August 1, 2011

HI!

So I'm in Mar del Plata again. It probably seems like I'm on a vacation with all the traveling I do and all the American fast food I eat (I had McDonalds today). But I'll say now that that is not the case haha. I`m still a missionary.

Sunday, there was a big meeting in Mar del Plata with the leadership of all the wards in both of the Mar del Plata stakes. They are preparing to split them up and have 3 stakes in the Mar del Plata area. They wanted all the missionaries in the Mar del Plata zones to be present. Since I'm in Balcarce, though, I had to travel again. And then we stayed for P-Day and we leave tomorrow after our District Meeting.

As for Elder Davidson, he's great! We have our differences in just about everything, but as well have many similarities. We get along perfectly. Elder Davidson is nice to every single person he comes in contact with. Without fail, he has a beaming smile, introduces himself, and is immediately their best friend. I have learned a lot from that. Argentines tend to be kind of closed people. In the way that they keep to themselves, fear strangers because of the danger, and don't smile often. So, when Elder Davidson comes into their life, that changes quite rapidly. We found 13 new investigators this week! It was flat out amazing. I am no longer doing my training program that involved 2 hours of companion study so we go out and work in the morning as well. We've been working hard all day long every day this week and it worked out well!

What's insane though is that we found 12 investigators this week up until Sunday. And not a single one came to church!! It was a bummer especially since the people we found on Saturday were amazing. They loved us. But they live with a crazy Evangelical man that freaked out when we talked about baptism through the proper authority of the Priesthood. I even showed him in Matthew 28 what Jesus did with the apostles. He "ordained" them, or in other words gave them the authority, and told them to go preach and baptize. I bore my testimony that we had been given that authority and that I knew it was true without a single doubt. The others were super interested and understood so well! But he wouldn't have it. And I think he convinced them not to go to church once we left so they were "not home" when we had a member go by to pick them up :(

Regardless, we'll keep teaching them. What was insane (and Elder Blackhorse will get a kick out of this if he is reading it, make sure to add him to my Facebook), but Elder Davidson and I ran into this crazy man on Monday night, last week, named Eduardo Cristiansen (the man who said if you put a woman in the Argentine soil, it'll grow women) and he went on and on and on about selling his house to us and how I needed to call the "boss of the church in the states" to make sure he knew that Eduardo had a great house to sell to us hahaha. He’s crazy!! So anyway, I told him to come to church, not really thinking he would, and BAM. Sunday morning at ten o' clock, there he was. Miracles exist.

Who knows what will happen with these 13 people. But all I know is the Lord's hand is in His work, that He loves each one of his children and wants them to be happy, and that Elder Davidson and I are going to do all we possibly can to help these people have that certainty by making the correct decisions. And at the same time, we're going to continue searching for more people, those who are searching for this happiness.

The members in Balcarce are giving us references as well, which is awesome. So hopefully with their involvement, and our hard work, the Lord will bless us and we will find those that he has prepared for us.

Anyway, thank you everyone for your letters! I can't believe I have been here in the mission for 5 months already!! I love it though.

Chau!

-Elder Ryan Garrison