Elder Dirkmaat in Chile: A Gospel of Progression

Sector- San Filipe, Chile

Companero- Elder Wiseman

Carta- #30

Hello family!!!

Haha yesss mothers day is getting close!!! kind of...hahah but its weird how its already been like 3 months since we talked last!!! weird!!! haha

Bobby's going to go work in nor cal?? hahah! Yeah, but Bobby can't go see Emily in Temple Square now because she's leaving April 2nd to California, Fresno mission for 3 months!!! Crazy!!! hahaha!

You guys should talk more about how your doing! How are you guys doing? Is life good down in good ol Encinitas? Oh, and I think definetely the better choice is to have Oliver go to the school where all his LDS friends are going because in middle school is when all the little kids start gettin into the baaaddd stuff haha. So it would definitely be better.

This week has been good!! My companion goes home in 7 days and he's getting married june 21st hahah his gf already set the temple date and already bought all the furniture and already bought the plane tickets for their honeymoon to the Bahamas! Hahaha!! you can imagine how happy my companion is right now hahaah! And dont get me wrong, he loves to make fun of how I have 16 months left hahah But whatever, I'll probably do that to my companion when I'm leaving in a week. Wow, his life's probably going to be horrible!!! hahaha!! But we are still working hard!!

Transfers are this next week, I think that I will stay here in the same sector because my companion's leaving and I'll be senior companion but I'm not sure!! anything can happen!! I hope I do because we should be having a lot of baptisms this next transfer!!! We have been having a hard time getting our investigators to get baptized because it's super hard for them to keep the commandments, like not drinking tea and we have to make sure their heart is really changed before baptism. Becuase it's not just about baptizing the person and done they're saved. They have to be truly repented with a broken heart and they have to be willing to make the covenant that they will follow Christ forever. I could baptize my investigators right now because they have the requirements but I want to make sure that they will stay active and are actually truly repented before they do it. Becuase if they get baptized and go inactive it would've been better for them if they never would have been baptized. The problem in chile is the activity because so many people just get baptized because its cool hahaha!! I dont know, but I think they'll be able to get baptized this next change!!!

I never realized how much bigger role the Gospel takes in my life before the mission. I have realized that the gospel is a gospel of progression. It's a gospel of progressing and progressing with the help of the grace of Christ and we will finally end up having the same attributes as Him and finally be worthy to enter into the celestial kingdom when we can be perfected in Christ through repentence and we can be comfortable in the presence of God. I like the talk by Brad Wilcox called ¨his Grace is Sufficient¨ It's so amazing, and it says that some people think that God is going to assign us according to our deeds our glory that we go to. But we will know perfectly when we get there. If we are not perfected in Christ and we present ourselves before God, we won't be the ones begging to stay in the celestial kingdom with God, he will be begging us to stay but we will be like "Get me the heckkkkk out of here." That is so true!!!! I'm so far away from becoming like Christ but it's a perfecting process!!! I hope that all of you can remember that the Gospel is about always progressing and becoming more and more like Christ.

I love you All!!!!!

Love,

Elder Nate Dirkmaat