Como estan? haha que una semana! arriba y baja pero en el fin, todo bein :)
Well, as you can see from my pictures, I had my first baptism!!!! Wow, what a miracle that was! Pero ahora yo tengo que escribir sobre mi semana y como bautizamos a Jorge.
Well, first to start out, Monday, like I said was hectic and it was an up and down day for me. I was excited that I was getting a new Latin companion but also really nervous because, like I said, I can't really communicate. So after we did the internet we went back and unpacked all of his stuff, and yes, I moved to the bottom bunk. :) He's from Mar de la Plata and he's 24 yrs old, he's been a member for 8 yrs now and has almost been on his mission for a year and a half. He's the last of 4 brothers and the 3rd missionary. So that Monday night we went to a lesson with a less active named Edu. After our lesson with him we went and looked for this man named Jorge. Now Jorge is a man that has been coming to the church for a long time now and he's been there for all of the weeks that I've been here. Before this we had never been able to find him, we knew which building he lived in but it's a building like most in the poorer parts of my area, green area, there is no timbre or anyway of contacting people inside unless you have a key or someone lets you in. We had tried to get in before but no one would let us in or no one even showed up to give us a chance to get in. That's a challenge for this area because no one lives in their own house, we always have to ring the bell or hope that someone walks by and is nice enough to the missionaries to let us in. So anyways we went looking again and we got lucky and someone actually let us in, and someone that knew where Jorge lives. So we went looking for him and he was home. :) Now he's a man that lives by himself and honestly I don't know that much about his history. He, for me, is super hard to even try to understand what he is saying. He talks low and doesn't move his mouth. Now me, being a gringo, I can't understand really well when they slur everything together and don't pronunciate. So I can't really talk with him. So we got talking with him and we challenged him to be baptized for this Sunday, yesterday, and he accepted! We were surprised and excited. This was a miracle that was meant to happen. So that was great. We then talked with Gian, he just barely got married last week, to a less active, but now he doesn't want to be baptized or commit to any of the things that we try to commit him to do. They didn't come to church but we are still going to be going over to visit them.
Tuesday, wow, the pressures of being the one to know the area, and so basically I'm making all of the plans for our weeks. Tuesday we had weekly planning and that was difficult because first we didn't have credit for our cell phone so we had to ask to use the phone in the church, then I had to plan for the week to come and all in Spanish. Oh, and we also had to call and find a lunch for that day because we didn't have one. Then, we had a lesson with Eddy, and he right now is very strong but is being difficult with us. I mean, he comes to church and does all that we ask him to do but he's still not sure if he has the faith or the testimony of the Book of Mormon to be baptized and also he moved back in with his girlfriend, so we can't even set a fecha with him until he decides to get married or to move out. He doesn't want to move out or rush things into marriage, but he's still reading and he paid his tithing the last week. So he might be an internagator (someone that investigates the church for a long time). So we have another lesson with him this next week, so I'll keep you updated.
Wednesday, well this day was an up day for me. :) I saw a huge leap in my communicating abilities and also my understanding abilities. Since I'm the old one in this area I know all the people and basically where they live and their schedules and so Elder Giannini can't really relate with anyone quite yet. So I believe that after 3 and a half months of studying Castellano I was able to communicate. I did the phone calls and set appointments and I did the timbres for everywhere we went. I was basically talking the basics, but the basics are coming faster and faster for me. So I'll consider this day the day that it hit me, Castellano, and it'll only go on up. So we actually went in the villa on Thursday, but we were safely walking the streets of Buenos Aires when the train wreck happened. We had to call and ask for another lunch and we were in the capilla eating our lunch when we got a call from our DL asking us if we are alright. I'm not riding trains down here very much. But yes, that would be scary, and it was pretty big news down here too. So for the rest of that day we taught Frank, a son of Juan, a recent convert, a couple months, I think, and challenged him to at least read. Then we had two straight citas fall through but we got a call and went and gave a blessing to a member in the ward.
Thursday, our first District meeting…it changed a ton from the last transfer. Us and Juncal stayed and then we added two companionships of sisters and that's it for now. Then we went into the Villa, and got a little lost trying to find the member's house of the other ward of Juncal, but after making a phone call in a small alleyway, we were finally able to find her and then we went to a house where she knew somebody, turns out that they weren't there but we were then able to walk down the street and basically do some street contacting and set up some appointments, because everyone in the Villa is in need of this message of hope and happiness. Turns out later that night when we told Juncal where we were at that we weren't even close to our area in the Villa. Oh, and we only have two members of the same house that live on the outskirts of the Villa in our area but none that live in it. I guess that no missionaries have been in our Villa area before, before 2009. I think that there were sisters in Palermo. So we will see what we'll do to enter into our part. Then later that day we found Jorge again! He doesn't have a phone or a way to get into his house unless you're let in or he lets you in. So we set up an appointment for Saturday, but we planned on going by everyday anyways.
Friday was probably the most frustrating day and the hardest day so far. Since I'm the one that has to do all of the planning and decide where we are going, the pressure is on me to get the lessons and find the people; that's a lot of pressure for someone that struggles to speak and doesn't have the mission routine down to the point. So we had lunch with a member and then we taught his cook; she's heard us before but doesn't want anything to do with us, but is still nice enough to let us challenge her to read. Then we had every appointment fall through, either the hermano that was going with us to a hermanas house couldn't because of a change in work schedule or the investigators called 20 minutes before and said that another day would be better. So after 2:30 we didn't sit down again and so it was frustrating also because I don't know the people of the area really well and so it seemed like we were going in circles and couldn't find anyone to teach. So my feet were hurting, my whole body to be exact. I couldn't think of anyone to go to and so it was hard too because I couldn't consult with an English speaking companion. Oh, and Elder Giannini doesn't really want to learn English. So moving on.
Saturday, we went and talked with this recent convert named Pablo. He speaks a little English and so I was able to understand him a tiny bit, so I asked him why he hadn't been coming to church for the last 8 months. We visited him last transfer and got the same answer--he doesn't want to and the only reason that he got baptized was to receive the holy spirit so that he could be saved. So after that I felt really bad just because I felt that I had just wasted time talking with him and then we went and picked up lunch and went back to the pension, (apartment). At this point I started having thoughts of what am I doing here, this is hard, I can't even speak the language and I have a native speaking companion depending on me to go and do the work. So let's just say I hit my low point. I'm not proud of the bad attitude that I had but I prayed to Heavenly Father for help and guidance. I still felt a little bit lonely but after the prayer I felt better. But still we didn't have a set cita until much later that day. So we did the same thing for a couple of hours of just walking in circles searching for antiguos and only finding a couple, but we got one lesson this upcoming week from it though, so hopefully that works out. Then we met with Jorge and helped him remember (he's also 60+ years old and has a bad memory), so we went through the baptismal questions and went through each of them. I was nervous that he wouldn't remember something for his actual interview. Then we were able to find a hermano to go with us to visit Gladys and we taught her and her daughter Maraliz and set their fechas (dates) for the 10th of March. So it was a better day in the end and right now I'm fine, I just can't wait till I'm accustomed to the mission and the Castellano.
Sunday…Well yesterday was also up and down. Haha We went searching for Jorge early in the morning, 45 minutes before the meetings were to start. We didn't find him at his house but when we got back to the church he was already there and so that was a relief that he remembered to come. Then after the meetings were all done, we had his interview with Elder Rose, our DL who is also of Juncal with Elder Stocking, and yes we see them every Sunday, and normally after church we talk with the members and set citas with them and pass around the lunch calendar. So after a lengthy interview, haha, he passed and the baptism was in full swing. We both got dressed. Throughout the day we had thrown together a baptismal service with speakers and everything. Then we started, and as we were walking toward the font, I realized that through our rush we had forgotten to explain how the baptism was actually going to happen. So I tried to explain it to him in broken Spanish real quickly, that he would have to go under the water. Then when we got in the water, I said the prayer and started to lower him down in the water and he freaked out so he didn't go all the way under. Then we did it a second time, after we had explained he could plug his nose, haha. So it all worked out in the end and I had my first baptism. He was excited and was the most animated that I'd ever seen him, so that was awesome to see that.
We have stake conference next week and also our Zone conference this Friday, so I'm going to make it and don't worry about me, I still have 20 months to figure everything out. haha
I'm thankful for the updates and I'm excited for what everyone is doing, wow everyone is doing a lot and looks like everyone is growing up just fine as well. Sorry about Lehi basketball Tanner, but that'll give you motivation for next year, that's cute what Camryn's been saying haha, oh and I can't wait for the package, oh also I'll been making a DVD this month to send to you. Come on BYU you can do it!
Well I can only tell you how much I love you all and I hope that you enjoyed the letter, I love telling you details about everything so that you can kind of get a feel for what it's like to live in Argentina haha. Love You and can't wait to write you all next week!! I´ll keep on praying for you if you keep on praying for me, deal? haha alright gotta go, oh and I´m sure that the language will come more and more every day, so thanks for the prayers once again. Oh and we don't have a bug problem in our pension which I´m grateful for haha, well, I can't think of anything else to say so until later ciao!
Love,
Elder Ryan Pittard
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