Week 55..... Chile Concepcion Temple!!!

Chile Concepcion Temple

Riding the bus to Concepcion...
Tall people problems!

This week was a really special week for us here in our mission. Elder Anderson and I got to go up to Concepcion this weekend and have a meeting with President Bluth. It was a really awesome meeting because we were able to talk a lot about the new temple they are going to start building here this week. In 2009 the Chile Concepcion Temple was announced and after a huge earthquake in 2010 it halted the construction of the temple. After a few years of preparation they have announced that this Saturday the 17th of October will be the ground breaking of the temple. We are not going to be able to go, because it is by invitation only, but we are going to have the privilege to go to our Stake Center and watch it live. It is going to be a really special thing here in Chile because right now there is only one temple here in Chile and it is in Santiago, which is like 10 hours by bus. So, it is so hard for people to travel that far. We are getting super excited for this new temple to be built right here in Concepcion.

President Bluth

On Friday we went up to meet with President, and with him we were able to go and take a tour of temple grounds. It was so awesome to see where the temple was going to be built. On the temple lot there are trees that have been there for over 200 years. These trees are going to stay there and be part of the temple grounds. It was a really spiritual day as our President talked to us about the importance of temples, and what this means for the people of Chile. 

     

Elder Hatch

Elder Gale

 Another cool thing that happened to Elder Anderson and me this week, was we found a lot of cool families. On Monday we were walking around and just running in circles, we felt like our work wasn’t very effective. We would contact people but it didn’t lead to anything. So we decided we would start talking to everyone. We felt like if we talked to everyone we would be able to find someone who was prepared to hear our message and boy, were we right. As we began to talk to everyone we passed, we found some awesome people. Our contacts went from lame, rejection contacts to people who were actually interested. On our first contact we went up to this younger lady who had a little daughter. We went up and started talking to them, and they were super awesome. We started popping some jokes and were able to gain their trust super fast. They said we could pass by their house later that week. So what did we do? We passed by. Come to find out they were a less active family. The mom and the little girl were never baptized, but the dad of the mom used to be a super active member. He used to be elders quorum president, but after he separated from his wife he fell from the church. They have always wanted to go back to church, so this week we were able to help them, and the cool thing is the little girl, Emelia, came to church. The mom was traveling but the little girl came. And all she wants to do is get baptized. Both the mom and the girl have been progressing and now are preparing to be baptized on the 7th of November. It was such a testimony builder that God does prepare His children to hear this message. It was amazing to me, that as we felt the spirit to contact everyone, and as we completed with what God wanted from us, He immediately blessed us with a wonderful family who has been waiting for us for a while now. God does have His hand in this work. That was one of the many stories that we had this week.

As for the spiritual part of this message, I wanted to share something that really caught my attention. This week as we had the meeting with our mission president we talked a lot about Attitude in all things. There were a couple of things that I learned that I wanted to share with everyone. First a couple of quotes:

"If you accept the expectations of others, especially the negatives, 

you will never change the results." 

"If you say NO, I CAN'T... then YOU CAN'T, 

but if you say YES I CAN… then you CAN" 

These quotes were a real big help this week. One of the biggest problems of being a missionary and also being here in this world is we are so easily persuaded by the negative forces of the world. How many times do we hear, “wow that sucks”, or “you can’t do that”, or maybe something negative about us or about something we cannot do. As I have been focusing on this, I have noticed the whole world is full of negative forces that tell people they cannot succeed, or they cannot change. But as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, we know that we can!!! YES YOU CAN!! No matter how hard the situation, no matter how hard the task may be, we know that through the help from God we can overcome all trials and change to become more like our savior! We can learn about a good attitude from Nephi. In the third book of Nephi we read... 

 4Wherefore, the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brothers should go unto the house of Laban, and seek the records, and bring them down hither into the wilderness. 

5And now, behold thy brothers murmur, saying it is a hard thing which I have required of them; but behold I have not required it of them, but it is a commandment of the Lord.
6Therefore go, my son, and thou shalt be favored of the Lord, because thou hast not murmured.
And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I  Will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded me. 

We can see the difference in the attitude of Laman and Lemual, and Nephi. We see that as Laman and Lemual were tried and tested, and were asked to do hard things. They gave into the negative forces of the world. They began to think, we CANT DO IT!!! We don’t have enough strength... and then we see the attitude of Nephi. We see his diligence, and even though he knows it will be hard, he knows that the Lord will bless him as he tries. The Lord will strengthen him in his diligence and good attitude. I pray that all of us, when faced with hard times and trials, can always remember to have a positive attitude and press forward with a firmness in Faith. That we can always turn to our Savior for Help. I know that as we do, we will be strengthened through our Savior, Jesus Christ. I share this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elders Langeveld, Hatch, and Stevenson

Elder Anderson