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| My new Chilean hat :) |
Be prepared, this letter might be a long one. Today marks
the very last day of the Videlas three years of dedicated missionary service.
Yesterday was the final Zone conference with them and they took the time to say
goodbye to every missionary, one by one, which resulted in not a single dry eye
among the 78 missionaries that were present that day. Fittingly, as the
missionaries left the building, two by two, we heard screams and shouts
throughout the whole city. Chile had won an important futbol match. Chile
indeed had won, the three-year term of our dear Chilean President Videla and
his wonderful wife was an incredible success.
One day 37 years ago, missionaries knocked the door of a
young Chilean couple. The husband invited the missionaries in and they talked a
bit about the message of the restored gospel. He found the message interesting,
and invited them to come back another day. For one reason or another they didn’t
come back until the following year. Once again they knocked on the door and the
husband let them in, but this time it was a trio of missionaries. The wife got
upset since the house was a little dirty, but she decided to participate as
well. Hermana Videla talks fondly of those moments when they began to teach.
She was moved to the center of her soul as they taught because she had a reoccurring
feeling that she had already known these truths of the Restoration, Plan of
Salvation and the gospel and Jesus Christ and that she was only being reminded
of them. That first day that the missionaries shared with them, the third missionary
was finishing his mission that very day. The other two missionaries taught, but
when the missionary on his last day testified of Jesus Christ, they felt the
spirit so strongly that they both wanted to be baptized. It took them a couple
months to actually do that because the young husband (now President Videla) was
a smoker and it took him a while to quit. Despite the challenges, including the
mother of Hermana Videla disowning her, they have continued firmly in the
gospel.
At the time of their mission call, President Videla was
serving as the Stake President in the southern part of Chile. They first had a preliminary interview with one of the apostles, and then the final
interview with President Uchtdorf when the call was extended. President Uchtdorf
told them that they would be serving in a foreign country, which was normal for
someone from a country as small as Chile. They then began preparing to serve in
another country, then the official call came. Mission Chile Santiago Norte, it
read. “Huh”, he thought, “they must’ve mixed something up.” It was the same
mission where they were married, baptized and raised their children. In that
mission they had various kids and grandkids as well as many other relatives
living there. Convinced that it was a mistake, he called the church offices,
and explained the situation. The only response he got was, “Don’t worry, we
know. Before these three years are over, you’ll know why as well.”
These three years, as wonderful as they have been for
President and Hermana Videla, have also been filled with serious family
problems. Serious enough that if they weren’t serving in Santiago, Chile they
would’ve been forced to resign about halfway into the mission. It’s been really
hard for everyone, but it would’ve been impossible if it wasn’t for the
revelation that they needed to be in Santiago. President was watching a live
stream of the current Mission President training that is going on right now in
the Provo MTC a couple nights ago. Elder Bednar was talking about the process
of selecting the missions of the new mission presidents and he said that the
First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles go to the temple to
receive revelation about the Mission Presidents. They see everything, they know
their whole lives, every last detail. It is only then that they began to assign
missions to Mission Presidents.
I know that this is exactly what the Mission Chile Santiago
Norte needed: Three wonderful years of President and Hermana Videla. I’m
grateful for these past 12 weeks that I've been in the office that have given me the opportunity to get to
know them a lot better. It is amazing to me how truly good they are as people
and as disciples of Jesus Christ.
They inspire me to be better, more fixed on my purpose, and
committed to my Savior. I’ll miss them dearly, but two things comfort me.
1. They’ll be living 5 blocks from the Santiago Temple, so I’m
sure I’ll be seeing them again.
2. President and Sister Meservy arrive tomorrow and I’m sure
they’ll be just as wonderful.
Last Friday we also lost two senior missionaries, Elder and
Sister Pack. They worked as pensionists and they’ll be missed a great deal. It’s
incredible the amount of improvement they’ve made to the quality and
cleanliness of the houses in this mission. They live in Heber, Utah so I’ll go
to visit them after the mission for sure.
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| Elder and Sister Pack finishing their mission. They'll be missed. |
On Sunday we had a baptism!! His name is David Gallardo and
he is the youngest 81-year-old I know. Ever since the missionaries began
visiting him he’s had a strong desire to join the church, repent, and be
baptized. He had 3 main challenges that needed to be overcome in order to be
baptized. The first was that he was unsure about the living day prophet, Thomas
S. Monson. That was quickly fixed when he listened to one of his talks and felt
that he truly is the prophet of God. To fix the other problems we needed the
help of Oscar Valenzuela, the former ward mission leader. One problem that
David had was the Word of Wisdom because he had always drunk wine when he ate
fish. The other problem was that of tithing. He receives 160 thousand pesos
every month in retirement money (240 dollars) and felt that the maximum amount
he could pay was 10 thousand pesos every month. Thanks to the testimony of
Hermano Valenzuela, he is excited to obey these commandments, in fact he wanted
to pay even more than 10% in tithing. On Sunday that same Hermano baptized
David in a very spiritual baptismal service. It looks like now the wife of
David (Yolanda) is interested in learning more and possibly following the example of her
husband. We’re happy for the newest member of the Vespucio ward, and now I know
it’s never too late to repent!
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| Baptism of David Gallardo |
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| Oscar, David and Yolanda at David's baptism |
Funny story. On the way to a Zone conference on Tuesday a
man asked us for some coins to buy a sopaipilla. We didn’t have any change so
we told him we couldn’t help. He then began spitting on me 2-3 times, but when
he didn’t get a reaction, he started launching giant loogies at my suit coat,
covering my whole back. My suit is definitely dirty, but I still thought it was
funny. Hopefully he got his sopaipilla. :)
Tomorrow at 7 in the morning we’re going to pick up the
Meservys from the airport. We’re excited!
Talk to you next week!
Love,
Elder Birrell
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