Semana 33 - Yuto

Buen Día,

Congratulations to Jonathan Price's mission call to Brazil--that's fantastic! I'm guessing you'll be bottle-necked in Provo though because I hear from recent arrivals here in Argentina that Brazil is still having issues with getting missionaries into Brazil in a rapid fashion...

Congratulations to Drew Powell for being the best flute player in Washington as well! Don't let your head grow too big ;) We inherit from the same genes, remember.

To answer mom's surprised reaction to my 2 baptisms last week: you need to realize that I'm always teaching somebody. I just haven't really reported on the weekly changes to the teaching records because it would just be too much. But I was planning on giving a teaching update this week anyways, so I hope this week will be better for you.

 

We were walking along the path when a nice little old lady (at least 70+ years) came walking up the path. We greeted her as we passed by, everything normal...until she passed by and said "¡Que lindo que sos!" (literally "How pretty are you", but takes on a feeling similar to "Well you're a pretty sight to see!") We just kept walking, not being able to believe what just happened...

 

We had a zone meeting this week because it was the beginning of a new transfer. I finally bought a new Sony Cyber-shot before the meeting, so I'm getting pictures of Yuto! Of course, I ran out of battery in the process of getting them ready to put on the internet for all of you, so you'll have to wait till next week when I'm better prepared. After the meeting, a couple miraculous things started happening. We recently ran out of gas in the kitchen of the chapel. Unfortunately, we got double-slammed with difficulties there because there's a shortage of gas in Yuto, and we need a 45-kg tank of gas to replace the one in the chapel! What's worse is that we also ran out of our regular 15-kg tank in the pension at about the same time! Yet the Lord is watching over us--we found a place after the meeting that will deliver the gas for us! As we were taking the bus ride home, Elder Sangroni and I got to chatting and playing with my camera, so we didn't pay attention to where our special non-existant bus stop was. Luckily, as Elder Sangroni looked out the window in a random moment, we approached the entrance to Yuto and got off just in time (the bus won't enter into Yuto unfortunately). We then started waiting for somebody to take us into Yuto. Just a short 10 minutes later, who drives up but the Yuto police truck, who gladly let us hitch a ride in the bed of the truck into Yuto!!! Got a picture of that one for sure ;)

 

Random trivia-type fact: we found out there's a Book of Mormon in the Yuto library, which consists of 2 bookshelves!!!

 

Here's your family situations request: Elder Sangroni has been working with this super-less-active family (mom used to be relief society president). Things have greatly improved with them and they're starting to have the desire to return to church and read the Book of Mormon. We're teaching their un-baptized daughter as well, so things are progressing well. The last time we visited them, we actually challenged them to prepare themselves for a temple trip that's happening January 10, 2011, and I think they're looking to meet that goal!

 

A little 12-year-old girl (Belén) approached us about a month ago, asking us when she could be baptized! We've been teaching her with her sister-in-law's (Alicia's) family, who lives next-door, for the past month now. The 2 baptisms from last week were 2 of Alicia's daughters. Belén's baptism was yesterday, but as we tried to talk with her legal guardian, her uncle, he didn't want to hear anything, barely letting us talk to him about it, so she won't be getting baptized unfortunately...just harshly yelled at by her uncle and other family members for associating with "the Mormons". She has her Book of Mormon though and other member-friends, so if she is actively patient, like we learned from Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the last Priesthood Session, she should be fine in the end. As for Alicia and the rest of the family, she's living unmarried with the father of her 4 children, like the rest of Argentina (it seems at least), which prohibits her own baptism for now because she would be breaking the law of chastity. She has told us though that she feels that our church makes her feel at peace like no other church has in the past, so she has prayed hard about a decision that she has to make to continue progressing--marry her boyfriend, or separate from him. A little about his background: he works in the "finca", the agricultural fields, and is gone almost always from the house; he drinks and smokes; and, according to Alicia, has shown traces of uninterest in the family. She has talked with him about the situation and is deciding to leave with her kids to Salta--a 5-hour bus ride that will feel like moving from the middle-of-nowhere in Washington or Oregon over to Seattle or Portland! Her story is really feeling like the stories of the early church pioneers, how they're dropping everything to move over to a better place. She reasons that there's a much more visible future in Salta than Yuto (she's right, you can't find work here in Yuto), and she needs the blessings of being baptized in the church. What an example-setter for all of us! There's a reason why we do crazy things in this church like dropping everything and leaving, serving missions for 2 years, and giving all we can to the church--it's because it's all true!!! The Book of Mormon is a book with power--it's scripture just like the Bible. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, just like Moses was a prophet. It all really happened. If you don't know about these things, ask someone who does.

 

Well that's about all I've got for now :) I love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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