The Work is Going Well

February 11, 2009

We have a bunch of investigators, some better than others of course, but there are a few that are just amazing. Last week we had 4 people in church and the week before we had one that was not there this last week, so we have five baptismal dates for the 28th so long as we keep them animated (excited) about coming to church and progressing. I would say the family I want to tell you about is the Familia DeVilla. They are amazing. They are a family made up of two grandparents, Francisco and Angelica, two daughters--Justina (and the other we have not met--and three grand kids, Daniel, Jorge, and Erica. The grandfather came to church with Daniel and Erica on Sunday. The kids are great. The grandpa has a bit of a drinking problem and a very common thing down here is chewing cocaine leaves, which he has a problem with as well. The great thing though is that in one of our lessons with them he stopped us and was like "I want help to stop drinking and to stop coceando" (they make verbs for everything here) so we were like of course and they came to church. Sitting in church, little Daniel was sitting next to a member´s son. This kid, Carlitos, came up to us after the meeting and he was like "¿Daniel told me he wants to get baptized, what do I do?" So we just told him to keep being his friend. This family is amazing we have to teach very simple so they can all understand, but if you could just feel the spirit that I have felt while teaching them the lessons you would know the church was true in that instant.

Another experience we had yesterday, was we went down to a city called Tartagal, where another set of missionaries lives and helped them out. Remember the cats and large dogs? Well apparently things got a little out of hand and they started pushing mud down the mountains and the city was inundated with water, mud, debris, houses were washed away, businesses destroyed, it was bad. So we spent yesterday helping out as much as we could down there. The missionaries´pension down there was flooded with mud and water and walls were knocked down and some of there stuff was ruined or lost (white shirts + mud = brown shirts) so we helped them move up to another pension up in Mosconi and cleaned that place up too. The others helped out in Villa Savedra, a barrio part of Tartagal and helped a member get all of the waist deep mud out of their home. It was bad and it was sad to see, but all in all it was a humbling experience to see all of that. It made me realize a lot of the things that I take for granted in my life in the states.

The work is going well; I’m trying hard, getting better and relying on the Lord for all the help I can get, and I can´t help but smile all the while.

We reopened the area here so there are members here, but the place is relatively untouched in the outskirts. We walked about 5k to an investigator´s home the other day, and the road keeps on going, so there is still a lot to do. I never thought that I would be the one who introduced someone to the gospel for the first time, but it´s happened, it´s a weird feeling to know that there are those who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ, even in this country. But like I said, the work is still going and it´s going well at that.

Happy Valentines Day!

Elder Rose