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

 What a week!  First of all cute little Malena got baptized!  Luke and Elder have had a great time teaching Malena.  Luke said she has such a good memory, she remembered so much of what they have taught her.  Luke said Elder Packer has such a gift for teaching children and has made things so fun and memorable.  Like when they talked about the Law of Chastity they would pretend to put on a wedding ring as a reminder that she needs to be married before having children.  When they were reviewing she put on her fake little wedding ring to show she remembered.  What a sweet girl!  She is the Elders Quorum president's son's girlfriend's daughter :)  Does that make sense???  But she's more like a granddaughter to him and is at his house often.  What a neat baptism.   And her mom used to act very turned off when it came to the church but she was there at the baptism and even shed a tear as the Primary President gave her talk ...

 Well I only got to talk to Luke for a short period of time between me being at the State Capital with Eva, and he was busy.  But it sounds like Elder Rose is doing great!  Keeping busy and staying happy!  They have a number of people they are working with, and they had 6 people at church!  Here are some of their friends who are progressing... Eric - they street contacted Eric and he is golden.  He is already going to Institute with some people from the ward and came to church Sunday!  He is 24 years old and is looking for something in his life.  He is excited about the gospel and said "I wish someone would have told me about the gospel and Jesus visiting the Americas earlier!"   Molena - she is the granddaughter of a member (well really she is the daughter of her sons girlfriend)  She is 9 years old and is really shy but she is really starting to open up to the missionaries. Mateo - He is the barber that I mentioned in previous pos...

 This week Luke was upbeat but you could tell there were some things weighing on his mind.  I love to hear him talk about how he is going to change when he comes home.  He says "When I get home I'm going to do my Ministering"  or "When I get home I'm going to go out with the missionaries" or "When I get home I am going to fellowship new members."  He is having a hard time getting the ward to welcome in their converts and he couldn't believe they aren't doing their Ministering!  We had to break the news to him that it is a church wide problem, and just to keep trying and helping the members get the missionary spirit.   Those things didn't get him down, but it has changed the way he is doing missionary work.  He said it is so sad because in Formosa there were 31 converts last year and only 8 are active!!!!! Such sad numbers!  So he is really working on retention and visiting new members.  This has also helped with the work to find peo...

 Luke is loving his new companion Elder Packer.  Elder Packer is from Orem, UT and has been out one transfer longer than Luke.  Luke said he has a great attitude and loves to work hard, so they are having a great time together.   Luke and Elder Packer found a new way of finding people.  They go to streets near the church and then they go around asking people if they know anyone that they have seen that goes to that church (pointing to our church)  Then they usually say yes and point to a neighbors house.  So they go to that house and sure enough there are people that "used" to be members, or part members that live there!!!!   Then they have also been going through their area book and going to visit people that have visited with the missionaries before but stopped for some reason.  This is how they found their new friend Antonia.  They tried to find her house but couldn't.  They asked someone near the address and they point...

 I was so relieved to hear that Luke is feeling better and that they had a much better week!  They got to ring in the New Year by having a couple of elders from another area stay over (because New Years day was Sunday the buses weren't running and so they wouldn't have a way to get to church, so they stayed with Luke and his companion).   Also this week they worked their tails off and visited over 60 houses trying to search for all the members on their huge ward list.  He said they have 720 names on their ward list.  Also they decided to drop their friends that weren't progressing, which was a trial of their faith because that pretty much left them with no one.  So they went to work finding people this week.  He said their hard work paid off and they saw miracles happen!   The first miracle was when they were at Walmart.  They were standing in line and all of a sudden someone spoke to them in English!  They talked with him,...