Hola Familia!!!
Wet greetings from Lopez Camelo. It's been raining all day, beginning with a pretty formidable thunderstorm, but is now mostly just a little drizzle. Then again, that could change back to a downpour within a few minutes. My umbrella is broken, so I got wet anyway heading to the church building, though most of my head stayed dry.
We had another baptism yesterday. Nine year old Sebastian. It was a challenge getting him to pay attention to us when we were teaching him, but as long as he keeps coming to church, he'll become a strong member. He was pretty happy when he came out of the water.
Yesterday we had lunch with the family of a recent convert, where this convert is the only member in her family. Everyone in the family is very open to us and they love to talk with us, but none of them want to come to church. They enjoy learning about the church from our discussions and they always have a doctrinal question for us, but they still haven't come to church. The main reason we keep going is because the recent convert, Barbara, wants to serve a mission and keeps asking us to teach her family. We're trying to find a way to have them come to church, because they always give us the excuse of sleeping in, but Barbara comes every week. But this family has seen the pictures I have of all of you and the mom, Norma, particularly sends greetings to Mom and Dad, and she wants you two to know that every time we come they take care of us. And it's true, they feed us often enough, they've given us one too many gifts of anything that we might need (OFF, sunscreen, once they bought me lactose free milk, etc.). They are very loving and kind, I just wish I could find the way to help them see what they're missing by not coming to church.
I have finished the Book of Mormon in English and have begun in Spanish, which is kind of interesting since I now for the most part understand the Spanish. I commented to Dad that the difference between Moroni and Nephi in their themes is interesting. Nephi spends the majority of the first hundred some-odd pages (1 Nephi and 2 Nephi) talking about two main things. The coming of the Messiah and obedience. Most of the first and second books of Nephi talk about the consequences of being both obedient and disobedient, always with the exhortation and promise that if we follow the commandments we will be blessed. Moroni, on the other hand, speaks about Christlike attributes and the mercies of God (gifts of the Spirit, eternal life, light, and truth).
Another thing that I found interesting as I have begun the Book of Mormon once again is the story of Lehi's Dream, in particular the beginning. He sees Jesus Christ beckoning him to follow Him. So Lehi follows, but he tells us that he traveled in darkness for hours, until he finally cries out to God for mercy. Then he sees the tree of life. The interesting part is that he walked in darkness for hours before calling upon the Lord. Sometimes we do the same thing. We wander around blindly not knowing exactly where to go, relying on our own strengths and our own sight (ironically) to get ourselves through our situations before we ask for divine intervention. But it is usually only when we ask for that intervention, that inspiration from above that we are able to finally see our way. We are only then given the vision we need to see where we need to go and with a little more time, how to get there. First Lehi saw the tree, it wasn't until later that the rod of iron was revealed. I love the scriptures.
But now it's time for me to get moving along. There's still a lot to do today. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Dewsnup
P.S. the pictures that accompany this email are the last two baptisms we had. Mirta and Sebastian. Then there is a flavor of chips sold here in Argentina that I knew none of you would believe unless you saw it for yourself. The last picture is to show you that Mr. Fredrickson from Up lives in my area. He cooks amazing pizza, empanadas, and chicken, and he plays the accordion. Sweet!
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Elder Matthew H. Dewsnup
Mission Buenos Aires Norte
Gral. Lavalle 1828
1646 San Fernando
Buenos Aires, Argentina
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| couldn't figure out how to rotate the image. sorry. |
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