"Out Came the Sun and Dried Up all the Rain..."

Dear family and friends,

Sounds like you all enjoyed your Labor day and hopefully some nice weather! A very wet week here in Wilde! Cold, rainy, and windy for 3 or 4 days straight! Not a whole lot of success working in the rain... very few people who even answered their doors, but it was worth it just to know that we were doing what we were supposed to! Supposedly this was the storm that changes the seasons... and we have been enjoying some BEAUTIFUL spring weather these last 2 days. Hopefully it stays nice for a couple weeks before it gets too hot!

Started off the week GREAT finding an awesome new investigator who was a reference from a member in our ward who is VERY missionary oriented! Her name is Sandra and she had been looking for a church to go to these last several weeks when she came in contact with the Hermana. She has been having a lot of problems with the guy she is living with and wants out of the relationship... very common situation here. She has great desires to do what is right but feels she is unworthy to pray. We will keep working with her on that, but is really excited to come to church and to read the Book of Mormon.

Another investigator we are teaching who also happens to be a reference from a member (Melany) is already excited to be baptized. We had a great lesson with her this week talking about the Restoration. We played a little game before starting the lesson to see who would say the opening prayer and she was chosen 3 times in a row... she said she didn’t want to do it and that she didn’t feel comfortable yet, so Hermana Sanchez ended up saying it. At the end of the lesson to everyone’s surprise she asked if she could say the closing prayer! We all knelt down together and she gave one of the best prayers I have ever heard! Very thoughtful and sincere... probably one of my favorite things in the mission, hearing investigators pray out loud for the first time. Very cool to see how the Spirit was able to touch her in such a way that she felt the desire to pray, much better situation than being obligated to pray from a silly game.

Yesterday we had Stake Conference. We left early in the morning to pick up some investigators (the family of Fabian y Agustina) and were surprised that their grandma decided at the last minute to come with us as well! (She is a member but hasn’t been to church in several months.) The messages that were shared I think were especially meaningful for her. Almost all the speakers spoke about the importance of families in the gospel. Elder Foster from the Quorum of the 70 and Area Presidency of the South America South area presided y him and his wife both spoke. For only being in Argentina for 4 weeks they spoke really good Spanish with very little help from the translator. He talked a lot about the importance of the youth of the church and how Satan is trying to win them over at all cost. He talked about the important role parents have in the gospel to teach their children about true principles so that they truly UNDERSTAND.

Yesterday we also had a very interesting experience. During the week we did a contact with a guy named Juan who seemed to have lots of interest in the church... had lots of good questions about the church from things he had heard from other people. He asked if we could pass by Sunday at 2 (very difficult time because we had stake conference that day and our lunch citas usually take FOREVER) but we agreed to the cita. SOMEHOW we were actually able to make it right on time after waiting 30 min for a bus after Stake Conference y having our lunch cita cancel on us... leaving us on our own to throw something together for lunch. We basically ran the 15-20 blocks to his house. He told us he had 45 min and we took extra care to be very respectful of his time limitation. Our lesson couldn’t have gone more perfectly... I felt the Spirit was really guiding us in what we should say and we were teaching together really well. We were able to help him answer his own questions and doubts. At the end of the lesson we offered to leave him the Book of Mormon y invited him to read and pray about it to know if it is true, and to our surprise he turned it down. When we asked if we could say a prayer before we left... he also said no. We left the cita a little confused and talked a lot about how the lesson went. We both felt that we did all that we could and that he just wasn’t prepared at this time to receive the truth. Agency is a great gift that God has given ... but very frustrating sometimes! I can’t even imagine how our Heavenly Father feels to see the choices we make sometimes.

Anyways, that’s all for this week! Looking forward to hearing from you again soon! Amazing how the times flies! Thank you so much for your prayers!

les amo

Elder Ian Wheelhouse