Día 153

Fua, it is crazy to think that tomorrow will mark 5 months in the mission. Time sure does fly by. This past week was really great. Last Monday we went to play basketball in the church with Elder Popoca, Elder Johnson, and some kids from the ward. However, when we got there, the mother of one of the counselors in the bishopric died and they were having a viewing in the chapel... so we had to play in this ghetto basketball court under a freeway with a hoop that was too tall and the rim was kind of messed up, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

Wednesday we went to a hospital in Provincia to find out if my companion needed to have an operation on his heart, because he's had heart problems in the past. We had to travel by train for about 3 hours. Presidente Ayre and the Assistants Elder Figueroa and Elder Sweeney met us there. It turns out that Elder Fuentes doesn't need the operation, so Presidente took us all out to lunch at a super expensive restaurant called "Siga la Vaca," or follow the cow, for those who don't speak Spanish. It was a buffet-type restaurant and we ate a ton of the best meat I've ever eaten, and topped off the meal with chocolate lava cake, or "volcán de chocolate" (chocolate volcano). It was incredible. Afterwards we drove with Presidente and the Assistants to the mission offices so Elder Fuentes could call his parents and tell them the good news. We left in the morning around 7 and didn't get back to Constitución until around 6, but it was a really fun day spending time with Presidente and the Assistants.

This week we had a few lunches where we ate only vegetables, thanks to Elder Johnson's vegetarianness... jaja. Elder Popoca and I get a pretty big laugh out of it because we came to Argentina expecting to eat a lot of meat and we eat a lot of vegetables due to Elder Johnson. We also eat with Hermana Chavez every week and she always forces me to eat some vegetables with my meat...

The awesome news is that Bruno and Mariana were indeed baptized yesterday. Bruno asked me to baptize him, and Elder Fuentes baptized his sister. They were really excited about it, and we were too. We truly have been seeing miracles in our area and have been richly blessed. I truly am humbled to have this opportunity to serve the Lord, and I have seen His hand in my life more than ever. It is so crazy to think that in just 5 months I am being able to understand (mostly) and speak a different language and I know that is only possible with the help of the Lord. There is no better feeling in the world than to have the Spirit guiding you as you speak with people and literally having your mouth filled with words... especially when sometimes you haven't learned or said that word before. The church is true. God the Father and Jesus Christ live and love each and every one of us.

I love you all,
Elder John William Garrett