Hey, everyone!

This week, we were looking for lots of people that are receptive & can be baptized soon. We found lots of people who were receptive, and commited to come to church. On Sunday, only one of those people came. The kid that came to church is named Michael, and has lots of real intent for a 14 year old. His desire to be baptized as soon as possible really animated us, but throughout the entire week, I was feeling really overwhelmed and pressured to be a better missionary, to find faster, to teach more effectively, to be a more consecrated Elder, and so on. As I was pondering this opposition I had felt the entire week, during church, the branch president got up to bear his testimony with the congregation. He started by saying that he had been thinking a lot about the apostle Peter during the week, and went on to share the story of when Peter walked on water. He explained that many times we are like Peter. We start a project or a task, with the faith the we can acomplish it with Christ`s help, but as we begin to examine the problems, we lose faith, and begin to feel like we are drowning in pressure and expectations. The branch president explained that when that happens, Christ is at our side, extending us His hand, and promising us that we can feel His relief and His peace, if we would just have faith in Him.  And that He will help us back up, and even during hard times, we don`t have to feel like we are sinking. As he explained this, the Spirit touched me powerfully, and I distictly felt that I had been losing faith, that I had begun to forget that the Lord will empower the laborers of His work, and will not permit that we drown in our efforts, as long as we don`t forget Him. That`s what I specifically learned this week, and wanted to share with all of you.

But in other news, today, being p-day, we went to the beach that`s not far from Vallenar:

I hope everyone enjoys the pictures, and I'll make sure to send more of Vallenar next week!  I'll write you all next Monday!

--Elder Checketts