"The Solution"

Week number 80 in Argentina baby, thats a lot! It was also my first full week with my new chileno companion! His name is Elder Hidalgo, I think I wrote a little bit about him last week, he has 13 months in the mission. I had met him before, his trainer was Elder Jimenez who was my companion before and he came to visit us one time. Being with Elder Hidalgo is a big change from my last comp...Hidalgo really wants to be the best he can be and he wants us to be examples for the zone. I was really happy when he said that, and we have been working a lot this whole week. We basically had no investigators when he got here, but we have found a ton of good people this week and we are super excited for them! 

An interesting thing happened on wednesday while we were visiting a member that has been inactive for about 3 years.  Before he went inactive he said he frequently received a ton of revelations and visions and stuff, for example that he had a vision that his first wife would die, and also saw the woman who would be his wife afterwards, and they both came true, he also said he has seen Jesus multiple times and has received revelation for the ward. He read a copy of his revelation for the ward to us, which talked about some problems the ward has and names specific people, and also has a solution at the end of it. He gave us the copy of his revelation afterwards. I don't doubt his revelations or anything, I think that all things are possible, but the one thing I thought was interesting was the solution that was at the end of his revelation.

It was the scripture Mosiah 2:41 And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

To me that seems like an obvious solution to all of lifes problems..if we are keeping the commandments we will be blessed, we will have peace of mind and we will be happy. We will be able to handle the problems of life more easily because we can see the big picture of Gods plan. 

I explained this to the member who had shared with us his "revelation" and read this scripture with him. Alma 5:26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

He had told us that he had had many spiritual experiances, but for the past 3 years he has been sad. His wife goes to church alone every week and she is sad too. I said "if you dont feel the same joy you used to feel in the church and in your life, what do you think you need to change to get that feeling back? You already know the solution..."

The scripture made a big impact on him. I invited him to come to church this sunday to be able to keep the commandments, the "solution" and he said yes. His wife was crying and she was really happy and it was a really good experience. He came to church on sunday and I was really happy to see him. I hope I personally can always remember "the solution" throughout my life because Ive seen it so many times in my mission in other people, and in myself, and I know its true. 

We had our first district meeting of the transfer this week. We met the 2 new sister missionaries in the zone, one is from Costa Rica, the other from California. I feel bad for her because she doesn't speak spanish and I remember how hard it was in the beginning. She is motivated though, we tried to talk to her in English and she said she wanted to practice Spanish! 

The 9th of July was independence day in Argentina. They didnt even do anything special to celebrate! Maybe in the big cities they did, but where Im at they didnt even shoot off fireworks or anything. They eat some traditional foods and stuff but I guess Im just used to fireworks. Looking forward to the 4th of July in America next year! 

So much other stuff has happened but Im out of time...mostly just a lot of good lessons and walking and stuff. Hopefully the scriptures I shared was a good enough spiritual message for this week. The pictures are of us in an ice cream store saying goodbye to the missionaries who got transfered, the elder who is with me in the picture is from new zealand. The other picure is from the district meeting with some of the new missionaries, not all of them were there though.

Love you all, have a good week! ​​​​