Saludos de Zapala!
This week was great. On Wednesday morning nine of the 12 zones in the mission went to Neuquén to listen to Elder Teixeira who is a general authority. It's always fun and a bit weird to go to Neuquén for me. We were in the stake center and I spent quite a bit of time there for zone conferences and other meetings while working in the office.
Elder Teixeira told us he speaks 7 languages, but Spanish is not one of them. He's still learning and spoke a mixture of Spanish and Portuguese. The interesting thing was that everyone understood what he was saying. I suppose that's the spirit!
Two big questions that we have had as a mission lately are 1) How can we baptize and 2) How can we have greater support from the members? In a meeting we had with the zone leaders and sister leaders we asked Elder Teixeira both questions.
In response to the first he said 1) it's easy fill up the font and find someone with the priesthood willing to perform the ordinance. In response to the second he said 2) members are busy and you can't expect to always have their support. Basically he showed us that in order to see the fruits we want, we need to do two things. We need to do everything by the spirit, and talk with everyone we meet. I'd say that summarizes his message in one sentence.
So this week we did what he suggested and it went really well. For the week we had 104 street contacts, and I think every single one was a different experience. We listened to the spirit and had some great conversations about the gospel. Two of the 104 are new investigators who are really interested, and there are about eight more that we still need to visit who want to learn more.
I feel great right now! I realized this week that my purpose is not about baptism, it's about conversion. I'm here to help someone gain a testimony of the Savior, a conviction of Christ. Baptism is only a small part of that.
I love all of you!
Elder Kauffman aka Jack