Dios ha visto tus luchas

Last week was one of the most successful in the entire mission. We were able to take out two more solid baptismal dates. One of those was with Jimena Alegre. Her parents were recently baptized about three months ago, and we´ve continued teaching her. Finally she accepted the baptismal invitation, making her father the happiest man in the world. The Alegre family represents, in my mind, a true conversion to the gospel. They are always looking for ways to help the ward in which we live. Carmen tells us about her experiences with sharing the gospel with her friends at work and family. Even though she gets rejected, she tells us how good she feels after doing it. It will be a special baptism, and just another step toward their goal of being sealed as a family in the temple in a year.

In other news, the Huerta family, Macedonio, took a bit of a step back the past week. We went to our teaching appointment on Saturday, and Macedonio started talking about his hard life, which he is prone to do, which made him progressively more sad and stressed out. He wants to get baptized, but there are some distinct barriers in the way, the biggest being his inability to have faith and hope that God will bless him for the sacrifice he´s making. To make matters worse, he didn´t show up to sacrament meeting the last week. On a different note, his sweet daughter Myra, 9 years old, accepted the invitation to be baptized with her father on the 5th of June. When I initially invited her, she told me she had already been baptized. I explained to her that baptism was like a door to get back on the path to live with God. But we had to enter through the right door. I testified to her that I knew this church was the right path to enter back into our Fathers presence. She agreed to be baptized. The next visit she told me that she had a dream with me and Elder Gibbs. She told me that Jesus appeared to her as well and told her that "the Mormon church was true." Used to having a catholic school, she asked if there was a Mormon school that she could enroll in. We told her that Primary would just have to do for now.

The dueling Damians surprised us this week. I can´t remember if I´ve told you about them. We found their family a few weeks ago, but the constant father-son tension made it difficult to teach. We tried taking out a baptismal date with Damian, but he kindly informed us he would have to think about it. We invited him to church hoping that he would show up, and to our surprise he did. Along with his father, who had initially told us he would never participate in the church. The talks that day were tailored to the investigators. It was all about having peace in the family and avoiding anger. Exactly what the Damians needed.

We had enormous success on the finding front. As we were walking down the street Saturday morning, it was cold, and we were busy making contacts. We saw a man standing in the street trying to clear away some branches from his front lawn. We tried to contact him which initially startled him, but after a few moments of talking he revealed to us that his father had recently passed away. He was afraid because he had always been bitter against God and religion. We explained very simply that when we die we will still have the opportunity of accepting gospel truths on the other side of the veil. He was interested, but didn´t want to let us into his house as his wife was there. We set an appointment for tomorrow morning here in the church.

That same morning, we were walking along the dirt roads of the villa when we came across the house of our Elders quorum president. He was talking from across the street to a neighbor. We quickly asked for his name and went to contact him. His name was Luis, and he almost instantly let us into his house to share a message. We beckoned back to Arnaldo, presidente, to come join us in the lesson. He agreed and we were able to find Luis and his wife. During the lesson, they expressed to us how good they felt. That they had listened to other religions before, but always from a distance and had never let them into the house. It was about that time that Luis received a text message which startled him immensely. It was a random forward, which he declared as bizarre as his phone was without credit and he couldn´t receive messages. It read:

Dios ha visto tus luchas. Él dice que están llegando a su fin. Una bendicion está viniendo en tu direccion si tu crees.

Or in English

God has seen your trials. He says they are coming to an end. A blessing is coming in your direction, if you believe.

It was incredible. Luis had informed us prior that he was afflicted with an accident which should have killed him. The big scar on the side of his head was a testament to it. We shared the book of Mormon and told him it could help him immensely. He agreed to read and pray.

In short, that is merely a taste of the amazing blessings we have received this week. In all aspects of the work. We know God is putting us in the paths of those who are prepared, and I have never been happier to be serving in this work.

One more brief experience.

After Sacrament meeting on Sunday, someone came into gospel principles and informed us that an investigator was at the door. We went to see, and were frankly surprised to see Daniel. We had found Daniel in the former investigator section of the area book nearly three weeks ago. The first time we passed by his house, he was impartial to the message. The second time he allowed us to come in and share a message. He talked about his Christian background, and his deep love for the scout work. Finally, all the struggles to get my eagle scout were able to pay off, and I was able to show him a picture of all us brothers in our scout uniforms. Daniel got out his photos as well and began telling us everything from the scout motto, to a double half hitch knot. After the initial lesson, we were disappointed the third time we came when he wouldn´t let us in. But he was willing to talk some more Boy Scout memories with us. We had similar experiences in successive visits but never let us in over again. We decided not to pass by again, and that was what we perceived was the end of Daniel...

Until that Sunday when he showed up after sacrament. He informed us that his wife had thrown him out of his house and that he was now going friend to friend looking for a place to live. To make matters worse he lost his job. We were able to redirect him to the work representative in the church who was able to give him some options. Today we had another appointment here in the Church, where he told us that he felt amazing on Sunday, felt something different than the other churches he had been to, and he had been to many. Even though he had had a strong Christian background, he had never found a congregation. When we had showed him our relationship with the scout program, (Elder Gibbs is an Eagle Scout too) he took it as something distinct. Something that set us apart. He knew that we were sent from God and wanted to learn more about the church. We had a very spiritual cita with the first vision today, and we have another one on Friday.

Brief office update:

As of about a week ago, Hermana Fitch had to go home early. Leaving the entire secretary job to me. It has been a baptism by fire, but with some considerable help from the Lord I´ve managed not to mess anything up in the mission too bad. It´s just the little things like ordering flights and making sure people have rides to and from the airport. Needless to say I´ve been living in a bit of fear as of late, but thankfully, it’s been a good learning experience.

No time

I love this work. It is truly a marvelous work and a wonder. I don´t know if I´ve ever seen so many successive experiences of guidance by the Lord. I know this is His work, and we have the right to be guided to the elect if we are doing our best and have love for those we serve. I love the Argentine people, and I love being a missionary. I was thinking many times this week, in between running to and from appointments, trying to find new investigators, and trying to get others to progress, between all the work, I was thinking, This is as good as it gets. This is the best life I could ever live. I never want this to end. Missionary work is the work of God. If it was my decision I wouldn´t come home.

Happy Turkey Day!

It´s autumn here in Buenos Aires. Leaves falling from the trees. After a long hot summer, I finally am dusting off the sweaters and bundling up. Winter chill is in the air, and for the first time since Christmas about a year and half ago, It´s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. The funny thing is, it´s pretty universal in the mission. Christmas music is not hard to come by. Hot chocolate. The only thing we´re missing is the decoration. Unfortunately I left my Christmas tree in Avellaneda. I figure that as my birthday and Christmas are almost exactly six months apart, I can start celebrating Christmas on my birthday and my birthday on Christmas. In addition to the benefits of my own sanity, all of Argentina will be celebrating with me. ...Just humor me mom. Wrap my birthday present up with some little Santa wrapping paper and send me another stocking.

This last week has been enormously successful. Many people came to church unexpectedly, and Elder Gibbs and I felt very blessed. We took out two baptismal dates. One of those is with the investigator Macedonio. He´s paralyzed and very poor, but he´s found a way to make it to church two weeks in a row now. Amidst all the half baked excuses so many people have for not reading and praying, seeing Macedonio find a way to get in his wheelchair, sacrifice his time and his money, money to pay for a taxi, to come to church is a moving sacrifice.

The other baptismal date we recently took out was with Viana. She is a 17 yr old who moved to our area recently from Paraguay and is living with her active LDS family. It makes it easy to teach her so surrounded by active members who can encourage her to read and pray. She is so humble and sincere. Her answers are profound and basic. It just seems like the gospel makes sense to her. We ask questions like "how can we know the truth amidst so much confusion?" And she´ll respond, "We have to ask God." Simple. It just makes sense to her.

Our other investigator, Jimena, is coming very close to baptism. She is 13, and her parents were baptized about two months ago. She wants to wait until she´s ready and has had nearly all the charlas at least three times. Recently she admitted that she was close and chose Elder Gibbs to do the baptizing. She still is resistant; at this point it just comes from being a rebellious teenage girl.

As for other investigators progressing, Victor has taken a bit of a slump and can´t find it in himself to read or pray. He´s trying, but can´t show the faith as he needs to find work. We found another man a few weeks ago, Damian, who has received the first two lessons in about four visits. He committed to going to church on Sunday, but we couldn´t call him like we promised as he was already sleeping when we tried to remind him. This week he´s planning on coming for certain.

In short, there are many successes that are happening in our area right now. I know the Lord blesses us when we try to do our best. Unfortunately I´m about out of time now. Love you all! It´s about time for thanksgiving here in the southern hemisphere, so happy turkey day!

Celestial Effort

I realize that the picture I painted of Buenos Aires in my previous email was fairly grim. I would like to assert here that I love the mission. I love where I´m at right now in the offices. I love Adrogué, my area. And I love the Argentine people. I love being a missionary, and bringing this message of happiness to those in need. This world, spiritually speaking, can be a dark and terrible place. But my testimony of this message and the light it brings into the lives of others is stronger now than it has ever been before. That is the message of missionary work, and the gospel as a whole. That even though we live in a fallen state, because of what Christ did for us through the atonement, we can all be reconciled to our Heavenly Father once more. We never have to live in darkness.

Anyways...

This week I have been impressed in my study of the Book of Mormon, of the importance of diligence. I have noticed that it is almost always used in conjunction with a phrase like "laboring with diligence." Elder Gibbs and I have been on an emotional rollercoaster so to speak with our investigators. Many have hit brick walls and are looking for the strength to progress. We´ve decided to start doing more to raise the bar on our current work. Trying to put forth a celestial effort to help them progress.

Celestial effort was a phrase that came to my mind when I was reading about Mormon, and King Benjamin. People who labored with diligence even to the exhausting of their own strength. Labored without ceasing even when the situation seemed hopeless, and even when the task was difficult. These men of God endured regardless of the situation. Celestial effort describes the efforts of the old pioneers, struggling to pull handcarts across snow filled plains. It describes the efforts of missionaries ancient and modern to bring sheep back to the fold of God. It describes the efforts of the Savior Himself, who bore the burdens of us all in Gethsemane.

I´ve been pondering the phrase a lot lately, especially during proselyting hours. At the end of the day Elder Gibbs and I will ask ourselves "Did we put forth a celestial effort today?" There´s always room for improvement. But I´ve discovered in the mission that the secret to diligence isn´t often how good we are at doing things, but that we simply do them.

For example

The past Saturday and Sunday, usually the best proselyting days, proved incredibly difficult for Elder Gibbs and me. As we worked in the street, making contacts and trying to get to our investigators, it seemed like we were met with rejection at every turn. At times, we felt like we were walking through sand, as if every step we took was labored. It´s easy to get discouraged in the mission at times like these, which aren´t incredibly uncommon. At the end of the day, we asked ourselves what went wrong. Of course there was room for improvement on our part, but at the same time, the most important thing was that we were trying. We left the door in the morning on time. We were out in the street as required doing the contacts, trying our best to get a hold of the people. Perhaps the chips didn´t fall our way that day, but at the very least when it was all said and done, we knew that we didn´t go home early, and we had done our best to do Lord´s will. We set goals to improve the following week and moved on with the work. The most important part of diligence is not the numbers, it´s the consistency.

Diligence is obedience over time. It is the final principle of the gospel, inseparable with enduring to the end.

Even though the weekend was slow, we were still able to find many investigators the previous week. Some of which are now progressing wonderfully. Victor, who we had a baptismal date with, is now looking for work, and still finds it hard to read and pray. He is looking for the strength to change, but is still caught up with the faults of his former life, and he doesn´t believe that he can repent. We´re working on setting another date for his baptism.

Other investigators include Jimena Alegre. Her mom and dad were baptized by the assistants last transfer. She is convinced that she has to read and understand the entire Book of Mormon before she can get baptized. We invited her to fast last Sunday and read the talk "knowing that you know" by Elder Callister. She has progressed a lot and is going to get baptized in the near future, even though she still won´t concede a day.

Well I would love to inform you on others, but I´m running short on time right now. I hope that you are all well in your daily endeavors. I´m grateful for your support and prayers on my behalf, and I want you all to know that you’re never too far from my prayers as well. I know this is the Lord´s church, that He is the one directing it today. If we put forth a celestial effort in the small aspects of our daily life I know that we will see our surroundings slowly turn celestial as well. That´s my invitation to you today.