"This was a really rough, rough weekend for me. I've had a challenging past 2 days. I want to share with you my weekend, beginning with Friday. This is about Olivia, our investigator who is just wonderful! Well, we went to her house to prepare her for her baptismal interview questions. Everything was great. Her friend was there, accompanying her for the weekend. It was rough. She was contentuous. We tried to keep the Spirit and things focused on Olivia. Olivia answered all the questions great. She is prepared. Then, we get a call that night. I answered and she said, "no me voy a bautizar." (I'm not getting baptized). My heart sank. I asked her why. She said that she earns little money to pay tithing! Olivia has never, ever had a problem about tithing until her friend showed up...and she said that her son didn't want her to get baptised either. That's not a problem; she is the mom, she runs the house and does what she wants. So, the next day, Saturday, we went over there with a member and his daughter. His daughter is 8 and recently got baptized; she has talked to Olivia before and has shared her testimony with her, so we thought she would be good to bring over.

Well, we got there and the friend of Olivia was there! We talked to Olivia to try to help her, to see what the problem really was. She changed her reasons again for not getting baptized. And her friend...kept interjecting! Olivia was totally sad and passive during this time. I was praying, praying for the Spirit and my companion was trying to keep things loving and peaceful. Well, then the member, the dad of the daughter, starts fighting back a little at the friend....there goes the Spirit. It was just not a good experience...we tried our best, doing everything we knew how to do.

Oh my gosh. This sector these past two changes, I have never, ever felt or seen such strong opposition with the people we are teaching! It is crazy! Satan is SO strong right now. I feel like we did everything we could. We are going to go when her friend is working, so we can really talk to Olivia. This was my weekend, and I had some rough challenges."

(pictured is La Hermanita with the other sister missionaries in her mission, and a Chilean street)