40: Knock Knock...

What a wild ride you guys. This week was seriously a dream. Many, many miracles.

 

 

 I'll start with my favorite news, Julian and Bruno put THEMSELVES on date to be baptized. In a lesson with their family, Julian asked if he could serve a mission so we told him of course but you have to be baptized first. So he just turned to his mom and started asking when he could get baptized. And he kept asking until they settled on a date of April 10th!! Then Bruno piped up and told us he wants to get baptized with his brother. 

 

 

We had a really serious conversation with them about what baptism means and the importance of it. Julian and Bruno both shared sweet testimonies of how they feel at church and why they want to be baptized. And they are so ready!! They are such special kids. 

 

 

And!!!!! Julian and Bruno's examples REALLY helped their parents feel the spirit and have a stronger desire to listen and truly understand what we are teaching. We had one of the most spiritually powerful lessons I have ever been in about prayer and finding our own answers. I love the Smolares family with all my whole heart and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to help them on their walk back to their Heavenly Father.

 

 

Así que. Good stuff happening in Venado Tuerto. To reference the subject title, Presidente Tolman told us we can go tracting!! I guess covid is officially over, because we can go door to door and talk to people again! I feel like a real missionary now haha. I tried it out, and it isn't as awful as I thought. Sure you do get a lot of doors slammed in your face and a lot of rude people, but you also get to see some pretty big miracles. Our new friend Nestor was a miracle from knocking doors this week!

 

 

We tried out whiteboarding, which is basically just putting up a whiteboard in a plaza and talking to people. We just asked people who God is for them, and shared our beliefs with them. It was interesting. One man walked by and yelled "I AM CATHOLIC. I DON'T LIKE THAT." to us... in english... it was a strange moment. Another kid about our age came up to talk to us and actually took a copy of the Book of Mormon to read on a bench for about 20 minutes then asked if he could take it with him back home. He was super cool, but he also wrote that God is schizophrenic on our board. The event ended with a brawl that erupted across the plaza... we packed up and left pretty quickly after that haha.

 

 

We gave a guy named Alexis a chapel tour this week, and it was really cool to see the church from an outsiders eye. I've grown up going to a church building like 3x a week minimum haha! Something I loved was walking around and talking about the different paintings of Christ we have hung up in the church. We don't hang up pictures of Old Testament stories, Joseph Smith, or modern prophets. It is ALL focused on Christ. I mean, it is His church after all. 

 

 

And we had a fun activity with our branch. It only took me 5 months to actually get one going, but it was a total success. We decided to deep clean the chapel (because it really needed it) and then do what Argentines do best: sit around and drink mate. Everybody was so shocked when I pulled out my yerba haha! It was SO fun to sit around, eat cake, laugh, talk, and drink mate with everyone. I felt at home with them and I just felt so much love for my little branch out here in the middle of nowhere Argentina. 

 

 

Plus, I met the son of a branch member that served his mission in the Dallas, Texas mission!! Do any of y'all know Elder Tomas Allasia? Let me know! He tried to look up how much it would be to send me a kilo of yerba in the US... it was a lot haha. 

 

 

My last miracle of the week was church. In our activity with the Branch, we challenged them to all invite one person to church the next day. When we showed up, there were SO many people. The congregation was actually doubled. Once again, I was just filled with love for these people and this branch. I saw really inactive people that I've been working with for months come to church for the first time in years. God is working miracles, truly. 

 

 

To wrap up, I'll tell you about my studies this week. The father of the Smolares family has a LOT of good questions about prophets, authority, scriptures, apostasies, and the restoration of Christ's church. So I went crazy on his studies for him. I finally took the time to mark my new testament with scriptures I can use to help me teach. What I noticed as I studied, was TRULY how well the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together. The Book of Mormon teaches the same doctrines as the bible in a simple, beautiful, and powerful way. We really do need both scriptures to help us understand God and His plan for us.

 

 

I hope you guys have a fantastic week. Share a miracle you saw this week, and if you can't think of one.... just send me your favorite dad joke or something. 

 

 

With lots of love,

Hermana Thrasher

 

 

PICS!!

You'll have to guess what they are because I'm too lazy to write out descriptions haha!