Monday, August 31, 2015

Life in Carlos Paz

Hey fam,

Todo bien down here in Villa Carlos Paz.  This week was good, no staying home sick por lo menos. On Tuesday we set baptismal goals with a couple of investigators, but they ended up not showing up to church on Sunday so we will have to talk with them tomorrow.  Wednesday we had district meeting, we all got to know each other a little better and I gave a small training on the power and authority of our calling as missionaries. Thursday we had missionary correlation where we planned to have a Ward Talent show at the end of September, and Friday we planned with the Elders Quorum a Mother’s Day activity in October.  Definitely an improvement from when I got here, when the ward hadn’t had activities in months!  

Saturday the "Obra Misional" got to clean the chapel, so the 4 of us got to clean it all and at the end the Bishop showed up, so we had a small meeting with him.  He wants us to be a choir that he can call on in any given moment to be able to sing in sacrament meetings, or baptisms, or in any given circumstance.  We were all down for it, whatever it takes to gain his confidence!  Sunday we had an Area Broadcast via internet in our building for Stake Conference, Elder Gonzalez of the 70 spoke, Sister Marriott of the YW General Presidency, and Elders Cook and Hales of the Quorum of the 12. It went well, a couple of little hiccups on the way, we ended up doing Skype with the stake president who was in the stake center to be able to watch it. They talked a lot about the Sabbath Day and the importance of serving a mission.  They threw out a statistic that really blew my mind. In the Area South America South, of the 33,000 priesthood holding men between 18-25 that could serve a mission, less than 900 are actually serving.  They gave a good reprimand to those who aren’t yet serving, and talked quite a bit about the blessings that the mission brings, not just to our own lives, but to the lives of our families and friends, which I know from experience is true.

I am back to feeling mas o menos normal, still a little congested with a bit of a cough, but in this mission we don’t believe in excuses.  We are still feeling out the ward with the new Bishop, we had ward council for the first time with him yesterday, and we are definitely going to be quite a bit more organized.  If we want to talk about something in the meeting, we have to send it to the ward secretary via email before Wednesday, otherwise we won't be talking about it come Sunday.  

The best thing that happened this week was watching my son (greenie) set the baptismal goals with the investigators.  He looked at me like "do I do it" and I gave him the nod "Heck yeah!" and the look on his face when they accepted was priceless.  The strangest thing that happened this week was eating heart again...it is almost becoming a weekly thing, but it is always in the same house.  I made the mistake the first time I went of saying I liked it, and since then...

Somebody interesting that I have come to know in my area is one of the Young Men named Nico.  He reminds me a lot of Andra. He was baptized a year ago, and is the only member in his family.  He comes to church every week on his own, always finding a way to show up.  The sisters are teaching his mom and sister right now, but he is definitely a cool kid.  I started reading the Book of Mormon again this week.  Today I finished 1 Nephi 14.  This week, if you all could pray for us to find new people to teach, that would be great!

I Love you all, and I Love that Blue Bell is back (I never knew that it had left...)


Elder Mangum

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