Elder Morley Haley Santa Fe Argentina Mission: Rain and new people...

Wellllll alrighty my friends and family. Here we are again, reading the freakishly long emails by yours truly. This last week of the mission has been pretty good with quite a bit of cool stuff going on and good stories and experiences. It was a good time and with a bunch of funny and spiritual stuff. Alright, so lets jump in, no?

Tuesday. In the morning, we had to travel to Santa Fe and have a kind of "Mini Zone Conference" in one of the church buildings out there. I say that it was a "Mini" one because it was only our district and one other one, that consisted of the assistants, the Sister training leaders, and Elder McCown and his comp. It was super good. We reviewed what we had learned in the Conference that we had with the Elder Villar and how we have been able to apply these things. So we talked again about the importance of Preach My Gospel and how we can be better, more effective, and more efficient missionaries. So that was super great. And afterwards, we each were able to have an interview with Presidente Westover. It was great, as always. I love the man. He has helped me learn a lot and how to be a better missionary and man. And, while I was waiting for my interview with Presidente, I was able to sit and chat with Hermana Westover too. Elder McCown was there too and I was able to catch up with him about the mission and life and stuff like that. So it was a pretty good, chill morning. Afterwards, because we weren’t given lunch as part of the Conference, we went and got some Sanduba, some super great sandwiches. Then we went to the Mission Offices to drop off a few papers and things, and pick up a few supplies and letters and packages and stuff. Packages are so great, thank you! By the time we got back to good old Santo Tome, we were able to drop the things off at the pench and then head to the FML Penno’s for our lesson and dinner with them. So this time we didn’t get into a lesson, but we did talk a lot about being good, loving members of the church and doing our best at not gossiping or saying bad things about the other members. Not that the FML Penno has problems with that at all, but just to help them understand the dangers of that and the importance of just being loving at all times. It was a good day.

Wednesday. In the morning we spent more time going through the list of members that we have and trying to get it all organized into areas and neighborhoods to make it easier and quicker in the future to identify members and where they live based on where we are going to be working. So we did that and then when out to visit a few of the members. First was Mari because we hadn’t seen her in a while. But she wasn’t home because she was working. We got into contact with her during the week so it’s okay. She hadn’t attended church for two weeks or so because she was sick and traveling. But, it’s all good. And then we visited a few other members, who apparently moved since the list was last revised the list, so we didn’t end up finding the members, but we did find and talk to a few other people who now live in the previously owned houses of the members. It was nice to talk to them, but sadly there doesn’t seem to be much potential there. After lunch and the siesta we went to visit a few other people that we had contacted before, but sadly, none of the people were home. Oh well. So we contacted a little bit and visit a few more members, but not too much happened that night.

Thursday. In the morning, we had made a few citas and lessons, but the people that we had made the appointmentes with forgot, so we had to reschedule and visit a few other people. One of which was Maria Jose, who lives in Las Vegas. We went to see her, but she wasn’t home, so we went just across the street to visit her ex-mother in law. The ex-mother in law is the crazy lady that always calls us spies. She wasn’t home either because she was sent to the hospital after a bunch of heart problems and was going to get open heart surgery. Crazy stuff, so throughout the week we kept stopping by them to get the news and info on her surgery from her kids. Then we had a lesson with Jonathan and reviewed the Plan of Salvation and I used my little graph thing. It was pretty good lesson and Jonathan, like always, had a few questions. But all for the morning. On the way from Las Vegas to the house of a member for lunch, we were about half way there when a huge, crazy storm started to absolutely DUMP rain. So we showed up to the house for lunch a little wet because we didn’t have any umbrellas or rain jackets. We didn’t pack them with us that day because there was not a single cloud in the sky when we left the pench. I should know better, being from Nebraska. I know storms can roll in fast! So that was fun, being soaking wet. After lunch, we had to walk all the way back to the pench in the rain too. When it rains the streets fill with water. Sometimes we have nowhere to go, except through the water to get where we need to go. Then we went back out to work in the afternoon and visited this guy named Ricardo who we are teaching now, but because he has super bad problems with him roof and it was raining. He wasn’t able to attend us because the rain was pouring in his house just as bad as it was outside. So we offered our help, but he declined and asked us to come back some other time, when it wasn’t raining. I hope he will let us help him! So we went just around the corner and had our lesson with FML Penno. This time we reviewed the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and got into some deeper doctrine than we did the first time we taught them. It was funny to think that the last time I had taught them that lesson, it was with Elder Grandon and we had only just recently gotten to know the FML Penno. Now they are basically family and I can’t imagine my mission or my life without them. Then we ate dinner and just had a good old time. Also, since they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving in Argentina, I totally forgot that it was a holiday.

Friday. In the Friday morning, Elder Cortes was sick, and Elder Carter wanted to leave and visit a few people. So I went out with him in the nice rainy, cold day and we went to visit a few people. Mind you that his area is super far away, so we had to walk super far just to get to their area, and then we had to walk super far away to get to the cita that they had. So, let’s say I was a bit tired of walking. But! We were able to find the guy we were looking for and teach him the Restoration. It was an alright lesson. The guy wasn’t paying too much attention. We got to teach him, but didn’t have much time left after that, so we had to use the rest of the time walking home. Then, in the afternoon, we did basically the same thing. We went to visit a few people in our area, but they ended up not being home. So we went to the church to have our english class, but we realized that the hermanas had our keys to the church, so we werent able to get in. So we went to the area of the other Elders again, but this time even further than we were before. And I mean like 30 or so blocks away from our pench. So we went there to have a lesson with a few of the Elders investigadores, but when we got there, they let us in and we started having a pretty good lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but they had to do something and we weren’t able to end the lesson. So that was a bummer. We went all the way back to the pench and that was the day. Not too much, but we were happy about still leaving and working our hardest.

Saturday. Dang, Saturday was actually a super good day. In the morning, we went to visit a few people that we had made plans with in Las Vegas, but when we got to one of them, the lady that we had talked to wasn’t home, but the husband told us that we could go back in the afternoon and find her then. Then we went by the Spies lady and she now is in her house, but can do very little because they literally opened up her chest and now she has to heal from that. She is kind of old and the constant pain keeps her from doing much other than lying in bed in anguish. So that was a little sad to hear, but at least she is alive. I hope she will let us give her a blessing this week. Then we went and contacted a few people and set up citas with them for the afternoon. We ended up having an afternoon full of citas. Then we went to visit a few other people in a different part of our area and ended up setting up even more citas for later in the week. So, after the siesta and everything, we went back out to work and our first cita was with the lady that wasn’t home in the morning, but that was going to be home in the afternoon. So we finally found her in her house and we were able to teach her about the Restoration. She found it really interesting because the first time that we contacted her, we gave her a pamphlet of the Restoration and she read the whole thing that same day. Wo when we went back to talk to her, she was asking us about the Book of Mormon and what it was and that she wanted us to go back another time and explain it to her. So we were finally able to teach her, and she accepted all of it. She thought it was great because she was also meeting with the Jehovah Witnesses and she was happy that we could answer the questions that she had that the Jehovah Witnesses couldn’t answer. So we invited her to read and pray and to come to church with us the next day. She accepted all of the invitations and was super happy and satisfied when we left. The next lesson was with two ladies that we had contacted in the morning. It was super cool because when we clapped at their door, the one lady, Celeste, answered and said that we were an answer to her prayers because she was actually, literally praying that she needed help from God when we clapped. So we talked to her and her sister, Maria. They were so cool. We sat down with them and just explained more about the mission and what we do as missionaries and a little bit more about ourselves. Then, they invited us inside and we taught them all of the Restoration. It was such a good lesson and they were so focused and interested. In the end they understood why we are the only true church and how they could come to know about it for themselves. It was fantastic. They even accepted when we invited them to baptism on the 22nd of December. So let’s just say I was super happy leaving their house. They were so cool awesome! We could joke around and have fun with them and it felt like they were almost already members. Super cool. Then, after we gave them a Book of Mormon and invited them to read and pray, we left and went to visit the Paola lady that we taught last Friday. We had passed by her the day before, but she wasn’t home, so we decided to pass by again. When we did, her daughter, Abril, answered, but Paola was just getting home from running errands. So we talked with her for a little bit outside and she invited us in to talk more. She told us that she had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon and that we was super interested, but had a few doubts. So what happened is we ended up teaching her and going through all of the details and proofs of the Ancient American Indians and how they really are the descendants of the Lamanites from the Book of Mormon. Paola is a lady that needs to know absolutely everything before she is convinced. But, in the end we tried explaining to her that the details, at times, are not important, and that we have to work by faith. We invited her to continue reading, but his time to pray to know if it was true or not. She accepted and we set up plans to go back the next week.

Sunday. It was a pretty good day on Sunday. In the morning, we went extra early to the church to wait for the people that we had invited, but sadly, none of them were able to show up. But, Jose Penno was super surprised to see us there before he was. So that was funny. During the classes we learned about the Holy Ghost and about how families are a responsibility that we have. It was a really good set of classes. Then during Sacrament Meeting, of course that was amazing. I’ve really come to love partaking of the Sacrament. It means so much. After that, our Bishop gave a super good talk on Gossiping and basically really taught all of the members. We always need to be reminded that gossip is not a good idea. I thought it was a great talk and I learned a lot. After lunch and the siesta, we went to visit a few people and a few members. The members we visited weren’t home, but the other Elders asked us to pass by for a contact of theirs and that actually ended up being a fun experience. The lady that we were looking for wasn’t home, but the husband was, so we talked to him. It turns out that he is a super crazy devoted Catholic, but not the normal Catholic church that you see and hear about. Even more extreme, Roman Apostolic Catholic church, so they have a few things that the typical Catholic church doesn’t agree with. So that was fun because he kept calling us "Mormons" in a super derogative way and was being super, super nice to us, but at the same time was trying to pick at us and Bible bash us a little bit. So that was funny. After him, we went by to see Gonzalo, the teacher of the Prinicipios del Evengelio. He is the convert of Elder Loveridge, and Elder Loveridge and I are going to have divisions this week. So we had to set up a cita with him so Elder Loveridge can see him. Then we went by the FML Amarilla. It was super great! We just sat down and chatted with them for a really long time. It was nice to just sit down and talk with them because they are going through a whole bunch of stuff, still... but we are always willing to help them and talk to them about their sons and share a scripture. They are really cool and amazing people with so much strength and faith. They really remind me of my family back home. Then, after that we went to visit a few other people and set up some stuff for the rest of the week. It was a super chill, sweet day.

That’s the week! We are going to be getting a lot more stuff this coming week. It is so great to see the fruits of our labors and planning and having faith. Also, sorry for no food pictures this week, I know you are super disappointed. Don’t fear, next week I will have so. Oh, and if you guys didn’t know yet, I’M GOING TO PASS MY YEAR MARK THIS WEEK!! THAT’S RIGHT BABY!!! I can’t believe it has already been a year. It is awesome!

Love you all!!

Chau

Elder Haley