Here is a picture of me and my new companion in the new pension! Dont make fun of us because our wall is pink...
Got to go running with the Assistants early in the morning the other day! On the side of the river. Some of the most beautiful runs I have had are here in Argentina... (although nothing beats a mountain run!!!) This is Elder Magdeleno, and when I first got here in Argentina, I noticed he said something in English, like "hello, how are you?" I then told him "good job your english is really good!" He said "thank you" and then we went our separate ways. A couple hours later, I noticed he was speaking FLUENT english. He was pulling my leg the whole time. He is from Idaho, but his family speaks Spanish in the house...
With my new assignment I have to wait for a lot of calls late at night, and the whole time we have to be dressed in church attire. This is me waiting for the last call to come! Missionaries get tired sometimes!!!!
The following blog entry is an entry from Taylor’s journal (written January 24, 2015)
A day in the life of Elder Graves...
Okay we had a pretty great experience this week! When we walked away from the it, I said to my companion "esa fue un experiancia que nunca vamos a olvidar" or that was an experience that we will never forget.
When this experience happened, we told each other that we were going to take special time in the night to count this story in our journals. Let’s just say that I have never come home wanting to work MORE. We usually come home SO TIRED, but today we really felt the love of Christ in our last lesson.
We were working hard today in the morning and had a couple lessons fall through, taught some people who didn’t really want to be taught. ;-) We had lunch with a SUPER awesome family (Familia Gutarza con el Hermano quien tambien se fue en su mision a Bahia Blanca). We ate Tacos! Then we had studies. We had a blast talking about new ideas for making contacting more fun. We are thinking about making a Bandera (had to ask my companion for this word) banner that would be HUGE and we would use it to teach the Plan of Salvacion. Then we left to go on divisions with two brothers from the ward. I went with Hermano Ruben Cabrera. He has 2 years in the church and has a huge testimony. We taught 3 really great lessons. After which we shared a good spiritual thought with the family Duante.
Afterwards we decided to go visit one sister who we invited to church but haven’t really taught her much yet. She is super funny and told us she really would like to go to church and have help to quit smoking. But we had passed by her house the other day and she seemed to have avoided us. So when we arrived she seemed very protective and defensive, but still we wanted to re-extend the invitation to the church next week. As we talked to her, her hija came and she was also with her friend. They didn’t really look like they wanted to keep talking.
Then we found out that the hija’s name was “Luz” or in English “Light”. We told them we wanted to sing the song “Lead Kindly Light” Or “Divina Luz” in honor of her name. We sang the song and it sounded pretty good. Honestly, I received an impression that told me we needed to sing for them. My companion thought it might be weird, but we still did it. When we finished singing we looked up from our hymn books and more than ten children had gathered around our feet to listen to us sing. They screamed and told us to sing again! We sang in English and then in Spanish the song “Nearer my God to Thee.” They were in shock with the English part and you could really feel the Spirit. Afterwards we started teaching the little children about the story about Nefi and how he learned the importance of keeping the commandments. When we started talking about the importance of obeying what our parents said, the two moms got excited. They said, “Listen to them kids! What they are saying is true!”
Finally when we finished our presentation of the story of Nefi, one of the little kids asked me if we would sing again before we left. I told him yes, one more time.
We sang the first verse of “I am a Child of God”. The Spirit was so strong confirming the truth of those words to me and my companion, but the children were simply enjoying the song. But when we sang, “Soy un hijo de Dios” and they finally understood the meaning of the song, the spirit testified to them also that the song was true.
The sister (Claudia) then told us she wanted to come to church with her family to feel that feeling again.
I realized today that experiences like that are the reason that I am here on my mission. Not necessarily to baptize or convert a million people, but to help people, families, feel the love of God and to help them know QUE SON HIJOS DE DIOS, that THEY ARE CHILDREN OF GOD.
Amo Este Evangelo
Well I hope you all enjoyed reading today! Thank you
to everyone who is writing me! I feel bad because I can never respond
to everyone the week they write me, but I always try to at least write
them later on. So if you dont get a response right away, know that I
still love you! ;)
Elder Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
LA IGLESIA DE
JESUCRISTO
DE LOS SANTOS
DE LOS ÚLTIMOS DÍAS
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3. Send letters through the Church Pouch Mail Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes).
Fold the letter in thirds, secure the long side with tape about one inch in from each end. Do not seal the ends. Stamp and address the blank side as you would an envelope. Use the following mailing address:
Elder Taylor Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT
84130-0150
------------------------------
4. Physical Mailing Address.
Due to exorbitant costs incurred in the country of Argentina by the church, He can not receive packages :-( - not even a bubble envelope. Please refrain from sending anything other than an envelope/letter - anything else will likely be returned to sender.
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
------------------------------
2. Send mail through www.DearElder.com
They will print and mail it for you at no cost (without a stamp). This is a free service.
www.DearElder.com Instructions:
Select the "Argentina Posadas Mission"
They will print and mail it for you at no cost (without a stamp). This is a free service.
www.DearElder.com Instructions:
Select the "Argentina Posadas Mission"
------------------------------
3. Send letters through the Church Pouch Mail Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes).
Fold the letter in thirds, secure the long side with tape about one inch in from each end. Do not seal the ends. Stamp and address the blank side as you would an envelope. Use the following mailing address:
Elder Taylor Graves
Argentina Posadas Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT
84130-0150
------------------------------
4. Physical Mailing Address.
Due to exorbitant costs incurred in the country of Argentina by the church, He can not receive packages :-( - not even a bubble envelope. Please refrain from sending anything other than an envelope/letter - anything else will likely be returned to sender.
Elder Taylor Graves
Córdoba 1243
Posadas, Misiones 3300
Casilla 12
Argentina
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