Hola familia mia,
Bueno, otra semana pasa en Argentina. Hace un montón de frio y yo llevo mi campera cada día. Ahora, hay dos muchachos en mi izquierda y derecha quien están diciendo malas palabras mientras juegan su video juego en la computadora...amo a Argentina...
Okay, another week in Argentina, and it keeps getting colder. Yes Mom, I didn´t want any troubles with the money on my card, so I withdrew it as soon as I possibly could. But, I didn´t spend it all so I have it safely kept in our apartment. Not gonna lie, it would be nice to know if the big exodus to Florida was happening. It would help me relax a little bit (not that I´m worrying at all). But, on the other hand...it would be nice to stay in Idaho. I know, I said it. But, I´ll go where you want me to go, Dear Lord.
Congrats to Gav on the camera. I would see where you go on your mission first before I decided to take it or not. If I had a camera like that, I wouldn´t bring it within 200 miles of where I am.
How did Scott land that job at Girl´s Camp? First of all, why did the girls need somebody to stay up in camp during the night? Are they having problems with girls staying in camp? If they are, that royally stinks that a member needs to come up and stay. Bummer.
Not much to say more, gonna continue with my letter...
Well, this has probably been one of the craziest weeks of my mission to date. P-Day, we played soccer at our chapel. During the game that we had, it started to rain but only for a moment. Then it stopped. We ended and all went back to our areas. As we were walking home from the city center, the blackest clouds I have ever seen gathered overhead. It was almost 6 o´clock and it looked like about 8 or 9. The wind started to beat on us and we started to run to our apartment. As soon as we got inside, within seconds, the wind was at hurricane speed and hail the size of marbles to golf balls started to fall from the sky. We have metal sheets covering our windows, a good thing too, because the hail sounded like somebody was throwing rocks at our window from two feet away. It was so loud. Then the rain started. It seriously looked like a hurricane came through. You couldn´t see more than twenty feet in front of you because of the rain. It was so incredibly heavy and cold too. I´m glad we got into our apartment when we did, cause that would´ve been bad if we were still outside. The next day, we came out to some busted windows and windsheilds. Somebody was watching out for us.
Then on Wednesday, we had quite an experience in our church building. We were working around the building and we noticed that about 25-30 kids in between the age of 14-17 had jumped the 15 foot fence around the chapel to play soccer on the field. Our Branch President told us, if we find anybody inside to kick them out and then call him. So, we went inside and proceeded to talk to them. We asked how they got in and they said that they jumped the fence. My companion spoke first, native Argentine, and tried to get them to leave. They didn´t even listen to him and continuied to play. I went out in the middle of their game and started to speak. A couple of kids proceeded to make fun of my accent and asked if I was german. I said who cares and told them to leave. I informed them that they were playing on private property of the church and that they had no permission to be there. They gathered around us as we spoke and started to poke fun at us. I told them that there were a ton of soccer fields in the area and told them to go choose one and go. They gathered around us and tried to pull the nametags off of our jackets and yelling bad words at us. Some threatened to beat us up, but by this time some of them had left. My companion pulled the phone out of his jacket and a little more left because they thought that he was calling the police. By this time, the ones who stayed were getting really angry with us, still about 20 of them. We shut ourselves inside the church as they started to pound on the windows and doors trying to break something and get to us as my companion called the police. I knelt down and prayed that they would go away and that they would leave us alone. At that time, one of them opened a window from the outside and started yelling at us and threatening us. Then, in an instant, they all ran off. It started to rain at this time, kind of strange given that there was no rain clouds above. As they left, they started to throw rocks at the chapel. I wanted to go outside and get angry at them. I have never felt the urge to hurt somebody as bad as I felt it in this moment than in my entire life up til now. My companion stopped me, thank goodness. They finally stopped when two windows were broken in our dear meeting house. When they left, we walked outside to observe the damage. Only two windows were broken and a couple of marks were made on the side of the wall. I started to cry. I wanted so bad to do something to defend ourselves and the church but we couldn´t as missionaries. The police finally showed up after an hour and took down my comp´s information and left. I am reminded everyday that we are indeed in a foreign country and we´re not in Kansas anymore. We were definitley protected that day. The Lord protects his servants from harm, I know that for a fact.
Yesterday, a recent convert called us after the meetings and asked to meet with us in the chapel. He didn´t come to church, so I thought that there was a problem. We met with him last night and he started to tell us that he had done a really bad thing. He told us that when he was baptized, that he had lied to the missionaries that he had stopped smoking to get baptized. He had only recently stopped smoking as of a week ago. He started to cry, which made me cry. He told us his life story. That he had been in and out of drug rehab three times, been treated for phycoligical problems, and lost contact with all of his siblings because they didn´t want to talk to him anymore. The only one in his family that he talks to is his Dad, who lives an hour away. But, he came to the church out of curiosity and was baptized. Even though he lied; the Lord, in his great mercy, is able to forgive all. The spirit was so incredibly strong in that room that I could hardly bear it. He said he would go to church to talk with the Branch President next week.
Other than that, the work is slow. We had nobody in church on sunday and I was getting really discouraged. We had a hard week and it feels like our work that we do is going nowhere. It´s like we´re just driving into a wall over and over. I don´t know what to do. We have zero investigators and nobody wants to listen to us. But, I guess I should keep my head up and keep going. I talked with me District Leader last night and he told me that he and his companion were going through the same thing. So, I´m not the only one.
But, I guess that´s it for the week. I´ll write agian next week and as always, I love getting your letters. Keep the faith and just keep swimming!
Con amor,
Élder Garrett Brighton Rook
"Mi proposito es invitar a lodas las personas a venir a Cristo..."
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