Parque Leloir- Week #89

The Church is true...

Hey there gang!
This week has been sweet! First of all, congratulations on everybody for their great missionary experiences this week, or planned missionary experiences for the following week. Mom! Your visiting teaching is resulting in 4 baptisms! That is legit…you are officially a useful member in the eyes of the elders. Also, I am guessing that the Academy Award went to “El Secreto en Tus Ojos”, because it is like huge here, and the only movie made in Argentina that I have ever heard of. All the rest are from the States with Spanish dubbed over it. I have not gotten my package yet, but we get mail tomorrow so I am sure it will get here. I get mail every Tuesday now, just like everybody else…so no more office privileges of opening mail on the spot. Elder Hinckley and I live by ourselves in the smallest apartment I have ever seen, but it is sufficient for our needs. Elder Hinckley cut my hair today…and my head is basically shaved. Also, what are the pin numbers to my personal credit cards? I have never used them and don’t remember in the slightest. Today I bought a Mate that is pretty sweet! It was in a nice souvenir store. I also bought postcards to send you. So be on the lookout. Elder Hinckley is a River fan, but I have never really declared a favorite team. Just know that The River-Boca rivalry is like Yankees-Red Sox, or USC-Notre Dame in the Gilmore family.

Zone Conference went really well. We were supposed to take 45-50 minutes, but we were running way late all day so they told us to do it in 25, and we took around 30. So it was actually really good, because we could cut out all the parts that were kind of boring, like reading Preach My Gospel and stuff. Ha…that was a joke, don’t worry. It was fun though, we started out using a trompo, which is a toy that for some reason every Chilean elder knew how to use. It is kind of like an old fashioned top with a string on it and you throw it down with some special flick of the wrist and it spins for years. We had an American do it first, who couldn’t do it, because he had no idea how to use it, and then we had a Chilean do it and it was cool and he did tricks and stuff. So we related that do companionship study. If you know how to study effectively with your companion, it is fun. But if you don’t know how, it isn’t fun. So most people don’t have a good comp study so they give up and don’t want to do it anymore, hence they waste time every morning from 9-10. Then we talked about how to enjoy comp study. It was funny that in Preach My Gospel chapter 2 it talks about studying and on the first page it says, “Most missionaries don’t know how to study effectively.” Ouch…ok. So it went well, and we are glad it is over so we can start focusing in on the investigators.

After the zone conference we went with the assistants and President Benton to go check out a potential new mission home. It was…massive…it looked like the White House. Not really, but I was trying to help you get an idea of what it was like in your minds. Anyway, after that we went to the meeting with the Stake President. It went really well. Stake Conference is in two weeks, and President Muni (stake pres.) asked President Benton to speak about how the Church is our second home. Great topic! President accepted, and so now we really need to get people to stake conference to hear what he has to say. I can’t think of a better topic for investigators to hear about. Also General Conference is in 3 weeks…that was the fastest six months of my life. I have to start getting questions ready! They will all probably be trunky questions.

So the baptisms went great!!!! Sebastian and Daniel are so awesome! They are going to be leaders one day. Sebastian had to be baptized 4 times…haha it was kind of awkward, because his Dad messed up the prayer, and then his foot came up, and then his wrist didn’t go under, and then his dad basically drowned him making sure he was completely under. We had investigators there watching so it was kind of interesting having to explain that. But everything went off without a hitch besides that. They both gave their testimonies after and it was soooooo funny. Sebastian went first and started crying before he could get a word out and just said two things and sat back down, so it was a really quiet spiritual moment. Then Daniel gets up to the microphone and just stands there looking at everybody, and then I think he realized he didn’t know what he was supposed to say, and looked over at the Bishop. So Bishop asks him how he feels, to which he responded, “Bien” and then stepped down and walked back to where his family was sitting. Ha the funniest part was that on the way down he looked at his mom, stuck his hands out and shrugged his shoulders like, “I have no idea why I was up there.” Haha it was great. So they are now members of the church.

Last story before I go. Our investigators at the baptism made it to church as well. Viviana and her 7 year old daughter Lucila, or Lucy for short. Lucy turns 8 next week, which I don’t know if you realize…is the age of accountability…anyway the first time we taught them they were really good. They like actually paid attention. Then the second time we taught them Viviana had a lot of really good questions, and she had actually read what we left her with. At the end of the lesson she looked at us and said, “God must have sent you here to help us.” We each then bore testimony how we are personal representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then she started crying. It was a really good lesson, and ever since then she has been willing to do everything we invite her to do. They came to the baptism and loved it, and then came to church yesterday as well. Lucy is the new love of my life…I mean…she is a cool little girl. She made us little action figure things out of the refreshments at the baptism. So we are going to keep working with them. Viviana has a boyfriend, but he lives in Capitál, so at least they don’t live together, which happens all the time here in Argentina. I hope they keep progressing. I kind of came to the realization this week that I have 3 ½ more months to find all the rest of the people I promised I would find and help. I have never felt so much pressure and urgency, but it is a good feeling. It is going to be exciting to see who the Lord will put in our path these last months in Argentina. Ok bye, I have to get out and WORK!

Elder Gilmore