Well our month in May wasnt too shabby with success for our mission. We had the month of Baptisms and Confirmations since september of 2009. There has been many miracles in Buenos Aires and we are growing in spirit and unity as a mission. We are so blessed to have a President who is so very intuned with the spirit and revelation. His charity for us as His missionaries and for the Savior and this work keeps growing and we are all in this service together one foot in front of the other, helping families all over Buenos Aires who are in need. We are just beginning. Our goal for this month far exceeds last month and we have such exceeding faith to accomplish what the Lord expects of us. Recieving revelation from him in prayer and acting promptly in faith. As much as we love our investigators we are teaching, they are not OUR children, they are the children of our Father In Heaven and only He knows whats best to do. He is our guide so long as we remain humble. We are working so much with the members in our ward. We are praying to know which member of the church we need to bring to which lesson for a person that has specific needs that this member can relate to. This is the key to helping these people. We are remembering the importance of obedience to time and how to use it wisely. We are not perfect and since we know this clearly we are striving to repent more consistantly. Personally and as a companionship to be spiritually pure and to be better instruments in the hands of the Lord. We have been listening to our investigators with more love and concern for their needs and its been an eye opener. We are caring for all the recent converts and teaching them all the lessons after baptism to help them to remain strong in their faith and remember their covenants they made at baptism. In the letter of President last week we read these words... " Like Nephi, we dont return to the tent of our Father without the plates!" We apply our problems and difficulties to those in the scriptures to see what it is Heavenly Father wants us to learn and go and do. We are growing to a maturity in our spirituality and purpose. We are mindful of our Bishop and seek to serve him and his family. We had the opportunity of fasting for his father this last fast Sunday and it was a joy for us.
As for other things we experienced this week, we were eating lunch at mcdonalds (delicacy here jaja) and this lady comes up to each person asking for money and as im blessing my food she yells louder at me to give her money, I finish my prayer and calmly look at her and she shoves her hands in my fries and shovels them in her mouth as she harassed us. At this point I know exactly what to do, for I have had experience with two disturbed girls asking for money before, I pointed to my plaque and explained we are missionaries of Jesus Christ, sent here to help people. She apologized and left haha. Gotta love the people of Buenos Aires. Box of chocolates for sure. You never know what you are going to get.
Guess how the progress is with Sergio... EXCELLENT! He worked up the courage to walk up and bear testimony in front of all of our ward and we were two VERY PROUD missionaries in the third row! He wants to serve a mission! talk about a miracle! no wonder Satan worked so hard on him before his confirmation! We have experienced some of the most spiritual lessons ive ever had this week. I couldnt believe the peace we felt as we taught. we are improving and we want to keep it that way. Pablo is our new investigator and progressing at a very rapid rate. We make sure to pick him up for church on Sundays and he participates in all the classes and is learning so much. he already has a testimony. We will baptize him this Sunday after conference and before the farewell of all the missionaries that are going home! (HERMANA ROMO my girl) I will miss her. So we have a lot of hope and a packed week. PRAY FOR PABLO!
There are several tender mercies we have had and protection also. For example, There was a guy on a motorcycle and he decides to pop a wheelie and ride it across the intersection (this is not the place and he was not the most professional) we almost walked down the way he was headed... luckily we felt we shouldnt... in my mind I said, oh no hes going to wreck... sure enough his butt skid down the street and the pretty black motorcycle spun out of control crashing on the street and flipping onto the sidewalk... i hoped he was alive... he stands up and limps to his broken motorcycle picking it up and laughing at everyone that saw as if to say he "MEANT TO DO THAT" and he got on his bike and rode away. Luckily no one was harmed but im sure he went home to care for his broken talebone. Then During our studies... we hear a huge crash of glass... thinking nothing of it (its normal here) we didnt look out the window... sure enough we hear an ambulance and cop cars, a guy was drinking and driving and ran his car into the store in front of our house and hit a mom and her son. We prayed for them and the officer told us they were only slightly injured but the driver was in bad condition. Stupidity takes a toll. We are walking down the sidewalk and talking about the accident and we speed up our pace and then we hear another crash of glass right next to us... four cars hit eachother right where we JUST were...and they all get out and yell at eachother for whos fault it was. we continued walking, amazed by our protection. Just as if this is not enough EVIDENCE that we are here doing the LORDS work.... listen to this... Yesterday before church as we were studying.. we smelled smoke and something burning.... we figured maybe its the outlet.. nope not the outlet... maybe the lights... nope not the lights... maybe the heaters... nope not those also. We think nothing of it. Maybe a niehgbor baked something a little too long. We go to enter the elevator... its beeping the alarm and not working. We take the stairs... the smoke is more thick... its getting darker and now... we are stepping in water... well at least theres water. opposite of fire... thats good... it was like walking down to the bottom level of titanic like the movie.. more dark and more water. Just two levels under us we open the door to tons of firefighters and hoses, broken glass, a the whole floor covered in blackness from fire. An electrical wiring problem. We see these men covered in gear and black smears all over them and we ask... um why didnt anyone tell us to evacuate the building when the fire was exactly under our apartment!? he says this classic line that I found to be ever so comforting... "your not dead are you, everythings under control" hahahaha thats Buenos Aires for ya!
We plan on doing service for the families that lost all of their precious belongings. We plan on doing all we can for them.
Theres always a bunch of jehova witnesses walking around too and people get us confused sometimes. We talk to them sometimes if we are in the same spot at the same time. Its so sad the things that they do and dont beleive. I try and cheer them up and smile at them when we see them.
We see so much faith in our converts! Juan is homeless and carries a back pack with his cardboard box and SCRIPTURES! We are getting the ward together to help him find a home! Pray for Juan to be comforted!!!!!!!
No transfers for our zone whoo hooo... so ill be learning alot from my comp before she goes home next transfer! Almagro still! Pray for these people to be prepared for the gospel!
Well thats all i can think of right now.... we have to get going to get my comp to the hospital she is sick and needs to see the doctor. Pray for her to get feeling better! Mom I love you for being a missionary too and sharing the gospel with your neighbors and helping them come to church!!!!!! you are awesome! joce I love you, your gorgeous dont wear makeup you dont need it! Your bday presesnt is in the mail! Talia I love you, thank you for the blog help! Robin and brooke... love you toooooons and im so stoked you all went to supercross and had a blast and glad that things are going so good for all of you! I love you for all your support and love! It means so much! Sky thank you! Marlin youre so awesome glad you got a new job and your happy! Ro, remember itll all work out! Mark thank you for all of yoru weekly letters they are encouraging. Family in California, and Michigan, I miss you tons and i think of you often! I LOVE YOUUUUUU all so much! xoxoxoxoxoxox
love your argentine missionary!
ASHLEY ANN GILLUM
