Agents of Repentance

¡HOLA FAMILIA! Okay, lo siento, I've been trying to respond to everyone individually too much, and that leaves my giant family letter in the dust. I looked back on last week, and it was really short. Sorry! haha so I decided to put this letter in primer lugar. But THANK you for writing me! Keep up the great work! ;) haha ¡Entonces!

This has been an AMAZING WEEK! We have the baptism of Juan Carlos and Horacio on the 29th, which we are SO excited for! And then the next weekend is GENERAL CONFERENCE! We are soo excited! haha Hermana Espinoza and I seriously are SO looking forward to watching General Conference. I don't think I've ever been more excited in my life! haha. 

This past week we had a Zone conference with us (Chilvicoy Norte--Donde Milagros Pasan) and Chilvicoy Sur. It was SO VERY edifying people! Among the many, many things we learned, we learned how to not only be teachers, or missionaries... but how to be agents of repentance and progression in the Gospel that LASTS for their whole lives and into the eternities. There is a huge difference between being baptized and then going inactive, and being baptized and taking off from there, continually becoming a better disciple of Christ. We as agents of repentance need to help the people take into account that they are sinning, and that they need to change. Por ejemplo, when a couple is living together and aren't married, they are disobeying God's commandments. This is often looked at as "okay" or not that bad. On the contrary! haha. They not only need to get married or kick the boyfriend out of the house, but they need to go through ALL 5 STEPS of TRUE Repentance! 1)Recognize that they are doing wrong 2) Feel bad for it! (So very important) 3)Confess of it (to God, and if needed, the Bishop) 4.)Change their ways 5)Continue living righteously and accepting the Savior in their lives. Church inactivity happens when this is forgotten. I have a lot more to say about inactivity, but we'll save that for another day... haha

*Alert* This paragraph is really gross. But I wanted to share it with y'all. haha*

After this Zone conference, we took a minibus back to Chacabuco, where it dropped us off at the Church so that we could pick up our bikes. Hermana Espinoza felt really really sick, and had to go run into the bathroom to throw up. (we ate pizza and empanadas at the conference... oops.) So I went in after her, and she had thrown up in the sink! A LOT. haha..... umm.. but she had to throw up more so, she ran into the boys bathroom to do it because the girls bathroom toilet had problems. She was barfing for about 20 minutes straight.... so I cleaned up the sink................................................................................................... haha. Lets just say it could not go down the drain............ haha. But anywho, she felt better afterwards! :) But yeah, this experience for some reason made me love her more! It is the craziest thing. But I really love that woman!

I think I'll share with y'all what I shared with President Carter about my ever so humble companion Hermana Espinoza!! 

I wanted to relate an experience we had while "teaching" the Restoration a few hours after the conference. We are teaching a mom (who is Chilean, but has lived in Chacabuco her whole life) and her brilliant daughters, Nicole and Augostina. They're "all there" if you know what I mean. They're sharp. They're Catholic, Nicole teaches special needs kids at a Catholic School, and her daughter goes there too. As we were discussing Christ and His Apostles, and how and why the Apostasy began, Nicole asked a question about the Pope. (I can't remember what the question even was, but it was a hard one to answer without going way deep, and it needed a specific answer). I looked to Hermana Espinoza and she looked down for about 6.25 seconds in silence, and looked up at Nicole in the eyes and said, "When Christ formed His Church, did he ordain a Pope?" . . . . Then a few seconds later, Nicole began to tear up-- completely realizing what the Authority of God really means. The rest of the lesson was spirit-led, and we all were on the same page (down to the letter.)
When Hermana Espinoza said that, I immediately was filled with the Spirit, because I knew that was a truly inspired question that Nicole needed to hear and think about so that she can teach herself about authority of God! Hna. Espinoza answered a question with a QUESTION!
I still can't get over how great this moment was, and it was thanks to what we learned at the Conference, and the humility that Hermana Espinoza has. 

I love being here in the mission field!! I seriously would NOT exchange this experience for ANYTHING. It is the BEST! I am coming to know my Savior and the nature of our Heavenly Father. I love studying the Book of Mormon and being completely edified from it's power and TRUTHfulness. Read the Book of Mormon! Just do it! :)

I love you all! Keep being awesome!

Hermana Gardner