Elder Morley Haley Santa Fe Argentina Mission: Hail in San Cristabol

Ohhhh boy how are you all doing today?? Well, it’s me again for another update on my life. It has been a pretty good week. We are getting more used to the new area and trying our hardest to find new people to teach. But, to be honest, Pdays here are a bit dull. Not too much to do in a small town like this, and not too many people to pass the time with. But, Elder Smith and I have been trying to take advantage of it and we just got done with a nice, Argentine Siesta. Ha ha. Just kidding. So not too bad a day so far. But let’s see... what happened this week??

Well Elder Smith and I are kind of starting from scratch here in San Cristobal. So we don’t really have too many people that the previous missionaries left us. So we are just trying to find as many people as possible. Most of the time we are contacting and contacting and contacting just about all day. It’s a bit tough, but we are trying to visit a few members at the same time and try to get some references from them too. But, luckily we ended up finding a few new people to teach this week. We are going to try to get the follow up lessons going this coming week, but for the most part, the work is going pretty decently.

Last night we went and did some visits to a few members with the Branch President, Presidente Lisardo. He is a really good, humble, and faithful man. He is always willing to help the missionaries and is a real example of charity to us and to the all of the members here. So we visited a few members that weren’t able to make it to church yesterday and shared some time with them and then shared a small scripture and spiritual thought. It was a great experience and I have already grown to love Presidente Lisardo. In one of the visits, I shared the scripture in 3 Nephi 13 verses 31 to 34:

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.

After reading the scripture and a few thoughts, Presidente Lisardo shared an experience that he had in relation to the scripture. He shared with us that the other day he and his family didn’t have anything to eat and he was worried about what he would do to provide for his family. But, just in his moment of need, the Lord blessed them in a miraculous way. A few days before this happened, Presidente Lisardo had bought a few raffle tickets from his children for a raffle that they were doing in school. The prizes for the raffle included a few items of food. So, the day that Presidente Lisardo was worrying about his family’s food, the raffle was drawn. And miraculously he was drawn as the 2nd place prize winner. He was able to receive an entire chicken and a salad to help feed his large family. What a great experience and great testimony builder for the exact scripture that had been shared. I was filled with the Spirit and Presidente Lisardos experience helped me build my own testimony also.

We also had the chance to watch a special conference with the prophet, President Nelson here in Argentina. He was in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, and we watched the transmission here. We still didn’t have internet in the church building, so we went to one of the Cyber cafes. It was a pretty hot day and the room we were in didn’t have any air conditioning nor fans. So we were kinda baking there in our seats. But we were still grateful for the opportunity we had to listen to the Prophet and here is councils. It is always a great blessing to listen to his words for us. But I also really enjoyed the message given by the Sister Nelson. In her message she talked about her experience as she sacrificed her time playing scrabble on her phone to start doing more Family History work. I loved the way that she motivated me to work on my family history work. And although I don’t have too much time on my mission, not to mention how inexperienced I am at Family History work, but I have a goal to be able to work hard and be more invested in my Ancestry work once I return from my mission. But in the meantime, I invite you all to take the time to read the talk entitled "The Joy of Redeeming the Dead" and to consider how you can become a part of the great work for your ancestors.

Welp. Not much else happened this week. So I’d just like to leave you all with my testimony of the Plan of Salvation and our role in it. I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us and that we have the blessed opportunity to receive and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives. I know that my Savior lives and that he has helped me become a better person and has helped me realized and find my purpose in life. I am grateful for the chance that I have to share the wonderful message of the Plan of Salvation with others and help them change their lives for the better as well. I know that power of the Atonement is real. And I share these things with you all in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Oh and it hailed this week for about 20 minutes and then out of nowhere it just stopped. So that was nuts. I’ll try to send the video....

Thank you all!!

Chau

Elder Haley