Hola Familia han sido dos años excelentes
que jamás olvidaré. Sé que ésta es la gran obra de Dios y para siempre seguiré
sirviendo al Señor. Me gustaría primeramente hablar de los lugares donde yo
pude servir y no se preocupen, lo haré en inglés.
I'd like to share a little of what we were able to accomplish in each of the areas I served. I love the associations I made with those I was able to serve and I will forever feel blessed that we meet and they allowed me to be apart of their lives.
GALVARINO 1: This was the ward where I served the
most time (about 5 months). Up arriving, I learned that there was a total of
one convert in the past two years and as a young missionary I didn´t feel
capable of changing that trend. It was a very humbling experience, and I´m
thankful that the Lord did give us the chance to teach and baptize very
converted people. In the Muñoz family we saw miracles and to this day I
remember that every time we shared with them they had some great experience to
share with us. Nicolas Marabolí, the grandson was baptized as was his cousin
Constanza a few months later. In the Silva Matos family, we were able to see
miracles as Jesús became very converted to the gospel and over time, quit
smoking and drinking, and was baptized. His wife Catalina (already a member)
was very thankful for the change in their family and continues working in order
to be sealed in the temple. Luckenson Dorsaint was the first Haitian member of
the ward that we worked with and is currently working a couple hours away from
Santiago, but goes back to Santiago every weekend where he has a house just so
he can continue attending church in the Galvarino ward. Unlike most Haitians, he didn´t believe much in
God before we talked to him in the street one day, but has found the light of
the Gospel and he can´t get enough. We also prepared the Nonato family for
baptism, where the 3 kids were baptized a few weeks after we left.
Unfortunately, the same still has not happened in the Aguilar family despite
the miracles they´ve seen as a family. One day they will. Galvarino for me was
a fantastic place for me to learn and grow and gain confidence as a missionary
and helped me to see and feel the impact of the mission work in the lives of
these people.
DORSAL: In this sector I realized that the
work we did in Galvarino was good, but thanks to great companions and leaders
as well as a deeper understanding of the mission work I knew we could do more.
In this sector we talked to so many people that missionaries in other zones
started taking notice and tried to talk to more people. Really in every aspect
of the mission work I was open to change and grow and improve and I think in
Dorsal I improved the most. Two references from a Bolivian member Juan Pablo
were baptized (Christopher and Ignacio) as well as the humblest person I´ve met
in this country (Jaime Ardiles). Cristian Jara impressed me so much with his testimony and understanding of the importance of the Gospel in our lives. The
only thing we had to do was help him to put that faith into action, quit his
job, go to church, get baptized, and find a better job that would allow him to
attend church. Graciela was a miracle in many ways and her willingness to just
do the things we asked her to do allowed her to gain a testimony very quickly.
Rita, a humble Peruvian lady, was almost too ready to hear this message.
Yamilet, the wife of recent convert Fabian took a very long time to appreciate
and become converted to the gospel and our part was very small, but with us she
finally accepted the missionaries in her house and even grew to a desire to be
baptized (She was baptized some months after we left). Elizabeth was found
through a simple act of service and learned about the gospel she truly deserves
to know and was baptized. This sector challenged me a lot because we talked to
so many people I thought success would come immediately, but it just didn´t.
Looking back I realize that all that hard work was definitely worth it.
LAMPA: Wow, that branch was awesome. It was
there that I deepened my understanding of how to work with members. My only
complaint is that I was only there for 6 weeks. I was there long enough to be
there for the baptism of the Tapia brothers (Matias and Vicente) who continue
as leaders in their family and in their Quorums. We had the opportunity to work
with Bojan a convert with a bad drug addiction. Over time his sons have been
baptized as well as his mom and they are continuing to see the blessings of
living the gospel. Guillermo (memito) and Danna were also very good examples
for their families by getting baptized and living the gospel, but were baptized
just after I left.
VESPUCIO: Here I really wish we had time to do
more, but I know we did what we could with the limited time we had. Ines
Gutierrez has become one of the strongest members of the ward following her
baptism and she really is an example to me for the kind of member I want to be
after taking off the missionary name tag. She reads her scriptures for an hour
and a half every day, shares the gospel with everyone, and visited people in
the ward in the time after her baptism and before she received a calling. David
Gallardo is the oldest of the people we baptized at 82 years old, it
was hard to get him to read and he wasn’t too sure for a while about paying
tithing, but thanks to the help of the members of the ward, he felt the spirit
and knew that he had to do it. He now has a calling and continues to progress
even at his advanced age. This ward was a little bit weaker relatively, but I
learned that you don´t need 100 active members in a ward to involve them in the
work of salvation.
LOS OLIVOS: Sometimes I think I woke up in a
different country since we talk to more Peruvians, Haitians, Dominicans,
Colombians, Ecuadorians, Venezuelans, Chinese, Koreans, and even Americans than
Chileans. Even though it made me dizzy at first, I love this sector and I´ll
dearly miss it next week. We´ve worked with the Cruzate (Peruvians) family,
helping Abraham in order to get baptized. We know that someday his mom will
follow his example and complete the whole family. Yslande Meus was a
miracle baptism because 6 weeks ago we knew hardly any Creole, but we can now
teach the lesson and converse with the Haitians in Creole. When they talk fast
it´s a little hard to understand, but we´ve felt the gift of tongues with the
Haitian investigators. Yslande´s daughter came to Chile a couple weeks ago so
she´ll soon follow in her mother´s footsteps but I will unfortunately have to
see pictures of that baptism from the United States. Marcial is the only
Dominican that I´ve ever seriously worked with and it was really cool to work
with someone from the country where my mom served her mission. His son (member of the
church) is a baseball prodigy in the Dominican Republic and they are actually
related to Albert Pujols. He took some huge steps of faith during the process and
we cooked him a little bit on Sunday because the water in the font was so hot,
but he was very happy to be baptized. On Saturday we will baptize the smartest, most
creative and talkative kid in South America. His name is Arturo and I´ll tell
you all more about him on Tuesday when I get home.
This has been my mission.
“Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel
through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving
the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end” has been my objective
and I hope that I´ve been able to do my part in this work. I realize that my
part is very small, but if I hadn´t done it then it´s more than likely that
very few of those people would have the blessings that they currently enjoy.
I´m so thankful that God gave me the opportunity to serve and I hope he lets me
serve even after December 19th. I love this gospel and I know that
it is true. I might have changed during these two years and that´s okay, I hope
it´s for the better but I´m very much still Seth. My love for the Savior has
immensely grown and as a natural consequence of that I´ve changed and I know
that God wants me to continue growing and becoming better every day. My
commitment with God is far greater now than it was before and it´s not
something I´ll take lightly. I´d like to ask all of you to help me and support
me in this next phase of life since it won´t be easy either.
I Love you all and I´ll see you soon.
Elder Birrell
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