Tres Mil Papas (Three Thousand Potatoes): Week 93 - "Full Week" - June 11

In this week's news Jonah talks about a skit that they did for a ward activity. It is pretty funny to think that he had to act out a "bad gringo accent". I imagine at this point in time he has become quite confident with the Spanish language. We are looking forward to hearing him speak the beautiful Spanish language. Last week we were in Mexico and we did not have to "act out" a bad gringo accent -it came pretty naturally.

So this has been a wonderful week!! On Sunday, Hermana Teresa Castillo was baptized!!! It was such a great experience and there was a sweet spirit during the service. Although...she was TERRIFIED of the water hahaha, it was very difficult for her to trust herself to go underwater. We had the ward help to heat up the water so it was nice and toasty, but she still was struggling. It took a little coaching to finally get her under the water haha, but she did it! The pictures are of her and her husband before the baptism. Her husband has Alzheimer's and is losing his memory quite a bit. Apparently, about a year ago, he hated the missionaries and would sometimes throw them out or yell at them. But now, every time he sees us, he gets SO excited! One time, he tried running over to us, but his body wouldn't let him, haha, he might've forgotten that he couldn't run. He usually doesn't recognize our names or that we're missionaries, usually we're lawyers or doctors or old colleagues of his, but every time that we are able to teach the family, he loves listening and asking us questions. His name is Daniel. Anyway, it was a great baptism and Hermana Teresa is super excited to now share the gospel with all of her friends.

On Monday, we had transfers and it was a big coordination to get all missionaries where they needed to be. It's always a little bit of organized chaos haha. On Tuesday, we were able to receive the news, and go to the airport this time. The new missionaries usually only have two feelings going on. One, confusion. Hahaha. I totally get it, I remember my first day arriving from the airport. I was so confused and lost. Maybe it's a little easier for missionaries that actually speak Spanish. And two, excitement. Most of them are grinning from ear to ear, sometimes they don't know why they are, but there is never a glum face. It's so reinvigorating to see new missionaries and feel that fresh vibe come from them. I love it! So we trained them a little in the morning and got to know them better, they met their trainers, had a meeting, and headed out to start working! Always a fun day.

During the week, we continued to teach the Villanueva family (Maybe I only mentioned that to my mom last week) and they are progressing very well! We were wanting to invite the whole family to be baptized for the 16th of July, but the Darwin (the dad) had left with Beatrice (the 10 year old daughter), so we were only able to teach Blanca (the mom). But we still felt that we should invite her to baptism and then invite the rest of them for next time. So we did, and she accepted! She seemed a little timid, but when she comes to church tomorrow, we know that she will feel much more comfortable with her choice. They are such a wonderful family! Hopefully we can take a picture with all of them during the week. They have been prepared by the Lord!

It was very interesting...4 times this week, in distinct occasions, we have taught investigators about the physical resurrection and they have been completely blown away. They had no idea that that could ever happen and some of these people paused for long periods of time, thinking about how that knowledge changes everything they had ever planned on. They were so astonished and many did not believe us until we could show them both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon where it talks about the physical resurrection of all of God's children. In the area, we have been focusing on a new family that we found on Tuesday, and when we taught them about the resurrection, they were so happy and you could see it in their faces that they wanted to become an eternal family. It was incredible to see the results of having a full understanding of the Plan of Salvation and how it can completely change a person's perspective. I'm so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and I have been thanking Heavenly Father more about that ever since I realized that so many people do not know their eternal potential.

Just last night in the ward, we had a Father's Day Activity and it was so great!! We did a little number with the secretaries and we acted out a scene about Elder Nuñez training me at the start of my mission and that he was SUPER lazy but then he turned it around and then helped me out a lot. It mostly consisted of Elder Nuñez saying Argentine phrases and me talking in a REALLY bad gringo accent with bad grammer. We think the ward got a kick out of it. Anyway, the real best part about the activity is that we had the Villanueva family come and also several other investigators, plus a family that the secretaries are teaching. It was such a huge success and the investigators that came could really feel the warmth of the ward. We were so excited to present the whole world to the families that could make it, and the ward was so awesome in getting to know them and inviting them to family home evenings and inviting them to church for tomorrow. Really great missionary work experience.

Anyway, it was a busy week with a lot of cool miracles. I love being here! I'm so grateful to have the Restored Gospel in my life and that I understand who I am and who I can become. Life did start with our birth, nor will it end with our death. I know that because I have studied the scriptures and turned to prayer to know that God has a real plan for us and that we are a part of it. It gives me hope for the future, and I will depend on it when hard times and the deaths of loved ones come. If you want to know more about this plan or get a refresher, here's a cool link https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/purpose-of-life

I love you all so much!!! Have a wonderful week and keep trying hard!