November 22nd.

Not much to say about this week because I feel like it FLEW by. I still have high hopes for La Familia Sandoval (Elizabeth´s family). We´re now teaching the whole family, it´s just a trick of getting them all together at the same time. A lot of times we have to teach something two or three times because different people are there. Their teaching record looks crazy. They are a really REALLY awesome family and I´m excited to see the blessings that the Gospel will bring to them. I feel like we have a lot of people that we are teaching, but not a lot of people who are really progressing, which is a little overwhelming. We´re constantly finding new people to teach, but sometimes that´s rough because I feel like we´re only able to put a little time and effort into a lot of people instead of a lot of time and effort into fewer people who will really embrace and apply what we teach. Really we just have that family, a wonderful woman named Ana who really likes what we teach and is constantly asking great questions, but is still hesitant to fully embrace all the changes necessary to have all of the blessings of the Gospel, and maybe 2 or 3 other families who seem to really be understanding, but probably 15 other people who like meeting with us, but aren´t really getting it. We´re working with a less active family and some friends of theirs, and that´s been SO amazing to see how often times even when someone is less active, when they are explaining the Gospel to a friend, they light up and get really excited to share the blessings they know are available through what they have. It´s also been really cool to see how when we explain that the real goal of everything we are teaching is to have the blessing of being with our families forever, and that our purpose is to help people achieve that, our lessons are so much clearer. Everything we are asked to do in the Gospel leads to that end, ultimately. I think it really helps people understand why all of the other things are important. It´s not necessarily what they teach you to focus on, but I´ve really seen a difference when people understand that that is the real goal.

I really love Osorno. I hope I get to stay here for a few more cambios, if for no other reason than to be able to know enough Spanish to finally really express to the people here how much I love them. I have 4 things that I´m really working on learning right now. 1) How to be better at developing relationships with people. I´m terrible at the whole getting to know you small talk thing, but I´m getting better! 2) How to listen better 3) Spanish (this is a bit of a hinderance to #2) and more than anything 4) To recognize and follow the Spirit. I know that in order to really get good at that, you have to act on what you´re given, which is a little scary because a lot of times that requires me to be much more bold than I am accustomed to being, but as I´ve tried to just go for it, I´ve seen the way it has guided our lessons to get people to really open up and feel the Spirit. It´s awesome. I feel like I´ve learned SO much in my short time as a missionary, about the true meaning of faith, about relying on the Atonement, about a lot of things. I´m excited to keep learning more!