Monday, October 4, 2010

General Conference #3

Dear family and friends,

Another BEAUTIFUL p-day here in Wilde! Last week the nice weather didn´t last too long and had cold/rain for most of the week but cleared up nicely for Conference this weekend! Good to hear from all of you this week! Congratulations on the marathon dad! Also everyone here was pretty excited to hear that you spent some time in Spain. Our 1st counselor in our bishopric has been in Spain/Europe for the last 3 or 4 months (I still don´t even know the guy) and several people here have family that live there! Also just an FYI I did recieve the package this week with 2 pairs of garments, Peanut Butter and Rootbeer concentrate... so if that is everything you sent it all got here safely! (The package was ripped open in transit apparently and "Correo Argentina" shrink wrapped it back together)

Started off the week great last Monday with an awesome Noche de Hogar with the family Romero. Mariana gave a great lesson about facing trials with hope and keeping a positive attitude. Shared a story and bore powerful testimony about losing her first son and how she has been able to overcome the hurt that she felt through much faith and prayer.

Wednesday we set another baptismal date with the kids of a less active family member in our ward for October 16. Sofia (10) y Tomás (8). They are very excited to be baptized and we are hoping that their older brother can work with the bishop and prepare to do those baptisms! We also have an elderly lady we are teaching named Louisa that could be baptized in the next several weeks. She is searching for the "one true church" and wasn´t able to make it to conference this weekend in Avellaneda due to transportation issues, but is very excited to go to church next week here in Wilde!

Conference this weekend was fantastic! I don´t think I have ever enjoyed conference so much as I have here in the mission! The stake was nice enough to set up a TV in a room for the 10 of us "Yankees" so we could watch the conference in English. :) We were all talking about how when we were younger we couldn´t believe how long the conference dragged out... every talk felt like FOREVER! But here in the mission we are always left wanting MORE! There were many fantastic messages shared... a couple of my favorites were the talk by Elder Oaks about our Personal and Priesthood lines of revelation, Pres. Uchtdorfs talk about priorities, Elder Hollands talk about being Helpful, Pres. Monsons message on Gratitude, Elder Bednars talk about recieving the Holy Ghost, Elder Eyering about Trusting in God, and several talks about Agency. Very excited to be able to share some of these messages with investigators and members who for one reason or another weren´t able to make it to the conference... Of course we paid extra special attention to what was said about missionary work and especially the call to all young men to prepare for a mission. A couple of the commentaries of the other missionaries in the room... "all our moms just started crying right now" and "Wow I would sure feel bad if I was sitting at home right now". Hard to believe I will only have 1 more conference here in the mission!

After the Saturday afternoon session (here it finished at 7 pm, we don´t even get to go to the Priesthood session from 9-11) we were headed back to our area to work, and one broken down bus and a 20 block walk later we arrived to an area where several members/contacts lived. During the conference I had names of people going through my head the whole time... I wish I would have written down more of the names as I heard the messages that could be shared with them... but I had especially on my mind 2 families we had done contacts with in the past several weeks. That night we just happened to be close to one of them so we decided to pass by and to our suprise the father (Wenceslau) answered the door and invited us in. Apparentely he never lets ANYONE in his house, even his friends, but he said he knows that we walk all day long and that we were probably very thirsty (which we were) and he had us sit down and drink some water while we had a little chat. He had gone to the Mormon church when he was 17 years old and turns out his Mom was actually baptized 4 years ago. He remembers feeling really good when he went, but for one reason or another stopped going and hasn´t had any contact with the church since. He lives with his wife and kids and it´s very apparent the love he has for them and the desire he has to be the best he can for them. He has some interesting beliefs and believes strongly in San la Muerte (very creepy... grim reaper type character, how he is a Saint is WAAAY beyond my knowledge.) and has 2 giant tattoos on both of his arms. His wife showed up near the end of our visit and we were able to share a bit with them about the importance of prophets in guiding the family (very rushed on time... we got back to the pension VERY LATE) and set a cita for the next (this) week, and through in a last minute invitation for the conference tomorrow. He has some great questions and they both seem very interested in the idea of having a Prophet to guide us.

Well that´s about it for now! Headed off to Alto Avellaneda for lunch at McDonalds and shopping at Walmart. :) I´ll be practicing some piano in the next couple weeks to prepare to accompany the relief society or young women who will be singing in Sacrament meeting on October 17 for Mothers Day. Have a great week!

les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse

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