What a fantastic week. Te digo la posta, real good. Real real good. We really did not have that much time to do missionary things (walk,talk, teach, and eat), but we did a lot of other things.
On Wednesday, we had the zone leader counsel (similar to Jedi counsel) where we pretty much took care of the final arrangements for the temple celebrations. It only took 10 hours.
On Thursday, Elder Villalba and I talk a workshop to the zone about taking of the sacrament. The idea was that we cannot help other people to feel the importance of church attendance, if we do not feel and understand the importance of church attendance. So, this last week, I spent the majority of my personal study on learning more about the sacrament. I had never really realized how profound and sacred the sacrament is. There are lots of symbols and little details that I never knew.
On Friday, we had the Fireside with President Eyring, Chistopherson, and Ballard. To start off the day, we all went to a chapel in our mission that is really close to the mission home. It was the first time in my mission that the whole Buenos Aires South mission had been together at one place at one time. It was so funny and cool. All of the missionaries (including me) were so nerdily excited. I remember one time when we went to a Rockies game, and all the missionaries were there. I remember looking at them and thinking they were all so dumb because they were all nerdily excited. Well, now I understand. Anything outside of the mission routine is greeted with a plethora of nerdily excitement to any missionary. From there, we took a bus to a chapel in the Buenos Aires West mission for the fireside. There were 18 busloads of missionaries there. 600+ I think. We were all filed into our seats an hour and a half early while the mission presidents all ran around like crazy people, making sure that everything was ready. Then the apostles came in. They were all so smiley and funny. Each of them talked for a few minutes. Elder Ballard talked mainly about how is grandfather had dedicated the South American continent for missionary work and told us how a prophet had prophesied that the missionaries would have success here. Elder Chistopherson mainly just told us how great we were. hahaha He was super nice and talked about his mission in Cordoba. He also told us how his mission president was Richard G Scott. Who knew? President Eyring's talk was the best. He just talked about the importance of being happy. He told us that he was a little worried because there were too many solemn faces in the crowd. He said there is basically never a good reason not to smile. He told us, with a smile on his face, how his granddaughter had just been born 3 months premature. He said he wasn't going to frown or be sad, because he had the promise of seeing her again after this life because of the temple. That was a lesson for me. You are never sad when you truly understand and live the gospel.
On Saturday, we had the cultural event. It was amazing. You will probably be able to find it on lds.org or something. But there were about 5000 people performing including 600 missionaries. All the youth had prepared all the traditional dances from Argentina. The crowd went wild. I love Argentines. There is a dance called the Chacarera. It is the most traditional and famous dance in Argentina. When the youth started dancing the chacarera, the crown went wild, and everyone stood up, started to dance in the stands, taking off sweaters, or whatever they had to wave in circles in the air. i laughed so so hard. Elder Villalba went nuts too. He is Argentine through and through and was dancing and screaming all night. The 3 apostles all received traditional gaucho ponchos and wore them the whole night. They all looked pretty goofy and so happy. We marched onto the field and sang "Called to Serve." It was very very memorable.
I am out of time. This week was great, I will never forget it. The main message in the end for me was to be happy, no matter what the circumstances. The apostles were a good example of that. I love and miss you all. All is well. Life is good.
P.S. I turned 19 months yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment