Monday, July 25, 2011

Familia! ‏ 07/25/11 Week 25

¡Buen Dia mi familia eterna! y....amigos :)

Another week has flown by here among the vast plains of Argentina.  A lot of exciting news to report this week.  So my trip to Rosario last week was a great time!  I basically sat on a bus for a couple hours reading Jesus the Christ and playing the "box game" and hangman with my good ol pal Elder Stromberg.  Once we got to the casa de misión I basically went straight to bed, but it was fun meeting a bunch of other missionaries!  There was a group of about 25 of us or so that did something called Tramites.  Still don´t know what it was haha.  But on the morning after I arrived in Rosario, we went to a government building....which they made us stand outside for like half an hour...and i had forgotten a jacket in the freezing cold. bleh.  The weather is super weird here, super cold in the morning, super warm in the afternoon, cold again at night. repeat. But anyways, we were doing something with our passports, so I had to take another picture, then get my fingers fingerprinted, which I totally made more fun than it should've been haha.  Anyways, that was pretty much the whole reason for my trip, 10 seconds to take a picture, 10 seconds to do fingerprints (because the guy was fast at doing it, it was sureal).  Anyway, once we returned to the mission home i basically just played basketball with my latin friends for like half an hour. yeah, it was weird playing basketball after so long.....or doing any kind of physical activity besides walking for that matter.  Anyway, made it back to Santa Fe safely following all of that and continued on in the work with Elder Bryce.  Anyway, Zulema is still going strong, except she missed church yesterday :(  They had elections yesterday in the country (on a Sunday.....wicked wicked), and i think she just didn´t get around to coming to church.  It kind of scares me though, because I´ve seen people stop progressing in the gospel as soon as one commitment is missed, so I´m hoping that we can continue to help her fortify her faith today.  As far as yesterday at church. pretty stressful ha.  We had two investigatores show up (Guadalupe and her friend Rosa) who came on their own!  Usually we have to drag people to church. literally.  haha just kidding, but it is a huge step for investigatores when they come completely on their own at 9 in the morning walking 15-20 blocks.  Anyway, church went great for them, and we have a bautismal date set for Guadalupe in August.  Anyway, one of the crazy things that happened this week was that....I probably shouldn´t be telling you stuff like this....but I got robbed!  Haha, it was so dumb.  There was a drunk 21 year old guy that wanted to talk to us, and he seemed super harmless so we decided to stop for a second....suddenly a pack of 6 or 7 12 year old kids came around the corner and just started yelling "this is a robbery!"  and they robbed all of our stuff. my wallet, watch, copy of my passport....oh, and me and my comp had to get money out of the ATM that day, so they took my personal and mission credit cards!  It was terrible.  But, in the end we got the drunk kid to fetch a bunch of our stuff for us after the other kids ran away...and he pretty much brought it all back haha!  We only ended up losing a few pesos and my 8 dollar MTC watch, so don´t worry....got my credit cards and everything back :)  It was pretty intense, but the kids were ridiculous.  It was weird though because their was a group of mothers just watching the whole event take place and did absolutely nothing.  Pretty interesting.  As we walked away and passed by them (there were just staring at us with their mouths open, wondering if we were ok)  we had beaming faces and simply said "We got it all back!"  hahaha, anyway, that was my event of the week.  Elder Bryce had gone 21 months without being robbed....and I managed to make 5.5. failure.  Anyway,  I know the Lord really protects and blesses us so much out here.  I´ve been having a little bit of a hard time this week, one of the usual "I´m getting stressed out of my mind" times, but i´m pressing forward and doing my absolute best to serve the Lord everyday.  One scripture that I read this week that I absolutely loved was John 8:32.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ makes us all so free.  sometimes people think that Commandments, attending church, reading scriptures, praying, and all of these things "restricting", but its the Truth, the Light, and the Way that leads us to true happiness in this life.  I know my Savior Jesus Christ lives.  I know that he understands how we feel during every test and trial in our lives.  Hes there to help us and to lift us higher than we could ever imagine.  Another scripture is Alma 26:12.  In the last five months I have learned many things, one of them being just how weak and nothing I am haha.  But I know this is the Lords work and I´m simply an instrument in his hands.  I know that it is by our personal faith that determines the amount of growth and change that God can give us.  I´m just blabbering on now about nothing...but well, whats new? haha.  Oh, i forgot to mention that I was listening to my ipod the other day and suddenly the song Dream Big by Ryan Shupe came on.  I LOVE THAT SONG, and it totally made a great day even greater ha.  Anyway, I´m so so happy to hear that everyone there is doing so well.  It's so nice to be able to hear from you all every week and take a breather from the work.  I'm so grateful for all that you do for me and for the powerful testimonies of our savior that you have.  Oh, and I´m so glad to hear that Nate and Shantras' baby is absolutely adorable!  It feels weird to be an uncle now...I feel old ha.  Can´t even imagine being called "grandma" and "grandpa" ( directed to mom and dad) ;)  haha just messing padres.  anyways, the work continues on here in Parque del Sur.  Have an amazing week everyone!

Elder Winger

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