This has been an awesome week here in Buenos Aires. Yesterday were elections here in Trujillo and we can relax without all of the crazy propoganda and parties all over the place. In addition due to the elections we were not able to attend church yesterday to view the sunday session of General Conference. On Saturday however we did see the morning and evening session. Crazy. Super exciting about the changes to the church schedules, but the focus on home study will be a great addition to all people who are willing to apply these teachings from these latter day prophets.
This week my companion and I had a great companionship exchange with Elder Rojas and Elder Johnson two missionaries from our zone. I spent the day with Elder Johnson, a brand new missionary from American Fork Utah. It was really fun being with him as he only has 3 weeks here in the mission field. It reminded me of when I was just starting out and it makes me feel real old.
We made some awesome progress with our investigator Lilia this week. She had previously not been able to reach her baptismal goal for the 29th of September because she has been missing that little spark that one needs to take this important step of faith. Well this week we had a great appointment with her where we spoke about the importance of realizing that faith is not having a perfect knowledge of all things but rather it is following what we feel is the truth. We had planned a well organized and beautiful lesson for Lilia, but about 5 minutes into the lesson that lesson plan went out the window as our pensionista's daughter Milly (3 years old) decided to come participate in the visit. When I say participate I mean she came and began to take everything I own and strew it all across the room and behind the couch where we were seated. Literally as I would speak she would come over and put her hands over my mouth. The cute little girl was just trying to have fun, but she did not realize the situation we were in. One might think that this distraction would scare off the spirit, but ironically it did the exact opposite as, even with all of the distractions and games Milly was playing as we tried to teach, Lilia still felt the promptings to take a step of faith and she accepted to be baptized on the 27th of October. It was awesome.
Yesterday in the chapel the ward organized an activity where we said goodbye to two young men who go off on the mission this week and we watched as another future missionary open up his mission call. It was a really fun time, but the coolest part of all was what happened with a friend who decided to come and watch his best friend open up his mission call. Jose Vigo was the young man who opened up his call, and his best friend from a very young age, Diego, came to support him in this exciting moment. The spirit was so strong in the room as everyone was excited to hear where Jose was called to serve. I know this spirit during the meeting was working miracles in Diego's heart because, even though he has never spoken to missionaries, Diego after the short meeting came up to us and said "What do I have to do to be a part of all of this? I feel something special here and I think I want to be baptized like my friends." It was so crazy. This desire to follow in the footsteps of his friends who have been good examples since their youth prompted this young man to search for something more. We will see what happens with Diego but it is so exciting to see a young man searching to change his life and to follow our Savior.
Yet another crazy happening this week was a run-in with a monster of a dog. Imagine the dog from the Sandlot, but black. Well it was late one night around 930 and we were just leaving a member's house. She had given us jello in a cup to take on the road. I decided that it would be nice gesture to gift my jello to a little kid that was playing in front of his house. I go over and hand the little kid the jello cup when all of a sudden just about every dog in the neighborhood began to bark. I turn to my left and with no time to react I see a giant, nearly waist high dog coming full speed right for me. The dog came, slowed its pace about two meters from me as it began to ready itself to attack. I literally had no time to react and before I knew it the dog was lunging for my left knee. I do not not know what got into the dog, maybe I had jumped out of the way just enough, or maybe the Lord was protecting me, but instead of biting my left knee the dog just head butted me as hard as it could. I jump back and then it bites, missing me and just snapping in the air. I quickly backed away and the dog left me alone. I am not going to lie, I was a little startled, but I know the Lord protects His misisonaries and as ridiculous as it sounds I know someone was looking out for me and that chunk of my leg that very well could have been removed by that monster of a dog. Crazy right?!?
This week has been awesome here in Buenos Aires. The mission is the best.
Love,
Elder Vassau
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