¡Mi Cuñada dio la luz!

¡Felicitaciones Camille! Me siento muy fuerte que usted iba a dar la luz esta semana. No se porque. Pero, esa sintimiento tenia razon. Ahora vos sos una madre! Desunfortunadamente no he aprendido mucho acerca de eso en la obra misional, entonces no puedo darte consejo. ¡Pero realmente estoy feliz!

I’m an uncle!

Yesterday we ate with a family and they asked me if I had nephews or nieces. "Maybe," was my reply. Now I know. Congratulations! Scott and Camille! Parents! And me. An uncle. Me alegro

another week in Avellaneda. Wow...

Trying to get away from tracting, but it keeps on happening. I’m just looking for better ways to do things, and trying to overcome my discomfort of talking to people. I just don’t know how to present the message in a way that’s really going to strike people. I’ve had to depend on the spirit a lot, but even still it’s been rough. I’ve felt very ineffective this week.

Yesterday I cooked roast beef for a family in the ward that lives close to the pension. It all started Saturday when I had already bought the ingredients to make it for Elder Valerin and myself. We were at the member’s house and they asked us over for dinner. I explained we had already bought stuff to cook tomorrow. "Oh," they responded, "that’s ok. You can just cook for us."

What could I say?

We brought the roast and gravy and everything. They had a big family, and fortunately it was enough. I had to show them how to make the potatoes into a bowl and pour the gravy in. They had never had gravy before and one of the kids upon tasting it exclaimed "This is the best thing I’ve tasted in my entire life!!!"

I was glad they liked it.

By the way mom, I love my Christmas presents. These past two weeks have been incredibly rough, and it’s nice to have something to look forward to at the end of the day. We’ve been able to predict the tie and the milk duds, but we thought the season salt was a candle. You got us. I should get the second package tomorrow.

On Tuesday night, we were incredibly frustrated. All the scheduled plans we had had already fallen through. Elder Valerin tried to convince me to go back to the Pension early, as it was dark and nobody was listening. I knew I wasn't the best missionary, and maybe we wouldn’t find anyone, but I refused to go to throw in the towel early. I felt terrible even thinking about it. Elder Valerin was in the midst of telling me how we could go back and plan effectively for the next day when all of the sudden a man passed by, who Elder Valerin, interrupting himself, contacted. He took a look at the white shirts then the nametags and shouted out "aha! Missionaries! You talk about Jesus don’t you?"

We were both surprised. We told him that we did share a message about Christ with everyone.

"Great!" he exclaimed, "sit down sit down sit down"
He gestured to the curbside and we both sat down on the concrete. He was a very animated man who waved his hands a lot. Darker complexion standing at about 5 2

"So,” he started, "I’m going to listen to you, but first you have to listen to me."

We looked at each other assessing the situation, and frankly were just happy to be talking to somebody. We agreed and he started talking.

"I come from Uruguay. NATIVE Uruguay! Indigenous I tell you! So you two are out here preaching about Jesus right? Well I’ve got a question for you. Where did Jesus preach?"

We both responded unanimously, "Jerusalem"

"Aha!" He exclaimed again with his hands in the air. "Just Jerusalem eh? Don’t you think there are other people in the world that needed to hear about what Jesus had to say? If it was so important, if God really does love his Children, why didn’t Jesus come here to the Americas?!"

..........

We stared with slack jaws as the short man from Uruguay grinned with a big "Now I’ve stumped em" expression on his face. Clearly he had used this thought process on evangelicals and Jehovah Witnesses before without a satisfactory response.

I ripped out a Book of Mormon faster than a samurai sword. And fumbled through the opening pages to the picture of Jesus in the Americas and asked, "Do you know where this is?"

"Somewhere in the Americas" he replied

"Do you know who this is?" I asked.

"Jesus" He replied.

It was like something off a seminary video.

So we had the privilege of explaining the book. He was hardheaded. Still didn’t completely listen. But we told him enough to make him realize that it was his ancestors who wrote this book.

Unfortunately he lived in a different area, so we never did see the end of it, but I’ll never forget the little man from Uruguay who asked the most golden question I’ve ever heard.

So much of the mission is like that. Great starts and empty finishes. Nothing here ever has an ending. I said something like that to the President when I was pending leaving Ensenada and his response was "That’s because you’ll never see the end. The work just keeps on going and going. That’s the miracle of it."

Avellaneda is a field that’s ready to harvest, the problem is its been neglected for so long that it’s going to take a little house cleaning before the work gets going again. But I have faith. The work just keeps on going and going. That’s the miracle of it. If this was just the work of 19 year old boys there would be great reason to be afraid. But this is God’s work.

I’ve found much consolation in my situation in the first 4 chapters of 1 Nephi. I invite any within reach of this email to study those chapters and pay attention to how the Lord "Provides a way." It isn’t always easy. As a matter of fact, the Lord let them fail a few times first. But pay attention to how eventually they are guided, and the testimony they gain afterward.