You´re gonna have to forgive me for the short email today.  Wow, I looked at the calendar the other day and I have less than 5 months left!  It’s so crazy that it’s almost over.  That's why I gotta give it my all now!  I can't be like the San Jose Sharks and chump the game in the last 30 seconds of the 3rd period, am I right? 

The Sanchez family are the greatest.  Raul, the dad, is a machine.  He´s getting baptized next week, hopefully along with his daughter.  God has wrought so strongly within him.  The guy took the Book of Mormon on vacaciones and read up until 1 Nephi 10!  He is just such a genuine guy that´s gonna help the ward a lot.

We also have a 10 year old girl named Constanza whose getting baptized next Saturday as well.  Its miraculous how everything happened.  Her mother, Elizabeth, was a member as a child, but for reasons of study and work, went less active.  When she invited Constanza to be baptized at age 8, she didn't want to.  Two weeks ago we knocked her door without knowing anything and now Elizabeth is really excited to get back to church and she´s taking her 3 kids with her!  It just brings me so much joy seeing others change.

Well to finish, here´s a spiritual thought.  We have to give our all to God

"for I, the Lord, require the hearts of the children of men."  Doctrine & Covenants 64:22

What are you holding back?  Give it up to God and He will give you His all in return.

Love,

Elder Pomar

  Well, looks like God really wants me to learn Portuguese. He´s put me with another Brazilian hahaha!!! That’s 3 Brazilian companions in a row. After I leave the office, I will have spent 9 straight months with Brazilians. Below is a photo with the 3!

It was sad to see Elder Martins go, but it’s been great with my new companion. He´s a real fireball. Elder Serrano is from Río de Janeiro and he´s got a strong personality (like me). It’s been fun. We have to collaborate a lot to put our two ideas together, but I´ve never seen so much personal progress in me as a missionary, and we are seeing a lot of success. 

I´ve been really stressed in the office this week. One day 4 big challenges came out of nowhere and I had to go flying out of the office to all parts of Santiago. We thought that a few missionaries that arrived on Tuesday had not received an entry stamp in their passport. I felt like I was going to explode! But the funniest thing was that when I got to the airport (cause that’s where the officials said I had to go), We realized after the airport official examined the passports that the stamps were there. Only that they were sooooooooooooooooooooo faint that it was almost impossible to recognize. The whole office got a big laugh out of it. I did too! I need to follow my own advice and not get so stressed. Everything will work out!

And when I got to the sector to invite people to baptism, oh it just brought me back to life! Its so weird how preaching the gospel will literally take away fatigue, stress, and anguish. As it reads in Alma:

 "And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of  Christ." - Alma 31:38

Look for that joy of Christ in your everyday life. It will bless you forever.

Love you all!

Elder Pomar

PS: IM A GRANDPA IN THE MISSION!!!!!!!!!! ELDER FERREIRA´S TRAINING A GREENIE FROM INDIANA!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!! :D

God has blessed us a lot and has given us a lot of trials as well. It’s all right, as they help keep us humble. The thing I’ve learned is that God takes things at our pace. When we are ready to receive his counsels. He waits until we take off the blinders of pride, perfectionism and rationalization to help us grow. That’s why God loves us. He just waits till the perfect time

We have a lot of People progressing, coming out of the woodwork. Baptisms and confirmations have fallen through, but it’s in the hard times that God can mold us.

Sorry for the short note! Just know that I’m alive and well, having a blast in Chile

Love,

Elder Pomar

Yeah, so here’s what happened this week:

I got to visit my family last Saturday! It was such great experience. we ate charquican and I got to share a little bit about the gospel with everyone. And what’s great, they accepted the invitation to listen to the missionary discussions!!! God knows exactly where to put us. It’s amazing how He sent me here, out of all the other missions that he could have sent me to. I have a lot of hope for my family. I invited them to baptism, and almost all said that if they felt the need, they would do it! The only one I didn’t meet was my cousin Santiago. I’ve heard he likes to play basketball (Golden State Warriors fan at that!) and we´re gonna invite him to play with us and the assistants on a pday.

Jocelyn got baptized!! Woooo! There was a lot of problems with the baptismal font so at the end we had to fill it with cold water from the fire hose haha! President Barreiros attended the baptism, and it was a really special experience. 

Other cool things... Well we went with the whole Barreiros family to do their visa process. We spent a lot of time in the government buildings talking with haitians (there are a lot in Chile) and learning Criolle. It was a blast! We found out that James, Presidents son, is going to UVU in the fall, so we{ll be seeing each other a lot! Then president took us to a really nice restaurant and payed lunch for us. Ohhhhhhh, it was sooooooooooooo goood!!!! President and Sister Barreiros really are amazing human beings.

We have been seeing the windows of heaven just opening up and pouring down a waterfall of blessings on me and elder martins. He finishes his mission in 2 weeks, but that doesn’t stop him. We´ve been working harder than we ever have before. One of our missionary friends told us something before he left that really impacted  us:

"You´ve gotta work until the very end, cause that´s when the miracles start to happen" 

And we are seeing it. We have an amazing family of 5, the Sanchez family, who are going to attend church tomorrow. The daughter has a baptismal date for the 5 de marzo, and we are sure that the rest of the family will be baptized with her.

Thanks for all your support. Keep working it the work of the Lord. Be obedient with Exactness, read the scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon) and everything will go well.

Love you"

Elder pomar

                                                              

Just feel happy. There's no other word to describe it. Complete bliss. Is weird, you'd think that having to leave all the worldly things would be a burden, but its not. Because I feel the love of God and see his hand everyday.

I swear I’m gonna be workaholic when I get home. I’ve never worked so much in my life. I feel like an anxiety when I’m not talking with people and inviting them to live the gospel. The Natural man works hard, as well, but this mission is not to relax. It’s not to make friends. It’s not to waste time doing nothing. It’s not to get to know the world. It’s to invite all to come unto Christ. To be baptized. To make a covenant of obedience with the Father. Christ is coming soon and we have to work the vineyard before it’s burned

JOCELYN IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!! We are sooo sooo happy. We’ve seen a change so big in her. she didn’t want anything with us when we started, and now all she wants is get in the water. God prepared her.

We received a miracle reference on Sunday. Evelyn is one of the most prepared people I have ever met. she will be baptized on March 5 and loves to tell everyone about it.

AND I GOT TO SEE MY GRANDMA! I’m going to visit my non-member family today. Pray that their hearts will be softened to receive the restored gospel. I want to see all of them in white

Love you all!

Elder Pomar