Lo Ovalle 1 - Week #4

¡Hola Familia!

I just wanted to start with a shout out to Elder Alex Datillo (who won't be seeing this)!!! He will be leaving for the MTC on Tuesday for the South Dakota, Rapid City Mission. Maybe he'll end up in the same ward as Elder Francis' family...
So today has been a long day!!! We had an activity for the zone at a member's house in Lo Marcoleta and made pizza, played ping-pong, and tried to build a human pyramid for about 2 hours finally having a little bit of success. So right now we are at the limit of the time that we are allowed to do Internet! WooHoo!!! But it was all good/fun...and all that jazz.
WOOT!!! This week Elder Davenport and I are beginning to see the fruits of all of our efforts of the previous 2 weeks of working in the new sector. I guess the Lord sees fit now to bless us with success as we've been relying completely on Him since we got here (you have to when you don't have a clue!!!). Now we've just got to prove to Him that we are worthy of the success and know what to do with it. This week alone we found 5 new investigators!!! In this mission in order to be an investigator, and count, the person has to have a fecha bautismal (baptismal date)...these meet the criteria...all 5 from this week now have a fecha bautismal for the 7th of February. Thus it looks like we didn't have a white Christmas in this sector but we are going to have a white February 7th!!! LOL. We truly have been blessed as of late!
More on Quilicura later...but it sounds like East Texas is not doing so good without me...LOL. Ya'll have had almost anything that you could possibly name happen since I've been gone, looks like luck has run out or something. Where did Cellular One move to? And hopefully everyone is surviving well enough with all of the problems...Murphy's Law anyone???
So did Alex seem excited to be leaving? And how did he feel about South Dakota? And has Ryan Whitworth finished getting his papers in yet? Any other amazing news that I'm missing out on while I'm here on the other side of the world.
Another shout out, to Morgan Reese!!! Good luck with the talk in Stake Conference, you'll do great though! The Reese family needs to send me an e-mail or letter or something! Along with anyone else that reads this in the ward...I'm definitely suffering from a lack of mail!!! (It only costs $0.98 to send a letter to Chile)...LOL.
I'm praying fervently for cooler weather! So far the only thing that is happening is that we've been able to maintain the viento (wind) which is very rare for the summer months, especially Enero. Sometime in Febrero we should start to feel a little relief with the rain (lluvia) starting in about Mayo. Oh...another fun thing is about to happen this Sunday...NOT!!! Chile is entering the segunda vuelta (second vote) for the presidential elections this Sunday. So all of our meetings are all messed up and it is going to be rather difficult to get some of our investigators to church eventhough it is only 1 hour (we only have sacrament meeting because of the voting), unfortunately it is an hour and a half earlier than normal.
OK... I absolutely love this sector!!! I feel like Elder Davenport and I will both still be here for the next transfer (part of it anyways), so hopefully the baptisms that we have planned won't get yanked from under me again. Unfortunately I've got the feeling that quite a bit of the leadership in our zone is about to change, as we have zone leaders who have been acting in that assignment for 6 months now (longer than President May likes) and one district leader who goes home this transfer...a few of the other district leaders have quite a bit of time in Quilicura también (also). So we might get caught in the middle of leadership change, it isn't a bad thing but occassionally it gets a little complicated. I'll still be happy though as long as Elder Nielson's prediction doesn't come to pass (I'll include that next week...I don't want to jinx myself).
So I don't think I have any amazing, blow you out of the water stories for this week. We have found a new way to do contacts though...LOL. Every night when we are returning from proselyting we walk by a park close to our house (a fairly large park). There are always a group or 2 of teenagers sitting in the park and they always yell at us...we hardly ever stop...until yesterday!!! Yesterday we stopped by 2 of the groups and talked with them inviting them to listen to us, they all said to pass by any time we see them in the park (we completed 9 contacts this way within about 10 minutes...normally that many takes almost an hour or more).
For anyone who is reading this that is a member, consider this your challenge. We have been working altisimo (alot) with the members in this ward where I'm currently serving (Lo Ovalle). This ward is a little more active that Lufkin 1 (my home ward). We are finding alot of success through the members here, I know it gets annoying on occassion to be asked for references and for this reason sometimes the missionaries are hesitant to ask. But I challenge each of you as a family and also as indiviuos (individuals) to pray and ask our Heavenly Father to bless you with a name of someone with whom you can share this gospel, tal vez a traves de los misioneros (perhaps through the missionaries). I can testify that there are people that each and every one of us knows who is ready to receive this gospel, but they are waiting. Some may be waiting for the missionaries to knock their door, but there are some that are waiting for YOU!!! Consider this you compromiso (commitment) [I know you'll all accept because you love me so much] and really pray to know who this person is...then pass the reference to the missionaries. I want to here of everyone's stories so don't forget to rendir cuentas (report back) to me...LOL. Presidente McCabe, if you read this, please share it with the Elders Quorum!
I love this work and the great blessing it has been to my life. I pray that each and every one of you can grow as much to love this gospel and this obra misional (missionary work) as I have. I encourage all of you to keep up the good work in what you are doing and to strive your hardest to add to your current efforts (even a little bit) to help build up the Kingdom of God on the Earth.
I love you all and miss you alot. ¡Buena suerte (good luck) in all of your endeavors!

¡Con todo mi amor y con todo mi corazón!

-- Elder Todd