Una semana de lluvia

This Tuesday I had the priviledge of going on exchanges with Elder Hankins, one of my zone leaders. I went to his area in Vucetich, and when we left his pension it wasn't raining, so we didn't bring an umbrella. Then it started pouring and pouring and rained all day. We left with just sweaters on and before long we were freezing. It was one of those really really cold rains. Luckily, we visited a recent convert who had an awesome heater in her house, so we were able to take off the sweaters, dry off a bit, and as we left, she lent us some of her husband's work coats. The funny thing was... her husband works for Bimbo, a bread company, and the coats she lent us were huge white marshmallow coats. They kept us warm enough alright. However, what calls more attention than two giant Yankees in brilliantly white marshmallow coats? Not much. We had a blast. Overall, we were pretty much freezing all day and all night because his pension is really cold, but it was probably one of the funnest days of my mission. I learned a lot from Elder Hankins about staying positive no matter what and giving the mission all we've got. Even when we give it all we've got, it may not be enough, but we should do it anyway, as it really is between us and the Lord and no one else. It was a miserable day, but I really enjoyed it and gained another new best mission friend in Elder Hankins.

This week we worked really hard to find and teach investigators. Unfortunately, Olga was working all week so we couldn't teach her, and then on Saturday when we finally found her she told us she wouldn't be able to go to church. Fortunately, a hermana in our ward brought a friend to church, and we were able to set up an appointment to start teaching her, so we're excited about that.

I had a pretty spiritual end of the week. On Wednesday my companion and I dropped by the church and while we were there we ran into the Bishop. I got slammed with a 20 minute talk for church yesterday. My subject was "Love thy neighbor as thyself." I prepared a pretty great outline with a lot of material including the atonement and a lot of great stuff, but in the end, the youth speaker and my companion each spoke for 15 minutes and I only had 10 minutes to talk. I ended up hardly even looking at my notes, and I don't remember what I said. When I sat down, my companion turned to me and asked, "did you get the feeling that when you were speaking it wasn't you, but was really the Holy Ghost?" It was a truly incredible experience, and one that I will not forget. 

Today we went to the Temple with the whole mission. Wooo!!!! Our zone had to be there at 8:10, and all the members told us we should leave at 5:00. We woke up at 4:00 and left at 5:00... and got there at 7:00 and had to wait an hour for the rest of our zone. Even though I'm exhausted, it was a really awesome experience again.
 

Next week I will be having transfers, so P-day will be Tuesday. Don't get worried when I don't write on Monday, I'm not dead.

Love,

Elder John William Garrett