Hola!
Well, I have another week down in Salto and it was
a pretty good week! We started this week by having interviews with
President Goates. I really am so grateful to have a President who cares so much about me personally, one whom I can talk with about anything I want to.
When I met with him, I asked him about “losing myself in the work” and about how
I can put all my heart, might, mind and strength into the people who I come in
contact with. He gave me some really good advice about how to do that and it
was exciting to put it into play this week.
At the beginning of the week we had exchanges with
some other Elders and as always, it was really fun to be in a different area
where I could meet and talk with new people. During this particular exchange, I
was with Elder Aguilar who is from Arizona. He has only been in the mission for
a couple more months than I have, so our weak Spanish made it was a little interesting,
but it was still tons of fun. We actually worked in the area where the Hermanas
in our District are assigned. We did what is called a “white storm” which means
the whole Zone was there, just knocking on as many doors as we could for 2
hours. It was actually really fun, especially because we were all together.
Probably the most exciting part of the week was
joining with the Salto community to put in some serious work in the fields! One
of our members has a10-acre fruit and vegetable farm. His mom is very sick
right now so we jumped at the opportunity to help him. He actually makes a
tomato sauce out of his tomatoes and sells it so, he really needs his harvest to
pay for his living. We put in about 2.5 hours of work and it was truly
something I will never forget. We moved all kinds of dirt and fertilizer all
over the place. (I think they were homemade fertilizers because of the beautiful
smell.) To say the least, it was nothing like mowing the lawn or pulling some
weeds on 2350 Berkeley Street.
We were challenged this week when we had to push
back Carla’s baptismal date so she and Daniel can have more time think about
getting married. To be honest, I was pretty bummed about it but, this also
caused me to look back at the progress they have made since we started teaching
them. I’m trying to recognize the positive side of their situation and remind myself
that they have improved so much and truly are a stronger family.
One thing Elder Mena and I are trying to do right
now is strengthen the Salto Ward. Our Sacrament Meeting numbers haven’t been
looking too good lately so we talked with our members about helping us contact inactive
members and former investigators of the Church who still live relatively close.
Also, after sacrament meeting we had a council meeting with some of the
members. During this meeting, we made
appointments with them to go talk with other ward members. Our plan is to boost the ward a little bit by
getting ALL members to come to Sunday meetings. One thing I have really noticed
is how important the members are to missionary work. Truly, we need their help
to have success and I’m really hoping and praying we can gain their trust more
and strengthen them so we can strengthen the entire ward.
This coming week is the last week of the transfer,
which is crazy! It seems to be that Elder Mena and I will be separated soon,
which is sad. Even so, change is always
a good thing!
I hope all of you are enjoying the fresh powder up
in the mountains and skiing as much as possible for me while I am sweating my
bum off on the bike!
Paz
y Amor,
Elder
Roderick
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