A Week with Sorrows and Letdowns

Today I got ten e-mails.  Seven of them were from the mission and four of those seven were about activities for the missionaries who are going home.  I'm dying.  (In a missionary manner.)  I have not been counting my days till I go home.  Some of the other missionaries are.  But if any of you were wondering, I've got three weeks left.

This week has been really...  I won't lie:  It hasn't been very good.  It's had high points and low points.  Actually, it's had the same number of high and low points as any other week, it's just that the low points were really really low this week.

As I think I told you all in my letter last week, Hermana Pastrana's brother died.  Unfortunately we haven't been able to see her since Monday.

On Tuesday we had zone meeting.  And the elder in charge did NOT tell us.

The way the mission checks on our work has changed again.  Now we only have to report how many confirmations we have had that week, how many people were in church that Sunday, and how many less-active members who were in church had assignments.  I really don't care that the metrics have changed again but I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that two of the three metrics have very little to do with what we as missionaries can do.  (There are active members who don't come to church every Sunday.  And missionaries can't give assignments to the less-active members who actually do show.)  But I'm sure there is a reason these particular metrics are now being tracked.

On Friday we finally went back to Domingo's house.  In his prayer he asked God to send us by more often.  He missed us.  :)  Oh, and Friday morning was spent chipping paint off of walls so that the Cruz family can re-paint their house.  Usually people here just paint on top of the cruddy old peeling paint.  Needless to say, the new paint job doesn't last very long when they do that, because the paint underneath just keeps chipping off and peeling away and the newer paint peels away with it.  I never thought I would see somebody do a point job even mostly right in Argentina, but now I have.  :)

Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday we had appointments with Emiliano.  We've finished up all of the missionary lessons with him.  He had his baptismal interview Saturday in the morning.

And he didn't pass.

Turns out he had smoked two days beforehand and had never told us.  What's more disappointing is that the person who offered him the cigarette was his brother, a recent convert, who shouldn't be smoking either.

Saturday after the interview, we had our last capilla abierta [open house at the chapel] in Banfield 2.  While speaking with one of the members there, I was told that Emi's mother is also smoking in secret.  Supposedly.  And she is also a recent convert.

Sunday we went over to the house and found Emi's mom all alone.  I don't even know how the topic came up but she told us that, yes, she did smoke a cigarette the other day.  She knew she shouldn't but sometimes she has moments of very high stress and she falls into temptation.  We still need to meet up with Emi's brother and find out what HIS story is, if he is smoking all the time or what.

Doing missionary work and seeing someone accept the gospel and make the necessary changes to his or her life is joyful, but this week had its share of sorrows and let downs.

Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer

Editor's note:  As every smoker knows, it can be very difficult to quit.  The following article might be helpful for those trying to overcome a smoking habit as well as those trying to be supportive of someone trying to quit:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2002/02/tobacco-quitting-for-good?lang=eng

Emi es un Capo!!!

I'm writing this e-mail late because we had a really really pleasant p-day right up to 4:00pm when one of our less active members called us.  Her brother had died and she needed us RIGHT THEN!  We were in ChangoMas (aka Wal-mart) when she called.  We told her we were coming as fast as we could, finished up our purchases, took a bus to our house, dropped off the groceries, and then took another bus to her house.  The truth is that any other day and any other situation, we would have walked.  It's really not all that far.  But seeing as she needed us NOW-- we took the bus.

Funnily enough, our normal appointment for Monday nights was canceled.  :(  And that is how we were able to do all of this.  Go and comfort a lady very very very upset about the loss of her brother AND still write our e-mail home.

We might be having a baptism the 15th!!  His name is Emiliano and he is the brother of Gabriel and one of the sons of the Ferreyra family.  Like all of the other people I have ever been blessed to teach, he came to us.  He told us he was finally ready to listen to the lessons.  We can barely keep up with him.  He starts keeping commandments before we have even taught them.  I guess it comes from listening to alllll of the lessons the sister missionaries gave to his parents and his brother.

He and Gabriel came to church this Sunday.  Both of them in white shirts.  (No ties, but whatever.)  Like they say here, Emi es un capo!!! -- He's a boss!  We just need to finish teaching all of the lessons before the 8th.  Pray for the Ferreyra family.  They need it.

Things are a little less cheery with Andrea and Debora.  Unfortunately their mother has decided that she does not want Andrea to be baptized.  Participating is fine, but she doesn't want us to teach her daughter.  She never told us anything, but when we had our appointment with Andrea and pulled out our scriptures, she told us that she won't go behind her mother's back.  Her mother had told her that she couldn't take the lessons.  But Andrea also said that she knows that the church is something good and that she wants to be a part of it.  She is willing to wait a year to be baptized when she turns 18.  And during all that time, she has plans to be fully active.  She'll be what we call a dry Mormon -- completely active but never baptized.

Tuesday night there was a really bad storm.  The members on our side of the area made it through pretty well, but a lot of the roofs of the houses on the elder's side of the area blew off.  The power went out in the Ferreyra's house for three days.  The house of the family Cruz flooded.  The roof of the Canerelli's caved in.  Etc, etc.  It was really bad.  The last couple of days have been spent helping clean up the mess.  Debora's roof folded in half.  And the worst part is that it just keeps raining and raining and raining.  There's no time to FIX the roofs.

Annnd... Thats all I've got for now.
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer

Polar Bears and Chickens...

This week we had stake conference.  The Saturday session was held in Banfield 2, just a half an hour travel.  To our very very very very very great surprise, Gabriel, Martin and their father attended the priesthood session!  To our even greater surprise, they all came back an hour later to the general adult session bringing with them Hna Ferreyra!!  They had originally indicated they weren't coming because, a) Saturday was Gabriel's birthday, b) Friday was Emiliano's birthday and c) Sunday was Ivan's birthday.  Andrea, one of our investigators, went to the Saturday night session as well.

And the best part!!!  Gabriel FINALLY came in a white shirt and tie.  It's a kinda funny story.  During the priesthood session he was in his usual blue and white checkered shirt.  When he came back he was wearing a white shirt and the tie that Elder Villegas gave him.  I guess being in a roomful of men and being the only one in a colored shirt made him feel as visible as a polar bear in a room full of chickens.  Now we just have to get him to tuck the dang shirt in properly...  :)

Andrea also came to the Sunday morning session.  When I say "Sunday morning" I do mean MORNING.  The bus for Lanus left at 7:45am for the investigator and new member meeting that started at 8:30am.  We got there a few minutes late.  Andrea has also started dating one of the less active youth in the ward.  He is now active.  :)

The stake presidents here did something new.  I guess.  The choir for the stake conference was us missionaries.  We had two sessions of practice total so I hope we sounded nice.  Supposedly the only female voice anybody could really hear was mine.  There are only four sister missionaries in the zone.  My companion is kinda tone deaf.  (I'm not being mean, she really hates singing) and the other two sister missionaries never showed to any of the practices, so they had no idea what they were doing.  Well...  I sure hope I sounded nice because EVERYBODY knows it was MY voice they were hearing...  If not, that's embarrassing.

Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer

Lots of Really Good Things

I had the joy of taking an online class for BYU-Idaho today, so my e-mail this week is going to be a little shorter than usual because I'm out of computer time.

It's been a really long week.  We've had a lot of really really good things happen and a lot of little bad things happen.  For example:

Andrea, one of our investigators and sister of a recent convert is 17 years old.  Because she is a minor, we have to ask her mother (or father) permission to teach her.  Her mom didn't tell us that we could teach her daughter, but she didn't tell us that we couldn't either.  But it turns out that later in the week, Andrea's mother told Andrea that she couldn't talk to us anymore.  As such, we haven't had a single lesson with her for a while -- until her mother lifts the "no sister missionaries" ban.  BUT, Andrea went to Mutual, and another youth activity and came to church all by herself this week!

Gabriel made an appointment with us without us pestering him.  And he came to Sacrament meeting, too.  Now we just have to convince him that he needs to come to ALL of the meetings EVERY Sunday.  :)

Hope all of you are doing great --
Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer

Rain and More Missionary Work

It's been a really long week full of rain.  Lots and lots of rain.

Every week we have to keep track of all of the lessons we have taught to members and investigators, and the number of people we talked to and stuff like that.  This week there were a lot of zeros.  We had other activities going on, but they didn't help our numbers any.  And next week won't be any better as far as our numbers.

Monday we had our usual Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] with the Ferreyra family.  The only difference this week was who was present.

Tuesday we had our district meeting and lunch (a miracle) and then we spent the rest of the day wandering around trying to find someone to talk to.  It was rainy so nobody was interested.

Wednesday we ran around like lunatics from one end of our area to the other.  (Our area is pretty big.)  That night we had meetings.  We followed up with Gabriel.  We also asked the bishop to meet with him, to try and find out why he doesn't want to come to church.

Thursday was actually a productive day.  We did stuff and talked to people.

Friday we locked ourselves out of the house (wasn't my fault) and so we spent the whole day locked outside.  And it was raining cats and dogs.  Hno Cortese [Brother Cortese] had to come, jump the neighbor's fence and dismantle the doorknob to get us our keys.  Friday wasn't my best day.

Aannnd, Saturday and Sunday were General Conference.  The broadcast timing is a little different here so we weren't able to do any proselyting.

Next week we have an open house in one of the chapels, and Hermana Sanchez has tramites.  (No, I don't know the English word for tramites but it has a lot to do with standing in line all day and waiting.  Think "frustrating like going to the DMV to renew your driver's license" but longer.  Exactly like that.)

Hermanas Crotzer and Sanchez

'Til next week --
Hermana Crotzer

Editor's note:  Tramites is some kind of government procedure or process, and most likely has to do with Hermana Sanchez' passport / visa status.  She is originally from Bolivia.

Join Us for General Conference

Busy, Busy, Busy

This week was really really really really really busy.  You can see how busy it really was by the fact that I took the time to type the word "really" seven times.

Monday we had a really nice family home evening with the Ferreyra family.

Tuesday we spent all stinking day in meetings.  (And we were an hour late to one of them.  It was the elders' fault.)  Between all of the meetings Tuesday, we managed to have an appointment with Gabriel.  He told us he was bored because we just keep teaching the same things.  Yup.  That's right.  That's because they are the "new member lessons."  ·sigh·  Sometimes this man is just so... finicky.  :)

Wednesday we had our first appointment with Tati (Andrea).  She's gonna get baptized soon.  She already has a date for the 18th of October.

Thursday the bishop canceled his meeting with us, so we waited in the chapel for the elders so that we could return their vacuum.

Friday we planned in less than an hour.  I still can't decide if that was a good thing or not.  Because our planning was really in depth, it just didn't take the usual three hours...  We also had an appointment with Gabriel.  We taught something new!!!  :)

Saturday we had a ward service project in the morning and a capilla abierta [open house at the chapel] in the night.  We did nothing alllllll day long.  (That's not true, we did lots of stuff it's just that none of the stuff we did helped us have better numbers.)  For the service project, we painted/cleaned a preschool.  I don't ever remember my school being quite so dirty.  But maybe that's the reason we were doing the service project.  It was desperately needed and there wasn't anybody else to do it.

I have absolutely nooo idea what I am doing training.  It doesn't help that I (still) don't have the booklet used to do the training program.  I'm not even sure if we finished all of the stuff we were supposed to this week.  And we sure haven't had language study even once.

What Thomas wrote about in his letter about how hard it is to let the new companion do stuff is sooooo true.  I know that it would be sooo much easier and faster if I did everything.  But at the same time, my companion would never learn.  I'm not so sure how well I've been doing.  I can't seem to let go of the cell phone.  I'm pretty sure she thinks that it's my phone and not OUR phone.  Yeah... I should probably work on that...

Diego got baptized the other month.  The elders in Madariaga sent me photos!

Con amor,
Hermana Crotzer

Editors note:  Full-time missionaries take the lead in teaching lessons before baptism with the help of ward missionaries and other members.  After baptism, new members are taught the first four lessons again.  The lessons contain the essential doctrines, principles, and commandments.  They are organized so that missionaries can help others clearly understand the doctrines of Christ.

The first four lessons are:

• The Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Plan of Salvation
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ
• The Commandments