¡Tengo casi uno mes en Argentina! ¿Donde fue el tiempo? People told me that the first few months in the field are slow then the time starts to fly by. If this is slow then I´m pretty sure I´ll break light speed by the time I go home.
On Tuesday we had a zone conference. It was really good. President Gulbransen was there and we talked about planning with the spirit. They had us do a planning session there and we recieved some pretty good inspiration. Then we talked about teaching people not lessons and asking inspired questions. We did some practices of teaching by asking questions, which went pretty well. Of course the conference was very motivating and we all left determined to be better missionaries. We also got mail, which was fun. We only get mail once a transfer, so I apologize if I don´t respond for a while after you send me a letter.
Tuesday night we found out that we were going to do exchanges with the zone leaders for Wednesday and Thurdsay. So I went to their area, the Boca (the area with the stadium in it), and one of them came to my area to work with Elder Ludwig. In the Boca we taught some people and did all the normal missionary stuff. The zone leader is from Mexico but speaks almost perfect english so we could communicate. On Thursday morning he had to go take care of some zone leader business. So we took a bus to the center of the government builings. We drove past the Pink House (the Argentine version of the White House) and saw the monument that looks almost exactly like the Washington Monument in DC (the tall thin white one, I think that´s what it is called). Then we took a subte (subway) to a bank or something. He handed someone some money, she gave us the change, and then we left. It took about an hour and a half travel each way and we were there for less than two minutes. I don´t envy the life of a zone leader. But we did get to walk down Florida Street. Aparently it´s a pretty famous tourist street. It felt like New York City but in Castellano.
I got back in my area Friday morning and got to work a full day here for the first time in two weeks. Going to other places is fun but I like to work in my own area a lot more because I have relationships with people here (well, as much as you can when you can´t speak the language). When I am in another area I don´t really feel the same connection because I know I´ll never see those people again. So it was nice to be back in Parque Chacabuco.
The rest of the week was pretty good. We taught five lessons on Saturday, I think that is the most I´ve taught in one day so far. We also found out that the duaghter of recent convert wasn´t baptized at the same time her mom was. So we are teaching her and hope to baptize her this weekend, but we may have to wait till next week because a lot of the ward is leaving to go to the temple in Uraguay. We´ll see, but we should be able to baptize her soon. Other than her, we had four people with baptismal dates for either this weekend or the next, but none of them came to church yesterday. So we are working and trying to get them to understand the importance of coming to church.
Gringo Moment of the Week - We are teaching this family in the Villa and Saturday we were talking to the dad. He was telling us about how when he was younger his brother was really sick and none of the doctors would figure out what was wrong and how the Bible had comforted him. I thought I heard him say his brother died, so I said something about life after death. He looked really confused and later Elder Ludwig told me he said his brother got better and he calls him all the time. Oops. He said we can come back so at least I didn´t scare him too much.
Spiritual Thought for the Week - I read Ether (Éter) 12:27 with someone yesterday. I´ve always just focused on how it says that God will make weak things become strong unto us when we humble ourselves before Him. But this time I noticed how it says that when we come unto God he shows unto us our weaknesses. That´s interesting. Why would God show us our weakness, shouldn´t He be helping us to feel good about ourselves? I think it is because when we come unto God He asks us to do things that we wouldn´t do otherwise. And as we try do these things we realize we can´t do them without His help and we humble ourselves. I have definitely learned more of my weaknesses during the past month, but at the same time I have felt more strongly God´s help and love for me.
Well, this letter is pretty long. But thanks for finishing reading it! I hope you liked it and learned something. Even if all you learned is that I´m weird. (though you already knew that) Have a great week!
Con Amor,
Elder Gardner
Well, this letter is pretty long. But thanks for finishing reading it! I hope you liked it and learned something. Even if all you learned is that I´m weird. (though you already knew that) Have a great week!
Con Amor,
Elder Gardner
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