Traslado 3 - La Falda otra vez, con la Hermana Abarzua del Canto otra vez!

7/14/10

We´ve been having horrible weather here! Rain, sleet, and we´re expected to have snow! SNOW!!!! They had snow last year for the first time in YEARS! And it´s expected again. I´m smiling, but nobody else is! (Typical Park City girl! :) haha)

La Hermana Abarzua is a great girl. She and I are so different. During a comp inventory the other day, she said, ¨We are completely different, Hermana Tingey.¨ I couldn´t agree more! It´s not easy being a good comp 24-7, and I am learning so much about how to love her more and more. It is so important to have the same goals, to have unity, and to be working together to make things happen. I can´t imagine pulling the whole load by myself. It makes me grateful for the example of my parents, my aunts and uncles, and grandparents. They are such great examples to me of working hard, together as couples. That´s how the Lord´s wants it - and that´s what we´re working towards, having families learn the gospel together. But every day I learn patience and I´ve been learning that perhaps one of the reasons I am here is for Hermana Abarzua del Canto.

ROCIO went to church!!!!!!!!!! And ELISABET went to church with her daughter Solange!!!!! WOOHOOO!!! Rocio is nuestra investigadora. We went to talk to her about church and she really liked it. She has a Catholic background, so she had questions about the Santa Cena (Sacrament) and things like that. The theme in church was Sacerdocio (the Priesthood), so that was good to try and clarify with her. She read Alma 32 from the last time and marked her favorite verses! She´s GOLDEN! The only problem is a BIG problem: she´s living with her boyfriend (and they have a daughter) and it takes over 2 months to get a civil marriage here! Rocio wants to get married to her partner, so that´s good. I don´t think we´ll have a baptism soon with Rocio, but I´m shooting for a wedding date and baptismal fecha in 2-3 meses. And if she can eventually get baptized, I will be THRILLED!

Elisabet is the menos activa (inactive) that we´re working with and she went to church with Solange (4) and Solange loved it! Her husband is NOT interested in talking to us now, but if Elisabet continues to come to church, Marcelo´ll probably eventually come.

We don´t have any more investigators. I´m DYING! I want to teach and find investigators so badly! We are contacting a TON - we got the most contacts last week in the entire mission - but they are not all very successful, so I´ve been trying to be creative and use the ideas that Ben and Dad gave me. I loved the humble people of Harding Green and their willingness to listen, so we went to the poorest part of La Falda to try to find the humble. Everyone has been telling us not to go there: ¨It´s very very very dangerous! Two girls walking alone in that area - Don´t even think about it!¨ But I´m Princess Storm - and although the Hermana got robbed, we felt safe going up there in the morning. We walked up and talked to a few people - and almost every person we talked to was wonderful and loving and said, ¨Sure! Come over whenever and we can chat!¨ So now the challenge is praying and figuring out which one of these people are actually interested! :)

Goto - I contacted a man named Goto from Japan! He said, ¨No hablo espanol, no hablo espanol...¨ and I said, ¨Do you speak english?¨ He put on a HUGE smile on his face and we chatted for a bit. I felt the love of the Lord for this man. I thought about my friends and cousin Nick who served with the Japanese and how hard it must be to teach people of a God and of a Savior. Goto didn´t want us to come over because, ¨No in Cristo, no en Cristo, I believe in Buddha, Buddha!¨ But he told me a man he worked with at the University was Mormon. I hope and pray Goto will one day accept the gospel!

I´ve been trying to rely more on the Spirit with contacting and especially with tocando puertas (knocking doors/clapping doors!). Oh yeah, to knock usually we stand at the gate and clap. It´s AWESOME! :) I´ve felt very grateful because a few of the instances when I just acted on how I felt, I had successful contacts. Now we just need to return and enter the house and preach the word of the Lord!

I gave a talk on Sunday in Church about the Savior - I felt the Spirit so strongly as I testified of the importance o¨f:
1. Knowing Christ (His different names, his life, his sacrifice, his background, his teachings, etc.)
2. Acting on our knowledge (Fe, Arrepentimiento, Bautismo, making and keeping coventants, etc.)
3. Building a relationship with the Savior (Knowing him personally) - this was my favorite part. Because I can honestly testify that I know my Savior loves me because I have a very special personal relationship with Him. I have felt His love, His healing power, His joy when I do what´s right. And I want all to have this - we can only have this personal access to the Atonement through His teachings, through faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, through keeping the commandments, and through the only true church on the earth! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!!!!!

Thank you all SOOO much for your emails and prayers!

ANIMO Y ADELANTE!!!!