Old People

Here, there are tons of crazy old people, and awesome old people. We met another crazy old lady with alzheimer´s when we went to contact Old Investigators. She asked us about 5 times or so how old we thought she was. Every time, Elder Yaques said 60 every time, and every time, she made some weird wave gesture with her hand that I think meant "higher". After a few "guesses," she would tell us that she was 71, but turned 72 in October. We we gonna teach her something, until the second time this happened. So we just decided to listen to her repeat her stories about where she´s from, how old she is, and how her husband was in the Navy. I think the Spirit prompted us to go there and pay a visit to a lonely old lady whose kids and grandkids never visit. Our Heavenly Father loves all his childern, whether or not they are all there mentally, or have the Gospel in their lives. He wants us all to be happy. And with his 72 year old daughter with memory loss, he sent two young kids to visit and listen.

On Sunday we went out with the Elder´s quorum to help them do home teaching, because we are trying to get this all organized here. So we did some splits. I went out with Elder Wagstaff and a man named Javier. We went to visit his friend he´s been trying to get to be interested in the church. We had a great visit with them, which kinda surprised me, cuz the friend´s dad was there, and he was wearing nothing but some super shorts. He had the biggest potbelly I´ve seen in my life. Not too fat anywhere else, just a massive belly. He honestly looked like he was pregnant with at least triplets. It was pretty gross. And he just agreed with everything we said. But I think his son, the friend of Javier, had a really good experience. Hopefully the other missionaries can continue teaching him.

After we left, we went to visit a less active lady, who just talked at us for 45 min about how terrible all the members here in Casilda are. She told us all the members she´s met in other places, like Buenos Aires, Bahía Blanca, and Rosario are great people. But, the members here are just terrible. So I said something like "It seems to me that you have some issues/ problems with the members here in Casilda, but, your Heavenly Father still wants to bless you, and you can recieve these blessings by..." And she said that she has no problems with any members here in Casilda, just that the branch Pres, and Quorom Pres, and Relief Society teachers and presidency, and her ex husband (see how this whole marriage/ divorce thing I talked about a few weeks ago comes full circle?) are terrrible people and gave us an extensive list of reasons why, and that she´ll throw bricks at the branch pres if she sees him by her house, but, she doesn´t have any problems with any members here in Casilda. 

Anyways, we did exchanges this week. Did it twice. Both times I got to be with other English speakers. That was awesome to be able to speak in English for two days straight. Also, both times I stayed in our area. Which means that I had to do all the planning twice. Learned that I´m not very good at planning without my companion doing basically all the work. So I´ll try to participate more during daily planning. Told myself that 6 days ago exchanges started. He got back 4 days ago, and since then, I´ve basically only said that we shouldn´t schedule a certain appointment for a certain time, but for a little later. Real progress.

We found a CD with a ton of Disney songs in our pensh! So we called the Zone Leaders to see if this was contraband or not. They said as long as there aren´t music videos, it´s fine. So we´ve been singing a ton of Hercules and Frozen. Hercules songs are better in Spanish, but Frozen is just crazy fast and confusing to try and nail down.

We are gonna have another baptism here on Saturday! We are pretty excited because this lady, Isabel Cañiza, is totally prepared. She has been a golden investigator. She always asked the right questions. She fulfilled all her commitments. She read every pamphlet. We got to the point where we just gave her the pamphlet for the next lesson the lesson before, and she would basically memorize it. Then, she would pretty much teach us. For example, with tithing and fast offerings, we started off by asking what she knew about tithing, and almost recited, word for word, the entire tithing section. With fast offerings, I think she did recite, word for word, what the pamphlet says, and then bore her testimony on why these donations are important. We have also been able to see and feel that she is doing this 100% because she knows this path is the best to grow close to God, and that is her only goal. I honestly think she has taught me more than I have taught her, and not just because my spanish still is pretty weak. She has been a great example of loving "the Lord thy God as thyself". It has been awesome to watch her progress and witness the Atonement totally bless her and lift her up.

Pretty glad I made the choice to come out here. It is changing me in ways I never imagined were possible. Learning how to love like Christ is awesome. Every day, I come to understand more and more of the Atonement and that, in itself, is a priceless blessing. I was thinking the other night, and I imagine, that when Heavenly Father was making commandments, he was sooooo excited. I truly think he was gettting way pumped with all these ways he was designing to give us, his beloved children, blessings. He truly loves us more than we can know. It´s such a privilege to know what I know and to have this chance to learn and feel everything I am learning and feeling. The mission field is so awesome!

Elder Brown

Mosiah 2:41