Valle de Santiago

Powerful weeks.

Hey everybody! This past month and a half have been action packed. Honestly, every day of my mission is an adventure. Absolutely exhilarating. I meet new people every day. Sometimes I feel bad because I don't write much. I feel like the Book of Mormon when the prophets said "even a hundredth part I cannot write." 

Easter: In the beginning of April, when I was in Cortazar. We saw something called the 'Tres Caidas' which is when an actor acts out the life of Jesus and they go through stories and his miracles and then they act out his crucifixion. And it looks super real. It was really interesting. They really whipped the guy, punched him, put a crown of thorns on him, and he had to carry a cross up this big hill in the heat of the day. Man, I felt so bad for the guy. But it's sad too because all the people just go up the hill to drink and smoke and watch him and don't know the significance of the scene that they're watching. That was super interesting though. 

In the past few pdays, we've gone to San Miguel and it's soo fun and beautiful there. It made me miss that area so much. It's where I was born in the mission.

Elder Greenhalgh and I met our neighbors and they were the coolest people in all of cortazar! Just 2 pdays ago, Greenhalgh and I and our neighbor hiked this big hill called El Cerro de Culiacan. It was the most exciting pday activity ever haha. Definitely worth the hike up. Elder Greenhalgh has been one of my favorite comps. We didn't have any problems with anything. We worked and taught very well and I'm thankful for the crazy and amazing experiences we had.

Cortazar was probably my favorite area. In April we baptized 4 people, whom I love so much, and I am going to visit when I come back here, and Cortazar should be having a few more baptisms next month. I got transferred to Valle de Santiago! This area is beautiful, there are a few big hills and little mountains around and I can see El Cerro de Culiacan from our roof, it's kinda close to Cortazar. This area was left kinda in an awkward spot. There are no people in teaching, and no prospects for success, as if the area was just totally blank, and my comp here had only been here for 2 weeks. So, we just started to work. We've met tons of members and have met cool families who are already interested. We're gonna have to work our booties off here and I'm all for it.

Something that I've noticed about how the Spirit works with us, is that it'll work when we don't know what to do anymore. Not every time, but many times. After many things I had planned fall through, or many doors knocked or houses of members that don't exist, and I think "wow, what do i do?" That's when the Spirit steps in. Just a few days ago, we couldn't find lots of people's houses and had knocked on many doors, and after a few hours I thought "Well, what now? I guess we'll go here." We knocked on a door and a guy opened up and I didn't even finish the phrase "good afternoon, we're missionaries for the ch-" and he asked us if we wanted us to come in, and of course we said yes. Turns out another Christian person knocked on their door that day and they talked about the end of the world and everything and he was feeling a little confused and the need to find the truth. We set a lesson for this week and we can't wait for it. Or, just this past Sunday, we didn't know if we should go back to some people we talked to on the street, or keep calling people, and I prayed and thought "of course go, why not?" So we visited them and met a family of 10 and were very interested. So, what I've learned is that we are just really vessels for the Spirit but we don't know it. We might use our own intelligence to plan something, but the Spirit just wants us to be in a certain place or meet someone. It's happened so many times, even just this week. It's like chess and the Spirit just needs to put us in the right place at the right moment.

These few weeks have been really good. Lots of the same monotonous work, but it's good work. I'm thankful for you guys and for this gospel and for the soft indications of the Spirit.  I love you guys so much and thank you for being amazing friends to me and reading my emails haha. Thank you! Until next time.

Elder Spencer Chamberlain

 (oh! Check out these pics I attached--we saw these photos of Mayan statues a missionary sent me from Mexico.  I just loved the similarities of the sacred temple and priesthood blessings pictured in these statues)