Contacting, Contacting and tons of Joda

This week, I have done more contacting than in all the rest of my time in the mission combined. Just about every single teaching appointment fell through (and there were a few days when literally every single appointment fell through), so we have knocked and clapped and rang more doorbell´s than I could count. Found lots of old ladies who invited us to come back, and had forgotten that they invited us back when we come back. Also found some teenage girls who invited us back, and we have gone back. I´m just gonna say, that after our return visit´s, we have found sufficient reason to not return a second time to these teenage girls. Anyways, every night this week when we have gotten back to the pensh, I have been more tired than I have been in any other given night of my life. As soon as my head hit the pillow every night, I´ve been out, despite the never-ending "joda".

"Joda", pronounced "hoda", is an Argentine word that basically means crazy and excessive partying. And that is exactly what has been going on here in Casilda this last week. Well, now that I think about it, ever since we moved to our new pensh. Last Sunday, there was a HUGE concert two blocks from our pensh. The two biggest bands in Argentina both originated in Casida, and they both came to perform last sunday. It would pretty much be the equivalent of a One Direction and Twenty One Pilots being from, and coming to, Gilbert to perform the same night in the same venue, for free. It would be insane, and this concert was insane. The concert lasted from 3 in the afternoon to 3 in the morning. Pretty loud too. Unfortunately, we did not do a lot of contacting this day, so it was pretty tough to sleep that night. Every night since, there has been some sort of blockbusting party going down. People yelling and laughing until 3 or 4 in the morning, fireworks every other night. But, luckily, every night since Sunday, despite the unceasing partying, I have been totally pooped and have had no problem crashing and sleeping all night.

On Thursday, our lunch appointment was scheduled for about an hour and a half later than most are, so we were looking for some to do in that time between weekly planning and lunch. I was looking through the list of members, and just felt an urge to visit the last name on the list, Rosa Zorzenon. Less Active lady that we hadn´t met. So I suggested it to Elder Yaques, who shrugged his shoulders and said "Why not?" So we went. Turns out, she is and 85, and hasn´t been able to go to church for a number of years for health problems, and nobody from the church has visited her since 2006. So she thought she´d been forgotten. It was really cool to help her realize that her Heavenly Father has not forgotten her, nor ever will. This is something we can all apply, if you ever feel like you´ve been forgetten, know that you haven´t. God has not forgotten you, nor ever will.

I guess I´m really learning to appreciate the little miracles. With so much disappointment in investigators telling us they aren´t interested any more, with literally evrey single teaching appt failing, with the only people inviting us back being girls who only have flirting on their mind, it gets tough and tiring. However, it really teaches one to focus on the little things. The little miracles. We don´t need to baptize weekly. We don´t need all the promotions in work. We don´t always need to win the game. What we should always do, however, is focus on the the little things. Be grateful for the little things that might have always been there, that may seem really insignificant. I think we miss out on a lot of blessings because we are too focused on the big ones that we don´t pay attention to the little ones.

That´s not as much as I usually write, but, nothing too out of the ordinary happened this week. Just learning to appreciate everything.

Elder Brown

Doctrine & Covenants 78:19