This week has been another epic series in the battle of the database. Combine that with our usual crazy duties for the first week of the transfer in the offices. We´ve been a bit busy to say the least. Thankfully the worst of it is coming to an end, and we should be able to get out in the area more this week.

I´ve spent my days trying to unify the mission database that we were using in Access, and getting it all that data to the church database. IMOS. The biggest challenge has been getting IMOS to generate a data source in Excel, from which I can then merge letters in Microsoft word. It sounds complicated, but mostly it has been a lot of busy work. A lot of data entry. A lot of trouble-shooting and computer problems. And I´m by no means a computer expert. I can tell that what little knowledge I have has been helping me, and perhaps it´s for the best. The brilliant computer programmers of the mission designed a system that none of us can understand. They have long since gone leaving us helpless to amend the now outdated systems they left behind. So perhaps it´s the best thing that a simple mind is on the job. I have to establish a system for the secretary that will not just work for a few months, but the coming years.

On that note, it wasn´t exactly a surprise to learn that I would be in the mission offices for six more weeks. This will be my fourth transfer here in Adrogué. I had mixed feelings over the weekend. Of course I would rather be outside doing missionary work. But for one reason or another, the Lord wants me here. What´s more, I will more than likely be here now for the baptism of Luis and Veronica, and hopefully Damian´s son, and others that are progressing. It has become very clear to me that there is still a lot of work for me to do here in Adrogué, and as always, it´s where the Lord wants me to go.

Luis and Veronica weren´t able to take out their turno to get married on Tuesday as a result of the intense cold. On Tuesday we´ll go and pick her up with the Jones couple here in the offices and take her where she needs to go. Sometimes we have to take the investigators by the hand and guide them through the steps. I´ve seen that a lot in the mission. Helping people keep commitments takes a bit of extra effort.

Damian is doing great. He was able to come to church last week, but yet again without his son Gonzalo. We have really focused on teaching him. We had a lesson two nights ago about recognizing the voice of the spirit. He was able to really see the importance of it. He says that he doesn´t need to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true because he already knows it. It says good things and talks about God. We testified that by praying he wouldn´t just know in his head if it was true, but in his heart as well. Tonight we have an appointment to watch a church movie with them.

Last night we were able to visit Xavier, formerly known as Savior. (He wrote his name down and we realized that´s what he has been saying the whole time.) He has been progressing fantastically. Really profound questions about prayer and God, but at the same time, so simple. For his immense study of philosophy, he is very charming, and humble. Willing to learn, accept, and act upon what we´re teaching. Last night we read the parable of the seed in Alma, and he learned a bit about the meaning of faith. I know that we were led to Xavier at the right time and the right place. Because he is able to speak English, the Jones can teach with us as well and participate. Part of me thinks that the Lord put him in our path for that reason.

In other news, that family we found a few weeks ago, Diego and Jessica, both came to church with their two children on Sunday. They caught me completely off guard. We had a pretty skeptical lesson earlier in the week with me and Elder Herrera and Jessica and her sister. She was very anti-Mormon and had everything from Polygamy to the mysterious Mormon gold tax on us. (Apparently she believed that to join the Mormon Church you had to donate a certain amount of pure gold to get baptized. This was how we put the statues of the Angel Moroni on all our temples. It wasn´t the most ridiculous Mormon rumor I´ve heard in Argentina.) To say the least, the lesson was less than edifying, and my hopes for Diego and Jessica to progress were less than optimistic. Then, on Sunday, unexpectedly the whole family showed up to church. The mission is surprising like that sometimes.

We have been having enormous success, and we have managed to keep the area at the very least relatively progressing while we have been in the midst of the office crazy. The Lord has blessed us to be able to magnify the small time that we do have to keep finding and keep teaching. I testify that God knows each of us personally, and is able to guide us by the spirit if we are listening. I miss you all very dearly. It´s strange hearing about the changes at home. New nephews, marriages, dates. Dad switching to apple. (Of all the aforementioned, the last one surprised me most.) But all in all, there isn´t anywhere in the world I would rather be than right here right now in Buenos Aires. I believe sometimes we can see through the windows of life, the moments that we will yearn to return to for the rest of my life. Argentina runs through my blood now. I´ll strive to return to this country for the rest of my life, looking for the feeling that I have right now. I love this work.