Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the letters sent to Riley (20!). He finally received them after being in Argentina for 5 weeks. As you can see he was very happy and loves his family:
WE GOT MAIL! It was so awesome. They only brought letters so we could get packages at the Christmas conference which is this Thursday ( I'll talk about that later ) I got about 20 letters though. Our family is so awesome! All your brothers and sisters sent me letters. They are really so cool. I loved reading Uncle Ron's letters because tons of stuff he talked about I do every day. I will write back everyone, eventually. It's pretty expensive to send letters though. I'll have to do it little by little.
The Quest for 100:
This week was my most successful week so far as a missionary. I think the most fun week also. So one week ago I decided that because we had literally nobody to teach and have not had an investigador in church for a month I would do whatever it took to get an investigador in church this week. My plan was to just contact like crazy. The average missionary in our mission does about 30 contacts a week. That's the goal at least. I decided we would do 100. The week started our rough. Just lots of people that didn't have time or "wanted you to come back". On Wednesday we knocked this house and this mom answered. I really felt like this was it. I introduced myself and told her who we were and about our message. I really just put everything into it. I was trying so hard to somehow let this lady know that we have something that she and her family so desperately needed. After I got done talking I felt good, I felt really confident actually. She just looked at me with a frown and said No, Gracia's. And closed the door. I didn't understand because I really felt at that moment that we would truly get in. But anyways, I was driven to get 100. Later that day we knocked a house in General Roca. We had knocked this street many times. But never this house for some reason. We just passed over it always. I knocked it and this guy about my age, maybe a little older opened the door. Two other guys were there with him. They had their shirts off, lots of tattoos, even more earring's, were smoking and drinking to top it all off. The first thing I thought was great, can't wait to be made fun of for my Spanish. I quickly told him we were missionaries and what we do. He said do you talk about Jesus? I said yes. He told us to come in. I was pretty shocked, not going to lie. We had a really good lesson! Two of the three mentioned they would like to come to church but they had a party Saturday night and assumed it would go for awhile and didn't want to wake up that early. We told them that we would pass by Sunday morning just in case. So I had a small hope, but honestly I didn't know what would come of it. The quest continued. Thursday we found a guy named Tobias. He said he would come to church also. However, in a return appointment we found out that he is crazy. He just straight up told us that he is crazy. It was kinda funny. But one crazy guy is better than nobody I guess. Saturday we worked harder than ever. We worked in an area way far away we hadn't been to yet. It took 1 hour and a half to walk to. No success unfortunately. At this point we were at 92 contacts. When we got home Saturday night Elder Maude and I immediately started feeling really sick. I think its heat exhaustion. Chills really bad, a headache that turned into a really bad migraine, every joint in my body just hurt. Saturday night I really didn't plan on going to church in the morning. I felt so sick. I only slept about 3 hours that night. Also to make it worse, our crazy investigador Tobias texted us and said he couldn't come. So we were back to where we started. When we woke up Sunday morning, both Elder Maude and I felt pretty good. It was truly an answer to our prayers. So we got dressed and walked to General Roca to see if the guys we met early in the week wanted to come. When we got to his house we knocked on the door and that very second he opened the door. He was completely ready to go. He had a shirt on, and even had his hair combed! I was so happy. We were going to have an investigador in church. Then from across the street his friend came. He was ready also! 2! He asked me if it would be OK if his younger brother came. 3! This could not be happening. The first guy came out of his house and asked if his older brother and his cousin could come. I think I answered in English I was so happy. 5! We called two taxis and brought 5 investigadors to church. They told us that they didn't get back from their party until 7:30 but really felt like they needed to go to church with us. They had less sleep then me ha ha. We had a great sacrament meeting. Our members bore such great testimonies and the spirit was so strong. Everyone was so inviting to "the boys". What a sight it was to see those 5 and us 2 with our hymn books singing Joy to the World. We sent them home in Taxis and then went back to the pension to study. Almost immediately we started feeling sick. Within an hour my migraine returned and we laid in bed the rest the day. I was really mad that I was 8 short of 100 and prayed that I would get better so I could go get 8 more. Immediately I received my answer. Heavenly Father truly allowed us to go get our investigadors that day. It was like the sickness was put off for a few hours so we could do what he needed. Although I was sad we didn't get my goal, 92 isn't half bad. We led the mission in contacts and it really paid off. At times it really felt so useless. But we were truly blessed with success. I really believe that as hard as we work, success is a gift. We cant do it alone. Such an awesome week. One of the boys I'm really looking forward to teaching. His name is Maxi. He doesn't smoke or drink. And he loves talking about God and the Savior. Great Great week. We were truly blessed. I'm feeling pretty good today. Still really sensitive to light, thank goodness I got the "ante ojos". :) ( Sunglasses)
This week should be lots of fun. Tomorrow we go to Cordoba for the day to renew my visa for next year. We leave at 4:00 in the morning! We are going to visit some of Elder Maudes old investigadors and family's. Also we are going to the NBA store. It should be way sweet! Then we have the Christmas Conference on Thursday. They make Asado and everyone gets their Christmas stuff. I'm really excited!
Mom- I have started memorizing the living Christ. I am half way done right now. I will finish by Christmas. It really is so good. Before I go to bed I always say it and think over the words in my mind. They really sink in and have lots of meaning.
Well you guys are truly the greatest family in the whole world. I hope that you survive the hurricane winds. Thank you so much for all of your prayers on my behalf. We are all involved in such an amazing work. Have a great week! I love you all so much. Besos :) ( look that up )
Love Riley
No comments:
Post a Comment