Perfection vs. One's Best

Well... It's been my first week training.  Let's just put it this way:  I don't really know what I'm doing.  Tuesday morning the assistants to the mission president did all of us trainers a huge favor by sharing a hell fire and brimstone scripture, saying that if we didn't do a good job training we would destroy the mission as well as the lives of the missionaries we were going to train and several additional generations of missionaries in the mission.

Thanks Elders...

Since it seems that perfection is the only thing the assistants accept, I have failed them dramatically.  Thankfully the mission president and the Lord are a little more easy-going.  The only thing they want from me is that I do my best.  I can do that.  I'm not sure I can be completely perfect, but I can do my best.

My new companion is Hermana Sanchez.  She is from Bolivia where it is really really really hot.  And so no matter how hot it is HERE, the heater is on.  Saturday night, I think I almost had a heat stroke while I was sleeping.  I woke up at 2:30 in the morning dying.  And no matter how I tried, I couldn't get back to sleep because it was soooooo hot in our room.  So what did I do?  I took a freezing cold shower at 3:00 in the morning and drank half a liter of cold water. (And turned off the stinking heater.)  All I know is that I will be doing a whole heck of a lot less cooking this transfer because she thinks I can't cook.  I made popcorn the other day and she stood and watched me do it with this doubtful face saying, "this is never going to work."  (I don't use any oil and she uses a LOT.  The popcorn still pops.  It doesn't matter how you do it.)

We have a new investigator to teach:  Debora's sister told us she wants us to teach her the lessons.  The other day I read a scripture about fishers and hunters.  I've decided that I am a fisher.  Hunters have to go and knock on a bunch of doors and stuff like that to hunt down baptisms.  Fishers just cast in their hook and wait until a fish bites.  All of the people I have gotten to teach have just appeared.  They just fall into my lap.  Oh, I've knocked on a whole heck of a lot of doors, but nothing has ever come out of it.  Gabriel just showed up at church one day.  Andrea asked us to teach her so she can be baptized.

And so now we are teaching Debora's sister.

And that's all I've got.
Con amor --

Hermana Crotzer

Editor's note:  For additional explanation about the reference to "fishers and hunters", see "In the Mountain of the Lord's House", a talk by LeGrand Richards reprinted in the Ensign magazine or "Friend to Friend", an interview with Gary J. Coleman that appeared in the Friend magazine.

Staying in Banfield and Training

It's a new transfer and I'm staying in Banfield 1.  I'll be training.  So today I have seven companions and tomorrow I'll know who my new companion will be.  I have no idea how I will train somebody when I don't have any idea what I'm doing myself.

With Gabriel's baptism behind us, we have NO investigators.  Finding people to teach is the most difficult for me.  We've been doing a lot of walking around recently.  We haven't talked to that many people but the ones we did talk to were NOT interested.  The other day we talked to someone who, while waving a hatchet in our faces, told us how all of the Argentine government is a conspiracy and the Mormons are from England but that the inventor of the Mormons was really from Holland.  Yup.

Thanks for your e-mails.

Hermana Crotzer

Editor's note:  To anyone who might have sent Catherine an e-mail or card or letter, thank you for supporting her.

Gabriel's Baptism

Gabriel was baptized on the 30th!  The baptismal service went as planned but took place an hour late.  Which was fine.  Long story made short:  we had turned on the water pump to drain the little smidge of water that was left in the font and forgot to turn it back off when we started to fill the font.  Not that it really mattered because Gabriel showed up late as well.  But a whole bunch of people came.  And the Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] that we hosted directly after the baptism was a complete success.

Yesterday we had a lesson in the Ferreyra's home.  Gabriel directed the lesson and his younger brother gave the lesson.  One of the other brothers who doesn't live there but was visiting also participated.  Hna Ferreyra was sooooo happy.  She wants to be sealed with all of her children, not just some of them.  Now all we have to do is teach and baptize her three other kids.  :)

Uuuummm...  The rest of the week was spent in a bunch of lessons with Gabriel and a lot of walking around looking for people to teach.

-- Hermana Crotzer

Share Goodness

Lookie at what I found while I was waiting for my companion to finish her e-mails:

Another Baptism Scheduled

Gabriel had his baptismal interview and he will be baptized this coming Saturday.  Elder Herrera, our district leader, thinks he's really funny so he pulled a joke on us with Gabriel after the baptismal interview.  My companion and I were in a meeting with the ward missionaries planning for our upcoming Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening].  Elder Herrera pulled us out and started on this spiel about how Gabriel shouldn't give up hope and that we were going to keep working with him and blah blah blah.  It sounded like Gabrial hadn't passed the interview and the only thing I could think was, "What did he DO?"  And then Elder Herrera said, "Congratulations.

...Wait...  What?

And then he and Gabriel busted up laughing.

I also had exchanges this week, where the sister training leaders come and train us and help us improve how we teach and stuff.  My companion had a great experience.  My exchange is something I would rather forget.  During the course of 30 minutes, the sister training leader told me every single one of my faults, that I wasn't doing a good job and that Gabriel would be exactly the same as Pablo, one of our recent converts.  By the time she was through with me, I honestly felt like it would have been better if I had never come on the mission and that I might as well just call the president right then and there and tell him to send me home.  It was awful and I don't understand WHY she would do that to me.  She is a sister training leader and is supposed to HELP me, not tear me down and then stomp on me.

Elder Herrera told her that she needs to call me and talk to me.  Apparently she told him that she was "uncomfortable" in our exchange.  When I started bawling right there in front of Elder Herrera and his companion, my own companion did me the favor of explaining that I was a lot more than just uncomfortable.  I don't really know what to think now.

And now I don't know what to do about Gabriel.  Before our exchange, I thought he was ready.  Now I don't know.

Pablo is going to the Iglesia Universal now.  He doesn't really want anything to do with us but doesn't actually come right out and say so.  Instead, he makes appointments and then later calls us and tells us that he can't make it.

And that was my week.  Hope that you all had a really nice week.
Hermana Crotzer

Empty Mail Boxes are Discouraging

The last month (and the four months before that) my mail box has been starving to death.   And so, to conserve its energy, I have decided that I won't write anyone until they send me something.  A letter is all I'm asking folks -- a good heart-felt letter.

There are about 3 to 6 weeks left of my mission for you to mail me a letter or card and have it arrive in time.  If postage is too much, send me e-mails.  This week I had 11 e-mails and 9 were from the mission office.  (Last week I had 15 and 13 were from the mission office.)

I had a great week.  If you want to hear about it, write me.

:) Hermana Crotzer

Editor's note:  The mission office has asked that we not send any packages.  It is too costly (both in time and money) to retrieve packages from customs.  But cards or letters work great.

"Mini" Hna Carrizo

My new companion is Hna Carrizo and she is 22 years old.  She says she is on the mini mission because she can't decide between being a missionary or serving the "other mission" -- i.e. being a full-time mother.  She loves to talk about how she doesn't know which path to take with whoever asks her about her mini mission.  Not that it's a bad thing that she doesn't know yet what to do.

My brain is still trying to change back to speaking Spanish all the time and I've been having a little bit of trouble.  Sometimes, mostly in the mornings, I have a really hard time understanding what Hna Carrizo is saying.  She also told me that I have a really bad gringo accent.  It's a little true.

It's supposed to be the middle of winter but it's really hot.  Most days we don't even have to take jackets with us because it's just soooo hot.

This Monday we went to a district activity.  We played a bunch of soccer and then the elders (we are the only sister missionaries in the district) changed over to basketball.  I don't do basketball with a bunch of boys so I sat out on the side.  It turns out there are a couple of other elders that don't like basketball either so we played some weird version of soccer were there is one goal and two teams of two.  The person who scores a goal becomes the next goalie until somebody else scores a goal.  It was REALLY fun.

Gabriel is still progressing like crazy.  Please keep him in your prayers.  AND I found out that Diego Quiroga, the son who I was teaching in Madariaga is going to be baptized the 9th!  Whoooo hoooo!

Hope that all of you have a really great week.

Con amor --
Hermana Crotzer