The LONG Bus Ride

Hola!                                                                                                                   

The Elders of Villa Mercedes

The big news of the week is that we had transfers again! It literally feels like I just arrived in 25 de Mayo. I'm going to be staying here for at least another transfer and I will be with Elder Prestes from Uruguay. Another Latin! Yay for the Spanish 24/7! Elder Prestes was Elder Fredrick's companion and Elder Fredrick loved him so I'm very excited. Of course, I'm stoked to stay here in 25 de Mayo as well. I'm a little bummed to see Elder Martinez go because we were working so well together but everything will work out.

            We had a bit of an interesting week. On Thursday night, we received a text from President Goates saying that we needed to be in Mendoza ASAP. To be honest, this freaked me out! I literally had no idea what had happened and I freaked myself out by thinking of all the possibilities. I always get so worried about that kind of stuff.  I even took an Ambien on Thursday night so I could sleep! So, we headed to Mendoza on Friday and the bus ride was almost six hours long so we didn't get to Mendoza in time to talk to President that night. We had to wait until the morning.  We were finally able to talk to him on Saturday morning and basically what happened was someone in Villa Mercedes was spreading a rumor about Elder Martinez and President Goates heard about it and called us in to talk about it.  It ended up not being a big deal and we were able to work out everything.  After the interview, we had a few hours to kill in Mendoza before our bus ride back to Villa Mercedes so Elder Martinez and I were tourists for a couple of hours.  Later that night we headed back to Villa Mercedes, another 5 1/2 hours in the bus.

            The bad part about our trip to Mendoza is that we lost the really important days of the week. It was frustrating to have to cancel all of the appointments we had planned.  But, we'll be alright!

            This week we were able to catch up with our friend, Luis, who is engaged to one of the members of our ward. As soon as they were engaged we were at their door, ready to teach Luis. They are awesome people and I made a really quick to connection with his fiancé with the piano. S/O to Kimberly Baker Music Studio! We've been teaching Luis for a while but he can't really progress because they are living together right now. When we are teaching him, it really just feels like we are talking to a member because he is so knowledgeable about the Church and he's so receptive to our message.  The good thing is, they will be married in April and then they're taking a long honeymoon trip to Hong Kong, China.  Yes! An Argentine couple in China! It's interesting, but pretty cool.

The Elders come bearing: OFF Bug Repellent and a BoM!

            One night this week we had a short Family Home Evening with the Family Sanchez. We have to plan everything out with them very well in advance so we can get their entire family involved. They are still going through a rough patch in life right now because the dad is still looking for work and the parents are frustrated with Pedro and their other kids because of their failure to study in the summer. We talked a lot with them about how they can resolve this problem. We are praying that this weekend we can get Pedro and his younger brother, Francisco, in the waters of baptism but we are going to have to work with their parents.  They are very supportive of us being with their kids and we have a good relationship with them but when we brought up the subject of baptism, they were a little hesitant. So, this week we will be working with the parents to help them understand that the Church can benefit their kids.  It might be a little tough, but everything will work out.

            Earlier in the week we did some "Opening the Mouth" but instead of just knocking doors we talked to a lot of people in the bread shops and little kiosks because it's easier to make a connection that way.  It ended up being really fun and I even found a couple of English speakers along the way!

            The work was a little slower this week but it was still a great week and we are seeing some great progress!  I'm praying we get Pedro and Francisco in the water this weekend, so please put them in your prayers as well.

Have a great week!

Elder Roderick

Not Invited to the Dance

This week was one where the days were long and hot but full of work so, it flew by! 

I learned a couple of things about Argentina this week.  First, never ask anyone about the Falcon Islands, which are at the bottom of the country, because you will be lectured for thirty minutes about "what really happened" in the war with England.  I also learned that in some cemeteries the caskets are put into little rooms where, through a window, you can see the caskets which are full of dead people.  This was a pretty scary discovery for me.  While we were walking through a cemetery this week, I had the creeps!

            As far as the work goes, we had a busy week. We have a decent pool of investigators right now and it is so gratifying to see them progress in their special ways. For some, it’s trying to pray and read the scriptures, while for others, it’s trying to quit smoking or drinking. Each person we come in contact with has their unique need, so this requires us to be on top of our game to first, identify the need and second, to help find a solution. This is what missionary work is all about!

            We were able to fix baptism dates for our boys, Pedro and Francisco, who are the grandsons of a menos activo we've been teaching. We are teaching the boys' parents and other brother but since Pedro and Francisco are always at their grandma's house, we've been able to teach them on a more consistent basis. Both boys are such studs, but like all teenagers during the summer months, they like to do whatever they want. Sometimes we have to whip them into shape and remind them that they can't just play soccer all day, everyday. We've taught them all of the missionary lessons and they have relationships with the ward members so their future as members looks promising. I'm pumped for them! This week they asked us what they need to do in order to pass the sacrament and I thought that was the coolest thing! 

            This weekend our ward had a youth dance with the other ward in Villa Mercedes.  Since I'm still 18 years-old and technically the age of a "young man" I tried all week long to convince the leaders that I should allowed to attend the dance, but it didn't work.  I guess my Spanish isn't clear enough so I'm not too convincing. Even so, the dance was a success for us because a couple of our investigators attended and they had a blast which makes our job as missionaries so much easier. Instead of searching for friends within the Church for our investigators, they are already there... just waiting on the dance floor.  LOL!

            One of the bummer parts of the week was getting a text from one of the families we are teaching telling us that they aren't in the position to receive us anymore. This was so disappointing because we had a couple of awesome lessons with them and they had tons of questions for us.  I realize, however, that his is just the process as a missionary. Everyone has their agency and it's a tough lesson to accept sometimes.

            A few weeks ago, during our weekly planning session, we went through our phone and called a bunch of people in our contacts who we didn't know.  We did this to see if we could find more people to teach. One of the people we contacted was Leila.  Leila is 22 years-old and she received the sister missionaries a while ago but she doesn't remember much about what they taught her.  She works a ton so she's hard to meet with but we had a pretty cool lesson with her this week.  She had some bad things happen with her marriage and now she is in the process of getting a divorce. Consequently, she's asking a lot of "why?" questions right now.  In our lessons, she grills us with questions and gives us "homework" for the next lesson.  Sometimes she’s a real tough cookie to crack but she's very receptive to our message and after we taught her about the Word of Wisdom, she even stopped smoking. She's looking for something more in her life and let's just hope we have it for her.

            We were also able to teach Nano (yes, like IPod Nano) again, the boyfriend of one of our young women. Like me, he was disappointed that he couldn't go to the dance on Friday night. While teaching him this week, we learned that his mom is a member of the Church. She was baptized when she was 18 years-old but when she moved from Mendoza, she stopped attending church. We were so excited to hear this!  Now, we've just got to find this lady so we can reactivate her while teaching Nano. Nano is such a stud!  He's started to play soccer with us on P-Days and while we play, he makes me look like an absolute fool. He has also been attending church with us every Sunday, so the future is BRIGHT for him!

            I hope everyone enjoyed Valentine’s Day with all the lovey dovey stuff.  I sure missed not attending Highland High on Valentine’s Day because I always looked forward to seeing the life-size teddy bears all over the place! 

            Also, our bishop showed us the video of the MoTab singing "America the Beautiful" at the inauguration of Donald Trump and that was way sick! “SO” to the MoTab!

            Keep it real and have a great week,

            Elder Roderick