Buena Buenas everyone!

This week was full of fun surprises! For Christmas Eve, we went to the house of awesome members and ate until we reached critical mass. One of the sons is preparing to serve a mission, so we talk a lot to him to help him along. The guys just so great! His family is so loving and really friendly, so we had a great time!

We´ve been walking around a lot, but haven’t had much success. Some people just aren’t ready to receive the gospel yet, but no contact is wasted!

I went on splits the other day, and while we tried to get back we had the bright idea of taking the city buses. Unknowingly, we boarded a bus going the wrong way and we took a nice scenic tour of Santiago. I was so lost! We traveled for an hour and a half through 3 different zones until the bus flipped around and took us home. Never again

We have a new investigator named Raul! He’s an older gentleman, and the father of one of our investigators. When we first met him, he seemed super closed off and kept ranting on about how all religions are false and the whole gambit, but one day we stopped by and began talking, and he turned out to be super receptive! He told us that the only time he feels good with religions is when he talks to us. He feels something special, and so he lets us pass. We explained that it was the spirit, taught the restoration, and challenged him to baptism, and he accepted!!  He went to church yesterday, so we just got to keep going with him! 

One day we were walking and as we passed I felt the impression to talk to one of the less active families that we visit. I wanted to ignore it, because I rationalized that it would be better to visit in the evening, but I did it anyways, and we found that his daughter was home. In the 4 months I´ve been here, I´ve only taught her 2 or 3 times. The time was right, and we had a great lesson with her and her dad. And you know what? She came to church yesterday! Follow promptings even when you don´t want to!

Now here’s what I want to ask of you guys. Since being here, I´ve seen how destructive gossip is. It offends a lot of people, and it’s a big impediment for us as missionaries. I beg you, if you love to gossip, please stop. You have no idea how it destroys people. If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it at all. Its one of the hardest things we have to conquer here in our lives, and we are imperfect people. What we need to do instead is pray with all the energy of heart to have charity, the pure love of Christ for everyone. If we ask the Lord for help, he WILL help us. We all have our faults, and we all have our challenges, and that is why I´m so grateful for the sacrifice Christ made. Without it, there would be no way to live with God again, so lets use it! Lets be the best servants of the Lord that we can be! May God bless you!

Love,

Elder Pomar

Merry Christmas from Maipu, Chile where we have Christmas at 90 degrees!

I´m so glad we have the atonement, because I am not a perfect missionary. I´ve got a lot of things to improve in terms of my teaching and everything else, but that is why I have these 2 years to improve!

We´ve found 2 golden investigators this week! One´s a young man named Pedro who we found street contacting. We shared the message of the restoration, and read James 1:5, and his mind was BLOWN. He got so excited and I could just see how happy he was when we read that. We challenged him to baptism, and he accepted a date for the 11th of January!!! We´re going to have to fight against summer break, but I know we can do it!

I also started giving piano lessons. Since no one plays hymns in the ward, I´m training one of the members to learn to play. If you can play piano, PRACTICE THE HYMNS!!! IM NOT JOKING ON THIS ONE!!!

We had a few Christmas activities, one as a mission and one as a ward. We did a white Elephant gift exchange, and I ended up with a sweet old school alarm clock. You know, the ones that make you want to kill something when it sounds off. It’s most excellent!

The Ward Christmas activity was a blast. A couple of the brothers did a hilarious Christmas sketch with this cheesy soundtrack that made it so awesome! The rest of the party was basically a mix of 80s Spanish Christmas songs. Rock on!!

But the best of all was a Christmas musical presentation by the mission. We had a lesson with one of our investigators, and he showed a big desire to find the truth. He accepted the baptismal challenge and is reading the Book of Mormon! We invited them to this presentation, and they arrived at the very end of it, but just as they arrived, President Barreiros gave an awesome speech and we had a powerful rendition of O holy night by a few hermanas. They spirit was so strong!

Don´t forget to keep Christ in Christmas! Don´t just think about his birth, but what significance the life and death of the Savior has in your life. I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he lived, died, and was resurrected. He suffered for all the pains we would ever experience so that he would know how to console us when we need help. Lets turn our hearts to him and let him change our lives this Christmas season. Love you all and until next week!

Love,

Elder Pomar

P.S. Since my mission presidents from Brazil, he encourages all of us gringos to give Portuguese a whirl as well. We´ll see how it goes!

Elder Bertagna is a Senior Missionary serving in Elder Pomar's mission who lives in the same apartment complex as him. Elder Bertagna shared this message and picture with Elder Pomar's Mom. She was one happy Mama when she got it! 

Your son stopped by tonight and I gave them some chocolate cake.  He is so happy and excited about missionary work.  They had a great week.  Always has a smile on his face.  We also have 2 more missionaries move into our apartment complex.  They are assistants and wonderful missionaries.     Elder Bertagna 

Your son was by today to get a new ironing board, so I snapped a picture.  I am learning a lot about his relatives here.  That is cool he has relatives here in Chile.    Elder Bertagna

Que Pasa!

First off, I got my first battle wound!! Woohoo!!! I was ironing and I made the mistake of putting my arm around the iron. Oops! The photo is just a depiction of my rage. The Iron and I are still not speaking

All jokes aside, this week has been cansador! The longer I serve in this ward, the more clearly I see how much we still have to do. It’s such an awesome challenge! One of the key lessons I´m learning right now is patience. No matter how much I want it, many things just can´t be resolved quickly. You have to keep working hard and put in the grind, because its the only way. If life weren´t that way, everyone would already have everything! It´s really interesting to note all the opposition that comes our way. One of our less actives that we are helping really felt it yesterday. The poor woman fought basically every obstacle to come to church with her little girls, and ended up in the parking lot outside the church, and was unable to get into the sacrament meeting because her car battery was dying and she couldn´t leave it alone. I feel like Satan is just throwing absolutely everything he has at us, but it just makes us that much more determined. Elder Astete and I were fasting that day, and after a long day of visiting the members who didn´t go to church for one reason or another, we ended up at the house of a family of future investigators. Guys, I promise fasting works. This family is a family of GOLD!!!  The father was a security guard at a bank, but was stabbed in the back and left in a wheelchair. Before, he didn’t believe at all in God, but this trial has really, really softened his heart. We showed him the Churches Christmas video he is the gift (absolutely fantastic. if you haven’t seen it, go to christmas.lds.org and check it out!) and started talking about the role of Christ in our lives. I could see in his eyes how deeply he was pondering the message we have, and is absolutely committed to learn more. He wants so badly that his family grow closer to God that it makes me smile from ear to ear!! We´re going to visit again Wednesday, so hopefully everything stays well. Please pray for the Donoso family!! 

Here’s the spiritual thought of the week:

 "Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen." (Doctrine and Covenants 107:99-100)

We really have so much still to do. Diligence and consistency in our calling to serve the Lord is one of the hardest attributes to develop in our lives. We need to learn our duty through prayer, scripture study, attending church, listening to our leaders. If we do not take our duty seriously, it will be a huge stumbling block in our lives. But we´re all human. The Lord in his infinite mercy gives us 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th chances, but we have to be bold enough to tell ourselves that the buck stops here, and from now on we will be diligent. as we seek the Lord, he will help us.

Love you all, and catch you next week!

Elder Pomar

Hola from Chile!

This week has been crazy. Elder Astete and I realized that we really need to do a clean of the system and start from scratch. We did contact after contact after contact.. I think we ended up with over 150 contacts in the week. It was hard at first because we couldn´t see the fruit of our success. No one was letting us in. One of the days, It was honestly hard to motivate myself after lunch, but I picked up the Book of Mormon and started reading Alma 26, where Alma and the sons of Mosiah meet up after their missions, and I read verse 27 which says:

Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

I really felt the comfort of the Lord as I read that passage, and we went out the rest of the week ready to work. We´ve been really trying to be more exactly obedient, especially with the schedule, so we ended up running back to the apartment 4 days in a row haha! We´ll plan better for next week.

Funny story time! First off, My comp and I were walking around this neighborhood when this Pepsi truck turns into the street. Out of nowhere we here this big snapping noise, and we turn around only to find that the truck had taken out a power line and that it was wrapped around the truck. What did they do? They got the line off the truck and just took off with the line lying in the street. WHAT? NADA QUE VER as we say down here! The drivers here are crazy.

One of the days we had a visit planned with a less active member, and our ward mission leader was going to come with us. He said he was going to be late and go on ahead, so we spend a while at the less actives house while we´re waiting. and waiting. and waiting. The ward mission leader didn´t show up, and supposedly he had the lesson all planned out, so I was a little stressed. Then we start talking about the birth of Christ, and as the conversation went along, he told us the real reason for why he hadn’t been coming to church. We gave him some powerful direction as directed by the spirit, and we headed out. If Gregorio had showed up, I know it would not have been the same. It was the right place at the right time. Honestly you guys, I don.t know how else to put it: there are no coincidences. Don´t forget that Heavenly Father know exactly what needs to happen to help you and those around you. 

Let me just leave you with my testimony: I know that this church is true. This is the work of the Lord. Christ is my savior, and he died for my sins, but more importantly, he lives that I may live. Through him and him only can I overcome my imperfections, and his hand is always extended out in mercy towards us. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, that it testifies of Christ, and that if we let its message in, it will change our lives. 

Catch you next week!

Love,

Elder Pomar