Monday, January 24, 2010

First thing first, my new address for letters and such is;
Entre Ríos 435
Resistencia
Chaco
Código Postal 3500
Well this week has definitly been a challenge, but ive been grateful for the growth ive experienced, i can communitcate pretty good with my companion which has been pretty suprising, i have only had one or two times this week when i have had a problem communticating with him. Ha he is definitly an interesting Elder, he suprised me when we got on the bus last week for the first time to go to our area he stood up and preached to the whole bus, it was very suprising, but i kind of laughed because as he preached to the bus he showed no emotion, haha, so everytime we get on the bus he does that, if the driver will allow it haha. I like having him as a companion, he is a good example of how we need to talk to everyone and teach to every person we can find, our teaching pool increased greatly this week, it was pretty cool, it is amazing how many members live in my area, all are inactive but we cant go an hour without finding a member, he really forces me to teach and to talk to people so i like that because im coming out of my comfort zone a little more. We have a baptism this weekend(one of the sisters), one set for next weekend(the old guy without a shirt) and we have the other sister planned for the next week, if she will ever be home for the baptismal interview, and then we found another awesome family, the Gomez family, and they had missionaries last year and but they stopped for family matters, well we are teaching them now and they are golden, they have expressed that they want to get baptised so thats five more so our work here is exploding! My companion has a huge problem with not being able to follow a schedule at all, when its time to leave he is just starting to get ready so we are always like an hour late into our area, and when i try to tell him earlier that we have to go he doesnt really listen so im working on that. Other than that he is a pretty good example for me, and i know what it is that i need to learn from him so thats been a blessing. As we have talked with the investigators most of them think that i have been here for 6 or 7 months because of my spanish, so i defintily know that i have been blessed with the gift of tongues, its wierd that they will be visiting with me and i will answer back in english alot because it i understand so easily what they are saying, ive really been blessed with that, but i still have so long to go before i can be able to really express how i feel so i am working hard on that.
This week the weather has been crazy, tuesday it rained it rained so hard that we werent able to make it out of the apartment, the streets were literally rivers and i cant even describe the amount of water that fell from the sky! Then the clouds disappeared and they havent returned this whole week, it has definitly been the hottest weekend yet, really hard to stay motivated while im out working, but we have got a plan so that we are always teaching during the hottest parts of the day and that we can tract and find new people when its cooler.
Emotionally im feeling a little better, ive studied so much about the atonement and adversity and burdens this week, ive read all of the general conferece talks over the past year and a half and ive read every article on Christ that we have in our apartment, which is alot haha, im starting to scratch the surface on what the atonement can do for me and the comfort i can recieve. Its been really good, and im starting to notice that the lord is kind of forcing me to rely on him, im figuring out that he is making me into the missionary i need to be in order to be successful and gather his lost children here in Argentina. But man this is hard, if i let myself think about tomorrow, yesterday, or anyother time than now i feel such an overwhelming sense of despair, i dont know why, so ive worked as hard as i can this week to control my mind, which has been crazy tough. This is definitly the steepest uphill battle ive ever fought. Im not too excited for the future, but as i have prayed and fasted i have felt a sense of peace for the future and i know that satan is very clever and he doesnt need me to commit major sins or anything like that to keep me from being a successful missionary, so im just trying as hard as i can to endure, to bare with patience my burdens, to refrain from complaining and focus on the love of God and know that he has my best interests in mind. Thank you so much for all of the emails for support, i defintily have been blessed with the best family that is possible, all week i couldnt wait to read my emails and to find help from the ones i love the most, i miss you all so much, more than words can explain. I hope time flies right now so i can get back to you, but then again i secretly hope that in the future i dont want time to fly, because that will mean that i love my mission. But i really do love you all so much and everyday i cant stop thinking about all of my family. I love you all!