Hey family!
Well, it sounds like it´s been a good week, not so good week, and just a busy week for everyone! But thanks so much for taking the time to keep me posted on things back home.
I want to thank Kari and Shantra so much for sending me pictures!!!!!! Haha i loved all of them, and pictures are definitely one of the "hidden treasures" that as a missionary i love finding within an email, so thank you so much.
It´s crazy to hear that Dad is out of town again! He´s been super super busy it sounds like, but that´s good that he´s been having lots of work which = success which = $$$$. Atta boy pops. keep it up out there. But I'm sad to hear that Grandma Winger´s health is beginning to go down hill :( . You´ll have to let me know how the funeral goes and everything. I wish i could have the chance to see her one more time and say goodbye, but i´ll leave that up to you to do that for me. I remember all those times we would go over to her house and spend time with her. Her house was always SO FUN and i loved the choo choo train set that she had set up every christmas for us. I think i enjoyed crashing the train more than anything, and its actually kind of a miracle it survived all those years of my destructive child behavior....but yes, if you could tell her i love her for me and that I know she´s going to be so happy to see grandpa, that would be a great help :) thank you.
It sounds like the weather is just BEA utiful there back home, and it´s actually quite nice here as well (depending on the day). One day it will be nice and the next day it will be a horrific thunderstorm....not so fun when my right shoe has a giant hole in the bottom.....which have caused all of my socks to have holes in them.....so my shoe becomes a heavy, sinking ship every rainy day. Haha, but the hole in the bottom of my shoe has gotten really annoying.....my bare skin literally touches the ground every step i take...and the ground i walk on usually isn´t "sanitary"....usually dirt roads, rocks, trash, and the occasionally doggy surprises that i have to be careful to avoid. I'm probably going to get some kind of fungus soon :) . But I'm too lazy to get them fixed or buy new shoes at this moment in time, but i´ll get around to it, no worries...mom.
my, just to let you know, i do not know a Mckinley Heath.
Anyway, one of my spiritual experiences from the week was really powerful. My father in heaven has let me know that there are people prepared here specifically for me.
We have been meeting with this 30 year old women named Andrea for the last few weeks. She´s super nice and has been meeting with the missionaries for over 7 months, but still has not been baptized! She agrees with all the doctrine and the commandments and everything, but she just doesn´t want the "responsibility, stress, and stuff" of what will come after baptism. She´s been a really tough cookie to crack, and it´s been really hard to commit her to baptism, no matter how many times the missionaries have gone over the wonderful blessings that come and how necessary it is.
Well, we met with her this week and we decided to read a section in Principles of the Gospel under baptism. We opened to it, only assuming to read a small portion.....but as soon as she opened to the page, she began reading out loud from the beginning, and didn´t stop. she read the whole chapter out loud, making pauses every few sentences, pondering what she was reading. When we got done with the section, she decided to ask us about the first time we baptized someone. If you can remember, i had quite the crazy first experience here in Argentina ha. But as Elder Tague and I finished telling her our experiences and sharing our testimony, she began crying. She told me that she didn´t know why, but as i was talking to her she felt touched deeper than ever before. In the next appointment that I had with you, she said she was going to be baptized on the 12th of November and that she wanted me to baptized her! It was such a humbling experience, and I'm so grateful that shes made this decision in her life. Elder Tague and I are super excited and we are going to continue preparing her and other investigadores that we have to be baptized. It was an amazing experience.
Also this Sunday Elder Tague and I sang nearer my god to thee in sacrament meeting. Luckily my comp has a pretty good voice, cuz if he didn´t, the whole thing would have been a nightmare for sure. I don´t exactly have the voice of an angel haha, but it was a fun time.
That´s a couple of my adventures from the week. We are continuing to work hard and do all that we can to fulfill our missionary purposes here in Ameghino.
Fun tip of the week: i read a talk by M. Russell Ballard this week called......i can´t remember.....its called how to make a difference or something like that. Anyway, it talked a lot about how we are changing everyday, and how we need to make necessary changes everyday to help us become more like the Savior.
He gave an activity that i am beginning to put into practice. He says every morning right down something that you want to start doing one thing that you know that you should be doing, and one thing that you want to stop doing that you know you should not be doing. It´s kind of an interesting way to make measurable goals of how we want to become better everyday. You´re welcome to try the activity as well haha. But i know that if we can get to the end of the day and say we are a better person than when we woke up, that´s what god wants of us.
Anyway, i g2g so i´ll talk to you next week! I love you all so much!!!!!
Elder Winger
