Twelve Empanadas for Carnaval!

So we made empanadas this week. And then we fried them. And then we ate
twelve empanadas each. I regret nothing. 

A random walrus statue in Comodoro.
There isn't a plaque  or anything. Just this statue. 

All right, we've had a couple of interesting weeks here in Standart, so this is going to be a bit of a catchup email! (And also a Thursday email. Monday and Tuesday were Carnaval for the Argentines, so literally everything was closed down. So we got permission from the Mission President to write today.)

Probably the highlight of these two weeks was we've found a couple families to teach! One of those was the family of Laura, who I talked about last week. Well, we tried visiting her again last week, but she was never home, which was kinda frustrating. But then we managed to find her on Monday, and she said her work schedule is crazy, but she didn't have work on Monday or Tuesday because of Carnaval. So we set up an appointment for Tuesday and it went really well! We got to meet her husband, Claudio, and he seemed pretty receptive to the lesson of the Restoration. He was asking questions for understanding, which I love so much. And then we asked if Laura had any questions, and she showed us the pamphlet for lesson one we gave her. In the back is this page with a bunch of questions and scriptures that answer them, and she had gone through literally every question and read every scripture and wrote down her answers. It absolutely blew me away to see how well she's understanding our message! She even explained to Claudio how Joseph Smith met the angel Moroni, and then Joseph had to go back to the Hill Cumorah for four years before he could get the plates and translate them!! Which means she's reading her Book of Mormon! We have such high hopes for this family, and we meet with them again tomorrow. I am very excited for their willingness to learn more about the gospel :)

And then we met another family! One day we arrived to a street a little early before we had an appointment, so we decided to go knock doors. And this guy named Francisco answered and seemed interested, so we gave him the Restoration lesson on his doorstep. He said that we could come back a couple days later, and so we did, and we managed to sit down with him and his parents and share beliefs. They are very Catholic, so I learned a lot about the Catholic Church that day, and they learned a lot about the Restoration and why Elder Peterson and I are on missions. It was really cool to talk with them and be able learn more about other religions. As we learn in Primary " We claim the ^aprivilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the ^bdictates of our own ^cconscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them ^dworship how, where, or what they may.'' 

We are also teaching Valeria. She is the daughter of one of the families in the ward, but she wasn't baptized when she was eight because she lived with other family up in Salta. But recently she decided to come live in Comodoro with her dad and she wants to get baptized! So we've been visiting a bunch and teaching her the lessons. Yesterday we taught her plan of salvation with this little puzzle thing we have from the pension (apartment). And at the end, she could tell us what happens in each little part! It was so cool to see, and helped remind me that I am not doing the teaching in these lessons. If I was, Valeria would have not shot of learning anything about the gospel from this gringo from the States. All of the teaching is being done by the spirit. That was actually going to be the name of Preach my Gospel. It refers to the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 50:13 and 14- 

"Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question- unto what were ye ordained? 

To preach my gospel by the ^aSpirit, even the ^bComforter which was sent forth to teach the truth." 

It's a good reminder that this is in nowise my work, but the work of the Lord.

We could not meet with Maite or Rodrigo last week, which was kind of sad. We did meet with Juan and Rosa still, and they've been coming to Church every week, so we definitely are very hopeful for them (and also Rosa makes us bread from time to time, so that is a plus). But we have been finding some new people to teach, which has been awesome. Last transfer was kinda rough, we couldn't really find anyone new to teach, but now we have a lot of new investigators and we're really focusing on helping them understand more about the Church and what joining would mean before we ask them to get baptized.

So that's kind of it! It's been such a cool week here, awesome to see the miracles that Lord works through our works. There's this awesome chapter in James, James 2, that in verses 17-26 talks about how faith without works is dead. That also means that works without faith is dead. Elder Peterson and I can walk around Standard all day and knock on every door, but if we don't have faith that we're going to find someone it's going to be a rough time. I've definitely seen that when I have faith in every action, I see the miracles that God has been preparing for me.

That about wraps it up! Hope you all had a great week, and Iove hearing from you guys! Good luck, and remember the Lord will prepare a way! (1 Nephi 3:7)

Our feast while we were waiting to hear about transfers. Yes, that's yerba
and juice in a pineapple. It's called terere en un anana.

We made some buttermilk syrup and it turned out!

Ice cream with the district. Also, we got a new elder in our district this week.
His name is Elder Gomes and he's from Brazil. 

The Brazilian, a hamburger from Mundo de Hamgurguesas, which is maybe
the best hamburger place I have ever been to. Every burger is named after a
country with things from that country on the burger. It is a delicious place!