"Before we even broke our fast we started seeing miracles"

written March 17th

I am not really sure where to start this week because there are a number of things I want to share and some things that I just won´t be able to get to. I guess I will start by mentioning the fast we did as a mission and the miracles we have seen from that. 

We get an email from President Ávila two weeks ago saying that we would be fasting as a mission last weekend (or what was the weekend to come). It was a fast he called for after receiving a letter from the area seventy in concern of the quantity of church attendance. That is church attendance of investigators, recent converts, less-active members, and just members in general. As well as a fast conerning our ability to reach our goals as a mission for baptisms. Before we even broke our fast we started seeing miracles. 

On saturday night we received a message from one of our best investigators saying that he would not be able to come to church or listen to us anymore. He didn´t say why that night but we assumed it was lack of support that he was receiving from his family. His wife was being hard on him for listening to us and would refuse to listen when he would invite her. We were able to make him agree to an appointment on tuesday. 

Fast forward to sunday after church. For a bunch of little reasons we were held up in church and ended up leaving a little later than usual. As we were heading back to our pensión before going to lunch we ran into him which was unusual because I had never seen him before in the street. But the miracle wasn´t just running into him - he was with his wife and his daughter. We were able to greet them, small-talked for a minute, and as we parted he said, "see you on tuesday." I was ecstatic to have seen him and to have met his wife but didn´t realize the signifigance of that moment until he told us on tuesday.

On tuesday during our lesson with him he mentioned what happened after. As they were walking to his father´s house she said, "why don´t you continue meeting with those boys, they seem nice." He said he tried to "play it cool" on the outside but deep down he was filled with joy. As were we when we heard him tell the story. It might not seem like a lot but that was a big step for us and him. This gospel is for families and that was the first step towards softening her heart. We want, he wants, and the Lords wants this for their whole family. 

I won´t be able to tell about the rest of the experiences this week but let me just say that we had a number of really cool things happen that opened new doors, re-opened old doors, and helped us keep some doors open... haha. 

To finish off the great week our Sunday was phenomenal; we were able to see the fruits of our fast. Church attendance tripled from the week before and was the highest that I had ever seen since being in Argentina. We had a number of people that came for the first time and quite a few recent converts and less-actives that we have been working with come as well. As well as some people that hadn´t come to church in a long time that we didn´t even know about.

Great week and all is well is Zion :) Hope you all are doing well!

- Elder Rainock

Some pictures from our zone meeting last week. My comp, Elder Gibbons, is the blond headed one :)

Also, there are a number of pictures that I am in on the Mendoza mission blog if you want to go look at those. Some of them you have to look for me in the background but I am there :)