Love the Mission! (June 12, 2023)

Hey everyone! I'm really sorry I haven't been doing so hot with my emails lately, I'll try and pick it up a bit this week with today's email haha. Anyways it's awesome to hear that y'all are getting into summer back at home and all that, this is a great time of year and the colder it's been getting here has sure been making me a bit trunky lol. It has been getting pretty cold here lately in Chile, and it sucks because our house is not insulated at all, and we have no heating system, just a little electric heater that doesn't do much, and the hot water is never a guarantee to work, so these past couple weeks have been full of not so fun mornings. But anyways, for everyone at home I wanna hear about it and how everyone is doing.

Some updates from me here, I'm still training in Chepica and it's been going really well, Elder Messier and I have really been getting along well and I'm so glad I've had this opportunity to help him start his mission. For everyone wondering about Ines, she is doing a lot better, but I'll talk more about her later. As for teaching, we baptized some of our really good friends we're teaching recently and so lately we've really been focusing and finding new people and families to help and teach, so there has been a lot of hard work here. Finding gets hard when you're in a really tiny town and have knocked doors on every street, but you just gotta keep doing it, keep talking to those same couple people in the street and knocking those doors, and as we continue to do it, we continue to see that the Lord truly has people here for us to teach. 

So I want to take a minute and talk about Hermana Ines. I will never, for as long as I live, be able to repay Ines for all the love and sacrifice she has given me as a missionary here. I haven't really said much about her in my emails because I don't even know what to say sometimes, it leaves me speechless to see someone so committed to the Lord and his work like she is. She is so sick and with her condition she could honestly die whenever, but she doesn't let anything stop her. She comes to teach with us weather it's super hot or freezing and rainy, she will always be there to work with us. I always ask myself what is motivating her, why can't she just even take 1 day off? I asked her one day why she always goes and never rests, she responded with "si usted supiera lo que yo se, haría lo mismo." This hit me hard. She said that if I knew what she knows I would be doing the same, and it hit me that she is truly converted to Jesus Christ and his gospel. She doesn't have one single doubt that this is the most important thing in the world, and her truest and greatest desire is to let the world know. She understands the scripture that says. "how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, ^asave it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah" (2 Nephi 2:8). She gets it, she understands the gospel of Jesus Christ and the conditions that will allow us to obtain eternal life, she knows that "there is ^bnone other way nor ^cname given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God." (2 Nephi 31:21). I love how much she has taught me, I also know that she really is converted to Christ, and has showed me “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” (Luke 22:32). I will always want to be more like Hermana Ines, I love her and I am so grateful for her and also all her family, I can truly say that I feel like I have a family in Chile. 

I want to let you all know how blessed we really are, God loves us so much and has given us so many gifts and blessings, he blesses many of his children through his his children. We can be blessed by others, but most importantly we have the ability to bless God's children. I know that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). I hope you all can see how awesome it is that we can be a heavenly blessing in the life of one of God's children and we can do it daily. I hope you can all find time to bless some of God's children this week. I love you all and I am so grateful for each of you blessing me throughout my whole life!

Elder Micheli