Attitude

Well, this week was much better! I’m glad to say that although we didn’t have much success in terms of lessons and baptisms, I felt much better about this week. I will admitt, I had a much worse attitude about last week, but this week, I decided heck with that, and just tried to feel better about what we were doing. 

So last Monday we had one lesson, but it was a really good one. We went to visit a guy, but it turned out that he moved out and left his girlfriend after they broke up. So we taught her instead. Her name is Claudia and she is super nice. She has two kids, one about my age I think and a son about 14 or 15. We taught her the first lesson and she accepted our invitation to read el Libro de Mormon and if she prays and gets a answer that it is true, she will be baptized. So she has a date for baptism on 23 of February! 

On Tuesday, we didn’t have any lessons at all, but we did go around and try to visit people. So what I’ve been learning a lot about is that we don’t have to have lessons for us to have success. What I mean is that we aren’t complete failures if we don’t teach anyone. Sure it sucks and it’s tough, but we tried and God understands. 

Wednesday was the same as Tuesday. We didn’t get any lessons taught, but we visited some families and had some good experiences. That just builds my testimony even more about how this is so true and it is the right thing for me to be doing. If we have opposition, it just means that we are doing what Satan doesn’t want us to do. 

Thursday we only had one lesson, but it was with Hermano Avril, who is the boyfriend of Alma´s mom. So the lesson was really good. We taught the Plan of Salvation and he just really gets it. He is a really good guy and wants to be a member of the church. I know he will make a wonderful member. But other than that, we didn’t have anything else. But hey, like I said, my attitude has been a lot better about everything, so that has been cool. 

Friday was kind of crazy. We didn’t have any lesson plans, so we contacted, which I usually hate, but we met a really amazing lady. She let us in her home and as soon as we sat down, she started crying. We asked her what was wrong, and she said that she has cancer and her life is pretty tough. She can’t really move too well because she hurts a lot  She kind of just sat there and we talked. She gave us some mate teabags, which is a lot different than I thought mate would taste like, but it’s not too bad. But she is a really wonderful lady and is super nice. We ended up giving her a blessing which I was really nervous about because, you know, it’s in Spanish and my Spanish is trash. But it was actually really flipping good. I might have cried a bit during it and afterwards. But she is a really nice lady. She wouldn’t make a plan for us to teach her again, but we want to visit her again and we know she will let us in because she is a wonderful lady. 

Saturday we didn’t have any lessons again, but we did give another blessing to a brother who was having troubles. He told us a story about how when he was younger, he had an accident where his neck was kind of pressed down and he almost got paralyzed. But his spine was kind of out of wack and the doctors drilled holes in his skull and used hooks to pull his spine and stretch it back into place. So yeah that was cool to meet him. 

Sunday morning, we woke up and it had rained all night and was still raining. So at church, almost no one showed up, but it was still really good. I learned about goals during sacrament meeting and during priesthood I learned about how we can deal with our fears through faith and prayer. I thought it was a really good Sunday because I could actually understand people. It’s crazy how amazing the Gift of Tongues is! I love it!

So yeah. If you get anything from this, just understand that having a better attitude about things can completely change everything. As far as the compànionship is, we are doing much better, and I can say that prayers were answered. I also learned about myself because I’m really, really bad about sharing my feelings. But this week, I learned that its much better to just say how you feel instead of just being passive aggressive and not talking. So yeah.

As far as scriptures, I have started to read almost only in Spanish now! In the MTC and the first few weeks in Argentina, I would read a verse of the Book of Mormon and then the same verse again but in the el Libro de Mormon. It has helped a lot, but now I’m at the point that I can just read Spanish and get the gist of everything. 

Some other things about the work and Argentina:

*Tacos are amazing

*I calculated that we walk about 20 km or more a day and don’t really know what that is in miles, so maybe you can look that up. 

*This week is Carnival, and is pretty crazy. Last night, we were going home and walked through the very beginning of it, and in the words of Elder Mamani, "That is not of God!" Just imagine the Carnival like in the movie Rio, but in real life. It’s kind of crazy. 

*I get letters from the office at Zone Conference and we have one this week in Santa Fe. So hopefully I can get letters when I am there!

So yeah, a good week. Or at least better week. I hope everything back home is going well for everyone. See you in a week!  Thank you for the prayers. They really do work and are answered. I can testify of that.

Con Amor,

Elder Haley