2017.3.27 Week 42 - Miracles and blessings of being a missionary

It was a fantastic week to be a missionary! My new companion is THE BEST. I am super happy now. We had a really good heart to heart our second day together with lots of the spirit and decided we needed to up our diligence about 3000 degrees. So we have been working super hard, harder than I have ever worked on my mission. AND IT IS THE BEST. We have seen so many miracles just in this week.

I invite you all to be a little more diligent in all of your things. A lot of times we have faith and put in the effort, but its minimum effort. Think of all the miracles we read about in the scriptures. I can´t think of even one, where the person put in the bare minimum and then God put a miracle right in front of them. For example Nephi and his brothers going back to get the plates. They had already tried multiple times and nothing happened. Then when Nephi goes in with literally NO PLAN. He sees a miracle and everything works out. It's because he had faith and he had already gone through his own plan a, b, c, etc. We can´t get stuck being Laman and Lemuel. We do all the work to go to Jerusalem so we obviously have a little faith, we even try getting the plates one time. We have some spiritual experiences happen, and then we just suddenly lose all faith and all animo (courage). If we head back at this point, we already did almost all the work to see the miracle. Just keep going for thirty more seconds. When we can finally understand diligence in our lives we can make God´s promises work for our good. If we have faith and do our part, GOD CAN DO ANYTHING. So if you aren't seeing the miracles in your life you should probably just do a little self evaluation. Am I doing enough to deserve a miracle? Because if you have done enough to see a miracle, you will see a miracle, si or si.

Anyway after that giant rant I'm just happy to say that the mission is the best and I love it. I have 8 more months to be as diligent as I can and enjoy all the miracles and blessings of being a missionary.

VAMOS ARRIBA.

2017.03.20 Week 41 - Doesn't he know it was a miracle

This was a week of many miracles. The first being that Susana got baptized. I am pretty sure it was the best day of my life. It was super great to see her baptism and be a part of it. It was a long process because of her esckitzofrenia (schizophrenia) but in the end GOD IS A GOD OF MIRACLES. She got baptized and confirmed and I am not kidding you I think it cured her enfermidad (illness).

Miracle number dos (two). I HAVE A NEW COMPANION. Hermana Little. We have been saying to each other our whole mission, "Someday we are going to be companions and it is going to be awesome!" So now here we are and I am super pumped. For the past two months I kind of just thought I was going to die every day, the good news, I DIDN'T. I was always praying for patience, love, charity, etc. Until the ultimo momentos (last moments) when I started praying for patience, love, charity, and a new companion. God answers prayers people.

Weird Story:
Walking home at night. Hear something ringing. Find a cheto phone (loosely translated as "expensive") in the street. Answer it. It's some guy. He comes and finds his phone. We invite him to church. He kisses me. He doesn't come to church. DOESN'T HE KNOW THAT IT WAS A MIRACLE THAT TWO MISSIONARIES FOUND HIS PHONE AND THAT HE SHOULD PROBABLY JUST GET BAPTIZED.

Funny Story:
A motorcycle is passing us at a corner. The guy on it screams "6-6-6" and hangs his tongue out and starts having some kind of conniption. We just burst out laughing and wonder if this guy needs to be put in some asylum.

Normal Moment:
A family of five passes on one motorcycle. In front is a kid. Then Dad. Then a different kid, then the Mom with baby in her arms.


LOVE YOU ALL. VAMOS ARRIBA

2017.03.13 Week 40 - No letter today, just pictures!

2017.03.06 Week 39 - You really look like a pioneer

This was a great week to be a missionary in Roca.

We met some super great people. One family of Adventistas (Seventh-Day Adventists) who invited us in and gave us dinner the first time we met them. We already have an asado (Argentine style BBQ) planned for this Tuesday. The Dad told me he was going to cook me a pig, he's really excited since his wife and daughter don't eat chancho (pork). He's not a member of their church so he kinda does whatever he wants. He's trying to quit drinking.

We also met a woman named Janina. Remember that big group of ten and nine year olds? Well we are all pretty much homies now. We were walking home this week and saw one of them with his family. He yelled for us to come over and meet his Mom. We went and met her and then visited her this week. She recently separated from her pareja (partner) because she found out he was raping her 10 year old daughter. That's pretty heavy stuff people. But we could share some of the gospel with her and are going to keep visiting. Only Jesus Christ is going to be able to make this better. Lets just say we were all crying a lot in this lesson.

In other news, some comments of the week:

"You really look like a pioneer"

"I'm a little older than you guys." "What age do have anyway, 35?"

Speaking to me and my companion..."Are you her mom?"

Thanks Argentina, there is nothing that helps my self esteem more than you guys. Love you all. But really I do, you just have to get used to hearing cualquier cosa (anything).

Just want to remind you all that Jesus Christ really is our Savior and suffered for everything that we are going to pass through. We are never alone. He always understands. Just be strong and search for him and everything will be okay.