Hola familia!
How are you! I am doing great! My companion is pretty much the same which
means he is basically my shadow. He
doesn’t speak, doesn’t get involved in lessons or answer questions, and doesn’t
want to be a missionary. At least he is
willing to follow me around like a shadow so I can do all I can to further the
work. He finally told me why he chose to
serve a mission; it was for economic improvement. He said, “It is a pay raise from where he was
living and working; and he just wants to take it easy and make some friends.” We had a super great Easter week! They don’t really celebrate Easter here, so it
was basically a normal week. I had a fun
Sunday celebrating Easter on my own. That’s
okay, I can have a party for one! Attitude is everything, right? ha-ha
Monday
We had a great p-day because we had divisions with elders from
another area. It was the day before everyone leaves for
transfers so we helped them pack and helped them go to the terminal to catch
their busses. It was nice to talk to
them and help them out. In the evening,
we passed for an investigator and watched one of the Church’s 12-step addiction
recovery videos. It was very good, and the investigators told us that they
really wanted to quit because they felt it was negatively affecting their
family life. That was a huge step for
them! Because the first step to come
closer to Christ is deciding you want to!
Tuesday
We had a great day. We
contacted all day to try to get more investigators and obviously invite more to
come unto Christ. We talked to two new
families. One family’s kids wanted to
read the whole pamphlet during our lesson; they would pause at all the question
marks and wait for us to respond to the question. It was super great because it seemed as if they
were interviewing us. I just waited until
they asked me the questions then chimed in. It was great!
We hope to teach both families again next week! In the evening, we played football (soccer) with
the young men! They all brought their
friends who were not members and the leaders said if they want to play they must
let us missionaries pass to their houses.
So now we have a lot of citas for the coming week! Awesome!
Wednesday
We taught the old man who told us last week that he wanted to be
baptized. He has some things to overcome
before he will be ready to enter the baptismal water. He is progressing and is about 80 years old. After our lesson, he asked if we know any
single woman that are looking for “a husband that has it all”. Ha-ha way too
funny! We had to tell him we can help everyone seeking eternal truths yet we
wouldn’t be able to help with any dating contacts. Not even for an investigator that, ”has it
all”. Impressive ambition. Later that day, we had a noche de hogar with a
family of investigators and the older brother who is a member. We watched the Testaments Church movie and it
was super great! Such a great film if
you have not watched it in a while you should!
Thursday
We did service for a member and her son is not a member. We worked on their backyard. They had a lot
of rocks and bricks and she handed us two hammers and said she needs them small
to make a cement pad. So, we smashed
rocks with sledge hammers for 3 hours. I
felt like an old prisoner smashing rocks to pass the time. These Argentines and their cement pads. I have worked on sooooo many. They just keep braking them up and pouring
new ones? Not sure why? Never the less, it was super great to
work hard.
Friday
It rained all day and it was getting cold! Cold enough we could see our breath! I am thinking it’s a great thing we aren’t
sweating all day however, as we tried to start our heaters, they don’t work! It got cold really-fast with the rain such
that we needed our heaters to work so I call a member and he tell me that heaters
need to be taken all apart to be cleaned every year. He
said without that maintenance, the heaters won’t work. He told me what to do over the phone because
he was too busy to stop by to help. So
being cold, I was motivated and took apart our calafacoters and cleaned them as
best I could then put them back together and we were able to start them and
they worked! Thank goodness for my vast
experience taking everything apart back home. See mom, thank goodness I practiced on so many
of your appliances! It would have been a very cold week without
the heaters!
Saturday
We got some references so we passed for them and actually taught
some great lessons and it was super! I have a lot of faith in our new references.
Sunday
We had church like normal and sadly no investors made it out to
the meeting. It was very cold and rainy
so there weren’t many members either. After
church, we visited members and shared some scriptures. It was a nice visit.
Until next week, keep reading your scriptures and sending your
prayers.
Love,
Elder Vance