Rafael Castillo- Week #13

Hey Everybody!

First, President Benton made his first changes. Investigators now only have to attend church 3 times instead of 4, so that has a lot of Elders excited. It doesn't seem like much, but trust me, if there is one thing I have seen in this work it is that Satan only needs one day to completely change a person's mind about the gospel. Also, the rule for general conference is that we are supposed to go to priesthood and Sunday morning, and if we want to go to any others we have to bring investigators. Also, our stake center is like 50 minutes away by bus...so I doubt investigators are going to be filling the buses to go. I think General conference is a great way for people to learn about the church, because it is straight teaching from the prophet and apostles...but at the same time...IT IS STRAIGHT TEACHING FROM THE PROPHET AND APOSTLES AND I DONT WANT TO MISS IT! Thus...I have made a goal to fire up our investigators about hearing from the Prophet and Apostles so I can go as much as I can.

Also, anyone ever heard of Elder Russell M. Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve? Oh yeah, him...also he is coming to our mission on October 13th! A memo went out to everyone saying to be in a certain chapel near the capital by a certain hour to hear him speak to just our mission. Everyone is pretty excited about that...also me...I am excited.

I just got back from the temple, and it was sweet! We obviously did the session in Spanish, but I understood a lot of it, mainly because I remember it in English. It was funny though because it is all in ye and thee and thy so it is in the vosotros form in Spanish, which nobody uses in normal talk here, except I have been told those crazy Spaniards use it up in Continental Europe...and I say continental Europe because some countries, such as Argentina, are a part of Europe, just not continental Europe. It is true; ask anyone here, they will say they are European, but maybe only because I am so close to Buenos Aires. You hear that Brett? We are serving in the same...continent plus one? What is a group of people or land called if is a whole continent...and then also one country on the other side of the world? Anyways...vosotros, it was interesting. It was a beautiful temple, but wow the Celestial Room is small. Smaller than Billings, yet the Buenos Aires temple is considerably bigger than Billings...one of the mysteries of life.

Today on the way to the Temple we had to switch buses in Laferrere, Elder Sabey's area, where he had a baptism last week woo hoo, and I saw my first McDonalds in the country, and let me tell you, it was MASSIVE! It was seriously bigger than any fast food restaurant I have ever seen, it had like 2 floors and a balcony and stuff, it was sweet!

Also, Grandma Wilma is winning the contest of who sends me the most written mail. Her prize is being mentioned right now as the person who sends me the most written mail. Tell her sorry she hasn't gotten anything from me yet, but last week I didn't write anybody because of zone activity, and I also have to go find somewhere that sells envelopes because I ran out, but she will get something soon. Also, I still haven't gotten something from Grandma Sherry, but once you get down there mom and set up her new computer I'm sure I will get some things. Regardless, I am going to write both of them this week.

No there are no museums to go to here in Castillo. It isn't very...developed...at least the part I am in. There are 3 wards here, and I only walk around one, so I don’t know, and unless we get permission we can’t leave our areas on P-day, so we can't just go into the city for a day of sight-seeing haha.

So the members don't give us a lot of references, but I hear when they do they almost always end up in baptisms. We try to get references all the time, but the members always say they will look around or think about it. Anyway, this past week we received like 5 references so that was neat. Also we have one investigator with a fecha.(date for baptism) His name is Martin, and he was a reference from the Romero family. He lost his wife, and was really receptive to the Plan of Salvation. Also, he knows the Bible cover to cover, like seriously, he is the bomb. So we gave him a Book of Mormon, and the next appointment asked if he read it...no...why?...my niece stole it...what?...she stole it...why?...I don’t know, she was curious so she started reading it, and she really likes it and wants you to start teaching her too...umm, let me think, PSSSHHHH Take 10 copies of the Book of Mormon and hand them out to your family to see if they like it!!!! IT WAS SWEET! Also, his baptism is set for Oct. 25. We ran into him yesterday on the street and asked if he read...yeah, the whole thing...WOOO! He is a stud...except he is a bit confused...he somehow got it mixed up that Lehi is Levi...as in one of the sons of Israel...and he thinks that the Book of Mormon is the story of what happened to the tribe of Levi when the tribes were scattered....so yeah, kind of need to straighten that out with him, but geez he read the whole thing in 4 days!

Also, it is funny how I am mistaken for different nationalities all the time. I have been called Canadian? English, and my favorite just this past week, Russian? Some guy asked if I was from Russia, because my cheeks are always rosy...I am not even making this up right now...anyways, all is well, and I am more confident in the language, but anything can happen in a week so keep an eye out for next week’s e-mail. Love you everyone!

Love, Sean

P.S. Will someone in this country please get married!