So starting with last Tuesday... :) My companion and I talked alot that night, which was good. Talking about our dreams, the different things we´ve learned, (a little bit of conspiracy theories, brought up by her :)). We´ve also decided this last week that after our missions we´re going to meet up on an island owned by Portugal off the coast of Africa, and from there tour Europe with a little bit of money for traveling, but we´ve pooled our friends together, and have acquaintances or family in almost every country we want to visit. Love the mission!! (plus between the two of us we have english, spanish, and portuguese :)).
Mimi our investigator brought up two difficult questions in our lesson-- Why do bad things happen to innocent people, and why can´t she enter the temple?... She said she understood, but I don´t think she did (at least about the temple). It´s a touchy subject, but it really makes sense when you think about it.
We also found the Ortiz Family!!! They´re inactive and haven´t let the missionaries in for a few years now, but we needed to use the bathroom, so they let us in :). Then we talked, and their daughter wants to be baptized and learn the violin, so we´ll be teaching her the gospel followed by violin lessons!!
Also, we´re going to arrange piano classes so that I can teach some members, and of course we´re going to invite all of our investigators and contacts that we make in the street. Hna Mattos explained to me how to have a piano lesson with a lot of people present, and it makes sense, and I´m super excited to start!
The last two Thursdays have been crazy... mostly because of the elders :). They sent us a message last Thurs. at 9:30, saying that we had correlation at 10. What they didn´t know is that we had intercambios that day, and so we did a bunch of wacky switching until I ended up in Monte Grande with Hna Czappa, who´s finishing her mission (going home today :(). It was fun going around with her, and talking with the people in her area. She´s an amazing artist, and wants to be a journalist.
I´ve been reading about the ministry of Alma to his people, and one of the things he mentions the most is that he´s speaking the words that the Spirit gives him, or speaking according to the Spirit. As a missionary, that is vital, and becoming close to the Spirit is a goal for all of us :).
Also, like a recent post my mom sent me, Alma didn´t overexert himself. After a year of preaching, he took a short break in his house. Then he went and preached in a city before going to Ammonihah. After Ammonihah he took another short break (after helping the people in Silom).
The Friday after intercambios was amazing!! We had a record of 4 lessons in the day and found two new investigators--Yamila and Diana. They have problems with drugs, but Yamila has four children and wants to be able to help them more. We´ve met with her a couple more times, and as a companionship have studied in Preach My Gospel in how to help people with these problems.
After that full day, Hna Mattos was feeling really sick, so we planned for the week in Saturday and studied in the house. (Talking a lot more :))
Then we had Stake Conf. last Sunday, and the Stk Pres. said that if we could see the hundreds of people that are behind the one person we invite to church, how much more willing would we be to invite more people to church? To share the gospel with them? It went along with what we learned in District Meeting. Imagine the ones you love most are hidden in the area you´re working in. How hard would you work, and how far would you be willing to go to find them and bring them the gospel?
Another speaker said something that affected me alot. The Lord didn´t call Alma, or Amulek to serve in Luis Guillón. He called ME. The same applies to all of you. The Lord called you to be in your family, your neighborhood, your calling, all in this time and this place for a purpose!
A member of the Seventy spoke, and shared that when going to a confernece, his objective is to reach out to one person and try to help them. He also talked about the lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal son, and our duties as members. It was amazing!!
It was interesting the difference between the streets these past two Sundays. Pleasant, warm weather--families outside chatting and talking with friends. Add a few degrees--Nadie!! (that means nobody :S). It´s gotten a lot warmer, and people have said that Spring didn´t happen this year and we´re heading straight for summer. (¨I´m dreaming of a white Christmas....¨)
An interesting thing from this culture is that it´s common to lose your light, or for your gas to be cut. In lunch a member said ¨Sorry it was late, I needed to go to my friend´s to cook the food.¨ or ¨We only have juice to give you, the water was cut again.¨ Wow.... Sometimes we take a lot of things for granted.
We found a less active who is now Evangelical (is that what it´s called in english?). She´s super friendly, and even though she didn´t accept the Book of Mormon we offered, in the prayer she prayed to know if she should return or not. :D
Then we visited a part member family and taught the mom and son (who aren´t members) about the Plan of Salvation. They asked amazing questions and showed a lot of interest. I´m excited to continue teaching them.
We met with Rosa more this week, and sang a hymn. She wants to bring her son to church with her, so we´ll start teaching him, too. She´s also moving into the elder´s area, but we´ll probably continue to teach her.
I met one of the investigators that Hna Mattos had taught yesterday, and we both met her husband, who has family in New York City. He and I talked a bit in english, then he saw my name and asked ¨Sprecanzie Duetch?¨ (or something like that) And I only know good morning and silent night, so ¨Sólo un poco.¨ But they´re super friendly and have invited us to their son´s birthday party.
All in all it´s been a great few weeks.
Now a new tranfer has started, and today Hna Hernandez (my new companion) arrived in Luis Guillón. She just finished her training, and is from Mexico. I´m super excited to get to know her more!!
Love you all!
Sister Tova S Biesinger
Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission
