Date
October 20, 2015
Area
Resistencia
Companion
Elder Karmanov
3 Aint a Crowd
Hola Mamá,
I am still feeling just so grateful for all the Lord has done for me. I know that He blesses me on a daily, and even hourly basis, and He really is interested in my overall success. That is such a sweet feeling. This week has had lots of ups and downs, and I have had lots of time to think and ponder about what I still need to learn. I have been really trying to do what Elder Lawrence taught in conference and ask more in prayer what it is that I lack, what it is that I need to change in order to progress in the ways that my Heavenly Father wants me to be. I am still learning about the MANY things that I need to improve on, but I feel that right now I need to learn more patience and ask God to give me more love and charity.
We've had an interesting week. Maria has been progressing well. She looks happier now, and is excited for her baptism. She is starting to say that this is "her" church and that she is now understanding things that she never understood in any other church. The bummer is that she didn’t come to church this Sunday because she was out in the country with her family, so she won’t be able to get baptized this week. However, we are thinking that that will be okay, because she needs a little bit more time to visit her and teach her. (Sonia might be coming with us to visit her tonight! So pray it all works out).
David is great. We weren’t able to teach him all week because he has been super busy with school, but he came to church on Sunday and started telling everyone that he’s getting baptized this weekend! Haha. Well, we ended up having a chat with him and changing his date, because we haven’t even been able to teach any of the commandments yet. But we have a lesson with him tonight, and he is now preparing to get baptized on the 6th of November! Whoo hoo!!!!
Silvina is reading the Book of Mormon and is praying. She really understands what we teach with her and always has good questions. This week we got to know her kids and have started to teach them too.
Mariza! She is a really sweet lady of about 60 years old. She has been to like every church known to man, and wants to know which is true. She has listened to the missionaries before, but felt like she never got her answer. She said that she just wants to be able to UNDERSTAND. She has been confused. Well, we have been teaching nice and easy and slowly and she is now really progressing. She doesn’t know how to read really well and is easily embarrassed, but now we've gotten to read and pray out loud with us. On Sunday, she came to church! She loved it. When we had called her the night before to see how she was doing to be able to come to church she said, "Super great!" She has a baptismal date for the 6th of November too!
Guess what! We started teaching English Classes this week! Well, I started teaching English classes. Haha. It was really great. Not many people came, but there were several. We started teaching basics like greetings, pronouns, and the verb to be. The plan is to teach a one hour class every Thursday night. It'll be great.
Saturday apparently was the worldwide day of service, so our stake went to one of the main hospitals here in Resistencia and we cleaned up the grounds - picking up litter, raking leaves, and collecting more garbage. It was a fun opportunity to work together with the members and get to know some new people.
So Sunday we got the tablero! (the paper with all the changes for transfers!)....Drum roll please.....I stayed! I am still here in Resistencia, Barranqueras! Here I will give my all for the last tiempito of my mission! I am so happy to be able to stay here and keep working with these wonderful people. I am still with elder Karmanov....y.....Elder Henderson! We are a trio now! This will be a good experience!
So yesterday was the day of traveling and everything. While Elder Karmanov was in the terminal helping with the changes and helping get the missionaries to their new destinations, I went to the mission office and passed the day with my MTC group - Elder Hulme, Elder Ware, Elder Coates, Elder Sipple, etc..... It was a strange experience. We did a lot of catching up, lots of storytelling, and took a bunch of pictures. In the evening we got to go to the mission home (Which I have never been to nor seen actually) and Hna. Franco prepared a very very nice dinner for us all. After dinner, ice cream, some testimonies, and more pictures, they departed and I went back to my area. I just can't believe it. It feels like life for me is just going on normally and it feels as if they were going home early. Haha.
Well mom, I love you. I am so grateful to be here. I know that the Lord is watching over me and over you. It makes me feel so good to know that. I know that I still have something to do here. I know that it was the right choice for me to stay here, and for this amount of time that I have left. I know that Jesus is the Christ, that God really is our Father, and that Joseph really saw them both. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder C.