Monday, April 27, 2015

What do you do with 15 lbs of Play dough?

Well another week has flown by!

We had a bunch of exchanges, zone meetings, interviews, and just lots of stuff to do. The weirdest thing was for the zone meeting, we wanted to do a game with play dough, so we decided that we were going to make ourselves some playdough for the game. Last P-day we decided to get started and it wasn't too hard, and it didn't take too much time, but by the end, we had about 10-15 pounds of playdough. We ended up making a life sized toddler, just because we could. But we used the playdough to demonstrate an aspect of the atonement. In the end, the spirit was strong, and we were all uplifted, but man, it really was a lot of play dough.

We are doing well, but its hard to find people to teach right now. I don't even know why, but it’s just what we are going through. We have a few investigators, but not a lot are actually progressing, and so we are having difficulties filling up our days with things to do. Let’s just say, we've knocked on a lot of doors. Luckily we live in a great ward, and they are all praying and helping us with referrals. Honestly, Alejandro Korn has the best members in the world! Every week we have a Family Night in the Church for new converts, less actives, and investigators. A recent convert family always comes, and their 9 year old daughter invited her friend at school to come to the Family Night. They had a fun time, and we will pass by their home this week.

We have also been visiting an inactive this week. When I first came here, this member was super faithful and active. But through a course of events, he fell into inactivity. Last tuesday we visited and he said that he didn't want anything to do with the church, he was never coming back. We prayed hard, and not only asked for the spirit, but really looked for how to help this member. It was exhausting, but by the end, we were able to help him understand repentance and the atonement. At the end of the lesson he said he was coming back! But when we passed by yesterday, he was again saying that he doesn't want to come back, its too late, he just can´t believe in forgiveness. It made me think a little bit about the balance of light and darkness in our lives.

The obvious truth is that light and darkness cannot be in the same place in the same time. If we listen to the spirit, and invite the spirit into our lives, we are filled with light, when we listen to the adversary and not do what we are supposed to , we are filled with darkness. This hermano, after our lesson, felt the spirit and was filled with light. But as we left, he didn't do anything to keep this light in his life, he didn´t read the scriptures, or pray, or sing hymns, or serve others, or even have a good conversation with another person. His light, left. Now when we left yesterday, he again wanted to come back to church activity, but this time with a fervent commitment to read, and pray, and do what he was supposed to do to keep this light in his live.

So if we feel sad, or depressed, or if our light is filled with darkness, the best thing to do is bring light into our lives. Something so simple can make a big difference.

Lately, I find myself sitting back and just trying to soak in the Argentine scenes It’s weird that there is a chance that I will never be back, but it’s the reality of these things. I just hope I can remember what it’s like here.

You only have to write me two more times, so that will be nice! I am still calling on Mother´s Day! They gave me four calls on my mission so I´m using every one of those calls! Haha!

Anyway, thanks for all your prayers and support, I love you guys and miss you all.

Have a good week!

Elder Chipman

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