Windsday

Mi Querida Familia! 

Hey! This week was pretty crazy. First of all, there was a crazy wind storm on Friday that the Argentine´s call Sonda. Basically, it´s just a hot wind. But it was pretty scary, there was dust and dirt everywhere, and lots of trees and branches fell everywhere. We´re okay, and everything´s fine. Luckily we were inside visiting with a less active for the worst parts, and walked home when it had mostly settled down and all the ruin was left everywhere. Pretty exciting.

Also this week I had my fist divisiones! One morning we had to go to el centro to pick up some invitations for an activity coming up, but we had citas fijas, so we asked if two girls in the ward, Lis and Aileen would go on splits with us, Aileen with me to visit with an investigator, and Lis with Hna Tirado to pick up the invitations. Basically I was nervous out of my mind. My first lesson without Hermana Tirado! I kind of freaked out all morning, and prayed lots and lots. We were teaching Mariela, our only progressing investigator. She´s been reading the Book of Mormon, and ALMOST accepted a fecha for baptism. She doesn´t quite feel ready yet, and is kind of still deciding whether she wants to be baptised into this church, or the evangelical church. So the morning´s lesson was on the priesthood, and it went fabulously! It helps that Mariela likes to talk, and also that she always has lots of questions, which makes the lessoning easier. The lesson went very well, and Aileen was able to talk about the temple, and how this church has the authority to seal us as families even after death, which was something Mariela seemed to like a lot. Well hey, me too. :) 

On the other hand, we´ve had a lot of investigators drop us recently, which is always fun. And our new goal as a zone is to focus on finding new investigators. So Hna Tirado and I have been praying every day to find new investigators, and though we find new people, most of them turn out to not really be interested in inviting us in. It´s kind of a bummer, and sometimes I wish people would just tell us no rather than giving us their address and waiting till we come to visit so they can pretend not to be home. But at times it´s a better option than getting doors slammed in your face, which as of now I´ve only experienced once. So you know, ups and downs. 

Regardless, on thursday we were walking down a street and this little girl who we see sometimes on the bus named Valentina comes up to us. She grabs my hand and literally pulls us to her house a few houses down. Well, we took it as a sign, and knocked on the door. A young girl answered, and said she would get her mom, and after a while of waiting we figured her mom probably wasn´t coming. So we told Valentina, "Creemos que su mami es ocupado, vamos a regresar mas tarde, si?" She just kind of looks at us. "Espere." She says. We couldn´t say no to the little 5 year old, so we waited a little more. Her mom did eventually come out, invited us in, and we taught her and her 13 year old daughter. Valentina was there as well, giving us water and playing with our nametags, mostly just distracting everyone. But the mother, Marcela, said we could come back again. New Investigators! 

That same day we also met with another family, the mother named Norma, who we also were able to have a lesson with her and two of her grandsons, who said we could come back another time. New Investigators! 

As I´ve learned on the mission, sometimes you´ll have weeks where no one lets you in, all your investigators drop you, and no one comes to church. Then other weeks it´ll seem like everyone invites you into their home for lessons, service, almuerzos, and everything else. And it´s interesting because the weeks like this one, where we´re able to see those miracles, to meet the people who´s hearts God has prepared for us is a really sweet experience, and those weeks are the best. But the other weeks are the weeks when I learn the most. I have to practice keeping a good attitude when we´ve walked more miles than we´ve taught lessons. I have a chance to find the millions of little, less obvious blessings when it´s seems that there are none. And  most of all, I have a chance to feel just the tiniest bit of what the Savior felt, and rely completely on His strength, becuase it´s only in those times when I truly realize that I can´t do this work alone. 

Thanks for your prayers and support! I really wanted to send photos, but the computer, once again, is being dumb and won´t recognize the card. :P 

Love you all! 

Hermana Cannon