May is gone!

Dear family and friends,

Wow I can´t believe May has already come and gone. I think the colder weather is finally here to stay for the winter! I can´t believe you are still getting snow back home! It was good to hear that everyone finished up school and sounds like everyone had a pretty good finish! (Any news back yet on that scholorship Kristen?) Únfortunately I can´t send any "fotos de la semana" this week because the computer I am on won´t let me download my pictures.

It´s been another slower week here in Santa Teresita, but we had some good things that happened. Best of all we were able to set 2 new baptismal dates with a great couple we found the first week of the transfer (Ramon y Rosa). Really a testimony to me of the importance of talking to everyone. If we hadn´t talked to him at the bus stop we might never have found them! Also their 33 year old son showed up at their house right as we were about to invite them to be baptized. It was a little awkward at first but by the end of the lesson he actually seemed really interested (he asked if he could come to church) and we are hoping to start teaching him and his family soon. We are doing our best to talk to everyone but we are having a hard time getting into houses to teach which is pretty frustrating. Doing contacts it seems like no one wants to talk to us and the people we do set citas with are never home when we go back. However, we were able to find José after 2-3 weeks of not hearing anything from him and he still has the desires to be baptized and came to church this Sunday. He is the only one of our investigators who would be able to be baptized for our Sabado Blanco on June 12 so we´re hoping to help him work towards that goal.

Also this week we had the all-to-rare occurance of getting a ride from a complete stranger. (Not to rare for Elder McClurg, apparently in the Provo Mission the few missionaries that don´t have cars can PLAN on recieving rides wherever they need to go) We were walking down a street one cold afternoon and a younger couple pulled up to us in a newer Peugot 206 SW and asked where we were going. We told them the direction of the church and they told us they were headed that way and offered us a ride. We got in the back seat sitting on both sides of their 5 year old daughter (probably scared the poor girl to death). We had a good time talking with them and were able to share a brief message with them and leave them a folleto before we got out of the car. Didn´t seem REALLY interested, and apparently they aren´t home much, but hopefully we will run into them again and have another opportunity to talk. We were both grateful that even amidst all the people that slam their doors in our faces, it was nice to see someone who went out of their way to help us out.

Wednesday was our last Zone Conference/Interviews with Pres. Asay. We talked a lot about the importance of getting GOOD references as the focus for this transfer is Ch. 9 out of preach my gospel which talks about Finding People to Teach. Also, Pres. y Hna. Asay spent the last hour or so answering any questions we could come up with and shared some great stories/doctrinal insights. They shared the story of how they were called to preside in the Buenos Aires South mission by Pres. Faust, who at the time was going down hill health wise, after having been told by Elder Scott that they would most likely be called to the Montevideo Uruguay mission. Pres. Asay also shared something that was very meaningful for me right now in the mission. He said "Our abilities and talents aren´t as important to the Lord as our obedience. If the Lord wanted to he could send 5 year olds to preach the gospel and give them all the talent and abilities they would need to do so, but he calls us instead to test our obedience." Hna. Asay shared one of the greatest difficulties she had in coming to Argentina on a mission was the necesity to step outside her comfort zone in leaving her family and coming to a country where she couldn´t speak the language. She told us that leaving our comfort zone behind gives us a special opportunity to rely on the Lord and to feel him strengthen us in our needs.

Anyways, lots more I could share but no time to do so! I hope you all have a fantastic first week of summer!

Les amo,

Elder Ian Wheelhouse