I am sooooo excited for this Saturday! We are baptizing L-!!!!!! He is super duper prepared. The mission goal is to have more Melchezidek Priesthood holders that pay their tithing. And L- is already paying! He has a lot of faith, and acts on what he believes! It´s incredible. And he has already invited all of his kids, nieces, their kids, etc. to his baptism--without us even saying anything! It has been so amazing to watch and be a part of his process of conversion. And to have been there for the whole thing! That is probably the greatest thing ever!
We are already in Week 5 of the transfer! And Presidente said in my interview on Tuesday that since I´ve already been here in Lobos for 3 transfers, that there is a strong possibility that I will be transferred in two weeks. :( But, we are loving every minute that we have here, and if I get transferred, I will continue to be a tool in the Lord´s hands to work miracles in my new area! But we are praying that I can stay--haha.
So we had Capacitaciones Especiales y Entrevistas (Special Training and Interviews) on Tuesday. They were SUPER great! We ate PBJ for lunch! I love Hna Robertson!! And the Assistentes taught us about finding new investigators, and also about verifying during a lesson to make sure that the investigators understand well. We had an AWESOME experience with this the other day with G-! She is Catholic by tradition, but does not understand anything about religion. So we have been taking it slow, to establish a foundation with prayer and who is God. This week we taught her the Restoration of the church of Jesus Christ. It was super natural--which was Awesome! And we took turns asking her questions to make sure that she understood--for example, after teaching about prophets, we asked her what a prophet was, or why it was important for her. And if she didn´t understand, we retaught that section with different examples or scriptures or explanations until she did understand it. We probably covered each section of the lesson two or three times, but in the end she understood it really well. We called her last night to check up on her, and she said that she is reading the pamphlet that we left her, and she has been praying! Woot! She is progressing! Éxito!!
We are also seeing lots of progress in A-. He always shakes his hand when we ask how his reading is going=more or less. Last time we talked to him about just reading and meditating for only five minutes a day. He has eyesight problems, so trying to read the little letters for so long made his eyes really tired, but he said that he could read for 5 minutes a day. So when he said his reading was going más o menos, I asked him a clarifying question if he had read every day, and he said that he had!!!! And then we asked how he felt when he read, and he said tranquilo!!!! We identified that as the Spirit. He is progressing!!! He has been scared of baptism the whole time we have been teaching him, and not wanting to commit, and we finally found out it´s because he didn´t understand or remember anything or have his own testimony. And so now he is starting to feel a lot more comfortable with us! (And hopefully with the idea of baptism too!:) Hna P- and I set a goal for him to get baptized 15 of August. We haven´t told him about it yet, but it would be so cool if he got baptized that day, because he would get confirmed exactly one year from the time the missionaries found his family! And then they could all get sealed the next year! (The rest of the family except one daughter are all conversos recien!) And it would also be great if they could get sealed in August, because that would make it more likely that I would be able to come, since it would be in the summer!
Yesterday we went to the most beautiful temple dedication EVER: El Templo de Córdoba!! President Uchtdorf dedicated it, and Elder Christofferson accompanied him. Pte Uchtdorf is a lot more awkard without a set script--and we figured out that maybe it´s because he is trying to figure out how to say things in English. Also, he laughs like Grandpa Tenney: huhuhu :). He and Elder Christofferson were cracking jokes the whole time while they were sealing the cornerstone. I love what he said in his talk too. He talked about how with every temple that we build, the power of Godliness grows more and more, and Satan´s power gets weaker and weaker. I was thinking about it, and I feel that that is because there will be more and more people receiving saving ordinances, more and more people recieving the protective power of the endowment, and more people commited to living the gospel of Jesus Christ in the manner that Heavenly Father wants. Pte Uchtdorf also asked us to always have a current temple recommend, and talked about how that is a symbol of our commitment to the Lord and to living his laws. And he also talked about making the temple a part of our lives. I´m so glad that Mom and Kalianne got to go to the temple this week! It is such an amazing place, and really is a dwelling place of God! After the dedication prayer, we all sang El Espíritu de Dios (The Spirit of God), and it was SUPER powerful! I loved it! Hermana P- and I agree that we would have gone to all three sessions if we could have.
After the dedication we (mi distrito) all went back to Las Heras in colectivo, and then we had to wait for 2 hours for the next colectivo to Lobos. The Elderes are ALWAYS super hungry, and so they asked the Hnas of Las Heras if they had any food that they could spare, since it was Sunday and we couldn´t buy anything. So we went back and helped them cook a FEAST while the Elderes contacted in the plaza. It was so funny when we came outside with the food, and the Elderes were just amazed with how much we had! (We heaped it up on every plate). And Hna T- also made Peach Cobbler, which was divine! Basically, we have the GREATEST district in the whole mission. I think we are all asking Presidente to not split us up, but we will see--haha. I did my first divisiones (splits) as HLE with Hna C- in Las Heras on Tuesday, and she is a boss! I loved how when we were going to a house to contact someone, she would reach out her hand to shake theirs when they came to the door so they had to come out to the gate. That broke the ice a little, and also made it a LOT harder for them to just go back and shut the door without finding out what we wanted. Stealing this approach!! Also, Wednesday morning she made me banana bread in a cake form (since we don´t have bread pans:) and we celebrated my 9 months mark. I JUST FINISHED HALF OF MY MISSION!!! QUE LOCURA!!!
Weekly Challenge: Make it a priority to get to the temple! If you don´t have a temple recommend, get one! Plan for how you will attend the temple as often as possible. Prepare family names to take to the temple and do the work for them!!
I love you all lots! The Church is true! Temples are the best! Families are forever!
Hermana Durfee
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