HOLY SHRAPNEL!

Family and Friends,

Wow! Thank you for the outpouring of love and letters this week!  I was ridiculously pleased to get testimonies and good news from the fam, Mikey, Katie, grandpa,  Noah, Teef, Brookie, and the Porters! WELL DONE EVERYONE. Seriously, that stuff just strengthens me. Katie, those pictures from Jerusalem are astounding! and Mikey and Nick and you mommies look SO great with your huge-bow-accesorized daughters! Congrats to everyone.

Well, we baptised Jackie Chan this week.  His name is Jose Lopez and we are just so excited about this one.  He is a 42 year old soltero who has been investigating for four years. Count em. Four years.  He finally quit smoking and is just gung-ho about the whole thing.  We were so excited to get him baptised that we flooded our whole chapel! As you can see by the photo, we make a 1 inch deep lake in the carpeted hallway of our chapel an hour before the baptisms.  Luckily, we found yet ANOTHER use for the broom here in Chile and we were able to sweep the water back into the overflowing font and in some way dry the carpet enough to walk on before the baptism.  Jose is a character! He gave himself a haircut and wore his white karate pants and chewed his gum (the way he has stopped smoking) right on into the font full of ice cold water.  The elders finished off the program with an impromptu musical number in English that was really just special.  It was so Jose Lopez I can{t stand it!

I have a list of HOLY SHRAPNELS this week:

Madi you are having a baby! ANOTHER oly couple is getting married! We baptised Jose Lopez! We flooded the whole chapel! I saw a huge rainbow this week.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to go.  Winter is coming. Holy Shrapnel.

People, I just love the mission.  I{m not going to lie, this week was a toughie.  Before my mission I thought it was all rainbows and penguins (like my pictures show), but to be so involved in the spiritual progression of other people is big.  We love these people, we pray and fast for these people, we sweep floods out of chapels for these people, we walk through wind and rain to get to them, we plan and study and worry about them, we work ALL day EVERY day to just help them feel desires to wake up and go to church on Sunday and then when they dont because they are tired just dissapoints me.  We had this with about six great investigators this week. " Work, work, pray, fast, rain, wind, study, work, love, help.....NOT COME TO CHURCH. " I love each of these people so much and when the effort is not made on their part, I just feel dissapointed.  I understand now, more than at any other time in my life, that living the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way.  There literally is NO other way.  To be distracted, to be dispondent, to be apathetic...these are not options.  There is nothing else.  We are here to become like the Savior and help others in their journey too.  The only way is the atonement of Jesus Christ.

We have a sweet way of teaching this now that we came up with this week.  Im drawing on my skydiving experience with Cepta Jones in Hawaii.  We are all in an airplane that is pointed down (each of our lives...thanks to sin).  Everyones angle pointed down is different (according to how grave the sins are).  But it doesnt matter the angle, because eventually...we will crash.  There is no gas left in the plane and we dont know how to fly the plane.  We are all in this state in life.  A state where we are separated from God because of our own sins.  There is NO solution, we can"t save ourselves.  The only way to jump out of this crashing plane without dying is a parachute.  Christ has given us this parachute (aka, the atonement) so that we can use it and be saved.  But, just like a real parachute, there is only ONE way to use it correctly.  We can't look at the parachute and say...oh, thats nice and then jump without it.  We also cant use the parachute in ¨our own way¨.  We can´t grab it by the strap and, holding it in one hand, jump.  No.  We read, we study, we put on the parachute and strap in in the way it is designed to work.  There is only ONE way.  

Same thing with the atonement.  We study, we pray, we learn that the only correct way to use the atonement is through faith...real faith that leads us to action...to repent and really change how we are in situations.  With that in mind, a baptism by the correct authority is absolutely necessary and commanded, so is receiving the Holy Ghost.  With that, we endure (or persevere) to the end...constantly renewing our covenants.  Without that, its like jumping correctly-but without pulling the cord--useless!  I love the paralell.  Yes, God does love ALL of His children.  Thats why Christ has given us the paracaida...its our responsibility to USE it in the correct manner.

Anywho, I know you all don´t want a sister missionary preaching to you...but for all you RM's, you know how it is.  I am so focused on the only thing that actually matters and I´ve never been happier about it and I just want to share it with you.  I really do love you all and am still in awe of the friends and family God has allowed me to have.  I dont deserve it, but I am nonetheless ridiculously grateful for all of you.  Keep up the good work, babies, testimonies, grades, prayers, service, and all that good jazz. I LOVE YOU ALL!

Hna Bourne