I was able to talk to Lucas yesterday for Mother's day. He was surprised that the call from Argentina would actually go through to us! He sounds the same, and he is happy and loving the people of Argentina. The missionary work is up and down, but that is to be expected. He is in the town of Billinghurst, and their ward is Loma Hermosa. There are about 120 members of that ward with only 5 or 6 youth. Their area is large enough that they take the bus everywhere they need to go. He says the streets are organized and easy to navigate, and that the city is clean and the people live above their businesses. No high rise buildings, everything is at the same level. There are some factories in the town, mostly for clothing, metal working or cars as far as he can tell. He does all of his laundry by hand, they have a tub to wash in, and then they hang everything up to dry. He says he is ironing his shirts too! He is loving being a missionary and bore a strong testimony to me before we said goodbye. We look forward to be able to Skype with him on Christmas day.
This week went by super fast! I can´t believe this is my 12th week in the mission!
Wednesday was pretty cool because I was with Elder Arambarù, one of our zone leaders, in Villa Tesei on divisions and he taught/reminded me to do something super important: smile. It´s amazing how his big smile was when he was doing lessons and contacts and how personable he is with the people. I had forgotten that the work of a missionary is a happy and joyful one and that more people are more likely to trust you if you are happy. I need to work a lot in this area of missionary work :D
On Wednesday Elder Rivera and our other zone leader found an amazing investigator. She is super excited about meeting with us and learning more about God and his plan for us. She loves to read the bible and loves the stories in there so we gave her a Book of Mormon that the stories about the prophets in the Ancient Americas are just as good, so she is excited to read the Book of Mormon too! The only hard part is getting her to got to church. Elder Rivera asked yesterday: "Why is it so hard to get up at 7 in the morning to got to church?" Honestly, the Argentines love to sleep.
We have a baptism this next week and I am going to be doing the baptising! Her name is Cintia and she is super excited about getting baptized and has been our only investigator in church for the past few weeks. She will be the first in her family and we are hoping that the rest of her family will follow her example in the following month or so.
The weather has definately gotten colder because I had to use my sweaters all this week. It rained yesterday and when it rains on Sunday it means that the ward attendance is halved and none of our investigators go to church. This kinda stinks, but we just need to work harder this next week.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon this past week and started reading it in Spanish. The Book of Mormon is such an amazing book! I have a strong testimony that it is the word of God and that we can recieve personal revelation through praying and studying it. Everyday before I read I pray to recieve revelation about how to progress our investigators and be a better missionary and everyday I find an answer to both of these. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints is His true church and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet.
Have a great week!
Les Amo! Elder Giles
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