Dec 13, 2016- Elder Dussan

Elder Dussan and Elder Birrell

Well, this week was a special one- one that I’ll never forget thanks to my new companion Elder Dussan. I’ve literally never met anyone my age who is so humble, Christlike, and disciplined he literally blows me away every day. Honestly, sometimes it’s hard just being in his presence, I guess I just don’t feel worthy to be his companion. He’s from Neiva, Columbia and is a convert of 1 year and 9 months. He comes from humbler circumstances- he mentioned that at home he didn’t even have a bed to sleep on. For him that’s not a reason to complain nor to dislike people who have better circumstances- he’s just so grateful for each day of life God’s given him and the eternal perspective on life that the gospel and his Savior Jesus Christ brings him. He loves everyone unconditionally and sees the absolute best in everyone.

I thought I was sharing the gospel with everyone I possibly could. The Elder Dussan showed up. Sometimes I look behind me only to see Elder Dussan, 20 meters behind me, Book of Mormon in hand, sharing with a neighbor or someone I didn’t even think to share with. One time we just went to get lunch from a Hermana (a lady in the ward) to take back to the house and we ended up helping her with a few things in the house and I was ready to go back to the house because we didn’t have much time to eat before we needed to go back to work, but Elder Dussan offered to leave with a prayer and by the end of the prayer the Hermana was sobbing, she was so touched by the prayer. We then had 10 minutes to eat, clean the dishes and leave and so we ended up leaving 2-3 minutes behind schedule. In the prayer before leaving, Elder Dussan repeatedly asked for forgiveness for leaving late and pleaded that he would still be able to have the spirit with him.

Elder Dussan isn’t just obedient, he constantly strives to have the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and he relies completely on having the spirit. I think sometime we can get into a rut where we are obedient to the written commandments but we forget the spirit of the law and thus the spirit isn’t as strong in us.

Sometimes being with the Elder Dussans of the world isn’t the easiest thing in the world. Many times during the week I felt pretty down on myself and discouraged, but mainly I’m filled with hope, knowing that I have the special opportunity to become more like Christ with the help of my companion. I see him as an angel sent from God to help me right now, so as difficult as it may be, I’ll try to make the changes I need to make in my life to be more like Christ.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Birrell

Baby Joseph!!

Cristian and baby Joseph

Elder Ortiz, Cristian, Elder Birrell

Haitian friends-Fritz is the member (middle) and Evans (short one) and Alexis

Elder Ortiz, President Videla, Elder Birrell

The San Pablo Zone

Best district in the mission

Dec. 6, 2016- Two newest members in the Dorsal ward

So for the second change in a row, the assistants called to give us changes but this time my companion will be going and I’ll be staying. I’ll definitely look back on this change as one of my favorites all in all. We worked like crazy to bring life to a dead sector and we did it. There’s still more work to be done, but we’ve already seen the fruits of our labors with 2 baptisms this past weekend. Elder Ortiz is a super good missionary and he’ll be doing great things for the people of Los Andes this change.

This change I will be training again and I’m 90% sure he’s a Brazilian. Hopefully he learns Spanish fast because I only can say 2 things in Portuguese. (UPDATE: He’s from Colombia) I’m excited for this new challenge and I’m hoping to grow how God wants me to grow from this experience.

So it was another super busy week, highlighted with baptisms, so I’ll start with that. 

The first baptism came on Saturday and it was Ignacio Cabrera, friend of member Juan Pablo. We met him because he had been coming to church and activities for some time now and always loved participating. When it came time to talk about baptism, he was excited. He described his desires to come out of the water clean, leave his past mistakes behind, become a member of the church, and pass the sacrament with his friend Juan Pablo. However, he also had fears about what his mom would say. She is a faithful member of the Evangelist church (Iglesia Evangelica) and for whatever reason she’s never been a fan of this church. She didn’t love the idea at first either, but she said she couldn’t say no because of how happy it makes her son and how great of an effect it has on his life. On Saturday he was baptized by a recently reactivated young man named Jose who helped us in teaching Ignacio and is preparing to serve a mission.

Ignacio's baptism

The second baptism came on Sunday and it was Cristian Jara, husband of member Andrea Ramos. I’ve said quite a bit about him in past weeks, but needless to say he was READY. He was actually going to be baptized on Saturday, but his wife gave birth on Thursday and didn’t leave the hospital until Sunday. In the end, everything went well and Elder Ortiz baptized for the first time in his life. Although this step in Cristian’s life certainly made his wife happy, he certainly didn’t do it just for his wife. Through diligent prayer and scripture study he knew this message was true and he has grown in his personal testimony ever since. Right after the baptism he found out he needed to move right then (a day early) so we quickly changed to go help only to find out he’ll actually be moving today. At least we got to meet his little baby Joseph Snyder Jara Ramos.

Cristian's baptism

Cristian and Andrea's new baby Joseph

In between those two baptisms (Saturday night) the stake had a big Christmas concert. It was super well done and super well attended as well, but I mostly mention this because some people from Rosende (my first sector) went. They told me Mario (first convert) is now the young men’s president, he baptized his daughter, and helped his wife to become active once again in the church. I also found out Andony moved away to the Santiago South Mission, but he still comes to Rosende every Sunday. I feel grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to share the gospel with these two amazing servants of God.

Friends from Rosende (my first sector)

3 weeks until Christmas!! See you guys then. I’ll tell you about my new comp next week. Enjoy the pictures!!

Love,

Elder Birrell

Nov 29, 2016- Brushing up on my French Creole

Our Halloween Pumpkin

Family!!

Well, this change is already coming to a close as we head into the last week. We worked hard, harder than I ever have in my whole mission. It’s not easy to change a sector, nor to change the culture of mission work in a ward, but we used every moment we had to do just that. I imagine that I’ll be staying here and Elder Ortiz will be leaving, but we’ll see. I’d be down for another change with Elder Ortiz, we work well together and we’re both willing to do the little things in order to be successful.

The investigators overall are doing well and the number of them grows with every week. Some of them will hopefully be getting baptized soon and others continue to progress little by little.

The member missionary of the week award this week goes to Fritznel or Fritz, the only Haitian member of the ward. He’s super cool, and even though he uses the “vosotros” form instead of “ustedes” he’s trying really hard to learn Spanish. Recently his cousin, Evans, and his friend, Alexis, moved in with him and he really wants them to have the gospel in their lives too, so we’re working with them. My time in Galvarino is saving me since they don’t speak very well in Spanish, so I get to pull out my limited knowledge of French Creole. On Saturday night we had a Haitian style barbeque and it was delicious.

I know the Lord is blessing us for our efforts, even if it isn’t always the way we expect.

Have a great week!!

Elder Birrell

Happy Thanksgiving

Elder Birrell and Elder Ortiz overlooking Santiago

So as you may have seen, the weather here has picked up quite a bit (its REALLY HOT) which is especially hard for us since we are out in the streets most of the day, but it's still fun. I prefer it to the cold so it`s all good. 

Cristian is super ready to get baptized, more so than any investigator I've seen. He understands the Book of Mormon better than I do and he has a strong testimony of it through reading and praying he has felt the spirit tell him its true. He`s made pretty drastic changes in his life to repent of put his life more in order and in harmony with the Saviors teachings. He`s ready, but...

In talking about baptism he lacks faith in himself more than anything that he`ll be able to continue in this path. He said something was still missing and I felt inspired by the spirit to share this part of Joshua with him. In this part some priests are taking the arc of the covenant and they arrive at the waters of Jordan and they receive a promise that as the soles of their feet begin walking on the water than it would part. But the waters didn't part as they waited on the shore, they literally had to step into the water with faith and then the miracle came. Its a powerful lesson that sometimes we just have to take a step into the water, into the unknown with faith and that`s where the Lord does miracles with us, or as it says it verse 5 "wonders" among us. Cristian understood this and is willing to follow the counsel of it. It was a super special lesson.

13. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.

14. And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people;

15. And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.)

16. That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zairean; and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

17. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan


Yesterday also I did an interchange with Elder Tolley who`s also from Washington (Moses Lake) good friend of the Jorgenson`s. He walks really fast and I could barely keep up but we ate 40 pieces of fried sushi after so it was really cool. Kind of funny- someone that`s getting baptized soon in their sector is 19 years old. Her parents were active in the church for years and only stopped going like 5 years ago. She wasn't baptized in the 6 years (age 8-14) for fear of water haha.

We also were busy this week preparing for a zone activity in which all the missionaries from our zone ( the biggest zone in the mission 32 missionaries) come to our sector for a couple hours. The purpose was to invite people to an open door activity at the church but that activity wasn't too successful. The missionaries found some cool people though so hopefully we can find them and teach them. 

Overall a good week and this week will be even better!

Have a great thanksgiving!

Love, 

Elder Birrell

Reunited with Elder Langston

Elder Birrell and Elder Workinger

With my son and adopted son :)

Member-Missionary Superstar

I don't think I've ever seen so much progress in a sector as we saw in Dorsal this week.  We did do our part in talking to absolutely everyone (more contacts than I´d every done in one week) but the Lord multiplied our efforts and then some. Through our diligence and exact obedience we´ve seen the happiness in ourselves as well as the fruits that have come in helping more people come unto Christ here. I know I have a long way to go as a missionary but I know that it's OK for now as I stay diligent and obedient all will be taken care of. 

This week the member-missionary superstar award goes to a 12 year old Bolivian kid in our ward named Pablo. Just looking at him you'd think he´s 7 or 8 years old but he´s a fantastic example of a follower of Christ. He always invites his friends to church and two of his best friends have now come 7 or 8 weeks in a row including all church activities. They are even showing up now in white shirts and ties and want to be baptized and pretty soon be able to pass the sacrament with their friend Pablo. One of the friends, Christopher, is super smart and understands the gospel really well for someone his age. On top of that his voice sounds like the kid from Home Alone so he pretty much just sounds like a genius.

The Peruvian family continues to progress but there is one problema. They've expressed the desire to go to Peru in February, live it up "ensuciarse" as they say and wash it all away by getting baptized in March. This is obviously flawed reasoning and we´ll continue helping them to work towards a day to get married and to get baptized before going to Peru. I think this also teaches a lesson though: nothing that has to do with the góspel is cheap, not what we put in and not what we get out. Whether it be our relationship with deity, our testimony, our personal repentance, personal revelation, or true conversión. There's no cheat code to heaven, nor the heavenly blessings of living the góspel faithfully here on earth. Everything in the world and more can be ours, we just need to be willing to do it the right way- God´s established path back.

Everything is good here! I miss you and love you.

Elder Birrell