. I was pretty discouraged at this point because I've been here in Santiago for 2 weeks and haven't had much hope, and these records are over a decade old anyway. Well, I decided to go ahead and call the number anyway. A guy named Hector answered. I asked him how he was doing and everything and asked if he remembered who we were. And he said of course! I remember you guys! You're the missionaries! You used to come teach me about the gospel! He totally remembered! And he was the nicest guy ever! He told me he remembered learning about the Celestial Kingdom and how he wants to live there. We talked on the phone for probably an hour about the Plan of Salvation and such and it was just super cool! He said he would love to meet with us again! The reason he lost contact with the missionaries was because he went out of town for 6 months and I guess they just forgot about him. He moved a few hours south to a town called Villagarcia. I told him I'd pass his number to the missionaries down there so they could teach him. So I did so, and the next morning those missionaries gave me a phone call back. They said they got a hold of Hector and visited him the night I gave them the phone number. And they taught him. He and his wife are getting baptized next month. This man has been ready for 13 years. All it took to seal the deal was a clean piso, some faith, and a phone call.

I learned a few things from this experience. I have once again received a witness of the truth in James 2:17 where we learn that faith without action is dead. My time so far in Santiago has been a trial of my faith for sure. But without hope and action, I wouldn't have found those teaching records. Miracles don't just happen. They require faithful prayer and a spirit of optimism. Working hard is so worth it. Ahh MISSIONS ARE THE BEST.

So there's my highlight for the week. :)

As I previously implied, it hasn't stopped raining since I got here. The rain here is insane. Umbrellas don't really work either cause the rain doesn't fall normally... If I'm not wrong, rain is supposed to fall from the sky. Not in Santiago though. It comes from all over the place. It seriously rains sideways. It's so weird.

So I kinda have a "calling" in the branch. I translate for Tyler Haws haha. He's the coolest guy ever. (note:Tyler is a former BYU basketball player who is currently playing for the top team in Spain.) He had us over for dinner this week. He's such a nice guy! We're like his only friends cause he doesn't understand Spanish haha. He and his wife are always asking us to come over and "share a message" haha. They're so much fun. Tyler is super encouraging about the work here. He's our mission leader and loves to help us come up with ideas to find people. I love that guy! Mostly because I'll be able to say that I'm friends with an NBA player one day. Haha kidding. But yeah he destroyed us in basketball last p day...

Ok here's a crazy story now.

A few mornings ago, we were looking out the window studying the rain to calculate the number of layers that would best keep us dry so we could make our 5 minute walk to the chapel, when all of us a sudden we see a car bump into a motorcyclist and the dude falls off and rolls like 30 feet down the street. And then gets up like it was nothing and starts a full sprint toward the car that hit him and jumps feet first into the windshield. And then the car started driving again, the dude fell off, and the car drove away. And then the guy pulls out a banana from his jacket, eats it, and then gets back on his motorcycle and drives off. Weirdest thing ever.

Well fanclub de casa, I love all of you! Enjoy the sunshine for me! Have an awesome week! Happy Valentine's Day! Give your mom flowers.

Clean your piso.

Elder Hendrix