I´ve now been here in Paso de Los Libres for almost two weeks. I forgot my camera cord, but I promise that I´ll remember next week so that I can give you a little flavor of what my area is like, what I look like, what I´ve been doing, etc...
But now on to the real meat.
We will start with last week. Wednesday, I did my first divisions with my new zone leaders. I spent the day with Elder Montanares, another Chilean. I seem to be a Chilean-magnet these days...but I like it because they have a slightly different vocabulary; meaning that I get to learn words that other people don´t know. :) Anyways, Elder Montanares got a wart removed about two and a half weeks ago from the bottom of his foot. Because of this, he´s been mainly in the apartment, nursing it. With this in mind, I thought we´d have a nice steady day. Little did I know that I´d be walking more that day than I´d ever walked in one day throughout my entire mission. We walked so far that we couldn´t even find where we were at on the map that we own! It was definitely a good day; we meet some great people. Unfortunately, Elder Montanares paid dearly for it. He still has the stitches in, even though it´s been nearly three weeks, and the wound hasn´t even really sealed itself. I feel like it shouldn´t be like that. I realized that I better be careful here and not do anything foolish. I consider myself very lucky to live in the US with its medical capabilities.
Thursday. My day started at 12am. A little early, right? We had to be in Resistencia, before 9am to listen to Elder Bradley D. Foster, of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. We left the apartment at 1am, in our 19 passenger Convoy. The passengers included the 8 of us in our Zone, as well as the Larsons. We are very lucky to have the Larsons with us. The are the only senior couple in the mission. That´s right, the ONLY. And we are lucky enough to have them in our Branch.
Elder Foster was great, leaving us with many things to think about. We learned just how important it is to work with the members in the area. The Conference, overall, was amazing and uplifting. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, with the exception of the final 80km (50miles) back to Paso de los Libres. Everything was going fine and dandy until our driver pulled over to the side of the road. I am not exactly sure what happened, all I know is that next thing we knew, we weren´t going anywhere. The driver tried things. The elders tried things. We even put it in neutral and had four of us push that big honker of a van to try and kick start it. Nothing. We were stranded until the owner of the van/bus came with a new part (a filter I think). Our original estimated time of arrival was 8:30-9pm. We finally made it back at 11:30. Definitely one of the longer days I´ve experienced. But without a little excitement, life would be boring, wouldn´t it? :)
I became something I vowed I would never be, on Sunday. The Branch Pianist. Under normal circumstance I would probably not have agreed, considering I know around 10 to 15ish Hymns. BUT, I led the music last week. Have you ever had the opportunity to lead a group of dear saints, that hardly know the tune to any hymns, in singing a hymn you don´t even know -- without music! It´s an experience, I can assure you. I´m excited though, I haven´t tickled the ivories in months.
This week, I´ve continued reading in the book of Alma (in the 20s chapters). It´s amazing what Ammon and his brethren had to endure as missionaries. They had so many challenges, my mission here in Argentina is hardly comparable. But, the remained faithful and eventually brought thousands unto Christ. Ammon made the great statement that he does not boast in himself, but that he ¨boasts in [his] God.¨ Whenever something good in our life happens, we need to remember where it came from. Sometimes, we forget. I´m guilty of it on many occasions. Nobody is perfect. But through Christ and his infinite Atonement, we can accomplish all.
Keep your chins UP, even through the difficult times (...Utah game...),
Elder McMurray
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