July 19, 2010

So this week has been pretty cold.  And the past couple days have been rainy, but I am over my cold at least, I think.  Im not really sniffling all that much, so thats good.

Tuesday - today we had our special meeting in the offices.  When I said it was for our zone and one other, I lied.  It turns out it was for everybody in the entire mission.  There are 8 new lessons that we have to use in our studies, but Im not really sure I understand what all that means yet.  They aren´t going to be officially using the lessons until may or something of this coming year, which is a while away.  Other than that, the meeting was pretty boring.  We were there most of the day too, so we didn´t have time to do anything else when we got back to our area.  Some things that did change though, instead of having zone conference every single transfer, we now have it every other trasnfer.  Interviews every other transfer, too.  And the president said that he would be visiting districts a lot more often during district meetings.  Which means more divisions with the president.

Wednesday - In the morning we were going to visit Juan, who was baptized in December.  I think this was the first time he had ever missed church, so we wanted to talk to him.  As we were going, we passed one of our investigators (Osvaldo) in the street, and started talking to him.  He told us that he had continued reading, and didn´t think that the book of mormon was his path.  He said that he didn´t like the way that it describes how we should be obedient to Gods commandments for the blessings.  So we taught him right there in the street, and he was still open to receiving us in his house, so that´s good.  We´ll be vising him sometime this week.  then we went to Juan, and it turns out he went to a baptism of some cousin niece or nephew something or other...  Then we went to visit a family with S. Campos, who is less active (the family, not S. Campos).  They showed up to church this Sunday, woohoo!  They also need help with their house, so we will be going back later in the week with some leader from the ward.

Thursday - Today I have to go to Capital for my DNI (which basically is like social security number, and lets me stay in Argentina).  So we left pretty early.  Waited for 3 trains before we could actually get on, the trains were all full.  We got to the offices, and we ended up turning around and going back to the train station for something we had to do in the station over for our DNI.  Back to the offices again, and took a taxi to capital.  Sat around for 50 minutes or so, and then we found out that they wanted 600 pesos (150 dollars) for each missionary for their DNI, and it used to only be 30 pesos.  Then we found out that they only charge church missionaries 600 pesos.  And the office elder that we were with didn´t have 600 pesos for each 7 of us, so our trip was wasted.  We have to go back later.  That night we taught Siliva more about how D&C came about, about the pearl of great price, and about spiritual gifts.  Then S. Campos told me how well I had taught the other night when she went with us to visit a couple investigators.  Hmm.

Friday - Today in the morning, not much happened.  We tried visiting a couple of our investigators, and nobody was home.  We were about to get into one persons house, but then a house doctor showed up that she had called for her sick kid, so we had to leave.  That´s frustrating. Then at night we went again with S. Campos and leader of high priest something or other back to the Ferrandos house, where he assessed how much help they needed.  He decided that they need a lot.  Back to the Campos for dinner.  I made bread!  She said I made it pretty good too.

Saturday - This morning before we had even left for the day we were called by the zone leaders and told that we needed to be in the church building of morón 1 for a special meeting with old missionaries from the mission bahia blanca, and that we were going to do divisions with them or something.  In a park near our apartment there was a large (i dont know what its called in english...) gathering? of people from the province/state who were doing documents and things faster than what is possible if they went to capital to do it.  So we got a bunch of
pamphlets and things and just started talking to people in the park. we were there until we had to leave for this special meeting in morón 1.  So we get to the chapel there about 30 minutes early, the bus went really quick and didn´t make any stops.  Nobody was at the chapel.  So we waited about 10 minutes.  Called zone leaders, and they said they were on their way.  Waited 10 more minutes.  Called elders from Morón 1, they said they would be there in 15 minutes.  Waited 10 more minutes.  The old mission president from Bahia Blanca showed up, who was supposed to be giving some sort of a message in a little while, saw that nobody was there, and then left.  Apparently the activity was supposed tostart at 10 in the morning and go to 6 in the afternoon, and since it was 2:30, and nobody was there, he left.  Finally elders from morón 1 showed up, and they called bishop, and said the activity was postponed since they didn´t know where somebody went (but this person didnt have any relevance at all to the activity, so i was really confused why they cancelled the activity...).  So that was about 2 hours wasted doing nothing at all.

Sunday - Woke up in the morning and it is raining pretty good.  Campos drove us to church (mm, car :) ).  We taught the lesson in gospel principles again.  Then in Sacrament Meeting we ended up passing the Sacrament.  It felt a little bit weird, hadn´t passed it in over a year? hah.  Then S. Campos called us and asked if we had the number of someone who had just called and said a bunchof bad words and insults and things... and yeah we had the number.  It´s a member, inactive. She´s crazy.  So that was pretty weird.  And since it was raining outside, we couldn´t find anybody at all.  So the day was pretty slow.

Some questions some people have asked me...

How do lessons go with new companion?  I talk a lot more then I used to talk with my old comp.  We actually switch off back and forth teaching different parts of lessons and things. Most of the lessons we get are with people who are standing outside their houses.  We just walk up... ´´hey, we have a gift for you...´´  lesson one pamphlet! haha.  Works pretty well.  It´s gotten a lot easier to teach lessons and things to people, and a bit easier just walking up to people and talking.  But I noticed a definite drop in the number of people outside when its cold as opposed to when it was a bit warmer...

Anywho, I guess thats it for now...
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