This week was fantastic. Elder Menocal and I have been continuing travelling throughout the mission working with the Zone Leaders and it has proven to be super successful. We are happy to know that the vision that President Avila has for the mission is being put into practice and that the missionaries are seeing miracles by applying the simple principles that have been taught. This week we went up to San Juan to be with Elder Roché and Elder Baker which are two really good friends that I have here on the mission. Elder Baker was in the zone in san luis and Elder Roché was travelling for 2 transfers here in the offices so that made it really easy to go and do what we were called to do. I had the opportunity of working with Elder Roché. On Tuesday night we went to accompany a companionship of hermanas to an appointment that they had with one of their investigators. I had never worked with sister missionaries before, and honestly didn´t know what to expect, but I was amazed. These two sisters taught with a Spirit that was incredible. They changed the way that I think about sister missionaries. The lesson we had with this investigator went really well and he is getting baptized today! On Wednesday morning, Elder Roche and I worked in their area and saw another miracle. We were teaching a man who stopped them on the streets and said that he wanted to get baptized, but that had a huge doubt about the virgin. We were explaining to him about how we think about the virgin and how she was obviously chosen by God to be the earthly mother of Jesus Christ, but that she has no power or authority to be our intercessor between us and God and that the only true faith is faith in Jesus Christ, not in the Virgin. The man understood it well and then we asked him for a reference. He started explaining his neighbor to us and how she was this woman that was always with different men and didn´t know how to raise her own children and how she was just a mess, but we went and contacted her and the story was nothing short of a miracle. We knocked her door and I promise you that I have never seen a bigger smile in my entire life. She seemed so happy to see us and it felt as if we had known each other for years. She immediately made us pass in to her house and we started figuring out who this person was. As we were asking a few questions she asked us in the most simple wording I had ever heard what it was that we had brought to her house. We told her that we brought the most important message that she would ever hear in her life and then explained her the story of the Restoration. As we were sharing the story of Joseph Smith she stopped us and said, ¨chicos, I now know that God is not a God of coincidence. Just 20 minutes ago I was thinking about the church and why there are so many and I was wondering how I could become better. Then I heard a knock on my door and it was you.¨ I know that God is continually preparing His children and how blessed I felt at that moment to be worthy enough to listen to the Spirit and act and spiritual promptings. I wish I could be there to see how her progress continues, but the stories like these are ones that make the mission amazing. On Thursday I had the opportunity to work with another really good buddy who started out the mission when I was down in Alvear and we had a blast and were able to do one more baptismal interview and then yesterday morning Elder Menocal boarded the bus and headed on back to Mendoza to have interviews with President. The interview that I had with President was fantastic and we talked about what I am learning and what are some of the hard parts about being where I am at. I answered him honestly and told him one of the hardest parts is always being me. Sometimes we show up to a zone and in order to resolve some of the problems I am often tempted to be someone that I am not and every time I give in to those temptations, those situations never turn out the way I intended them to turn out. President helped me see that the Lord called me to be where I am because of who I am. He doesn´t expect me to be perfect and he does expect me to repent and change some of my old habits, but he doesn´t expect me to change ¨me.¨ I felt really good when he told me that and it made me excited to keep on keepin on. This has been the hardest, most rewarding time of my mission for sure and I am so happy to be serving the Lord in this amazing Christmas season.
Just to let you know we have permission to use Skype for the phone call home or if you would like we can just use the good ol telephone. I am good with either option so just let me know which you would all prefer. I need to know what time you will all be available if we are using skype so that I can get the account set up and do all that good stuff so an email back asap would be great.
I hope you all have a very good week with the last minute preparations and dinners and good stuff that you will be doing. I love you all!
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