February 16 Letter

Dear family and friends,
Oh my word the Lord just decided to bless us like crazy this week! It started out very slow and I can’t tell you how long the days felt. Hermana Capener even had kind of a goofy emotional breakdown involving her calling a senora a senor and saying, “Hola, soy Hermana Copener…” That was just an interesting day. We met a man named Adolfo. When he introduced himself he said his name was Adolfo, like Hitler. Then we met an old old man who told me his name and said, “but to me, you are Aphrodite.” Oh dear…after that we met a man who learned his English from reading magazines and made fun of us for when we freak out when the men go in to kiss our cheeks and we immediately almost “stab“ them with our hands because we DO NOT want them kissing us. He said “it’s like a sword! It’s so funny!” These stories do not include the many whistles and “Hola Hermosa” ‘s we got this week. When they ask me what I’ll miss most and not miss at all at the end of this mission I will say, “I will not miss in any way the Argentine men or the noise.” Anyway, moving on to the blessings. We tracted so hard this week. We knocked so many doors and asked for references from everyone we talk to in the street and members and we hadn’t been getting anywhere. Still, the only references we’ve received have been through the other missionaries in our zone. However, we taught a woman, Veronica, on Thursday who is married and has two daughters both baptism age. She was a street contact that must have been from FOREVER ago because I could not remember her for the life of me and we had an appointment set up which we set a long time ago because when we were looking in our agendas we could not remember who this person was. Anyway, we called her the night before the appointment and she said we could come by. Usually when we do that the people give us some crazy excuse as to why we can’t, so when she said yes, my head jerked up and I though, whaaaat? We were so excited! Anyway, we taught her lesson 1 and it was awesome and we left the plan of salvation pamphlet with her. She said she would read the marked page before Saturday, our next appointment. This time we taught both of her daughters, Sofia, 13, and Camila, 10, with her. It was so awesome, they all seemed so interested! Her daughters said they would read and pray with their mom and we told them they should read and pray with their dad. That’s gonna be a tough one. Veronica didn’t act like he’d be too interested. We’re praying real hard for that! 3 new investigators…WHAT?! We taught a woman, Marita, who is a friend of Ruth, a recent convert. Ruth has been talking to her friends A LOT about the church. We’ve received two references from her since she was baptized in December, Marita and some other lady who has a weird name and I can’t remember it. Her boyfriend, Estevan, is not a member, and wants to marry Ruth. She told him that unless he gets baptized that’s just not going to happen. He lives with his parents in a different neighborhood. He used to live with them before she got baptized, but she told him he needed to move out so she could get baptized. All of her kids got baptized before she did. We’ll probably start teaching him soon. This family is just amazing! Anyway, Marita, she’s crazy! We’ve taught her twice, but the first time did really count because of…I don’t know how to explain it, she was just in the house when we were teaching Ruth and her kids. This time counted because Ruth set up the appointment on purpose, but she didn’t tell us about it until the day of, which was okay with us because we had no appointments at the time. Anyway, we watched Together Forever, but not really because we didn’t have the remote for the DVD and we needed it in castellano. We answered her questions and Ruth explained to her the higher level of thinking we have in the church because Marita asked about how some people have a lot of marital problems and things like that. Ruth said in the church we know we’ll be together forever, we always have that mind-set, so the families (for the most part) in the church are a lot more loving (at least they should be right?). Anyway, it was a really good lesson. Marita put on a cumbia CD and the lyrics were talking about God and Jesus Christ and all I could think of was…holy cow I feel so irreverent right now. Afterward one song was over, we turned it off and we sang Nearer My God to Thee and I Know That My Redeemer Lives. We then explained that because of the sacrifice Christ made for us we are ALWAYS reverent when we talk about Him and sing. I think she could feel the difference. We now move on to Valeria. She was also a street contact. The first time we met with her, she didn’t have a lot of time so we did a brief lesson 1 and gave her a Book of Mormon. We assigned her 3 Nephi 11 and asked her to read and pray. That was a long time ago and we were a little worried that we would lose her because the time period in between meetings was huge! Anyway, we taught her again last night and verified what she read and answered questions she had. We then went over 3 Nephi 11 explaining why we need to be baptized with someone who has the RIGHT authority, and how when someone knows the Book of Mormon is true, they know that Jesus is the Christ, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that he restored the church of Jesus Christ, and that the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the kingdom of God on the earth today. We then asked her if she believed this was true, she said YES! Then we gave her the baptismal commitment. She then said, “yes, but I already have my baptism” (baptized as a baby). We then re-explained the above mentioned things and told her that we have a baptismal service planned for the 21st of March and this is a goal. She said yes and was nodding her head. We explained that during this time she gets to know the church better and reads more and if she’s not ready we can change it. Right at this moment her mom walked in. AGH! THE STRESS!!! Anyway, she sat down and Hermana Capener taught a quick, very brief lesson 1 to her and we explained questions she had as well and she committed to reading and praying as well. So if my calculations are correct, we have 5 new investigators for this week (which was our goal and this week was the first time we’ve ever met a goal for new investigators) and an investigator almost with a baptismal date. We’ve gotta verify that. Valeria doesn’t count as a new investigator because we met with her a couple weeks ago for the first time. I’m seeing the Lord’s hand in our work every single day. We strive every day for excellence and continue to rely on our Heavenly Father for everything. Thank you all so much for the stories and the prayers and support.—Mom, we have not been affected by the flood, but you might want to ask Shelly if Brandon was affected by the storm they had in Salta, I guess it was pretty bad! I love you all! Until next week!Hermana Shumway