Transfers - October 22nd

Hey family,

Well I guess I will start out telling about the week. The baptism we had planned for this Saturday fell through. We had the zone leaders come for the baptismal interview and he hno. Nosalve never showed up. So we went to his house and he said we needed to slow down and hold up a bit now. We had talked to him the day before about the interview questions and it turns out he has some doubts about tithing. He is willing to pay 20 pesos every month but that turns out to be only 5 percent tithing for him. We talked to him about paying a 10 percent tithing upon being baptized and he is worried because he doesn't receive very much money at all each month and he uses it all carefully. So he said he would have to pull it out of somewhere, but over night he had doubts and decided not to be baptized quite yet. The good thing is that he understands the importance of doing things right if he is going to be baptized. We are going to work with him a bit more.

We also went last Wednesday to talk to the Custodio family. Seferino wasn't there and his wife was upset about him drinking. They said they had lost all confidence in his ability to quit because he is drunk every night almost and he has been drinking for 30 years. He wasn't making improvement. We talked to them about having the faith that God could help him when he was not able to help himself alone. They kind of got the idea. After the lesson we were heading home and we ran into Seferino stumbling toward home with his bike to support him from falling. We stopped to talk to him and repeated over and over again that he had to quit drinking and his problems would be solved. Over and over. He cried and we told him that we were going to pass by on Friday (his birthday) to talk to him. We told him over and over to be there. He said he would be. Come around Friday it rained and poured. We passed by his house at night and found him home and completely sober. We had a great talk with him and asked him if he remembered what we had talked about two nights before. He said yes with a bit of clues and told us that he needed to quit drinking and that he was going to do it. He confronted the issue finally I think. We talked with him again about fasting and read in Enos with him about praying with real intent and with all diligence, that prayer takes work. We asked him to fast on Saturday until Sunday afternoon and told him we would fast with him. We left him with a priesthood blessing and sang a hymn upon leaving. Saturday came and he started his fast and read and prayed all afternoon. Sunday he came to church without his family and seemed to be doing great. We have been calling him every day to see how he is and he seems great and happy. He is home every night now and I don't think he has drunk since that Friday last week. There is power in fasting and prayer. There is power in the priesthood. I think that he is going to reach his goal to be baptized this month.

Today is transfers and I had to send Elder Cortez to Resistencia to receive his nuevito training yesterday. They wouldn't let me go too even though all the trainers come on Thursday. I was bummed. He traveled alone too! That seems stupid if you can prevent it. Anyways. I have been with Elder Karren and Elder Cook for the last day. We had just gotten back from the terminal and the office called and told us that we needed to look for an envelope they had accidentally sent with Elder Cortez when he passed through the office before. They needed it so he could do his document stuff which was the main reason he had to go back to Resistencia. So we had to go back to the terminal and send off a package by colectivo to get it there by morning. The whole day was lost and a lot of money too. I slept on the floor last night. Nice, hard cement floor with a few blankets under me. Ouch. Not the first time though. Tonight I get to do the same, but we have to go to the terminal at 11 pm to look for Elder Cook's new comp, Elder Santa Mar. I am going to be district leader now.

So that is the excitement this week. Sounds like things are exciting at home as well with the 50th anniversary of grandparents and all the bush trimming (don't worry I am not overly sad). We don't burn ties and stuff in the mission. That would definitely be very ungrateful for me because there are people that can use them here. I plan on leaving all my clothes behind pretty much.

Anyways, I would love to write more, but don't have much time with transfers and all. So I will write more next week.

Love you all,

Elder McDonald