Hunting for Salvation! (Caza de Salvacion!)

January 20, 2019

President Camejo posted this picture on Facebook on Sunday

So week two in the field has come and gone, and I don't feel dead yet! I can slowly feel the language coming, some people just talk so fast it's hard to keep up. With the people that we're visiting I know them a little better so I can understand them more, but sometimes it feels like the adults from Peanuts talking instead of Castellano x)

So as the title describes, this last week Elder Peterson and I have been on a hunt for salvation. Basically, we have this thing called a Carpeta de Area in our apartment. (That's Spanish for Area Book, but we just call it the Area Carpet) One of the sections is titled "Antiguous Investigadores" or Old Investigators, basically people that the missionaries have stopped visiting for whatever reason. We write down their names and their address, and then we basically go looking for them! It hasn't produced any new people to teach yet, but we're hopeful someone is going to turn up :)

It was at the end of one of these salvation hunts that we were kinda wandering around a street next to our pension, when we run into a man turning the corner. He looks at our nametags and says, alternating between Spanish and broken English, "You are Mormons! You are crazy, I see you walking around and running, why?!" And we said that we're here to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to share the message of the Book of Mormon. And so he invites us into our house, which Elder Peterson had said has never ever happened before. In there, we tried sharing a message with our new friend Jorge, who said that he was very religious and wanted to learn more about the gospel, but we quickly realized he was drunk out of his mind, and it's kinda hard to feel the spirit or teach a lesson when you get interrupted every few seconds. So we said we would come back, but we have yet to return to our new friend Jorge. We really have no idea if he's a golden investigator or just a crazy drunk, but I guess we'll see.

As for our other investigators, we don't have any people on date for baptism anymore. Last week we were teaching Juan and Rosa about the commandments, and everything was going well until we hit Obey and Honor the Law, and Juan got a little salty. Basically, the Argentinian Government is going to crap, and he doesn't want any part of it. And then we were teaching about tithing, and basically Juan and Rosa feel like they can't pay ten percent of their income. So they're not going to be baptized anytime soon, but they still believe the Book of Mormon and the Church are both true, so they'll keep going to Church and reading the BoM. We're kinda sad about it, but we're going to have a lesson about faith this week with some members, so wish us luck!!

And Maite, our other investigator, is doing really well! Last week we taught her about the Gospel of Christ, and we had her aunt and her cousin there to help us explain and also to bear testimony. Her parents are still kinda on the fence about coming back to Church, but they're taking turns taking Maite to Church on Sunday. Hopefully we can get the whole family there one week :)

We have two other people we're visiting consistently- Rodrigo and Pablo. Rodrigo was taught by Elder Peterson and his last companion, but he has been on vacation this last week. He has learned all the lessons, he just needs to develop a testimony about the Book of Mormon. We're going to visit him a lot this week. And then there's Pablo, who was the first door I ever knocked. He seems interested in the gospel, but we're going to need to visit a lot to see how he really feels.

And that's it! Weather here is great, it's either in the 70's or windy and kinda cold. Also we have Zone conference on Friday, so I'm excited for that! Thanks for all of your emails, talk to you next week!

Three mates and yerbas--Argentine drinks

Our pension (apartment)

Pictures are of the three mates (pronounced mah-te) Elder Peterson and I have, and our different types of yerba (pronounced sherba). My favorite yerba is mint flavored, it's sooo good. I'll have to bring some back for all of you! And the other picture is our pension.