¡Familia!
One of the highlights of the week was celebrating the holiday, 25 of May, which is the day of the Argentine Revolution. It’s a pretty big holiday so all of the businesses and stores were shut down for the day. The people celebrate by eating the traditional Argentine foods and by dancing the cultural dances. In the morning, we got together as a ward and celebrated by drinking the famous mate and enjoying treats. The Argentines are full of pride for their culture and they love to celebrate every chance they get.
This week we experienced a miracle. A few weeks ago, Elder Fernandez and I were knocking doors in a neighborhood we weren’t familiar with. We hadn’t really considered proselyting in that part of town, but on this particular morning, we were prompted to go there. We didn’t know why, but we followed the prompting and went. Apparently, as we were working, a young girl was watching us through her window and she wondered who we were and what we were doing. So, she looked us up on the internet. (It’s a good thing she didn’t think we were Jehovah’s Witnesses! LOL!) Through her internet search, she got in touch with a missionary in London who works online with people who want to know more about the Church. They chatted for a while and this girl, Agustina, was able to learn more about the Church. Then, out of nowhere, we received a text from the missionary in London who told us about Agustina and her desires to learn more about the Church
So, we got in contact with her and met her on Wednesday morning. She told the story of how she found us. On the morning we were working in her neighborhood, she saw us and she expected us to knock on her door but we didn’t. So, she did a Google search about us because she had been feeling like she needed to get closer to God and she thought we could help her. This desire made it easy for her to receive us. We met her and we were surprised because she received us so eagerly. Actually, she was very anxious for our visit. Agustina is 18 years old and is baptized in the Catholic Church. She is also a very smart girl. She plays volleyball and is about to start studying medicine in college. During our first visit, we just got to know her we talked for about 15 minutes. Then, on Friday night she came to a ward activity with us.
In order to join us, she even missed one of her volleyball games. She said, “I play every game and never leave the court so it’ll be nice for the other girls to play a little bit.” Hahaha.. During the activity, she opened up to us and told us that she wanted to feel closer to God. Many things have happened previously in her life that have prepared her to receive the gospel today, including the death of her father and an accident that nearly left her arm paralyzed. All of the members got to know her and they asked us, “Elders, how did you find this girl? She’s amazing!!” We just replied, “We didn’t do anything. She found us!”
On Sunday at church, she participated in all of the classes and continued to interact with the members she met on Friday night at the activity. She honestly looked like a long-time member. Then, after church, we walked with her to her house and she told us how much she liked the services and how comfortable she felt at church. “What do I have to do to be part of your religion?” she asked. So, we had a little chat about baptism and she said she wants to get prepared to be baptized soon. We really still haven’t had a legitimate sit-down lesson with her, but she is so golden. Like the scripture says in Alma 24:22, “Thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to salvation of His people.” The Lord truly works in mysterious and always completes his promises.
Perhaps the funniest part of our week occurred during a lesson we had with an older lady. We completed our second lesson with this investigator and at the end of it, we tried to set a baptismal date for her. However, she rejected it because she said that she wants to learn more about the Church and feel more comfortable with the teachings before she commits. We tried to explain that setting a date was just a goal, but she still rejected us and said, “So, you’re telling me that if I go on a date with a guy, after the second date I already have to sleep with him. Is that what you’re trying to say?” Oh, man! I was dying inside and couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. So, we said a quick prayer and just finished the lesson on that note. Older ladies certainly keep me on my toes!
With love,
Elder Roderick
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