Monday, February 26, 2018

No baptisms, but the Spanish is getting much better!!

Bueno, nuestra semana fue muy larga. We didn’t teach too many people, but our investigators are progressing well.

One of our investigators is Pamela and she has been pretty good before this week, but this week she made some pretty big steps. But her life has kind of taken a down hill approach also. She just lost her job and is kinda really short on money so she doesn’t have power to her apartment or food. So she is staying with friends and family but meets us at a members house that is really close to hers. So the first lesson was just a normal lesson with her. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she really loved it. And the following day, we went to the members home and taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was really really good. She really opened up about things in her life and I could really feel the testimony that she has and the love that God has for her. Then we offered to give her a blessing of comfort and strength because she really needs it with all the problems she is having. She said she would love one and asked me to do it! So that was kinda scary because the most I’ve done for a blessing of comfort was just stand in. So this was the first time that I’ve done a blessing AND it was in Spanish. I thought my Spanish was kind of rough, but I could really feel the spirit and knew what she needed to hear. Pamela really has a desire to be baptized, but she hasn’t been able to attend church yet. So right now, our goal is for her to be baptized on the 17th of March. 

Another one of our investigators is Ariel and he is a really super nice, really Argentine guy. I love him so much. He is really funny and has real faith. We just taught him this morning, which is different because its PDAY, but it was really good because he just understands everything about the gospel. He understands why we have commandments and why we need to follow them. He understands the restoration. He has a testimony of the Atonement and understands that no matter what he is feeling, he is always able to have help and support through Christ. We are going to baptize him the 10th because we want him to have one more church attendance. But he says that there is no question that he is going to be baptized. That something we love to hear!

This week we also had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I was with the new ZL, Elder Duval. He is a bit of a nerd but is a really good missionary. We didn’t have any lessons together, all of our plans feel through, but we did a lot of contacting, which is usually my least favorite part of the work. But he is really good at it. I learned a lot about how to relate to the people and be their friends, not just the “crazy Mormons with their weird Bible”. So that was really cool. 

We also had a really cool experience. We were just getting back the pench at the end of the night of the exchanges. We still had about 10 minutes before we were supposed to get back to the pench officially so we decided to go out and talk to one more person. I actually didn’t really want to because it had been a pretty long day full of walking, but we went out because it’s what we are supposed to do. So we literally went maybe 30 feet from our pench and found a really cool guy. When we first started talking to him, Elder Duval and I were just speaking in Spanish, but then he responded in perfect English. We were super surprised and super excited. He ended up being from the USA, born in LA and moved here about 4 years ago. So we were talking to him in English, which was amazing. And he was suuuuuuper funny.  Oh yeah, Elder Duval is from Utah by the way. So hopefully we can meet with him again. He works every night just outside our pench selling tickets, so I hope to get the talk even more with him

I also found a few old Liahonas and Ensigns from the 2017 General Conferences.... in English! So that is really cool. I love reading them, especially in English because I feel so smart and can actually understand literally everything they say. 

So yeah, I know that I didn’t really talk about the whole week, but I tried to give all of the really cool and good experiences. But through all the contacting and stuff this week, my Spanish has improved so much. Before, I could talk alright. I could get my point across. My biggest problem was that I couldn’t understand a darned thing that people were saying. But this week, I have started to understand just about everything that people are saying. And its amazing!! The gift of tongues is so real!!

About the pictures: my birthday is famous here.  It is the Independence Day for Argentina.  There are a lot of things with 25 de Mayo.  So, that is totally awesome.  A lot of the missionaries here like put photos on their planners. So I decided to do it. I love it! We just print them off and glue them on. But the picture of the temple makes me miss going to the temple, a lot. It’s going to be a hard two years without being in one.  Also, the picture of the missionary with the Army of Helaman is so powerful.

Bien, ahora voy a compartir mi testimonio. Sé que el Evangelio de Jesucristo es una bendición en nuestras vidas. Sé que a través de este Evangelio, podemos tener paz y felicidad en nuestras vidas. Puedo testificar sobre el poder de la fe y las oraciones. Amo la Expiación también. Mi misión ha sido muy difícil, más de lo que esperaba. Pero, a través de la expiación de Jesucristo, sé que otra persona ha compartido mis sentimientos. Estoy muy agradecido por esto Digo cosas en el nombre de mi Salvador, Jesucristo, Amén.

Con Amor,


Elder Haley







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