hey all you people! i have some really sad news for the lot of you...I AM GOING TO LEAVE LOS CASTAÑOS. 😭 i am just as distraught as you, but my time is up over here in the ward. i was here for a total of 6 months of my mission...thats literally a quarter of my entire two years of service here. i wanted to share with you guys one of the things that i learned while i have been out here in this ward! kind of a personal revelation more than anything. faith brings miracles, but only through gods will! let me explain. in ether 12:12, it says that we need to have the right amount of faith in order for god to bless us with the things that we want. if we dont have faith, then why the heck would god bless us? we have to show god that through are works and actions, that he can bless us with the things that we want. now, the thing that i realized while being here is that it only depends on his will. A LOT OF PEOPLE FORGET ABOUT THIS VERY KEY CONCEPT. they think that if they have the faith sufficient, they can get whatever they want. the world would be in chaos if that point were correct; people winning the lottery and getting out of their debts left and right, it would just be a wreck. god ultimately chooses what goes down in this life for us, and we cant change what he has established for us! we cant always get what we want because god knows what is going to make us happy in this life. he gave us this plan to follow and he allows us to fall flat on our faces so we can learn. sometimes we have to go through the death of a loved one or sometimes we have to go through the pain and the sorrow of rejection or depression. the thing that we can use to give us this comfort here in this life is the atonement of christ. ultimately, he suffered for all the sins of the world, but also for all the temptations that we suffer from, or the awful feelings that bombard our minds. i can testify to you guys that always keeping a firm faith will bless your life! allow yourself to confide in god, and know that he is the one that is in control of what is going to happen here!! this next email, i am going to be in a new zone! we will see what happens here soon! love all of you to the moon and back! EKW we climbed a mountain again this p day and we were above the clouds! edgy pic cheezin cuz it's not hot down here anymore
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hey all you wonderful people! i hope that all of you had an awesome week this week! heres a little peek into what i did these past couple of days.
there was a really cool experience that elder irigoyen and i had with the power of the book of mormon!! so we are meeting with this girl named berta, and she has been struggling with trying to see if this is what she wants to do or not. she has been in a predicament with whether or not she should change her whole life or just stay in the catholic church. we have met with her maybe four times before, and she rejected the baptismal date numerous times. we were on the berge of just leaving her, but then we had the idea to talk about mosiah 2 with her, which talks about the meaning of life. we read like half the chapter with her, and at the end of like verse 35, she said,"you know what sucks right now? i actually felt something with this chapter in the book of mormon. all the other times that you guys passed by, i didnt really feel anything, but for some reason, i connect with this chapter." we were trying to talk to her about going to church, but she kept bringing up a whole bunch of doubts and "quehaceres" to do. the spirit was really really strong and she definitely knew what she had to do, but satan wasnt letting her choose! she ended up saying no to the church invitation, but then we put a baptismal date with her, and now we are going to work with her more often! literally so exciting!! i had a really awesome revelation, thanks to my awesome mission president this past week. you know, sometimes people are going to be put with a problem, and then they are going to go to god and ask for the guidance they want. sometimes, people wonder if they receive an answer, is it just their own thoughts or is it revelation from god. this is a very common and very good question! we as his children have the natural urge to look for the truth, and to see whether or not it is satan telling us whats what, or whether or not it is from god. the cool thing is, is that in mornoni 7: 16-18, it says that anything good is from god, and that anything bad is from the devil. so....if your answer brings you closer to christ, then its from god, and it doesnt matter if you thought of it yourself! god always works in many different ways to communicate with his children, so we should be constantly seeking out for these answers in order to draw closer to him! i love each and every single one of you! i hope that you guys have a sick week this week! EKW hey all you beautiful people out there! this email is going to be a little itty-bitty, but there are like five million pics attached though, so watch out. during this week, elder irigoyen and i have been really trying to find people to teach. in the sector that i am in, its a lot of just contacting and trying to teach people in their doorways so that they can feel the spirit. this week, we were able to find a woman named Veronica. she moved here from Bejing, China to open up her Chinese restaurant and make some more money for her and her family. we were talking about the Chinese language with her for a little bit, and then we talked about the message that we have. she told us that she doesnt know who jesus is, and thinks that there is a god or something bigger in this life, but doesnt know how to find it. we talked with her about how we can have eternal families, and she was super interested! after, we sang "i am a child of god" to her and she started to tear up! she said that she didnt understand literally one word of the song because she is still learning the spanish language, but she said that she felt a little calm in her heart. we are excited to be able to work with her in the near future! with respect with our fechas that we have, they are doing pretty good. one of the guys that we have has a major problem with drugs and alcohol, and we see him literally all the time in the street drinking a whole bottle of wine and doing heroine. we have been trying really hard to help him with the addiction that he has going on... this p day, we went to serro chena at 5am for a morning hike to take pics of the sunrise for elder scotts 20th birthday. turns out, it was super super cloudy (so no sun) BUT, the lighting was on point, so the pictures turned out really awesome! hopefully you guys like lookin at them, cause i literally love takin them. frick i have to go....love you all to the moon and back! hope that you guys have a sick week! EKW Tilgman and Scott...they leave the mission in 2.5 weeks. these two are some of the best out there!
sorry to all you kids all over the world. my time this week is super short, so i'll just leave you with some pictures to hold you over till next week
love you all to bits EKW hey all you people!! how is it going!? i was recently told that there are some people that are preparing to go to the chile santiago south mission here soon who read my blog...to let you guys know, THIS MISSION IS THE BEST MISSION WITHOUT A DOUBT. anyway...... this week in los castaños was prertty awesome!! we had a ground breaking 17 lessons this week, and we have really been focussing on trying to find more people to teach here. one of the cool miracles that happened a while ago was we found one of our other investigators named marc, who we thought literally disappeared of the face of the planet. we had an awesome lesson with him this past week. we were able to pass over the restoration with him, and we were able to show him the power that there is in the restoration of the gospel. the spirit was really strong during that lesson, and we were able to commit him to a baptismal date! we are going to work with him for the 9th of june, so we are going to see what happens! in other news, we had a lesson with carlos and jackaline, some of our eternal investigators. (meaning they just keep investigating, but never commit to being baptized) the only reason why they havent been baptized is because they dont obey the law of chastity (down here in chile, people just live together and never get married, so its really hard to commit them to marriage). we were in the lesson with them talking to them about moses 1 in the pearl of great price, and explaining to them how we as humans can resist temptation and combat the devil. my companion got the feeling to try and extend another baptism invite, which was promptly rejected. instead, they told us that they were going to commit themselves to a future marriage date in october!!!!!! it literally made me so happy to see them FINALLY making the decision to get married. sometimes when you are on the mission, the agency of others can be super annoying. my companion and i have really strong testimonies that these things are true, and we really want everyone to know about the message that we have. the only thing is, is that people have the option to say no, even when the spirit is present in the lesson. it really hurts us when people say "yapo pero i dont believe in god or anything like that, so vayase". missionary work will NEVER BE EASY. any of you who are preparing to go and serve missions, get rid of the paradigm that everybody is going to say yes to baptisms. get rid of the idea that you can waltz on the mission thinking that you are prepared. 100% just prepare YOUR testimony, and everything else will fall into place! use the spirit, and that will convert people! love all of you to the moon and back! EKW we made cinnamon rolls at the house giving juice! more juice me and some lights..keeping it lit down here
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Elder Karson Wattles
Chile Santiago South Mission apartado postal No. 544 San Bernardo, Chile Archives
May 2019
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