Word of the week: Vendimia ("Harvest of the grapes")

This was a busy week as we had divisions with some visiting hermanas as well as the annual "Vendimia" which is a Mendoza tradition where "princesses" in the form of a beauty contest are chosen from each city. The Vendimia happens between February and March as the grape harvest starts. It's a HUGE deal and conveniently, the San Rafael parade of the princesses--introduced by gauchos on horses--passed right in front of our apartment. It unfortunately was a bit rainy and stormy Friday night for the parade, but that didn't stop us. To celebrate, we got empanadas and alfajores to eat in the street before the princesses started down the street in their floats. It was amazing to participate in such a rich cultural event! We even snag some fruit from the floats!!! (As the floats pass, they hand out their harvests to the people on the street. There were a few kids with baskets on the ends of sticks to help them get more fruits. I got a pear and a bunch of grapes :) ) Wednesday, we did divisions with a pair of hermanas that are traveling the mission right now and helping train all the hermanas like the elders get trained as well. It was a lot of fun and a good chance to develop our abilities to teach and invite people to be baptized in a more effective manner. We taught lots of new people and invited many to follow Christ by preparing to be baptized. They were days full of laughing and miracles. This week, I had a wonderful experience with learning to listen to the spirit. On Wednesday morning, Hna. Anderson had planned the whole day...and it was packed full of people to visit and goals to meet. In the morning, we headed towards the opposite side of our area to visit some investigators we are helping to progress and no one was home and we weren't having any success getting into any doors. I felt like something was off, as if we were in the wrong place. I stopped and decided that we should say a prayer so I could feel better or so that we could know where to go or what the Lord wanted us to be doing. As we prayed, the name of a less active member popped into my head. We had planned to go by her house later that afternoon. We had tried to contact her at least 3 times to teach her son (who is 8 and wants to get baptized. They had never been home. They also lived back on the other side of our area. Well, Hna. Anderson and I just looked at each other and said, "I guess we better walk to their house then..." And so we went. I was looking for people to talk to along the way or open doors to get into, but their weren't any openings. We got to Virginia's house and sure enough she was home! But, Bruno, her son was not. So we sat down and drank some juice and just got to know her a little better. Her son wasn't home, but at least we found her, though she was cooking and couldn't really sit down and chat. About 5 minutes later, her non-member husband walked in. We invited them to sit down and listen to a short message/scripture. As we chatted, her husband Christian opened up. He is very friendly and very open to talking about the church. He has studied a lot about the church and really respects the organization and formation of the church as a whole, but has a few doubts. We chatted with him and invited him to get baptized with his son at the end of the month. We also told him that we would come back and address his concerns--if God really has a body of flesh and blood, why we do baptisms for the dead, and the deal with Kolob. I was just smiling inside...those sure are easily resolvable concerns...I've heard way worse!!! He told us that he wants to have a softer heart, a heart that believes more easily and he wants to have more faith. We turned right back to the Book of Mormon as the resolution to all of his questions and doubts. He accepted the challenge to read and pray for more faith and understanding. His wife was a wonderful asset in the lesson as she is a woman of faith. It was wonderful to see her teach him how to pray and how the church has helped her personally. I left their house completely humbled. Had I not listened and heeded that small prompting to visit them, we wouldn't have found Christian (he is a police officer and rarely home) and would not have been able to help him and his family. I felt like I had really listened to their spirit and had been lead by the Lord to find one of His children at the exact moment. Had we waited to walk to their house or had gone earlier, we likely would not have been there right as he was to walk in and sit down to listen. What a miracle! On Thursday, we had another great miracle: we were walking towards an investigator's home when we passed an open door. We backed up and knocked at the door and were nicely let in by a teenaged girl named Belen. We sat down and started getting to know her. I felt prompted to show her the list of "questions of the soul" from Preach my Gospel that I have in bookmark form. She stopped and looked at the question, "Does God exist?". She told us that she was raised Catholic, but has never been able to understand what they said about God and His nature. We shared Alma 22 with her and Ether 3 and testified that we know that God is like us with a tangible body. She just nodded her head and told us that she loved what we were sharing with her and believed us and believed what we read together and that she understood now. It was so cool to see the spirit work through us and in her through our testimonies and the scriptures. She accepted a baptismal date and was eager to learn more! We saw lots of miracles this week and are eager to see more!!! Thanks for all the love and support! Con Amor, Hna. Pelton