I am emailing a little bit earlier this week due to having 4 missionaries having to share the same computer. Anyway, this week was actually a lot of fun. To explain, the city of Ibarreta is one branch but there are 2 sets of missionaries in it. To be honest I actually kind of like it. My area is so small compared to my last area. In my last area I had to spend $500+ pesos a month just on bus transportation. and here I can walk from end to end in 20 minutes. It is actually nice. And also the members are super cool. The biggest difference between the last branch in Fontana compared to here is that here there are actually youth. Having youth in your branch is actually really nice for missionary work cause the youth just like talking to you and youth have a lot of friends. So we get to work with them which is fun. Earlier in the week last week we did a family home evening with one family in the ward. It was super fun. We shared a message about recognizing and learning the language of the spirit. We started out by writting just some words in english and asking them if they knew what they meant. Obviously they didn't and then we translated it for them. Then we talked about how learning a new language is the same when learning the language of the holy ghost. Just like how you have to study and put in effort to learn a new language. You have to DO things in order to learn to understand what the spirit is telling you. You have to do more than talk about it. Then after we shared that message we played uno.... and that was the first time I have played UNO with native spanish speakers. So that was a cool experience. Except I realized that I havent developed the vocabulary for card games haha. That is another thing that is different here. We have a family home evening every week with members which is very fun to do and participate in. It switches things up and is a great way to get references and for members to invite friends to get to know the missionaries.
One thing that I forgot to mention in last weeks email was something really cool. Here in northern Argentina there are Aborigenes indian tribes that have little church groups established. And there is a tribe right next to Ibarreta that the missionaries have to visit and take care of. I have pictures of the little meeting house on dropbox. In this tribe the speak their own language called "Pilaga". But they also know spanish. But we have to take a day every week and go visit all the members there and then on sunday we have to go over there and administer the sacrament and conduct a small little sacrament meeting. It is pretty cool.
Also this week the other Elders in Ibarreta had a Baptism on Friday. So we got to go to that. I have a picture of that on Dropbox as well. It was of a 12 year old kid of a part member family. But as far as the missionary work in Ibarreta, it is a little more exciting than in my last area. We ran into a guy in Saturday and had a lesson with him. We had a super good lesson with him and turns out he is from Buenos Aires but recently moved here like 3 weeks ago. He is like 25 years old but was involved in drugs and just a bad life style in Buenos Aires so he moved here to get a fresh start. Then we arrived. We had a great lesson and explained the restoration to him. He was super excited to got to church Sunday but we arrived at his house Sunday morning to pick him up and a neighbor pretty much told us that he was up all night drinking. It was a little disappointing but.... we are going to be working with him cause he is super ready and prepared to make a change in his life.
But anyway, I am doing great here. I have felt comfort this week and the spirit in this work. It is exciting to know that you are all just excelling in your lives, jobs, schooling, and callings. Keep pressing forth. Love you all!! Peace!
Love,
Elder Corbin Keicher
