Elder Scott Brown, assigned to serve the people of Argentina.: A Full

"A full" (pronounced, "a fool") is a local saying that basically means "super busy," which is what we have been this last week.

We had our Church Open House this week. It was sweet. We learned a lot. I think that the biggest thing that we learned was how to teach someone who doesn´t want to be taught. A man who believes anything he reads in a book went, and everytime someone taught something, he said "But I read in (name your favorite book) that it isn´t like that." And then proceeded to give a speech. All of us missionaries tried to treat him with respect and understanding. There was one sister (not a sister missionary, a normal member) from the ward who didn´t though. She said "Sir, stop focusing so much on worldly things. Don´t look so much for physical proof. What you need to do is get a testimony of spiritual things. Do you have faith?" "No," he said. "To tell the truth, no, I don´t." "Well then, get on your knees, pray, and ask God if the things we have told you today are true." And he looked at her for a second, then said "Finally!! Someone who know´s how to talk!" He gave her a kiss on the cheek (the way men greet women here), congratulated her for saying what she said, and left. I learned then and there that I have to be more direct and bold with my teachings.

We finally got to talk to the Mir family again! They were going through some problems and told their member friends that they did not want to talk with us any more. These members did not say anything to us. We ran into them in the street Monday night. Noelia (the mother) looked kind of apprehensive at first. After talking a bit, she opened up and invited us to go to their house Tuesday for Ivan´s (the 9 year-old son) birthday party. We went for 30 min, met some of their family members, taught them, and Noelia´s mom asked "And when are you going to go to my house to teach?" Sadly, she lives in another area. The Elder´s over there will be very happy with this referral. The whole family (except Pablo, the father, who was working) when to the Church Open House, and got excited again about being baptized and are still wanting to be baptized the 29th of this month. It was a huge miracle. We now need to focus on Pablo and get him wanting to be baptized too.

I don´t remember if I mentioned this before or not, but our Ward Mission Leader is from Utah. His wife is from here. He met his wife when visiting some family members here in Rosario. Anyways, when we go to his house or speak with him on the phone, we always talk to him in English (for him, were it for us, we would keep talking in Spanish), and apparently, my English is terrible haha. Every time I say things in English, everyone looks at me weird and my comp makes fun of me haha. I can now say that my Spanish is better than my English :).

Elder Brown

3 Nephi 27:20

20 Now this is the commandment: ^aRepent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be ^bbaptized in my name, that ye may be ^csanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand ^dspotless before me at the last day.