Word of the week: reirse (to laugh)

I’m just going to cut to the chase and go straight to the highlight of the entire week!!! Tuesday was a rough teaching day and was filled with one rejection after the next. My companion was feeling a little down on Tuesday, especially after going to contact someone and realizing they had lied to us and given us a fake address. Needless to say, she was dragging a little. It’s hard enough to keep yourself happy let alone another person, so I suggested that we go on an adventure. There is a dirt road at the end of our area that goes to a supposed little neighborhood somewhere out in the “wilderness”. We have walked past this road a number of times and always joke about someday exploring that area. On the map of our area that is in our apartment, former missionaries drew in this little neighborhood, but nobody has ever really ventured out there and there is no record of anyone being taught in that area in our area book. So, I decided that it was time to do something different. Having no idea what to expect, but deciding that it can’t get any worse that rejection after rejection, we started towards the dirt road. As we started out on the road, all we could see were rocks, lots of thorny bushes and the mountains in the distance….and no houses. We kept walking a past a couple of women walking away from the area of the supposed neighborhood, so we continued in good faith. Within about 10 minutes, we came upon this little “pueblito” with about 20 houses and one road in and one road out. Hna. Cuello and I just looked at each other, smiled, and said, “we’re getting in!” So, the first house we went to, the house right on the corner, we got let right in. We taught Juana and about 5 of her grandchildren about the Plan of Salvation using my little cut outs. It was pretty funny actually because when we walked into her house, we started talking to her while she was ironing on the table and asked her if there was anyone else in her home that we could share our message with as well. She said that her daughter was sleeping, so we said a prayer with her and 2 of her grandchildren that were sitting there when we walked in. As we finished the prayer, the grandkids ran out the door, so we just talked with Juana. About 3 minutes later, the kids came back with 3 or 4 more kids who all sat down and started listening to us. We also taught a teenaged girl outside her house since her mom didn’t want to come and listen to us, as well as a grandmother and her two grandsons who were apparently not interested in doing their homework, so we talked about how prayer helps us, even with our studies. The most interesting moment from our adventure was as we were knocking/clapping at all the doors and came to one door that was open. As we clapped, an old man started moaning and yelling for help. Not sure what to do, I looked at my companion who just shrugged her shoulders in confusion as well. We waited a second, but he kept yelling for help. I started walking towards the open door because I couldn’t just walk past without at least trying to help him. My companion yelled at me from behind, so we started yelling to the neighbors to see if someone would come to help us, at least to walk into the house with us so we had a witness. The nearby neighbor wouldn’t come with us, so I just looked at my companion and told her that I was going to help him anyway. I inched my head into the door way. The house was dark, without lights, a dirt floor and a broken table in the center. I didn’t see anyone. I called out and I heard a voice from behind the door that was propped open. I stepped in a little further and my companion came up behind me. There was an old man laying on a rickety bed that somehow was still standing. Everything on the bed was dirty and grimy, including the man. He was just crying and moaning and groaning for attention. He had a difficult accent/voice to understand, so in my straining to understand him, I decifed that he was injured while working about 6 years ago and was left paralyzed from the waist down and has been in bed since that time. He told us of his sad life story (and how he thought I was the pastor’s daughter because she apparently is blond as well!!) as he tried to prop himself up on his elbow to talk to us. As we were chatting a bit with him and trying to consol him, his 20 year old son came into the door and sat down by his father. He seemed much older than 20, surely because the circumstances of his life and family has weighed heavily on him over the years as the oldest child. We talked with them a little bit about the plan of salvation, not quite sure if they were able to read or not and offered a prayer of comfort and to bless their house and family. It was a unique experience needless to say. Within about an hour and a half, we had only knocked about 1/3 of the neighorhood, but had taught 9 new people! It was quite the miracle for us and really helped lift the spirits of my companion. We call that neighborhood our “pueblito de oro” or little town of gold because it really saved our week spiritually and emotionally as we felt a little piece of what it might have been like to be like the missionaries from the Book of Mormon who were constantly teaching. In this little town of Evangelical families, we stood out and no one knew who we were and we were able to make a name for ourselves and truly show what we believe. It was an amazing experience and we just walked back on that dirt road as the sun was setting, praying and thanking the Lord for His tender mercy in opening those doors for us and letting us teach. This weekend was also Stake Conference and we were able to watch a satellite transmission from Salt Lake, listening to Elder Zivic (of the Seventy) (I wonder if she means "Zwick?" who sealed Bonnie and Ben), the General Primary President, Elder Anderson and President Packer. They gave great counsel to the Argentine members and truly taught to their needs and circumstances. It was a great session filled with the spirit. We all left “filled.” It was also a fun opportunity for me to catch up with some of the members I met and got to know in my first area. It was nice to see familiar faces, for what that’s worth here in the mission. I felt like I had friends and at least people who recognized me. It was a nice little treat to end the week. Love to you all! Hna. Pelton PS--Happy Father's Day for all those dads out there! You're great!