The Hospital

this week was crazy. but i loved it. whenever there are lots of things going on at once it sort of eliminates any distractions that i could have from the work. so it wasnt horrible that this week our house turned into a hospital.

almost everyone in the zone this week got sick at some point from food, flu, or some other problem. theres a sector in the zone called Vicuña that about two hours away from Serena in the middle of nowhere. well one of the missionaries who was training his comp called us on monday and had been going through really bad back and rib pain for a few days. he had already had to go back to his house one time to get knee surgery and so on tuesday they came here, we took them to the hospital and then for 5 days they stayed at our house so that he could rest and see if it went away. well it didnt, but for 4 of the 5 days i went out and worked with his comp Elder Larson and did his training for a little, while my comp stayed home with the other elder since my comp has had some knee and foot pain. i was chill with it because the last thing i wanted is to be locked in a house doing nothing for my last days on teh mish.

everything was going really well with elder larson, in fact we found a couple of really really good new investigators, until we went to lunch one day and they served us seafood. ive honestly come to like most types of seafood and i can eat anything they give me... but elder larson wasnt so lucky. he stomached it all, but when we went to the house to drop some stuff off he barfed clams, piuri, shellfish, and rice all over. its chill we cleaned it up and everything and he felt better, alright lets go out ot work. so we go out and 10  min later same thing. but in the street in front of everyone.

hah so we went back and then had to go meet up with my comp who was coming back from vicuña because they had to go get some stuff. e larson didnt make it. again in the street in front of everyone hahaha. good times. but yeah i finally got with my comp and we went out to work. sadly the other missionary got transfered to viña because he needs to go to a physical therapist and there isnt one in vicuña. but we had a good week with our pals in the house.

on wednesday i believe with elder larson we went to a store to buy a coke to take home before finishing the night and in the store we realized that the owner was looking at the book of mormon we put on the counter. so we started talking with him and turns out his son was a missionary 20 years ago but was the only member in teh family, but that he had a lot of doubts recently about the bible and religion. so we talked with him, left him with the BOM and when we went back another day he had tons of questions! too many. but they all were centered on the apostasy and so when we talk about the restoration it started to make more and more sense to him it was incredible. he smokes like a train but were gonna help the guy find the truth and start making changes in his life! mario´s the name, baptisms´ his fate.

we also have a few new ecuadorian friends that came to church and are investigating now! the big cafeteria that they´ve turned into their ecuadorian hotel is a gold mine. there are lots of members, but tons of people that have never heard of Christ in their life. its a little bit harder to teach them, but there will be a lot of success. we had a FHE with them last night and played some fun games, sang hymns, and very basic lesson on prayer. 

Cha Cha, our Chinese convert that moved here from Hong Kong is doing well. he has a lot of doubts though and feels like his GF that introduced him to teh church, but now doesnt come is dodging him. we´ve been trying to help the poor guy gain a testimony and understnad whats going on here. he seriously speaks zero spanish and i can hardly understand his english. but tonight a member invited us and him to eat canadian burgers that he makes that are amazing and were gonna share the plan of salvation with cha cha. its such a different experience teaching people without christian backrounds, but its been really cool to learn more about other cultures.

Unfortunately Carlos has let his doubts overcome his faith. he wasnt baptized this week and now isnt sure if he wants to keep investigating. he stopped reading the BOM and started to listen to friends from other churches that think were a cult. im 100% positive he felt the spirit when we read the experience of Joseph Smith this week in JSH, but hes allowing other voices to convince him taht what hes felt and experienced with us is all in his mind. the devil is pretty good and making people reject light after having seen it plainly and clearly. were not giving up on him yet but its gonna take a lot.

well this is the second to last email that i will write as a missionary. im not throwin in the towel quite yet, but i have little time left to share this gospel with my brothers and sisters in Chile. i love them, and ive felt overwhelming joy to see them advance in the plan of happiness, but ive also felt unsupressable sadness when they reject what they´ve received. the Lord knows the timing of everything so i shouldnt doubt in him.

i love this gospel and this work. see ya next time for the last premier of the Chilean Street Raptor.

-Elder Allred - Chilean Street Raptor

photo- a selfie with Cha Cha