It Is Another Very Happy Day in the Mission

4-7-10
¡Buen Día!
Hey everyone! Hows it goin? Sounds like everything is goin great back home. Ari mentioned that its going into spring there, which means that yes, it is about fall here. Its actually quite chilly right now. I'm wearing long sleeves again! Its so much nicer to sleep cold than hot! Anyway, I'm just really glad for cool weather.

Well, I'm back in Holy Faith...crazy huh. I am pretty excited to be here. My comp is elder pratt, a great great great grandson of Parley and an awesome missionary. He really wants to do everything he can and be perfect, so I know he will have success in his mission. Hes commin right along with the language. I took my peruano comp for granted, I forgot what its like to do all the talking...basically. We are both adjusting. The area is called Ciudadela, and has been closed for between 10 and 12 moths due to lazy missionaries and indifferent members. Having not seen a single baptism in about 2 years, they are excited to have missionaries again and are more than ready to help us. We already have all of our lunch appointments for the next two weeks! Any dreams I had about loosing a little bit of weight before coming home have gone out the window. We are in the city, so naturally, the people are not as receptive. I have never been rejected so much in my whole mission, but greater opposition means greater blessings in the end.

So far we are teaching an incomplete family of like a million people. Two of the kids already have baptismal dates for may and the rest are coming along just fine. One couple is getting ready to get married and she asked us if she could get baptised after she gets married. I said no....haha, just kidding, I said absolutely! Her husband is a member, and I don't think he lacks that much to come back to church. He just needs some good friends to support him in his righteous endeavors.

Yesterday we taught a catholic missionary. It went way different than I thought it would. He really just wanted to find out what we really believed and say that he thought what we were doing was really good and that as long as we are all worshiping the same God, we all go to the same place....if only it were that easy. He had some correct theories about why there are so many churches, and when we explained the apostasy he looked like he understood. The only thing we haven't exactly agreed on is the need for authority. He just kind of started talking about other stuff, but its ok because he said that for sure he was going to read the BoM and pray about it, so I`m not really worried about anything.

It is another very happy day in the mission. While revising the weekly newsletter, I saw pictures of a few people I know from old areas. The mom of some kids in cabaña got baptised, Juan Pablo montenegro from paraná baptised someone, maybe even his mom and I saw the name of Oscar Duarte on the list of those baptised last week. That all just made me sooo happy! I think the dad of another guy from paraná got baptised too. His son is on a mission and I was in the area the first time he (the dad) came to church.

So conference was pretty much amazing! I kind of don't want to say it as to avoid offending the womenfolk, but priesthood was definitely my favorite! I kind of felt like a lot of the talks weren't written exactly for missionaries, seeing as they are about raising kids and stuff, but I guess I learned some good stuff. My poor comp didn't understand a word of saturday because we had to watch it all in Spanish. He was kind of jet lagged still, so he got some rest. Conference is different in spanish. I prefer hearing the profets actual voice, but thats just me. If you could, send me the first presidency's talks and that should do for now. I'll probably ask for more as I review my notes. Especially President Ucthdorf and Eyring from priesthood. I'm so grateful for modern revelation. I don't know how all the other churches do with out guidance directly from heaven.

Well, i think thats about everything notable from this week. I hope you are all doing great and enjoying spring.
The church is true, i have no doubt.
I love you all a whole bunch,
ELder Rau