Well, hello! It sounds like a pretty good week all around! (Well, for most. Hope you get better soon, Krista!) As you saw, I`m still in Ituzaingo 2, with a new companion: Elder Monterroso, from Guatemala. It`s shaping up to be a good transfer. Elder Leatham went to... wait for it... Bragado. What!? And my current Zone leader also just came from... Bragado. I have a lot of connections to that area.
I`m really quite pleased and happy as I`m writing today, for a number of reasons. I`ll start at the least important, and work my way up to the good stuff.
I inexplicably woke up this morning with `Minnie the Moocher` playing in my head. (Tee dee hee dee hee, Sir?) (Jeeves and Wooster, for those poor souls not yet P.G. Wodehouse fans.)
Dad, you would be proud of Elder Monterroso and me - we just made some burritos that tasted almost like what you make. The secret was that we used `comino` - I`m not sure what spice that is or how to say it in English, but I smelled it and it smelled like the tacos you make, so I put it in. And oh, what a sumptuous feast! It truly was a fiesta o` flavor. Tacos are the taste of home.
I had a new experience this last week - while my companion and I were having companionship study, a neon spot appeared in my vision, like the afterimage that is left after you look at the sun. It stayed for a little while and then went a way, and a short time later I was hit by a serious headache and nausea. After resting a little bit, I called Dr. Brunt, the mission doctor, and he told me I was having a... migraine! Woo hoo! He told me that it`s nothing very serious, and that there`s some medicine you can take to stop them when you feel them coming. He also told me that most people who get migraines start getting them around mission-age. Lucky me! And apparently migraines are hereditary. Does anyone else in our family get migraines? So... that was fun. It passed after I took some Ibuprofen, and we were able to go out to work.
So, now to the good stuff -
On Wednesday we went to transfer meeting. It was one of the best meetings I`ve ever been to. The testimonies of the missionaries going home, and the video testimonies of the missionaries who`ve already gone, touched me, and I re-committed to put my best into the work. It was a nice meeting also because I was able to briefly reconnect with some old mission friends - Elder Correa, Elder Wing, Elder Hougaard, and others. Good friends. It`s great to see them progressing.
And, I received a new companion: Elder Monterroso! Like I mentioned, he`s from Guatemala. And he`s a stud! He was baptized a little more than 2 years ago. He came on the mission because he loves the Lord, and it shows in everything he does. He`s a very good teacher for the 3 months he has in the field (3 weeks in Argentina), and he teaches with sincerity and love for the people. He`s a good example to me of humility and reliance upon the Lord for blessings. And he works super hard. I always wanted to have a companion like him.
And this change is giving me the chance to find an even better me, to forget about old things that may have been holding me back and to be someone better. And that`s what I`ve been doing. I`ve been working hard, having faith in the Lord and doing the very best I know how. And we saw a lot of miracles this last week.
On the way back to our area just after the transfer meeting, we began talking to driver of the taxi we were in. After a little while the conversation turned to religious things. She told us that she had long ago lost her faith in God because of the bad things that had happened to her. But, she told us, she wished she could find that faith again. In fact, just yesterday she had said a prayer and asked God for some way to believe and to be happy again. We had a very good conversation with her and invited her to know more about the church - she gave us her number and we sent it to the Elders who live in her area. Who knows? Maybe she`ll be the next convert.
We had some very good lessons this last week. One was with L, in which we talked to him and his mom and helped them set goals for their future. She really wants for him to grow up strong in the Gospel, and knows that she must do her part to establish a Gospel-centered home.
We had another, similar lesson with M and her semi-active mom. Her mom began sharing a beautiful testimony with us about how her faith in the Lord had blessed her. As she was talking a question came into my mind, and I asked it: `Sister, you have a beautiful testimony. What of that testimony would you like to transmit to your daughters?` (Not sure if that makes sense in English - it`s ok in Spanish.) She thought about it, and then she spoke to us with conviction about how she wanted to help her daughters have faith in Christ. We were able to help them set a goal to return to church and be an active, gospel-centered family, and for M to be baptized, whereas in other times she hadn`t been as receptive. After the lesson, Elder Monterroso told me that that question had opened her up and changed the tone of the lesson. I knew it had come from the Spirit. God will give us what to say in moments when it`s really important, if we are worthy and looking for His help.
And, some of the best news for last:
During transfer meeting I talked to Elder Merino, who just came from Bragado. He gave me the joyous news that a few weeks ago, M and K (a family whom Andrew was able to teach the gospel, but moved away before they could be baptized) were married and baptized, and are now faithful members of the Bragado branch. I was overjoyed. I`m so happy for them!! It`s great to know that they`ve made it this far, and that they`re on the road to their goal: being sealed in the temple. It`s true - sometimes on the mission, one Elder plants, another Elder cultivates, and a different Elder harvests. I`m okay just as long as they get harvested, no matter who does the harvesting. Elder Merino showed me some beautiful pictures of the wedding and the baptism, which I must later get him to pass to me.
So, I`m good. My joy is pretty full. And it`s great to have such a fantastic family to tell all of this to. I`m looking forward to the time when we can be all together again, at home. Have a fantastic week! Love you all so much.
Elder Stockton
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