It's been a great week and yesterday was my distrito's official half-way point in el CCM- ¡Double hump day!
Shout out to Leslie Lange - I met Hermana (Maddie) Hawkins at the Buenos Aires temple grounds this week. She's awesome and was so excited when I said I knew you!
Proselitismo. Was. AMAZING.
It was rough at the beginning. The first people we talked to turned out to be a Catholic minister (the grandma) and the grandpa claimed to be an apostle or something. We didn't understand much of what they said, but we're pretty sure they started preaching to us hahaha. They invited us to lunch and were super kind, but we had lunch already and continued contacting. There were many embarrassing moments: I confused a coach for a kid's dad and I didn't understand when they corrected me and proceeded to teach them about how Heavenly Father loves his children just as he (the coach) loved his son. Mis compañeras told me after the contact my mistake. I also forgot to look both ways before crossing the street. Luckily I'm pretty tall and angels guard missionaries - so no accident just a few confused Argentinians hahaha.
We had 3 solid contacts though and got return appointments for this Saturday! One lady, Nancy, was cleaning the outside of her house and offered me water when I started coughing trying to introduce ourselves. We taught her a 5 minute lesson, invited her to church and are returning on Saturday to see if she read the pamphlet and attended church! Later we met Marcello, who is Catholic but seemed very interested in the Book of Mormon after I had him read part of the introduction, so we set up meeting with him again too!
Then came the coolest one. While we were walking, a man was riding his bike and stopped us and asked us about our message. He pointed to a pamphlet I was carrying in my arm that had a picture of Christ on it. He had to get to work, but he gave us his info and we are going to find him on Saturday too! We Hermanas seemed to be super lucky. No one else really had the same experiences as us. I don't know if our return appointments will amount to much, but we are hopeful and at the very least we are planting seeds!!!
Yesterday we watched a recording of an MTC devotional given by Jeffrey R. Holland that really motivated me. To him, as he put it, "My mission is everything to me". He explains that a mission not only blesses those seeking truth, but also allows you to come closer to the Savior by experiencing just a portion of the rejection, the joy, and love Christ experienced while on this earth. I am so grateful - this mission is truly a privilege to serve. It's hard work, and I'm not even in the field yet, but it truly is a privilege to be here. I am coming so much closer to my Heavenly Father through the spirit that is here. The work is great and marvelous!
We also had a fireside this Sunday about music. Music is a powerful way to increase or detract from the Spirit. We often joke about all the songs we use to listen to or try to remember songs from 3 weeks ago, but now it's fun to jam out to EFY songs because they're slightly more up-tempo than hymns. If you haven't listened to the "Embark" youth song, go look it up. That's our jam! hahaha Aca-awesome times in the CCM.
I love you all! I hope the Poultons are having a party at the reunion. Much love sent your way from Argentina! Also, congratulations Aunt Jenny! The temple is amazing and such a blessing- I love the temple!
¡Estoy aqui porque amo a toda la gente de Paraguay (y Buenos Aires)!
Hermana Carr
Photos from the CCM
