Zone Meeting

Hey fam,

Another hot week here in Aimogasta!  We are supposed to be entering fall here, but it is as hot as ever.  A solid week overall, on Tuesday the family who stormed out of church a week ago called us because the father was sick and needed a blessing,  so we thought we were making progress with them.  Then Thursday he called the stake president because he had a question about when Stake Conference was, but he didn't like the way the Stake President answered the phone, so he threw another fit.  No, they did not come to church Sunday, and they didn’t attend us when we visited them with a member Sunday after church.  Everybody’s got their agency!

The full week in the hotel was great, showers and breakfasts, so life is good.  Friday we had a zone meeting with all the missionaries in La Rioja.  There are 3 greenies fresh out of the MTC this transfer in the zone.  I am actually the 4th oldest missionary in the zone in terms of experience, so that gives you an idea of how young the zone is.  I have also been in La Rioja longer than anybody else in the zone.  It was actually kind of funny during the meeting, because the Zone Leader asked a question and said "we’ll start with the people with the most experience here..Elder Mangum, what do you think?" Kind of took me by surprise, but it is true!  After the meeting, 8 of us went to that same restaurant with the Tanners to eat lunch, another Pollo Napolitano for me.  Friday was a really good day.

Sunday at church, we had a grand total of 9 people show up.  Definitely a drop from the 20 or so we had been having the past couple of weeks. Also, 5 of them were under the age of 13. I spoke on Faith during Sacrament Meeting.  Definitely a very different sacrament meeting where the majority are primary children listening. Sundays like these make the whole week hard.  All that work, and so few results. But the results will come, no doubts about that.

In church we sang the song  "Firmes creced enla fe" (hymn 166 in the Spanish hymnbook, I am having a mental block and can't translate the song into English.  It’s the one "shall the youth of zion falter...No!".) No exchanges this week.  Answered prayers..does it count that BYU got into the tournament?  Just kidding, yeah there were, with the zone meeting, there were some doubts that it would go as well as it did.  But all went smoothly.  What type of toast do I eat?  Well it’s the one where you have bread, that has been put in the toaster...as far as jelly, they have peach at the hotel, so another small blessing!

Glad to hear that everybody had a great week, and now it is spring break! Deep Fried Oreos!  Hey when y’all go to the rodeo this week, be sure to win me a Ford King Ranch truck or some type of Ford so that I can have something to drive when I get back home :)  

Have fun!  Hope everybody has a fantastic week!  

Love you all!

Elder Mangum