CONSTANT COLD FEET!

Ok family, so here in Talca its so dang cold. My feet have not been warm for almost a week now. I am extremely grateful that my package arrived and I at least have thermals now so I'm not as cold out walking in the midst of darkness every night. I loved the package I shared it between about 10 missionaries between the three I live with plus I had 3 mini cambios this week so I wasn't even in my house 2 days this week. lol Thanks Emily for the In and Out clothes a lot of the Eders were really jealous of that. Man dad it sounds like your crazy busy with the new calling. Here ward missionaries don't exist we are lucky if we go to a sector that even has a ward mission leader. So tell your missionaries to suck it up and go work.!! Twenty of the people I have baptized have been through contacting. Some of which I had already contacted before, before they accepted the second time a few weeks later. If they already finished contacting the whole sector do it again! We baptized a woman in Chiguayante that we had contacted 3 weeks prior and she completely rejected us, and she accepted the gospel and was baptized after the second attempt. We never know what happens in lives of others. Just because someone is not ready now, doesn't mean that they wont be receptive tomorrow. But hey I don't know how it is in Las Vegas, maybe its harder to find people through contacting. I'm sure you will figure something out with them. Mom is in the primary again, big surprise lol.. she will do great. Things here are going great, all four of us in the house stayed here so we are all super excited because we are all good friends. There were a lot of changes in our zone though. This last week we had a few miracles in our zone. There is a family of 4 out in Constitucion and the mother and 2 sons had dates to be baptized but didn't want to do it with out their father and the sister missionaries have been trying for 2 weeks with him. A little over a week ago I went out to interview him to see whats up. He felt good and liked everything but couldn't get over Joseph Smith and Prophets hoy en dia. So I asked him what he would be willing to do if he knew it was true. He said everything, stop drinking, stop smoking, working on Sundays and that he would be baptized and pay his tithing and plan for the temple in a year. I shared some scriptures with him describing how he is not going to know until after a trial of his faith. The big problem were the commandments I promised him if for one week he would complete with the commandments he would receive a divine answer that he needs to be baptized in this church. Sometimes us missionaries give very bold promises when we feel like its what God wants us to say. And he took it very serious, he completed everything, he even said no to drinking wine at a birthday party that his boss at work threw for him. And Thursday night he told the sister missionaries not to have me come over Friday to interview him again because he has received no answer. They told him he had one more day to complete a week and he agreed. I came out Friday and the house felt different I could feel it. He was very eager to speak with me and the sisters told me to come prepared because he was against being baptized and had a lot of questions. In the interview he told me of the struggle he had completing the commandments. And how at first it was just to do it to prove me and the sisters wrong about how he wouldn't get and answer. Until Thursday night, he was looking on the church website and it hit him different. That night he had a very vivid and specific dream. He was baptized with his family that Saturday afternoon. God is a God of miracles, he fulfills his promises. Coming out of that room with this man, and watching him explain to his wife and two sons that he wanted to be baptized and do all he could to live with them forever. Talk about bringing tears to your eyes. It hit me hard, I loved it. A definite perk for being a zone leader, having the privilege to interview Gods children and help them progress towards baptism. Just a story I wanted to share with you all. I love being a missionary, all the rejection and the cold, rain and aching is worth it when we have experiences that I will remember for the rest of my life. I'm doing good.  Just hit 20 months in the mission wow. But still got four left to work hard. I love you all and hope to hear from you next week.!!


Elder Matthew James Ward