February 27, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

I love Viedma. It's actually really cold here already. It has rained 3 of the 7 days I've been here. Rain like I've never seen. In Arizona, it pours for maybe 30 seconds at a time. But here in Viedma, it pours very hard for hours at a time. Thankfully, when it's done that, it's slowed down and cleared up by the time we leave the house in the morning.

Pehuajò was a very, very beautiful city. It was green, clean, and kind of rich. Viedma is really gray and dirty. My area is rather poor and has some super sketchy neighborhoods that we've been told to avoid at night. But the people are very nice to us. It is strange though, coming from Pehuajò where many people had literally never heard of the Mormons, to Viedma where they all know who we are. But Elder Calarco and I had a fantastic week all the same! We found 16 new investigators that are awesome and are working really hard to set up a baptism for every week. We started this week with finding a miracle lady named Marìa who has an amazing amount of faith. We didn't really think about the possibility of baptizing her this week until we were in our weekly planning session and I realized she had been to church several times in past years and could be baptized. So we did it. We passed by with the Branch President, and he himself committed her to be baptized on Sunday. She came to church and the members took her in quite well and all of them stayed after the meetings to see her baptism. She was super happy afterward :)

But we gained the confidence of the members very quickly and things are going to improve very rapidly here in America branch. The Lord has a lot in store for this little branch.

As for my zone, dad, There are 4 missionaries in Branch America, 4 missionaries in Branch Centro, 2 missionaries in Patagones, and 4 Sister missionaries in San Antonio Oeste. In my mission everyone travels in buses.

So no, we do not have a car. That'd be nice but it's actually not necessary.

The only baptism interviews that Zone Leaders do are those of the converts of the District Leaders. One of the District Leaders lives in my house and the other lives on the other side of the city so it's no problem; we just take a taxi using our Zone Fund.

I'm super grateful for having been with Elder Arias. He taught me things every day that have helped me change my outlook and understanding of the mission and of the gospel in general. I am here to save souls. Christ said that (this isn't going to be verbatim because I memorized it in Spanish not

English) "he that is not born of water and of the spirit cannot enter into the kingdom of God." It's simple. Unless a man is baptized by the proper authority of God in His church, he cannot receive salvation. It's not about numbers, it's not about looking good, and it’s not about anything personal. It's about teaching people and giving them the opportunity to enter into the Kingdom of God. Christ showed us His humble example when he, the Son of God, was baptized by the proper authority. I have a firm testimony of that.

Thank you for your prayers and supportful letters! I love you all, Elder Ryan David Garrison