Fun fact: the numbering system for hair clippers is different here than in the States.
Other Fun fact: I loaned my clippers to another apartment and couldn't wait to get mine back, so used a Latino elder´s clippers.
Determine your own conclusions.
The truth is, my hair is pretty short. In the last two days I've been called "bald head" more times than I have fingers or toes to count, and I tried calling on some she-bears to avenge me (2 Kings 2:23-24), but nothing happened, so I'm just enjoying the nice scalp breeze and hoping it reaches a decent length before zone conference in 2 weeks. I'm sending some pictures, and if you're wondering what the expression is on my face in the bald pictures, its the " ...wow, I can't believe I cut my hair that short" expression. Hope you all enjoy (also please note the nice wedges of baldness creeping in... uh oh..)
Other than that, the week went pretty awesome. This Thursday we got to have a conference with all the missionaries in the closest 3 zones and one of the 70 who is in the new Area presidency. His name is Elder Bradley Foster and he is a stud. He gave us a super good training on how we are going to be able to strengthen the wards down here and work with the members a whole lot better. This is great, because Argentina has one of the lowest retention rates world-wide. Right now I'm in a ward with membership around 400 and our weekly attendance averages 70 per week (including us and the 8 investigators we have with us). That's one of the things I wish we had here a lot: strong wards with strong leadership. Here we don't have an elders quorum president, let alone ward missionaries or anything like that. Hopefully though, the things the church is working on right now will work. Elder Foster told us that if the church down here keeps running the way it has (it's pretty relaxed), in 20 years it will shrink till it disappears. Wow. Lots of work to do.
He also gave a really cool talk on how Heavenly Father listens to prayers and how he knows each of us personally. The church did some study and found that half of the members surveyed were not sure about those two facts. He told us that our job as missionaries is to make sure that everyone knew those two facts. We also did this really cool thing where we read the first chapter of the book of Moses replacing our name for where it said Moses' name. I recommend it to you guys too. He also showed us some videos from deepastronomy.com when we read the parts about God showing Moses the universe and all his creations. After seeing those I could really understand why Moses would say "I realized that man was nothing, which thing I had never supposed". Then after all that, seeing all the grandeur of God's creations, we read in Moses 1:39 that all of the greatness and glory and purpose of God is centered completely on us, our well being, and eternal happiness. Pretty cool stuff.
Our investigators are doing well. Carlos and his girlfriend Macarena are doing great getting ready for their baptism in 2 weeks. This week they both dropped coffee cold turkey, and we taught Macarena a lesson on treating our bodies with respect and dressing modestly. She was super accepting about it, and earlier was going to get a lip peircing, but decided against it, and completely stopped wearing immodest dresses. We are super happy for her and she and her mom are now working together on reading the whole Book of Mormon for personal progress. Her mom, Veronica, whom we baptized 2 months ago, just got called to be a Primary teacher, so we are also super excited for her.
Also, her son Dante (Junior), the 12 year old we baptized last month, will get the preisthood this Thursday and be able to pass the Sacrament on Sunday. So cool!
Carlos is also doing super well. He comes from a very rough family background and he used to be very involved in drugs and gang violence (and he's only 15). The other day, he told us that in their house they didn't have anything to eat, so he walked outside with the idea of robbing to get food for his mom and little brothers. As he got outside he started thinking about what he had learned from us when we taught him about the iron rod and the temptations that were the fiery darts. He decided to go inside to pray and read the scriptures to be able to
overcome the fiery darts of the devil, the temptation to rob. He didn't rob, and his mom was able to get some work and they had enough food. He is doing super great now and is reading and praying daily. So is his mom, and she has almost quit smoking completely. She started out smoking 20 cigarettes daily and now she is down to 1 or 2. It is completely amazing to see what a huge change the gospel has wrought in their family. It truly is, as it says in Mosiah 5:2, a mighty change in heart. I know the church is true, and every experience like that that I have makes my testimony stronger. Hold to the rod with all you've got. If it can help Carlos stop doing drugs, stop fighting, stop robbing, and become a loving patient son of God (and soon to be priesthood holder), it can help you in whatever problem you have.
I got the letters you all wrote from the family reunion and I was mighty happy to hear from all of you. I love you all tons. Keep me posted!
-Elder Spencer
P.S. Funny story, my companion this week repaired his suit with super glue. Who knew those crazy missionary stories were actually true.
Me and my comp making the cookies last week. So fun.
Posing in front of the cookies.
Another pose, I'm considering modeling when I get back.
All the cookies cooked. There were a lot, and the people were mighty happy to eat them.
The beautiful Argentine scenery.
Wow, there goes my hair, and modeling opportunities...
Another hair shot, I tried putting on a pretty distracting tie to divert attention from the hair. It didn't work.
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