Forty Seven Weeks

Hello Everyone!

Yet again, I have had another very interesting week. 

This Tuesday I got a haircut because my hair was getting pretty long at it's starting to get pretty hot here (getting to 30 degrees celsius, 90 degrees fahrenheit, but with almost 100% Argentine humidity). So for all of you going into winter, for me summer is just starting. Supposedly in February it'll get up to 45 degrees celsius, 110 fahreinheit (again with humidty) so I'll let you know how that goes once we get there.

We also found a really receptive man to teach this last week named Pedro. He is 76 years old, was Diagnosed with Parkinson's last year, and lives in a one room house with his dogs Mateo and Cual (Cual = which/who in english). He always recieves us well and loves to listen, but he also has bad vision so it makes it difficult for him to read and with his Parkinson's it's hard to get out of the house, so it makes things kind of hard but we keep visiting him regardless.

During the week we also saw a man walking 12 dogs, with all the leashes tied to his belt. We asked him how he did and what he would do if one took of running (because the others would follow) and he said be dragged along behind them (they were all big dogs, for example 4 or 5 were German Shepards and the rest were about that size. As he kept walking though most of his job seemed to me was just untangling the leashes. It was certainly an interesting sight.

Another day we were knocked on the house of someone to see if they would be interested in visiting with us, but they said no. So in turn we asked them if they knew anyone closeby that was passing for a difficult moment that we could visit and leave with a prayer to lift their spirits a little? His response was "Yes, Macri (The President of Argentina that nobody likes). He's passing for a very difficult moment." We thanked him and carried on our way, but we definetely got a good laugh out of it.

This Friday as well then, Elder Pinheiro was having dental problems and so we had to go to Capital Federal (The heart of Buenos Aires) so that he could get a Root Canal. So, we got to travel - it should have been a half hour drive more or less but with traffic due to manifestations going on by people that didn't have a job, it took 2 hours to get there, the operation lasted another 2 hours, and then 2 hours to get back. It was fun at least to visit the really nice city area of Buenos Aires though instead of just the outskirts where our mission is at. It is a lot different with a lot of pretty views (for a city), but I'm happy to be where I am at regardless.

This last weekend as well then was Stake Conference, and there were meetings on Saturday night and Sunday morning. As missionaries we were going to go on Sunday as if it was regular church, but last minute they gave us permission to go on Saturday if we didn't have teaching appointments. I wanted to go, and my companion too, but I kind of felt as though we should stay in our area and keep working instead of going even though we didn't have appointments, but we got on the bus to go back to our apartment to change and go anyway. As we got off though, I felt almost sick to my stomach that we shouldn't go but I was doubting it anyway, so I asked to borrow the Book of Mormon that my companion was carrying and planned to flip it open and read the first verse that my eyes fell upon. As I was flipping though, the number 17 came to my mind and when I stopped on a page, I read verse 17 (Mosiah 7:17) that says: "And now, it came to pass on the morrow that king Limhi sent a proclamation among all his people, that thereby they might gather themselves together to the temple, to hear the words which he should speak unto them." The literal translation in Spanish as well says on the next day instead of on the morrow. We took it as a sign and decided not to go. We didn't end up teaching anyone that night, and I'm not sure what would have happened if we went, but I feel good about having stayed.

Last exciting thing of the week then is that I have another companion (WHAT?) Of the other Elders in the same ward as us, Elder Pulli and Elder Aguirre, Elder Pulli got sent to another area and instead of Elder Aguirre getting a new companion, we are now in a trio (Elder Aguirre, Elder Pinheiro, and I) for the next two weeks until transfers come up, and we have to be able to cover and teach both areas, which separated are already pretty big but combined are gigantic. I am looking forward to it though, and it should be a fun two weeks, and I hope to learn a lot from the experience as well. Also, my previous companion, Elder Dominguez, was only in his new area for 1 week but got flashed again as well because now he is going to be working in the offices of the mission. What in the world? Everything is going crazy haha.

Other than that though, there is nothing new to share for this week, so I hope everyone is well and that you all have a good week to come!

Love,
Elder McCollum

p.s. photo of the trio