1-16-2012

Buen dia!

Well... me quedo!  I´m still here in the Lavalle for at least another transfer!  That will make 4 transfers that I will be here.  Estoy contenta. :) I love this area and I am in love with the people here.  I know I need to be here for a reason, and I am excited to keep working here and helping the area progress.  Not a whole lot happened this week except that we had 8 people in church yesterday, which was really great!  It doesn´t matter how crappy a week is, it will always end up fabulous if you have a lot of people in church! Not that the week was crappy.. haha, but having a lot in church made it better.  I have been kinda sick the last 4 or 5 days, I have a pretty bad cough/cold and have been SIN energia.  But I´ve taken some time to rest and I think I´m finally starting to feel better.  I had to speak in church yesterday and all of the members were worried about me after because I was coughing a lot haha.  Oh silly Argentine people... they freak out about the smallest things, it´s great. :)  So good news of the week.. we have a baptism this week!  Bryan, Ramona´s 14 year old son is getting baptized this Saturday.  Things are going well and improving with their family... Lorena is still being super weird and hasn´t been at church for awhile, which is really disappointing. :( We keep trying to visit her at her aunt´s house and she makes excuses to not let us in.  But I´m sure she will change and things will improve with time!  Lucas the dad told Ramona the other day though that if Lorena decides to come back and live there again, he´s going to leave.  We are working with him... we are focusing more on him and giving him the lessons and I know that his heart will change.  We came up with this brilliant idea to bring Miguel our recent convert and I´m pretty sure they are going to be great friends.  Miguel is still rock solid and awesome, he just pulls random things out of nowhere every time we talk to him which just amaze us more.  He was talking to Ramona yesterday and pulled out of nowhere how he made the goal to read the BoM in 4 months... we were both like ´what? where did that goal come from??´ haha.  He received the aaronic priesthood yesterday and is now working towards receiving the melchizidek.  He is on fire!  Mabel our other recent convert is also doing well.  She was pregnant but lost her baby :( but is still staying strong and coming to church each week.  Her husband will definitely be baptized, we are starting to focus on him more and it´s been a lot of fun spending time with their family.  Also in church we had a guy named Oscar.  He was a reference.  Funny story... so the guy seriously gave us bad directions, and we searched for this reference probably 3 or 4 different times until we found it (wayyy off from where he told us!).  One day we passed by and Oscar was there so we talked to him.  He started out by telling us that he has a mental sickness.... then went on to tell him all these things God has told him, such as how he needed to be baptized in the Evangelical church but still be a member of the catholic church to bless the members even though the catholic church isn´t true, haha.  He is actually really nice and sincere... just a little mentally ill, like he told us!  We were kind of worried about having him in class but he just listened and learned and we are going to work with him more.  Always fun finding the crazy people here in Argentina. :) Y bueno!  That´s about it!  Sorry.. nothing exciting this week!  But I am so grateful to be here as a missionary.  There is no other place in the world I would rather be.  My spiritual thought this week is BE ACTIVE IN THE GOSPEL!   I spoke yesterday in church about this... the church offers soooo many good things we can do.  3 hours of church every Sunday, scriptures, magazines, activities during the week, the temple, family history, service activities... so many good wholesome activities that are there for our benefit.  Not only should we take advantage of these things, but we should make them a priority over other things in our lives because they are all things that bring us closer to the Lord and not only help us reach our final goal--eternal life--but help us receive real happiness in this life. The kind of happiness we can´t receive from the world, but a real JOY that only comes from LIVING the gospel, not just being a member.  I love you all and thank you so much for your support!! Have a fabulous week! :) Chau-cito!

--Hermanita Hunt