Mar Del Plata - week 2!!! 9/1/10

Mar Del Plata

Hermana Olsen and I are like two peas in a pod - it´s been SOOO fun chatting with her! She´s a hoot - full of spunk and alegria!

We had FOUR investigadores at church on Sunday!!!! FOUR!!!!! WOOHOOOO!!!! We are seeing miracles here. Hna. Olsen said that before Mar Del Plata wasn´t doing so hot, but I have so much animo for this area! I am grateful for all of your prayers and advice - I am doing so much better with my faith in this work. I believe that the Lord will help me fullfill my purpose as a missionary. And I feel like Mar Del Plata is just a perfect place for me to start to see my potencial as a missionary!

Jose Luis - Attends our English classes, is 52, has a WONDERFUL family, and is just a little thick. He does not understand very well, but he wants to do what´s right. La Hna. Olsen has taught him the first lesson 7 times - a little excessive, I think, pero bueno. His family is great and we´re trying to work more with them.

Oscar - He thought I was a testigo de Jehovah when I first contacted him in the street (haha), but he just clicked with me. He has lived a rough life. His wife died in a car accident and he decided to live down South in Neoquen, so we moved to live with the Maipuche Indians. He got in an accident and part of his body is paralyzed. He was also very depressed for a while. We had a first lesson and he just kept smiling as I spoke. At the end he said, ¨I feel so great right now! So much happier!¨ I explained to him that it was the Holy Spirit touching his heart. He came to church and liked it!
We had a second lesson and he told us that he had come to the church before - like 40 years before. He played basketball with a tall, American Elder. He said that all of the boys in the neighborhood basically worshipped this Elder and wanted to follow his example. I told him that this Elder is like Jesus Christ and that we need to follow his example. He thinks his Catholic baptism and confirmation still holds true, so I´m having him read Moroni 8. I hope he still wants to talk to us after! :) Oh, and It´s hard to teach Oscar because he can´t hear very well because of the paralyzed part of his face. Talk about DIFFICULT to teach with the Spirit when you´re basically SCREAMING the First Vision at an old man!! :) But, Oscar is great and NEEDS the gospel in his life! We have felt the Spirit together and I pray fervently that he finds peace in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nestor - This funny old man! He´s been to church FIVE TIMES!!! And FINALLY decided to let us teach him! So, we taught him leccion 1 and he kept saying, ¨It´s logico...It´s logico...¨ BUENO! ¡Bautisensenlon! (That´s some Argentine Castellano for ya! :) haha Ben´s dying because it´s NOT correct Espanol para nada. Gotta love the Argies! haha) Nestor has a Catholic background but he LOVES the Priesthood class at church. I think he likes the comraderie of men. He asks us a lot of questions. I want to start focusing on his personal conversion (like Mom and Dad were saying about Greg Livingston), that Nestor needs to pray and read the scriptures to have a personal, intimate conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Daniel - is GREAT! He heard the charlas from the Elders before but they told him if he didn´t believe in Jose Smith, it was all or nothing. Daniel said no, so they dropped him very rapidly and rudely. So, he started attended English classes too, but now we´re teaching him. We taught him and he said that he´s searching for truth! PERFECT! :) We told him he can find answers to ALL of his questionsin the Book of Mormon and prayer. He looked at us like You´re kidding me right, and said, ¨In this book?¨I said yes! He went to church for the first time on Sunday and really liked it!!! He is very inteligent and out of all of our investigadores now, I think has the potencial to have the strongest conversion. We all knelt in prayer at the end of the second lesson, and we each said a prayer. I offered one and asked the Lord to bless Daniel to know of the truthfulness of the BOM and Joseph Smith. Then Hna. Olsen prayed, then Daniel... and he prayed that he would have a confirmation and know of the truth of these things too! I was STOKED! Then the member we had there prayed to end the lesson. I pray with all my might that Daniel, this wonderful man who said he is SEARCHING for the truth, will know that he can find it in the Book of Mormon and in this True Church of Jesus Christ!

I don´t know why ALL of our investigadores are nice old men, but there you go! :)

Ruben y Graciela - New contactos that are GOLDEN! They have 5 children but one passed away when he was 15 in a accident in the Ocean. They´ve gone through years of inactivity in the Catholic church, and Graciela is looking for hope. She was clutching the folleto about the Plan of Salvation after I gave it to her. Ruben is her husband; he´s an intellectual. He told me that it was great I was ¨convinced¨ in my faith, but that he wasn´t going to believe. I think he´s still upset with God for what happened with his son... I pray that he will open his heart and allow the Spirit of the Lord to fill it and give him peace and comfort. I want him and Graciela to know and understand the joy of familias eternas! We are going to go visit them this week orthe beginning of next week. I hope we can start to teach them and help them on their spiritual journey!

I love all of you SOOOO much!!!!! I am so happy - because I get to testify of gospel truths daily! Because I get to help people learn about Jose Smith, the Book of Mormon, the Plan of Salvacion, the Apostacia, the real nature of God, all of the commandments and ordenances for our salvation, etc. etc. etc. This is truly a MARVELOUS work on the earth!!!!! It´s tough, and I´m humbled every day, but it´s worth it because I keep seeing glimpses of change and light in people´s eyes. The gospel is SOOO important and wonderful! It´s ALL of our duty to share it - and it´s my duty as a missionary to teach it, to help people understand the first principles, and assist them with their first ordenances with God. How GREAT a calling! I hope that all of my finding efforts will lead to successful conversos!

HUGS!!! Animo y adelante... always! :)
¡Chao!

Hermana Tingey