It´s almost Christmas time!! Everyone back home is running around in the after Thanksgiving maddness buying and selling and buying and selling gifts for Christmas.
Here, the Christmas spirit is a bit different. It´s all about sharing the gospel. I love the what the Church is doing this Christmas to help us remember the TRUE meaning of this time of year.
I have NEVER been so exhausted in my whole life. And the Argentina sun is making my life so much easier.
On Saturday, we got home. Planned our stuff for Sunday and then we went in our room to put our feet up before getting ready for bed. We got to talking and then next thing I know, it´s 1 in the morning and we both wake up and realized that the music was still playing and the lights were still on. We had not changed nor brushed our teeth. NOTHING.
oops.
Maybe it´s partially my bike´s fault. Yes, I have a bike. MERRY CHRISTMAS No, I do not have pictures. My camera broke again...
It has been quite the welcome back to Argentina. I love my companion. Hermana Torres seriously is the cutest little thing. I am so grateful for her. We already get along so well. We actually work out together in the mornings and we just laugh and laugh all day. Especially when the bikes hurt us. They don´t like us.
She is from Guatemala. She was the first convert of her family and little by little, the rest of her family has converted. She is full of life and energy and she loves the gospel. San Vicente is a fun little Rama in the mountains of Argentina. The branch President is a MISSIONARY. So that´s interesting. There are a ton of new converts and slowly the branch has been progressing. And we´re here to just keep strengthening the best we can.
Welcome Back to Argentina where EVERYONE takes a nap from 1-4. And where it´s not cool to be able to speak Guarani. What do you mean that´s not impressive?
It was so hard saying goodbye to Santa Ana. That ward put me through hell and back but I love them so much. They SHOWERED me with gifts as I left and we all cried and cried as they wrote me letters and hugged me goodbye. It was terrible and I am having Paraguay withdrawls. But I like this place too. It´s okay. :) The spirit can be found in all places.
This week I met some pretty incredible people. Neli is one of our investigators. She´s Catholic, but she has been going to the Asamblea de Dios. The hermanas were going to drop her, but Hermana Torres decided that we should go teach her. So we did. We talked about the Restoration and about the Book of Mormon. And it all clicked. She was so excited to come to church on Sunday and even though she didn´t, I know that she felt the spirit. Because we felt it. We bore testimony of the importance of the restored gospel and she expressed her desires for her daughters to go to church so that her grandbaby can grow up with Christ in his life. We shared experiences about how the gospel has blessed our lives and I know that she will embrace the Gospel sooner or later. :)
Andres has been assisting for quite a while now. He just needs to get married. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel and of the blessings that it brings us in our lives. Him and his girlfriend are getting super excited to get married and they even helped us on Sunday go visit all of the members who didn´t come to church. He even paid his tithing!! And his girlfriend, Mabel says that he is helping her be excited to go to church and to stay active.
The church is TRUE!!
Yesterday, we didn´t have p-day. Surprise. It was the day of the virgin. So we got to go out in the rain, on the bikes and contact people. We were looking for the familia luz. And Argentines aren´t as friendly as Paraguayans. Also, they aren´t as familiar with their neighbors. So basically, no one was helping us. People were even shutting doors on our faces until Braian came out of his house. In the rain and very kindly answered our question and directed us to the Luz family´s house. Turns out, they are his cousins and they live next door to him. In most circumstances like this one, we would normally turn around and leave and go visit that family. But we felt impressed to ask Braian if we could visit with him for a minute. He didn´t even think twice. He got out the chairs and we sat down to get to know him a bit.
Braian is 18 and his parents are separated. He had to quit school to start working and his mom doesn´t really appreciate him. They don´t get along well because she is never home and when she is home, she doesn´t treat him well. My heart melted as he told us this in a very subtle way, not wanting to make his mother sound like a bruja. We bore a firm testimony that Braian is NOT alone and we invited him to pray. To talk to Heavenly Father so that he might receive the help that he needs. He gladly accepted the invitation to pray and to come to church on Sunday.
As we were leaving, we asked for his last name. Turns out, his dad and all of his step siblings are also members of the church. Miracles happen in the rain. :)
We learned that the spirit might just even tell people to shut their doors on our faces. But most importantly, the spirit guides us to where we need to be.
It´s going to be a weird transition. And I am just watching the days tick on by. Tell time to stop please. There are people to visit. Souls to save. Miracles to witness. Like these cute little smelly boys sitting here in the cyber. I gave them all a picture of Jesus and the littlest one just told me how beautiful the picture is that I gave him. There is something magical in the air!
Tis´ the season to be JOLLY. :)
Hermana Rupe
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