Superbowl Sunday

Its been awhile so we’ll try to get y’all up to speed about the happenings in Santiago.
On the lighter side, we had a super bowl party wherein Ryan and I had the idea to paint our heads like the helmets of the Bears and Colts. Ryan already takes a Mach-3 to his head on a regular basis so he needed no extra preparation. I had to cut mine a bit shorter than normal and then do the Mach-3 thing, which I have to brag that I didn’t cut myself a single time. Amanda did a great job with the painting as you can see from the pictures below.
On the work side, we finished up the 7 evangelistic lessons with Laurindo and Charlene, a Brazilian couple that began attending church and our English classes last December. Charlene wants to be baptized sometime soon, but is waiting a little longer to see if Laurindo will want to also. They have also gotten involved at church with the newly formed hospitality committee which is giving them the chance to meet and get to know other people in the church.
Amanda has been studying with Claudia, a college student who has known the missionary families for several years, and has also been meeting recently for some mentoring time with Coté, one of the high school girls at church. I have had my study with Mauricio on hold for a few weeks, but hope to continue that when he returns from vacation. Mauricio was an English class contact that Tyler Wall had invited to church way back in May or June of last year, and started studying with Garrett and me in August. I have learned a lot from Mauricio, as he has many tough but good questions that required additional study on my part. A few weeks ago we met to study after I had spent several hours researching infant baptism and original sin, which became a hindrance during our study on baptism and salvation. After talking and reading through verse after verse for about 3 hours, Mauricio came to the conclusion that he needs to be baptized, which was a huge breakthrough. When we began studying, Mauricio was in doubt about the authenticity of the Bible and the divinity of Jesus. Through our time in the Word, he told me he no longer has any of these doubts and is now trying to work through what adult baptism will mean to his previous beliefs which are deeply rooted in him due to his culture.
Amanda and I continue to ask for your prayers as we continue to work with Laurindo, Charlene, Claudia, Coté and Mauricio. The next few weeks will be quite busy as we have a visit from Amanda’s mom in March and her sister in April. Thanks for catching up with us! God Bless –
john and amanda