Monday, August 2, 2010 "Do you have anything you don't want?" Welcoming the new missionaries!

Hi Family,

It´s looking like it´s going to snow tonight. We´ll see. It was so good to read everyone´s e-mails! Thanks for the e-mails and for letting me know how everyone is doing. I absolutely love reading them! Thanks for sharing so much about what is going on at home. Let me tell you a few stories from this week.

Last Sunday, (I didn´t share this story last week, but oh well) we were walking to a lunch appointment and we saw an old investigator out in front of their house. I didn´t know them, but my companion said we should go over and talk to them. So we started to talk to them and they promised us that they would come to church. None of them came this week, but I won´t lose hope, we´ll pass by them again and see what´s going on.

This week we taught an incredible family of 5. There was a brother-in-law and a sister there I think that didn´t live there but the other three did live there. We proceeded to have a wonderful discussion and they had a lot of questions about Jesus Christ. That is what this new program that the 12 are implementing in every mission is all about. It´s not about teaching a lesson more so about having a discussion guided by the Spirit. They found that lots of missionaries were still just giving rote presentations of the material they learned rather than teaching according to the needs of the people they were teaching. This lesson went really well and we had a few return appointments for this week. With limited time in the field, the lessons we do have become more valuable. We weren´t able to find them again, but we´re going to find them this week and progress with them and see if they´ve read the Book of Mormon.

Work was crazy this week! I shared with Nanna a few experiences that I want her to share with the family, but it´s wonderful and I´m absolutely loving it. Today for example, we went to Subway for lunch to enjoy the Preparation Day and my companion gets a call telling me that President is waiting for me in the offices and is going to be there until 5:00. I had spoken with him earlier that day and needed him to sign some stuff but he left and said we should leave it until tomorrow morning. But I guess he came back and wanted to sign it and meet with me today. Surprise! :) So we took a bus as quick as we could and got to the offices in time to receive some instruction from him and to get his help on a few Pench issues. I love receiving instruction from President. He is like an open book, always teaching, we just need to be ready to learn. It was a fun experience today! I loved it!

Tomorrow we have the missionaries who are finishing their missions going home. They are staying with us in the pench as well as quite a few other missionaries. That means that they are leaving a lot of stuff and I get to play the favorite game "Do you have anything you don´t want." They have a lot they don´t want, so I ended up with a few shirts and some other stuff I think is pretty cool. Anyway, the new missionaries get here on Wenesday and I am so excited to greet them and welcome them to Argentina. It´s going to be so much fun!

Let me tell you a story from my work this week. Have you ever had a landlord call you and tell you randomly that they´re going to increase the rent from 650 to 900 pesos and hang up the phone really quick. Also, have you ever had the opportunity to try to negociate closing a pench when the dueño wants to take as much money away from you as he can before you sign the termination contract? I have had the opportunity to deal with both of these things this week. I love the blessing that my work is and it is giving me experience that I will never forget for the rest of my life. My mission is blessing my life so much!

Anyway, this week I have been learning a lot about obedience and gaining a lot from my personal study. I learned from my new companion Elder Quebbeman from Oregon that I should pray that the Lord can open the eyes of my understanding. This really helps me to see the big picture of things and opens my eyes to the things the Lord wants me to learn. I have been learning that obedience really is a protection and that we should be exactly obedient to be safe. Picture yourself walking on a path that is 5 feet wide with a cliff on either side. If the wind blows or if someone pushes you, you don´t want to be right next to the edge right? You want to be in the middle of the path and ready for the push. That is why complete obedience is so important so that when the trials do come you are not moved off this path and mortally wounded, you can keep on going because you were prepared.

This is my thought for the week. I love all of you with all my heart! Have a good week! Ben