Unto Us A Child Is Born

Well... I am a dad.

haha. We this last Tuesday I received my new companion. I am his first companion. so in missionary words I am his dad. And he is my son. His name is Elder Benitez which is pretty crazy because my trainers name is Elder Benitez! So I got trained by Elder Benitez and now I am training an Elder Benitez. He is from Buenos Aires Argentina, which is like a different world compared to chile so I am learning lots of new argentine words.

He is a convert of just 2 years which is super cool him and his family got baptized together and he wanted to serve a mission. He is super prepared though and is super excited to work! The coast is treating us well as you can imagine and is starting to warm up so we are enjoying every second of our time. 

We had a lot of meetings this week and I was in Santiago for most the week so we didnt have a ton of time to be in our sector but we did have some great lessons and found some awesome people. We had a lesson with Sandra and Braulio, we found out they are not married so we had to talk to them about that. But they received it really well and it was honestly one of the best lessons I have had in my whole mission. They have kids and have been together for over 10 years they just have never done what they need to to get married. But they dont have anything against it they said so here in a few weeks we should be having a wedding! 

This week Dylan and his family came to church in preparation for his baptism this week. He is super awesome. He is 10 years old and just gets it. We will explain things and I am almost certain that he has no clue what we taught him but then I ask what he understood and just explains it perfectly so that is way cool. He is kind of a little bit more shy but every once in a while he will crack us a smile that lets us now that he is having a good time. 

Something that I have learned this week is just how important is to surround yourself with good people I have met so many people who are members of the church who have testimonies of the restauracion but that have fallen away and it is because other people in their lives dont have a good influence on them, the gospel is hard to live alone, even though salvation is a personal affair and we are accountable for our own actions it is a lot more enjoyable to have the support of friends. That is why god put us here in families afterall.

I have been grateful for the influences I have had in my life and the people that have helped me remember the small things and help me correct myself when I needed to be. So be a good friend and be a good influence that is one of the best ways to be a missionary. 

Elder Holdstock