Working hard, lots of potential, new experiences and a spiritual prompting that might result in a baptism soon!

Hey Everyone,

Yeah, so the weather wasn´t so bad this week but yesterday the temperature did drop like crazy! I can’t believe it is almost September! This week I have been able to focus on the positive and my prayers have been answered a lot because of it this week. For example, I had worked so hard this week we taught and taught and walked and walked. We even skipped our studies to work on some days because I just wanted people to come to church.  I prayed and prayed that someone would come to church this last Sunday and we had 5 investigators in church! The most I have ever had in the mission! I was so grateful for the blessing that Heavenly Father gave to me. We finally had success! We also had more lessons in one week than I have ever had! We had 22 lessons this week and we found 16 more new people to teach and we now are preparing a few people to be baptized this weekend! C.B. is the son of a member and he is for sure going to get baptized. We had a Family Home Evening with him and he came to church and he really likes rock music so we get along really well. That reminds me that last night I played the guitar for some investigators. I was a bit rusty but I managed to play two songs.  

The other people that came to church on Sunday all have a lot of potential especially M., but we could probably baptize all of them if we really work super hard. To be honest, A. could get baptized but I don´t know if he is ready. He just wants to be a member to get help from fast offerings and he only comes to church if someone comes to get him and he doesn´t really understand what we teach. We will see what happens. I guess if he wants to get baptized he can, but he needs to understand the commandments first. I am excited to train this next transfer. Transfer week is September 2nd or 3rd. I think I will be writing on the Tuesday of that week, but I am not sure. I might be in Resistencia when I get to write to you.

So, funny story about J. and the pastor of the evangelical church. Our mission president told us that we could go visit our new investigators J.’s church with him, so this week we went to the evangelical church on Tuesday night. It was an adventure! It was very different from anything I’ve ever experienced.  So what ended up happening is that my companion taught the pastor the restoration lesson, he was a nice guy, but he had his own views about religion.  

Afterwards we celebrated the Pastors birthday with empanadas and cake. All the people that spoke in the meeting talked about us as missionaries and all the good things we do in spreading the gospel and that we all need to go out and find those people that are in need, so that was funny that the evangelical church recognized us Mormon missionaries in their talks. We just went there to support our investigator and if president said we could go we thought we might as well! We also taught the Book of Mormon to everyone in the church while sitting and eating the empanadas because they had a lot of questions for us about it. I will never forget that experience ever! I took a picture of the inside of the church. It helped me to see the background of some of our investigators and to also see where they are coming from as we try to teach them the gospel. I  feel that I can teach and relate to them better knowing how they do their kind of church meetings. They are totally different from ours!

So, Elder Harris just called me and said that the kid Brian, that we found in Resistencia when I had that spiritual prompting to go back into the passage way and to contact that house, is getting baptized soon!!!! I knew there was a reason we found him! So, that is cool!

There are not any conferences coming up soon just our transfers, so Eduardo Reyes just called me from Buenos Aires and he gave me two referrals to go to visit here in Clorinda! 

Anyway, so other things that happened here are: I ate cow tongue and at another house I ate cow utter! Haha! Also, this week I made a mistake with my Spanish and when a lady said her name, I didn´t understand and in my attempt to say what she said, I accidentally said M…. and instantly I realized NO! How did that word come out? Haha! M…means the S word in Spanish. I called a lady the S word! Freaking Spanish, sometimes! Haha. I couldn´t believe that I had said that!  Also, one of our investigators had an electrified tennis racket to kill mosquitos. Let’s just say I have never had so much fun in my entire life!!!!  There are way too many mosquitos in Clorinda! Haha! Anyway, I love you and miss you all!

Chau,

Elder Nate Pendleton 

My companion, Elder Perez and I working hard!

 The Evangelical church we visited...

A sign from home, it's "Delicate Arch" in the sunset!

Sharing the light with others.... the sunset here in Clorinda!

Pretty good week, the work is going well, transfers and training soon...

Hey Everyone,

         Focusing on the positive this week went really well!  I really saw the blessings that come from doing it. It was a pretty good week, the work is going well. We had a lot more success, and we have progressed with it a lot. We set more baptismal dates with some people and we also, found A. again! He almost got baptized when I first arrived to this area and then we could never find him again, so we thought he had moved. When I went on divisions with Elder Bareiro all of our plans had fallen through and I saw the house that A. had lived in before  and so I thought, I am going to contact the people that live there now, and when we “clapped” the house and to my surprise A was still living there! It was great that we found him again and he wants us to teach him again. We have been teaching a lot of people lately!

C. our new convert is still a little sick, but we wished her a Happy Birthday last night and we also met some of her other family members.

We had our interviews with President this week and he told me I would be training a new missionary this next transfer! This transfer is 7 weeks long instead of six, so that will be in about 2 weeks. President was here for the district conference and it was really good.

The other crazy story that happened this week was this: so we met this kid and he is like 20 years old. We taught him and he absolutely loves the bible and he really liked what we were teaching him. So much so, that after the lesson he went with us to our next few lessons, at the end of the day he says, “Hey I want to show you my church where I go.” We were like “Alright” he said it was close to where we were. We ended up walking a little bit more than we thought we would, but then he says: “Hey, I am going to go in and get my pastor so you can meet him.” We hadn´t told this kid that we were Mormons yet because in the lesson he had told us that he didn´t get along with the Mormon missionaries, but he liked us, so at this point he didn´t even know that we were Mormon, yet, Haha. It is a rule that we can’t be going into or around other churches like that and he didn´t tell us that they were having a church service that night, so we are nervous and he goes in and gets his pastor and his pastor comes out and talks to us and is a little confused. He invited us inside and we said we can’t go in and so he went back inside and then the kid J. is his name, he says: “Hey do you want to meet these guys” to this lady that was standing outside and she is like I have my own religion but they are welcome to go inside. So, at this point it is pretty uncomfortable and we tell J. “Hey we gotta go” and he looked a little confused but we left. We had thought that for sure this kid was going to get baptized but when me and Elder Bareiro went back to his house the next day he came out and he starts asking us all these questions and he looked mad. I instantly had to start defending myself.  He is like I was named a prophet in my church and I see things that you don’t see. You are not on the right path! You are not teaching correct doctrine and he starts to say things like I receive revelation I know when the wind is going to change direction and when the sun will come out from behind the clouds. The sun is going to come out from those clouds you watch and he just goes on and on saying we are hypocrites and he was reading full chapters from the bible and I started to testify to him with other scriptures to show him the truth using the bible. I simply said look, we know what we do is right and prophets have to be called of God by authority. We are going to keep doing what we are doing and you can choose to listen to us or not. We didn´t bible bash too much because we aren't supposed to do things like that. We went back again another day and Elder Perez cleared a few things up for them and using the bible he also taught him in a way that he couldn´t deny the things that we said. His brother-in-law was there and was listening and has potential and wants to go to our church.  

     Anyway, if you are going to send a package to me, taco seasoning would be good, Haha. I am doing well with what I have, though.

         Mostly, it has just been a really good week. So mom, you wanted to know what a typical day is like here for me. I wake up eat breakfast, boil water to take a bucket shower, read the scriptures and plan for the day.  From 9am to 12pm we work and then we eat lunch with a member and then at 1:30pm we go to the pension to study until 4pm because it is Siesta time here, we don´t sleep during the siesta time, we study and then from 4pm to 9pm we work and then at night just before bed I write in my journal and then go to sleep. Pretty dang exciting, huh? As Nacho Libre would say, sometimes we go to the church for things and activities and stuff but mostly we are just studying and working.

         Yeah, so the black pair of my shoes, the soles are coming right off of them too! Haha, but they will make it to the end of my mission, don´t worry about them too much.  

         That is fun that you went to the ward campout. I miss those! The rest of the mission is going to fly by with doing training again.

         I love you and miss you. Thanks for being the best mom and dad ever! Thanks for all the support. I really love you both a lot and I am so grateful that you are my parents. I can´t wait to see you again!

Love you and miss you!

Chau,

Elder Nate Pendleton

My companion and some of the good food we eat...

 Me and Elder Pedernarra working together...

A typical road down here in Argentina...

My "Holy" shoes, haha!

 A cool handwoven bag that I bought down here from a native...