Choripan y Celina

February 21, 2022

Buenas!! Another week gone and the time continues to fly by!! We only have a couple weeks left in the transfer and I am praying to stay here in Aimogasta!! We have wome really exciting things coming up. 

A few new things from this week and then an update on our amigos 

Cosas Nuevas !! 

- Elder Bednar. Probably the biggest news in the gran MAC, we found out last night that Elder Bednar is going to be coming on the 7th of March!! I could not be more excited to be able to hear from an apostle of the Lord, even if it does mean the a couple more 8 hour bus ride through the night to Córdoba. 

- Barrio Universitario. We decided to go out to this one neighborhood this week that previously had just been too far and we hadn't really met too many people who lived out there. It ended up without a doubt being worth the bike ride even with the bicis were breaking down on us on the whole time. It is definitely a little bit more humble but that meant more families and it ended up being awesome. We already met some really neat people and I think it is going to be a gold mine. 

- Choripan. Wednesday night we had a little bit of a slower night and several lessons fell through. We grinded out the end of the night street contacting and decided we needed something to finish off on a good note so we finally went by to try Choripan. There is a guy who sells it almost every night and it always smells incredible, you can literally smell it from a few blocks away. They were legit and lived up to the hype, for sure a highlight of the week. 

Amigos 

-Paola. She is so awesome!!! Paola continues to progress and is really just so ready. She is so solid with all the commitments it is such a blessing. Reading every day, each chapter a couple times through, and she absolutely loves church and it's awesome to see her so excited each week. And this week at church she basically ended up being fellowship for our friend Celina, explaining all about the church and baptism it was super cool. 

-Celina. The surprise massive miracle of the week without a doubt, wow!! Roberto and Celina are a couple who just happened to show up for church last week after recently moving here for the next few months to work in the harvest of the olives. Roberto is a recent convert of just a few years and actually return missionary which is super cool!! We went out and visited them this week and the first time we went Celina had a million questions about the church and seemed more doubtful than anything. We went back for a second lesson and it started out similar but then she let us teach the restauración and it was crazy to see how the Spirit changed her. At the end she was saying she was going to read the Book of Mormon every day, super excited for church, and really interested in learning more. Then just yesterday she came to church and told us she wants to be baptized as soon as possible! Really such a crazy turn and change in her as she opened up to the Spirit. 

- Lisandro. Lisandro is our friend who works in the town plaza here. He really is such an honest and inteligente guy he's a lot of fun to teach. We had a super solid lesson with him and his aunt came in at the end of our lesson as well. She had a mountain of questions that seemed to not stop but said she really is interested in reading the Book of Mormon and learning more! 

- Ivan, Analía, y Brenda. Ay a little sad here these friends yet again. We had some solid lessons and visits with them which got me so hopeful they would make it to church this week but sadly they didn't show. We are of course not going to give up but please pray for these three! 

Pensamiento Espiritual - Oraciones de Fe!! 

Prayers of Faith! A topic that's been on my mind this week. In preparation for Elder Bednar coming I've been looking back over several of his talks and there are so many I absolutely love. I don't know if it is possible to have a favorite apostle but if I had to choose he would definitely be in the conversation. I will probably be sharing a lot of stuff from him in the next little bit, but this week I read his talk from April 2008, "Ask in Faith." He talks about the power of sincere prayers of faith and this has actually been on my mind a lot recently. True prayers of faith require being willing to trust in the Lord's timing, the Lord's will, and as well require our action - to go and do after getting off knees. In Preach my Gospel it also says "prayer demands great effort." And lastly in Mosiah 26:13-15 it describes how he recieved revelation when he greatly desired as a result of his "exceeding faith" and "after he had poured out his whole soul to God." Prayers of faith require humilty and effort. They are work but truly connect us with our Father in Heaven and bring the blessings of heaven! 

Es todo por esta semana!! Hasta luego a todos!! Los quiero muchísimo, chau chau !! 

Con amor,

Elder Jackson