One More in Calle Calle!‏

Hey Everyone!

So today we got news on transfers and Elder McDonald and I are staying together for another one! I'm really excited for six more weeks here in Valdivia, we've had a great transfer and I'm excited to see what happens this week.

We've had a great week this week as a zone.  In our sector we've progressed a lot as well. I think I might have mentioned last week, but we're changing a lot of things as a mission this year. We're focusing a lot on including the members in the work.  My companion and I decided that we needed to meet with our bishop and the ward mission leader to discuss some goals for the new year. We're all really excited to see success this year in our ward.  Now we just need to apply it to the stake.

My companion and I have worked really hard this week to find new investigators.  Just like a good part of my mission, we've seen that the investigator pool has been drying up a little. We worked really hard and were really blessed to be able to find a lot of people.  Last sunday we went by a recent convert that hasn't been to church in a while and her cousin was there visiting with her.  We talked with her a little and had a lesson with her yesterday that was awesome. We also have been working with a program in Chile called "El Rescate" (the rescue) which is a database of the records of the church combined with the records of the chilean government which allows us to find a lot of the inactive members down here.  About 90% of the members in Chile aren't active and a lot of them have moved since they've been to church and the address we have in the church system isn't accurate. This week we found a family of four that hadn't been visited by missionaries for five years.  They are really receptive, especially the girlfriend of one of the members, who isn't a member. We have another appointment with them on Tuesday.We were also able to get three families who haven't gone to church in all my time here to go to church.

I'm really enjoying the mission right now.  As a zone we are really trying to focus in on our purpose as missionaries.  When I am working towards my purpose as a missionary I really feel like I'm doing my job and it's an amazing feeling.  I was thinking about our purpose here as children of God.  We all have a purpose here and we as members of the church are fortunate enough to know what it is.  When we work toward that purpose we will be able to feel the happiness of our Heavenly Father in our lives.  Thanks everyone for your love and support, I love you all!

 Cool news: Elder Jacobson is the new assistant to the president, it's funny because he and Elder Bate, the other AP were companions as my zone leaders in Chiloe haha.

Elder Cameron Dower