Feeling Argentine

¨What other countries have you guys been traveling in?¨ ¨Have you guys been to the Cordillera? You guys should go there some weekend.¨ ¨Who is paying you guys to do this?¨ ¨Wow it must be really fun to go to some other country and experience the culture.¨ -So say the people.
            Ughhh. If only they understood. This is no vacation. I have lived in this town for almost six months with almost never having left it, and that only to go to Neuquen and Senillosa a half hour in bus away. This is not a vacation or exchange student program. I live here and work all day every day. No vacations, ever.
            Not much to say about this most wonderful week. I will say though that I have enjoyed these last few weeks more than at any other time in my mission. Having really awesome investigators makes everything better. I am convinced there are open minded people in the world, though seemingly one in every twenty thousand.  
           I love the gospel. It´s so simple. It amazes me the more I learn about it how nothing contradicts itself. If you live it you are free and happy. If not, you aren´t.  We go to church for God, not the other people or the missionaries. We also go to church to build others up and not tear them down. We are to help others have the atonement work in their lives.
            Leandro and Norma are having the atonement work in their lives. It is a beautiful thing to see this process. Leandro says he sees he is wrong and is trying to change and is changing. He says he looks of himself of just of few weeks ago. He said he thought he was smart and doing well, but now he sees his old self as someone very ignorant. He says he seeing his life and the world around him in a way he has never seen it before. I know he is changing for this reason, he and Norma really want their daughter to participate in the gospel and Leandro has said he wants his family in Tucuman to have what he has found in the gospel. That something is the atonement. When applied, it changes a person. It brings a joy found nowhere else. 
            Working and learning. The mission is much harder than I ever imagined it to be, but for me it´s necessary. I need this experience.

-Elder Reed