Singing Guns N' Roses

Querido familia,          23 de Septiembre 2013

So this week started off with us finding a huge family of people that have yet to baptized. We went to look for a member that had been baptized twenty years ago and hadn't been seen in church for a while, so we went to look for her, Maria Martinez, and ended up finding her with her daughters and grandkids, and sons-in-law. So we talked with the majortiy of them that were there, but it was a kind of tough to teach so many people at once when so many things were happening. But we shared a message about the restoration of the church and afterwards they shared cake with us.

We haven't been able to catch up with all of them since  last Monday, but we've met up with a few of them. We have an appointment with Maria and her youngest daughter, Yamila, tonight. The last time that we talked with Yamila she said that she would bring her boyfriend so that we could teach him too. Her boyfriend was actually in the first lesson we had with the entire family, but he was one of the one's that didn't really get to participate, but he did seem like he had interest in what we were sharing with everyone else who could hear. 

So we went to our weekly district meeting caught an interesting comment in our travels. We were seated at the back of the bus on the second level and as a result we were the last ones to get off. As we stepped down, there was a lady at the front of the line who was talking about us and when I was able to hear her she said, "they're not from the country; they can't understand Castellano," (Castellano is a dialect of Spanish that's spoken in Argentina). In that moment, I wasn't sure if I should have turned around and told her, "ma'am, we perfectly understand and speak your language," and then just keep walking, leaving her standing there embarrassed for having made her unenlightened comment, but I just walked away and ignored her.

In our meeting with the other missionaries though, we were talking about ways to work with the members more and also to get more references from them. I said that a good question to ask would be, "which of your friends do you want to see in heaven?" 

So last week I had said that the marriage that we were planning seemed like it was about to dissolve, but on Tuesday we had the chance to talk to Hugo and Belki and they had resolved their issues, whatever they were, and were planning on continuing with the wedding. So now we are going to go today and send a letter to the court house in another city to request forms that we need for Hugo. 

Getting everything ready for this marriage has been the hardest and most complicated process. A big part of the problem is that the lady at the court house just doesn't want to help us. When we talked to her she just told us to come back when the other lady would be working. But luckily we now have the things that we need and the process should be smooth once we get the forms we're going to request back.

But Belki is really excited for her baptism and is already in Second Nephi in the Book of Mormon for her own personal reading. She has even been trying to help us find some other people to teach. So this last week we started teaching Hugo's younger brother, Carlos, and Hugo's sister, Marta, and Marta's boyfriend, Omar.

The first time that we talked with Carlos, he was kind of hesitant and didn't want to set a baptismal date, but the next day when we talked with his sister, Marta, she had told us that he was really excited to get baptized. So the next time that we talked with him, we put a date for the nineteenth of October.

Omar and Marta are also not married, but we've talked with them a few times and they are already committed to marriage as well as baptism. 

On Wednesday, I had to go to Resistencia to do paperwork for an extension on my visa (it has to be renewed every twelve months). The whole process was actually much shorter than the trip to get there. There was another Elder who also had to go and do his papers and it just so happens that he is the  current companion of my previous companion, Elder Sacalxot. So we went Wednesday night to another city called Saenz Peña and then at four in the morning Elder Muñoz and I went to Resistencia. So now I´m good for one more year with the Argentine government.

That night when we had gotten back from our trip, we went to visit a sister in the branch to give her a blessing because she had caught some kind of cold that wasn't treating her very well. So while we were there, she invited us to stay for hot chocolate and cookies. So while we were there, her two sons, Luis and Jorge, made me sing Sweet Child of Mine by Guns N´ Roses because even though they hear the song in English all the time "it's just so cool to hear someone who speaks English sing in English live."  

os amo,

Elder Burt