Its incredible how much I have changed. Never in my life would I have been able to maintain the work schedule that I have now if it wouldn’t have been for the mission! I almost have a year in the mission, which really scares me haha! The time goes by so fast. For those of you who are preparing to serve, study real real hard before so you can enjoy every second!

We went to the temple the other day with Carlos and Daniela! They absolutely loved it. The spirit in the temple is so out of this world. They are preparing night and day for their sealing in 1 year! I'll be able to be there :D

Elder Ferriera is sooo great!  He´s a baller too!  You should see this guy play soccer. He says that he´s not really good, but he schools everyone on the court haha! 

We have a miracle family that we found the other day as a reference.  Mauricio and Andrea are the nicest investigators that I’ve ever had. They are always offering us food and have SO MANY QUESTIONS. One of their best friends is a return missionary from another ward so We´ll be working hard to get them to the water! 

Way cool experience!  The other day we were talking with Danny, one of our recent converts who is preparing to serve a mission, and an idea came to my mind.  It was absolutely crazy.  So crazy that it just might work! I felt that I should invite his mom to sit down with us and have Danny teach her the restoration, and then ask her to give us feedback on the clarity of the lesson.  She has not wanted ANYTHING to do with the church, but following my impression, we did it.  The spirit was strong and testified to our words!!  She then accepted the offer so that Danny could practice teaching ALL the lessons to her and that she would give feedback! Miracles!!!

Spiritual Thought of the week: one of the things that anyone who serves a mission will realize is that it is hard.  You have to deal with physical and mental affliction in every sense of the word.  I have one scripture that I love to read when times get tough:

And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

Just got to keep going!  Patience is an eternal virtue, one that I still need to develop a lot, but the blessings are always worth it.

Love you all!!

Elder Pomar :)

GUESS WHAT!?!?!

I’M TRAINING A BRAZILIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Its like two dreams in one!! Everyone wants to train, and everyone wants a Brazilian, and I get both! His name is Elder Ferreira, from Sao Paulo. He’s got so much energy! The guy already dominates Spanish, so he´s teaching me Portuguese. Agora eu posso falar portuguese haha! 

This transfer is full of new things. They also called me to be district leader, so i have 4 other missionaries I have to look after. There is a lot of responsibility, and with it a lot of growth. That’s what the lord does! 

We´ve been working really hard with my companion and we´re finding success! Better said, God is giving us success. Here’s a cool experience. One of the members of the ward has a girlfriend who is investigating the church. Her mom was recently baptized, and she has been attending church for about 6 months now. She doesn’t live in our stake. She was over at the members home, so the Peralta family asked us to come help them. We taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the spirit was soooo strong. I asked her, "What is holding you back from baptism? She said, Nothing. I invited her to be baptized this weekend, and she said YES!!!! It’s really a miracle. I’m so glad I could help This is the work of the lord. I know it

But im staying right where I am haha! at least I think so. We´ll see tomorrow in change meeting. I´ll probably have to move anyways cause they are thinking about moving us in with the other elders in the ward.We will see!!

Elder  Allen unfortunately has changes. He is so sad. He just loves this ward with all his heart. Im so glad to have him as a companion. He helped me alot in changing my vision of things in the mission and was an inpecable example of obedience. I know that he will do great things as things go on. 

Danny, so you know is doing fine. He´s recovering well and got a job to save up for his mission! I just love that guy to death. The Valenzuela Fuentes family have been really pumped about everything. Its amazing to see their loyalty to the Lord. Carlos says he wished he could have gone on a mission.

God has been  reminding me alot that even though I have 11 months in the mission, I still have a lot of weaknesses. Elder Allen has helped me a lot to calm me when  I get frustrated. Im striving to develop more love for EVERYONE, even those who dont want anything to do with me haha! 

The Spiritual thought of the week is this:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.  (Moroni 10:32

The way we love God with all our might mind and strength is keep the commandments with all your heart might mind and strength. Thanks for everything!! Till next time!!!

Love, Elder Pomar

I had the scariest experience of my life on Saturday. We went to take our recent convert Danny to do temple work early in the morning, like around 6am. While we were on the bus, he realized he had forgot his recommend, so we got off and started walking back. We were running out of time, so Danny offered to run to his house while we walked to the bus stop. After waiting 20 minutes at the bus stop, he didn’t show up. I called his number, and a random guy answered and started yelling threats that I couldn’t understand. I realized something had happened to Danny. We walked to his house and passed a park. As we knocked his door, Danny came out and said, Guys, I don’t think we're gonna be able to go to the temple today. The guy was covered in blood and had cuts on his head, face and hand. He had been jumped in the park that we had passed by when he was running back to his house. He had lost ridiculous amounts of blood. Elder Allen and I freaked out and the only thing that I could think of was to give him a blessing, so we did. He went to the hospital, and is bedridden for a time. Its amazing they didn’t kill him, because supposedly 15 guys beat him to a pulp. 

Now comes the incredible part. We went to visit him the next day to see how he was doing. I felt really bad because we had let him run off alone. The poor guy could only use one hand, and had the look of someone who had gotten whipped. I asked him how he was doing. His response was one of the most heroic and inspiring that I have ever heard:

Its falls like this that help us grow! I’m not mad. Because of my hand, I cant search the Internet or play video games. I cant walk around, but there is one thing I can do. Read the Book of Mormon. I’m praying really hard for the people who did this to me. They are souls that need to be saved too you know? I’m just glad that nothing happened to you. When I was walking back to the house, the guys who jumped me followed me, and the only thing I could think of is that I didn’t want them to hurt you or Elder Allen. 

Danny taught me the most important lesson on my mission: Selfless love and optimism in spite of whatever trials come. Be with a cold, or bedridden from knife wounds, you can always chose to be happy. I almost cry thinking about it. Danny is preparing to serve a mission, and I know he will be the greatest missionary I've ever known. We can all learn from the lesson of Danny. You chose your attitude, and your attitude determines your destiny.

Keep Danny in your prayers, and follow his example. Love everyone as Christ loves you. May God Bless you.

Love, 

Elder Pomar

I cannot write the 100th of the things that happened this week. I know with out one single doubt that God is a God of miracles because this week I saw a miracle that I have never before with my own eyes. In reality, there are 3 miracles.

First off, we knew at the beginning of the week that we were going to have 2 baptisms with the Valenzuela Fuentes family, so we were preparing to go grab baptismal clothes in Republica (central Santiago)  for the two on our preparation day. Before we get out, Elder Allen has this unmistakable feeling that we needed to get THREE baptismal clothes. As we thought about it, we only had one investigator who fulfilled the requirements for baptism other than Carlos y Daniel, but she had repeatedly said she didn’t want to be baptized yet. We had fasted to have 3 baptisms that month, and it seemed like God was beginning to answer our prayers. We went to Republica, but they didn’t have any. We reserved 3 baptismal clothes, and then left. 

The investigator who was to be our next miracle is named Stephanie. We talked to her that day, and she told us that she would not be baptized. Then our friend Danny who was accompanying us (he was baptized 6 months ago) told the story of his conversion. The missionaries had come to his house and told him that they had faith that Danny could resolve all his issues and be baptized that very weekend. And he did, even though he didn’t believe at first. It was a powerful testimony. Then I looked at Stephanie and told her "Do you believe in Miracles?" She said that if by miracle we meant that she be baptized that weekend, she didn’t. I looked at her, smiled , and said "But we do. And we have the faith that it will happen". We left, praying hard that God would help us.

2 days later, we returned. We passed through the baptismal interview questions with her, and as we finished she said, "Well, I guess that I need to get baptized." We told her that she would need an interview, and she said: Can it be tomorrow? We then told her: That  means you would have to be baptized this weekend. She just looked at us and said: Yeah. I know!.

She then went to the bishop’s office to have and interview, and we were a little confused. She came out and told us: I’ve talked with the bishop, and we´ve set plans that once I get baptized, I’m gonna serve a mission at 19.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??????????????

We were dumbstruck. She had decided to go on a mission BEFORE getting baptized. She went to her interview, and passed with flying colors.

The only other thing that worried us was the testimony of Daniela Fuentes. She had said that she had still not received and answer to her prayers. We went the next day to see how she was doing and she told us: I had a dream last night. I know that this is true. I know that I need to get baptized.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??????????????

Dumbstruck round 2! God had literally done everything. He prepared the way, and we happily went along! 

Then came the biggest wave of opposition that I have ever seen in my life. The Interview for Stephanie started 2 hours late. Her parents began to act up against her. Daniela and Carlos arrived late for an essential teaching appointment. The day of the baptism my knee started acting up, I felt exhausted, and we had to fill up the baptismal font without any help. The baptismal font overflowed and we had to clean up for 2 hours. The Font had to be emptied, and we had 1 hour and 30 minutes to fill it up again. We had to fill it with cold water, and the impression came to me to use the church’s garden hose to fill it faster.

and God came through.

I am happy to say that Stephanie, Carlos, and Daniela were all baptized on the 25th of July, 2015. All were sooooo happy, and all were spiritually edified. Daniela gave a powerful testimony, and we went to bed the happiest we had ever been in our entire lives. 

God is a God of miracles. Trust it him, and he will always come through. Love you all!!

Elder Pomar :)