Semana 77 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

Well, rumors are spreading around about the new mission president coming our way! President Northcutt is out of here the first week of July, and rumor has it that the new president is from Santa Fe, Argentina; in his 40s (young!!!); and 4 kids coming with him to live in the mission! Nothing guaranteed yet, but it's enough to get one extremely curious as to how things will turn out.

This last week was full of downers as well as a few pretty good things too. I usually like to start with the bad news so that I can end on a happy note. All of the recent converts here are going through various trials now--a never-ending battle! A couple are fighting off temptations to break the word of wisdom, a couple are hitting economic struggles, and one depends on her less-active mom to take her to church. We're doing what we can though and that's all that Heavenly Father asks for.

I did divisions with companionship that's pretty discouraged. I went over to their area for a day and was glad to be able to help with a few things in how the senior comp is working. I hope things turn out good for them in the end. They're just getting tired of knocking the same doors multiple times in the transfer (it's a small area).

Our week was chock-full of appointments this week, we were practically running a couple times! Unfortunately, the members were pretty busy all this week for various things, especially the fact that school starts tomorrow for them!

(Now the couple good things ;) )

Last week we did a zone fast to find those that are prepared to accept the gospel as well as to be able to help the investigators we already have to get baptized. I think that fast is starting to pay off. Saturday we were walking pretty quickly to our next appointment, when we here this guy yell out "Elders!" We looked over and saw this guy that we've never seen in our lives before. We started talking with him, and his dad who came up behind him, and found out he's a higher-up of the border patrol here and he just got to Tartagal about a month ago. He and his dad are members and wanted to know when church was so that they could come on Sunday. Yesterday he introduced us to his wife, who isn't a member ;) 2 random investigators that we had dropped found us this last week, and showed complete interest in continuing where we left off! To top it off, we were knocking doors yesterday late at night. We were going to go home in 15 minutes or after someone let us in, whichever came first. As we were walking around, I saw this front porch that had 3 chairs situated around a little table with the outside light turned on. I could practically imagine us just sitting in those chairs, and found the opportunity irresistable. Turns out the lady that let us in was great! She had lots of great questions and recognized that what we had to share was true. We're now waiting to get the baptism half of the fast to kick into gear ;)

We'll be moving into our new apartment this week! The guy's leaving two sofa chairs and a love seat in the apartment!!! Can't wait for study time ;)

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 76 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This was a fairly crazy week, but it turned out good for me in the end. I had divisions scheduled with the zone leaders starting on Tuesday night. My comp made the 3-hour trip down to the zl's area and one of the zone leaders came up here. We got lots done Tuesday afternoon, but when he woke up Wednesday morning, he started feeling headaches and a little bit of stomach-achyness. He felt pretty bad all day long too--good thing we didn't have an intense day planned. He had planned to stay until my district meeting on Thursday morning, and then return to his area, but all Wednesday night/Thursday morning, he had diarrhea and was vomitting! So I cancelled the 2 appointments I had in the morning to let him rest. He almost didn't make it to the meeting, but he was there and gave a quick little lesson with mine, followed by a rush to the bathroom again (just diarrhea at that point). After analyzing the situation, he knew he wouldn't be able to make it to his area without needing a bathroom again (he was given antibiotic that didn't allow him to take diarrhea meds), so we let him rest all day Thursday, meaning that we had to work crazy switch-offs with the other 4 Tartagal elders to get to all the appointments in our 3 areas! We got it to work though. He felt a little better Friday morning, so we gave the trip back a try, so I finally got my comp back Friday afternoon. He's feeling a whole lot better now, but man, that was a crazy midweek event!

I can't remember the last time that Sunday felt like a Day of Rest--this last Sunday was definitely not an exception. I worry too much about the investigators, but at the same time, the members here are sometimes pretty crazy in comparison to how things should be in the church! Unfortunately I can't really make comments, it's just up to the leaders to figure things out.

I had a cool inspirational moment the other day. I was thinking about the gospel of Jesus Christ with my comp and reading a little section in Preach my Gospel, when a cool way to explain the gospel popped into my head. It's kinda long, but I liked it a lot. The main points of the gospel are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and persevering (I like the Spanish "persevering" better than the English "enduring") to the end (see Article of Faith #4). We normally picture the 5 points in a timeline, but in reality, it's also like a circle. We start out by showing faith in Jesus Christ and his teachings (faith is a trust in something isn't seen, but is true). Our faith makes us feel the need to change our lives so that we live in harmony with his teachings--that change is called repentance. When we repent, we make a covenant with Heavenly Father that we won't digress after repentance, rather progress afterward. Covenants are made through sacred acts called ordinances (a few examples are baptism, partaking of the sacrament, receiving the Priesthood, as well as the ordinances in the temple). After making a covenant with Heavenly Father, He always promises that the Holy Ghost will be with us to guide us. Well, the first time we enter the circle, the covenant we make is baptism. Once we're baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If we follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, we will realize that we need to prepare ourselves to renew that covenant by taking the sacrament every week, therefore entering into the circle again: exercise faith, repent, covenant (sacrament in this case), and we receive more guidance from the Spirit. We continue going around and around and around in this circle until one day, we're prepared to make other covenants, which gives us even more momentum in this gospel circle. As we hit more times going around the circle, we get closer and closer to Heavenly Father, kindof like a tornado going upward. You can try and disprove it, but it's so logical: you can't have the Holy Ghost unless you make covenants, you can't make covenants unless you repent first, you can't repent unless you believe and trust that it's possible (faith), and you can't have faith in something that the spirit doesn't testify of. So, in a sense, the gospel is eternal, because you can always make another turn around the track and come closer to Heavenly Father--that's how enduring to the end comes into play.

There might be flaws in how it's worded, but I think it's totally true. If it's confusing, I'm sorry. President Northcutt has us exposed to pretty deep stuff every once in awhile. Just study the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon--the principles are all over the place.

Well, I've gotta run.

Love you guys!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 75 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week was a little crazy, but not too bad. I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish--absolutely LOVED it! Everyone needs to read it for sure because there are plenty of life-lessons that are taught in there.

President Northcutt raised the mission's weekly goals a little bit, we're feeling the pressure! I dunno, personally, I was still working on getting better at meeting the old goals, now it's really starting to push...I know I can do it, just gotta figure out how to get it all done.

District meeting went well. There are 10 of us in the district here in Tartagal. It interesting to see the diverse situations that are in each area and each companionship. It'll be a fun little transfer, for sure.

Yeah...can't think of much else to write...I'm sure lots of crazy and funny things happened this last week, but I'm getting so used to the culture here, it all just seems kindof normal to me. You'll all just have to ask me about more specific things down here so that I can unfold the craziness that is northern Argentina!

Love you all!

-Elder Powell-

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Semana 74 - Villa Saavedra

¡Hola Todos!

This week alright. I was really happy with the baptism that we had this weekend again! Roberto Cortez was a tricky one to find sometimes. He is the father of a member here in Tartagal, but before, he was living in a little nearby town called Mosconi. He had a big drinking problem there, but his family started bringing him here about 6 months ago to listen to the missionaries. I ran into him toward the beginning of my time here when he was leaving for Mosconi again. He came back and he all of a sudden set his own baptismal date for the 6th of January (a Thursday)! We gratefully helped him prepare for that day, but then he disappeared right before the New Year again to Mosconi. It turns out right on the 6th, because of his drinking done there, he had a case of headaches that led to what seemed to me to be a stroke! He couldn't use his left arm and leg for about a week. The doctor got on his case about drinking and it kindof scared him and made him realize the importance of making good decisions always, so he switched his address to his son's house and we baptized him two weeks later :) He's doing great now and loves reading the scriptures with the family and really helps out around the house! A great way to kick off 17 months in the mission!

We had interviews with President Northcutt this week. My interview was short and simple--a good sign usually. We didn't talk about too much really, just about these study guides that he's having us look at, how my area's going, and how my comp is, that's about it! He bumped me up to district leader again though, so we'll see if life will be as challenging as when I was district leader the last time!

We got a phone from the pension office elder: I'm going to have to move pensions AGAIN!.....We're splitting the 4 Tartagal elders away from us two in Villa Saavedra, so I have to go look for something smaller. I think it'll be easier than it was in Jujuy though, so that'll be nice.

We were blasted with a crazy rainstorm again on Sunday morning, so our two branches were forced to combine sacrament meetings again, due to low attendance. At least the 3 newly baptized members showed up for their confirmations, so that was a nice addition to fast and testimony meeting!

Everyone down here is hearing lots about crazy snowy weather all over the U.S. Hope everyone is surviving up there ;)

Well, I've gotta run, but I love you all!!!

-Elder Powell-

 

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