Elder Morley Haley Santa Fe Argentina Mission: Juancito vino a la Iglesia!! La oración tiene poder!!

Well this week had its ups and downs. The week started pretty well with a few good lessons and contacts, but then as the week went on, the days got a bit harder and not too many people were opening up for us. We walked a lot this week and my old, mission-worn body is starting to feel it... ha ha ha. But as the days were long and tiring, we worked hard to make the best of them.

We have been working with Juan a lot this week. He is always ready for us to go over and teach him every night, in fact he would like it better that way... But we are trying to keep the citas nice and spaced out so he can have enough opportunity to read and pray on his own. He is a great kid and having a lot of progress. As the header says, Juancito came to church! It was great for him. He really liked the meetings and all of the members were really good at reaching out and greeting him! Now we are just trying to work a little more with his parents and siblings. Of course Juan's progress is great to see, but it would be so much better if the entire could do the same, especially to have a good support for him. Especially because of the kids in Juan's neighborhood. Every time we go to pick him up and teach him, all the other kids in the streets say stupid things like "Eyyy Father Juan" and "Hey Juan, I can't wait to see you in a shirt and tie too!" It's just going to be great when we get him an actual shirt and tie and he shows them the real change that the Atonement can have on those that are humble and willing to become better. He is going to be a real example to all of them. He already is for me.

But right now Elder Smith and I are trying to meet and get to know a few of the Less Active members and families in the ward. We are trying to find a few part member families and other people that haven't been to church for a while to hopefully get them back on the right track. Being that the missionaries have been in our area for more than 60-80 years, there are quite a few less active members that have lost their way. So we are going to be focusing a little more on them.

Now, I can't remember if I've talked about this before, but the mission is starting to do a new thing that every morning at 9:00 the entire mission kneels down to say a personal prayer for the Mission. So this week we all got a text from one of the Assistants saying that he felt that we needed to work hard to invite as many people to church as possible and that through our prayers and faith WITH works that we would end up seeing the results. And it worked. The Mission reported high attendance this week and we are seeing the fruits of our labors, on a wide range! Its great to know of the power that Prayer has, especially as we work hard to fulfill the blessing that ask for in those prayers. I know that Prayer is real and has a true power in our lives.

A few fun things this week: there was a cool moto at a service project we had, we LOVE empanadas and I had some souvenir mission tags made.

Thank you all for your love and support!

Chau

Elder Haley