Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Small in Number but Strong in Spirit


Holaaaaa!                                                                                                      
My first transfer in the field is in the books! What a great six weeks it has been and this week was another great one!
I thought the Ls were over on Monday, but I was wrong. We tried to replace the gas but the two of us gringos don’t know a ton about how to actually do that, so long story short, we ended up breaking a tube that went from the gas tank to the pipe. Dad always taught me “Righty Tighty” and “Lefty Loosey” but apparently that doesn’t work here in the ARG. On Tuesday, we tried to buy a new tube, but the store was closed so we weren’t able to replace it until Wednesday. It was a couple of long, cold days. Of course, the days without gas were the only days that it has rained here. So, it was great timing! It basically rained all of Tuesday and Wednesday and this really slowed us down because everyone lives so far away!
But, on Wednesday, a little miracle happened. We were able to find Daniel, an investigator we have been looking for since I arrived here. We were able to teach him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Literally, it was almost a miracle that we found him. He also has a wife and a daughter, so that is really exciting!! We ran into him two more times this weekend (Yes, after not seeing him for a month, we saw him three times in four days.) and he said he is excited to talk to us again. Yay! It feels so gratifying to see some rewards from our weeks of hard work!
The bad news of the week is that our man, Segundo, is going to visit his family in Buenos Aires for twenty days.  That means “Bye Bye” to his baptismal date. 
On Saturday, we attended our first baptism and it was amazing. It really was a great spiritual experience and I'm praying that a baptism can be ours soon too!  The lady who got baptized is a new mother and when we were singing and waiting for the crowd to come back to the chapel, she started to breast feed her baby right on the front row. I guess that’s one way to celebrate being baptized! But, in all seriousness, it was a great ceremony and an awesome spiritual experience.
In Sacrament Meeting this week, we had the opportunity to hear from the Bishop of the larger ward that we are a part of and he said something that really stood out to me. He said, “We had a few members who had the great opportunity to go to the temple!” (We are soooo lucky to have so many temples near us.) Then, the Bishop talked about their experience in the temple and about how strong the Spirit was. While looking at Elder Hyer and me, he said, “We don’t need a congregation of 300 to feel the spirit. Our 15 people in Salto de Las Rosas feel the exact same Spirt as a congregation of 300 in Salt Lake.” This comment really struck me. Of course, I miss the large P1 building with hundreds of people in Sacrament Meeting but the number of people in attendance doesn’t necessarily mean the Spirit is stronger there. Even with only 15 people in Sacrament Meeting each Sunday I’m so lucky to feel the same powerful feeling of the Spirit as I do in P1. Even though we are tiny in number, the strong Spirit will always strengthen us!!
After Sacrament  Meeting, I saw Santiago, who is a 21-year old member, pay his tithing and it was such a cool experience for me. Santiago doesn’t have much at all.  In fact, he has a bad family situation and as I watched him make the sacrifice to pay his tithing, I couldn’t help but think, “WHAT A STUD!” Obviously, paying tithing is a commandment, but it was really cool for me to witness Santiago’s sacrifice. 
With the enormous amounts of rain and our multiple trips downtown, the work was a little slower than we hoped this week, but we are lucky to have some investigators. We still struggle to get people to come to church and partake of the Sacrament, but that will come with time. I swear, each week we get closer and closer to getting more people to come to Sacrament Meeting, but that will happen real soon!!
My favorite scripture of the week is Alma 38:9.
“And now my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold he is the life and light of the world. Behold he is the word and truth and righteousness.”

Have a good week!

Elder Roderick

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