Dirty Empanadas

Hola Fam!!!

Well this week was pretty fun. We actually did a lot of things this week. Right after P-day we had a family home evening with the Coria Family here and it was pretty fun. We shared a message from the Liahona that I read and really liked about families. Then we ate popcorn and talked. It was enjoyable. It is super nice to have family home evenings on Mondays as a missionary cause you go straight from p-day to spending time with a member family. The next two days on Tuesday and Wednesday we were alone here in Ibarreta because the zone leaders and another companionship went to Potrillo which is like 6 hours north where they had 8 baptisms in a large group/colony. So Elder Taylor and I stayed here and worked as usual. On Tuesday we were able to have a lesson with an inactive lady named Lidia (28yrs) and her relatives. It turned out to be a really cool lesson. We read 1 Nephi 8 (Lehi's Vision) and Elder Taylor drew a picture of it while we read it. Then we had a simple conversation about it afterwards, about what all the parts in the vision meant. We then invited them to our English class on Thursday, her and her niece (17yrs). And they actually showed up to the class on Thursday then Sunday they came to church all 3 hours of church. It was super cool. 

Wednesday was a normal day but ended up pretty disappointing. We went through the day normal and had a couple lessons with investigators. But the whole day I was looking forward some empanadas we were planning on eating that night. So 8:30pm comes and we arrive at the house of this girl in the ward named Celeste. She is in a young women and she sells empanadas every week to help pay for epilepsy pills. SO we buy every week form her. So this Wednesday we bought 2 dozen. We get there and she hands us a nice warm greasy bag of empanadas.... my mouth was watering. I had even prepared and bought ketchup. Elder Taylor was holding the bag of emapanadas when I just hear paper tearing and then the sound of 24 empanadas hitting the Ibarreta dirt streets....... all 24 beautiful empanadas laying in the streets. I was truly devastated. But you may think the most logical thing would have been to throw them away..... but I just couldn't do that. We picked them back up carried them to the pension, brushed off the dirt and boom... they were still good. And ketchup helped cover the taste of dirt. 

Anyway, Thursday we had a great day painting at the house of an inactive lady's house names Clotilde. We painted in the morning and then she made us lunch. That afternoon we had our english class which went smoothly. Friday we had a zone meeting which wasn't too special. But the Saturday we had a fun day. We had a baptism of a girl named Blanca. She is a girl of 9 years old from the colony here right next to Ibarreta. Technically it is not our baptism because we didn't teach her. The other Elders here did. But they were in Portillo, so we did it. All went very smoothly. Her brother who is 19 years old, baptized her but I had him use my baptism clothes. After the baptism, Elder Taylor and I stayed in the church to watch a transmission of the South America south area presidency present "El Plan de Area" so we watched that for an hour and  a half. 

So yeah, that was basically my week. This week is going to be fun because we have to travel to Resistencia this afternoon and stay there until Wednesday night to do paper work for Elder Taylor's Argentina ID card. So I will be on  a bus to Resistencia for 6 hours from 11am-5pm your time MST. But I will fill you in on the this next week. 

I love you all. I just started reading the new testament this week and I absolutely loved the part in Mateo (Matthew) 4 when Christ calls out to Peter to "Make them fishers of men". My favorite part is in verse 20 which says, 

" 20 Ellos entonces, dejando al instante las redes, le siguieron." 

(20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.) 

Christ always teaches in analogies and here the part the really stuck out to me was "Dejando al instante las redes" or leaving their nets instantly.

For me the nets is the analogy and for every one of us we have different nets we have to leave behind in order to follow Christ. For some of us, our nets are our pride, selfishness and overall natural man. The nets for Peter had to be abandoned in order to follow Christ. So what ever impedes us from following Christ is our nets, we must leave. 

Anyway love you all. hope you have a great week. 

Elder Corbin Keicher