October 25, 2010

Well.... I am sure at this current moment I'm in the most difficult part of my mission.


This last.... half-week(?) was a challenge for sure, getting to know a new area, finding members, lunch, food, and investigators. Whiting-out an area surely is no picnic, but I'm confident that we will help somebody in this area reach the goal of baptism.

While there were very few spiritual experiences with investigators this week, Elder Ordenes and I experienced something that was very interesting to see.

In front our pension, we have fairly large pine tree, and in this tree we get a ton of visitors from morning doves. Saturday as we went to work, we noticed on the ground was a Dove chick. We noticed it was breathing, but knew that it's time on the earth was short, so we moved it to an area where it wouldn't be stepped on (using sticks, not hands,) and went out to work. We returned back to the pension for lunch, ate lunch, and then left once again. As we headed out, E' Ordenes gave a short, "Oh my gosh!" as he saw another chick fall to the ground. This one was in better condition than the last, but as it had fallen, like the other, it's time was short. We moved him next to his already dead sibling and started to look around as to where these birds were falling. As we looked up, we saw that the nest of these chicks and begun to fall and break. The last chick was still.... on the nest, just hanging by his little foot. We also noticed that the mother of the chicks was sitting next to the nest, watching as her last child sat there, hanging over his doom, and the obvious feeling of panic was in this mother. By the end of the day, when we had returned, this chick had already fallen and been dead for hours.

I reflected on this experience many times through-out the day because it was either Friday or Saturday that I read the parable of the Wise Man and the Foolish Man. I thought about the parents of these chicks. They had found a good tree in which to construct there house and in a good place, just as most parents look to do, but... what happened? While that found a good place they faltered one small thing, that one whole side of the nest fell apart with some of the wind, thus, blowing out their children. I came to understand that as parents (of which one day I will be,) we need to not only construct our houses on a good foundation, but we need to also construct a good house to live on that strong foundation. As I have seen through my mission, there are quite a lot of members which have built there testimonies on Christ, but when a small burst of wind has come into their lives, a part of the house which they have built falls, and they fall of their own testimony. The construction of a good house always comes by doing the things that keep it strong in the church, reading the scriptures, praying daily, and weekly church attendance. If we weaken in one of those areas, we may still have our faith in Christ, but one of the walls our house begins to weaken, till the moment in which it collapses and we are blown of our testimony and faith.

I hope that there are some good thought and principles to all that, and I think I may need to refine the story a bit, but I feel comfortable seeing that there really is more than just constructing your testimony on Christ, but there is also a need of fortifying and caring for that testimony you are constructing, so that one day, we may have our mansions in Heaven constructed on that One glorious being.



As to answer how things are going, we're doing good, I came to the realziation Sunday morning, that I am the youngest Elder here in Patricios, so I've taken it as a blessing that I can be in the presence of all these experienced veterans. My Trainer, Elder Holbrook went home Thursday, as well as his group of missionaries. I'm actually not living in downtown Córdoba, just a small suburb about 35 min. away from downtown.

I hope all goes well, and as a really cool bit of information, we are coming close to me being in the mission for a year... time never slows down...

Love Y'all!!
-Ian