They dropped us off in the middle of Buenos Aires for five hours and just told us to run around, get information and spread the gospel.
It was an incredible experience to talk to the strange, amazing, toothless people of Argentina and discuss religion and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before I talk about other miscellaneous items, I want to talk about an incredible experience I had with one of the ladies we talked to while we were out.
We came across a small "American Clothing" store right at the start of siesta time (about 2 o´clock) on saturday afternoon. There was a little middle-aged woman standing outside sweeping the concrete outside, and we approached her with some of the simple things we had been taught to introduce ourselves and the church. Right as we were about to give her a pamphlet and move on to the next person, she invited us in. We sat down on her little couch in her store-home hybrid and she told us her name was Patricia.
We discussed her life for a while and we talked about different churches and introduced her to the Book of Mormon. We did some explaining and talked about her son who is struggling with addictions to crack cocaine among other things. Patricia told us that she is the guardian of her granddaughter while her son is going through these things, and I told her about the word of wisdom and the addiction recovery programs in the church.
After that, I bore a small, sincere testimony about the Book of Mormon in broken Spanish.
I looked up at her and saw tears streaming down her face. She told me that she hadn´t felt the spirit at any other churches (catholic, episcopal, and others) and somehow knew that this one was different because of the things I said and the feeling she had. It reminded me of what Marshall Pruitt had said about wanting to find the right church based on the spirit. She told us that she would attend church the next day after we told her where and when sacrament meeting was held. We said goodbye, she gave me a kiss on the cheek (just me, because she said it would be so sad for my mom to give me up for two years to serve the lord) said a prayer, and we left her with a Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong and it made my day. We´ll check back with her this Saturday to see if she actually did attend sacrament meeting.
It was an amazing experience and I´m so proud of the work we do as missionaries.
In other news
-The new group of Elders arrived at the MTC
-We saw a dead dog on top of a dumpster that had been thrown out recently
Well, I´m havin' fun in Argentina and I´m working hard. Thanks for all the email!
Love,
Elder Wilson
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