A Wedding

Buen día mi querido familia,

This week was a good one, my comp and I are getting into a nice routine and time is starting to fly by.  Tuesday we spent all day disassembling the "baptismal font" which was not really ours, and belongs to a member of the stake presidency that now wants his swimming pool back.  It took the whole day to take it apart and clean it out, we ended up soaked in sweat after hours and hours of working on it, but we did it.  Wednesday we went to La Rioja capital to have a zone meeting.  We talked a lot about the vision for the zone and the mission this transfer, and the 3 things necessary to have progressing investigators. The same 3 things that were necessary for the Liahona to function, Faith, Diligence, and Attention. Then we went to downtown and spent the whole afternoon searching for a new portable pool for baptisms, which we did find, and have planned to buy this next Wednesday when we go again to the capital. 

Friday we had a wedding!  A member got married with a nonmember girl, who has expressed interest in getting baptized, and have come to church before.  They did not come on Sunday, but she has already had all the lessons from the missionaries and knows the doctrine, just needs to apply it to her life (just like the members here).  It was neat to be there at the ceremony, although all it consists of is signing a piece of paper. No exchanging of rings or anything.  

The Wedding

Sunday was really good.  We had 18 people show up, once again a very high number for this branch here.  2 nonmembers who are investigating, so we should have baptisms at the end of the month if they keep coming to church.  I gave a talk on the Plan of Salvation, with an emphasis on how death is not the end, and in reality it is a very small but necessary step in the journey.  It was a good meeting, and hopefully we can maintain attendance around 20 and not drop back down.  We visit all the members here multiple times a week, it is hard for me to understand why they do not make the decision to come.

Glad to hear that everybody is doing well!  That is great that Hayley had the opportunity to give a talk on Temples, they really are a very special place.  They do celebrate Valentines here in Argentina, however as missionaries I do not believe we will be big participants in the celebrations.  Church was all Plan ofSalvation.  Nothing too crazy this week, we do have a conference coming up with the missionaries in Catamarca and La Rioja (2 whole provinces) with WalterF. Gonzalez of the 70, on the 20th of February.  Everything I ate was normal, and all the people do here is sleep. Very rare to see kids playing out in the street (it does not help with the heat we have here).  School is nothing like ours, they go for 4 or 5 hours and that is it.  They can choose whether to go in the morning, the afternoon, or at night.  Very different.  Best part of the week..today!  Writing the family and friends, hearing how everybody is doing!

Love you all!

Elder Mangum