A very long week has passed for us here in Belgrano. Not necessarily because of things that have happened to us specifically as missionaries, but as to the city of Goya in general. The two things that are the big news around here are the following:
1. There are power and water cuts everyday. And the people are really unhappy. The cuts come without warning, and last a really long time. We went almost all of Tuesday without water or power. We couldn´t take a bath, and didn´t have any way to escape the heat. The people are protesting, and even started breaking the windows of the governor's house. There are threats to begin burning things. But, only threats. The problem is, that Goya isn´t the same size as it was thirty years ago when they installed all of the equipment for water and power. It´s almost doubled in size... and is still using the same stuff. The President of Argentina sent up some giant generators and other stuff from the city of Santa Fe. The good news is we have heard that it's a company run by Mormons. Mormons to the rescue!!!! However, we have also heard that these energy and water shortages are pretty widespread in the provinces that cover our mission, so perhaps other missionaries feel the exact same way – really hot and dirty.
2. The river is growing pretty fast. And... the city of Goya is two meters below the lever of the river. So... if it floods, that´s about how much water we would be having to deal with. The city is in a state of alert. It´s bad enough that in the meeting of the presidencies of the district, we talked about what we would be doing if something happened. Our place of refuge is Bella Vista. Wahoo, disasters!!! I still don't believe anything will happen, but if something does, it will make a really good story coming home. ;)
Those are the topics of interest that have been on my mind lately. My week was also an interesting one in terms of the missionary work. We did have interviews this Friday, and they were interesting. As you realized last week we were a little bit down. A bunch of problems with the members not doing their job, losing baptismal dates and my companion losing his will to work a little bit led to a long sequence of interviews. President gave us the following instructions: forget about the members – if we only worry about them, we will end up exactly like them. He told us all that our most important number is investigators in the chapel. Nothing else matters at the moment. If they don´t go to church, they don´t get baptized. We got revitalized a little bit, and have worked hard since. We found a bunch of people we are going to baptize in February. We have a little bit of hope still for January, but we will see. Oh, and President told me if I wanted I could read the Miracle of Forgiveness. I haven´t decided if I want to yet. He also challenged us to read the Book of Mormon before April. What else... he prayed with all of us, to know if there are really people ready to be baptized in our areas. It was a pretty cool experience. Our topic of training this transfer, in part, are attributes of Christ.
There really isn´t much more to say about this week. We did get a chance to do some service this week, scraping off paint and helping a sister paint in her house. Which gave us the opportunity to teach her husband.... who isn´t a member. He just needs to open up his heart a little bit more and everything will be alright. We found alot of good people to teach this week, and the progress is being made. We just need to keep pressing forward. We are going to focus all of our efforts this week in having the investigators get to the chapel.
This week I did get to give another talk in Sacrament meeting, as well as teach the Bible class again. Teaching more on where the Plan of Salvation is found in the Bible. But, yeah, fun stuff. :) I don´t really have much more for this week. So... until the next!!!!
Love to everyone!!!!
- Matthew
Matt's address has changed because the mission office has moved. A semi-colon indicates a new line.
Mision Argentina Resistencia; Entre Rios 435; Chaco Resistencia 3500; ARGENTINA
No comments:
Post a Comment