Hey hey! It's been another great week here. We're back here again, we've just gotten back from another successful week in another great area! I'm super exhausted right now, but it just feels soooooo good to be able to sit here and write to all of you in the air conditioning of the mission offices after being in the heat and humidity all week, haha! But I just loved the whole week!
This week we were with Elder Stapely, from California, and with..... Elder Torricella!!! If You remember who he is! I was companions with Elder Torricella back in Villegas for 2 weeks in a trio, so it was super cool to be able to be back with him again and get to know him even better and do some good work. We were in the area of El Jaguel (Pronounced: El Ha Well). Yes it is called The Jaguel. It was a good week, I learned a lot this week, it was really fun to be with both Elder Stapely and Elder Torricella they are both really great missionaries and they are both determined to serve the Lord!
One of my favorite parts of the week, we went to the TEMPLE!!! WHOOOO!!! It was super great! I've been just a little bit stressed out with a few things lately and I didn't really realize it and it was just great to go to the house of the Lord, I was able to feel a whole lot better, a lot more peace and stress free. I got a few answers to some of the questions and thoughts I've been having lately and it just helped a ton being able to go there now that I've grown so much here in the mission. And it's always great to remember how blessed I truly am and how my our Father in Heaven truly loves us! It was such a beautiful day! We went there with all of the Zone Leaders and all of the Sister training leaders and the assistants and Presidente Calquín and his Wife. It was so awesome. We are so blessed to have a temple inside the limits of our mission. It's been about 6 months since we went the last time, this was the first time that we were able to go with our new mission president, it was super awesome, I loved it so much! And then afterwards we had a Leadership Counsel in one of the buildings next to the MTC here. President talked about how we as leaders really need to focus on serving the other people. He talked about how the best leaders are those that follow. If we can learn to follow the Lord's commandments, follow the plan that the Lord reveals to President then everything will work out alright! I just love our mission president so much, he is such a great man and he is always so excited and ready to help us out and he's not afraid to make changes!
One of my favorite parts of this week. In the leadership counsel, the assistants talked about the importance of training the future leaders here in the mission. So I was able to put that into practice a little this past week. On Saturday I was talking a little bit with Elder Torricella while we were proselyting and we were able to talk a little bit about being a district leader. Things that I regret not doing as a district leader, things that we have seen that others have done really well as a district leader and I talked with him more specifically about the importance of following what Presidente tells us to do. It was pretty great, I too was able to learn a lot while we talked about things that we can do to help and serve the other missionaries.
One of the things that I've really realized over the time here on the mission is the importance of applying what our leaders tell us to do. Last year the apostles did a world wide conference about Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts. At first I didn't even understand what that meant, after watching the whole conference I was a little bit confused still and I didn't change very much in the way that I was helping and serving the people. Then Presidente Calquín got here and he started saying the same thing. We need to teach repentance and baptize converts, and you know what, I still didn't get it. I heard it time and time again, but nothing seemed to really make the click, until just about 2 months ago I came here with my new assignment to be an ETM, and things just started clicking. I talked with the other missionaries, and they helped me to understand it a little bit better. I taught a lesson with my companion and it worked amazingly. And just now within these last 2 months I am starting to realize how important it is that the people repent and are baptized. I am realizing how much it talks about repentance and baptism in the Book of Mormon and in the other Scriptures. I realize that this whole time they have been telling me what to do, and I either didn't understand or just didn't want to make the change. But now as I begin to understand I start changing, as I've put into practice what they've been telling us to do the whole time, Presidente, the apostles, everyone! I've seen so many blessings. Anyways, so that's what I want to invite you to do. I'm going to attach the link to the talk from The president of the church, those of you who haven't read it lately, I invite you to read it and put into practice the principles that it teaches. And then let me know how it goes for you! I love you all! I LOVE serving the Lord and serving the people here in Argentina and being able to serve these incredible missionaries. I am so blessed! Love you all! Until next week!! Chau!
-Elder Slack
