Elder Matthew Kenison's Mission To Chile: June 22 update

We waited all day Monday for our customary email, but nothing came. We worried a bit, but were delighted to receive the messages on Tuesday. Apparently the district had an activity at the zoo which is closed on Monday, so they postponed P-day. But visiting the zoo apparently inspires missionaries to strike poses like this:

In spite of the zoo experience, it seems the missionaries had a pretty good week. Their best investigator Ayram is scheduled for baptism this coming Sunday. She was a referral from a recent convert; but Matt observed,

:D now we just have to get that recent convert to church haha

He sent this photo of another young family he's been working with for a while. Wilson was an inactive member, and Debora has been very enthusiastic about the Gospel. They both are doing great now, but have a challenge with a divorce situation. They are making arrangements to be married in August, and Debora will then be able to be baptized!

He mentioned one other new investigator:

Marienela :D elder Tucto found her. but we passed by the other day and taught her the first lesson (the restoration, we had already taught her the second) and then we asked her if she would pray to know if it was true and she said. "well, i don't need to it just feels right, i feel like it's true. :D it just all makes sense. God had prophets before and he needs them now" :D it's awesome :D haha

Finally, this great story. This is one of the longest experiences Matt ever wrote; we really enjoyed it!

we were working the other day (yeah we do that alot haha wow i don't know why i started off like that) anyways. so we were passing by for references that we have from the ward and we passed by for a less active member. as we were looking for his house two women left from a house and then stopped us. they said "are you elders" we said "yes" they looked up in the air and said "oh thank you, thank you" (elder Balling and i got a little curious)

They invited us to go into a house. i've seen the house before and talked to a lady who was a member outside so we went in. when we walked in it smelled a LOT like smoke. we walk in and saw two guys sitting at the table. one big guy on the left (Julio) and one smaller guy on the right (Carlos).

When we walked in the big guy looked amazed. and he put his hands to his face and started crying. elder balling and i just stood there. one of the women that invited us in (probably Julio's wife) started patting him on the back and said, in a loving voice, "that's ok cry, just cry" he cried and cried. Then after a while. Carlos started talking he said. “wow, we were just talking about you. And here you are. This is Julio he is my best friend. And he’s going through a hard time.” He then told us that he was a member, he had the aaronic priesthood and Julio had the melchizedek priesthood and is actually a High Priest. But they’re been inactive for about 10 years.

After talking for a little more Julio stopped crying and asked us to give him a blessing. We gave the blessing and the spirit came into the room :D it was awesome! We then sat down and started talking. Julio and Carlos said that they were just talking about how they needed to go back to church. We talked to them and said, “ok, so what do you need to do to go back to church and feel the blessings that you did before?” they weren’t sure. So we pulled out the folleto (I don’t know the word in english haha pamphlet? ¿no?) The Word of Wisdom :D they looked at it for a little and then both dropped their heads. We read the blessings that come from following the word of wisdom and then we talked about it. They said. Wow we have a big problem with that. So we had them set a Goal. We asked “how many cigarettes are you smoking everyday?” “umm... about 20.” They replied. A little shocked we said. “ok can you set a goal, how many cigarrettes will you stop smoking from now, until Sunday?” Carlos looked at me and said, “Here’s how I look at it. If i needed to cut a dogs tail off I wouldn’t do it bit by bit but just once. Then it would be cut one time and heal one time.” “so...” we said. “that cigarrette that i had 5 minutes ago is my last” and with that he grabbed a boc of cigarrettes, (unopened) and crumpled it up in his hand and threw it in the trash. Haha. Elder Balling and I just looked and each other, stunned. Haha afterwards we shared a short lesson told them to keep going with the good intentions that they have and then we left.

Well, we saw Carlos a couple days ago, riding his bike (he actually came to us). And asked him how he was doing. He said. “i’m chewing so much gum.” Haha but in the three days before he hadn’t smoked a single cigarrette. :D Pretty cool :D haha as of right now i don’t know how they are doing. Haha but we have a cita with Carlos Tomorrow so hopefully everything is ok. Haha !vamos a ver¡ :D

What a great story! We were very proud of how Elder Kenison and Elder Balling handled the situation. They seemed to be very blessed.

Of course, like much of the world and especially South American countries,

"World Cup Fever" is rocking Chile right now. The Chilean team won their first two games, but has to play a strong Spain team next (on Friday) and must at least tie to guarantee advancing to the next round. Matt said the country is crazy about the games. We asked if they had special instructions about their work around game times:

during the game no. but after yes. this friday we'll probably get instructions to stay in till 5. because there is A LOT of things that go on. a pizza place got broken into and stuff. kinda crazy. i don't get it. but yeah so we'll probably be staying inside. if they win.

Food was also a theme this week. These pictures show Elder Kenison digging into one of his favorite meals (a missionary staple), mac & cheese with hot dogs and ketchup. The second photo looks much better to us — a nice lemon meringue pie we think was given to the missionaries by a member!