Crazy cool contacts and 2 YEARS!

Hey yall! How´s it going? I hope all is well!

This past week has been pretty slow. We have been contacting a lot this week and with not a lot of success, unfortunately. Sometimes as a missionary we need to grind a bit before we can get back to crazy success and stuff. But we did contact a few amazing people, that have some cool stories. One morning we contact this old woman who quickly told us that she had no interest in the church or changing, only in metaphysics and Melchezidek and his authority line.....What??? Hahaha I was shook when she started talking about her research on those things, which the Church is all about by the way. She even had a vision about seeing the second coming and being able to regather her family together. It was the most amazing contact I´ve ever had haha. She is from German descent (Volga) by the way, just a cool expereince for sure! We will try and go back to her this week.

We also contacted a family that is very Catholic and has no desires to change. They respectfully denied our invation to come back, which is fine. But then it started raining and they saw us huddle for shelter across the street, so they clled us over to wait out the storm in their house. They had 2 daughters who write and play folklore music (chamamé) and they played us their original songs on their accordian and guitar, it was aweosme! and the dad asked if he could give a ride home and it was the most clutch moment of my mission! they don´t really want to change their religion, but want to cook us fried fish next week, so I can´t complain.

Also GREAT NEWS! Victoria, who we have been teaching these past few weeks, has decided to get BAPTIZED! WHOO! She is preparing for the 21st of Spetember. She came to church this week and she loved it! She´s already friends with the whole ward hahaha. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and what he taught us what to do in this life to receive eternal life. She expressed her desires to continue learning and feeling this newfound peace and happiness with the Church. Yay! She is turning 19 this week as well. 

Also today marks 2 years since my baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I will hit my 10 month mark in the mission this week as well. Crazy how time flies! I am forever grateful for the work of the missionaries and what they did to help me turn my life around, and I´m grateful to have that same honor and privelage now to help the people down here experience the same blessings of the restored gospel. 

Love you guys!

SCOUTS and the whispers of the spirit

Hey yall! 

Another great week here in Paraná Argentina! We had transfers and I´m staying here with Elder Stallings, nothing new nor crazy with that. I´m happy becasue we have a LOT of work to do here in 5 Esquinas, and its super exciting!

Yeferson went out and did some misionary work with us this past week. He joined us visiting a less active member and helped us contact. He even prepared a mini lesson and it was awesome! He wore a shirt and tie as well. Que capo! He is going to be a great missionary here in a few years. We also had Diana make us more pulseras (beaded bracelets like the one i sent last week) and they are cool! they are working to start getting there vias stuff in order this week. They have all the documents, just the lack of money. But we are working on that! Ill keep yall updated 

A couple of weeks ago we found and started teaching a girl named Victoria. She is about to turn 19 on the 29th and is awesome! Her dad is a policeman and her older brother is the director of the Argentine version of SCOUTS for all of the province (Entre Ríos). Her family is somewhat interested, but usually its only Victoria that we talk to. But she is really interested in our message. She has already read and prayed about the Book of Mormon, and she believes it is indeed the word of God! And yesterday she opened up and told us about a lot of her problems in her life and said, "I don´t know why I´m telling you guys this. maybe it´s because I´m missing something from my life" and it was suuuupper spiritual! We are going to try and get her to church and perhaps towards baptism here soon. Yay! We also got to meet some of the SCOUTS leaders and they are affiliated with a Catholic church here, but they were asking us some really insightful questions about what we believe and why we are doing missioanry work. It was COOL!!! We met some nice people and will defientely be coming back to answer more questions.

And the miracle this week was someone I had contacted a month and a half ago. I contacted a woman named Pamela and asked if we could come by and share a message. She said sure and we never went by. I don´t know why...we were busy, I forgot, etc. But this week we were running low on ideas and she popped in my head to visit. We went by (expecting nothing really) and  to my surprise she answered us and said that she had been waiting for us to come back for all that time! Wow! We taught her and her husband Cristian, and there 11 year old duaghter Briza. Cristian has a lot of good questions and doubts about religion, like where his father who passed away is now, as well as the trust in what other churches teach as doctrine. We teach what the Bible says in Santiago 1:5 "If ye lack wisdom, ask of God" The spirit was strong and it was a confirmation that the spirit is always right, and even if it is a tiny whisper, follow it.

Thats all I have for this week. I love you all and I hope that you continue to read and pray for guidance and personal revelation everyday!

Bus strikes and receiving The Priesthood

This week has been pretty good! We have been going by Santiago and Yeferson this week to help them prepare to receive the Priesthood! We read the power and the responsibility that come from being a deacon and a teacher in the Aaronic Priesthood, and they loved learning about how the Prriesthood is there to BLESS others! They were ordained yesterday and Yeferson wants to come out with us and do missionary work! Wow! He keeps saying he´ll be a missionary when he´s older and that makes me happy to see him change his life now so that he can spread the joys of the gospel to others! 

There has been a bus strike (or paro en español) for the past week, and I´m legit dying haha. The bus company won´t pay its workers, which means everyone suffers. We can sometimes pay for a taxi, but because inflation is high now we often have to walk for certain meetings or events. Yesterday we walked the colombian family to church, then we walked back and went to other people and I calculated that I walked about 8 miles yesterday haha. I slept pretty good for sure. But I liked taking that time to exercise my faith. Many people didn´t come that lived closer than us, becasue of the paro and of the election, but us and the Lassos walked the whole way (and back) because the sacrament and church are more important to us than what Satan throws in our path. It made me happy to see all of us in the chapel, to me it was a testimony of the faith we all have in the importance of the Lord´s day (Luis was getting made at Diana for walking too slow it was funny)

I also continue the quest of eating gross foods, as always. I ate boiled cow liver this week, which isn´t anything too weird but I will say, liver is not my favorite taste haha. If anything, I´m starting to love trying new things, just the adventure itself is fun! I also found a huuuugggeee red bell pepper, so there is excitement everyday at the very least.

Still working hard as always! Gonna have more news for yall this next coming week. Love ya!

Santiago & Yeferson`s BAPTISM!

I`ve decided that my rap name will be Rico Perico (colombian scrambled eggs they are soooooo good jaja) but ANYWYAS how are yall? I`m doing great because we had the BAPTISM Saturday whoooo!!!

Yeferson and Santiago were baptized and confirmed as the newest members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! We held an amazing service for them. We invited the mission president to come and he did! He also has a great singing voice, so my companion, myself, and the mission president sang in a mini choir acapella! We sang Abide with me, tis eveningtide and it sounded sooooooooo cool! A couple people cried and everyone was blown away haha. We aslo had Colombian empanadas afterwards and they are sooooooooooooo delicious!! The Lasso family all came, and they ended up walking 4 km because we had a little mis comunication but they said they like to walk now so it turned out ok haha. They invited another Colombian family that has some interest in our message, so it looks like we might have to repeat another Colombian themed baptism soon. The mission president was super impressed with what we have been doing while working with the Lassos, and he said it was a great service! Yay!

Diana and Luis have been feeding us dinner everytime we go over to their house, and I feel bad because they dont have much, but Colombian food is soooo good so I cant deny them haha. They truly are special. Luis wants to be baptized and is now my best friend, and Diana is working to get her tràmites in order to marry and be baptized with Luis. A family in the ward gave the boys white shirts and my companion and I gave them ties so they can receive the priesthood this weekend. And to think the impact the gospel has had on them just within this past month. They are different, with a new light and glow to them. Diana told us that she left her house that day we found them to try and find a church for her family, and it was when we contacted them, Coincidence? I think not! They are a part of my family forever, and I hope you guys feel the same love I have for them.

We also have been working with other families and people, and we have some new investigators! The coolest is Victoria, who is in girl scouts and has a dad whose a cop. We taught her at her gate yesterday becasue she didnt have the key to unlock herself haha. We taught her about prophets, The Restoration, and when we gave her a Book of Mormon she felt ashamed because we were giving her something that was expensive she thought haha. We explained that we have tons of Books of Mormon and the word of God should ALWAYS be free and available to everyone! She is excited to read and we may go to one of her scout meetings this week.

Other than that this week was crazy but so rewarding to help not just people, but FAMILIES come closer to Christ. I appreciate all your emails and prayers. Hasta ver!