Allright, I´m going to try my best to explain just exactly how my first week here in Zarate was. It was an experience that is for sure. And I loved it. Zarate is super rural, a lot of fields, and horses and sheep and dogs, and people. Yeah, there are some people too. The people here are actually really awesome. It´s a ward, and the active people are super active and recognize the importance of their convenants, going to church, giving time to everyone. It is really amazing how much love they have for each other. They are always calling and visiting and while the ward has it´s concerns and problems like any other area, they are all working really hard to help each other make it to the celestial kingdom.
My companion is from Rosario, Argentina, it´s actually about 3 hours from where we are working right now. Hermana Alvarado told me that in the beginning it was kind of hard for her to be so close to her house, but now she´s super focused. Hermana Alvarado is really awesome, she´s super into the work and wants to work hard. she´s a convert of umpteen years. she was super catholic when she was 11 and the missionaries found her and her family. but her father/catholic leader told her to read the book and pray about it like the missionaries were telling her, she did and got her answer. she´s had some family problems and so has acted like the mom of the family for many of her siblings. which makes her responsible. and yet she is super humble and willing to learn. not exactly like i´m the most dominating person you will ever meet in your life, but she respects my opinion and just wants to do things right. which makes it great because that´s what i want too, so we discuss what should be done, how we think the best way to do it is, and she asks for my opinion. also she´s super stoked to have an english companion because she wants to learn english. I´ve never really taught a native english (my first companion native I didn´t really know spanish, and the 2nd wasn´t really into to the whole "learn english" thing).
but it´s great. she has a strong testimony, and while she´s still developing how to share it, you can tell that what she shares is sincere. and she´s learning how to search for the needs of the people. something i know i struggled with a bunch, because yes the church is true, but we all gain our testimonies in different ways, and so you have to teach to the needs of the investigators or they may not recognize their answer. Plus just throwing the doctrines of the church at someone helps no one. Understanding is always the better answer. I´m excited to be with her for 6 weeks. that´s what we all think. I´m going to die here, and i´ll be training my last two transfers. we´ll see what happens.
Anyways, so after my super awesome flight from Rio Grande with Elder Reid (long lost relative we´ve decided) and Elder Leon we have our 1 1/2 road trip to Zarate. We get home and the place is not super clean so we spend our first couple of hours cleaning (I don´t really do the whole, disorganized thing. God is a God of order, and so am I. I feel the Spirit more when I know where my scriptures are). And then after getting food (hunnnger!!) we only had time to meet the Bishop. Who is amazing, and already loves me. I didn´t even do anything. Well, that´s not true. I started talking. Apparently there is this member, currently serving a mission, that I remind him of. The way I talk, my face, pretty much everything about me points to me being distantly related to this Elder. Which is great. I mean, I have a great relationship with the Bishop now. And The Elder comes home in August, so I´ll probably be able to meet him. Anways, so we say the transfer prayer (we have a prayer every transfer with the Bishop so that we can find the people who are ready and have success) and then go home and sleep. <-- Favorite part of that day.
Next day we plan for a billion hours, because there is a ton of stuff to do and getting to know everyone takes time, but it was a good planning session and we have really good plans for the next week. I´m feeling good, and we go out and start teaching the people. We go to our first investigator and talk with her, she hadn´t gone to church on Sunday, so we had to solve that doubt, and we talked to her about obedience and why God asks us to do these things. And we ask her about baptism and she says she´s decided. She knows it´s true and this is what God wants for. She will be baptized the 9th of June. It was an amazing first experience here in Zarate, seeing how my companion works and how we will work together, and I take it as a good sign that we teach so well together so soon.
Thursday, the fun started when we went to go search a reference. Well, no. Back up. First we went to go visit our ward mission leader. Who introduces himself to me and says "Oh, and you´re the hermana Reed" "yup, sure am." I reply, thinking he had read my plack (dead give away). Until he continues "yes, Hermana Reed, and you have a birthday this Saturday." ".........How in the world did you know that?" "Do you happen to know an Hermana Jones?" It looks like my mission mom is still looking out for me. Thanks Hermana Jones! Yes I did have a wonderful birthday, more to come on that. But it made getting to know the members very exciting. Because half of them new me before I got there, and they all knew it was my birthday on Saturday. There are no secrets.
Anyways, we had a good meeting and then left to go find this reference, and we´re looking for about an hour, because this place is huge and not all the streets are on the map, and so we´re searching forever, and we think we´re almost lost but then it turns out that we´re not. We make the contact, set a cita. Man, it was hilarious. Some times the streets are little trails, we were dodging in between weeds and dogs, battling the insects of the field. I felt fully welcomed.
Then we had our district meeting (sorry this e-mail is long because it´s the first week, got to give all the deets. But I know you´re entertained so it´s okay, besides it gets good at the end. Hold on!). I found out that I am the only missionary from the United States/speaks english in my district. This is the first. I´ve always been in the majority. And now I´m the definite minority. But it is cool, I actually coudn´t even tell because I understood everyone on the phone. Usually I can tell when someone is Latino because I don´t understand them very well (maybe I just had bad phones?) But it made me happy to think that my spanish is better. And we all eat lunch together after district meeting because the Elders have to wait an hour anyways for their Collectivo that passes by every hour. That´s how separated our district meetings are.
And then Saturday! Big day! Happy Birthday to me! I know you were all thinking about me (....Jared....). And it was pretty tranquilo. The night before a member calls us and asks us to pass by for his house the next day. It was actually really funny. Because he calls and asks "Hermana Reed? How are you doing?" All in English, so obviously he knows who I am and where I come from because he´s speaking English to me. He tells me that he was just practicing his Spanish, and that he had been talking to Hermana Jones (hmmmmm....) and he wanted to know if we could stop by the next day. Obviously in my head, I´m thinking, hmmm, member, talking with my mission mom, who likes to do nice things for the missionaries. I´m seeing Birthday cake in my head. I was not dissappointed. And it wasn´t awkward like I thought it was going to be. Partly because we arrived late due to a miracle! Last transfer there was this huge storm and Hermana Vargas and Hermana Alvarado took shelter in the house of some random person, started talking to her and never had the chance to go back. We went back saturday night and talked with her a bit, and it turns out that while she respects all religions she has never let anyone enter her house until she spoke with us. And she believes that what we teach is the truth. accepted baptism and a fecha. The Lord really is preparing people to accept the gospel.
Anyways, due to this miracle we showed up late to my own birthday party and we only had time to sing happy birthday once because the hermano had to go to work (for pictures ask Hermana Jones, apparently they will be going up on facebook). But it was awesome because he also made arroz con leche, which I LOVE!!! and the cake was really good too. And then we just ate cake for the last 15 min of the work day while talking with his sister. Good times.
But nothing compares to the adventure I had on Sunday. Sleepover with Hermana Whitehead! Hermana Whitehead is serving in Campana which is in our zone, and so this Sunday I may or may not have been robbed at gun point, losing both sets of keys to our apartment, my spanish scriptures that I´ve had my whole mission, my patriachal blessing (copy not the original, dad could you send me a copy in e-mail and i´ll print it out again? thanks!), my only picture of my family, and various other not very important things (except the card signed by Pte Monson that says I´m a authorized missionary. I am mildly peeved about that). So when I called the President to tell him what had happened he said I could go to Hermana Whiteheads apartment. POVER! It was good. I haven´t seen this woman in 7 1/2 months and I was stoked. It may have been a little ridiculous but I don´t even care. And that´s where I am right now. We called the Livings guy to change our locks (and open our door since we can´t get in) and we´re waiting for him to call us back with the go ahead. Let me tell you, not having my scriptures with me is a really weird feeling. I feel like it´s a foreshadowing of feelings to come. But whatever. P-day in Campana with Hermana Whitehead. I´m happy.
And yeah. So that´s my big adventure in Zarate. Lots of funny stories. Lots of things that happened. But the Lord is blessing us with work and guiding us to the people who are prepared. And I love it all. Sorry, I got distracted, my companion came back with Hermana Binks (we may or may not be doing divisions). So, I lost my train of thought. But yeah. Keep doing good. Sorry my letter isn´t overly spiritual today. Go read the scriptures. They are always spiritual! :)
Love you all,
Hermana Reed
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