QUE TE PASA! from Villa Adelina,

Whats up guys?!  Well, I`m still here in la tierra santa de Villa Adelina.  I love it here!  I finished up my office duties yesterday and have pretty much broken free from the office.  I have a final meeting with Elder Paz, President Gulbrandsen, and Silvio (a member who looks for apartments for the missionaries) on Wednesday to wrap things up.  Then, I`m home free bautizando a todos!
Anyway, its looking like we are going to be seeing some miracles here in the Villa.  (Haha I say Villa, but there`s actually only a little villa here, nothing too crazy.  I don`t know why its called Villa Adelina...)  Today Lucas Solà is getting baptized, along with his 8 year old brother.  The Solà family was inactive for 7 years and have just recently come back to the church.  Brother Solà is going to baptize them.  I love completing families!  We had a lesson this week with their family and practiced with Bro. Solà how to perform the ordinances and it was awesome seeing them so excited.

The north stake has really been struggling lately.  However, we found out this week that Elder Mervyn B. Arnold from the first quorum of the seventy (who is the new area president here in South America South and who actually was President Argyle`s mission president) is going to come to our stake conference at the end of September.   From what we`ve heard, as an area president he`s like miracle grow.  Wherever he goes, the church just explodes with growth.  Anyway, we are all super, super stoked.  Elder Arnold is going to have a meeting with the investigators, new converts, and less actives before the sunday session of stake conference.  The stake has set a goal to have 200 investigators as a stake in this meeting, about 30 per proselyting area!  Everybody is super excited and as a zone and district we are making big time plans.  It`s going to be a miracle!  It falls right into the impressions that i`ve been having of working with the converts and less actives to increase the success here.

So this morning during my personal study, I was feeling kind of uneasy and I couldn`t figure out why.  I realized that my testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God wasn`t as strong as it needed to be.  So, I read his account of the first vision and kneeled down and asked God.  I received my answer, it was very clear.  Its so amazing that even somebody who teaches about Joseph Smith daily would need to strengthen his testimony of that principle.  But I needed to, and I did it.  And, because I`m a child of God, He responded to my question.  If I can do it, you can too!  Ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I promise you, God`s just waiting to answer.

Sorry I haven`t sent pics in a few weeks, I lost my thumb drive, dang it, and I haven`t been able to upload pics right from my camera.  But next week I`ll have some great pics of the baptism. 

Man, I gotta tell you, I`m going to miss the offices.  The Kroffs were like the coolest work partners you could ever have (and they bought us a non-stop supply of candy and cookies).  But I`m also super excited to leave and to be able to focus everything that I have on helping save the people here.  I already love them so much.  The other night I did a contact and I think I accidentaly scared a man getting out of his car.  He turned around, shoved my chest, and yelled "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!"  HAHA!  I felt really bad for scaring him and tried to explain, but it was useless.  But, my point is, I still loved him while he was freaking out!  I think that`s pretty rad.

Well, I love you guys too.  Honestly (and I`m telling the truth) time has passed SO FAST here.  I feel like I was just in Parque Chacabuco, or even in the MTC, and I`m already on the downhill slope.  I guess I`ve just gotta hold on for the ride and love every minute.  Plus, the food here is way better, so I`m not really that homesick for carolina barbeque pork.  Although a Melvin`s burger would be tasty.

Con hambre,

Elder Justin Hales

P.S. Let`s get those packages and letters crankin.  I`m not being spoiled in the office anymore.