I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

Dear Everyone,

What a week with Chile just rocking and everything. Just so everyone knows, we did get effected by the earthquakes. We did get a little rumble of like 2 point something but don’t worry, I was asleep. Didn’t feel a thing. But yes, we did get something.

This week was kind of a hectic week. Well, Tuesday went normal, then came the rest of the week. Wednesday, we had to travel to Buenos Aires to spend the night in the pension of the offices. We left 9 de Julio at three and got to BA at 8 I think. So we spent the night there. Wahoo… Then on Thursday we had zone conference in Paso del Rey which is in Moreno. Only like half hour from the offices. We were there from 9 in the morning to about 6 in the afternoon. It was so long. I was about ready to just take myself a little siesta. You know, when you have to travel long distances to sit for a long time and listen to people, you get tempted to fall asleep. But, I did not fall asleep. In fact, I had to give a discurso or sometimes known as a talk. I had to give it on the characteristics of Ammon.

I gave it on the humility part of him, how he gave thanks to the Lord for the help of converting the whole house of Lamoni. He was so overjoyed that he had to give thanks. I related it to us as missionaries with how often we receive success or one of our investigators get baptized, how times do we just drop to our knees to give thanks? We need to recognize the Lord’s hand in everything. So after I gave my little 10 minute discurso and after zone conference, we went back to Ramos (the offices) to once again sleep there because we couldn’t catch a bus that night. In other words, we didn’t want to travel that night because that would be 5 hours of bus in the middle of the night. So we left the next morning at 8 to get back to 9 de Julio.

We got back at about 230ish because the bus was late in BA and so we got back on Friday and we went scrambling because we as a branch presidency forgot to plan a baptism for the branch that would happen Saturday night. Oh boy. So we started planning like crazy. Once we got that done, we went and worked for a good hour or two. We then went to the house of a member to have dinner and we ate empanadas. It was ok. Ok, so far so good. Saturday was a bit more crazy. Saturday we went out to work in the morning and we worked hard because we wouldn’t be able to work the rest of the day. So we hurried and visited our fechas and taught them. Then we did some contacts and some more lessons.

Then we ate lunch and went straight to the capilla to go fill up the baptism font. It takes about 5 hours or so to fill up the font. And we have to construct it so yeah it takes some time. So we did our studying while the font was filling because during the hours of 1230 and 430, there is no one in the street. The siesta here is more holy than Gauchito Gil. I know, that is incomprehensible. But nevertheless, that’s how it is.

Then we had the baptismal service and it went all great. Then after the baptism we had branch leadership meeting that no one showed up to. Ok, that’s a lie. The young mens president showed up and his wife who is the primary president. But we just excused them after half hour of waiting for everyone. That was Saturday. Sunday was pretty cool. Let me just start off with our attendance in sacrament meeting. We had 38 with 22 of them being 18 years old or younger. Holy cow! Then I taught my class but we just watched a movie. We watch between heaven and earth. It’s about temples. I really liked it because it is not only leaders of our church speaking but also other churches. Really cool. But then after church, we went home and ate and studied then we left at about 5 and just worked like crazy. We taught 10 lessons in 4 hours. That’s a lot by the way. Seeing how we have to have 25 for the whole week, we did a lot in 4 hours. And so we were exhausted last night and today.

So that is my week. I am tired but so happy that we still have baptisms on track. We have two for this weekend and one other for the next and hopefully another also for the 20th. There have been so many miracles in the past three weeks that I am in utter shock with how well everything is going. I guess it does pay off to be obedient. I am proud of the way I have been working, not to be prideful. I am humbly confident, as my comp would say. This mission is the best thing that has happened in my life, my very short life.

So I have some questions and pedidos. My companion and I were having a little argument about Utah sports vs. Colorado sports. He claims that Colorado went to the MLS CUP but lost. Will someone verify this? Also, what is the name of the paper company off of The Office? And will someone send me the schedule of the world cup with the groups and everything. ThanksJ. Well hasta luego from the land of Malta and Pan con dulce de leche. Oh and would love to get my friends weekly emails too please.

Love,
Elder Pickett