Jan 31, 2017- A week of miracles

Elder Birrell, Elder Dussan and Elder López

Whoa, I have 13 months as a missionary. I honestly don’t want this to ever end, but the month count becomes more and more frightening. We’re doing well, we’re happy, and we’re working hard here in Dorsal. I’d also like to recognize that not everyone has that same blessing right now in Chile- many are without houses due to the forest fires in the southern part of Chile. Please pray for these people, families, and communities, so they can make a fast recovery and that all these disasters can be for good in the end. Even here in Santiago (far from the fires) that’s all people talk about because pretty much everyone has a family member there. We don’t watch the news, but from what we’ve been told, it’s some serious stuff. (Funny story: the other day that really nice lady I talked about last week, offered us a TV for free so we could watch the news- she’s way too nice).

On Thursday this week, we found a lady who’s been a member of the church for 20 years now, but has been inactive for 3 years. She said she never thought she would ever become inactive. She had served in Young Women’s (in her ward and stake), she was a seminary teacher, she was faithful in paying her tithing and keeping the commandments. We asked her what’s the difference in her life between the time she was a faithful member of the church and these past 3 years. Before she could even respond, tears began rolling down her cheeks. She explained that she used to have peace of mind, like a true inner peace. She said that she was faithful with her tithing, down to the penny, and she never had any financial problems. Even though she’s a single mother, she never felt alone. Now, she said, she’s never at peace with herself, she’s always worried, and she (even though she works everyday) doesn’t even have enough money to buy candy. She says that when she drinks with her friends she has a great time, but in the end she just feels more alone. Above all, she feels empty, that’s the word that most provoked emotion in her- emptiness.  It was powerful hearing this from someone who has experienced both living the gospel faithfully and then ignoring what she knows to be true. The choice is clear.

The amount of people that we’re working with here that are trying to overcome smoking and drinking addictions is quite large and in these past two weeks we’ve seen insane progress. I think I’ve just gotten used to miracles such as these, but I got thinking how powerful the gospel really is in making these changes. Sometimes it’s good for me to sit back and appreciate the opportunity to witness these miracles.

These past two days we’ve had lessons with Graciela (the Peruvians) and the De La Cruz family that were both intensely spiritual. Both lessons have helped me realize how little we really do- we aren’t capable of making drastic changes in the lives of others. These lessons and the experiences they shared helped me see the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in a very real way. The feelings there were overwhelming powerful, moments I’ll never forget.

This Wednesday we had a Worldwide Conference for missionaries and I learned quite a bit, but what happened at the end is what the conference will be remembered for. Two things were changed: 1. our schedule and 2. The information we report. Basically, our schedule gives us more flexibility and we will report less information in hopes that the information we do report has more to do with the conversion of the investigators. All good things!

Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Birrell

Elder Tolley

Colo Colo!!!

Jan 24, 2017- Kindness

So one experience that impacted us the week was teaching a lady we first met when I was companions with Elder Ortiz, but we kind of lost contact. How we initially met was she was lifting some rocks over her fence. We offered our help and she gladly accepted. It probably took us 5 seconds to do, but she immediately ran into her house to get us ice cold water and some cookies. She said that any weekend day we would always be invited to come to her house to share a message about Jesus. 

On a few other occasions we've come to her house in a moment that she wasn't able to receive us but ran into her house to look for something to gift us.

This weekend we finally found her again and finally we were able to share with her. We asked her if she was just born this nice, or how she began to treat people with such kindness. She said she used to only think of herself, she got mad at people easily, she described herself as a cold person. Then she gave birth to a son that has autism and her perspective completely changed. Having her son and raising him helped her to see the reality of things, it gave her a perspective of who we really are as human beings. She began to believe far more in God.

Just from her example, I think we both started being a little bit more generous to everyone well met, it was really cool, something that happened without me and my companion even talking about it.

Have a great week!! 

Love,

Elder Birrell

Jan 17, 2017- Lay your burdens at His feet

Well, it’s official, at least one more change here in Dorsal with Elder Dussan (no surprise) and we’re going to do everything in our power to have some success this change. We’re working with some really cool people, but anything can happen, so we’re trying to be better and better every day.

Remember the De La Cruz family from last week? Well, yesterday we had a great lesson with them and they opened up to us quite a bit. So, apparently the night that we found them, the wife was literally getting ready to move out- they were going to be separated. After that visit, things calmed down and since then things have constantly gotten better. They said this past year has been the most difficult of their lives, but that ever since we started sharing with them, they’ve actually enjoyed life again. They said they’ve finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. They still have problems, but things are just different now. Obviously, we as missionaries did relatively little in this change, but this is yet another testament to the power and peace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There’s a convert in our ward named Fabian and he was baptized in June, but had been investigating the church for 3 years. He’s just 20 years old, but he’s really smart and he knows a lot about the gospel. Where he works, there is a culture of rejection of the “Mormons” and at times it can be pretty hostile opposition. At first, Fabian didn’t know how to respond to all of the questions people would ask him, but then he got studying. Now Fabian can respond to all the questions- and with really good responses, better responses than I can give to the questions and doubts people have about the church, doctrine, policies, and church leaders. Is this a good thing? Yes, it’s a very good thing to understand the things that seem to trouble others. But we shared this scripture with him-  Jacob 5:47-48. In this part of Jacob 5 the author talks of a vineyard that needs to be destroyed and burned. It wasn’t because the vineyard wasn’t nourished, nor because it wasn’t cared for with great effort. What was the problem?

“Because the branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots.”

The branches are kind of like the knowledge that Fabian has. We should know these things, but only as fast as we grow our roots in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the reception of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Aided by daily prayer and scripture study and weekly church attendance are the roots of our personal testimony. Without branches, our testimony isn’t as complete and we need to work on that too as our roots grow. Having our roots in the gospel of Jesus Christ helps us see things with far more clarity, we see things for what they really are, we understand what’s really important in life.

Early Sunday morning the mother of Evans passed away. Due to the difficult circumstances in Haiti, she wasn’t able to get the help she needed. Prayers for him and his family would be very much appreciated.

I’ll close with this thought/experience. This is by no means a political or social commentary; this is simply a testament to the infinite power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. There is an active member of our ward here and he is attracted to his own gender. On Saturday we had the opportunity to eat lunch with him. When he was 21 he had plans to serve a mission, but he acted upon a certain attraction, felt too embarrassed to tell anyone, confess, repent and move on so he could serve a mission. Instead for 20 years he decided to stay away from the church he knew to be true. He said he lived in darkness, and what made that worse is that he knew where the light was, he just felt too ashamed to go there.

His mother was a faithful member until the day she died and always loved and supported her son, regularly asking for his advice on lessons she would teach and always letting him know he was loved. After his mother passed away, he was in her room looking through her old notes, books, journals, and scriptures and he got an undeniable impression from the Holy Ghost. He needed to come back to the church. In that moment he decided to come back and take whatever steps that were needed to become the worthy priesthood holder he once was. He told us it was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but that he knows the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. He’s never been happier and the burden he’d carried for so long has been lightened. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for him to live with this attraction, or how hard it is for others. I don’t have that attraction, I don’t know. Jesus Christ does understand and I invite everyone, no matter what burden you may have, to lay it down at His feet.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Birrell

Jan 10, 2017- TEN investigators came to church!

This week we saw the hand of God in the work and many blessings. We had our difficult days, but overall it was a wonderful week.

We were blessed to have 10 investigators at church on Sunday, so I’ll explain a little bit about each one.

Graciela- She’s the one we found after 5 weeks of not visiting her. I felt something special the first time we talked to her and I think there’s a great chance she progresses. We hardly got to talk to her during/after church because the members did such a great job explaining things to her and being her friend. Things are looking great.

De La Cruz family- We found them when I was with Elder Ortiz as well. We were contacting one night and it was the last contact of the night. A mom opened the door, saw us, and immediately tried to hide herself. Her husband (who clearly had too much to drink that night) came out to talk to us. He told us he used to be Mormon, but now was Atheist. He then said his son Andrew wants to be Mormon. He had obviously forgotten almost everything about the church. We started sharing with them and this Sunday the whole family came to church. We’ve seen the faith of the dad grow immensely and it’s a miracle just to have the mom in the church. They have 3 kids, two of which want to get baptized, but we’re focusing our efforts on helping the mom. The dad is Peruvian, his son is Peruvian, the mom in Chilean and has a Chilean daughter, and together they have a Peruvian-Chilean son.

Evans- He’s the cousin of a Haitian member- Fritznel. We haven’t been able to teach him much because he’d been in the hospital for a while because he almost completely cut his right hand off in a work accident. It’s a super tough situation, especially since he can’t work for some months and that’s mainly why he’s in Chile. Despite the circumstances, he’s always smiling and his desire to be baptized has grown. He’s a good guy and has a lot of faith in Jesus Christ.

Hector and Isabel- They’re the Peruvians that live in the house of members. They’re doing well, they’re pretty much coming to church every week and they always love it. Hector is further along than Isabel at this point, but they’re doing well. Hector is in 2 Nephi 7 in his personal reading now and he’s loving it. The problem: they don’t want to get married. After an extensive conversation last night, we realized this wasn’t a matter of money, nor wanting to get married in Peru. It’s a far more delicate matter of trust and forgiveness. The only thing that can fix this is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Guanilo family- A family we found the first day of this change (a day before Elder Dussan got here). They are also Peruvians. The mom and dad are members (they were baptized 8 years ago) but have been inactive for a few years now. They also have a son named Brad (11 years old) and Brad is a super smart kid. In Chile if you get the best grade of the class you win a computer and Brad won the computer this year. They want to come back to church, but it’s been hard to get them to just do it. After a really spiritual lesson (more of an interactive discussion) on the life of the Savior, they finally made the decision to do it. Now we’re getting Brad ready for baptism. Awesome family.

Adolphe- Another friend of Fritznel, we found him like 2 weeks ago. He speaks Spanish super well and has lots of faith in Jesus Christ. He shared with us an experience in Haiti during an earthquake (2010 I think). Basically the streets were absolutely filled with dead or wounded people, and he felt an impression to stay where he was standing. He came out of the natural disaster unharmed and for years he’s wondered why- what’s the purpose of him still living. He said he’s yet to find the answer, but we know the answer lies within the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We’re all good here in Dorsal!!

Love,

Elder Birrell