Hey guys,

Well, this week was very exciting, if not exactly for the same reasons as the last one, thank goodness.

This month, the World Cup is the only thing that matters in this country. There is nothing even comparable with the excitement that Argentina has for this tournament. It makes March Madness look like a 10-year-old's birthday party. On Saturday, Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0 in the world cup. We aren’t, of course, allowed to watch the matches, but every single television in the entire country was showing the game and we could pretty much hear what was going on from the street. Not only that, people bought fireworks to set off when Argentina scored, so we didn’t even have to ask anyone how the game was going. Then, on Sunday everyone made fun of me because the US tied with England 1-1. I hope we get to beat them just so the members stop making fun of the US.

Sunday was full of rather mixed emotions. Many of the investigators that we were expecting in Sacrament meeting didn’t show up, but Graciela, who is going to get baptized this week, did. I don’t know if I've said anything about her yet. Three weeks ago, Elder Simons was on a companionship exchange with another elder and they found Graciela's house. They said that the lesson was really spiritual and that when they asked Graciela if she would read the Book of Mormon to know that what they had taught was true she said that she had already received an answer. She did read though, and she started coming to church and is very excited for her baptism on Saturday. She’s already planning on going to a YSA activity in Posadas and to do baptisms for the dead next month. She also wants to serve a mission.

This week I’ve come to see a real need to improve the manner in which we commit our investigators to fulfil their commitments. The people here are really nice, and our investigators will stop what they’re doing to listen to our message. Unfortunately, they’re kind of lazy about actually coming to church or being at home when we have an appointment. It’s been bothering me a lot because when you teach someone about the gospel you can really get to love them, and then when they fail to act on what is taught it’s really sad. Today in my studies, I read part of preach my Gospel that suggests strategies that we can use to help people to keep their commitments. I’m really excited to be able to put it in practice starting tonight.

Apart from Graciela, a lot of our less-active families came, which made us very happy. I feel like I we work just a little bit harder, just a little more effectively, we are going to have a lot of success here in Ramita.

I love you guys!

05.31.2010

This week was incredibly busy. I was extremely tired the whole time, and about three days ago I lost my voice. Funny thing: as a missionary, I tend to use my voice a lot. I guess I just never really appreciated it as much as I should have. I've decided not to make that mistake again.

This week was also amazing. We had a bunch of investigators who came to church, which was a relief, because that's been really hard for us in the last few weeks.

Our branch is tiny. About thirty people come on a good week. The members are really good, but are mostly new to the church. Our leaders are learning their new roles. For now, the branch president is a member of the high council who lives in the nearby ward. We don't have enough people for a chapel so we take the bus to church.

There are two new families that are particularly helpful. They are the Rivas Family and the Dugos families. The husbands are the councilors in the branch presidency, and the wives are the relief society presidency. Those two, along with two other families and a few other people, comprise the core of our active members. We do have a lot of less active people who come if we're lucky though.

Life is good here!