Ethan's Ten Percent in Argentina: ......So We Knelt Down and Prayed.

This was a pretty good week we had a baptism that we weren't expecting!

On Wednesday we had our district meeting in las varillas. Its that place that's 4 hrs away in bus, but our bishop had to go there for work so we went with him in his car for free! Another benefit of going in car is that you can take this dirt road that cuts off 3 hours of travel. Nice! The district meeting was good, we cooked lunch there in the house chapel that they have. After the meeting the sister missionaries had an appointment but they sent us go visit this Lady Vanessa that I knew from before. We were supposed to teach her a lesson but we got there and she was super stressed with a lot to do so we just ended up doing service there. I washed a huge mountain of dishes, I felt like I was back at Haru again haha. She made us a banana milkshake after so it was worth it.

On Thursday we had our weekly planning in the morning...its supposed to be 3 hours long, not my favorite. After that we ate lunch with this family varela. The parents are both return missionaries from Columbia, they actually met in the mission. But I've been here for 4 months now, and we eat with them every single week. And every single time they give us noodles. I don't care haha its fine but my comp is getting mad about eating noodles all the time he didn't even finish his one plate. He wants to cancel lunch with them he says haha. After that we visited the recent convert Nancy...I'm super happy for her, she's changed so much in the past 2 months. She used to have depression and sleep till 3 pm everyday but she's a completely new person. She told us about how ever since she's been baptized and confirmed she has a little voice that tells her to wake up and get out of bed in the mornings and read scriptures. And she laughs now, and she goes outside, and she wants to bring her kids to church with her. Its amazing how much she's changed.

On Friday my comp decided he wants to go visit a doctor for his back. We went to 5 different places but there wasn't a single doctor available. I don't know what we would do if one of us was actually seriously sick here, because there are no doctors. I suppose we would just die. Haha After that we tried to visit Asusena. She wasn't home but we met her 13 year old daughter who might be pregnant. Her boyfriend is 20. She's a nice girl but the world must be pretty messed up because her mom is acting like its totally normal and is apparently okay with it. After that, a sister from the ward asked us to go to the church to help set up for a dance that night. So we did that and it took forever but it was good. There was this crazy kid named Franco there who wouldn't stop popping all the balloons, he's really something. His mom kept yelling at him but he wouldn't stop and he was hitting babies in the face with balloons too, so me and my comp used black trash bags to tie his hands and feet together so he couldn't escape, and we put him in a room and shut the door. Its okay his mom thought it was funny. Later that night we taught that girl milagros Ortega a lot of stuff in one lesson...the law chastity, tithing, and the word of wisdom. She accepts all of it and wants to follow it, but she knows it will be hard. However, she agreed to have a baptismal interview on Saturday.

Saturday morning the zone leaders came to our area to do the baptismal interview for milagros. While they were here, they asked me if we had anyone else who has enough church attendance's to be baptized. We've been teaching Valeria, the lady with 7 kids for a long time and she has come to church 4 times. However she hasn't been ready yet. But the zone leader, elder Stewart had me take him to her house and he said that a miracle would happen. She was kind of reluctant to have an "interview", but she trusts me a lot, I've been going to her house every week for 4 months. So I kinda convinced her to do it, and waited for the miracle to happen. When she came out of the interview, she said she wanted to get baptized that very day! Haha I did not wake up that day expecting to have a baptism. Luckily there was already a baptism scheduled for that day, for a girl who turned 8 years old. So everything was all set up for 2 baptisms at 4 pm. Milagros Ortega also passed her interview, kind of haha. She needs to talk to our mission president before she can get baptized.

So anyway, me and my companion went to the church at 2 to fill the font with hot water. It usually takes about 2 hrs to fill. It worked fine for about 15 mins, and then suddenly stopped. In fact, all the water in the church stopped working. Something like this happens literally every single time and I can't tell you how much of a testimony it is that the church is true, because the adversary tries so so hard to stop the baptisms. My comp and I didn't know what to do, so we knelt down and prayed. After the prayer I immediately remembered a story I heard, I don't know when or where, but the story was about a man, a member of the church, who was traveling alone at night in Africa, on his motorcycle. Obviously a little dangerous, and his motorcycle stopped working. Nothing he did made it work, until he started singing a hymn. And it continued to work as long as he was singing, and if he stopped singing, it stopped working. The songs of the righteous are a prayer to the Lord! I remembered also that sometimes the spirit helps us to remember things at exactly the right moment. So I took that to be my hint that God wanted me to go play hymns on the piano. So I went and played, and prayed while I played, and maybe I'm crazy but it worked somehow. Soon after I started playing bishop showed up and started working on the water, and I kept playing while he worked on it and somehow he got it to work. I have no idea what he did but I know it was Gods will that those 2 baptisms went through on Saturday because the font normally fills in 2 hours minimum, but it filled in less than an hour that day. And although the water ended up being freezing cold, those 2 people were able to be baptized and confirmed. The little girl who turned 8 (Luz) asked me to do her confirmation so that was quite the honor.

On Sunday I had to give a talk. It was the first time I've given a talk in Spanish where I know the people have actually understood everything and that it had made an impact. I shared a part from the book called "The Miracle of Forgiveness", and afterwards everyone was talking about it and asking me if they could borrow the book. The part I shared in English is a lot stronger than it was in Spanish, but I'm going to copy and paste it here sorry if its too much haha:

"What must I do to be damned? Nothing. That's all. You're damned condemned if you just sit still. That is the law of this physical world. If you sit still long enough you'll never get up again. If you never lift your arm, you'll soon be unable to raise it at all. If you remain in darkness and never use your eyes, you'll soon become blind. It is the law in the mental world. If you never exercise your brain never read, study, nor talk to anyone, never permit anyone to talk to you your mind will became blank maybe you'll become insane. The most horrible punishment that could be inflicted upon you is not twenty years of hard labor, but twenty years of solitary confinement. It's the law in the spiritual world. Simply shut your heart to all truth, and after a while you won't be able to believe anything-that is the severest penally for not accepting truth. The process of disintegration and death begins when a man shuts himself out from the forces that make for life. The body and mind and spirit are kept alive through constant constructive use."

My point was, that we need to go to church. If you just stay in your house on Sunday mornings and make excuses not to go to church, that's not okay. The scriptures explain that the sacrament is very important and that we are commanded to always go to church. Obviously we are going to be sick sometimes, or have to travel occasionally but we need to be doing everything we can to try and go to church every week.

Im going to end this email with a scripture about the power of prayer. Mormon 8: 24 "And he knoweth their prayers, that they were in behalf of their brethren. And he knoweth their faith, for in his name could they remove mountains; and in his name could they cause the earth to shake; and by the power of his word did they cause prisons to tumble to the earth; yea, even the fiery furnace could not harm them, neither wild beasts nor poisonous serpents, because of the power of his word."

Sincere prayers of faith can "move mountains". I know that it was Gods will that those two people were baptized on Saturday, and I know that he answered my prayer. I know that he will continue to do so. Whenever you have a problem always try to remember to pray. I know that God hears our prayers and that he answers them in his own way. God knows best and I promise everything will workout somehow. Everything will be okay.

I love you all and I hope all is well!

Love, Elder Christensen