Hey - October 29th

Hey Family,

Well it has been a long time since we have had a normal pday and it was much needed. It was burning hot and humid yesterday with little to no breeze. We walked around outside sweating for a couple hours and then some huge storm clouds came out of nowhere. Didn’t rain or anything until last night and it rained and rained and rained all night and all morning. We looked out in front of our pench and it was just a river. No way to leave the pench because the water was all around us and it almost rose up enough to flood the pench. Our pench owner out back got a couple inches of water inside. Luckily we didn’t. So our clothes are washed and dried under an overhang of the house and so I did all my two weeks plus of laundry today. It took forever. That was a pain. But now I have all my clothes clean and I am caught up on laundry for now. Other than that I have spent the day cleaning the pench and catching my journal up. Tranquilo no más. I needed the break I think. Two weeks without doing anything fun or resting is not easy.


Good news though. We went to hno. Fulvio Eudoro Nosalve again and he surprised us by saying that he was ready to follow the baptismal instructions for this week so last week he had his baptismal interview and this Saturday we have his baptism. We talked about tithing and he solved the problem himself and is ready to pull out tithing as the first thing that he pays. What a cool guy.


Seferino asked us to see him in the church and he talked with us about his problems. After fasting on Sunday he went all week without drinking until the weekend. Then he plummeted. Huge improvement for him. He told us about the struggles in his family and it sounds like he and Silvio don’t see eye to eye and there are problems between Silvio and Roxana as well. Seferino gets mad and upset about the situation and then he goes and drinks to forget his worries. He realizes it and said he wanted to get out of the house and live on his own so as to stop drinking. He doesn’t feel much support from the family and feels they are impeding his progress. We talked about how running away doesn’t solve the problem and the best thing that he can do is what he does with himself and not to worry and argue with everyone else. Hopefully things get better. We set another baptismal date for December 6th with him.


My hair is growing back now and I hope to get it trimmed a bit to blend it a bit better. There is still a hole missing on one side of my head a bit though. It is a lot better and bearable now though. Yes I got a picture. I will try to send it to you.


Elder Cortez came a week late and missed his nuevito training and that is why he had to go to Resistencia. I thought it was dumb that they had him travel to and back alone though. Why when it isn’t necessary? We had to run and send a package to the mission office afterwards with the papers he needed because the office didn’t tell us that he needed the papers they sent to him. We lost the whole days work in two areas and I slept on the floor on a couple of blankets for two night and practically lived at the terminal for two days. Oh well, if I didn’t stay behind he wouldn’t have been able to get the papers he needed to start his documents to be here for two years so its all right.

I was nervous to be district leader again, even if there are only 4 of us in the district. We had our first meeting though and it was really good I think. We talked about setting goals—personal, companionship, investigators, language, etc. We applied the principals of faith, hope and diligence in reaching goals. It was something I needed to repass again that is for sure.


As to the questions about my weight and all that, I am still the same as ever. I weighed myself last week and I am a healthy 165 pounds. I think I have been there since my second area. The only problem is that I lack muscle now. I am going to have to start working out really good when I get home. You all even notice the difference, except for maybe a thicker beard coming in…


”Well, do the weeks just seem to fly by to you or is it just me? (said dad)”


Yes


Thanks for the weather reports dad they seem to be more accurate than what people here tell us. You never know what is going to come.


All the family visits you guys do make me a bit jealous I won’t lie. Sounds like a lot of fun and I don’t even have to worry about what I am talking about every second of the day. Gets tiring sometimes and I just feel like shutting up, but I can’t and the spirit doesn’t seem to let me. As soon as I have an opening the words automatically come and I don’t think the Lord would like me to withhold what he gives me. So I am content to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. It brings me great joy and I am excited for the opportunities that I will have later on in different callings and opportunities. One of the thing that I am sick of is how people think that missionaries do what they do just because it is their “job.” Its like, “oh they are the missionaries, that is what they are suppose to do.” A lot of people don’t recognize the sincere desire to help someone. So that will be fun after the mission to be able to serve because that is what I want to do and no one can say otherwise.


Well, I guess that is all I have to say for now. I want to try to send some pictures and we all know that those are supposedly worth a thousand words or something.

Have a great week. Way great!

Elder McDonald