Week 19... Perfection vs. Progression!!!

Los  Sauces Plaza

Wow this week was so full of events; I don't even know where to start. Well, I guess I will start by telling all of you about my new sector. I got transferred to a sector called Los Sauces. This sector is super awesome. It is smaller than Yumbel, haha. I didn't think a sector could be smaller than Yumbel, but it is haha. On usual, it only has like 18 people go to church each Sunday. We have like 5 active members in the Ward. I was really excited to change areas and see what other areas were like. My first day here, we went and visited all the members. My comp., Elder Wilhelm wanted me to get to know the members and really become close with them. So we spent the first couple days visiting the members. There are some good members here. I am really excited to be here serving in Los Sauces.

As far as the area, Los Sauces is a really small town, they don't have any stores, it is all little stores connected to the houses of the people. Everything here is super expensive. Really this city is in the middle of nowhere. All I can see on all sides of the city are hills and pastures, haha. The city is super confined though. They have a bunch of houses, so it feels big, but it really is small. One thing that is going to be tough is that we have to cook every day. None of the members can afford to feed us, so we have to make food every day. I was spoiled in Yumbel where I got fed every day. My first day here, my comp and I tried to make rice. Apparently, we bought the cheap rice that you have to sauté it in oil before you cook it. We didn’t know that, we aren’t chefs, but we tried to make rice, the easiest thing to cook in the world, and totally wrecked it. The rice began to stick together about 8 minutes into cooking it. So we pulled it out, we ate hard, sticky rice… haha. It is going to be a long time here in Los Sauces... No, I really am excited. We have already learned how to cook some things. A member here is teaching us.

Elder Wilhelm and Boyer

 As far as my companion; his name is Elder Wilhelm. He is from Orem. He is a 6ft 7in gringo. He is super funny. He is really smart. He is finishing his mission this cambio. He has helped me so much. He is really helping me become a better teacher. We are getting a long super great. He is just trying to teach me all that he knows. All I have to do in return is to keep him from not dying…to keep working hard and pushing through. 


This week was kind of hard for us, because my comp is the Branch President here in Los Sauces. This week there was so much drama within the ward. We had a great ward activity and everything was going great, and then our best member came up and talked with my comp and told him he was never going to church again. It was super hard on my comp. He was taking it personally. We have been working so hard to figure out what went wrong and trying to get him to come back to church. After this happened, Elder Wilhelm and I decided we are really going to focus on the less active members here in Los Sauces. There are so many less actives. It is kind of sad when you bring your investigators to church, and there is only 1 member there to help you. The missionaries literally do everything here. On Sunday, we all bore our testimony for 10 minutes each. We taught lessons, and did everything. Without the missionaries, this branch would fail. I am so excited to work here though. There is so much potential from growth here. I know that if Elder Wilhelm and I can work hard this cambio, we can get people reconverted and bring them to this gospel, and strengthen this branch. Well that is pretty much Los Sauces. I am super excited to serve here and see if I can make some changes here.

As far as my spiritual thought this week, I want to share a quote that I heard this week: "God doesn't expect PERFECTION, He only expects PROGRESSION" I love this quote so much! A lot of times I have looked at myself in the mission and been like, I have so much to improve: I want to be like this, and teach like this, I often ask myself, why am I not like this? Why am I not helping people in this way? Am I improving? Why am I not a perfect missionary? This week I realized that those were all the wrong questions to be asking. I realized that this week!!! I learned that God only expects progression. He doesn't expect us to be perfect right now, He only asks that we work as hard as we can and progress. I challenge all of you to take this quote and apply it to your lives. Continue to progress each and every day. Don’t get discouraged if you are not perfect, because not one of us is perfect. God doesn't expect us to run faster than we have strength. God will make up the difference if we turn to him and He will help us progress and become closer to Him. I love you all so much have a great week.