Hola - September 24th

Hey family,

Well, I assume that you are all wondering what is happening with me at this time. So I don’t know if anyone knew, but for a week I was with a mini-missionary from Reconquista. Yeah, I already told you about Roberto I think. Anyways, the zone leaders called and asked how I was and I said how it honestly was. I was dieing a bit. Roberto is a great kid but he had no knowledge of the gospel and was recently reactivated two months back (even though he was baptized when he was 8). He told me he was ordained a priest a week before he came to be with me and I was a bit surprised because I had heard that they are suppose to be an Elder to be with the missionary (as they come to live with you in your pench like a normal missionary). Turns out I was right. Anyways, Roberto didn’t really know a lot about the Restoration and the church so it was like having another investigator present in lessons. I took the time during a few comp studies to teach him and define basic key words for him and simplify the whole Restoration of the gospel by Joseph Smith. It was rough. He lacks his high school years in school still and I felt bad for him. We had a good talk about him and his family and how he became active in the church again, how we can fortify our testimonies of the gospel and we had a good relationship at the end. He was really quiet though. I think I was able to help him out a lot though, at least I hope so.

Anyways, the plan was to have me be with Roberto for the whole transfer, but the zone leaders called the assistants for me and I prayed really hard for my nuevito to show up. They said they had one more coming but that he was needed in another part of the mission. So I was resigned to sticking out the transfer, but then the zone leaders called me on Saturday morning to inform me that my nuevito was coming. So I went to pick him up at the terminal with the zone leaders (they sent him on his way from Resistencia by himself). So my new comp now is Elder Cortez from Mesa, Arizona. His dad has some Mexican and Spanish backround, but he had to learn the language. He already speaks and understands really well though for recently getting here and I don’t feel like I have to teach him much in that aspect. He comes from a family of 6 and is the 3rd child and second to serve a mission in his family. We are getting along great up to now and trying to restart the work a bit in Miguel Lanús. We still have a bunch of cool people we are teaching but we need to find new people again.

I feel a bit frustrated with the aspect of finding a lot of new people right now. It is true that you can find a lot of people by clapping, but they never really seem to progress hardly. I have found a lot of good families that way, but it is rough trying to get them to make the changes necessary for them to follow in the church. I suppose that is why we are trying to work with the members so much. But that is very hard to do I decided. I don’t know how to go about it hardly, we just keep plugging away in what we can and are hoping that something happens in the future. We have a lot of really great members here in the ward though. Everyone is getting animated little by little I hope. Now we probably need to focus all the good energy and ideas so that all the little efforts have greater effect.

I still don’t have my package. Tomorrow it should be in the zone conference. Presidente del Castillo just doesn’t seem to be as careful about things like that. He has been making a lot of changes in the mission it sounds like and we may see more changes in the conference tomorrow. Anyways, I am way excited about the package!

Our investigators status is really the same pretty much. I did talk to that girl from Jardín America, Rosa Pro, and we are trying to get her to church again. She wants to come, but doesn’t know the members so it is tough. Hopefully she comes to our activity tonight so we can introduce her to all the members.

The Custodio family is still struggling a bit. Seferino and his daughter, Roxana, and his “son-in-law”, Sylvio, always come to church. Blanca just told us with an almost certain, this week I am going to go answer. That will be the first time if she comes. We had a good talk with Seferino last night to lay out a plan to help him quit drinking. We got more specific and address the problem exactly how it was. We couldn’t get him to open up about it as well as I would have liked, but the family is going to talk and address the concern and we left them with plans and questions to consider. I think he will start to progress now. Tomorrow we are going to do something similar with Sylvio and some of his problems.

Well, I am still on fire I suppose, though I had some struggles motivating myself last week. So now I am trying to press onward with faith and hope for the best. Get myself re-fired up perhaps. It is true that when a missionary is teaching he is the happiest. So as soon as we start finding some more new investigators I think the area will start to explode all over again. I love this work though and know the Lord is preparing people for us to teach.

Love you all,

Elder Aaron McDonald