Monday, March 24, 2014

Libertador General San Martin (Ledesma), Salta - March 17, 2014

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
I admit, I forgot to wear a green tie. I'm gonna have to change it when I get back to the apartment.
We watched the 20 minute Joseph Smith movie a couple times this week. I love that. What better way to explain the restoration than seeing it? I always try to see if I can find something new, since we watch it so much. I love how in the movie, they're always working in every part in lots of different chores, yet even so, they always find time to read and pray, personally and in family. That was a fun thing to find!
I was thinking during a lesson the other day just how grateful I am for my parents. The lady was talking about how she had a short temper, and knew that it wasn't good for her kids, and I just realized how wonderful it's been to not only grow up in the gospel, but to have parents that lived the gospel.
We had branch council this week. I was on exchanges with the zone leader, and it was really fun to show off. The branch here is really working great! They've decided that our progress record we present every week is the way to work. Using that, they decide who will visit who, and it really makes it so that the members and missionaries are united. Our branch president really has a sense of the urgency of the work, and it's fun to see how he's just infecting the whole branch!
Lots of drunk guys this week. On Pi day, not sure why, but there were a ton. Every other morning we help our neighbor in a wheel chair go down two flights of stairs so the ambulence can take him to dialasis. On Friday, the knock on the door in the morning sounded a little more urgent. Two happy drunk guys were coming up the stairs to help him out. They really did mean well, but in trying to help, they almost knocked him down the stairs. Luckily, we were there and the male nurse also helped out a lot. Drinking is just bad for you. Even if you want to do good things, alcohol will mess you up to the point where you can't do anything.
The wife of the branch president is just really cool. She came the other day to acompany us to a visit, and decided to bring... a pastry. Bread stuff does not translate. It was some quality fellowshipping! Then she just happened to show up in one of our visits to come help us out. Unplanned. It was awesome. Talk about catching the missionary spirit!
We found a less active member! We were looking for a reference and knocked into him. We didn't realize at first that he was a member, so we just thought we'd found a really prepared person. As he kept talking during the lesson, I caught a couple words in between his evangelist-sounded speak that were just too LDS to be missed, like member, the church, etc. We asked if he'd been baptized. He said yes. It was better for me than for my comp. I went from involved former investigator to member. Elder Burr went straight from Golden Investigator to less active. Kinda funny.
Prophets are really cool. We finally got our hands on a February and March Liahona. Also, in Fraile (the other branch we sometimes go to), I got to give a talk on prophets. I'm just so grateful for that guidance. The way their words are becoming more and more available is just great. And the new format of the church magazines are fun!
One more! We found a guy named Alejandro. He said he talked to missionaries 20 years ago, but didn't remember hardly anything. He said that all he could remember was that they showed him a passage in the Book of Mormon, he read it, and felt a special kind of peace. He was surprised when the missionary asked him what he felt. He described it, and the missionary identified it as the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost really is the real teacher in this work. I know that this is God's work, that he is hastening his work, making that members and missionaries work together. I know that he is directly involved.
Thanks so much for writing me! I always love it when I get a little something from everyone! Have a great week!
Elder Willey

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