Hola - August 6th

Hey family,

Well like always when I get to a new area I am sure that you are all wondering what is up. My new companion, if I didn’t mention it, is Elder Walker. He has been out for 11 months and has been in Miguel Lanùs for three transfers. He told me he was pretty much baby sitting his last companion for the past two transfers and I know how that feels. So we are trying to find a lot of investigators and whatnot right now. There were already several in the out of date area book, but last Thursday through Sunday we found 23 new investigators. Some of the families are really cool. Other than that I am trying to get to know things around here (the area, the people, the members, etc.). The area is pretty small and I have already been all over it and can probably make my way around on my own if I need to. Remember how bad I was with my sense of directions before the mission? I think I have gotten a lot better with that now. It is the city, even if it is in the outskirts, and there are lots of people to talk to so I shouldn’t get bored too quickly. We have a less active family that we are working with who is basically active now and we have a baptism for their two kids, Julieta and Sebastian, the 19th of August. We got a family to church this last week and set a baptismal date with the father for the 6th of September yesterday. He is a great guy. I think he drinks a bit though. His daughter and son-in-law need to get married, but they are equally great. Roxana, the daughter, has 23 years and Sylvio, the son-in-law, has 17 years. Kind of weird, but like I said they are great people. We are going to try to set a date with the rest of the family in the next few days.

If you want to look at my area well, it is in the south east corner of the city of posadas, along the Ruta. Their are a bunch of white dots which are viviendas in a large part of our area. It is really nice there. I saw our area on Google earth at a members house too. They showed me the map.

So, remember Teresa and Ignacio Gonzales? I baptized them in Villa Cabello here in Posadas. Anyway, Teresa`s sister, hna. Penskofer, is here in Miguel Lanús and has been a member for a long time. She came to the baptism of Teresa and Ignacio. We went to their house and she asked me if I had a brother or if I was the same one who baptized Teresa. The whole family said that I had a familiar face when they first saw me. I recognized all of them as well. Hna. Penskofer speaks in the same way Teresa does. It brought back a lot of sweet memories. She informed me that her sister and brother-in-law are doing great and are active, fantastic members. Ignacio is about to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and I am sure they are thinking about the temple as well (I wrote them about it not too long ago). Teresa and Ignacio are coming to Miguel Lanús next Sunday to say hi to me. I am excited! It is good to know that all my works have not been in vain.

We also have spent some time looking for a new pensión already. The neighbors give us some problems with their music and it is a one room apartment. It is fairly nice anyways and I am not sure that I want to move yet because it has air conditioning. Summer gets hot here. We did find a nice house next door to the bishop though and we are going to see what we decide. I haven’t really been here long enough to know if we are going to have big problems or not. It seems like nothing so far for me because it was so bad in my last area.

Unfortunately I haven’t got my package yet and now it may take weeks to get it since I am not zone leader. I will let you know though.

Jonathan, I have heard some pretty impressive stories from you and I am glad I have a spiritually sensitive brother. You will be greatly blessed in future years as you keep it up, including in your time on the mission. It may be a surprise, but even missionaries have to stand up for what is right when other missionaries don’t seem to think that it matters much. So keep it up!

Physical therapy eh? Mom, I haven’t really given that one a lot of thought, but I guess it could be a possibility. I always thought it sounded like a weird profession, but what you say may have a lot of truth to it. I will have to look into it when I get home I suppose. It does sound good.

I was aware that the Olympics are starting, but I haven’t heard a thing about it from people here yet. I am sure we will when the futbol starts. We may even have to stay indoors if it gets really big. I love the Olympics! You will have to tape some things for me, but I suppose it just won’t be the same like that.

It is funny that you mention the example of the cake dad. Actually it is an example that we use quite a bit with investigators. They understand it really well. Examples are key with the people here because it keeps their attention better.

Well, it has been a good past week and I hope we can keep it up. We are still in the organization stages in how we are going to work. I had to organize the two carpetas so the information is easily accessible, but it is all ready to use now and I learned a lot about my area and the people. The one thing that is going to be tough is we have a lot of free time to look for people, we don’t hardly even have future investigator possibilities so we are looking and looking and looking. Luckily I am finding that I love to talk with the people now, something that I couldn’t say about myself when I started my mission.

Thanks for the emails. I always feel strengthened by them and find the courage to move forward with faith. I have hit walls in my mission where I don’t know how long I can keep it all up, but I always manage to find the strength and determination that I need to keep on keeping on. I am fully charged right now.

Love you all!

Elder Aaron McDonald