Chase has been having fun with machetes

The weeks go by way too fast now... I try to look back at all of the things that I have done and its so hard to remember.

Let me start off with one the things that I didn't have time to tell you last week... last PDay my comp and I went up to the mountains to give service to a less active member. When we got there her grandson was waiting for us with 3 machetes and took us out back to clear out a place to plant  behind the house. It was soooo fun! It was a super dense rainforest out there and I went crazy with the machete and just started chopping everything down! It was a good 4 hours of letting out all of my stress on those poor little vines.

And this week... let's see. Lately, things have been really weird and slightly disappointing. We have been putting a lot of effort into finding people, and we have been blessed enough to find some amazing families.  One kid that we were teaching says that his mom wont let him come to church anymore because she wants him to go to her church (she doesn't go to church), one investigator that was begging to be baptized a month ago now says that he doesn't need god, one investigator that has family in the church and loved learning about the priesthood now says that he has heard too many things about the church that are bad that he doesn't want to continue with us... and that is just to name a few. The mission is full of disappointments and trials like that. And honestly, that's probably the hardest part of the whole mission. Whenever somebody doesn't complete their commitments, when a baptismal date falls, or they drop you, its literally hurts so much. You grow to really love the people that you teach. And when they just cut you off or cut God off... it's terrible.

Buuuut whenever everything seems to be going against you, God sends blessings.

Alma 26

 22 Yea, he that repenteth and exerciseth faith, andbringeth forth good works, and prayeth continually

 without ceasing—unto such it is given to know the mysteries of God; yea, unto such it shall be given to 

revealthings which never have been revealed; yea, and it shall begiven unto such to bring thousands of 

souls to repentance,even as it has been given unto us to bring these ourbrethren to repentance.

27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we wereabout to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us,

 andsaid: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bearwith patience thine afflictions, and I will give

 unto you success.

Last week we were out contacting and knocked a door of a very Christian lady who wanted to reject us with every fiber of her being, but did not close the door on us. We started testifying about the importance of the priesthood and eternal families and she agreed to let us stop by in one week when her whole family was home. One week later sure enough they were all home and were all waiting for us. It is a great complete family. Husband, wife and three kids. When we sat down to teach I could tell that they were super hesitant to accept us. It seemed like the looked up a bunch of anti- mormon stuff on the internet to test us. But every question they asked I was able to answer with the scriptures and they were content with what I was telling them. I was answering questions with scriptures that I had never remembered reading, if that doesn't tell you that the spirit was helping me, I don't know what does. After about an hour and a half of questions and answers they invited us back to teach more! It was so nice to see how the spirit works in the hearts of people so that they can recognize the truth in our lessons.

Since I' ve been pretty lame with pictures lately... here are some pictures of the statues inside the National Theater of San Jose.