Life in the Office

Life in the offices is moving at a different pace. It´s strange how much faster time flies here. There´s always so much to do. I realize that the secretary is a lot of entering information, and busy work, but there´s a strange part of my mind that it appeals to. I´m not sure why. Just yesterday we got the project of getting an updated list of all the missionaries and their pictures together for the new mission president. It turned into a big puzzle to find a way to just get the missionaries that were currently in the field and not the ones in the past. But using a bit of creativity we were able to solve it. It kind of scares me how much I enjoy doing the mundane office work. I know it doesn´t exactly compare to being chased by dogs and Argentine robbers out on the streets, but regardless of my sensationalized missionary aspirations, I´ve managed to adjust to the world of the office.

So, even though it is difficult at times, it´s not as boring as I thought. I like having tasks that I can solve and figure out with a little thought and a few shots of trial and error on the computer. It´s a stark change from the complex, life changing problems of investigators. Sometimes I wish that we could solve investigators doubts like I solve problems in the computer data base. Unfortunately, the problems of life aren´t that simple.

I think it was Mom who told me that the information side of things would be easy to learn on the other side of the veil. It´s the attributes of Christ that are hard to develop. The ability to forgive, to love, to have hope and be humble. Those are truly the quests of a lifetime.

The work here in Adrogué has been very rewarding this week. Even though a lot of our time gets eaten up by our office responsibilities, we see the hand of the Lord guiding us to the elect so as to maximize our efficiency. I´ve had some wonderful experiences with finding people to teach.

Saturday morning, Elder Gibb´s and I went out to wait for a member to leave with us. We found out upon leaving the apartment that he would be about five minutes late, but we decided to leave anyway to do contacts. Our first one barely opened the door and didn´t want to leave her house. She gave us a few typical Argentine excuses and then hid herself back inside telling us to put the pamphlet we were offering in the mailbox. I reached behind the gate to put it in, but if fell to the other side. She wasn´t very promising, and I didn´t bother to leave another one so as not to waste materials.

As we continued contacting, we managed to find a man named Erik. I explained to him that that was my middle name and we began to talk a bit. He was making breakfast at the time, but told us to come back in an hour. We did so after our appointments had failed with Jorge (the member who was accompanying us.)To our surprise, he let us right in the house.

Him, his wife and two kids began listening intently, but it didn´t take long to realize there was more to Erik that met the eye. He knew much more about the bible than he initially let on, and proceeded to try and bash with us. It was intimidating at first, but we managed to bare a lot of testimony. We thought it was interesting how he couldn´t actually assert that his church was the correct one, only attempt to disprove ours. There wasn´t any contention, rather a doctrinal discussion to take out his doubts. He sincerely did want to get acquainted with the Church´s teachings regardless of his skepticism.

The other finding experience came on Sunday morning. Elder Gibbs and I wanted to get some extra work in to make up for the lack of opportunity during the week. Instead of going to priesthood session we went out to find. The prior week we had been walking in the street only to find a woman who was trying to move a pile of dirt by herself. We offered to help her and proceeded to do so. It was funny to see us out doing yard work in our white shirts and ties, definitely a good photo opportunity. Anyways, her husband finally showed up, and laughed upon seeing the Mormon slaves doing his yard work for him. He couldn´t figure out if it was some sort of civil punishment, or if the church was paying us. We explained a little about the teachings of Christ and gave them a pamphlet. Unfortunately we were late for an appointment and set up something for the following week.

Ok, so that was the morning of priesthood meeting. We went to their house and they let us right in, inviting their two daughters to join. It´s pretty rare to teach an entire family together. What happened was one of my favorite lessons to this day in the mission. We began teaching about prophets and asked them about their beliefs. They informed us that they were very religious, but didn´t profess a denomination. That they had always looked for truth, but didn´t know where to find it. (Yes, they used those words.) We taught about apostasy and then about the Joseph Smith story. It was a very powerful moment, reciting the first vision with them. It was almost as if a light turned on and illuminated their faces. The spirit was so strong. At the end of the lesson we all knelt in prayer to know if the things we had taught were true. The husband, Gustavo offered it. I had the distinct feeling right there that that whole reason I was there in Argentina. Not just to baptize people, but families. The message is so much more powerful when the whole family is there.

It was one of those cookie cutter MTC propaganda video lessons. I didn´t think they really existed, but now I have a testimony of that as well.

The other day we passed by the woman who we had contacted. The one whose pamphlet fell on the ground and I thought didn´t amount to anything. When we passed by at the assigned hour, she came out before we could ring the bell. She informed us that she had been waiting for us, that she had read the pamphlet we had left and wanted to know "not just out of curiosity, but out of sincere desire" if it was true. Unfortunately she was expecting company from her brother from Europe, but promised us that she would be in Church on Sunday and wanted to meet with us again. I didn´t think she was sincere, but every once in a while if we´re diligent, we find the elect, some times in the least expected places.

I have no more time, but I want you all to know I know this Church is true. This message changes people. The Book of Mormon is a powerful testimony of the restored church. It came forth by a true prophet chosen by God.