The curious case of Norberto Ferreyra

¡MI QUERIDA FAMILIA! How are alll of you all doing? I am so excited to be able to email you all today! I also got to call my dad because of the new policy change and it was soooo sweet! Families are so important and although I´m over 5,000 miles from home, I know that I can feel close to home as I try to help others experience the amazingly beautiful evangelio de Jesucristo!

This week we had divisiones with the the zone leaders, and we had a blast teaching and finding new people to teach and help come closer to Christ. We found this one dude Julián and when we were walking in town today we ran into him again while we were trying to buy headphones for the video calls and we are going to try and teach him tonight. We found some other cool people that we are going to try and revisit this week and that will be fun! We also have divisiones with the AP´s this week so I hope we can continue to expand our teaching pool!

We had good lessons with Andrea and Suzana this week. We try to teach them about the Gospel, but they would rather teach us and talk our ears off haha! But as I learn to listen more, I not only improve my Spanish skills, but I also learn how to listen to the Spirit. Sometimes the Lord needs us to just sit there and listen, and feel for the Spirit on how I can help these people, and their needs as sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. It is tough, but I know everyday I am getting better, and developing Christ like attributes is one of the best things I have enjoyed about my mission so far.

GREAT NEWS! Norberto passed his baptismal interview and is on date for March 2nd! He is such a sweet old man and is suuuuuper funny just because he forgets a lot we teach him but we just reteach him and he loves it even more. There was a time we showed him a picture of Jesus and we asked him, "Who is this?" and he said..."No sé!" JAJAJAJA good ole Norberto. He is a 70 year old man with a 7 year old´s mind, reminds me of Benjamin Button haha. Super sweet and humble. He is the definition of coming unto Christ like a little child, having true faith. He told us he loves our church and wants to get baptized because no other church or their members would pass by and say hi to him, or really care for him. But we and some of the other members of the branch would visit him and check up on him regularly. When he told me that, it made me think just how important it is to be a minister to our brothers and sisters. Just a simple hey or is there anything you need help with really goes far with people who truly need it. As Chirst told Peter, "If you love me, feed my sheep." As a missionary that is our job, but I know we can all be Christ-like ministers if we take 5 minutes everyday to prayerfully look through our contacts and message at least one person, then we will be doing some really good things, I know it!!

Well, that´s all I got for this week. I love being a missionary and I love doing the Lord´s work here in Argentina. I love and miss my friends but I know I am needed here for special reasons. Take care yall, and Happy President´s Day!

Élder Englebright

Tender Mercies and Undeserved Blessings

¡SALUDOS A TODOS! ¿Cómo están? I hope you all had a really good week this week! (Even if it was super cold haha...it was super hot yesterday for us down here so we are feeling the same weather wise, just on opposite spectrums LOL)

This week was pretty good! We have two new investigators, named Andrea and Suzana! We met Andrea while walking to another appointment. She was walking a good 30 feet in front of us when she dropped some of the meat she was carrying in her bag and the stray dogs started to harrass her haha we managed to get caught up to her and see if she needed help. We intoruduced ourselves and got a return appointment to come back and teach her. She is around 50 and lives with her mom (who is an Evangelical Baptist, with the crazy shows and music during church all that) and her dad (who is an atheist and is suuuuper smartypants about how God isn´t real and all that) and her brothers and sisters, who are all adults too. She is kinda like Cinderella, where everyone in her family treats her like garbage, being rude, not caring about her feelings, etc. She also has really bad anxiety problems so her life is always super stressful. But she loved what we taught her and we walked her to church this Sunday! She liked it and was marking scriptures in the Book of Mormon we gave her to read later! Her anxiety made her leave church a little early, but I hope we can invite her this week to follow the example of the Savior and to be baptized! Keep her in your prayers!

As for Suzana, she lives a few houses down from Andrea and it was the right after we contacted her Andrea that we passed by her house when one of her 6 dogs (Victoria, Andrea, Nicolas, Sofria, Cesar, Josefina- all named after her close friends btw) decided to get a little playful with my leg. We stopped to talk to her and she told us she is a very strong Apostolic Roman Catholic, knows everything about the doctrine, the virgens, all that stuff, but isn´t active. We came by this week to chat with her and she made us a bomb lunch! Empanadas, fruit with dulce de leche, and she told us that she beleives that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! How cool is that?! We need to help her get to church but I have a good feeling that the Spirit will soften her heart. Also, she had some crazy stories she told us, maybe one day I´ll share them with yall casue they were WILD haha

I found a rubber tire horse thing, like the bull and the parrots from a couple of weeks ago, in front of an ice cream place. I stopped to take a pic and the employees inside were laughing because I wanted to pose with a rubber stallion, so after the pic we went inside to talk with them and one of the employees Nicolas was speaking English! He said that he knows it really well from friends and media, but can´t really speak it to good at times. We are going to start an English class next week, so hopefully he can come and learn more!

One of our investigators, Matías and his wife Leonela, were celebrating the birthday of their son, Benjamin this week as well. Benja is 1 now and we dropped off a little present for him. They wanted to cook us a full on asado but we had to return back to the pensión, but they were chill and said we could come by this week for lunch. They also gave us some fire ribs we cooked for lunch yesterday. Benja is a cuuuuute baby, but everytime he sees Élder Fowles, he starts crying haha. Matías and Leonela are really cool, and they love the family aspect of our message. Hopefully we can teach them more!

And finally my favorite person here in San Cristóbal, Norberto - remember, he fell and broke his hip a few months ago. Well, he has been bedridden all this time becasue he couldn´t walk. But now he has been cleared by his doctor to walk, and he has a walker and can sit outside and all that now! (He was evening dancing to his cumbia last night when we went by haha loco Norberto). Anyways, we got him to church this week and he loved it! He tells us that this is the true church, and he can´t wait to be baptized. We are trying to put him on date tonight for sometime in the next few weeks, but I am so happy to see this man, who is the sweetest grandpa you could ever ask for, go from being bedridden to now walking and dancing and saying the sweetest prayers you could ask for. I have seen many tender mercies from the Lord with him, and I really hope his health will continue to improve!

Church wise, this was the best week, We finally had real investigators come and participate in the Sunday school, the sacrament, meeting members, etc. And I give all credit to my Heavenly Father for the success that we had this week, but I was thinking of how at times, I shouldn´t deserve some of the tender mercies the Lord blesses us with. I complain, or we don´t work as hard as we could have some days, yet soemtimes we get blessed. For example, we normally don´t get fed by members, but this week we had 2 lunches with members and two of our investigators gave us food as well. But I realized that we aren´t meant to be perfect instruments, just capable tools that the Lord can use to hasten the work. As long as we try, we will be worthy of the blessings from Heaven. And I know that I struggle and fail everyday at something, but I try my hardest to improve and not for myself, but also for God´s children here in Argentina. And I promise to you all that as you continue to try and get better, you will be blessed.

Thanks for reading my email and I love you all so much! Keep being awesome! Y para mis amigos que se hablan español, ¡les quiero mucho! Ojalá que ustedes tengan una buena semana

Élder Englebright :)

El Buen Pastor, Rosario, and my 3 month-mark!

FAMILIA Y AMIGOS! ¿Cómo le van? Sorry that I did not send an email out yesterday; that´s becasue I was in Rosario (the birthplace of the soccer g.o.a.t. Messi & the current Pope jaja) for trámites! Rosario is the biggest city in the province, and it has its own mission. So we got to go outside our boundaries for the day. It was pretty boring being in the office all day, but we met and contacted a wide group of people, some from Brazil - since they speak Portuguese allá, castellano is not their first language either, so it was fun to talk to them - and some Venezolanos, some of which were members of the Church! The situation in Venezuela is really bad right now, and all the Venezolanos were ranting about how bad Maduro, their President is. Violence, thousands of deaths, inflation that is worse than here, starving people - it is bad. It is sad to see these good people, sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, our brothers and sisters, go through stuff like this, having to migrate or become refugees. But, we can do our part and support them and love them, and see them as the Savior does. It was great to meet the people there and to know a little about their culture!

I also had Zone Conference in a city called Rafaela, which is about 2 hours away by colectivo (bus). A bunch of us missionaries got together to learn more about how to be better missionaries and teachers, as well as do faith building activities (not to mention all the free food we got, yummy). It was super spiritual and fun to see all my friends from different parts of the mission, including making new ones! And since the colectivo to return to San Cristóbal wasn´t until the next day, we spent the night with the élderes in Rafaela and had brownies and Grido ice cream to celebrate my 3 month mark as a missioanary! Crazy how time flies as you are serving the Lord jaja. It was a good conference and I came back spiritually stronger.

We did some contacting this week and found some interesting people that we will go back and teach. Everyone thinks I am from Germany (tall, blonde, idk why lol) and they always struggle with my last name jaja. What I realized this week is that the way they say my last name sounds like the spanish word "ingle", which means "groin" JAJA qué chistoso. And the weather hasn´t been too bad this week, so I can´t complain! It is still flooded up north, but it is slowly getting better I hear. Keep sending prayers to the people down here!

One of the things I have been thinking about this week is the concept of "El Buen Pastor" (The Good Shephard, John 10:14-15) and "Alimentar mis ovjeas" (Feed my sheep). As missionaries, we are represenatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we must help bring everyone together unto the same fold, el mismo redil. We must act like shephards and help bring all the sheep together, feeding them and helping them stay firm in their faith in Cristo. However, it is very difficult to do that when people don´t come to church, or read the scriptures, or don´t do the things we ask them to do to further strengthen their faith in Cristo, y más. And it is super frustrating when you pray every night for these people, fast for them and study the doctrine of Cristo so that we can help them, just for them to blow us off and not make any progress whatsoever. But then I remember the atonement of Cristo, how he went through so much pain, bled from every pore and had to beg to God to take this cup from Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as go through one of the most painful deaths imaginable, being nailed to a cross, hung up to die, being spit on, whipped, mocked, and all that. And despite all that he went through, He did for us becauseHe loves us, and wants us to have eternal life with Him and our Heavenly Father. He forgave those who mocked Him, loved those who hated Him, and was always there for everyone, never turning His back. And for me as a missioanry, that is what I am called to do; to help people come unto Christ, and no matter how many times I run into vagos and try so hard to help them and they won´t budge, I will remember the Savior and His atonement, how he did all that for us, and help everyone, even if there are people who won´t accept it. Elder Jeffery R. Holland once said that "Missionary work isn´t easy because salvation was never a cheap experience". And while there are days that really frustrate me with the work or with the well-being of the people of Argentina, I will continue to do my best and love the people the way He loves me and all of y'all. Another thing to think about is that Jesus Christ, the most perfect human being , the Son of God, with a perfect mission and with perfect obedience to the Father, wept (John 11:35). That is powerful, and it is a testimony to me that this is where I need to be right now, working with these people and spreading the love of El Señor to everyone. 

Well, that is all I have for this week. Thank you for your emails, prayers, and love you send me every week. I LOVE Y'ALL SOOOOO MUCH! And I think the photos will work this week, yay!

Con amor,

Élder Englebright

Men At Work (Élder Version)

¡HOLLLLAAAA! How are you all? I hope you have been blessed this week by the love that our Savior has for each and everyone of yall :)

Another week in San Crsitóbal, another week in paraíso! Élder Fowles and I continue to work hard finding, teaching, and doing good old fashion missionary service, helping others the way the Savior taught us. On Saturday, we helped Soledad, a recent convert to the church that the sisters taught move some of her furniture and her fridge. We decided to go "high water slacks" mode and had fun helping her out. She cooked us dinner and we all had one of the funniest nights of my mission, just laughing and cracking jokes...it was hilarious!

Someone we have been trying to teach is a youth named Mateo. He has been coming to church and youth activities this past month with a neighbor who is a member and he is so cool! I gave him a Book of Mormon coloring book (along with El Libro de Mormón obvio jaja) and he looooves it! He really likes reading out of it and coloring what he reads. And his parents (who aren´t members) are happy he is going to church and hanging out with us during youth activities. Hopefully we can teach him more and invite him to be baptized during a lesson this week.

We also passed by Mabel and taught her about the Word of Wisdom, which is a commandment from God that allows us to have clean bodies, happy lives, and the ability to feel the Spirit and God´s love for us. She needs to quit smoking, which is going to be tough for her. But we taught her that as she reads the scriptures, prays, and leans on Christ, who is the perfect foundation for support, she can overcome her addiction and quit it for good. The same is true for all of us! As we lean on the Savior and look towards Him for help or guidance, we too can be made stronger, cleansed from our sins, and more.

As a missionary, the days can get tough, especially since it is the middle of summer down here and wearing long sleeves has been brutal some days. But even when things get bad, or when I start to get down, I try to remember why I am out here. I remember that getting baptized saved my life. I remember the missionaries who taught me (as if I could ever forget those legends haha) and the impact they had on me and my desire to serve Him. And this week mentally was a little tough at times. But as I read the scriptures and prayed, I realized that it will all be ok as long as I continue to trust in God and lean on the Savior during my trials.

Everyone, I hope you all have a great week ahead and I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! And my pics aren´t working this week so sorry about that :/