Miracles!

A quick rundown of the happenings here with Hermana Silva!

Last week while we were walking down the street, a giant guy in a dirty teeshirt was on the patch walking towards us, and before we could open our mouths to talk to him he introduced himself to us as a member of the church. He`s from Antofagasta, which is like twenty hours from here in bus, and he had just gotten out of jail the night before. He only had enough money to pay for the bus that was going to take him home and was asking if we could find somebody to give him something to eat. We told him we`d meet him over in a park close by in thirty minutes and that he should wait there. So as we walked away, we were thinking, gosh, who can we ask to donate food? I still am new to the sector, and the members aren`t super understanding, neither the bishop, and so in the end we were like, well, why don`t we just go to the supermarket and buy him something with our own money? So we did just that. And when we came back, there he was sure enough waiting for us. So we sat down with him while he carefully opened the styrafome packaging and started to tell us all about his life, until he even told us that while he was in jail the night before, he found out his mother had died. He began to weep, and Hermana Silva and I couldn`t help but start crying too. We read in the book of Mormon with him and testified of the atonement, that saves all of us from phisical and spiritual death. He recognized he had done some pretty terrible things in his life and was feeling a lot of remorse. It was a really special experience to be able to testify of the atonement like that to someone who was so lost and in need of support. He took the book of mormon to read on the bus and we took off.

gosh I`m out of time again haha, but we`ve been having amazing miracles and opportunities to share the gospel happen to us every single day like this. It was a testimony strengthening moment for sure.

I want to ask all of you guys for a few ideas, you returned missionarys and everybody. What were some different things you did to encounter more people to teach, apart from talking to everybody, knocking on doors and doing english classes and asking for references. What were some of the things you did differently to contact better or just find more people to teach?

I also need some ideas for activities that we could do. The ward does hardly anything and hermana Silva is super energetic about doing activities of every kind. What`s some cool activies your wards have done in the past that you liked a lot?

One more question! You missionarys, returned or other wise. What are some object lessons or verbal examples that you gave to teach, just in general. Like, for example, whenever we teach about prophets and authority, we explain how it´s like borrowing car keys and making copys of them, with permission. Just little verbal examples to teach. I love hearing about the different parables people use to explain doctrine simpler.

Have a great week all of you! Keep being member missionarys. Remember what an example and impact you have in the lives of people who aren`t Mormon. You can easily change the course of somebodys life when you share even a small part of what you know to be true. Love all of you and wish you the best!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!