HEY ERRBODY!
So I spent this week catching up on emailing people back personally, so this weekly email will be a little bit shorter. But there´s really only one thing worth talking about anyway.
We went proselyting on Saturday!
LET FREEDOM RINNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
Scariest and most amazing and most life changing experience of my whole darn life.
We left the CCM around eleven thirty Saturday morning and us 3 American Districts took two 15 passenger vans to who knows where about an hour away. By the way, if people think Utahns are bad drivers, that is NOTHING compared to the people of Argentina. In the words of Elder Simpson, "I think the lanes they put on the roads are more like...suggestions." Because that´s how people drive here. They just do what they want.
Luckily it didn´t rain on Saturday, so thanks to anyone who prayed for good weather for me! It was about fifty degrees though, so I had to whip out my boots and coat, in which case I realized they were both the best purchases I have ever made. I was comfy cozy warm and my feet haven´t died yet. So woot!
So the way they do it is they split up the whole area into fifteen different sections, and each companionship is given a section of about 5 blocks. Which doesn´t sound like a whole lot, but you´d be surprised! That way no body tries to talk to someone who has already been talked to. They drop us off, say "be back at 5 or the bus will leave you" and drive away.
Not thirty seconds after we said a group prayer and split ways, my comps and I ran into the coolest couple! They were in their fifties probably and the wife spoke some english. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith . The husband said he´s had "other visions of the world than what Joseph had" so they weren´t super interested, but they did tell us they know God loves us for doing His work without any pay, at such a young age. Even though they weren´t interested, they were the perfect first contacts because they were sooo nice!
Because I´m so short on time, I´m just going to talk about the two people we talked to who made the biggest impact.
First was Bonina. We walked past Bonina about a minute after saying a prayer that we would find someone (we decided to say a prayer after every person we talked to.) She was leaning up against a wall, waiting for her ride or something. We said hi to her but she seemed not that interested, so at first we kept walking. But then, it was the first time I have ever been physically moved by the Spirit. It literally stopped me in my tracks, turned me around, and I heard a voice whisper "don´t you DARE. Walk away from her." So we asked her her name and everything and in the small amount of Spanish that we know, talked to her about her relationship with God and love of God for her and the Book of Mormon. We offered her a Book of Mormon and asked if she would read and pray to know thta it´s true, and she said yes. Then we asked her if the missionaries could come teach her on another day, and she said yes! So we got her name and address and we gave that to the CCM to give to the actual missionaries serving in the Buenos Aires South mission. She was probably the most important person we talked to, because she was just SO prepared. We said a prayer after speaking with her and just thanked Heavenly Father for helping us find her. I was the one who said that prayer, and tears streamed down my face as I asked that God make sure the missionaries find her and that He soften her heart to read the Book of Mormon and come unto Christ, and His love just consumed me. And I knew that she was ready. We all knew it. We knew that of all the people we talked to on Saturday about the Gospel, she was the most prepared. We were meant to find her. And I´m so glad the Lord helped us do so.
The second person was Americo. Americo was digging through the trash when we found him. He was this teeny old man, filthy from head to toe, with white scraggly hair and an unkempt beard. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and he asked if we would come teach him at his house. So we started walking. But then, all three of us realized that we were pretty sure he didn´t have a home, and just wanted someone to walk with him. But we were getting out of our area and couldn´t keep going, so we gave him the rest of the food that we´d had from lunch, and he was very grateful. As we were walking away, he was repeating something over and over but we couldn´t understand it. Then I realized he was saying "bring me to the church." So we gave him the address to the church, told him God loves him, and that was all we could do. Hermana Buss made the comment that the Book of Mormon we gave him is probably the only possession he owns, but if it is, then that´s all a person needs. Regardless, when we walked away from him, the tears just flowed for all three of us. Hermana Buss said a heartfelt prayer thanking God for all of the blessings we have that we take for granted, and prayed that Americo would find the church and get the help he needs and come to the Gospel.
I can´t describe how phenomenal Saturday was. I have never been so completely in tune with the Spirit. I think I have the gift of the interpration of tongues, or at least that´s what my comps say, because I can understand pretty much all that people are saying. As for speaking, it´s coming slowly, but the important part is I can bear a simple testimony. We all got really good at saying "nuestro espanol NO es bueno." which is "Our Spanish is NOT good." We´re pros at that, so don´t you worry. But the Lord filled our mouths with the words we needed to speak.
Also, people in Argentina talk like they´re Italian. Like, everybody does. I´m not even joking. It´s this other Italy. It´s nuts.
People here have so little, yet they are SO happy and full of life. I hope I can learn to be like them and be grateful for every single blessing that I have. I´m slowly learning!
Sorry this email isn´t as hilarious as normal! But I just don´t have a ton of time and Saturday was the most important. Next week I will talk more about what´s going down in the CCM and all that jazz. The freedom of being outside was SO wonderful!
Oh yeah, they served us Blood Sausage a few days ago! ICK ICK ICK I SO DID NOT EAT IT AND I COULDN´T LOOK WHEN MY COMP DECIDED TO TRY IT.
Alright, I love you all to pieces! Don´t miss me too much this week!
I´ll send pics next week, I PROMISE.
Love love love you all and I am SO happy!
Hermana Dolan
A pic of Hermana Hunt with Hermana Rodriguez and Hermana Ferrari, our first Latina roommates!
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