The Week of the 20s

Familia!                                                                                                                        

As I hit my 20-month mark in the mission and celebrated my 20^thbirthday, it was the week of the 20s. I realized I’m getting old in the mission and in life! There is a big difference between 19 and 20-years old. LoL! I still feel like just a kid. On Thursday, for my birthday, we had lunch with one of my favorite families and we ate one of my favorite Argentine plates.  Then, we had a regular day with appointments all afternoon but we bought an ice cream cake so we could celebrate a little bit. It was an awesome birthday! 

This week was a great one here in San Miguel. We are teaching a ton and it feels like we are always in a hurry and running around the neighborhoods just doing our thing. On Saturday, our boy, Alejandro, was baptized! We had a few problems at the last moment, but everything turned out well.  The young men in the ward welcomed him into their circle with open arms and they basically did everything in the baptismal service.  One of the counselors in the Young Men presidency baptized him and two youth gave talks.  Then, on Sunday, the Young Men president confirmed him.  It truly was beautiful and the Spirit was so strong during the ordinations. Also, a couple of his family members were able to support Alejandro this weekend so, we were happy to see that happen. Whenever there is a baptism it adds some excitement to the ward so we are hoping to keep this baptism train going!

We also did a bunch of service this week, which included some construction work. Basically, every morning we got our hands dirty then we ate lunch and spent the afternoon running to all of our appointments. A tired missionary = a happy missionary. 

            We are still teaching our good friend, Ivanna, who asked us to teach her English.  She has turned into one of our most promising investigators. She is so eager to learn more and she loves everything we give her. She calls us her “little children” and whenever we are in her home, she treats us like kings.  She gives us tons of food and she even spoiled me a little bit on my birthday.  The only thing that is difficult about Ivanna is that she has been a Catholic all of her life and it’s tough to make a big change in religion.  Actually, we are teaching a couple of families who are so ready to receive the Restored Gospel but they also practice another religion and it’s difficult to make such a big change.  We’ve learned, however, that the best thing we can do is trust in Moroni’s Promise and pray that these people can take a leap of faith and open their hearts to receive an answer about the truthfulness of the Gospel!

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Roderick