Día 146

First of all, a very Happy New Year to one and all. May 2014 be the best year yet. It is kind of weird to think that for me, 2014 will be the one and only complete year that I won't be with my family, but I am really excited and humbled to spend this complete year in the service of my Father in Heaven. I guess the new year is a time of reflection and goal-setting, and one thing I would encourage as a missionary, is to always set spiritual goals as well. It is when we put the Lord first that everything else falls into place. Something I have come to realize visiting with inactive members in my area, is that their inactivity always begins when they stop doing the small and simple things, such as personal and family prayers and scripture study, and attending church. I would encourage one and all to make a special effort to make sure that you are always doing these small and simple things. If you don't have a testimony of these simple things, there is no better time to gain a testimony of them, and the only way to gain it is, as we learn in John 7:17, by doing them.

This past week was really great. Monday night, looking through the area book, we found the name of a Yuly Merino, so we decided to drop by and contact her on Tuesday. We went by and she was fantastic. She has attended church a few times in our ward, but mostly in the ward where her sister is a member. She has been taught all the lessons, and about 7 months ago she had her baptismal interview. Then she told the missionary that she had been married to a man in Peru 20 years ago, and then she got separated and moved here to Argentina and got married 13 years ago to another man, and now they are separated. So, legally she is married to two men, although she is separated from both and currently living alone. Anyway, when she told the missionary conducting her interview this, he told her that she couldn't be baptized. When we went by on Tuesday the situation was exactly the same, but we decided to call President Ayre and ask him what we could do with her. Because Elder Fuentes wanted President to know exactly how it was, I called him and talked to him about it. He told us that as long as she is living according to the principles of the gospel, not living with anyone, and as long as she hasn't abandoned any children, if she passes her baptismal interview she can be baptized. When we told Yuly this, she bawled out of happiness. She had been praying for a long time for the opportunity to be baptized, and especially this past week because she feels really alone. Anyway, she had her interview on Friday and passed it, Elder Fuentes baptized her Saturday morning, and I confirmed her a member of the church yesterday. It truly was a miracle. When Yuly came out of the baptismal font she was bawling, she was so happy, and it was really a special moment for all of us. It really strengthened my testimony again that the Lord is preparing people to receive us, and He is guiding us to them even when we don't realize it. 

Baptism of Yuly with her sister and her daughter

Anyway, for New Year's Eve we had dinner with Olga, Graciela, and Dani. We ate a delicious meal of empanadas and pizzas, and well, Elder Johnson ate salad like always haha. We had a rule change for the night that if we were eating with members we could stay out until 10:30 as long as they took us home. Elder Fuentes and I slept over in the apartment of Elder Popoca and Elder Johnson. It was impossible to sleep, so we decided to go up to the roof of their 8 story apartment building and watch the fireworks for a little while. The whole city of Buenos Aires was lit up with fireworks and bomb-like stuff for over an hour, it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Unfortunately, even when we tried to go to sleep, we couldn't, because people were still lighting off bombs in the streets, so we were pretty dead tired Wednesday.
 

New Year's Eve on the roof where it is clear to see my tan

line on my neck from wearing a shirt and tie every day.

On Saturday, we got a reference from some other missionaries of an inactive member and his family that are non-members, so we went by to visit them. We met Bruno and Mariana, two of his children, ages 13 and 11, and they accepted a baptismal date for this next Sunday the 12th, because they've attended church in the past. They attended church with us yesterday and are really great. Bruno related the story of 3 Nefi 11 that we left perfectly, which was pretty cool.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. Once again, a happy 2014 to one and all.

Love,

Elder John William Garrett