Big news. Change of plans. Here`s the scoop:
The change in age for missionaries has caused changes in the MTC program and now the missionaries will be spending less time in the MTC. Seeing as there are going to be changes in the MTC, our transfers are going to get shifted starting after January 2013. All missionaries will be going home three weeks early because of the shift in transfers. EXCEPT the first group scheduled to go home after January who goes the 5th of March. They will now be going home the 26th of March.
So I am going to be here in Argentina three weeks extra!
Sorry. But that means more time to baptize.
As for my package? They told me it`s there in the office but I don't get it until tomorrow! We have Zone Leader Council.
As for this week, it was fantastic! Elder Forbes and I had some amazingly spiritual experiences with new investigators that we found. We have been working hard in our studies in the mornings to achieve unity in our teaching so that we can teach with one voice and the hard work has paid off. This week we had dozens of lessons with new people that understood the lesson, accepted all of our invitations to read, pray and be baptized once they knew it was true and who then prayed at the end the lesson. Elder Forbes and I always keep quiet after the prayer that they offer and the Spirit just fills the room up. Almost all of them would then look at us and then start to cry. It has been amazing.
As for this week, it was fantastic! Elder Forbes and I had some amazingly spiritual experiences with new investigators that we found. We have been working hard in our studies in the mornings to achieve unity in our teaching so that we can teach with one voice and the hard work has paid off. This week we had dozens of lessons with new people that understood the lesson, accepted all of our invitations to read, pray and be baptized once they knew it was true and who then prayed at the end the lesson. Elder Forbes and I always keep quiet after the prayer that they offer and the Spirit just fills the room up. Almost all of them would then look at us and then start to cry. It has been amazing.
Saturday we worked as hard as we could to get these people to church but what happened is that none of them made it. Instead, we found two new people on Saturday that did in fact go to church.
The first is Elvira Dumrauf. She is a little old lady that a different missionary and I contacted on Friday and we found out she had been baptized several years back. But it was winter and the Elders had problems filling the baptismal font and had to baptize her in cold water. She got very sick and very mad at them and never went back to church. Therefore she was never confirmed and is going to need to get baptized again. But in the lesson that Elder Forbes and I had with her the following day, the Spirit guided us and she just sorted of calmed down, understood the need to get baptized again, and accepted it. After accepting her baptismal date she said, "What do I need to bring I can't remember what I brought last time." After she offered the prayer, she tried to start talking but I put my finger to my lips so she would just pay attention to how she felt and she just burst into tears asking forgiveness for having been so mad and said she`d go to church. When we got to church a half hour early the next morning, she was already waiting outside.
The other is Claudia Vargas. We contacted her like a month ago in the street super far from her house. As we were walking down the street on Saturday at about 7:00 pm wondering what we could do that would be the most productive because our plans had failed, Elder Forbes saw her house and said, "We`re going here." So we taught her! Her house burned down at the start of the year and her husband left her a few years back to raise their 8 children alone. We taught her and she felt so good that after the prayer, the same thing happened. The Spirit touched her heart. She promised she would go to church the next day and when we called her in the morning she said, "I`m on my way right now!"
So we`re going to be working super hard so that Elvira and Claudia can get baptized this month of December. I am super excited! The Lord tries our faith and our patience to see if we will continue hoping and faithfully obeying His will. That is what He has done I think and now we are seeing how His hand has touched these people’s lives and is blessing us more than I can even describe in one letter.
I am thankful for the opportunity to serve Him and represent His Son here in Argentina. Why do I need to stay 3 weeks extra? Not sure. But there must be a reason and I am excited to find out what it is.
Please pray for our investigators so that they can overcome the obstacles that will surely be placed in their way.
Love,
Elder Garrison
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