Elder Morley Haley Santa Fe Argentina Mission: IT's HOT HERE!!!!

HOooooooooOOOOooOOOOooOOOOOOOOOlaaaaaa my peoples and mis personas. Whelp. Not going to lie, this email is probably going to be a little bit shorter than last weeks. So, sorry for that, but hey, that’s what happens sometimes. But! It has been a pretty decent week. We were able to teach a bunch of lessons and start teaching a few new people. We hope to get to see them again sometime this week.

This last week has been so so so so so so so SOOOO hot. Like, melting our shoes on the asphalt hot. So that made the week a little long. But, just at the end of the week the weather got a little rainy and cooled down a bit. So now we are actually feeling nice and fresco without too much heat, but always with the humidity. But, sadly, on Sunday morning there was a huge rain storm with quite a bit of rain and lightning. And, because we are in Argentina, that means that there were very few people in the church for our meetings. Just about 10 people. Pretty crazy. And I was able to speak again in Sacrament Meeting, which makes that my 4th time speaking in the 5 weeks that I’ve been here. So I guess you could say that I’m getting pretty good at this Public Speaking thing. Blessings from the Mission!

But other than that, we have been meeting with all of our investigadores. Pablo is going pretty well and strong still. He wasn’t able to come to church last week because none of his clothes were clean and he didn’t want to be in the church without clean, decently smelling clothes. But we reassured him that we don’t care nearly as much about how he is dressed or even how he smells just as long as he is in the church with us to learn and to feel the Spirit. He is a good guy. We have also been talking a lot more about Baptism with him. He hasn’t been feeling too sure about being baptized into our church after having been baptized Catholic when he was but a wee lad. But we explained to him how Christ was baptized and how we are baptized unto Repentance and how children do not need to be baptized because they are already perfect and don’t have any sins. In the end, we basically just left him with the invitation to continue reading the Book of Mormon and to pray, while kneeling, to know if it is true and also to know if he should be baptized or not. He said he would, so we will be passing by this week to verify with him.

Manuel is still his crazy self. He isn’t doing too much reading or praying, but always loves having us over to eat his peaches. Not going to lie, the peaches were super gross to me at first, but they are starting to really grow on me. But, he has been wanting us to go to see his son and talk to him, but every time that we have been over to visit him, he hasn’t been home. But, we are still working hard with Manuel to hopefully get him to come to church with us sometime.

With the Bolivianos we were able to meet with them twice this week, but not all of them together. We met with Jonny, who is the member guy, and Russo, who is the youngest single guy. Wilder and Jessica had to go to Bolivia for some kind of emergency so we were not able to meet with them at all. But Russo has been reading the Book of Mormon and thinking a lot about it. We will see if this week we can talk a little more this him and specifically about his reading. But, for the most part, we were talking with Jonny and helping him understand a few things. He told us that he has been feeling a little anxious and nervous lately, but we helped him feel a little better and calmer. We also got to read a little bit of the Book of Mormon with him and talk to him about starting the habit again of reading the Book of Mormon every day. It was a pretty good time.

We taught a few first lessons to a few people this week too hope to be able to meet with them and teach them again sometime soon. A few of the names are Johanna, Neli, Juan, Nestor, Desere and Gioana. All very good lessons and we just hope that we can find them while they are home.

Another thing that happened this week is that we meet up with a guy named Pasuti. Elder Mortensen and Elder Mitchell meet him a while ago. He is an Advantista del Septimo Dia, or in English that would be something like 7th Day Adventist, I think. Basically, to explain it the most simply, Advantistas are almost like a mix between our church and the Jehovah Witnesses. They believe in prophets and revelations and all that. They also believe in the Sabbath Day being the 7th day of the week, or in other words, Saturday. So those are a few points on the Advantista church. But so the guy is super nice and let us go to his house and have a bit of a Bible Study. So we studied the Premortal Life, the Creation, and the Fall of Adam and Eve. It was a pretty interesting ordeal because apparently the Advantistas don’t believe in a Premortal Life. So we tried to explain to him our beliefs and why we believe it to be that way, but he would demand a scriptural reference, which is absolutely okay, except for the fact that 1. I don’t know too many Bible verses by heart and 2. Almost all of our doctrine of the Plan of Salvation can be found in places like the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and The Pearl of Great Price. So yeah. It was a bit of a discussion. But basically we told him about that stuff and he just asked Elder Mitchell to bear his testimony of the Book of Mormon and how he knows it to be true. I was like "Awe heck yeah, that’s perfect! Give it to him, Mitchell!" I was just excited to hear the spirit speak through my companion. After a great, super powerful testimony from Elder Mitchell, Pasuti just said "Well good for you" and said something along the lines of we have our truth and he has his. So, for now we weren’t able to get our point across to him too well, but we are planning to meet with him again and explain the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was a pretty great week! This coming week is also transfers. This last 6 weeks have gone so fast! Over the weekend we will find out if Elder Mitchell and I are staying together or if anyone is leaving. I hope we both stay but know that whatever happens, is inspired by Presidente Westover. I will serve wherever the Lord wants me to serve!!

Just want to leave with you all my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that this man was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration and through him the true church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. I know that we can receive all the blessings and gifts that come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ through our covenants that we make through Baptism and through the very special opportunity we have to enter the House of the Lord and receive the blessings that come through the Holy Temples. I know that the Book of Mormon is the proof that Joseph Smith really was a Prophet of God. I know these things to be true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Chau

Elder Haley