Primavera

Yesterday was the first day of Spring in Argentina and it already feels like the middle of Summer! I'm still trying to get used to the opposite weather changes! Ha, I'm also staying in Pueyrredon with my companion for another transfer, which I'm super excited about! This week was a little different than most. I got the opportunity to go on divisions with one of our sister training leaders, Hermana Quilca, in her area. It has been one of the best learning experiences I've had yet. The first five minutes I was with her, she told me about a girl who was trying to make the decision to get baptized but was struggling with smoking addiction. The sister training leader asked me to share with her a mini lesson and then invite her to be baptized. Wow, I thought, No pressure.... ha, Anyways I put a lot of faith in the Lord and prayed many, many times that I would have the spirit with me as a companion. Before I knew it, we were all singing hymns, crying with tears of joy, and sitting in a circle sharing our testimonies about her decision in baptism! At times, it takes a lof of faith and trust in the Lord, not only that, but courage to do the time the Lord asks but with faith all things are possible with the Lord's help! 

On Saturday the ward did a service project for a less-active family and cleaned up the yard for them.  That night my companion and I visited them again to get to know them better. Well the mother wants to start coming to church again and has 6 kids, one boy who is 10 hasn't been baptized and yesterday my companion and I went to pick up the kids and they were already dressed and waiting outside for us to go to church! We now have a baptism date for the little boy in October! Miracles in Pueyrredon are flying out like fireworks! Not only that, but my companion and I received the attendance slip for the ward and in one week it went from 52 to 70! Plus two menos activos (less-active) families attended sacrament and one member boy who loves to help teach with us every week, was telling us all about how he handed out 5 Book of Mormon's to his friends this week and out of the 5 one is preparing to get baptized!

It has been so awesome to see all of the members working together to help make the ward stronger and bigger! I've never seen so many miracles happen in one week! There are so many missionaries serving and helping people come unto Christ but in reality everyone is God's missionary whether or not you are a missionary.. We will always be missionaries before, during, and after the mission. You can change so much even in your wards and in your callings! I'm so grateful to be a missionary, everyday I walk down the street and I think I don't want to be doing anything else but serving the Lord!

My aunt shared a stroy with me a while back and I wanted to share it with you. 

"A story is told that during the bombing of a city in World War II a large statue of Jesus Christ was severely damaged. When he townspeople found the statue among the rubble, they mourned because it had been a beloved symbol of their faith and of God's presence in their lives.  Experts were able to repair most of the statue but its hand had been damaged so severely that it could not be restored. So it was suggested that they hire a sculpture to make new hands, but others wanted to leave it as it was, a permanent reminder of the tragedy of war. Ultimately the statue remained without hands. However the people of the city added on the base of the statue of Jesus Christ a sign with these words, 

"you are my hands"

Alma 29:9-10

9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

 10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.

Homework: Talk by Elder F. Busche, BYU Devotional, May 14, 1996

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw