Hola todos!
Well, sorry for writing so late! The changes were crazy and I just now have time to write to you. I really believed that I was not going to have changes this time, seeing as I was only in Carriòn for 1 change. More than that, there`s a baptism this week! Hugo is really ready and excited for his baptism this coming Sunday. So, I didn`t think I was going to be changed, and didn`t want to be. Well, it’s not always about what we want, I have learned. The call came late last night and I was changed back to the Zone Los Andes, where I started my mission. But now I`m in a different sector called Centenario I didn`t want changes, but if I had to have changes I am ecstatic that I was changed to Los Andes! It’s in the country, outside of Santiago, which means cleaner air, nicer people, and a slower lifestyle. I received a phone call from President Essig a few hours back explaining a little about why I was changed here. My companion`s name is Elder Cuadros, he`s from Perù, and this is only his second change in the mission. Technically, he`s still in the training phase. It appears that there were some problems with obedience with his first companion. This other Elder didn`t really teach Elder Cuadros hardly anything of what he needed to be taught, and there were also some incidents of some pretty serious disobedience to the mission rules. President told me that my responsibility is to finish the training and help Elder Cuadros to receive the training and example that a missionary should receive from his trainer. Elder Cuadros has really impressed me in the little time that I have been with him. This afternoon he explained to me, very honestly and without excuses or justifications, what the situation was and what happened last change. He really wants to be the best missionary he can and wants to be obedient, and realizes that he needs to make a few changes. I am honestly very excited about this change. Elder Cuadros has very sincere desires and I know that my responsibility right now is very important. I need to give the best example I can and share with him the best of all that I have learned in the mission so far. Pray for me that I will be able to do that, and be the best, most obedient missionary that I have been thus far.
In other news, thing in Carriòn were going very well. As I mentioned, Hugo will be baptized this Sunday!!!!! He is so ready! He really understands the stuff and wants to take this important step in his life. Felipe has also been progressing. We found out more details about what happened last Sunday. He wasn`t drunk, even though he had been drinking earlier on, and he decided that he wanted to teach Matìas, the ten year old stepson, to drive. He decided to let him drive for a little bit, and just as they came around the corner there was a police van coming the wrong way. Matìas didn`t know what to do, panicked, and hit the gas instead of the brake. You can imagine what happened. Nobody was hurt, but there was quite a mess of paperwork and legal garbage to wade through. To make a long story short, it was possible that there were going to be some very serious consequences that would have destroyed the family`s economic well being, but thanks to a lot of prayer and including a fast that we did together with Felipe, the least damaging option was what happened. Felipe understands that this was a warning, a jolt from the Lord to motivate him to truly take seriously the need to quit drinking 100%. He did really well for New Year, he didn`t drink even a single drop! The next day we passed by and he finally asked, almost begged for a Priesthood blessing. You remember the miracle I told you about with the cigarettes and the blessing we gave him? Well, he says that up to now even the smell of cigarettes disgusts him, and he knows that it is a miracle that came about by the power of the Priesthood. We had offered him another blessing just before Christmas, but he turned it down saying that he wanted to drop the alcohol himself (bad idea to refuse the help of God). But he was repentant and wanted the same miracles in his life that he received in regard to smoking. He even wanted to be sitting in the same place during the blessing as he was sitting in the first time to make everything as close to the same as possible. We gave him the blessing, and in the blessing the powers of heaven were promised to him to help him to overcome. I know that there is power in the priesthood, and more importantly, now Felipe does too.
New Year was a normal day for us. Saturday nobody really wanted to talk to us, and at midnight it would have been impossible to sleep because of all the wild parties taking place all over, so we watched the fireworks from our apartment windows. Here everyone stays up and the party just gets started at midnight. They have a late dinner just before midnight, and then they stay up for hours dancing (and those who aren`t members of the church, drinking). The attendance in Church the next day was disappointingly low.
Well, that`s about all for now. Please pray for me that I might be strengthened in my new assignment and that I might be able to do and be all that my mission president and the Lord expect of me. I love you all and pray that you are all well and starting off the end of the world (2012) well. ;-) Haha I`m so sick of people who really believe that junk ;-)
Love, Elder Fugal
