Cumplemes - first and last

May 19, 2010

So here we celebrate the "cumplemes". Mine is the 17th (because I entered the MTC on the 17th of Feb.) and so is Hna. Perkes´. But this one was special because it was my first in the field and her last. So we celebrated by eating alfajores. On the street. In the bitter cold. It was pretty awesome.
It is cooling down here. One night was freezing, and it´s really humid. When you exhale, your breath hangs in the air in front of you. But we wear a lot of coats and we´re just fine. It´s nothing compared to an Idaho winter :) Oh, I got a bunch of letters last week, so I guess that means that I´ll start getting those letters everyone has been sending. So Mom, that first DearElder you sent got here on Thursday, and the letter Baba sent through the pouch, too. I hope that now you have an idea how long it takes letters to get here.
I really am understanding more every day and I´m getting a lot better at talking. It really does help not to be afraid to talk. So I just start talking and I say whatever comes out. But it´s better that way!
Before it was easy to just tell Hna. Perkes what I wanted and let her talk for me, but I decided to just go for it. And now I talk all the time. Kind of like with English... Ha, I wish I could speak Spanish like I spoke English. But I´m getting better!
Last Saturday we ate dinner with a family from the branch. The husband is from Mexico and I told him that I like spicy food so he made us some AMAZING salsa and I thought my tongue was going to fall out, but it was marvelous. I had no idea how much I was going to miss spicy food! But the food here is still amazing. Today I ate some fried empanadas with beef inside and we had some AMAZING helado. It´s a good thing that our area is more campo, or I´d stop and eat empanadas and helado every day.
Oh, and I guess I had some missionary moments this week, too... let´s talk about those.
First, Guadalupe. She´s amazing, but sometimes it doesn´t seem like she has a lot of interest in the Church. Not so yesterday! When we got to her house she was very excited and she told us, "I can come to Church on Sunday! Not for the whole time, because I have to go to work, but I can come to the first two hours!" Towards the end of the visit, she was telling us about some problems she´s had recently, and asked if there was anything special we did in our church for that and we taught her about fasting. She decided that was something she wanted to do, so we´re having a special fast on Saturday. She´s really excited about it and she really believes that it will help her. This like that amaze me. The faith that I see from the people here is incredible. Sometimes they have practically nothing, but they are so faithful and they trust so much in God. They are awesome!
Hna. Perkes´ recent convert, Jorge, has a family and they are still unbaptized. His wife wants to be, but doesn´t feel ready, but I think I´ve written about her already (Alicia). He also has two kids. Julieta (16) and Luciano (19). When we go over, we help Julieta with her English homework and I´ve been making friends with her, too. So now when we come over, she always comes out and talks with us for a while. Well this time, we were showing Jorge and Alicia a movie about President Monson and she came out and watched part of it and prayed with us! I was really excited about that. Hopefully we can start teaching her more! Luciano is usually at work when we come over and he only says "hi" then goes to his room when he gets home, but lately he´s been more friendly. They are just an amazing family with good values and they are just very unified. Jorge and Alicia were married years ago, before he got baptized. That is pretty uncommon, but Hna.Perkes says it´s easier for people to accept the gospel when they already have that kind of foundation in their life. I just love the whole family! And Alicia makes the best pasta flor ever. And she always makes us one when we come over. Oh how I love Argentine food...
In my personal study, I´ve been working on answering the "questions of the soul" from Preach My Gospel, and I recommend it to everyone. You can use the recommended scriptures, but then look for more. There are a lot of good scriptures out there that can help a lot of people! A little bit of understanding goes a long way.
The work is hard and tiring, but I love it. Experiences like the ones I write about make all the "no´s" worth it. And maybe some of those "no´s" will be ready for the next missionaries who come along, or when a member friend talks to them. All we can do is be friendly and loving and give them a chance to listen. And if they say no, that´s ok. There are people out there looking for us, but they don´t know what they´re looking for so we have to go to them! And we won´t find them unless we knock on every door in Villa Aguirre! So that´s what we´re going to do. And then a second time. The Church is true! It helps people. It helps families. That is what we are sharing.
I love you all!
Hermana LaPray