Hey guys!!
This week went by well! We worked hard..and didn't see to many fruits hahaha-but its alright!
My birthday went well! We tried to order empanadas but everything was closed so we just ordered them the next day! They were still just as good! I bought a bunch of alfajores which were really good! Mostly just relaxing. We had a dinner with an hermana which was pretty good as well!
We have an investigator that is very friendly, his name is Funes! Well, Funes and his family invited us over to have an asado or in other words, an argentine bbq. He invited us over for Sunday at 2pm. We arrived and he greeted us very happily..a little too much! Hahaha - it didn't take too long to realize that he was drunk! Nonetheless, he was pretty pumped to see us. He said he thought that we were not going to come. He would not stop talking about how great it was that we came. When we got there he had the asado ready for us to eat! It was fun! Hahaha -when we finally got him to turn the music down so that we could hear him, it was a lot better! As the time went on he just got drunker and drunker. He lives with his family as well, so we ate with all of them. The meat was really good! He had cooked it well, which was really nice! Hahahah the worst part of the whole thing was that he had made us a salad...but not a normal salad. Just by the looks of it you can tell that it is not something that you will want to eat. I asked him what it was and excitedly he told me that it was a pig skin salad. It consisted of boiled pig skin, onions and some condiments. He said he LOVED it. I knew that I was not going to like it! Hahaha - he served me a huge portion in the form of a sandwhich with bread. Man, it took alot to muster that thing down! But I did it!! Hahaha!! He asked if I wanted more and I said it was really good but I was going to save room for the meat! He kept persisting, so I used the good old argentine cop out "me hace mal" or "it makes me not feel good." Everyone has stomach problems here from all the oil and fat they eat that its normal and everyone understands. It worked very wel! So I didn't have to eat anymore. Elder Larsen had to eat another big portion of it though because before he could say no there was already a big portion on his plate. It was a good experience!
On Saturday, the Hermanas had a baptism! It was an older gentleman, who is about 85 years old. Really awesome guy, with a huge heart and always a big smile on his face. Well, this older gentleman has had some previous problems with his heart along with a couple of other things. This meant that the water needed to be warm, or else it would cause his body to react in a wierd way. Anyways, we left the keys to fill up the baptismal font to the Hermanas. When we got there at 3:30 pm, the font was a quarter full and they were trying to fill it up with buckets. I guess that the water had been cut off - which happens pretty often here. So there was no water in the church. What they were doing was filling it up with water from the outside hose. That was not going to work because the water needed to be warm. Jose, the man being baptized, decided that he was going to wait a week in order to do the baptism. To make a long story short, after a couple of tears shed by the hermanas we ended up having the baptism in another chapel along with a baptism that another ward has having. After all was said and done the looking of happiness and gratefulness that Jose's face showed was pretty amazing!!! It made everything worth it. Everything that had happened, all the moving around we had to do,didn't matter anymore! It was a pretty cool feeling!
Something that I have really been thinking about a lot lately is the parable of the rich young man. I think its in Matthew 17 or 19 I'm not too sure. What happens is that this young man asks Jesus what is required to have eternal life. Jesus responds that he should keep all the commandments, and names a few. The young man responded that he already was keeping all the commandments since he was born. Jesus then told him to sell all his things and give them to the poor, and the rich young man went away sad becuase of all the things that he had. I was thinking a lot about that this week. Someone can keep all the commanments and look like they are doing everything that they can from the outside, but on the indside their heart is not in the right place. On the mission, a missionary can keep all of the rules and be exactly obedient, but if his heart is not in it, if he is not doing it for the right reasons, than it doesn't matter. If they do it just to receive glory from others, or make it look like they are something they are not. But those who are truly converted will be converted in their hearts as well. Its something that I have been thinking a lot right now. Am I doing everything just to be obedient or is my heart in the right place as well?
I don't know if you remeber Angelina from Belgrano, the golden investigator that we found?Yeah, I got news that she doesn't want anything to do with the church anymore. I am 100% sure that someone told her a bunch of stuff about the church and being in a vulnerable state with her circumstances, she gave in. I called her to see what's wrong and she is a completely different person. It's too bad because she was one of the most prepared people that I have met! She had a great testimony but Satan had to get his foot in the way. I hope one day in this life she will decide to be baptized. The amount of opposition that investigators receive before they get baptized strengthens my testimony. It is clear that Satan also knows that if they do it they will become happy and be doing the right thing. It's amazing the things that Satan will pull off in order for them too not be baptized. Every single person that I have been able to help get baptized has had some type of trial before their baptism. I have also had a lot that were going to get baptized but the trial got the better of them and decided to not get baptized. It's sad but it's another testiomny to me that THIS STUFF IS TRUE!!
Love you guys!
Elder Carter
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