. . . . . . . . Okay, some of my adventures this week in no particular order. I was informed by the other elders, all 4 of us in the pench are over the same ward and they told me that we had to plan and carry out an activity that happened last friday. Thursday came and it was sketchily planned and I was worried. But through the genius of Elder Cabranes and myself we were able to pull it off. It was pretty fun. The activity was supposed to start at 6, but because this is latin culture, we didn't sing the opening hymn till 6:50! How crazy is that. It's just a different world here. And the turnout was not too good, I thought. But my comps said it was real good. I think there was like 20ish. But the last game was the best, we did an egg toss. Yeah, it was kinda messy, but it was fun. And because it is freezing we did it all indoor. So the activity ended and we still had to do our 10 alb. open the mouth. So we told the bishop, who we have a super relationship with, that we would clean it tomorrow, saturday, after we had our lunch appointment with him. So the next day we came to clean it.
Our church is nice. It's pretty small, but it is really sweet, especially compared to the super bad housing surrounding it. There is a huge fence/brick wall surrounding the whole church too. And bars on all the windows of course. But while we were spending a little time cleaning it, I looked into the back little lot of the church which is also fenced and in there was a huge horse! It was nuts. We didn't do anything about it then, but the next day at church we went and walked around the church and there was no horse, no sign of it entering or anything. Just a bunch of horse poop. So that's a pretty sweet argentina mystery.
Also, about church. I taught the gospel principles class! It was about charity. I spent a little under 2 hours preparing using my language study time etc. It was a lesson about charity. It was descent but there were some times I certainly struggled. The only people that were in there were the 3 elders and 3 recently baptized members. So that's exciting. Much more of that to come I'm sure.
Yeah, people love the pictures of the family and I carry a few around with me always. And they see the picture of you two, mom and dad and the people always say that you are very linda, mom. That means beautiful. That comment is always made. So that is sweet. And I also always tell everyone about Amanda's llama miento missional. And they love the one of Wilson playing futbol. Oh, last week playing futbol was SO AMAZING! I did very well, but we did just play against the zone. There is only 10 of us.
My health is very good. No feet problems at all. Doing very good. I drink the water straight out of the tap. No problems so far . . . . I am sure I will get sick. . . there is just no avoiding it. But right now I am golden.
Yesterday was a bit discouraging because we had nobody at church! We committed some people to come but nobody showed up! But I learned that it is not me they are rejecting, it is Christ. 1 Nephi 22:5, which is even sadder! Saturday night we went back to follow up on a guy, Miguel, and found to our delight that he had read all the intro to the Book of Mormon and the first 2 chapters. It was so awesome! We talked about it and then talked about him coming to church the following day. We even had him bring his alarm clock out and helped him set it so he would be up for 9:30 church. Elder Cabranes is amazing like that. But alas, he didn't show to church. And right now we have some really good people but no one has a fecha, a baptismal date. But we are going to hit it hard and hopefully next week as I type to you I can say, Yes, we have someone on date to be baptized!! We can do it.
One thing I really love is 1 hour of personal study. I have almost stopped falling asleep in it everyday. So that is great. I am almost adjusted to this life. Yeah, but I learn something every day from personal study. It is really really great. And yes, it is still way cold here. I can't wait for spring and for everything to turn beautiful.
We have a zone conference this week on thursday which happens every 3 months. So we bus to mendoza at 2 AM, have zone conference and then return. It is 4 zones, I think. So that will be different. And last night we mixed it up a bit and bussed our whole zone to just tract, like 30 minutes away to help Elder Reynolds and his comp who work that area, with a white storm. We showed up and Elder Reynolds and his comp had it all planned out. We were each assigned a different comp and we were given maps, names and addresses and the plan was to contact all the inactives and first see if they still lived there and then to try to just talk with them for a bit and try to remind them of their feelings at their baptism. So that was sweet. And what was even sweeter was that Reynolds paired himself with me!! It was the best. My 3 favorites in the missino are Reynolds up top, then a close second is the ap Elder Weist, and then Elder Cabranes.
Ok, so another thing. Yesterday we showed up at a house with a less active mom and a recently baptized little girl. The plan was to read the Book of Mormon with them. There is power in that. But we got there and Elder Cabranes forgot this himself, but also completely spaced telling me we were doing service. So we went out to the front of this house and started cutting down branches off of some trees. I wish I would have had my camera. Just me in my missionary outfit in a tree with a saw. It was pretty sweet. But there was this one branch way out there and I had to balance very carefully and reach super far to get it. I wish you could have seen that. Pretty much really hard.
Well, I'm about out of time. I wish you could see it here. It's so nuts! Well I have really enjoyed the last hour. Thank you so much for the amazing emails mom and dad.
I love you Mom. And I love you Dad. And all the rest, Amanda, Saydi, Harrison, Jefferson, Benson and of course Wilson!! I love all of you too.
Thank you for your prayers. They definitely help.
This is your missionary, Elder Ostler
I love you.
August 16, 2010
12 years ago
