Here we are on another Monday, starting a new week.


This week I remembered something that I did early in my mission, which was
write in my daily planner little things to share on Mondays. So here goes:


We clapped a house and did a contact with a guy, and he let us in. He lives
with his brother, and they are both very poor. We started teaching them and
immediately realized that they didn't understand us very well. We found out
that one doesn't know how to read, and the other has about a 1st or 2nd
grade reading level. It is sad sometimes the level of ignorance we find. We
continued teaching, because obviously you don´t have to be able to read to
accept Christ and repent. We finished the very short lesson on the
Restoration, and invited them to Church. One of them, who was evangelist,
told us that he didn't want to go because he didn't believe in us. Then he
said something that made me want to laugh. We asked him why he didn't
believe, and he said "You know how in the Bible it says that there will be
false prophets?" "Yeah..." we responded. "Well I'm not saying you guys are
false prophets, but you know...." So it turned out to be an interesting
lesson. When we left they told us they did not really want us coming back.


Teaching an inactive member sister, my companion asked the question "Who
wants to be like Christ?" Everyone but this sister raised their hand. When
we asked her why, she said "Well, wasn't Christ a man? I don't want to be a
man!"


Teaching a group of kids the 10 commandments using our fingers, we got to
number 4: Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Or in modern terms, go
to church every Sunday and keep the day holy. We were reviewing and it was
one kid's turn to say what number 4 was (these were all members). He yells
out confidently, "Go to church every Thursday!"


Another thing about Argentina that I don't think I have shared is that there
are a lot of frogs. At night they come out and often they get ran over on
the road. It is a very common sight to see flattened frog bodies in the road
as we ride by on our bikes.


I was talking to Elder Martindale the other night (he was in the MTC with
me) and he knows that I love Apple products. He asked me which of them I
want to get when I go home. I told him, a MacBook Pro, iPhone, and maybe and
iPod. Then he tells me; "No, wait. I know which one you really want. It's
not the iPod or iPhone, or even iPad, but just the "i" (eye). I was laughing
for about 5 minutes. He is the same elder who gave me the nickname Stobbe
One-Eye Kanobi.


A member told us this short story: There was a man who was a faithful
member of the church almost his whole life. But when he turned 80, he
decided he had done enough, and wanted to rest. He had had church callings,
gone to the temple, served a mission, and raised a family. Now he just
wanted to rest, knowing he had done his duty. A few years after, he passed
away. When he got to heaven, there was a little group of people gathered
around St. Peter, who was getting ready to show everyone to their mansion.
The man was very excited, knowing that his manision must be very large, and
very nice. The started out, and one by one, the people were shown their
mansion, and the group dwindled to just him. They finally approached his
mansion, which as he expected was huge! He went in leaving St. Peter to
himself. He look around at the beautiful furniture and craftsmanship, and
was very pleased. But then he look up, and with alarm ran outside to catch
up to St. Peter. "There has been a mistake" said he. "My mansion is missing
the roof!" "There is no mistake" replied St. Peter. "The angels who built
your manion worked just as long as you did. They were about to put on the
roof, but when you decided you had done enough, and stopped working, so did
they!" Let's all remember that instead of worrying about the size of
our mansion, we should make sure it has a roof when we get there!

Proof that the Book of Mormon answers all of life's questions: Think of any
question you have always wanted to know the answer to, that you haven't
figured out. Then go to 1 Nephi 13:22 for the answer.

Mom, I am doing much better. I just got trunky for a few days. I feel great
now, have been healthy for a few weeks! Thanks for the Valentines Day Gift.
Listen to that CD! It is awesome!

At least where I am, there is no custom to use the table cloth as a napkin.
Here they use paper towels. Very rarely do they have normal napkins. In
fact, the word in Spanish "servilleta" is used for both napkins and paper
towels, at least here.

Camila is doing great! We had 4 lessons with her in the last week, inluding
that first one on Sunday. On Monday night we talk about her desire to get
baptized. When we asked her when she wanted to get baptized she said "ya"
which is means "already". They use it to mean ASAP! So we challenged her to
be ready in 3 weeks, and she agreed! She is going to get baptized on the
25th of February. She is reading and praying. Last night, we went to teach
her but she was very sick. She had a stomach ache and was feeling nauseous.
Her mom, Paola, asked us if we could give her a blessing. So we briefly
explained priesthood blessings to her (luckily we had already taught her
about Priesthood Authority) and gave her a blessing. It ended up being a
miracle, because 20 minutes later she was feeling fine! We told her to rest,
and we could teach her another day. She left smiling!

I have a temporary assignment as the second counselor in our Branch for a
week or two. We are about to join with a Stake (we have been part of a
district, which is the equivalent of a branch to a ward) and the Stake
President is going to assign a High Counselor to be the Second Counselor. It
was interesting to count tithing yesterday, and see how it is all done!

Dad, I loved your thesis. I have already used it in my teaching. Thank you
for your wisdom!

I love you all. Have a great week, and feel the Love of the Savior, as well
as the love of your spouses, families, etc.