The Work Continues for Noellia and Ivan

Elder Adrian, a good friend from Venado Tuerto

Our district

Noelia and Ivan Mir had their baptismal interview´s Saturday, and passed with flying colors!! Noelia is one of the most prepared people that I have taught. Some prepared people accept everything we say without question, and others accept it and apply what we teach in their lives. Noelia accepts what we teach, and does it. She lives what she learns. In the words of our ward members, she is a "dry Mormon," which means she already lives a Mormon life, she just lacks baptism.

Pablo, Noelia´s husband and Ivan´s father, told us last night that he wants to get baptized too!! He has been our main concern with the Mir family. He knows he will have to stop smoking and make a bunch of changes in his life, but, he is willing to make these changes. He said he doesn´t want to do it for his wife nor for his son, but rather, because he feels that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. All his ideas of Christianity are found in the LDS church. It was amazing!

Normally, I don´t like to share that I am a leader in the mission, but, I feel like I should share an experience I had this week.

There are six missionaries in our district. Two are zone leaders. Two are sister training leaders. One is a district leader, and the other is the district leader´s junior comp. The missionary who is the district leader is the missionary with the least amount of time out of the 6 of us. He has been in the mission field for 8 or 9 months. His comp has been out for 15 months. The sister training leader´s have been out for 16 and 11 months. I´ve been out for 20, and my comp´s been out for 16. Our poor district leader feel´s, obviously, tons and tons of stress. I´m sure he feels really insecure. He, with such little experience, has to be a leader of missionaries, who are leaders, with lots of experience. His and his comp´s situation is almost exactly what I had in Venado Tuerto. My comp was pretty new and was a district leader of 5 other missionaries with more experience than he, my comp was even from the same place as our current district leader.

On Saturday, when they came to our area so that the district leader could interview Ivan and Noelia, I felt like I needed to speak with his companion, whom I will call Elder Black, and I will call his comp Elder Silva. I started by asking "How are things going with you and Elder Silva?" He told me that things were going good, but, that the stress seemed to have really gotten to Elder Silva, and that they were getting along really well. I told him about my time in Venado Tuerto, and how I was able to win the trust, confidence, and love of my companion. The spirit was really strong. At the end, he gave me a huge hug and said "This was the answer to my prayers. Thank you." I guess what I am going at with this, is that I learned that the experiences we have in this life aren´t just for us. Gods gives us these experiences for us to share with us, and wants us to record our experiences, especially our spiritual ones. I noticed after the little chat we had, that I had not recorded in my journal what I had done to win the confidence of my companion. So, I will do that today, so that in some future day, I can help someone else too with my experiences.

Love you all!!

Elder Brown

Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-9

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.