¿como te va? - October 15th

Hey family,

Well, finally I am getting to writing today. Wow it has been a busy day, but uneventful. We decided to take it “easy” just the two of us today so as to get everything done that we needed to do. Every time we go on the escapades with the other Elders we have problems getting back on time because we have to travel so much and to top it all off we don’t get all the stuff done we would like to. So it was nice to do all the things we needed to today and I think it will help us throughout the week too. Basically with not having to do laundry in the mornings and whatnot so much. Also I think I took care of the leather scripture cases I have been trying to get for awhile. Hopefully all works out well. Also we went and bought a nice chocolate cake for my birthday. Mmmmm...cake. As you probably all remember my birthday was on Monday and that made it hard because it was dia de raices and that meant all the shops were closed so we couldn’t even get ice cream. Sad I know. So I hope you all ate ice cream for me. Well, to top it all off it rained like none other and we almost got killed by gobstopper sized hail drops. Luckily we hadn’t left the pench yet for fear of the weather. So it was an exciting birthday I suppose, we are now looking forward to the cake later today.

Well, the last week something horrible happened. I was getting rather attached to my long hair, but it was getting questionable as missionary standard so we went to go get it cut. We were going to stop by some place nearby the pench when an hno. Soria from the ward noticed we had stopped at our pench to drop some things off. He stopped by and gave us some references and then told us, “remember that when you need your haircut to give me the business.” I felt bad about it because he needs the money because he doesn’t have fixed work as we say. So that afternoon we were going to be close to his house so we agreed to stop by and let him cut our hair. I would have felt too bad if we saw him later with freshly cut hair. Plus I would rather help out our members. Anyways, that night we stopped by to get our hair cut and since it is getting hot I asked for it shorter than I usually get here. Big mistake. I got an army haircut or something (buzzed really short on the sides and a little longer on top). I have had the worst hairline for the last several days and can’t do much to blend it because it is so short (the only way would be to buzz the whole head). I am just trying to wait patiently until it grows out. We saw some police academy students the next day and I was like, “really if you look at it they have the exact same haircut I do only it has more growth to it. It looks horrible. Someone told us that it is an initiation sort of thing for the new cadets. Well, I have always thought that if I lived in Argentina I would work for the police (or if not the bus system or a doctor). I guess I got a little taste of it. Oh well, I was a bit upset to have to go out like that, but it is growing and before long we can go fix it up. Hopefully. My first bad Argentine haircut. Kind of exciting.

So the work continues like normal here. It is a bit frustrating at times because no one seems to want to make the effort to make the changes necessary, including the Custodio family. I want to see them succeed so much, but I am having my doubts now. We did have a really spiritual lesson on 2 nefi 31 the other night and I asked them questions to get a feel for their testimony of these things. They have testimonies and even agreed to the baptismal challenge we extended but they know they need to make changes first. I love the people here so much though. The hno. Soria (yes the one who cut our hair) is going nuts on giving us references which is great, but they are all crazy people it seems like. They all have really great potential to be baptized though because they listen intently. Hno. Nosalve is one of them and he is well on his way to baptism for the 25th of october. He is an awesome old guy. It is draining me the lessons with all the crazy people though because it is hard to focus their thoughts. Luckily I have a lot of practice doing it. The gospel is for everyone right? The Piñeiro family isn’t cooperating very much unfortunately with the citas we set, but we are trying still. The dad says he wants to come to church but he had to work last sunday which is a bummer. We will try for a bit longer on them I think still, but we will see what happens.

With all that I hear about Ashton I am really excited to get home and see him. I can’t hardly touch all the cute little kids here on the mission so it will be fun to interact with him. I love little kids now!

Mom yes the package was all intact. I haven’t busted into the Swedish fish yet, but we thoroughly enjoyed the conference Cd's. A little late on the hot chocolate, but I am sure we will find other uses for it in pancakes or chocolate milk or something.

Well mom, I am really happy that my comment on the lesson was useful. I am impressed at your efforts as a teacher. You truly magnify your calling and we need more people like that in church I think. You even did your missionary work in inviting the girls to your class. I know that can be hard and especially disappointing when they don’t show, but a lot of times it is through repeated efforts that we see the results. So never give up. I remember that many times when investigators have not shown up I have felt like crying and have felt really down until I can get my head back in to why I came to church. I just don’t understand (and yet at the same time I do) why people don’t want to come and learn what we know. People truly are lost because they don’t know where to find the truth. It is even harder here where the churches are a political contest and trying to take all the money they can from people. People doubt our sincere and honest intentions to help them often times. I feel sad for them. I know what we have is the only way they can find lasting peace and happiness and they just don’t want to understand often times. Some people have really closed their hearts to the missionaries. I really have been feeling that lately. But I know that I need to just keep pressing forward. I don’t mind rejection so much now, but it is tough trudging around all day now that it is getting hot and humid. The mission was a lot easier in a lot of ways when I was busy as a zone leader because you get a lot of breaks from the norm I guess you could say. At the same time the two missionaries know how to work really well. That was great. Elder Cortez is a stud though and we are getting along really great and I hardly feel I need to train him. Maybe in a few things, but he is great. I just hope I can keep working hard to set the pace for him. I don’t want to influence anyone’s mission for bad.

Well, I best get going now. Thanks a lot for the extra love with all the emails this week.

Hasta luego,

Elder McDonald