Dos
Años en Argentina
Aug. 31, 2015
Well this week has been another good one and it is crazy to think that
Matthew is almost in the mission field! What a great blessing, I have been
thinking a lot about the blessing that it is to be a missionary and I am so
grateful for the opportunity given to come back!
Monday- We did the normal stuff of cleaning
and buying and then taught two lessons! One was with a new investigator that we
were pretty excited about but then when we called her on Saturday to set up another appointment she said
she wasn't interested.... I think she is just too liberal, but it isn't over
yet, the Lord can still work a change in her heart!
Tuesday- We did some work in the offices in
the morning. We ate lunch with a member and that was good. He is a little guy
that has about 60 years and was really into martial arts so he is still in good
shape, so after lunch he picked me up just to see if he could do it. and sure
enough he could! Then we tried to do visits and get to know people with no luck,
at 7 we had an appointment with active members to get to know them, share a
spiritual thought and see if we could help them with sharing the gospel. They
in kind of a prideful way told us they had already tried sharing the gospel and
it just wasn't the greatest visit. I think we should always take the
invitations from representatives of the church seriously and really look for a
way to get better even if we are already doing what they are asking us to do.
Oh well, it just was kind of a weird visit.
Wednesday- We had the zone conference in
Banfield. It went okay but there just wasn't that much participation and
well... it was just okay. To answer your question, Mom, we do zone conferences on Wednesday and Friday and that
is because President wants us to have the full day of Tuesday and Thursday to
work! What a great president! It was also Brenda's birthday that day so shout
out to my sista! We also met with two sisters that are inactive but want to
come back to church! We had to call 10 hermanos to finally get one to come to
the visit with us but it paid off and was a good visit!
Thursday- In the morning we had a training on
how to use family search, I feel like an expert since I did that service
mission haha. We had lunch and then helped our ward mission leader make a ward
mission plan to present in the ward council. Hopefully this will help the work
to keep going forward! After we took some time to do weekly planning, that is
the first time I have been able to do that since being assistant! So it helps to
look at what you want to get accomplished. Then we went an taught Paula with
our ward mission leader and that went fairly well. She is doing good and
staying strong, Maria, her daughter, was feeling sick so couldn't be in the
visit with us. Also, it marked the day of two years since I got to Argentina!!!!
How crazy is that and to think about how much I've learned and how much I've
changed since that first day in Argentina.
It is pretty incredible to me and is quite a blessing.
Friday- We had the zone conference in
Gonzalez Catan and it went really well. We even got Subway for lunch! After the
conference I stayed with Elder Sepulveda de Chile to do an intercambio. He is a
really powerful elder who just this Monday completed two years since he was
baptized a member of the church. Some of these converts really impress me with
their faithfulness and really the level of gospel knowledge that they obtain so
quickly. It is amazing how the Lord calls who He needs for the work. Just think
of Paul who would have thought from looking at his history that he would become
one of the greatest missionaries of all time! What a miracle the atonement is! We
had fun going around in his area (Gonzalez Catan is the most dangerous part of
the mission haha) and stopped by some investigators to confirm a visit for the
next day. They let us come in so we decided to just shared a quick scripture
and then teach a full lesson the next day. Elder Sepulveda turned to me and
asked what scripture I wanted to share and so I thought of 1 Nephi chapter 21
where it quotes Isaiah and talks about having us marked into the Savior's
hands. The wife started crying a little when we were talking and reading and so
we asked her why she was getting emotional, and she said she didn't want
anything more to do with churches but in the morning had said a prayer to God
asking Him a question and felt like He talked to her and answered her question.
It was a special experience. We talked a lot to each other about the blessing
that it is to be a missionary and it was really motivating.
Saturday- We finished the intercambio with a
service in the morning of helping build a concrete roof (pesado!) and a few
visits. It was a really good intercambio and motivated me to work even harder
even though things aren't going as well as we would like them to in our area.
Sunday- We had a special stake conference
from the area! So we got a satellite transmission and got to hear the area
president Elder Walter F Gonzalez along with other general authorities as well
as Elder Cook and Elder Hales! How cool is that! They talked a lot about
missionary work and the Sabbath day observance. Paula was in attendance and
said she really liked it! She also is sharing the gospel with her sister who
lives in a different area and last night they had their first lesson with her
and her family! What a capa Paula! Already a member missionary!
I love you all very much and hope you enjoy these last couple
days with boy Matthew, because the next time we see him he will be man Matthew.
What a blessing it is to serve as a full time missionary!!!
Love,
Elder Andrew
