Avellaneda

I’m lacking in things to say this week. Usually at least one experience sticks out to me. In Avellaneda, it’s been a lot of walking, and talking, and wandering.

In the immortal words of Gary Crowton: "It's a rebuilding year."

Or in this case transfer.

Having followed about a year’s worth of lazy missionaries, this work is dying... dying... almost dead.

The Pension is ominously large, because it was intended for four missionaries. One of the rooms is cluttered with maps, marked and full of investigators. A ghostly tribute to how much things have slipped here. Monuments to a better time in the work. When the missionaries of Avellaneda actually cared.

"It's because the people are cold here" says Elder Valerin.

No. I won’t believe that. I refuse to believe that. Especially since our zone leaders across the mitre are putting up some of the biggest numbers in the mission. The people are not the problem here.

I’ve started to have fear of talking to people after so many rejections, so I’ve started to do things a bit differently. I just talk to people. I tell them where I’m from, and they ask me how I like it in Argentina, and I tell them that I absolutely love it, and they like that. Then I talk to them about work and family, and then give them a pamphlet. These are usually my bus contacts, and they’ve been going a lot better. I’m trying to get better at talking to everyone. So far it hasn’t produced any results, but it’s the first step to actually finding people to teach.

If the field is white and ready to harvest, this field has clearly been neglected. And it’s going to take a bit of work before it’s harvestable again.

But it is the Christmas season, and it is wonderful to actually be doing something worth doing this year. Sharing the message of Christ with all the world. The true message of the season. I was thinking a lot about that. How the birth of Christ has had such a profound impact on the world that 2000 years after His birth the spirit still persists. Everyone feels obliged to give a bit more. Be a little kinder.

The universality of the season has definitely been reaffirmed to me working here in Argentina. It’s the same spirit. Albeit, a lot warmer than I’m used to (it's about 75 degrees outside with a nice humid breeze just FYI)

Ok, so bottom line. Avellaneda is a rough neck of the woods, but it was, as president Asay described, a Garden of Eden in its heyday. I know there are people to teach here. I know that we’ll find them; it’s just going to take a bit of time. Its when were uncomfortable that we grow.

I know Christ lives. This is His church. He came and died so that we could live. That's our Gospel. That’s the good news. We have to share it with the world.