That´s the song I have stuck in my head today. Alright, I don´t have a lot of time because we have to be back in our apartment to fix our exploding bathroom. I tried to fix it myself, but there´s only so much that we can do when our only tools are a kitchen knife and fork. However, my companion was super surprised that I even knew what to do, let alone had the insight to use a knife to fix a plumbing problem. But it´s okay, it turns out the people who constructed our house messed up in the piping. It´s not that big of a deal, but the good news is that we are getting a new place to live in. It´s an apartment, 5th floor. It´s supposed to be super nice. We´re so cheta. We´ll be moving in about 2 weeks.
So this week has been full of a lot of small but fortifying experiences that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. We didn´t baptize anyone, but we are starting to see some real progress working with the ward. Part of this is because of the temple rededication. We´ve essentially been asked to contact every member (active or not) and give them invitations to give to their friends. So everyone gets the chance to go to the open house. So we´re going to be updating the ward list, see who lives where and who doesn´t live here anymore, we´ll be contacting all the houses of members that have moved, and essentially finding a billion people to teach. My mind kind of explodes at the idea, but with our bicycles, I think we can do it. Now we just have to fix our bicycles. I have volunteered to help create an Excel list of the ward members and then use a program in word that copies and pastes the names into a formatted letter. I remember that there is a way to do it. The trick will be remembering and doing it in spanish, come on spanish-english dictionary! help me out! But the Bishop here nearly started floating when I offered to do it, there are over 300 families, so to write a letter and personalize it for 300 people....? It would be time for the dedication before we even got the invitations out.
So now the ward is starting to understand what we as missionaries do, and they´re helping us out. We received a call today from a member, who while doing her visiting teaching (and that doesn´t happen a ton here, we´re talking very low percentage, I don´t know if that´s normal in the United states, but I have a new found respect for visiting the hermanas of the ward) found 1) an hermana who wants to come back to church and wants her 2 kids to be baptized 2) otra hermana that wants to come back to church but doesn´t feel prepared to do it (she also has baptizable children) and 3) the direction of an Hermana that moved and got married umpteen years ago and therefore probably has children. Plus we had a Centro de Visitantes en la capilla yesterday and a member there told us her daughter wants to come back to church and wants her kids to get baptized. That´s ...hold on..count that up...yeah a potential 4 baptisms in the next month. I would die. In a good way. And that´s what happens when missionaries help the members. MIRACLE BAPTISMS!!! I´ll let you know how it works out.
That´s the most recent and exciting update. Also, this new family that we found did NOT go to church. Super bummed. Even though we left Ward Council early and ran in the early morning to get there and then called and called and called, and potentially knocked on all of their walls and called their names real loud and my companion felt like an idiot and I was just like "look! you´re going to church. Just open the door." Turns out they weren´t even there. Who decides to have their children the saturday night before church? These people I tell you! well, congratulations to the dad he´s a grandpappy again. And now we have to wait another week for their baptism. But other then that they are progressing. They are reading, their prayers are getting better and more sincere. And they at least are happy to see us. That always makes things better.
Another small but fortifying miracle happened on wednesday, we went to go talk to the Bishop for a bit, to update him on our findings and whatnot, and as we were just about to start our meeting a woman walks in the door and starts talking to the secretary "Hi, I used to be a member of Zarate I (ward next door) and we moved here about a year ago. We haven´t been going to church, but we want to start going again. We were wondering what we needed to do to see if the missionaries could stop by our house...." Well lookey there, turn to your left and you will find.....THE MISSIONARIES! Hello, my name is "answered prayer" and God sent me here. Okay, I didn´t actually say that. But i thought it in my head...right now if not in the moment. But we were able to talk to her and later her husband who came in as well. Turns out he used to live in Zarate II and the Bishop knew him. It was a good humbling experience for them, because they came and asked and new that they needed help. And all the people that could help just happened to be in the church at that exact moment. God really does love all of his children. And later the Bishop told us that of all that had happened that day, even if we had had the worst missionary working day ever, vale la pena. Because that was a miracle. Which is good, because i was actually feeling a bit rushed and we were a bit behind schedule going to and from the meeting, but God still uses us when we´re late. So it´s okay.
Alright, last little tid bit and then I´ll be off. Here are some good tongue twisters that I have learned in spanish. They´re called travalenguas in spanish. Good luck:
Pablito clavó un clavito. ¿Cuántos clavitos clavó Pablito?
Tres triste tigres tragaban en un trigal.
Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántos planchas Pancha plancha?
camarelo caramelo
Right....that was some good work there.
Besos and a nice firm handshake
Hermana Reed
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