Dear Family,
CAMBIOS!!! I was all ready to stay in Bragado until August but the Lord had other plans for me. After campo campo campo, for 10 months straight, I´m going to back to where I was born. That´s right folks! The CITY. ....drastic music placed here..... Dad you called it, I didn´t see it coming. My new area is called Hurlingham and it´s the richest area in the mission. These people have money.
I feel like I´m in deja vu. In my first area, Castelar, I did everything my comp told me to do, but maybe didn´t do it very well, maybe I didn´t understand why. Now I understand why and I´m able to do well. It´s different, but I like that. It´s definitely challenging me in ways I have almost taken for granted serving in the campo. The ward is amazing. It was a little shocking to see so many. When bishop dropped the cane for the many who hadn´t come to clean the chapel, for not paying a full tithe, for not giving more of themselves (he pulled it off with love) I got a little emotional. The spirit was present. I´m thankful to have two perspectives and so closely together. A bipolar moment has allowed to me to blatantly see the good from both sides. I love Bragado, but I´m set out to make Hurlingham my favorite area now. I was looking in the carpeta and saw the name Hna Bustamonte with a full month of 5,6,10, 6 investigadors in church attendance. I read that in a week they found 15+ news and were able to have 20 other lessons, 10 w/member. I saw all this and I thought, there´s nothing stopping us from doing the same. Shows us again that it´s the missionaries who make the difference. (if this doesn´t make any sense, caseros has had a bad rep for being a tough area. Every transfer meeting when caseros pops up on the screen we here the oooooooo. I think it´s dumb, but this doesn´t even matter cuz the zone is changing a ton. Success!)
I´m companions with Hermana Solis (chile again!). Who´s awesome. She wants so badly to learn english, so we set goals for that. While I´d love to keep practicing my spanish, but I´ve had my time. She deserves a chance too. She´s consistent, she believes in the people, and she is very sincere. The people believe what she says, I think we just need to pick things up a bit. Lengthen and quicken the pace. We talked with everyone this week. There are few weeks in my mission where I could say without any doubt that we did everything we could to talk to everyone. Someone always manages to slip by. Practicing my door approaches. It´s touch entering houses here. In campo everyone just sat outside. But the good news is that there is public transportation!
Right now we have one progressing investigador, Jose. He´s the first investigador I´ve had to have a Buddhist background. Really focusing on the basics and trying to understand what he´s saying. He speaks a whole other language that I´ve never touched. Maybe that´s how new investigadores feel hearing our normal church lingo. While we don´t understand him very well, his intentions are clear. Any one who rides their bike to church by themselves 2 sundays straight after finishing work at 7 am is interested. We´re praying and looking for different teaching ways to help him understand the restoration better.
What else.....o, I´m off bikes. after a year. I feel new haha, walking a little like the hulk ha. Sore. Feels good.
lunch with members EVER DAY? Where am I, Utah?
It´s 10x colder here in the city. You get to the point where you can´t feel your feet and it´s like your legs are two stalks hitting the pavement.
In the Hurlingham ward we have older missionaries who´s assignments are specifically to help the ex-missionaries in the ward. Apparently it´s tough.It´s an experiment missionary calling for matrimonios.
Saying ¨see you later¨ to Daniela was a special moment. It was actually a little funny, I gifted her my Jordan sweats and my bball t-shirt anda then she went around a gifted me her argentina bball t-shirt. Her mom even gave me a basketball haha....? Like the two twins from parent trap when they show both sides of the picture of their parents. Without thinking we gave the same gifts....special!
I was alittleworried about Agustina....but I have the faith the m issionaries will take care ofher.
Is this the longest email ever?
ok...I love you all! I´m so happy! Still learning lot. Take a moment to count your blessings. How´s your reading going? Let´s go!
Hna Cleveland
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