Hey, Everyone!

This has been a great week! As for our investigators... Andrés, María José, and their sons Matías (who´s 13) and Felipe (who´s 5) came to church! We´re currently working on helping Matias recieve his answer and be baptized, and help María José recieve her answer as well, get married, and help Andrés progress, to be able to baptize his wife! They´re a truly amazing family, and have a huge potential! This week, the stake presidency also came to the ward, and called a new bishopric. The new bishop is pretty young, but will definitely do a really good job!

Hey, I heard about the solar eclipse! I´m sure that was awesome! As for me, apart from Andrés and María José, we´ve found some amazing people this week! For example, yesterday we contacted a woman named Viviana who was sweeping outside of her house. She told us that she goes to another church, and so we began telling her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we believe in, as it is something that she believes too. We began explaining the importance of baptism, and that the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands must go together with baptism, or the baptism is incomplete. She took very seriously what we taught her, and invited her to be baptized in several weeks, after receiving the answer to her prayer. She told us yes immediately. She told us that if she had only been ''partially'' baptized, she wanted to do it completely.... to receive the blessing of God, and be right with Him. It was truly amazing to see someone with such faith and such an openness! Anyway, I hope you have another great week! I´ll talk to you next week!

Love, PJ

Hi there!

This week had its ups and downs. We found several awesome people in the streets that came up to us asking what it is that we preach, or asking us how they can change their lives and be happy. That was amazing.... but we also invited lots of awesome people to church, such as 2 awesome part members families, and several other interested investigators.... and no one came :/ But I guess that´s part of the mission. We´ll just keep working with them to help them understand the importance of WHY we go to church, and the blessings that they receive when they attend. Anyway, I´ll let you know how this week goes!

Oh! And before I forget, my shirts were starting to get really old..... so I needed more, and I bought several. It should be about 50 or 60 dollars, because I bought 5 of them. (My white shirts were starting to lose their whiteness) ;)

I´m glad that the family is doing well, and that everyone is preparing for school, and Tessa´s preparing for college!!! I still can´t believe that!! How long is it to be a dental hygenist by the way? I´m glad that you and Dad are doing well as well, and are enjoying time with the family. 

Have a great week!

Love, PJ

Hey, Everyone!

(Mom), I'll let Hermana Mireya know that you liked the pictures! In fact the entire relief society was telling me about the photo that she sent to you, that she posted on facebook! hahaha! Did you remember that Hermana Mireya was my mamita when I was back in Río Loa, a year ago? She moved to Oasis while I was away from Calama, and now I got to see their family again! From what everyone has told me, it looks like you guys had lots of fun at the beach! And all the pictures of the kids make them look so much older! Time is seriously flying!

As for me... This was a good week. Andrés (who is a less active member) and María José (who is an investigator) and their children came to church this Sunday!! We´ve been working with them for a while, and they finally made it to the chapel, and they absolutely loved it, and said they felt the Spirit while there! They have so much desire to really progress and improve, and we´re helping them understand better the doctrine, keep commitments, and recieve their own powerful testimonies. Aside from that, we´ve been working and contacting as usual this week, and are currently teaching a Colombian woman that has tons of real intent, and even prayed to know if she should be baptized or not. She told us that she felt a great sense of peace as she prayed, but says that she doesn´t feel prepared yet to come to church or be baptized. We´ve worked on helping her understand the imortance of coming to church to recieve more strength from God and as part of the progression, but still did not accept said invitation. Anyway, we´ll keep working with her, and keep finding the people that Heavenly Father is preparing for us to teach.

Anyway, hope you all have another great week!

Love, PJ

Hey everyone!

So, the members just got back from the temple on Saturday. Since it`s pretty far away, they stay in a hotel in Santiago for a week, to be able to take advantage of the opportunity. I really miss the temple! But I`ll be able to visit fairly soon! I'm glad you are all enjoying the summer! It sounds like everyone is doing great, from the emails!

Anyway... as for me... this week was good. We passed by several times to visit Techi, and she`s doing great!! She`s keeping her commitments... and now we`re working on helping her husband!! We also found some amazing people in the streets this week, just by conversing with them, and several understood deeply the importance of baptism, and quickly accepted! This week we even found a young couple that is expecting a baby, and while talking to them, we found out that she is a less active member of the church, and that he is looking for the true church, to be able to be baptized!!! It was amazing! We also have an investigator that is the girlfriend of a less active, and after lots of inviting and animating.... they made it to the church parking lot... only to recieve a call from his boss, that he had to go to work immediately, because they were short staffed. It was really frustrating, but they continue to be really receptive... and we`ll help them to come to church next week! That`s about it for me... but I hope you`re doing well!

Have a great week!
Elder Checketts


From PJ's mom... I got this picture today, via Facebook, and it said that the Elders were at a member's house having lunch & celebrating their child's birthday. :) I love getting random pictures from members!!! It makes my day!!! :)

And... I got 3 more pictures the next day...
  

Hi everyone! This was a good week! On Tuesday we went down to Antofagasta for Zone conference, and we contacted lots of people in the street the rest of the week, with the youth from the ward, we found lots of amazing new investigators, just from talking to them!!. Almost all the members have left to go to the temple in Santiago this week, so hopefully we can find someone to join us in the lessons who hasn´t left!!

In other news, Techi and her son Derick got baptized on Saturday!!!!


We were able to see so many miracles in Techi´s conversion, and I´m so happy that I was able to baptize her and her son!!! Techi lives right next to us, but for a really long time, we had never tried to contact her. One day, while walking to an appointment we had in the morning, it crossed my mind that we should try contacting our neighbor, to see if she´d be interested in our message. We passed by with the owner of the house, who is also a member of the church, and she quickly told us that she had been pleading the night before, for help and strength from God because she was having difficulties with her husband. She told us that she had felt that he hadn´t answered her.... until we knocked on her door. After helping and teaching her and her husband for a while, she began to feel that we had been sent to her house to help her back on the path of God..... however, she felt that this path for her, specifically, was the evangelical church, where she was baptized when she was 13, and where here mother in law attends. We spent about a month doing lots of home evenings with her, and with members of the church, to better teach the restoration of the gospel, and the authority of the priesthood. However, we were puzzled as to why she seemed to clearly understand the truth of the church, read the Book of Mormon, and pray... but still say that she didn´t want to be baptized by the authority of God. Then, one night as we explained the principles of the restoration once again, she told us that as we spoke, she felt that Heavenly Father was speaking to her heart, saying, ´´It´s ok. Don´t worry. This baptism is something good.´´ Even after this experience, she was a little worried to take the step to be baptized, but in the end, decided to do so with her son... because she said she felt that it would be a new start, and that is what she needed and wanted more than ever. It really shows that God can touch every heart. When I was with Elder Urrutia, I also felt very strongly from the Spirit, that Techi would be baptized, but in the next cambio..... and that´s the way it happened!

The rest of our investigators are doing well too... but they need to come to church!!! However, blessings such as seeing the conversion and baptism of Techi give me reach to keep having patience with the people, and beleiving that they can and will progress. I hope you enjoy that inspiring story. Have another great week, and I´ll talk to you next monday!

Love, PJ

(Here are some additional pictures from P-day last week, at the waterfall.  And the sign on the side of the road says, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."

Hi everyone! This week was full of regaining people. The people we tried to find or contact were really cold this week, but we`ve animated a family of awesome investigators that were losing interest, and a family of recent converts that were leaving behind the things of the church that they were recently learning. I guess this week wasn`t the best in terms of finding new people... but we were regaining people that were beginning to stray from the path that we had showed them. It`s great to see the change that people go through, and see them now coming back in full swing! It`s great to see people progressing so much! And the ward is doing great!

We also have some awesome investigators right now, and hopefully, we`ll have several baptisms on august 5th.  Just working hard to teach the people!  I`ll let you know how the investigators are progressing next week!  Today, for p-day, we also went to a waterfall, here in Calama.  

Have another great week!
Love, Elder Checketts

Oh, sorry, Mom.... I forgot to tell you that I got the package! Thanks! It was yummy :)

As for my companion, he´s doing great and learning quickly! We get along really well, which is good, and we´re finding awesome investigators!!!! A young woman´s dad (Johnny) came to church, who isn´t a member, and never had interst in the church or reading the Book of Mormon. Now he´s doing both! Hopefully we can prepare him soon for baptism!!! I don´t know if I told you about María José as well... who is the girlfriend of a less active member. She has tons of interest and desire to learn more, but unfortunately had to leave the city for an emergency on friday, and got back sunday night. We have several awesome investigators.... but we just have to animate them more, to come to church!!! Hopefully we can help María Jose, Johnny, and the rest of them come to church and get baptized!!! They really are super awesome!!!

I´m glad the rest of the family is doing well too! It sounds like everyone has lots of plans for the summer, and are having lots of fun!  Hope you all have another great week! Love you all!

Love, PJ