November 14, 2011  Tartagal  Argentina

Hola!

Si quires, puedo escribir un poco en epañol ;) 

This week was really good!

We had to look for a moving truck type thing to use this week to go to an area an hour away from ours where the missionaries got taken out of. We have to bring all of the stuff to our place until they open up a new area soon near us. It is kind of hard to put off visits to do this because it seems so unproductive but I guess if they don’t get the stuff out the owners might steal and sell it... Anyways we will probably go do that Wednesday early morning.

We got a reference this week and most houses don’t have addresses on them so we have to do a bit of looking on the street and talk to other people to find them. We asked a little store/house since they usually know all the neighbors. She told us where the house was and when we went there nobody was there. We decided to knock beside it to see if it really was the house and to talk to the neighbor. A lot of times when we get references we knock on the doors around it and actually find the person who really needed us to come visit. This was partly the case this time. I said hi and asked if she knew the person we were looking for and she said "No hablo ingles..." I replied saying that I was speaking Spanish and she said "oh...Bueno, que necesitan?" It was pretty funny and I am not sure why she said that but I think she was just not listening well while being surprised to see two gringos outside. Ha-ha! Anyways she said she never accepts strangers and never listens to missionaries or goes to church because she didn’t see the need of a church. We asked if we could enter and explain the need for a church. Everyone has fences and most of the time we visit right outside the houses for safety reasons and so they can feel comfortable since people are passing by. She said "well, I guess it is about time I start listening to these things. She let us come in and talk and it was really good. She had a baby 15 days before and had alot of interest in the restoration of the church and how it was answering her questions. She also said her mother-in-law was down from Bolivia to see the baby and had been looking for the church since she was a member! Her mother-in-law was selling peach juice around the corner by the bus station so after visiting we went to find her. There were a bunch of people selling all sorts of foods and we were looking around when we heard " ELDERS! ELDERS!" We knew it was her. She asked and explained a bit about the family and gave us some really good juice! She said she would try to bring her daughter in-law Sunday. She came but her daughter-in-law didn’t make it so we have to go back now and visit her. She was so excited and a very nice old lady! The church is doing very well in Bolivia which is where she is from and you can just see why. She just showed love for everyone at church and was so happy to be there. 

This week we also had to go to Salta (the city) a few minutes out of my old area for a meeting with every missionary in the mission(250?). D Todd Christofferson, Elder Arnold(?)(president of the South America South area)who has giving some great talks at general conferences, Elder Jensen president of the seventies(?) and their wives were there. We got to ask questions and have them answer them for us! It was really cool. I never got to ask a question but the ones that did were really good and one of them I had asked the mission president a while back! So I got another answer! It was how we can improve our prayers and the missionary threw in - so we can pray like an apostle :). Basically he said to listen more and give more gratitude. Gratitude brings the spirit into our prayers so that we can receive more answers. He said to be very specific though in doing so. Not just “thank you for everything".

Another one was how we can have faith like the prophets. Elder Arnold mentioned the seed spoken of in Alma and how our studies are what makes that seed grow. Study, study, study, (the scriptures) to help our faith grow. 

We left for this conference at 1:30 in the morning Saturday and got there at 7:30. It started at 8:30 and we left Salta again at 12:30. We got back about 6:30 and went back out to work... it was a hot little bus ride of only missionaries with every seat filled for most of the trip so we only got a few winks of sleep. Before we left to go to Salta, we were getting ready polishing shoes and getting things ironed and showering so we didn’t get any sleep before leaving. I haven’t been so tired for along time! 

I taught the law of chastity in the class Sunday which was a little tricky since some of the investigators aren’t married and have kids. It went pretty well for the amount of preparation I had. The people seemed to like it. I am amazed that I am doing this now because I was always pretty nervous to teach a class. I am not very nervous at all now aside from the touchy topics :) ha-ha             

Anyways I love you all so much and hope things are going well at home! I have to get going.

 I lost my other plaque... so I am using the one I have that says Oczkktnicz. Ha-ha Waiting on some more now. We’ll see how they turn out! 

Love Alex!