Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire!

Well, first of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of you.

I am missing you all a ton at this time of year, but you know what, this may just be one of the most special Christmases that I will ever have because I know that there is nowhere else that I should be in this very moment. Well, things here are festive, just not in the same way as the states. Festive Argentine style = lots of booze, fireworks (most of which get thrown directly at you) scattered Christmas lights, weird Argentine versions of American Christmas music, pan dulce (fruit cake, which actually gets eaten not just re-gifted over and over and over), and crazy people everywhere.

But enough of the description of Argentina; just remember that there are those in the world that would like you to send a fair amount of that snow you are getting our direction to drop the temperature by a couple dozen degrees. Ha-ha. So this has been a rather dynamic transfer with the new elders here in Perico. It is cool having 4 in the same ward. This last Sunday, Monica came to church and this time she brought both of her daughters and her boyfriend. It was great to see them there. I love seeing how the Lord fulfills the promises made by his servants. She is now seeing how the Lord is blessing her family (not only her boyfriend) but her sisters too, by having them be interested now in the church as well.

In church we also had an old investigator return to church with the help of her boyfriend who is a member. Also another girl we are teaching came, her name is Mikaela and she is awesome. After the first time we met her, she read the part we had left in the Book of Mormon 3 times! People rarely even read it once, let alone three times. But the coolest story of all is Jorge Mazzala. We found Jorge knocking doors about two weeks ago. The first time we taught him we just talked about the church a little bit and got a time to go back when he wasn't working. The appointments have progressively been getting better and better. We have had the help of a couple of members. Now every time we go to his house alone, he asks about those members. On Saturday we passed by and it turned out that he was working on a car (he works as a car body mechanic) and he really didn't have much time, but I sat down in the car with him and started helping him dismantle the car. (All that work with Brother Boomgarrden helped out :) and we got to talking. We talked about the part in Moroni 10 that he had read and at the end of the appointment we invited him to come to church with us and he accepted. We left for church at 9:45 and when we got to his house he was outside waiting for us. He came and participated in the principles of the Gospel class and sacrament meeting. He was dozing off a little during sacrament meeting and later told us he had been up until 4 in the morning working but wanted to come to church because he had made a commitment to come. What a stud!

So his background is that he moved to Perico about 3 years ago and about 3 months ago he and his girlfriend got separated and she took the son and daughter back to Buenos Aires where they originally lived. He has been struggling though not having them around and we have been praying for him in regards to that. After church was over, we invited him to get to know the bishop. They ended up having a 1 hour interview and when he walked out of his office he was smiling and it looked as if he had been crying a little bit. We asked him how he was doing and he told us he had had a really good chat with the bishop. As we said goodbye to him he looked at us both and said thank you and his stare seemed to be saying something that he had never seen before, as if he had had his eyes opened and had a new light in them. That was super cool. So this week has had its ups and downs, but I am happy all in all. I Love you all so much, to each and every one of you I wish a merry Christmas and that you may have a very special time. Don´t miss me... too much :) ha-ha. I’ll be there next year :) take care. Celebrate for me. Pray for me and my companion. Pray for our investigators.

Me despido. chau.
Elder Jeffrey Rose