The Beauty of the Gospel

Sector- Lampa, Santiago

Companero- From Ecuador 

Carta #93

Thanks for the happy birthdays!!!!! Its crazy im oldldddd now!! Im 21 i can drink, go to bars, and gamble now!!! what a blessing!!! hahahah I cant imagine how you guys feel knowing that your second child is now 21.  WOW hahaha

This week was a really good week for us.  We`ve been working super hard.  And that family of 5 that we found went to church!!!!!! That was amazinggg!!! We have a family of 3 and a family of 5 that were teaching and that are preparing for their baptisms in July!!! The last month of my mission will be the most successful one Ive had in all my mission.  Its amazing how many miracles we`ve seen, how many people we`ve found, and how many people are just sooo prepared to hear the gospel.  I know that these people that were finding were prepared, and that we were lead and guided to them to teach them and bring them the gospel . Its something different when you teach someone that you know is prepared, because you can feel something sooo special as you teach them.  Because the spirit is always there telling them these things are true.  And as you feel that spirit you can also feel a great love for the people that your teaching, and it is just something so amazing, that I will miss a lot when I go home.  I LOVE teaching these people and coming to love them, and then just seeing how their lives are sooo blessed afterwards.  Its amazing and Im so happy to be here and to have all your support.  And also so happy to know that I will see you all again sooo soon.  It will be so sweet.  I love this gospel now.  

Thinking about what has changed most in me, is really now that I find the beauty of the gospel.  It is something so beautiful.  That Im soo grateful to have in my life.  And these last weeks I have in the mission I will use them to help others to receive these great blessings.

I LOVE you guys!!! thank you for all your support and love!!!!

Love,

Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Tragedy & Hope

Sector- Lampa, Santiago
Comparero- From Ecuador
Carta #92

Wow, this week has been hard, but it was good over all. In the missionary work part it was slow at the beginning of the week just looking for more people who are prepared to receive the message we have and accept it. But we really couldnt find anyone. However Vannessa and Oscar and Coni are progressing super well. They are the investigators the most prepared that I have ever taught!!! its sooo amazing! Just everything we say and every time we teach the spirit is there sooo strongly because theyre just sooo prepared to receive us and accept the gospel.

But at the end of the week, we found a family that was just amazinggggg!!! We received this family as a reference from a member, and he told us that the son in the family had recently committed suicide and hung himself in the house. And that his mom found him there hanging. So that was something really really difficult for her. And that the Catholics had passed by and told her basically that her son was going to be in hell forever ha. So that didnt help her at all either. So this member invited us to pass by with her, and we explained the plan of salvation and how much God loves us and how he can change and repent, and it brought soooo much calm to her soul, and alll her family. Theyre like 7 in total. And you could just feel the spirit sooooo strongly there in the lesson testifying of what we were saying and they all could feel it sooo strongly. I loved it. We set another date to go back, and i have so much faith that that family will progress and arrive at a baptism to be able to help her son and become an eternal family. That was amazing to be able to be an instrument in Gods hands to bring peace to one of his daughters souls that was greatly afflicted. That is the joy of the mission. We literally are Gods hands here on earth or God angels, and thats amazing to me!!!

I cant wait to see you guys again!! stop having sooo much fun without me pleeease!!! hahaha just kidding. I love you guys Soooo much!!

Love,
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Baptism On July 4th!

Sector- Lampa, Santiago

Companero- From Ecuador

Carta #91

This week has been really good!! I dont know If I told you guys already, but we found a family that is just SO amazing, and all three of them are planning on getting baptized the 4th of July!!!! what a good way to celebrate it right!? And my birthday!!! Im so excited, and Im so happy to be teaching this family, because they were just sooo prepared,and Im sooo glad that we were able to be instruments in Gods hands to find them and bring them to him. Thats so amazing to me. And it makes me soooo happy! We have been looking a lot for more investigators, and weve had some success, so were happy with whats going on. Its the Copa America here in Chile so everyone is like crazy for the soccer games that are like every single day. And Chile is doing super well so theres like a tonnn of parties and everything hahah not the best time to preach the gospel ,but its a cool experience!!!

Wow When I think about all that I have to do at home I just get STRESSED, and worried, I just want to be happy and spend time with the people I love hahaha But Im not gonna worry about that now, Im just going to think about the good things that are happening, and the good things that will happen when Im home. Thanks for the tips on the homecoming talk hahaha Dad dont worry, ive gotten soooo used to speaking in public now I feel like comfortable now in front of people. Because like every week I have to teach in front of 22 missionaries! Those are the blessings from the mish!!! pretty cool right!?

Well My companion is from Ecuador and ecuador lost in the Copa America to Chile so everyone makes fun of him for that hahahah but hes cool, Its a little bit harder to get along with him, but still I try to look for the Good and not be thinking about the bad things, becasue that will just be bad for the relationship. Thank you for Everything, HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!! I hope its the best ever!!! I wish I could do skype with you on Fathers day, but we cant, Im sorry hahah but at least Ill be there with you guys soon!!!

I LOVE you Guys!

Love,
Elder Nate Dirkmaat

Instruments in God's Hands

Sector- Lampa, Santiago
Companero- From Ecuador
Carta- #90

Wow this week has been much harder than the last weeks!! My companion left, and the companion that I have now is soooo much different!!! my companon is from Ecuador, and hes pretty cool!! But we have been working soooo much this week! the problem that we have now in our sector, is that we baptized all the investigators we were teaching and were in the process of looking for new people to teach and baptize. And thats always the hardest part of missionary work. It means a lottt of contacts and everything hard work, in the streets all day haha but we have had a lot of success actually in finding people, so that makes me super happy. We prayed a lot and we have found some people that are just amazing, and I know that they were prepared by God to receive us in their houses, and thats just amazing!!! We found one family that was just SO prepared and we could just feel it the moment we talked to her in her door. We had the first lesson with her, and we could just feel the spirit soooo strong and after we finished talking, she said, wow Ive never felt like this before, I just feel so much peace and happiness. And the next time we passed by she said that ever since we came, she could feel so much happier, that like before she was struggling, a lot but now she could feel so much peace, and just wants us to come all the time. Her names Vanessa, and the most amazing thing about her is that shes MARRIED. NO ONE gets married in chile thats young like her. They all just live with each other, and thats the biggest problem ever for us. But she is married, and the thing that she wants most is to be sealed, so that makes me sooo happy that we can be instruments in Gods hands to do his work.

Also, one more experience that just strengthened my testimony sooooo much, was that I did and interchange with a missionary thats kind of new in the mission, and he was telling me about his problems and how its hard for him to have faith and be successful in the mission. So when we left in the morning to work, I prayed to God that he could show us miracles that day, so this missionary can realize that really miracles exist, and that God is preparing the people we are to teach. And that day, We left, and immediately we started seeing miracles, we had that lesson with vanessa where she said she was SO grateful we came and knew what we were saying was true, and also, we found TEN new investigators in ONE day. THAT is a miracle. That is something that strengthened my testimony sooo much. And this missionary at the end of the day, said to me, Elder Dirkmaat now I KNOW that miracles exist. Wow that was just amazing, and strengthened me sooo much!!!

I want you guys to know that God hasnt ceased to be a God of miracles and that today, Angels still come to people, we can still heal people, if these things dont exist, its because we dont have faith. We should all have faith that God is the same now, and those miracles in the scriptures still happen. And I see them with my own eyes. I love you guys!!!!! I hope everything works out for BYU Idaho!! let me know if I need to do anything!!!!!

Love,

Elder Nate Dirkmaat

A Miracle Happend!

Sector- Lampa, Santiago
Companero- Elder Gonzalez
Carta- #89

A miracle happened this week!!!! We have an investigator named Nancy, her daughter Isabel got baptized like 2 years ago, and she has her Boyfriend on the mission now. Nancy has been receiving the missionaries for more than two years now, and she loves to feel the spirit and listen to the messages they bring, but she never could ever clear up the doubts she had about Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon, and Thomas S. Monson being prophet today. She just couldnt believe it. So we had gone by many times trying to help her. And eventually we went by and she told us that she had finally read the book of mormon and prayed afterwards to know if it was true, and she felt really deeply that it was true. So that day we put her with Baptismal date. Even though she had her doubts still about Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson being prophet today. We kept teaching her, and as her baptismal date got closer, we started to get really worried about what was going to happen because she still hadnt received her answer about Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson and in the baptismal interview you have to say that you believe that they are prophets and that you know that because youve felt it, so we just prepared everything for the baptism still, having faith that as she does her part preparing for the baptism that God was going to give her her answer. So we went by every single day last week trying to help her, and eventually the day of the baptism arrived and she had her interview at 5:30 p.m and her baptism at 7. I was just supperrr worried because I didnt think she was going to pass and we were going to have to cancel everything. But miraculously she passed, and we had no idea how still because we were busy doing everything. So she got baptized and was just superrrr happy and everything and feeling the spirit and that was amazing, but after her baptism she gave her testimony. She told everyone how that same morning she had gotten the movie about Thomas S. Monson and said a prayer before watching it, telling God that she wanted to know if he is a prophet because she wants to get baptized. So she started to watch it, and she said that as she watched it, in her heart she felt something sooooo strongly and that she knew in that moment he is a prophet of god and receives revelation for us. She said she cried like the whole movie. As she bore her testimony on these things you could just feel the spirit sooo strongly, and I was just soooooo HAPPY that we could help someone to gain a testimony sooo strongly about this gospel and Thomas S. Monson. I know that because of this testimony she will be able to stay in the church and receive the blessings God has for her. It was a MIRACLEEEE!!! 

Nancy Monsalves. It was an amazing baptism!!

Me and my Friend DOMENICO!!!!

I'm just sooo grateful for everything that's happening because it strengthens my testimony as well to see these miracles happen. And that just shows that if we have righteous goals, that we know God is pleased with, that if we do our part, God Will ALWAYS do his part. He will ALWAYS provide everything we need as long as we are following him, and doing his will. We can all have faith in that. And this experience shows that this is true.

I love you Guys!! Thank you for the Email!!!!

Love,

Elder Nate Dirkmaat