Word of the Week: Felíz Pascuas (Happy Easter)

Things are moving right along here in San Luis. This week, Hna. Cuello and I found some golden people that we are excited to see progress! I also passed my one year mark in the mission! CRAZY! We got fancy empanadas and pizzas and sat on the roof of our apartment building (in the wind) to eat and look at the stars. It was a lot of fun! (I attached some pictures from the "1 year festivities" as well as an Emmy Award that we found in the window of the Bishop's house last Sunday. His brother is a journalist in California and he's won something like 5 Emmys in the past few years! Look him up...his last name is Lucero). We found and taught an awesome young mom on Tuesday! Her name is Romina and we contacted her on the street last week. We started talking to her about the Restoration and she just ate it up! It was great and a very spiritual lesson. She was attentive, despite her 1 year old son trying to yank her away every few minutes. I had asked her at the beginning of the lesson, why she prays and reads the Bible. Her response was that she reads to find peace and tranquility. The spirit was so powerful and we testified to her of the Book of Mormon and the tranquility and peace that I feel as I read the Book of Mormon everyday. That reality has been reconfirmed to me everyday as I am reading the Book of Mormon at a fast pace. Peace is the primary off-spring. As we were finishing up the lesson, she spontaneously said that she felt so peaceful and happy and a big smile swept across her face. She committed to come to church (though Easter complicated things for her later in the week) and she told us how interested she was in what we were sharing with her. When we went back to see her later in the week, she told us that she had read the part in the Book of Mormon that we had left her and that she started reading it from the beginning. She kept saying how interested she is in it all! We are thrilled and anxious to work more with her! We also taught a woman named Rosa this week. We found her name in the area book and went to teach her. She let us in and as we were getting to know her, she told us that she has family members who are members of the church and that when she goes to visit them (in another province), she always goes to church with them. She told us how much she loves going to church with them! I was stunned. They recently lost a family member, and so we taught her about the plan of salvation. At the end, we invited her to be baptized and she accepted with a firm "yes!" without delay when we asked her. As we got up to leave, she gave us besos (cheek kisses) and said how happy she felt and how much she liked talking with us. She too was smiling lots more as we walked out her door. She too seems GOLDEN! The Lord truly does prepare His children. He knows when it's their time to progress and accept the Gospel. He is in charge of this work and if we, as His children and his messangers, bear simple testimony, the prepared in heart will accept, no matter the language or our eloquence of speech. The other GOLDEN woman we found this week is named Graciela. Funny story about how we found her: We went in search of a person we found in the area book, but they weren't home, so we knocked the door of her neighbor. A 40-ish year old woman came to the window and as we invited her to hear a message, she looked at me and said, "I've seen a picture of you..." Yeah, I was a little caught off guard to say the least. "In my parent's house...I saw a picture of you." I was really confused and then, the connection. Her father is a recent convert/inactive member in Ammpya, my first area. Her mother is studying with the Jehovah Witnesses. Hna. Sybrowsky and I as well as Hna. Deem, went to visit them at the beginning of my mission. Apparently, they have a picture in their home with me and Hna. Sybrowsky...HA! What a small world. As we taught her, she just LIT UP!!!! She says she doesn't go to any church because none of them "fill" her. She said that none of them attract her or seem to have "everything"....Hna. Cuello and I just looked at each other in shock. We taught her about the Restoration, the words nearly flying out of our mouths because we were so excited....Graciela asked all the perfect, stereotypical questions!!! She nodded though almost the entire message, loved the Joseph Smith experience and as I shared with her the promise of the Sacrament (as taught by Christ in 3 Nephi 18) about how we will be "filled", she looked at us and said, "this is what I'm looking for." She is amazing and was anxious to read the Book of Mormon, pray and go to church. GOLDEN! We spent the other days fighting nasty wind and walking in silence because if we talked, we got dust and dirt in our teeth...nasty! This week we have zone conference in Mendoza, so Thursday, bright and early we will make the 4 hour bus ride to the mission home. Should be something special as it will be the last zone conference with President Lindahl as they go home in July! Love to you all, Hna. Pelton