This week we had transfers and my new companion is Hna. Diaz from Las Riojas here in Argentina. She is 32 and very nice...very quiet and doesn't have a lot of confidence in terms of teaching, but is very sweet and gentle.
We found some really neat people this week and had some great learning experiences. We were knocking doors
on Thursday night and came upon a young girl of about 20 years old named
Romina. Hna. Diaz had asked her if she knew why she was here on the earth, to which Romina replied that she had often wondered, but never found an answer. She invited us in and we began to teach her about our purpose to learn and grow and prepare ourselves to live with our
Father in Heaven once again by following the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and being baptized. She paid close attention, asked great questions (about heaven and hell) and told us that for the first time, someone had explained to her in plain and simple terms, the things that she's always wanted to know. That's always reassuring to hear that we are explaining the Gospel in terms that are simple to be understood, or rather that our purpose and our teachings can not be misunderstood.
We also taught a young adult named Deborah who was very stern and harsh when we started talking with her. She had questions that she wanted answered and was very much on the offensive, asserting forth her beliefs as a Catholic and attacking us. My companion just kept answering her questions, but I could tell there was a spirit of contention despite how calm and honest Hna. Diaz was. I decided that it might just be better to wrap things up and leave because we weren't getting anywhere with her, until her boyfriend
Sergio came in and the whole atmosphere changed. Sergio is co-workers and friends with a few great members and has had a wonderful experience with them and learned much of our church. One of his member friends is about the get married in the temple, so he knew generally what that entailed. He sat down and had a much more open and positive attitude and so I took the new opportunity to really teach them, so we explained the Gospel to them and invited them to church and to pray about baptism. Sergio was much more open and sincere in his questions while Deborah was more interested in asking questions and hearing about our mission experiences. My companion was more than happy to just chat, but that's often harder for me when I know our purpose is to always be inviting people to be baptized. By the end of our conversation, the mood had completely changed and the spirit of contention diminished as we testified about the true cleansing power of repentance and baptism. How important is member
missionary work and our righteous example with ALL people!
We also went back and found Paula, a 23 year old girl Hna. Anderson and I found last week. We pretty easily can get into homes to teach, but we haven't been having a lot of success getting back into those same homes to help the people progress. I was excited that Paula welcomed us back in, but sad when she said she really didn't remember anything from what she read in the
Book of Mormon, even though she read it. We started teaching her a little bit about the Restoration and she really started to open up. She told us that when Hna. Anderson and I came and visited her and her mom last week, her mother didn't want to listen to us because she was busy with laundry. But, Paula told us that after we prayed with her, she got up to get her mom because she wanted her mom to feel the peace and the joy she'd felt as we'd walked into their home and prayed. I was so humbled and grateful to the Lord that we were able to help create an atmosphere where they could be touched by the spirit. I remember thinking it was weird that Paula excused herself immediately after we said the prayer last week, but happy when she brought her mother back to listen. Now I'm more grateful to have been an instrument of the Lord in that way, to touch Paula's heart in such a meaningful way. She even told us casually that she'd talked to her catholic boyfriend that she was going to get baptized in the "mormon" church...WOOHOO! That's a good sign--she's talking about it with other people!
We also found a young mom named Laura and taught her about the love of God; she wiped tears from her eyes as we prayed and was more kind and loving to her children as our lesson went on. It was beautiful to see her soften. At the beginning of the lesson, I felt like I needed to ask her a specific question, but didn't. We kept teaching and the question popped into my mind again. Even though it broke a little with the theme of what we were teaching, I just asked her if she'd ever felt the love of God in her life to which she replied in a hard tone that she never had. We invited her to pray, come to church and be baptized, to which she accepted on all accounts. I am definitely still learning how the spirit speaks to me, but every time I act on what I feel like is a prompting or the spirit's voice, my confidence in his whisperings grow and I feel the Lord working through me more powerfully.
Thanks for all the prayers of love and encouragement. The mission is the most unique experience that words cannot even begin to describe. It is the most painful experience, but the sweetest and most preciously humbling experience of my life.
Love to you all! The sun continues here in Argentina....
Hna. Pelton
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