Elder Rose - Argentina Resistencia Mission Nov. 2021 - Nov. 2023

 What a treat...Luke got to call Eva for her birthday tonight!  Eva was so excited!  And then we got Emma on the call and so it was fun for the whole family to be together!  What a great night! The other night Luke and his companion, Elder Reyes, were hurrying home.  They were going to be cutting it close on time.  But all of a sudden Luke had a small prompting to talk to the man in front of them.  He almost cast that thought aside because they were about to be late.  But then he thought, "What if it's a prompting from Spirit?"  So he decided to talk to the man.  The man was very kind and very open.  Then he said to them...."I knew you guys were going to talk to me when I saw you."  Almost as if he had a prompting too!  So Luke doesn't know what is going to come of this small conversation, but he's glad he took the time to stop and listen and act.  I can't wait to hear if more comes of this :) Luke and Elder Reyes are...

 Santi and Lucia were baptized this week!!!!  And the awesome thing is now Luke and his companion are working with both of their families too!  In fact Lucia's 18 year old brother will be getting baptized in a couple of weeks!  It's so amazing to see family's coming together in the gospel.  That's what it's all about! Luke is also getting a lot of leadership lessons too.  He had to confront some elders about using their phones.  They've been calling their girlfriends and listening to rap music.  Luke talked to them in a loving way but definitley didn't skirt around the issue.  The one elder goes home in a month.  Luke urged him to be a better example to his younger missionary companion and to finish strong!  Obedience is so important and I'm so grateful Luke understands that!  I love seeing him learn and lead.  What an amazing opportunity!

 When we started out our call with Luke he was exhausted! I could tell he didn't even have the strength to tell us about everything.  He worked so hard this week and was feeling like he didn't even have time for himself to rest and get rejuvenated.  But then as our call went on it was amazing to see the change in him as Gavin walked in and Luke perked up and started bearing testimony to Gavin! (What a huge tender mercy that the kids were half day this week so Gavin could be home to talk to him!)  He was in tears as he told Gavin that the mission is the most important thing he could do.  He said there are times that you are going to feel alone.  You are going to talk to people and they are going to be so rude to you.  In fact just this week he passed a guy and asked him how he was doing.  The guy rudely turned to him and said "Better than you!"  :(  He told Gavin, people can be so mean but you learnd to just laugh about it and move on....

 This week Luke had a mission leadership training in Resistencia so that took up most of his week between travel and his meetings.  He had a great time seeing some of his old companions and friends.  I think it is weird for Luke to know that he is now one of the senior missionaries.  It's weird when people start to go home and then you are the more experienced one on the mission :)  So it was a good, busy week.  I loved talking to him on my birthday, that was a fun surprise! This is Lino after his confirmation on Sunday! And they found a random PIG tied up outside someone's apartment :)  At least he didn't chase it around a field this time :)  ha ha ha They met this guy on his birthday and gave him a Book of Mormon!  This is the taxi driver that the mission uses all the time.  He is one of the first people that Luke met on his mission. And of course they had to have an asada today because transfers are happening this week and a bunch of ...

  What a fun surprise to have Elder Rose call me for my birthday!!! I was at Kim's house having a little birthday breakfast when he called so he also got to say hi to some friends :)  And then he called later in the middle of the Homecoming Football game and so I couldn't hear him at all.  In fact we played charades a little bit.  I was trying to read his lips :)  It made my day to talk to him.  Man I love that boy! 

  Saturday was a great day, not only did Luke get to watch Conference, but he got to baptize his friend Lino Sanchez after the second session of Conference!  This is the 9th baptism that Luke has had in this area and most of them are because of the awesome referrals from the members.  What great examples they are to me taking an active part in the gathering of Israel!   Now Luke and Elder Reyes are going to be back to finding people to teach.  One couple they are working with is Inez and Adolfo.  And come to find out Inez is the sister to Ramona, who the elders have been working with for quite a while!  They were walking down her street and saw Adolfo outside and stopped to talk to him.  Then found out they were related!  What a small world!  And the good news is that Adolfo and Inez are married!  So they don't have to wait for them like they are waiting for Ramona and Ernesto!  They even went and watched General Conferenc...