Dear Mom and Dad,
Sorry my email is so late this week. I hope you weren´t worried. There are only two places we can do internet here and sometimes they aren´t open when we want to go or there aren´t computers open side by side or we run out of time to do email. So every once in a while I might have to email later in the week. Next Monday I´ll do my best to email though.
Things are going great here in Las Heras, as usual. We were a little bit worried and stressed early in the week because we didn´t have anyone with a baptismal date and the transfer is already half over. Our district and zone leaders and even President Benton have been putting on extra pressure too (though they try to do it with love) because the mission goal this transfer is to help 200 people be baptized in the mission during the transfer. The previous record is 198. To reach the goal each area has to baptize 3 people. Poor Hermana Duarte started crying during district meeting because she was worried and stressed about doing our part to reach the goal and help our investigators.
Fortunately, on Wednesday we were able to set baptismal dates with four investigators: Rocío and Brisa, (9,11) sisters who love coming to church and reading the scriptures; Delia (14), the daughter of an inactive member who knows the church is true but worries about going inactive after her baptism, and Rosa, an amazing woman with lots of faith and three baptized but inactive children (she has 6 more that aren´t baptized yet). On Thursday Hermanas Daniels and Scanlon, our roommates, visited two of our investigators for us, both adolescent girls named Soledad (they live next door but aren´t related) and set baptismal dates with them too! We have some other great investigators too that we hope can get baptized next transfer. Hermana Duarte and I are really excited to have so many baptisms planned. Now we are keeping busy trying to help our investigators make it to their baptismal dates-- they need a lot of love and support to keep developing their testimonies and keep coming to church to learn more.
To answer your question, Dad, it´s true. I´ve never had a completely bad week or even a completely bad day. I´ve had hard days, and some weeks are easier than others, but in each day or week there is something (usually a lot of somethings) positive to focus on. When I write home I like to focus on the positive stuff that has happened to me so as not to depress the family or me. The only thing that I consistly struggle with (though struggle might be a strong word) that I don´t write about a lot is the stress of constantly trying to do better. There is always something (or rather many things) that I need to improve-- studying more effectively, going to bed exactly on time, being a more supportive companion, thinking less about myself, teaching better to meet the investigator´s needs, etc, etc., etc.. At times it´s a little overwhelming-- or it could be. But feeling overly guilty or worried just impedes the work, so over and over I conclude that I just have to keep going despite my imperfections. I can torture myself and walk around all day in a fog of self reproach or I can keep trying and choose to hope that my imperfect best effort will make a difference for other people and accomplish good things.
Despite the fact that there is always something to do better, it is encouraging to see the progress I make. This transfer I´ve been trying to work on being more "simpatica"-- basically on being a friendly person that makes other people happy. My gut reaction is to hold back when meeting or greeting people and wait for them to show interest in me before warming up and responding to them-- not the way to win the hearts and confidence of most people, but especially not Argentines. So now when I walk into a room I smile and say people´s names loudly like I´m excited to see them and enthusiastically tell them I missed them in church on Sunday or compliment them or ask them questions about themselves. I have a long way to go, but it´s getting easier and easier and I can tell I´m improving and I notice that it seems to be helping the investigators open up more.
My goal this week is to deepen my focus on the work by trying to think more often of other´s needs before my own-- by serving and helping my investigators in ways that meet their individual needs, by taking on more responsibility to help my companion feel less stress, and by constantly looking for opportunities to serve others in small ways.
Have an amazing week!
Love,
Ellis
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