A Dramatic Week

Dear Family,

Last week was a very dramatic week in Hurlingham.
Exhibit one: Investigators with baptismal dates per day and their dates of baptism:
Mon: 1 (Mariana, 14/8)
Tu: 3 (Mariana 14/8, Pamela and Teresa 28/8)
Wed: 7 (Mariana and Dahiana and Ramona 14/8, Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Thurs: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Fri: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Sat: 4 (Pamela and Teresa 28/8, Graciela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)
Sun: 2 (Pamela 28/8, Gaston 4/9)

Exhibit two: Visits of elders to our area to have baptismal interviews with Mariana, Dahiana, and Ramona
Tu: Elder Quackenbush (zone leader) and Elder Cerda (my district leader)
Wed: Elder Gutierrez (zone leader) and Elder Steele (district leader of the other district)
Thurs: Elder Gutierrez and Elder Quackenbush

Exhibit three: pesos in coins spent taking the bus
almost 60 pesos

Exhibit four: pesos spent on taxis
about 111 pesos

Exhibit five: minutes left on our cell phone that have to last us until the 23 of the month, minutes we need to confirm lunches (so the Relief Society doesn't chop our heads off) and appointments with investigators and communicate with the bishop
0, yes, zero

Anecdote A: Our ward mission leader was released (i.e. stolen by the Young Men{s presidency) and the Bishop hasn't replaced him yet.

Here are some of the details:
Ramona and Dahiana decided on Wednesday that they wanted to be baptized with Mariana, but by Thursday they had spoken to their uncle and their father, who were both very against their baptism, and only Mariana wanted to be baptized still, and even she was unsure. We talked to Miriam, their mom, who was also freaked out about the family opposition and said she wasn't going to be able to take her daughters to two different churches every Sunday. Then she told us her daughters told her that we were obligating them to be baptized-- something they had never said to our faces. That really hurt because we were trying really hard to help them and had spent substantial time talking about the importance of receiving their own testimonies. We went back the next day with a really inspired lesson plan to help Miriam and her daughters recognize the Spirit, but Miriam got up before the lesson was over and said she had to leave to pick up Mariana from school-- we felt like she was relieved to leave and didn't really want to feel the Spirit. So Mariana didn't get baptized, and she and her family didn't make it to church either. It was discouraging.

But, Hermana Navarro and I are still really happy and excited because we get to have one more transfer together. We prayed a lot that I wouldn't be transferred (even though I've spent 6 months here), because we have some really neat investigators and we work really well together. I know we are going to see more miracles together this transfer and see baptisms too!

We are also happy and excited for our two investigators with baptismal dates: Gaston and Pamela. Pamela (16 years old) keeps having dreams about listening to us teach or going to church and has cautiously decided that those dreams were her answer that the church is true. She loves coming to church and mutual and receiving the lessons. She even invited a friend to mutual her second time going and tried to explain the Book of Mormon to an evangelical friend who believed only in the Bible! She is fantastic! Her sister Teresa (18) had a baptism date too, but it fell through because she didn't come to church. We will keep working with her though. This week we want to try to teach Pamela{s mother and little brother too, and maybe even her dad!

Gaston is the brother of a recent convert in the ward, Seba Sires. He came to church for the second time yesterday. When we went to teach him for the first time on Wednesday with the help of Seba, he told us he feels upset and depressed and wants to change his life. We told him baptism was the way to do that and he accepted a baptismal date! Gaston is really already converted-- he has already had a complete change of heart, he just has to do the grunt work of repenting. He has a lot of, actually all of the Word of Wisdom problems, but he has already started trying to quit, and in every lesson he impresses us with his desire to read the Book of Mormon, do more service for others, and repent.

Despite the disappointment of Mariana's baptism falling through, Sunday was an excellent day! I reached perfection in the banana bread I made for the investigators, and we found out that I GET ONE MORE TRANSFER IN HURLINGHAM!!! We went to Morris (the next train station, the poorer half of our area) to pick up Pamela and on the way stopped by to wake up Gaston and his brother Seba. We expected them to come to the door in PJs, but they were already almost ready! We awarded them slices of banana bread as a reward. We were still early, so we went to look for Celeste and Elvira (my converts!) and it was a good thing too, because their alarm hadn't gone off! We let them eat banana bread anyway. They were thrilled to see us and Elvira shouted to Celeste "Wake up, Cele, the hermanas came to take us to church!" I guess they miss the personal attention they got when they were investigators. They brought Ludmila, Celeste{s darling toddler with them too. We went to get Pamela and then went to church with her and Elvira, Celeste, and Ludmila in the bus. I was so happy to be there with my converts and my investigators! And when we got to church, Evelyn (most recent convert) was there too! Evelyn's family hadn't been bringing her and Celeste was missing church because of work (she got up the guts to quit this week) and Elvira had missed a couple of weeks because of family visits and losing her roof to a freak storm (forgot to write about that) so it was the first time that all three of my converts were in church together! I was so happy! And seeing Gaston sit with Celeste and hold Ludmila, who was sleeping, was very touching.

Well, I'm super out of time as usual. A couple requests: please send me Ben's emails, because I have no idea how his first week went! And, the next time you send me a package, can you send pantyhose? The regular kind, not the make you look skinny kind or the super dark colored ones. I started wearing them again because it is cold, but now they all have holes. And yes, pantyhose exist here too, but the sensual photos of women's legs that are always on the packaging in the US are downright pornographic here in Argentina and my inner-feminist wouldn't let me buy any. Ok, now I'm really out of time.

I hope you are not heartbreakingly lonely with just the five of you rattling around in the house. Thank you for your support and emails.

Love,
Ellis