Elder Reed: Argentina Neuquen Mission: Five Months in Villa Regina

People, To start off the week I did divisions in General Roca. They are teaching a bunch of old ladies, all references of a very cool investigador. There is also an American couple living there that are dedicating all of their time to help the missionaries and ward there. This enables the missionaries to enter any house they want, a very nice thing.

(Brother and Sister Tryon. Their son finished his mission in General Roca in July and they came back a month later with him to help the wards there. They will be living in Roca altogether for six months. They are from Mesa Arizona.) The following picture is typical Patagonia--nothing.

We had a good lesson with a couple named Mario and Marisel. We went over the Restoration with them for a second time. I shared how I know these things are true. I asked Marisel what she thought about what we had shared. She more or less said, ¨I believe all that you have told me is true from what I have felt as you have shared it with me.¨ It has been my experience on the mission, that when you find someone who sincerely is looking for truth (which to me seem to be few, who are actively seeking that is), soon come to feel and know what you are sharing is true. They don´t argue, but listen. They don´t close their minds, but question and try to understand. They read with the intent to discover, to understand. Not to condemn. On Friday we went to Choele Choel. I gave an interview to Noelia, who I interviewed four months ago. She is going to get baptized this week. We came back Saturday and tried to finish getting everything ready for the baptism. Our ward mission leader was a big help because he cleaned the whole chapel and had it all ready. We invited a lot or ward members and a lot of them came. An interesting thing was I invited seven inactives to participate in the services to give them an opportunity to help out. All of them said they couldn´t. All the active members immediately accepted the invitations to help and came. I found that interesting. Most of Lisa Salazar´s family came. Her brother baptized her which I liked. He just got ordained a priest and soon will soon be ordained an Elder. The baptism went well. I confirmed Lisa a member of the church in church yesterday. Christian and Lorena got married which made us very happy this last Friday. They however did not go to church again, which will probably postpone their baptism. Lorena still doesn´t have too much interest and we need to present the message a different way so she can understand it. Nelvin is going to get baptized this Saturday. He is getting opposition from his brother and others, for wasting time in church. He seems really sincere though. He said the other night he had a dream where he saw written on a missionary´s back ¨The true church¨, His friend says that God telling him that he needs to get baptized in the church. Not how I gained my testimony of the church, but god answers people´s prayers in a way they can understand. I learned the gospel, and it´s true. That´s how I know. -Elder Reed