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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