Week 2 In Argentina {Week 7}

Well, wow days are flying!!!  I don’t have much time again.. haha and the computer that I’m using is soooooooo slow, so I might not be able to send pictures… I’m sorry!!

This week was great!  I’ll tell you about an investigator that we have.. So we clapped this door (you clap, not knock cuz there is fences around everyone’s house) and this lady came out named Micalea.  She let us in and we started teaching her.  Her mom was also there and she was super anti!  Like hard core atheist.  She just kept interrupting our lessons by challenging our beliefs.. and they were dumb questions too, like the first one was,”How do you know Joseph Smith even existed?” haha.  We were like well... he has a grave with a head stone.. like he was a real person haha.  But anyways she was just sucking the Spirit out of the room and the lesson.  We came back 2 days later and she was there again.  Oh and I forgot to say we called her Satan lady haha.  But anyways we walked in and we were like, "Oh great!”  But we started teaching and she started to actually listen.  We thought that it was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT person!!  My companion asked her if she had a twin.  Like she was actually interested!  We had a great lesson!  Then we came back for a thrid lesson and Micalea had to get ready for work so we just taught her mom.  She was like the best investigator!  The Spirit was so strong and she had such a desire to learn and to know!!!  Like her heart was softened within 3 times of visiting with her!! I’m super excited for her!  She went from being Satan lady to one of our top investigators!  It’s a huge testimony that anyone can change and God can soften peoples hearts.

We had a lot of stuggles this week!  Our bikes broke down a bunch so we took them to get fixed, paid 800 pesos and the next day they broke again!!!!  We had a rough day of trying to figure out our bike situation and get to our appointments on time because our area is huge!!  But they got fixed again so I hope all is well now!

The members here are so awesome!!  I love them so much!!  And the food is super good!!  Except here in Argentina they dont have flavor!!  Everything is soooooo blanddddd!!  Even salt.  Like in the scripture that talks about the salt that loses it’s savor.  Yep! That’s the salt here! 

The hardest thing about this is Spanish!!!  It's super frustrating not to be able to talk... I feel like I'm sloooooowwwly progressing...

We see miracles everday.  This week was probably the hardest week for me since I left and I felt like I wasn’t even making a difference.  I felt like I wasn’t helping anyone.  Mostly because I can’t speak or understand, so I can’t share my feelings with our investigators.  Then I was sitting in church and I remembered why I came here.  I remembered my favorite scripture, “ The worth of souls is great in the sight of God."  I knew that my efforts may produce small results but I knew that no matter if my whole mission I could only help one soul, that all would be well because I know that EVERY soul is GREAT in the sight of God!! 

Something that I’ve learned is that we need to be relying upon the Savior DAILY!!  There are 3 things that if we will do them we are promised blessings.  We call it OLA, orar leer y ir a la iglesia.  Pray, Read and Go to Church!   When we do theses things we can be fortified and strengthened to meet any challenge we may face!!! 

Well I have so much more to say but I don’t have time!!!  Sorry!  Love you!  I hope the pictures will work, if not sorry!

Questions:

1.  Did you get your visa?  I got a tourist visa right now,  but I have to go to the capital in the next couple of weeks to get my regular one…

2.  What is your typical day like?  So we wake up, exercise, eat, get ready, one hour of personal study, one hour of comp study, one hour of 12 weeks (which is like training), one hour of language, then we go and have l lunch at a member’s house, then we go out proselyting until 9, which we always have visits, so we are just teaching basically, then we come home and do it again.

3.  Does this area make you nervous at all? Are you liking your companion? Is he obedient? No it’s like the safest in the mission.  But we ride our bikes on the scary street and I feel like I’m gonna die every time haha.    There are crazy drivers here and we are on bikes haha.  Yes and Yes,

4.  What do you cook for breakfast and dinner? Do you meet in a church house then? Are there very many members?  I STARVE!  rice and ramen.. hahaaha I need simple recipes because they don’t have American food  and I don’t know what to make!!  In a meeting house, you can look it up on lds.org.  It’s Castelar stake, Parque Leloir ward.  There’s a lot of members.

5.  So do you ride a bike all the time? Yes if they aren’t broken.

6.  What do you eat most of the time? Are you liking the food?   Meat!!!  I haven’t gotten anything I didn’t like yet, but nothing has flavor!!!  Oh and I’m nervous because guess what? Their favorite thing to put on anything  IS!!???  MAYO!! haha

7.  What is your Sabbath day like?  Church starts at 9 and we have priesthood, then we go to the inv. class (basic doctrines), then sacrament last.. 

8.  What has been one of your happiest moments this week? I was struggling this week a lot, but on Sunday I felt the Spirit really strong and I remembered why I came here.   “The worth of souls is great in the sight of  God."  I just started bawling because this whole time I felt like I wasn’t doing anything, but I realized as I looked around and we had 6 investigators in church that I was making a difference.  Even if it was only one  soul my whole mission.

9.  What’s the hardest thing you have done this week?  SPANISH!!!! ITS SO DIFFICULT!!!!!!

Till next week

Sorry the pics didn’t work!

      Love you

 Elder Cook

Here is the mission home address if you would like to send Elder Cook a letter:

Elder Hunter Wayne Cook

Argentina Buenos Aires West Mission

C.C. No. 92

1702 Ciudadela

Buenos Aires

Argentina