Elder Marcus Tilghman: July 19, 2017

Snow! I cannot believe what happened on Saturday, it was so cold and rainy here that it actually turned into snow! We woke up on Saturday morning and our entire house and our patio was covered in the fluffy white stuff. Being an Arizona boy, it was very weird for me seeing snow, no we did not have time to go make a snow man, but we had a small snow ball fight with all of the Elders in our house Saturday morning. It was the first time in 50 years it had snowed in our area, it was awesome. But of course, wherever there is happiness, the pain will follow. Because the area was not used to snow, all of our power cut out for about a day and a half, so needless to say we were very cold. We could not use our bikes on that day because the roads were all snowy and covered in ice, so we had to walk. It was a fun day to be out in the freezing cold and the snow, I enjoyed the time to be in a different setting than I am used to.

Ok back to the business of the people. Ernesto, the young kid we have been teaching will be baptized on Saturday! We are very excited for him and for his decision to draw closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. He is very prepared and ready and his entire family is coming from all different parts of Santiago to come and see so Elder Alldredge and I could not be happier. Hopefully this time next week I will be bringing you some good news. We have also been teaching and helping out a ton of Haitians as well. They come here to Chile with nothing, including blankets and winter clothes, so we spent some time with our bishop getting supplies for them so that they could get throught the snow and cold weather better. We have one Haitian investigator who is awesome. His name is Aristide and he has been in Chile for about a month now. His house is super small, he literally lives in a room the size of my bathroom back in my house in Mesa. He is a great, spiritual guy and we have had some amazing lessons with him. Last week we were talking with him about prayer and how to pray, and he offered to say the last pray before we left. It was the first time he had prayed outloud in his life and it was very powerful, he said a quick pray blessing hiself and his family and the Spirit filled the tiny room. I am very grateful to be trusted to have experineces like that with these people. And as always the work continues to go on.

I am so grateful for every opportunity that I have here on the mission. Yes there aer hard times like when we do not have power and it is freezing cold and snowing, but there is no better place in the world to be. Looking at it, our challenges and obstacles really are nothing compared to the trials of the One who suffered All. We are priveledged with every thing we have and wiht all of our blessings thanks to one act of one Being who saved us all. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and the Redeemer of all sin for mankind. I hope you al have a great week!

Love,

Elder Tilghman

Moroni 3