Hello familia!! Here I am again, writing from Parque del Sur. First things first, I absolutely love my companion Elder Bryce!!! He is an absolute stud and he has already taught me so much in the 4 days that we´ve been together. He is from Arizona and is an amazing Spanish speaker and missionary. From the first day of this transfer we got right to work. We are currently teaching a lady named Laura that we haven´t been able to teach for 6 weeks or so.....cuz she´s always gone! That's one of the worst things haha, when you walk for a long time to go to an appointment and it ends up that the person is not even there, so we turn around and head to the next one...which is muy lejos haha. but I absolutely LOVE the people and the work that I´ve been having the privilege of doing in this area. We have a good pool of investigators that we are teaching right now, and its amazing to watch peoples lives literally change for the better as they begin to live the principles of the Gospel. So yesterday I had quite the experience....gave my first actual talk while here in Argentina! One of the Bishopric counselors called me on Saturday night and asked if I would give a 10 minute talk the following morning. And of course I accepted haha. But, I didn´t have time to prepare a talk except for a couple scriptures that I looked up while sitting in my chair during the meeting....and then I just relied completely on the Spirit and faith haha. I got up there and it definitely wasn´t a great talk, but it was a huge growing point in my mission. The language is coming along even better now, and I´ve learned something so valuable with Elder Bryce that is going to change my mission. Teach the people, not lessons. I´ve always heard this phrase, but it hasn´t actually hit me until this transfer. I´ve had experiences that have absolutely floored me when I´ve sincerely sincerely cared about the person we teach. The moment that I rely on the spirit, sincerely listening to the investigator so that I can help them, that is when something called the Gift of Tongues has kicked in. I know that the Lord is guiding this work and I know that as I do my best, keep the commandments, and allow myself to be changed into a better missionary day after day, the Lord will continue to perform miracles in my life and will perform miracles in the lives of the people that we have the humbling opportunity to help. When you love the people, confide in the Lord and his work, the words of what the Lord wants to tell his children become manifest. I´ve grown so much in the last 4 days, and I hope I can continue to become a better missionary than i was the day before. This week we got our new mission president as well! Presidente Giuliani!!!!! He is an absolutely amazing man and I had the opportunity to meet him briefly at the conference that we had last week for his arrival. He did change a couple of rules that I kind of enjoy.....we can listen to a wider variety of church music, which is awesome since I have songs on my ipod that I haven´t been able to listen to, and he is also allowing us to drink something called mate cocido.....which is a form of the infamous herbal drink of Argentina... :). Anyway, the work is absolutely amazing here, and I testify that this is the Lords work. As far as the spiritual thought for the week goes, I would like you to read if you have time "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ" by Gene R. Cook. WOW! i could quote parts of it, but I think you just have to read it to get the full effect haha. Quick scripture is Enos verse 15. Ive realized how important it is to sincerely pray in faith to our father in Heaven and ask him for guidance and direction. Prayer is an act of faith, and the Lord always requires that we work for the many blessings that he is willing to grant us. I know that our Father in Heaven answers every prayer according to his will of what is going to make us the most happy, for that is his purpose. I love the scripture in 3 Nefi 19:24. I know the Lord knows my needs better than even I know my needs haha. So, one thing that I incorporate more in my prayers is to ask my Father in Heaven to help me know what to say in my prayer. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and he will help us with any and all righteous desires that we have. I'm also super happy to hear that Jamison will be going to the Argentina Mission!!!!!!!!! HE IS GOING TO LOVE IT!!!!! Well, I´m all out of time for this week, but I´ll talk to you the next. I love you all so much and I´m so grateful family that I am going to live with you all forever!!
Con amor,
Elder Winger
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