Monday, November 1, 2010 Halloween in Argentina and Soccer Jerseys!!

All right family, let’s go through the rundown of the week.
Tuesday—We walked a lot and had a lot of appointments fall through. We had a lesson with an inactive member tonight that really made me sad. The knew that she needed to read the Book of Mormon, pray, and go to church to feel better and so her life would function better, but refused to do it. It’s like knowing the medication that you have to take and being too stubborn to take it. I don`t now what she was waiting for but it made me sad and reminded me of a stuck-up child. I really hope she comes around and makes the decisions that are going to bring her happiness in this life.
On Wednesday we had the Argentina census. I was registered as an official head of house in Argentina! It was pretty funny. We had to stay in the pench until about 6:30 at night because we didn`t know when the people who were going to do the census were going to pass by. We passed the time preparing for an activity we had last night (more to come on that!! It was exciting!). We also went to the chapel that night after they let us out of our cage to go clean the chapel. The second counselor in the Branch Presidency here always calls me a “Pecho Frio” a cold chest (kind of like I hard heart or a really cold person I think) because I`m from Utah. So to all you “Pecho Frios” out there, I pass this message along and give my saludos from one Pecho Frio to another.

On Thursday as we were teaching a man named Juan Jose, he mentioned to me a phrase that I will remember for the rest of my life that to me illustrates the importance of baptism, the remission of sins, and repentance. He said, “Every day my backpack feels heavier and heavier.” I know that we all feel like that at times with the problems that life throws at us and our backpack seems to get infinitely heavier and heavier until we can’t carry the load anymore. The Savoir invites us to come to him, for “his yoke is easy and his burden is light.” We take upon ourselves this burden the Lord wants us to carry by getting baptized and living the gospel and really our backpack is emptied out every time we take the sacrament. And that initial emptying the backpack when we are baptized is a step that we will never forget for the rest of our lives and a step that I hope Juan Carlos takes. We need to find him again this week.

We also had a very cool ward Halloween party/asado (what would an Argentine party be without an asado?) We had to leave early when the party was just getting started, but we did get a little bit of meat and some pictures.

On Sunday, this activity that I was telling you about, we had 5 companionships come from our Zone to work in our area. It’s part of an activty our Zone is doing this transfer called around San Juan in 16 days. Each week we are travelling to 2 or 3 different Zones and working in their area for an afternoon. Me and Elder Moriarty (an Elder that was in the MTC with me) got the chance to work together again and we rode around in bikes, saw some beautiful sunsets and saw some miracles as we went and taught.

It was a fun week and i hope this paints a picture of what’s happening here in Argentina. It’s fun here and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, but the time for my mission is winding down and I do want to see all of you again. I do miss home and I miss each and every one of you (especially my family). I want to see them so bad and sit down and play a game with them after eating Sunday dinner while we eat popcorn and find random words in the dictionary or play scrabble or listen to each other speak in foreign languages. (I guess I’ll be able to do that for reals when I get back home J) But I love each of you so much and I’m happy and content to be right here right now. Plus, Christmas is coming up and we’ll get the chance to talk then.

I love you! Have an awesome week! Take care!
Love, Ben

P.S. The photo that is attached is of some kids that came by Friday night trick-or-treating (I had to take a photo). The other photo is of an original Argentina soccer Jersey that I bought. It was 300 pesos, but so worth it.) I also bought that Boca Jersey that my companion is wearing too, an Argentine soccer team. (I kind of went all out this week and am not going to buy any more Jerseys).