PAINT!

Dear Everyone,

This week has been what they call here a LIO!! It has been so crazy. Well, I say that every week but I guess that’s what this calling brings. This week my companion and I watched the Priesthood session in English and WOW! That seriously was one of the best Priesthood sessions I had ever seen in my short Priesthood life. Well it would have to be the best one I have ever seen because it was the best one President Monson had ever attended. I loved hearing Elder Rasband tell about how we receive our mission calls and stuff. And I absolutely loved the talks from the First Presidency. President Uchdorf with his talk on patience and President Eyring on diligence. President Monson’s talk to the youth about staying on the path and keeping the commandments was also really great. I hope we can all reread those talks and live by the instructions that they gave us. And also, being in the branch presidency, we had the opportunity to watch with the young women, their leaders and some mothers, the young women’s conference. That was really great. The one thing that stuck our in my mind is that we are never alone. Though we may be the only member in our school, group of friends, work or what have you, we are never alone.

We also had the opportunity to do some service. Besides the service of helping the youth with their English homework and me teaching some piano classes, we went on Saturday and painted the exterior of a member’s house. It was just Elder Sabey, Hermano Borges, and me. We started at 10 in the morning and finished at about 230. It was a lot of fun. I was the only person there who had any painting experience and so I had to take the lead and teach the other two how and where to paint. We did a very good job in my opinion. There weren’t blotchy spots so I guess it was good. We finished off this service project eating empanadas. They were made in the style from Jujuy. They are very similar in the way that Mom and Abuelita make them. She put ground beef instead of chicken, no olives, and she baked them. They were really good. She made about 5 dozen and I think I ate one of those dozens. SO GOOD!

As winter has been coming closer, working in the afternoon is starting to be a little harder. The sun now goes down at about 715 which leaves us two more hours to work but everyone is already inside. Trying to set some citas at night is looking like our best option to overcome this problem. These past couple of weeks have been really humbling for me because we have not been able to find anyone to teach and progress. The missionaries before us have already been everywhere in this town. When we talk to someone, they almost always say that they have talked to us before. We teach them anyway but to no avail. Just have to keep Luchando in this Lucha.

Sunday we had 32 people in sacrament meeting. That’s kind of the average so not really a big deal. We had three investigators there. Victoria, Milagro, and Virginia were all there. They are doing really well. They are basically members but minus the baptisms. We are trying really hard to resolve everything so that they can get baptized. Just crazy stuff.

Zone Conference this week. We are going to be traveling to Buenos Aires to stay with the office elders then the actual conference is in Moreno. In the capilla of Paso del Rey again. It’s going to be fun fun fun! Not much else to contar because the rest is just the normal missionary stuff.

OH! I forgot to say, FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS ABUELITA last week. I did remember your birthday but I forgot to send an email. And one more thing. Marcos, I love you man. You are just too funny. Next time, get out of the car! Haha I love you. Anyways, I hope to tell more things next week.

Love,
Elder Pickett