Week 47

Mommy & All,

Greatness, is a lot of small things done well day after day after day..." -Ray Lewis

This week was pretty good. We didnt get to see Raul so it wasnt as exciting and we only saw Adrian for about 3 min so I dont really have an update on him either. 

Wednesday last week, we were just contacting for a bit and knocking doors. The very first door we knocked on a guy named Gabriel opened up and said "Hello Elder how are you guys?" At first of course we were kinda shocked but stuff like this now becomes an old story. There are about 350 members here in Las Heras and only about 25 come to church each week and we know very few less actives. So it happens quite a bit when we contact and it happens to be a member that we don't know haha. But this was a little different. Gabriel opened up and told us to come inside and talk for a bit and he told us his story. He is from Trelew which is the north part of the mission and was baptized up there when he was 14. He said the church pulled him off the streets and saved him and that he was best friends with the Elders up there. He actually served a mini-mission and was super active. Then time passed and he got in trouble with the police and a lot of things happened to him. He said he's repented for everything he did and he had a family. He ended up losing a son (I'm assuming his oldest kid) to a disease when he was 7 years old and he lost all his faith in God. He says he prayed for 4 straight months in the hospital and God didn't save his son. He said the God he who he used to know abandoned him. He told us he is mad at God and didn't believe God could do anything anymore. After this happened he said he tried to go to the church leaders and find help and comfort and they all turned him away because of things in his past and nobody in the church wanted to talk to him. He was so hard and bitter that he told us he was talking to a preacher from another church who was talking about God and how you have to  believe and have faith in God. And Gabriel told us he said "If God brings back my son, then I'll believe again." And the preacher said that's impossible and Gabriel came back and said "You talk of a God who can do the impossible. So show me that's true and only then will I believe." Vega and I were both pretty shocked. He was so low and down. He said his son was his best friend and that he followed Gabriel around everywhere. He then says he just wants to have faith that he will see his son again. So of course we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with him and he told us he'd honestly forgotten that. He then tells us that he knows he son is with God and just wants to see him again. We then asked him about the Book of Mormon and he told us he could never deny the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith and he knew that to be 100% true. After all this he ends up asking if we can find him a Bible and the Book of Mormon with Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, because it had been so long since he had read those. We pulled out the Book of Mormons that we give to investigators and you could just see the memories flooding back to him. He told us that his time in the church was the best time of his life. That he did seminary and how much he knew and used to study the Book of Mormon and all he did in the church. He told us that one day, maybe not in the near future, but one day he wants to come back. He vented all that to us and said he didn't really think it was a coincidence we knocked on his door that day because he was doing especially bad. At the very end he ends up telling us that he has 6 kids still. 3 live with their mom in Trelew and  live with him here. They are 21, 17, and 16 and none of them are members. He tells us he wants us to stop by another day and talk with them too! It was so interesting to see how he went from nothing and in an hour he was asking us for a Book of Mormon and to teach his kids as well. Crazy stuff.

We also have some pretty good investigators in Perito. AnaMaria and her 2 daughters have come to church the last 2 weeks and seem to be pretty interested. They don't talk that much but they are progressing. We also have Hugo who we taught for the first time yesterday. He is the husband of a member and has 3 little kids. Kinda the same situation as Nahuel. He's heard tons from the missionaries before and the church in general since his wife's whole family are members and live here in Las Heras. But when we talked with him yesterday, he said he wants to start from ground zero with everything. So now we all get a fresh start.

Much Love,

Elder Christensen