a pair of pants...

a pair of pants...

the year was 1996...the place was indiana...the missionary was elder travis john kunz.  a white pair of pants worn to baptize the people of indiana  into the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.  fast forward to the year 2013...the place rancagua chile...the missionary is tate john harding.  the same pair of white pants being worn to baptize the people of rancagua chile into the church of jesus christ of latter day saints.

tate's message... I was getting out my baptismal stuff for the afternoon. I pulled out a pair of white baptismal pants and then I remembered who had worn them before me. I remembered that those pants were worn by good old Travy John. So that made the baptisms even more special.

 Monday was a really fun Pday. We got together with the zone and had a water activity. Water balloon volleyball and all sorts of other games. It was pretty fun. Then me and chagoyan headed to send off my package to you guys so be looking for that here in a little. After we just went to do internet and shopping and then went home to rest. Monday ended up being a decent night in the sector too. Started off by taking more food to that family who doesn't have a lot. And then we had a couple lessons and ended it by eating a completo in the street.(that hot dog thing with a million toppings)  That's a successful end to the day.

 Tuesday was a mission home day and about nothing else ha. We got up early and took a bus to rancagua to get to the mission house to waffles and pancakes waiting!! Gotta love the perks. Then for the next 4 hours we listened to president and the assistants talk about the vision for the mission this month. I always leave that place so mentally tired from receiving so much information. We also ate lunch there. Lasagna. And then we left and took a bus back to San Fernando but on the way my comp started to not feel very good so we just stayed in the house till about 8 and then went to a meeting with our ward mission leader. So that was a wrap for Tuesday.

 Wednesday was the day where we teach all the other missionaries the stuff we learned Tuesday. So that's how we started and then after I did divisions with another Mexican ha. It was really fun and we had a lot of success. Taught a lot of lessons and had a good time as well. 

Thursday was an amazing day. In the morning we started with service and cut some weeds for a member so that was good stuff and then we ate lunch in the house and took a little snooze ha. Always so nice. Then when we had to go work we had 4 amazing lessons and the members in the ward came with us to all of them so they were really helping us out. It looks like god is really working miracles in our sector. We have the possibility to help 6 people to be baptized this month so it should be really cool. It's an amazing feeling to help these people and see the changes they are making. Not only does it help them but it helps me also. In the end they teach me more than I teach them. Truly amazing. We ended the day by doing like an hour and a half of computer work. I was dead so we got home, planned, ate some soup and hit the sack.

 Friday flew by. In the morning we had a special meeting with our zone to try and motivate them to work a little bit harder and then we had lunch and again had a little time to take a nap after lunch. It was pretty hot Friday but we had a lot of lessons. We got everything figured out with our baptisms and then we had a really sad lesson. The old guy Luis we are teaching is still married to a lady and it looks like it will be hard to find her or anything. It was pretty sad. I really love that man and hope that all works out. Then we had a lesson and taught tithing. I love teaching tithing to people. Idk why haha. But then we played soccer. I played quite a bit again. haha I'm progressing. Let's just leave it at 

that.

 Saturday started kinda in a special way. I woke up. Exercised. Ate. Wrote in my journal. But before we had a really good lunch. Ham fried rice. So freaking good after a year and three months of not eating that haha. Them after lunch we had the baptisms. I baptized the littlest kid named Alan. He started getting really nervous as we entered the font so I had to calm him down and kinda throw him under the water haha. But it all turned out well and a ton of members showed up to support them so it was good. Then the day just got exhausting. It was hot and we were just physically and mentally dead. We had a couple good lessons. One with Alicia who will get baptized the next week and ended with a lesson with two less active brothers in there mid thirties but just lived them two alone and I could just tell they were all each other had and that they barely got by. Just by the state of the house and everything. Humbling experience for me. Especially when I have a huge family and nice things and they still find a way to be happy with so little and one brother at their side. We got back to the house and just went to bed after a cold shower.

 Sunday was a pretty good day. The three baptisms were confirmed and also we had a lot of investigators come to church. Gods hand is honestly working miracles here. We ate lunch and then headed home to plan for three hours ha. Not too bad tho considering that the planning is during the hottest part of the day so we escape that. Afterwards we had a couple good lessons and got some references from a family who is pretty involved in missionary work. I'm grateful for all the families here who help us a lot. It makes our work a lot more easier and it helps the people we are teaching.

 But I read a talk this week in this months ensign called"The art of giving". It's about what Christmas is really about and how we need to give and how we should be even more excited to GIVE instead of Receive. I invite you to go read it! But that's it for this week. Love you guys

Elder Harding