Rainy Day Blessings

November 3, 2014

Hey!

I just sent a ton of pictures! I hope you like them all! Ha-ha, I love you!! It was actually pretty rainy here this week, so you guys weren’t suffering in the cold alone! Yes mom, the ¨We can do it!” theme is a big thing in our mission because I guess a lot of missionaries think that this mission can’t baptize very well. Our investigators are good. We have got a few who have committed to a baptismal date later in the month, but the problem with people here is they never follow through... with anything, like sometimes it is hard to find them when we book appointments cause they just are not home! The members are pretty good to us. We only have about 5 families on our side of the boundary, and the other elders have a ton, but the families are awesome!! We have lunch with them only three days a week and all the meals I have eaten have been super good! They love having bbqs with tons and tons of meat. We went to one of those, and man it was yummy! They had like ribs and sausages and all sorts of meat! They also make this pizza with eggs and bacon on it, it is pretty good! So the members on our side are treating us pretty good. It is a little hard to communicate with them though for me cause I don’t know a ton of Spanish.

Okay, for the weekly update! It was a normal week and everything was good! I am liking it here more every day! I am just getting more comfortable with the language and the culture and all! So, on Thursday this week, it started raining! It has been raining every day since, which has been super annoying! Argentines are funny with the rain. They don’t do anything when it rains. It’s like there is a blizzard and they can’t get out of their house. It makes missionary work pretty hard! But, also when it rains, they make this good scone thing, called “torta fritas.” On Saturday we knocked on a door in the freezing cold rain and some guys gave us one! It was so good and warm!! Ha-ha, it was soo nice! Anyway, after we had been working all day in the freezing cold rain, it was like 7:00 pm and most of our appointments had fallen through so we went contacting. About an hour into it, we were walking down the street and we were turning into an alley where the really poor people live. I told my companion that we should knock on the door across the street. I only suggested that because I didn’t want to walk down the scary alley. Plus there looked like there was a ton of scary looking guys there. Ha-ha! Anyway, there was this family that let us in and we taught the whole first lesson with them!! They let us in with our muddy shoes and everything. They were super receptive and think that they will get baptized!!! Awesome, huh! Ha-ha- my companion thought I was awesome since he thought I felt that we should go to this house, but the truth was that I just didn’t want to walk down the other road( lol). Maybe that’s how the spirit works sometimes. Their names are Daniel and Vanessa and we have another appointment next Sunday. I hope it goes well. When we were leaving she said that it wasn’t by chance we stopped by, at least that’s what my companion said, ha-ha, because I didn’t understand it!

So, that was a rainy story. I have another one. Oh, but first let me tell you that when it rains here, not even the members go to church. I guess I can see why. You have to walk through mud to get there and most people don’t have cars. The church was in low attendance last Sunday which was kind of a bummer and we had no investigators there!! Oh, well! Anyway, later that night when it was time to go out and work we wanted to reach our goal of teaching 40 lessons for the week. We had 35 and like 3 hours to get 5 more in. We went out and all of our appointments cancelled on us. Oh, and it was freezing and pouring rain that day!!! So, we contacted for the last three hours. It was 8:30 pm and we were just finishing up the fourth lesson! We were freezing!! At the end of the lesson, this guy gave us a nice warm “torta frita!” It was God sent! It was warm and everything!! Man, it was soo good!! Anyway, it takes about 30 minutes to walk back to the pension, but we really wanted to get another lesson in. We could have gone back to the pension right then, but we decided to keep working, except we had to be back in the pensions at 9:30 pm. Well, it was like 8:45 and we knocked on this door. I don’t know why, but we did. An old man answered the door and I guess he has read the Book of Mormon and has a burning testimony but just hasn’t had to opportunity to get baptized!! So, we got him a baptismal date!! It was crazy!!! Because we put the extra effort into finding that fifth lesson, we were blessed with finding someone ready for baptism!! If we had gone back to the pension, that would not have happened!! Ha-ha, we got rewarded for working in the pouring rain!! It was sweet!!! It wasn’t by chance that we found that guy, that’s for sure. It’s because we were willing to work hard. Pretty good feeling!! We are meeting with him tomorrow.

Well, my time is almost out, but this week we did have lunch at a member’s house and they made a big meat thing- it was soo good!! I was so full at the end but it was pretty awesome!! Ha-ha- I am liking it more and more here every day! Thanks for everything! Keep me posted on what’s going on at home!

I love you guys!

Elder Carter