Friday, October 21, 2016

Makin' Progress but Still Takin' Ls

Hola Familia,                                                                                                       
Wow!  What a week it was here in Salto. We started off the week with exchanges and it was a great experience for me. Elder Hyer and I joined Elder Toone and Elder Transtrum in Parque Molino.  Oh my gosh! We walked so much. It made me miss the bikes. It is really starting to get hot here and after a full day of walking, I was dying. Parque Molino is very different from Salto; with big full neighborhoods and tons of people in the street, which made walking around so much more fun. We met with a lot of less actives and and it was so fun to meet new people and see new places!
Back in Salto we had a great week; probably our best yet. We were able to find Segundo on Friday and we had a great lesson with him about the Plan of Salvation. Some things kind of confused him so we simplified it as much as possible and we could tell he was really feeling something. At the end of the lesson we extended a baptismal invitation and he accepted!! Yay!! This was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had so far. He is the perfect candidate to be baptized. So, hopefully we can get him ready and he can see the light!
The rides to and from Segundo´s house were pretty grueling because of the heat and we even had to go back to his neighborhood twice in one day to follow up with a previous contact, a lady name Delis who is really sweet. Like most Argentines, she believes in Christ and says she has a lot of faith so hopefully we can help her strengthen that faith! I was so dead after that long day of biking but the success we had was so worth it!
Saturday was an adventure! Oh my gosh! It rained pretty hard in the afternoon and all of the roads were very muddy and it´s impossible to ride bikes in mud. Unfortunately, our appointments were far away so we had to walk and it took forever. We were literally in the middle of nowhere but, it was soooo pretty. Everything was really green and there were tons of trees. It was awesome. We visited a recent covert who is really old and can’t come to church and then we went to visit a less active couple to invite them to church. Both were great meetings. When we were walking back we could see lightning from multiple directions and then we felt a couple raindrops. Then, before we knew it, it was hailing on us! It was raining sideways and we still had 30 minutes to walk so let´s just say we took so many Ls. Everything about us was absolutely soaked: all of our clothes & shoes and all of our books. It was pretty miserable. We walked into the store to buy some food and we looked like a couple of hungry homeless people. It was bad! Then, we walked into our pench to find out that our gas had run out. We were wet, cold, hungry, and didn’t have any way to cook the food we bought. SO MANY Ls!!
Sunday was Mother’s Day here in the ARG and I thought this would mean a lot of people would attend church, but it was the opposite.  Of course, the people we met with said they would come, but they never showed up, including all of our investigators. It can be really discouraging when only nine people attend Sacrament Meeting but that number will be going up soon!
After church, we had to find a way to cook our meat without gas and we were able to find some wet wood. It was nearly impossible to start a fire but it ended up working out and our meal was nothing short of gourmet! I have running water, a roof over my head and a bed, so I have nothing to complain about!
This week was a big improvement from our last couple weeks and we saw a couple of our prayers answered. Experiences like that make all the bad days and weeks so worth it. Like always, we still need to find more investigators but the work is slowly progressing. Patience is a virtue!
Again, I learned so much this week and I had some unforgettable experiences. Each night when I arrive back at the pench, I am so exhausted and I always sleep like a baby. But, that is such a good feeling. My Spanish is slowly coming along and although it really tests me sometimes, I’m learning to have fun with it!
This week I read in Alma 13 and I really loved verse 28: “But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord and call on His holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus he led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and long suffering,” I love this scripture and it really touched me when I read it!  Hope you guys have a great week!!

Elder Roderick
 

We went to Valle Grande today and it was so fun! It looks a ton like Zions and Lake Powell and it me a little homesick but, it was soooo pretty!!

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