FW: A very "HOT y COLD" week

Dear family y friends,

Wow, already half way through March. Things are FINALLY starting to cool down here yesterday y today, but the last week was very hot y humid! Crazy how the seasons change here... but we´ll see if the cooler weather lasts or if we still have a couple hot days ahead. It was great hearing from several more of you this week and I am hoping to be able to write you all back so I´m going to try to keep this short.
Started off the week with a great Pday. We invited the other Elders in our district over to our pension to do an Asado (BBQ) y it turned out really well. None of us really knew what we were doing... but there we were with 4kg ($150) of meat (chorizo, vacio, tapa de asado, cosquillas), a 5kg bag of charcoal and a parilla and all we had to do was find someway to get the meat cooked. I got the fire started to heat up the coals y we left the Argentines in charge of cooking the meat. It only took 30 seconds leaving the meat unattended as we were all inside for the meat to catch fire, y if the neighbors hadn´t walked in right then we might not have even been able to save it. (We heard them all upstairs laughing afterwards...) Other than that everything turned out really tasty and we had a good time talking y even had some time to play some Uno afterwards.

Thank you for the late warning on being careful what I eat mom! :P Apparently something must have not gotten cooked enough Monday, because I spent Tuesday y Wednesday very sick in the pension. (somehow all the other elders were just fine) Luckily I was able to at least leave in the afternoon to go to the church for lessons with Darío finishing up the lessons to prepare him for his baptism. He listens y understands everything so well and was very well prepared y excited to get baptised! He suprised us with his understanding y testimony of the Restoration y Joseph Smith since it had been several weeks since we had taught it, but as we were talking about the commandments he went off about how "everybody has there own way of interpreting and living the commandments and thats why it was so important that God called a prophet in these last days to help us know the way HE wants us to do things to prepare us to be able to return to live with him." He also talked about how he wants to serve a mission... and he asked us if he would have an opportunity to share his testimony after his baptism. We were both shocked, but of course very happy y excited to see that he had so many desires to continue learning and share what he had found with other people. Friday we had the interview which he passed y he asked me to baptize him.

Saturday we had the baptism y everything actually turned out PERFECT. We actually had the baptism in the morning, which was a first for me, so we had to be there extra early (7 am) to start filling up the font. Taking pictures before the service was pretty cool. It was a pretty overcast day but as we were taking a pic with the fam the clouds parted and the sun shone through on the 3 of us standing. My comp leaned over to Darío y said "looks like God wants to say hello". My comp conducted the meeting, I played the piano, 2 of Daríos sisters gave talks, the Bishop y his wife gave a welcome to the ward, and Darío had his moment to share his testimony. He shared his story about how he found the church through his family, his testimony of the restoration, his desires to always stay faithful, and said everyday he finds something new that he loves about the church. That morning y afternoon there was also an Institute activity there in the church, so it was great for him to have some new friends there for his baptism, y he ended up staying all afternoon playing ping pong, fooseball, eating food, y for the dance that evening.

Sunday was his confirmation y Darío got there even before we did to have an interview with the Bishop to prepare him to be ordained a Priest next week. We were also suprised to have Pres. Stapley show up to our ward, so it was very cool for him to be there and talk a little bit with him. The talks were perfect as well talking about missionary work y one of the hermanos shared his story about how he found the church when he was 23 years old (same age as Darío) y how he prepared y served a mission in Córdoba. Presidente y Hermana Stapley also shared their testimonies y put in a good word of us about how the members need to give us more people to teach y baptize! That afternoon apparently it was my companions turn to get sick and he spent the afternoon y a good part of the night throwing up in the pension.
Anyways, thats it for now! I love you all! Hope you have a fantastic week.

les amo
Elder Ian Wheelhouse