This past week was really wonderful. Monday we got a call
telling us that it would not be P-day but that we could write to our families
for a short time anyway. That was because on Tuesday about 40 Elders had to go
to Uruguay because they were illegal. This probably requires an explanation of
how we become legal here. Due to visas taking a ton of time, the church is no
longer trying to get them to be here. What we do is we come here on a 3-month
tourist visa and then work on a bunch of papers to get our "DNI" or
Argentine identification, making us legal citizens. They only last for a year
and we have to renew them, but it's pretty cool. Anyway, the paperwork for a
bunch of Elders was taking too long and their tourist visas had already
expired, making them illegal in the country. The Quorum of the 12 doesn't want
us to be illegal in the mission, even though the government here doesn't really
care. Being representatives of Jesus Christ, it is best to be legal. So anyway,
about 40 Elders had to make a short trip to Uruguay and back to leave the
country and get a new tourist visa to re-enter Argentina. All of their
companions got an extra long P-day to tour Capital.
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Puerto Madero
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Being legal and my companion illegal, I got to spend the whole
day in Capital. They gave us quite a bit of money for lunch, which was really
cool. I spent the day with Elder Hansen (who is in Pacheco, and also came to
Argentina with me), Elder Johnson (who was in Constitución when I was there),
Elder Stout (my companion from the MTC), and Elder Davis (who was in my last
zone for 6 months with me). We went to Caminito, the Boca Futbol Stadium, Once,
el Obelisco, la Casa Rosada, and Puerto Madero. I had already been to all of
those places when I was in Constitución, so I pretty much retook fotos I had
taken 8 months ago. The funnest part was probably just spending the day with
old friends. To go to Caminito and the Boca Futbol Stadium we had to pass
through Constitución, and it was so surreal to be back there and realize that I
still knew the place like the back of my hand. I really love that place.
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| I found Rafael in Capital... didn't even know there was a new ninja turtles movie coming out |
We had interviews with President Ayre this past week. He is
pretty much the best Mission President there is. What a priviledge to be
serving in the world's best mission with the world's best Mission President.
He's from Holiday, Utah, and at the end of my interview he asked me to remind
him where I was from because he thought he heard a little bit of a southern
accent. I told him I was from Kaysville and I have probably just been speaking Spanish too long ha ha. It's really hard to speak english now.
This week we met Marcelina, one of Mabel's friends. Mabel is
so great. She is so happy and wants to share the gospel with everyone. She told
Marcelina she wanted her to go to church and stop smoking and be baptized.
She's awesome. Marcelina is probably the funniest little woman I've ever
met. It is so fun to visit with her. She really wants to learn a lot and be
baptized, and after teaching her the Word of Wisdom, in one day she had gone
down to just 1 cigarette, and the next day she hadn't smoked at all. We asked
her why she was doing it and she said that it is because God doesn't want her
to smoke and she needs to be baptized. She's great. It is so incredible to me
to see the way the Lord guides his work. He led us to Juan who led us to Mabel
who led us to Marcelina. As a companionship we like to laugh that all of this
is a blessing that comes from eating lunch, because we ran into Juan on our way
to a lunch appointment.
I know that this is the work of the Lord.
"Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory
(2 Timothy 2:10)." This is the best work there is. I love it so.
"Que la fuerza les acompañe."
Love,
Elder John William Garrett
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