November 14, 2011

Life is crazy in the mission.

On Friday, I was stressing hardcore about the packages I send weekly because I didn't have enough boxes of the Book of Mormon to send to everyone who wanted them (not that Elder Howard didn't have the money I needed to send the shipments anyway he needed to go to the bank) and thinking about the investigators in my area, Villa Mitre Alto. We were working hard with Rodolfo and involving the members as much as possible so he could find his desires to progress by coming to church. But then, at about 3 in the afternoon, Elder Johansson, the secretary and my District Leader, got off a phone call and shouted, "emergency transfers!!" He looks at me and says, "Garrison, you're headed to Pehuajò with Elder Arias, go buy a ticket in the terminal, teach Elder Sancho how to work with Materials, and pack your stuff. You're leaving. Tonight." And just like that, I was gone. I literally did all that in hours and hopped on a bus at 8:00 to go to the tiny city of Pehuajò, Argentina.

Pehuajò (Pay-wa-ho) probably has about 40 to 60 thousand people I would guess. It's a ton like Balcarce. And beautiful. The only thing is, there is no church. They rent a tiny little house and currently have 10 active members. The church here is very fragile, the attendance is quite low, and they were going to close the area completely about a year ago but Elder Aidukaitis of the Seventy felt the prompting to not close it. But what happened this week is that the missionaries here had an argument with the Branch President and President took them out and was going to close the area. But instead, he decided to send Elder Arias and me here.

Elder Arias is amazing. He has two more transfers than me but is on the verge of breaking the record of baptisms in the mission. He was a zone leader in Bahìa Blanca just recently and got pulled out like me before the transfer ended. He has incredible faith and determination. As well as a full understanding of his purpose as a missionary. He loves the people with all his heart and is the most obedient companion I have had. He is humble and wants to succeed so that the Lord's church here on the earth can grow. He is 24, from Chile, and studied Law before the mission. And he is hilarious. We are going to be great friends.

We are going to change Pehuajò, though. We plan to triple the attendance by the end of the year. And we are going to work as hard as possible to do it, too. Oh and the one strong member family that lives here, happened to move here about 4 weeks ago FROM Villa Mitre Alto. So I already know them very well!

Anyway, I'm already out of time because I took so much writing President, but I am super excited to be here even if I will miss the office. I know the Lord has a purpose in everything and He is constantly involved in this work. Because it is His work. I may be here for a while but I am going to do all I can to constantly serve to my best ability so that the church in Pehuajò can grow. Thank you all for your letters, I'll do better at responding next week. I love you all!

-Elder Ryan Garrison