I ask myself sometimes if we will ever stop with what we´ve got... But no, we don´t. The most funny part is that we have so many investigators, future investigators, contacts and baptismal dates that it´s humanly impossible to actually visit everyone!! We have to sort out the priorities, and do our teaching and visits according to that. At the end of Sunday night, the count of baptismal dates was a good, juicy 19. Haha! Answering your question about the siestas... Yes, EVERYTHING closes. It is the most annoying thing in the entire world. If you´re trying to buy something between 1:30 and 5:00... Good luck. It doesn´t help that the stinkin´ lady president of this country just made up holidays so they would have a holiday in every single month. Holidays are terrible for missionary work. Enough said.
Can you get me E. Adam´s (Holden) address in his mission? It´s been too long since I´ve heard from that kid. Happy birthday to Omi!!! I love you, and I hope you had a good one! 70 years young! You still look a good... 48... ;) Heh! I love you, Omi. That´s really good to hear that E. Carter is doing well. Makes me very happy to hear that. I miss the Bishop. I know he´ll be reading this, so I´ll just say it again. Thank you Bishop for all you did for me and my family. I owe you A LOT. I work for the Lord, and you had a small part in making that come about. You will be very happy to know that I CAN use Skype! I was going to ask you guys to buy a web cam for Christmas so I could talk to you guys!!! Let´s plan on it! That makes me SO happy! I´ll probably be calling in the morning (For you guys) There´s a 4 hour difference right now (I think) for you guys, but we´ll organize this a little better in the coming weeks.
Now, news. You will be happy to know that the pictures I thought I had lost on my 32GB card were saved!!! I took it to a members house, a Stud named Alberto Di Stefano, and he had installed a program on his computer that reads the internal memory of the card, even if all things have been deleted. He saved a good 400 pictures!
Now the real news. I will end with the best... We have found A LOT of people. A LOT of people want the Gospel. If it´s not the Gospel they want in this moment in time, it´s because they just don´t know it yet. They want what they FEEL. E. Calvache and I are good companions. We have a way of testifying and teaching in a way that every person can SEE and FEEL that what we are doing is something important. A good example would be Daniel and Miriam that we found this past week. They´re an older couple that were never religious, but in talking to us, they quickly began to see the light and feel the Spirit. They have never gone to church and don´t like the idea, but at the same time, want to hear our message, because they know it´s sent from God.
Next, Licandro and Miguerina. Now this is a couple that needs your prayers. All of you. We found them about 2 weeks ago and taught them about the Restoration and Joseph Smith. Everything seemed good and dandy when we left, but then we couldn´t find them for a good week and a half. FINALLY we found them and when we got in, only Licandro the husband would listen to us. The wife was giving us a cold shoulder, and didn´t want anything to do with us. We asked her to join us, and she said no. That She was SICK of all the missionaries from different religions coming to her house and telling her what to do. What had happened was after we had went to their house, their house became bombarded with Evangelicals, Christians, and ... Oh goody... Jehovah´s Witnesses. They are the biggest Apostasy I have ever seen. They came to their house and told them they couldn´t celebrate their daughters birthday, donate blood, or crap like that. From all these missionaries, she was fed up with it, confused and hurt. She began crying in relating all of this to us. We felt terrible. We agreed that all of what was happening to her and her family was difficult, and we understood that all she wants is the best for her family. We gave her the challenge to read the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11 and then ask Heavenly Father if we were sent from Him to help her family. If yes, we would continue, if no, we wouldn´t come back. We set up a time to come back, and when we returned... Weren´t there. Pray that we can find them and rescue them.
Miriam and Justino. They´re a couple that we found last week also, we have quickly became their friends, and Miriam and her two daughters, Yennifer and Karen (yes, Jennifer starts with a Y in Argentina) came to church with us yesterday! They loved it! Including, MIriam cried, loved it, and said she wants to get baptized. She and Justino her husband need to get married first... Grr.. But they´re awesome.
Now the grand finale. We have found another GOLDEN family. Names? Mirta, Ramón, Claudia and Dana. Mirta and Ramón are not married, but have been living together for 5 years with their daughters Claudia (10 yrs. ) and Dana (almost 3). We found them last week and from the beginning, we knew they were hungry for Gospel. We taught them about the Plan of Salvation and then asked Ramón to pray at the end, hesitantly, he did it and at the end Mirta was crying - I will tell you why she was crying in a little bit. The next time we went by, they were anxiously waiting for us and we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ - Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost and Endure to the End. There was a friend there, and he was, of course, a Jehovah´s Witness. He began trying to fight with us during the lesson! "Hey, I heard that you guys have a guy that you worship, equal to Christ! Hey, is it a sin to drink coffee? Hey, you don´t need to get baptized! Hey, I already have Jesus Christ in my heart, I don´t need to do anything else!" We calmly and patiently ignored him and taught the lesson, inviting them to ask Heavenly Father if what we teach is true. They accepted, greedily. The next time we came by, we went by with Alberto Di Stefano and his wife, Evelina. We taught them about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They loved Alberto and his wife, and loved everything about the prophets and Joseph Smith... Oh, what a family. Then we asked them to come to church, they said that they would love to! And so on Sunday, we waited anxiously for them to come... and finally, we saw them round the corner and walk up to the doors!!! It was incredible! Church was amazing, they loved every second. I was by their side the entire time to answer questions about the Sacrament or some word they didn´t understand. Later that night, we went by their house to check up on them. Amazing. We had the most amazing lesson. We had been planning to ask them to be married, because they need to be married to be baptized. We watched the movie Together Forever from the church and began talking about the importance of the family for them. In the end, we asked them if they would be married to bless their family, and follow God. They said yes. We have a goal for the 23d of December, one day before the baptism! Now we need to help them get the papers and everything ready so they can do it. Pray and fast for them, please. They are incredible. When the lesson was almost over, I bore my testimony of the faith that they had and the Spirit I´d felt. Then Mirta burst out crying, and began relating to us of her experiences for the last 3ish years. She had been having pains in her head that doctors could not explain, and one time she was in the hospital for 7 days, she had a dream that she was searching for something in the hospital, but could never find it. Then she found a room that turned into the church we have here in San Martín. She said that the church she went to yesterday, was exactly like it was in her dream! She then began explaining how her story was exactly like Joseph Smith´s and how she had prayed that God would send her someone to help her find the way. And what do you know? That same week, we knocked their door. I NEVER thought I would be one of the missionaries with the miracle story of someone praying for God to send them someone, and then we knocked on the door. I am blessed beyond... Ah. I love the Gospel. And the church is true. They are a very special family. I have seen miracles. My testimony is stronger than ever. I love you all. Pray for our investigators. I pray for you all, and hope you´re doing well.
E. Cuthbert
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