3 Months

Hey everybody,

This week was pretty good.  It is getting hotter and hotter here.  We have yet to get electricity back, so I am still showering from a bucket.  Almost 2 weeks already without it, we will see how long it takes them to turn it back on. On Tuesday we had to go to the hospital to give a blessing to the 75 year old that we had given service to last week, Hermano Alegre.  When we got there he was speaking complete gibberish, but we gave him a blessing and he was at church on Sunday, and was completely fine. Thursday night we went to the Kellers, the most gringo-ish people here, and I made milkshakes for everybody.  It was fun, brought back memories from Bahama Bucks. Also, they had a plant with peppers that they thought were extremely hot, but I popped one in my mouth like it was nothing.  The Argentine definition of Picante is about the norm for mexican food, not spicy at all.  Saturday we had lunch with the Stake President, and helped him trim some of his trees.  He was having a little too much fun with the chainsaw if you ask me.  We just cleared the branches that he cut down, nothing too hard. 

This week we continued teaching Familia Herredia, there are 4 of them, and the "wife" is pregnant. They’re not married.  They are really enjoying the lessons though, and we´ve already taught the law of chastity and they want to get married, they already have all the paperwork and everything, they just need to do it.  They came to church this past Sunday for the first time, and it seemed like they enjoyed it.  They have a plan to get married in the next 3 weeks, so we hopefully will baptize them by the end of the month. They’re a really amazing family, keeping all their commitments and reading the Book of Mormon everyday.  Our other investigator, Alejandra is continuing to struggle to stop smoking, but she is smoking less and less everyday, and she also reads the Book of Mormon everyday, which she says helps her to focus on things other than the next cigarette. It is amazing to see how much happier people are with the gospel in their lives compared to the first time we met them.

As far as needs go, I think I am doing pretty good.  We have a CD player and listen to music, when we have electricity. The happiest moment this past week was seeing the Herredia family walk into church together.  We have yet to use the washing machine, because we have no electricity.  This last week I learned, or rather re-learned, how much the gospel really brings true happiness into people´s lives.  My favorite story in the Bible is probably the life of Christ, particularly the last 36 hours or so of his life.  I am currently about halfway through Jesus the Christ, definitely teaching me a lot.

Glad to hear everybody is doing well.  The work here is definitely progressing, and I am looking forward to conference this next weekend.  You’re all in my prayers every morning and every night!

Love,

Elder Mangum