Doing good!

¡Hola de la Obra del Señor en Doñihue, Chile!

Before I say anything else, I wann say HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA! I´m so glad I am from a free country and receive blessings in my life from being raised in a great atmosphere! I wish I could´ve been home for Independence Day but I think being in Chile right now is a little better. Haha!
So I have some good news and some unfortunate news to share from this week. Let´s Stara with the unfortunate news so we can end on a good note. Well, you probably already know that Michael Jackson died. I almost cried when I heard that cuz now there won´t be any more music from him. L Everyone here is actino like it´s a huge tragedy. I feel bad but know that he´s DEFINITELY gonna get a good chance in the afterlife because of his earth life actions. Also, we had two earthquakes this past week that were pretty sweet, Don´t worry, we´re ok. Lol.
So now for some normal unfortunate news, Christian ( the non-member father that´s gone to church for 10 years) didn´t end up getting baptized. What happened was that when we had set the baptismal date for him and asked him to pray about the date, he said yes. But when we checked in with him 3 days later, he said he wasn´t ready and still wanted to think about it. The truth was that he didn´t pray because he know that if he prayed he KNEW that the Lord World answer his prayer and he didn´t have the courage to pray. We met with him Wednesday night and had a powerful lesson with him about his family and about prayer. We left him with the commitment to pray again and he said would sincerely do it this time because he said this past month is the first time in his life that he´s seriously thought about baptism. I hope he accepts it cuz if not, we are going to have to stop teaching him. It´s sad but Elder Abrams and I understand how important our time is and that we need to focus on the elite. This scenario is another testament of how powerful prayer is and the real intent we have to have behind every prayer. The Lord WILL answer our prayers when we have the faith.(Moroni 10:7, 20-23)
On the bright side, I have had some amazing experiences with prayer lately and strengthened myself here. I had struggled a bit this past week because the language is still a big struggle to understand and on top of it, I don´t know too many scriptures to be able to be as effective of a missionary as I´d like to be. I got discouraged and Elder Abrams and I had a long talk during our companionship inventory about it. He is an amazing guy and I couldn´t be more blessed to have an anchor like him to train me. He showed me a scripture in Mosiah 4:27 which says, “And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.” When I read that, I about cried. I know that the Lord has work for me and all of us to accompish and when we are diligent and make goals that aren´t out of our means, we will grow immensely. We knelt down and prayed and I feel so much more confident in the Lord. My FAITH has strengthened and I will do all I can but take it one step at a time.
I wish I could talk a ton more but our time is up. We set a baptism date with a Lady named Lorena (37 years old with 2 teenage daughters). She´s been taught for 2 months now and is really smart. She understands apostasy, restoration, and the priesthood. She FINALLY CAME to church yesterday and we were so happy. We need to help her leave smoking and we just watched Special Witnesses of Christ with her last week. She got to meet some of the ladies in the ward and feels welcomed now. Oh the joy of the Gospel!!!!! Pray for her. We are also close to setting baptism dates with a guy named Juan and his family. Juan wants to get baptized first so he can baptize his two kids. I´m so happy!
Well, I got the mail mom! It takes 9 days for it to get here and I´m grateful for the Plan of Salvation papers. They are going to help! J Everyone one of NEEDS to study Preach My Gospel. It helps us learn the basics of the Gospel that we are suppose to know and brings us to become better in sharing the Gospel with others. Love you all!

Pictures:
1. Elder Cannon and Elder Duarte (Zone Leaders)
2. Service. I was cutting bushes with SCISSORS
3. Service at the Relief Society President´s house.
4. Pernil (The HUGE leg of a pig!)
5. Us studying
6. Our house just for us 2
7. Us in the sunset in Cerro Chólera

-Elder Boaz