So I got my second companion, or my tio (uncle), last Monday and right off the bat we went out to work! This week was the hardest I had to work and think! He didn´t know the area so basically I had to do all the planning! The biggest problem is our area is so big I can´t visit so many people and make good use of our time because they all live so far apart! But after the week ended it all worked out it looks like! We definitely walked around a lot more but because of that we talked to sooo many people and met soooo many people who were interested in our message! Our number of new investigators exploded and we taught so many little lessions here and there. Another miracle that came about in my time of need, my spanish errupted with confidence! I feel like I can finally speak somewhat comfortably with anyone! It´s like it just all triggered at once rather than gradual progression. This first week was mostly finding new people to teach and next week is almost already booked solid with all of our new appointments we made. My new companion´s name is Elder Poeppelmeier. He´s from Missouri and he is the most focused missionary I´ve met so far. He´s a giant of patience and humility and the only thing I think he could improve on is his confidence when he talks. But that´s why he´s with me! I was really taken aback yesterday when after we had a short contact with a lady who talked a ton and I presented The Book of Mormon to her and asked her to read and pray about it, he was really excited and told me that I showed him some things I used that he never thought about using before and that I helped him learn more. I feel like we have such unity because what one of us might lack the other has in spades! I´m truly blessed to have him as my companion! The area is definitely going to change, for the better. We´ve been starting to see the fruits of our efforts through the tender mercies of the Lord with some of our investigators! We started to get the ward a lot more involved in our work too which is a huge help.
Basically we have an older couple that attends church every Sunday and no one knows why. They never try to progress or have the desire to be baptised. The lady even sings in the choir. The man is really hard headed and doesn´t want to change anything he´s doing. They´ve been coming for like a year. We wanted to try to set up lessons with them to help them enjoy the church even more but they never really had interest in hearing the missionaries. What a miracle we received when another member, named Hermano Valasquiez, who doesn´t have the chance to come to our ward very often came thing weekend and talked to them a lot and gave a lot of info about them. They like him a lot apparently. So we wanted to try to set up an appointment with them and bring. We called him to see if he could help us invite them for some time during the week and what a surprise when he told us that he met the man that same night in the grocery store and challenged him to be baptised, and he accepted! We were at a loss for words and now we´re doing what we can to teach them what they need to know to go through with it and Hno. Valasquiez is going to help us the whole way! How exciting! There´s also two brothers that are twins who have been coming to church for a long time too without really any desire to join. Basically they only came because the missionaries were good friends with them but they don´t want to do anything more than hang out with us. So we started getting them involved in the choir! And lo and behold they started making so many friends fast and now we think they found more reasons to come besides just us! We´re really excited for them because they´re 20 years old and really like good friends to us. The gospel is the greatest gift we can give to our good friends here to help them. Also it seems left and right we found or have been given references to people who already want to be baptised but just need to take the lessons with us and get to church! The blessings really do come after all we can do!
Yesterday was my cumplemes (monthly anniversary) here in Argentina! I´ve been here a total of three months already! Time is just blasting past me! Plus the two months I had in the MTC I have a total of five months in the mission! Que loco! I feel like an old missionary already! There were lots of changes last transfer period and a lot of missionaries in our zone got swapped out so there´s a lot of new faces when I´ll be going to the zone meeting tomorrow. Today my district of three companionships got together to eat at a buffet called Gran Moron. Eating chinese food in Argentina is pretty silly, but oh so good.
That´s about all the excitement for this week. Thank all of you for your support and keeping up with my adventures in this marvelous work here in Argentina! I can´t wait to share all my stories and experiences with you all when we see each other again! Take care every one of you!
Con Amor, Elder Trevor Jones
No comments:
Post a Comment