Stake, Bday, and Fruit Flies
Hello Everyone!!!! I hope you all are doing well! Pretty solid first week here in Pichanal ngl. There’s a lot of potential for this area. Also thank you to anyone who wished me a happy birthday☺️
We have been able to find and talk to a ton of people this week and I feel really good about the people here. Do not wanna jynx and say “Promised Land” but I can see a lot of good coming from this area. The only thing is that idk if the Branch Leadership does that much so this week we are gonna try to have a meeting with the Leadership which they don’t really have here and try to motivate them with the stake just being made.
This apartment is known for how there are just a ton of bugs and it has lowkey been true but my comp and his last comp cleaned it up a bit so there’s not nearly as many cockroaches as when my beloved Élder Nickle was here. The only thing is though that they had a big trash bag that probably lasted a month but it attracted like 1000 fruit flies so I have been having to get rid of all those which hasn’t been fun.
All the neighborhoods in our area book say they are dangerous and to not go there at night but we go at night and they are fine (so far). I think some dude did almost try and rob us on Saturday possibly but he was an idiot about it so we got away from him.
Right now we have a lot of people that seem or are interested in the church and us teaching them but are having to get married. We are about to get this one lady married but are just waiting on some paperwork to get done. It’s a huge thing here in Argentina to not get married and is becoming more prevalent around the world. I can visibly see how not being married but having a family creates a lot of problems and most of them people don’t even think of before it happens . From already talking to countless families on the mission that the parents aren’t married, I can say that I am so glad I grew up in a household with married parents.
We went and had lunch with the lady that is supposed to get married soon and her kids. We made empanadas and the kids showed us the kittens they have. The mom during this told us that her oldest daughter slit the throat of one of the kittens like it was nothing insane 😭😭😭
Watching a stake be organized was pretty cool. The church buildings here can’t fit everyone so they had to rent out this Cocktail place. The spirit was definitely there and it was obvious that so many people put work into making it possible. It was also cool to see a bunch of missionaries but it not being Zone Conference. The MP did have a lot of them sing me happy birthday out of nowhere which was like top 10 most awkward moments of my life.
Spiritual Thought:
The other day I was reading in Alma 21 where it talks about the other Sons of Mosiah and their ministry to the Lamanites and some of what happened to them. The main thing being thrown into prison and then freed by Ammon and Lamoni. The thing that caught my attention though was the sequence that led them to “bring many unto the knowledge of the truth”. After being freed, they followed the Spirit, which led them to many Amalekite synagogues and Lamanite assemblies. It doesn’t say that they had a ton of success at first but that they were led by the Spirit. I have asked myself many times why someone didn’t get immediately dunked or why did someone have 0 interest if I was 100% certain it was a prompting to talk to them. I can bet the Sons of Mosiah had the same question at times. And I still don’t know why those promptings come but I know they show to Heavenly Father that we are willing to listen and obey His Spirit, because in the next verse says that the Lord began to bless them. When the Lord began to bless them, then did “they [bring] many to the knowledge of the truth”.
I love you all so, so, much and love hearing about back home! Please keep sending me emails mwcurtis@missionary.org or join my Google Photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/g9K5EHgzbJLtD3wC8
With love,
— Élder Curtis
