Week Eleven

So I learned a lesson this week on humility. The contract for our pension has come up to it's almost end and the landlady is asking too much for the new contract so me and Elder Groen have been looking around some for a new one. We found one that is a lot cheaper, is brand new, has continous hot water (heats it as it is used, rather thank a small tank like ours that holds about 3 minutes worth), had a washer (we have to wash ALL of our clothes by hand) and had a really nice kitchen and living area. To get it approved though, we have to have our mission president check it out so he came out this week to look at it and we were way excited because we had been waiting for a couple weeks for some kind of action to be taken because we were caught between the offices and the landlady. We went with him to see it and he loved it, and then about partway through he announces that it will be perfect for the Hermanas in our district (and we would be moving into their current pension, which is in slightly worse shape than ours right now but about equal) since it was closer to the areas they teach in. It felt like someone popped a balloon I was holding in my hand since I was really looking forward to moving there but I got over it fairly quickly and it helped me to remember the point of my mission is to help and support others so I was definetely able to learn from it but we will likely be moving around pensions this week so the next time I email, I will be living in a different building (but still in Chivilcoy).

As far as Diego goes (the convert I baptized and then found drunk) - he moved to Bolivia (for at least a month, but potentially indefinetely) so I can't really do anything to help him but his mom said he was in a pretty bad state when he left and drinking A LOT so hopefully all will be well with him and he will do okay.

Besides him though, we have pretty much successfully reactivated a less active member (which is what our mission president said we should really focus on doing a lot as well) by visiting her and committing her to read her scriptures every day. We then shared a verse from where she was reading (2 Nephi 28:30, she was in 2 Nephi 28) about how we progress and get better step by step and little by little and we aren't expected to be perfect nor try to take on the world and make drastic changes in our life all at once and it really touched her. She bore her testimony to us then about her faith and how she wanted to come back for herself and especially for her really young daughter so that she could be raised in the church and has paid for a remis (somewhere between a Taxi and Uber, but how people without a car get around here in Argentina) to take her 2 out of the last 3 Sundays, and the one she missed was because her daughter was sick so that was awesome.

We also met someone yesterday right before dinner after a full day of unsuccessful attempts at contacting less active members that we taught the lesson of the Restoration of the Gospel to and she loved it. She walks by our church every day on the way to drop her kid off at school and during the lesson we gave her a Book of Mormon to read and assigned her a small part to read that night after we were gone and she said give her a week and she'll read it all because she can't read any faster. I borrowed the Book back from her to leave a pamphlet on how she can pray to god about the truthfulness of what we were teaching (which she loved when we explained that we weren't there to convince her to join our church with logic but rather that she had to pray to god to get the answer for herself on whether or not it was the true church of God restored to the Earth) and as I was holding the Book waiting to give it back to her she snatched it out of my hand and said "that's mine" with a chuckle so I have hopes for her. She agreed to be baptized at the end of April if she prayed and found her answer (and it was only lesson one) so we will be following up with her tommorrow to see how it went.

Not too much else new but here are some funny things from this week:

Bike: Chain broke and so we dropped it off at the bike shop and I had to stad on the little 1" studs where the back wheel bolts on to my comps bike so we could ride bike to the pension real quick and grab money to pay for it. It was interesting to do and was an insanely good leg workout to keep from slipping off... Last night the rear fender also broke off so that is on my to do list to get fixed so that if it rains I don't get soaked up my back from water flying off the wheel.

Another day as we were riding we saw a pack of 12+ (12 was the number I counted to before stopping) (large) stray dogs randomly walking the wrong way down the street of the main Avenida in the middle of the day. It was kind of bizarre.

We were also stopped outside the hospital the other day talking to one of our investigators who had to go in to get x-rays for his bad knees when someone walked out from whatever they were there for and then walked right into a pole right behind where we were huddled together talking (you could hear it ringing when his head hit). He took a step back and we asked if he was okay and he said he was then turned and walked to his car that was parked just a little ways down and drove off so now I know exactly the kind of people I might find on roads down here hahaha.

As we were eating last week I realized we were almost out of mayo again and then realized that I had bought two 500g bags/pouches (it comes in bags here with rescrewable lids instead of jars or bottles) not that long ago so I went and found the receipt and sure enough it had the date on it for a week ago, and so in a week me and my comp had eaten about a kilogram of Mayonaisse, so yeah.... We also haven't slowed down since because all we eat/can afford is Milanesa (fried chicken, very thinly cut and really large like a super thin breaded steak), burgers, and potatoes and we eat it with all three of those things.

Other than that, that is about it for this week except for the church putting out a new video for easter that is way awesome. I do not know the website for it in English, but in Spanish it is: sìguelo.mormon.org but I'm sure if you search Easter 2016 LDS or LDS Hallelujah (name of the video I think) in YouTube you should be able to find it.

As for me, I am doing really well. Going to bed exhausted, waking up and having an awesome day every day (and always busy).

Two pictures for this week and that's it: one is an awesome sunset we had, the other is a massive potato we got in a bunch we bought. You have to save them and add .jpg to the end to view them though.

Love you all and talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder McCollum