Dear Family,
Thank you all so much for your love, support, and e-mails!!! Today is 25 de Mayo which is basically the Argentine 4th of July without the fireworks (they save those for Christmas and New Years). Everything's closed for the national holiday so we were lucky to find an Internet Café open but I forgot to bring my camera so I apologize. This week we had an actual convert baptism!!! Nancy Ramirez was baptized last Saturday at 5:00 PM. We were fortunate enough to have the baptism right after a Relief Society meeting so we had most of the Relief Society present at the baptism. Nancy couldn't decide who she wanted to do the baptism when we went by on Friday so we "cast lots" and the lot fell on Elder Williams so I did the baptism. The Bishop couldn't come because he had to be with his wife who was sick but he was able to make it to church on Sunday to perform the Confirmation. Everything worked out just perfectly in the end even though we had a couple hiccups. We even were able to clean up the font and still have time to get ice cream to celebrate. That day as well we didn't have a whole lot of time to make lunch so we discovered a restaurant called "Samuel" where we got a large hot dog with a huge side of fries for 5 pesos ($1.50). When we were at the Chafalá family's house the mom told us that her sister was really good friends with Nancy and that she had talked to her about the church but that Nancy didn't seem very receptive. Much later Nancy needed help and her other friend, Miriam (also a member of the church), helped her out with many emotional problems. Nancy started going to church with Miriam in Plumerillo but technically they both live in our area, San Miguel. Miriam decided to go back to the right ward so that Nancy could bet baptized and on Saturday she was baptized! We've been really happy lately :) . Luis is still very active in church even though his wife is going through some tough health problems and can barely walk sometimes. Our Gospel Principles class was very full on Sunday as well which is always good. We had Emir and Martín who came for their first time since I've been here at least. Both are going through difficult times but are helping each other out and both said they felt a lot better for having gone to church. This really is a church of healing. No one's perfect and the Gospel is for helping those who want to better themselves so basically EVERYONE needs the Gospel. It's always amazing watching people progress and even the oldest members can progress towards having a better life. The Gospel really is amazing. Every time we leave someone's house we always ask if there's anything else we can do for them and they almost always just ask for us to pray for them. We always offer to do service, cleaning, or whatever is needed but they always just ask that we pray for them. The people here are really amazing. I was really fortunate to have been sent to Mendoza, Argentina. Thank you all again for your e-mails and I hope you have a most fabulous 25 de Mayo!!! I love you all!!! Bye!!!
Love,
Elder Williams
P.S. They do actually have milkshakes here but they're kind of expensive and they call them "batidos."
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