Word of the week: Sentir sabores (to taste flavors)

Yes, I am happy to report that I have recently restarted to taste my food....thank goodness! It's quite the cruel joke to be a missionary in a foreign country and not be able to taste all the food you are eating. I am happy to report, that in celebration of this happy ocassion, Hna. Goddard and I went to "Candilandia" and bought $1 worth of candy to eat....since I could taste it! YUM! I still have an annoying cough that is lingering with me....but at least I can taste again! This week was a great teaching week! We were really focusing on asking good questions and focusing on the person rather than just on the lesson. This new training program for the new missionaries has been great for me and my personal growth as a missionary. I find myself trying to be a better quality missionary and focusing more on "being" a misisonary rather than just "doing" missionary things. I put my trust in the Lord especially this week knowing that He would give us the people to teach so we could put into practice what we've been working on this week during our companionship study. The week started out kind of slow and difficult because we couldn't find our investigators, but the Lord greatly blessed us as the week went on! We taught some AMAZING lessons this week, probably by far the best lessons that I've participated in over the course of my entire mission--the Spirit was present and very much so directing the lessons, the words that we said, and the love that we showed. It was all so perfect, like it had come off of a missionary training video! They were great experiences personally and to show to a missionary new in the field. Unfortunately, the people we taught these great, spiritual lessons are clinging to their Catholic traditional backgrounds, but at least we know we did our part and that the spirit testified to them of the truthfulness of what we were saying. It will all work together some day. In one particular situation, we were knocking doors right before the lunch hour (which is the WORST time to knock) because our appointments fell through. We weren't having any luck, until a man let us in to his home. He was kinda awkward and really was just being polite in not slamming the door in our faces, but didn't seem to have any interest in the message we were offering. We sat down and, while trying to be friendly and nice (coughing along the way), we found out that he is recently divorced and lives now with his sister and his kids come and visit him every once in a while. We started teaching him about the Restoration, but it was a very one sided lesson--we may as well have been teaching a cardboard cut out of a man. Thankfully (and I say thankfully in this situation only because it helped us fix the lesson), the phone rang and Sergio went to answer it. I looked at Hna. Goddard and just made this weird face at her like "this lesson is useless! we're not getting to him and I'm not really feeling like this is a very inspired lesson." So, I started looking around his house, trying to think of what we were going to do to save this lesson so it wasn't just a number in our agenda at the end of the day. I noticed that he had a big Bible sitting on a bookshelf in the corner of the room. When he came back and started listening to us again, I asked him about his Bible and if he likes reading the Bible. From this, a number of follow up questions came into my mind and within a few minutes, we had discovered that he stopped going to the Catholic church because he didn't feel anything when he went. He told us how he didn't feel elevated or uplifted when he went to church, so he felt that it was a waste of time and started looking for those fulfilling feelings in other means. He brought out a self-help type book that he's been reading to fill that need in his life. The lesson changed in that moment and the spirit started working very powerfully. I've recently come to discover that when I'm teaching with the spirit, new analogies and examples come to my mind. It's very opposite of who I am and my usual way of teaching (ie: preparing, practicing, thinking things all the way through...not coming up with things on the spot). But in this moment, a great analogy came into my head and it fit perfectly into the lesson and really helped Sergio understand the point and doctrine we were trying to teach him. Here's what the spirit whispered to me (maybe because I've been sick for the past week). -Why do we go to the doctor or the hospital when we are sick? Aren't there lots of sick people there? People that have worse illnesses and problems than we have? But we go to the doctor anyway because we know that the doctors have the knowledge, tools, and the "right" to help us get better, to operate on us when necessary. When I'm really sick, I don't go to the man down the street and ask him to operate on me or give me medications because he isn't authorized to treat people medically and he doesn't have the tools to treat my specific illness. Despite all the diseases floating around in the hopsital, I'm going there because I know that I can trust the doctors because they have received "permission" (for the lack of better wording) to treat people and their different illnesses. Spiritually, we are all sick--some have spiritual illness more grave than others. Like when we are sick, we aren't going to go to same random man down the street to have him heal us (physically or spiritually)....we are going to go to the hopsital, or in the case of a spiritual illness---the church building. We need to go to a place where there are people who have "permission" or the "right" to operate on us spiritually so we can be truly healed. Even though there are all types of spiritually sick people in church, we take the "risk" and go anyway, knowing that the potential cure outweighs the potential illnesses we could catch. The church is a hospital for the spiritually sick. There is no better place to go to be spiritually healed than where Christ is the head doctor and surgen. Like Christ himself proclaimed, He didn't come into the world to save the healthy, but to heal the sick and aren't we all sick spiritually as sinners? I testify that the Lord will enlighten our minds and edify us (D&C 59:20), both those we are testifying to and to ourselves. The Lord will truly give us the words to say in the very moment if we seek His help and are seeking to reach the needs of His children. He truly knows the thoughts and intents of all His children. We ended up sharing the Book of Mormon with Sergio and as we went to mark a part for him to read, he got up, walked over to his bookshelf with the Bible on it and brought back an old copy of the Book of Mormon that apparently other elders had left with him years ago. He told us that other missionaries had left it with him, but it wasn't the right moment in his life, so he never read it. He told us that maybe what he was looking for was in the Book of Mormon and pushed his self help book aside and told us that he would read the Book of Mormon. When we focus on the needs of others, and seek the guidance of the Lord in knowing what to say, having full confidence that He will give us the words to say, He enlightens our minds and we all leave edified. Hna. Goddard asked me where I came up with analogy after we left Sergio's house and were talking about how the teaching went, and I just looked at her and told her that I had no idea, that it had to have come from the Lord because I had never used an analogy like that before and it had never occurred to me before, only in that precise moment, when I asked the Lord to help us save that lesson and help Sergio. It was an amazing experience and very humbling. So, one of the great things about training is that I get to rediscover all the cool, quirky things about Argentina! Just a couple of days ago, I was explaining to Hna. Goddard the process of turning on the hot water to take a shower in the morning. (note: it's been less than 0 degrees here the past few days...so this information is vital). I thought you all might get a kick out of it....ENJOY! 1. Turn on the kitchen sink to the "hot" position. (this helps so more gas flows, making it easier to get the little pilot light to ignite) 2. Light a match. 3. Simulaneously, put the match into the water heater (pilot light opening) and turn on the gas valve below the heater NOTE: because the water heater is located next to the drafty window in the kitchen, there is usual a draft that blows over where you need to light the pilot light in the heater, so, I usual light a candle and leave it on the counter so I don't have to keep relighting 10,000 matches in the process of lighting the heater when the matches get blown out. CAUTION: If the match gets blown out before the pilot light ignites, TURN OFF THE GAS VALVE! If the gas valve is not turned off in this situation and the hot water is left on, gas fills the water heater and in the short amount of time it takes you to light another match and put it in the heater, you will get an explosion....we don't want that. 4. When the pilot light ignites, go to the shower and turn on the hot water. 5. Go back to the kitchen and turn off the kitchen sink so the hot water starts flowing to the bathroom and not to the kitchen sink. 6. Go back to the bathroom, and with a set of pliers, turn on the cold water (since there is no nob for the cold water control) so you don't get burned by the hot water. 7. Don't forget your flip-flops....who knows what that black stuff is growing in the "grout" between the tiles....Hna. Pelton has been on her hands and knees to scrub those tiles and those black slotches don't go away....better be safe than sorry and get out those flip flops. 8. Oh yeah, and when you are done in the shower, leave the water running because if you turn the water off, the little pilot light flame might blow out (since there is that annoying draft from the window) and then we will all die from natural gas!!!! haha...not that dramatic, but the apartment will start smelling a bit like gas within a few minutes. But, if you are the last one showering, turn off the hot water and the cold water (using the pliers again) and then go to the kitchen to turn off the gas valve so the pilot light goes out, 9. Enjoy being clean for the next couple of hours before you go outside and get all dirty again! :) Repeat tomorrow Alright, not much else to report. Taught an elderly couple and adopted them as my Argentine grandparents. Juan cried as he prayed and thanked the Lord for sending him 2 people that we a great relief to him in his stressful life. He had to stop praying because he was too emotionally. I just squeezed his arm and told him that that's why we had come to his home to chat with him and his wife. With wet eyes, he set his hand on mine and just smiled at me. It was such a sweet moment. Love is definately a fruit of the spirit. I have no idea why I asked them if we could adopt them as our Argentine grandparents, but when he started crying, I realized that maybe that's what he needed in that moment, more than anything else we had shared with them. Maybe he just needed to feel the love of the Lord in his life. It's amazing the instant love I feel for people we teach sometimes. It's almost as if I'd known these people for years. That might have been one of my favorite lessons I've ever taught....I felt like the missionary I always dreamed of being. It was a weird and humbling realization. The Lord really does shape us if we set goals with Him. Until next week....Chau! Hna. Pelton