Parental guidance

¡Hola todos!

Much love from here in Chile. I believe I was a bit scattered last week- I recounted some, but not all of my General Conference story, and I totally forgot to talk about cambios. No news is good news, I suppose? I´m staying here in Lirquen with Hermana Gonzalez for another 6 weeks (5 weeks now), but we did get a new sister! Hermana Daglio replaced Hermana Joglar, and things have changed already! She has a year on the mission, is super super organized, knows exactly what she wants to do, has a big personality, and always needs to be doing something. We´re all working well together, however, and the work goes on!

Learned another big lesson this week, and it ties nicely with my unfinished Conference story, so here goes! A couple weeks back, Hermana Gonzalez and I found an abuela and young girl standing in the middle of one of the Lirquen hills, standing amidst several grocery bags. It was apparent that they were resting before climbing the rest of the hill, so we scurried over to offer our help. I chatted with the young girl as we climbed, and after reaching the house, we entered and gave a lesson. Turns out that Lilian, the abuela, had significant experience with missionaries, and that several of her children were members. (Key word here is ´were´.) Scarlett was the young girl, a bright, beautiful, intelligent, caring, optimistic 11 year old. Lilian had little interest in really investigating the church, but we returned again to invite them to General Conference. Again, Lilian didn´t want to come, but Scarlett did. Of course, we wanted parental permission first, so we arranged to come by the house again and meet her father.

The day we were scheduled to return, we crossed a man in the street, and according to the ´Talk to Everyone¨ Preach My Gospel mantra that we have, I stopped to talk to him. Turns out he was Scarlett´s father, just leaving the house! His name is Alexis. He was baptized at about 14, served a mission in South Chile, and his wife passed away several years ago. He is now actively attending the Catholic church, but doesn´t have hard feelings toward the church. He gave permission for us to visit freely with Scarlett, to take her to General Conference, but said we couldn´t talk about baptism with her. Hmm, slight problem there, considering that our primary purpose as missionaries is to prepare others for the baptismal covenant and permanent activity in the church. We made plans for Conference, however, and she attended with us that Sunday. She said she really enjoyed it! Hermana Gonzalez brought cookies for her, and I brought a notebook for her to doodle and take notes. She chose the latter, and behaved so well.

Here comes this week. I´m trying really hard to listen to the Spirit more during our planning, and during the day when we contact, etc. It was nighttime, and we `Hallo-ed` at one of the houses. Out came a middle aged man, a father of an all-Evangelical family. We talked a bit, testified, and asked if we could share our message with him. He declined, and I tried again. (Quick sidenote- in our district meeting after cambios, we did a short introduction for everyone. One of the questions to answer in front of the group was Ìf your companion wasn´t Mormon, what religion would they be and why? Hermana Gonzalez said I´d be `Testigo de Jeovah`, because I´m super persistent. She continued to describe our typical street contact- introduction, testify, ask for address, get rejected. Testify again, ask for the address again. Rejected. Testify again, ask in a different way. Score the address!! And she was so right...Perhaps I push beyond reasonable limits sometimes, but I like to tell myself that I just don´t understand Spanish well enough to know when people are rejecting me. It was super funny!) I testified again, but he nicely rejected us again. As we walked away, I felt a pain in my heart that I can hardly describe. It was heavy, and thick, and so real. I didn´t know him, but I did know that he had just missed the chance to accept the living gospel. For the first time of my mission, I felt the full weight of rejection- not the rejection of me as a person, but the rejection of future happiness, of the Lord´s perfect plan for us. It hurt so much.

A day or two later, we had another full day. Visit after visit, the desperate need for the gospel became so clear to me. I felt it so strongly. We had a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) with a less-active family, the Acuña-Rocha family. 

They are older, and can´t leave the house to come to church. We helped organize a little gathering for them, and it was so tender to gather with them, observe their situation, their spirits, their desires, and feel the love of the Savior for them. Directly after that, we had another visit with Scarlett´s father. We had invited her to attend church with us, and she wanted to come, but we needed permission again. I prayed so hard for the spirit to be with us, and it was. We sat down with him in the home, and had a very open, very well-meant conversation. We read D&C 68 (Ooh, I don´t remember the exact verses now... I think 28 and 26. Talk about the responsibility of parents to teach their children.) with him, asked him a bit more about his mission, his feelings about the church, and his influence over Scarlett. He was very polite, very kind about everything that he said, but he was also quite frank with us in saying that he doesn´t want her investigating the church- that he `wants another path for her`. He said `Perhaps I´m mistaken in this, but if so, I will answer to the Lord someday.`

It was about this point in the lesson that both Hermana Gonzalez and I started to get teary-eyed.  We bore testimony, did all we could, but by the end really all I could do was close with a prayer that the Lord bless them. We left on good terms with him, but as we walked out into the street, both Hermana Gonzalez and I practically burst into tears. We walked a bit, then stood in the street for several minutes and just sobbed. He knew and understood everything. He had served a mission, been to the temple, made the same covenants that I so treasure. He has a daughter that is bright and beautiful and good, and he wants another path for her? What other path is there than the gospel? What other place could a parent want to raise a child? How in the world could he know so much of the gospel truth and then turn so blatantly to the other side? Knowing what I know of the gospel and the ways of the Lord, I trembled for Alexis and what the future may hold for him. I don´t mean to judge- I don´t want that at all, but it was so horrifyingly clear to me just exactly what his choice meant.

A painful week, but I continue to learn and be so grateful for the gospel. All this has helped me treasure even more the message that we bring, to testify with more fervor, to pray with more strength for our investigators and for all of you. My love always!!

Hermana Oldroyd