(I tried adding her pictures at the end of this by copy and paste. Karen)
This week started out a little slow with the work, but the weekend picked up and we had more success. This was a wonderful week to see the Gospel bless families, and especially how important and powerful the example of parents are in the lives of their children.
We are teaching Monica and her son, Santiago still and they are progressing really well. Santiago still hasn't come to church, but Monica came for the second time yesterday. She loved church and feels like she's finding answers with our church. She has visited lots of other churches and was always frustrated when the pastor would tell her that she wasn't entitled to receive revelation from the Lord. She was supposed to rely on the pastor for inspiration and understanding. When she had questions, she went to her pastor who would get frustrated at her because her questions were valid (and easily answerable in our church), but he didn't have an answer. She would show him things in the Bible that would contradict what he had preached and he would send her away. In Gospel Principles class yesterday in church, she told us how Santiago had asked her one day where he was before he was born (She has an older son and Santiago wanted to know where he was when she and his older brother were living in another part of Argentina). Having no answer for him, she stopped, thought, and told him that he was living with Heavenly Father before he was born. She then went on to say how she knows now.... She is finding answers that she's been looking for for years! She taught her son how to pray this week too. He's still too timid to pray with us, but he's anxious to learn and follow the example of his mother. Her baptism was bumped back a week because this weekend is Stake Conference, thereby making it pretty difficult to have a baptism...But, she's gonna get baptized! We're thrilled to see her progress and teaching her son the Gospel.
This week we received a phone call from our zone leaders who had contacted into a woman who Hermana Garcia and I found and taught only once last transfer: Lorena. We taught Lorena and 4 of her children in her little home next to the veggie stand (Refer to an early post). She and her family had a Book of Mormon thanks to some elders that taught her and her family YEARS ago. They are still reading the Book of Mormon on their own. When we found her, we taught her and committed her to be baptized. We were never able to find her again, so we sadly had to move on and spend our time working with other people. Early this week, the zone leaders crossed paths with her. Come to find out, her landlord (likely the owner of the nextdoor veggie stand) didn't like that we were visited and told them that we weren't allowed to come into their home. She gave the elders her phone number and asked if we could teach her in the church building (about 2 or 3 blocks from her house). I was so shocked when I heard that and really excited. She was VERY receptive when we taught her and really anxious to learn. We set up an appointment and taught her Sunday night in the church building. With her were 5 of her children: Camila (14), Rocio (almost 13), María (6), Emmanual (4), and Facundo (2). I asked her if she remembered anything of what we had taught her over a month and a half ago and she gave a very impressive synopsis of the Book of Mormon. I was very impressed! For the sake of her two oldest daughter who we hadn't met, we explained a little bit more about the Book of Mormon and the principle of prayer. They were very receptive. Not many young girls are interested in listening to us. I was really impressed by these teen-aged girls who were so sweet with their younger siblings, so gentle and kind. As we were wrapping up the lesson, I asked that we all pray together on our knees. They all happily followed as we knelt in a circle on the floor. Lorena offered a simple, beautiful prayer that he family be blessed with health and safety and that they can read the Book of Mormon and recognize the answers to their prayers. As I was writing in my journal about that experience last night, I was thinking about how moments like that (listening to a parent pray for the first time with their kids all around them) are my favorite as a missionary. It is something so precious, so simple, and yet so powerful. How important family prayer is and how important it is for children to see their parents praying. How grateful I felt for parents who taught me how to pray and communicate with my Father in Heaven.
We are very excited to now be in contact with Lorena and her family. We invited her to stake conference and she accepted. We're excited to help this wonderful family progress and receive more blessings!
Thanksgiving is coming around the corner. It is something for foreign here...nobody knows what Thanksgiving really means or what we do to celebrate this random day to Argentines. I've learned a interesting list of vocab in order to explain a little bit about how we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Today we visited an olive oil museum and factory. This week I was studying Jacob 5 (perfect coincidence), so I learned good vocab that was really useful in understanding our tour today! I bought some early Christmas presents....for next year!
Love you all,
Hermana Pelton
(dad, i included some pictures of how i've tabbed my scriptures....)
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