The elders in my apartment. My companion and I are on the outside.
Me, a member, and his non-member ´wife.´ He needs to get a divorce in Peru before they can get married and she can´t be baptized until they are married. They are very nice and give us lots of food.
¡Hola!
First of all, for those of you who realize that it is transfer time, let me tell you about transfers. I am still in Parque Chacabuco with Elder Ludwig. One of the other elders in the apartment left to another area. The other elder is the new district leader and is working in the same area but is moving to another apartment. That is because they are splitting Parque Chacabuco. We don´t know how the split is going to work exactly, but two new elders are coming into the apartment to work in our ward because next month the ward is going to split. I hope that Elder Ludwig and I get the villa.
Besides that I don´t have a whole lot to report. We were going to baptize a nine year old girl this week so we worked pretty hard to teach her everything and get her ready. Then the day before the baptism the mom told her dad about it (they are divorced) and he didn´t think the girl understood enough. Since the girl lives with her mom we don´t need the dad´s permission, but the mom doesn´t want problems. So we talked with the dad Saturday night. It was interesting. He doesn´t think that kids understand the difference between right and wrong so they don´t need baptism. Which is exactly what we believe but we have prophets who have said that at eight years old children are old enough to understand. He doesn´t believe in prophets so we couldn´t settle the matter that way. We read a bunch of Bible scriptures together but as soon as we would come to a conclusion he would change the topic, it was rather frustrating. I really wanted to read Matthew 18:6 to him, but I didn´t think it would do any good. Instead we are going to go back this week and teach him about prophets. Who knows, maybe he will end up being baptized too.
General Conference was Saturday and Sunday! I love hearing the prophets and apostoles speak. Unfortunately, the satilite at the church wasn´t working so they didn´t have it in English. I could understand what they were talking about (mas o menos) in Castellano but it didn´t have the same impact it would have had if it had been in English. I guess I´ll just have to wait to read the talks in a month or so.
Yesterday was my companions birthday. He is now 21. We had lunch with a Peruvian member (the one who fed us raw fish a while ago) and she made us arroz chaofa (I have no idea if that´s how you spell it) which is always delicious. She makes it for us at least once a week when we pass by her restaurant. After lunch she pulled out a cake for Elder Ludwig´s birthday. Then we went to Jesus and Lupe´s house (the couple in the picture) and they had another birthday cake. Then we went to a Family Home Evening with a member family and they had yet another cake. That´s the most full I´ve been in my life. I think I´ve gained some weight, but I don´t have a scale so I have no idea.
As for my Castellano (spanish) things are starting to click. Sometimes I can understand everything without having to think at all, like when we were with the dad on Saturday. I can talk pretty well, I lot faster and clearer than before but I still make a lot of mistakes and don´t know as many words as I need to. There are times though when I have to think really hard just to understand anything. So it is good, but not great.
That´s all there is to say for this week. It was another week in the service of the Lord. Hope you all have a great week!
Les quiero,
Elder Gardner
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