Happy Thanksgiving!

Buen Dia Familia y Amigos!

I would like to rewish you all a Happy Thanksgiving this week because I have recently learned that I was a little off when I did so last week! It has been a fantastic week down here in Argentina and as always I have very little time to write about my week!

First off, transfer news. Elder Spence and I are both staying in Fiorito, and Elder Spence is our new district leader. We have 2 other elders and 2 hermanas in our district. This week was also our District leader (Elder Mannings) birthday, and the Hermana´s were nice enough to make us all cheesecake to celebrate. :) Pretty much they spoil us. I also had my first experience eating at Pizza Hot (they have the same logo and everything as pizza hut) which is a pizza buffet in our Zone. Pizza in Argentina is pretty different, there are pizzas with lunch meat, and eggs. Pretty interesting but very tasty! Also, cool fact for the week, I found out that the city I am in (Fiorito) is the birthplace of the infamous Maradona (Super famous soccer player turned druggy/coach of the Argentina National Team).

This week we got the opportunity to do some service! This was my second experience doing some Argentine construction (last time we built a wall). This time we met with some other members at the house of an elderly couple in our branch to rebuild their roof. Also we were lucky enough to do it recently after it had rained, so everything was nice and messy. Basically we just replaced the old rusty sheet metal with newer sheet metal that didn’t have any holes. We had a good time and they were impressed how well I could hammer the nails in. ;)

Couple updates on some of our investigators. Jorge Rodriguez came to church again this week which is very awesome! He could be baptized any time now, but he feels very overwhelmed by all the stuff he is learning and doesn’t feel like he knows enough to be baptized. We are continuing to work with him on that, and it’s great that he has such a great desire to learn more. He loves going to church, and we are hoping that he will be baptized soon so he can be ready to baptize his family when they are ready! 2 weeks ago we found a family, La Flia. Ovieda (the dad is actually a very inactive member) that is progressing really well. Their oldest son, Jorge (16) already loves the Book of Mormon and always goes above and beyond the compromisos (commitments?) we give him and has great questions for us. The others read as well, but todavia our goal is to get them to come to church with us! I wish I could tell you more about all the great people we are teaching. There are so many amazing people here and I´m so happy to be staying here another transfer (hopefully to see some of them get baptized!)

Highlight of the week was definitely the conference we got to have with Elder Bednar! It was actually all 3 Buenos Aires missions, so there were about 600 missionaries together. It was also very interesting because there are several sets of twins as well as Boyfriends/Girlfriends that are serving in the other missions, so they all got to see each other briefly (of course under close supervision of the mission presidents). It was also very cool because I got to see all the Elders from my district in the MTC and they all seem to be doing really well! We got to hear from Elder Bednar (he spoke for about 2-3 hours) as well as Elder Snow from the presidency of the 70 i believe, as well as their wives. We heard some great messages and there was an incredible spirit there! Elder Snow shared with us the story of how Called to Serve got in the hymn book, which I hadn’t heard before! We had been studying 2 great talks given by Elder Bednar in preparation for this conference that I highly recommend! Ask in Faith, and Active Learning. A couple of my favorite things that he shared with us: "The same burden seems lighter to stronger people". Also, when we are teaching an investigator and if at the end of the lesson they have no idea what we are talking about, he said "You just wasted a half an hour talking to yourself with an investigator present". Most of what he shared in reference to the 2 talks was about the importance of inviting the investigators to learn by taking action, (and also for us to learn by taking action). It’s a very important principle but also can be difficult to do! For the last hour or 2 we had the opportunity of asking Elder Bednar questions. There were some really good question and it was amazing how he responded to them. It was very apparent that he is very in tune to the promptings of the Spirit and as an Apostle of Jesus Christ he can receive inspiration/revelation and teach in an amazing way. I learned so much and was very grateful as it was an experience I might never have again in my life. The Church is true and we are so blessed to be lead by living prophets and apostles!

Hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving! Thank you all for your letters, prayers and support!

¡Les Quiero Mucho!
Elder Wheelhouse