First for the questions from Mom. (I asked about the pictures he sent. The one with the big gorilla is in the bowling alley, actually it is in a place called COTO which is basically an argentine mix between a mall and Wal-Mart. The family if I remember correctly is la familia De Los Santos and they are a part member, part active family. The picture is from the birthday of one of their sons, they are starting to come to more church things though, not just the daughter, who is the most active. The lady and son are the Bulacios and are less actives, well soon to be actives. They are the ones that I talked about that she felt something was missing in her life. The lady that I felt we were supposed to find told us that due to something elders had said 15 years ago no one in her family wanted anything to do with the church anymore, and told us that we couldn’t teach her because her family didn’t want that. So maybe I was just supposed to learn that I need to watch what I say, the Elders said it in English thinking no one would understand but one of the granddaughters knew English. I have heard several sad stories like this. Those people just need to read the talk of Elder Uchtdorf though, I want to print that one out and give it to a few less actives that don’t want to go debido the members. On Tuesday we did an exchanges and that was fun. I went to the area of El Faro and found out that I really am in a pretty nice part of my mission haha. When I returned on Wednesday we went to talk to a family that the daughter is a recent convert, the dad doesn’t have much interest and the mother is just waiting for a marriage paper to get baptized (she already pays tithing and everything). We got there and the mom and daughter are having some major issues, mostly the daughter wants to do what she wants to do and doesn’t like that the mom is always calling her and bugging her about what she is doing and worrying about her (being a mom). Does that sound familiar? It was pretty bad though and we just sat there in silence as they fought and don’t know if we really offered much help. It shook me up pretty bad, really bad actually. The daughter doesn’t want to live there anymore and from other stuff we have seen it is obvious that she is not doing what she should be right now. I care about these people and don’t want to see their family destroyed, but all I can do is pray and hope for the best. We had a meeting for the trainers and new missionaries and that was really good and also kind of fun because I got to see my buddies from the MTC and those that I flew down with. They are all doing well and some of them have already participated in baptisms. I survived my first transfer!!!! Elder Aldana left and I’m going to be training and the new district leader! haha just kidding, not quite ready for that yet we are both staying here but Elder Juarez left today. He was a good Elder and I will miss him, but we got Elder Godoy de Uruguay I believe. He seems pretty sharp and we’ll see how things go. Cultural side note they have this stuff here call Dulce de Leche which is kind of like carmel but better, I have a big tub of the stuff and sometimes will just eat it plain. (And you wonder why I’m so fat). It is really good and I enjoy it. We had a home evening on Friday with the Ward and it was interesting that we brought as many less actives and investigators as there were active members there! That went really well though and we are starting to work a little better with the Ward. General Conference!!!!! Era re bueno, re re bueno! (It was very good, very, very good!) I missed some talks due to get there late or problems we had with the computer. The very first session I had to watch in castellano (Spanish) and it was good. Be glad that you all know English because it is way better in English, you can still get the message but a lot of the expression, voice inflection, and emotion is lost in the translation. For those I missed we will get a Liahona in English with the talks soon enough Yoo Hoo. You probably already knew I was going to mention it but look up Elder Ballard’s talk again. That was the ultimate member and missionary talk. He just dropped the cane on everybody, but in a very nice way. Elder Dodge and I were in the office watching it in English on the computer and when it started we were like "YEAH listen members” but then we were like "Oops we aren’t free of your fire" He said something to the effect of trying to do what Jesus Christ would want you to do... boom dagger to the heart haha. We had a lot of fun watching it in that little room Elder Dodge and I. We brought a new investigator Luisa to the first session on Sunday and had a short lesson with her about prophets before the session. She is 65, single and a little crazy. She said she wants to come to church all the time and says that the Lord sent us to her. She is very sweet but a little absent minded. She has a date to be baptized the 26 of October and hopefully she can reach it. The problem with her is going to be making sure that she really understands what we are teaching her, I’m sure that she will accept whatever we throw at her but we need to make sure that she really understands, so we are going to have to take things really slow in the lessons. She also believes in all the saints and when Elder Oaks was dropping the cane on no other gods before me I was like "ooh hope she takes that alright..." but I don’t even know if she realized what he said, we will see this week if all her saints are in the garbage. We are having fun and find time to laugh. I am going to try and look more on the bright side of things. Elder Scotts talk was really cool and I need to read that one like 20 times before I really think I can get the full meaning of it. I got a letter from Adam today and it was dated back in August, Whoo what has changed since then! It was nice to "hear" from him even though everything is probably already obsolete. If you could find out his missionary email for me that would be great. Probably just Adam.chappell but who knows. The name of the french man is brother cope or different spelling. Is Cheryl still coming? I think about the Glenview Ward often. May God bless you and I am glad you all have goals. The most important thing after learning what you need to improve is a plan of action Ether 12:27.
Con Mucho amor,
Elder Andrew
I can’t wear the name Benjamin right now but I am more than proud to wear the name Andrew, and more important the precious name of the Savior.
