A Letter by Candlelight

Hola!                                                                                                                           

One of my favorite things about the area of Villa Krause is that there are tons of food trucks on the big streets and almost every night, on our way back to our pench, there is a big chorizo waiting for me.

            This week we saw a lot of changes in our mission schedule.  In the past, our schedule has been to study for a bit in the morning and start working by 9:30 a.m.  Then, we’d come back to the pench after lunch to finish our studies and leave again at 4:30 p.m.  Here in Argentina, the siesta is the time right after lunch where, legit, everything closes and it’s time given to the people so they can take a nap in the afternoon.  Our new schedule requires us to complete all of our studies in the morning and then go to lunch with a member and then work until it’s time to go back home at 9:30 p.m. The other big change is that now we can 

drink the famous Argentine drink, mate, so we’re pretty 

pumped about that.  Change is always good and we’ve 

seen a lot of changes with our new president. 

            During the last week, we found ourselves with a couple of people who have some special needs.  All in one week we taught a blind man, tried to communicate with another man who is deaf and two more people who don’t know how to read.  Each one was a very humbling experience because they made me realize how lucky I am.  Through sign language, we were able to communicate with Sebastian, who is deaf.  We were able to communicate with him for a while and he wanted to buy us something to eat.

            We taught Humberto a couple times this week and our lessons were awesome.  Two weeks ago, Humberto approached us on the street because he was familiar with the church and he had contact with the missionaries a few years ago.  Like a lot of people in Argentina, he thought that Joseph Smith is our God.  So, we helped him understand what we actually believe and straighten out his presumptions.  His new understanding of the truth has increased his interest in our message and he wants to get baptized soon. When Sunday rolled around, he was able to get more familiar with the church as he sat with us during the classes and Sacrament Meeting.  The best part about his church attendance was that the members received him so well and Humberto felt very comfortable in the chapel!

            This is short letter this week.  We haven’t had any power this weekend and my candle is about to die out. Haha!

I love you,

Elder Roderick

ZERO Respect and Prepared Investigators

Familia,                                                                                                           

Well, this week was actually a pretty awesome one. It seemed like every day something crazy happened.  First of all, I’ll start with the big L of the week. I was chilling in a lesson, just doing my thing, and like every family here in Argentina, the family we were teaching had five dogs. I’m pretty used to dogs running all over the place, so this was nothing new.  We were sharing a lesson and a dog started sniffing my feet and as I reached down to give it some love, without even hesitating, it marked its territory by peeing on my scripture bag.  All I was doing was trying to preach the good word of the gospel and the dog gave me ZERO respect. But, that family ended up accepting our baptismal invitation, so that made things a little bit better.

            This week we also had some more great lessons with Rozanne and Marcelo.  Every time we are in their home, it feels like there is a special spirit present.  It truly feels like they have been prepared to receive our message because all of their interest in other churches and doubts about God are finally being erased.  One of the coolest things we saw this week happened when we were approaching their house for a lesson. We saw their nineteen-year old daughter reading the Book of Mormon outside.  My companion and I saw her, then we just stopped for a second to soak in what we were seeing.  It was pretty awesome! Every time we walk out of their house it really feels like I’m walking on Cloud 9 because the Spirit is always so strong.

            We also made another homie this week.  Luciano approached us and talked to us; instead of us doing the work and approaching him.  He is twenty-four years old and to be honest, he has had a pretty rough life because he has basically grown up on the streets.  He approached us one morning because he wants to become closer to God and eventually leave the life that he knows.  We actually had a really good conversation about repentance and we taught him that the best way to truly repent is to get baptized.  He immediately accepted the invitation because he basically just wants to start a new life. He hasn’t had a family to push him a long and give him expectations. Despite this difficult lifestyle, Luciano is such a stud. He told us that the other day something just clicked in his mind and he realized that there is so much more out there in the world for him.  I just pray that Luciano can progress toward baptism so he truly can leave his difficult life behind.  

            We had the awesome opportunity this weekend to hear from Ronald A. Rasband, as well as a couple of Seventies.  One of the coolest things about being far from home is being able to hear and receive support and love from the church leaders who are in charge of the South America South Region. The Church is literally all over the world and it’s so cool to see how much the church leaders love every member in world and to witness how much they sacrifice to help us.  Of course, in Salt Lake, we have the church headquarters fifteen minutes from our house, but this weekend, when I was thousands of miles from home, I felt like I was home because it was broadcast from Salt Lake.  LOL!

            One thing I started to do this week, while I’m reading the Book of Mormon, is look for all of the times that Christ is mentioned and mark all of the different names Christ is given. I’m also marking all of the remarkable things He did on the earth.  It’s amazing to see how much the people in the Book of Mormon knew about Christ and His life before He was even born.  The Book of Mormon truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.

            Happy Birthday shout out on Sunday to Princess Emily and Big Marv who is killin’ it across the ocean in London.  Go UTES!!

Elder Roderick

"Washing" and a Clothesline

Hola!                                                                                                                 

One thing I will always remember about Argentina is the number of holidays the people celebrate. Yesterday they celebrated “Dia del Niño” or “Kid Day.”  Apparently, it’s the biggest holiday, after Christmas, and all of the kids receive tons of presents and there are tons of parties. Another thing I’ve learned about Argentina is that at every big city plaza there is a Catholic church on the corner.  The Catholic church and the Argentine government have an agreement to do this.  Legit, there are Catholic churches everywhere!

            To be honest, this week was a long and exhausting one. Every night when we returned to our pench, I was dead but I’ve learned to love this feeling.  I keep telling my companion that a mission is two years without sleep. We had a full week of trying to avoid getting lost and trying to get to know everyone in the ward. We walked a ton but we made a lot of progress.  “Washing” the area has actually been harder that I thought, but at least we didn’t get lost.

            Well, I took another L this week.  Behind our pench we have a nice strip of grass where I’ve started to do my exercises.  One morning, I was doing some sprints behind our apartment in this strip and it was about 7:45. The sun wasn’t completely up yet it so, it was still a little dark.  I was running and without even realizing it, I ran right into the neighbor’s clothesline. Legit! I almost clotheslined myself!  Then, I was slowing down to see what I just hit, and another clothesline came out of nowhere and nailed me right in the face again. It cut my mouth pretty bad. To be honest, this was one of the biggest Ls I’ve taken so far on my mission.

            This week as we were getting to know the area we set the goal as a companionship to talk to as many people as possible, so we talked to everybody we saw.  It was actually really fun because I put on the act of the “lost gringo” and pretended like I was totally lost. I approached people to ask them where a street was and then turned the conversation to the church. One morning we saw a lady sweeping off her porch so, we went to help her and we talked with her for a while.  She was such a nice lady and we set an appointment to come back and talk to her whole family.  We went back later that night and met Roxanne and Marcelo who told us that they received lessons from the missionaries about four years ago, but when the missionaries were taken out of the area, they lost contact with them. As we were getting to know them, they told us about some recent problems they’ve had and they told us that we had come to them at the perfect time to help them.  As they were telling what they had been going through in their life, I came to admire their faith.  They know God has a plan for them! It’s just amazing how the Lord puts people in your path and prepares them to hear the message of the Restoration.

We are also teaching a young girl named Emily, who happens to be the first person I’ve met in Argentina with the same name as my Princess Emily.  She is the daughter of a less-active family and she hasn’t been baptized, due to the lack of permission from her dad. Emily has a grandma who has always been firm in the church and so it’s really nice to have her grandma join our lessons because she is supportive and guides Emily along. Our lessons are usually filled with grandkids and the grandma does most of the teaching, with just a little help from us.  I’ve learned to love working with the less-actives because they always have specific needs and when the missionaries come over, it’s a great way to get the whole family together.

            I love this area of Villa Krause and as I met the members on Sunday, they gave us a warm welcome and made us feel right at home.

I love you!

Elder Roderick

Farewell General Alvear

                                                                                                           

Hola! 

          Well… I’m not in General Alvear anymore. The big news of the week is that I got transferred. Elder Ramos and I are now in San Juan, in the city, Villa Krause. We had a nice travel of about 8 hours yesterday that kind of killed me. Haha!  I was pretty surprised about the transfer but this providence of San Juan is known as the “Zion” of the mission where people are just a lot more receptive to the gospel.  As well, the weather is pretty nice in Villa Krawse right now. But in the summer, it gets up to about 110 so, we’ll see how that goes.

Like always, it was really tough to leave all of the members, investigators, and friends I made in Alvear. That city was actually such a fun city to be in. The people were amazing and I made so many good friends! I’m grateful for the time I spent there.

On Monday, we had a lesson with a family who, after a long fight with an illness, lost their daughter about 3 years ago. During the lesson, they told us about the story of their daughter’s illness and how they literally lost everything when she died. The family feels like they literally lost everything when she died because they were praying so hard and waiting for a miracle but then nothing happened and she died. It was actually such a sad lesson because they lost so much when she died. They lost their faith and don’t believe in anything anymore. I was just sitting there trying to think of what I could say to this family and it made me realize how grateful I am for the Plan of Salvation and the comfort that the plan gives us! We don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow but God really has a plan for every single one of us. I know this!

This email is a short one because I’m busy but, I’m really excited to be here in my new area, a great providence of the mission! 

 

I love you!

Elder Roderick