2017.09. 25 Week 66 - The spirit can direct us

What a fantastic life. I love being a missionary. It's seriously the best. This week was really great. We have two families of four that are working towards baptism and they are both super awesome. One family is Yanina, Yonaton, Yenifer, y Erik. They are all from Misiones and moved here somewhat recently. Yanina and Yonaton are a pareja (couple) and their daughter is Yenifer. Erik is their sobrino (nephew). They are really cool and right now are working towards getting married. This week they went to church and to a baptism to see how it is.

The other family has Julio, Eva, Azul, and Benicio. Azul is 14 and is already a member from about 4 years ago, right now she is trying to come back and her parents are also planning to get married so that they can get baptized. Benicio is her 8-year-old brother. Both families are amazing and we are having a lot of fun teaching them. There is also another 14-year-old named Agustina that is going to get baptized the 7 of October, some of her family are members and they are trying to come back to church. VAMOS ARRIBAAAAA!

There is still a struggle happening in our ward but I am trying to get over it.

My companion is the best ever. We get along extremely well and are just very similar people. I have never had the spirit so abundantly in my entire mission. We just have a lot of unity and are able to be very direct but loving with the people. Recently I have been learning a lot that the spirit can direct us in many ways, MANY.

Examples from yesterday...

Leticia: We were in her house teaching the palabra de sabiduria (word of wisdom) and then diezmo (tithing). When we left we talked about the lesson and realized that we had both had the distinct feeling that there was a man hiding in her house and that next time we have to teach the Law of Chastity. She is already a member, just inactive. 

Agustina: We taught the third lesson, the doctrine of Christ and the spirit was just really there. Her Mom and Grandma cried and then she accepted a fecha (date) to get baptized.

Oscar: We walked in, talked calmly for about 30 seconds, realized his heart was very hard and then we proceeded like Nephi to his brothers, to bajar la caña (drop the cane - Argentine phrase for "imply discipline") for an hour and tell him that we would never be visiting him again and that unless he softens his heart, he will never learn anything about God and will never be a part of His church. I testified that we were representatives of Christ and my companion testified that there is no other church with authority on earth. I know that Christ himself was there supporting us in this moment even though everything we were saying was extremely direct and Oscar didn't accept any of it.

So just yesterday we saw three ways the spirit can direct us.
1. Don de discernimiento. (Gift of discernment.)
2. Testifica de la verdad, y brinda paz al corazon (Testifies of the truth and brings peace to your heart.)
3. Es directo y no mienta, a veces tiene que purificar el templo (Is direct and doesn't lie, at times you need to purify the temple.)


Anyway, the mission is still great and I am super sunburned this week. A bird pooped on me again and we had to defrost our freezer with two baby hair dryers. The guy who works at Grido's (Ice cream shop) already knows us personally and knows our order. Our downstairs neighbors just live in the joda (partying) and this week came home from some sick party at seven thirty in the morning with half of their clothes on, smoking weed. LOVE THEM.

2017.09.17 Week 65 - Political candidates

It's just so great to be a missionary. I love it. It's the best job ever. I am very grateful for all the things I am learning out here serving the Lord, and I know that my life will NEVER be the same thanks to the fact that I have spent this little bit of time in Argentina.

These weeks have been great. The longest, fastest weeks EVER. I love my new companion and we get along extremely well. She helps me a lot. Her example really just teaches me a lot. For example...I have made my bed every day this transfer so far. That's kind of just a big step for me.

I have also never been so tired in my ENTIRE life, or my entire mission. I am just dead tired every single day. DEAD TIRED. But it is a very good tired, the kind that says, "You worked diligently all day."

This week we found some amazing people, who are definitely going to get baptized.

In other news, the ward here is just......interesting. Individually we have met lots of members who are just AWESOME and they are amazing examples as to how every member should act. And then there are others, who just so happen to be leaders, who are walking disasters. I am trying to learn to humble myself and accept that some people just really cannot be tamed.

Example:
This week "someone" in the ward invited a bunch of political candidates to come to sacrament meeting. When they arrived, halfway through the meeting, they were announced and called up to sit on the stand. UHHHH, WHAT THE HECK MAAN.

And then after sacrament meeting, all the missionaries from the ward were invited to a meeting where we were told that from now on this will be happening often and we will be expected to present them with a hard copy of the Book of Mormon and a framed Family Proclamation. I tried to humbly submit my opinion that it was not appropriate to have political candidates announced and sitting on the stand and that if we are going to give them fancy books and framed things, we should be doing it with EVERY visitor of the chapel. My words were somewhat rudely rejected and I left the meeting only slightly fuming. 

In the end, everything worked out and the stake president will be talking with these members because as it turns out it is completely inappropriate to do what they were doing. This just shows that even though we might not have all the rules and manuals memorized, the spirit will tell us if something is OK or not.

But in other news, I don't know how happy the bishopric will be to work with me in these coming months...pray for me.

LOVE YOU ALL, have a great time living your lives.

2017.09.04 Week 64 - A whitewash

Hi to all my fans. I am still alive. I changed areas today. I'm in Limay now. It's a pretty big city and I am pumped to work here. It was kind of hard to leave my last area because I really loved all the people there. It's pretty hard to believe how much you can come to love people in only 3 weeks. My new area is also going to be a whitewash. That just keeps up the record. Every transfer of my mission has been a whitewash. It's pretty nice, you can just show up and do whatever you want, you don't have to keep up with any disobedient traditions of the missionaries from before you. PUMPED.

Definition: WHITEWASH
Both of the missionaries from an area leave and two new missionaries arrive.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERY DAY, IT'S A HUGE BLESSING