Changes

Alejandra's Baptism, 2 weeks ago

Fam,

This week was a week of changes. Changed companions from Elder Gravelle to Elder Summers, and Elder Summers came and changed up the area. Before there were 4 missionaries sharing the whole ward, without specific divisions. Not anymore, he split the ward right down the middle and said we get the north half and the other elders get the south half. Then he took our area and split it into 5 zones and color coded them so that we can easily see which members live in each zone.  I wasn’t a big fan of it at the time, but it does make sense, and more organization isn’t a bad thing.

Tuesday we taught Valentina the Plan of Salvation, and her older sister Lucia came and listened to us as well, and seemed quite interested. I was actually with Elder Willis from Florida that day, because my comp wanted to do exchanges, which he can do because he is the district leader. Thursday we passed by a reference, Agustina, with a couple of youth in the ward. Her mom is an inactive member, so we are trying to help the whole family out. Baptisms and reactivation at the same time, that’s what we call 2 birds with 1 stone!  

On Friday we finally visited Alejandra. As soon as we left her house it started raining and hailing like crazy, we were completely soaked when we got to lunch.  Sunday was a fun day.  Keller called me right before church and asked if I could give the talk I had prepared a couple of weeks ago, because the speakers that were supposed to talk bailed on him. I think it went pretty well, not as smooth as it would have been in English, but the people understood me por lo menos! That night we got to go out with Bishop and take the sacrament to Hermano Alegre, the counselor who is too sick to come to church. I always enjoy bringing the sacrament and visiting the elderly, I find that I end up learning and being helped a lot more than I help them.

My favorite Christmas song...would have to be Mary Did You Know. Or Christmas shoes, both are really good.  As far a traditional Christmas songs go, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. My favorite thing this week was taking the sacrament to Hermano Alegre. I have not done any soccer or basketball lately, but that is set to change in a couple of hours. We drink juice the most in Argentina, from little packets the most popular of which being orange flavored. We can drink the water in the apartment, but the mission provides a big tank of clean water for us. We usually get about 5 or 6 meals a week from members, and never eat in restaurants.  Although there is a guy that delivers Lomitos, he has our number and address saved and we buy from him probably 2 or 3 times a week. A scripture I read this week would be Mosiah 4.  The whole chapter is awesome. This week I can’t say I laughed a ton, can’t pick out a specific moment.  Need to change that.  This week it would be awesome if you could pray for Valentina to get baptized within the next 2 weeks.  Love you all!  Thanks for all of your support.

Love,

Elder Mangum