Week 12

For my wonderful family and my wonderful friends,

This week was craziness. We had 2 divisiones and one of them we set up the night before. It happened super fast.

Our first division was with Parque Leloir. I went there and paired with Elder Venecia. Elder Venecia is a top notch missionary. It was great to learn from his example. I also had to speak Castellano the whole day so that was difficult. However, I am happy to say that I spoke reasonably well. We taught several lessons and also had lunch and dinner there which was pretty nice. Plus the apartment they have in Parque is super nice. 2 floors, a shower that is amazing, and a lot more than the 3 rooms we have here in Ituzaingo. Still, I love our pension. In companionship inventory, we talked about the good qualities of the other missionary and what we thought of the division. Elder Venecia commented on my diligence and exact obedience. It was nice to receive such good praise from an amazing missionary. I told Elder Venecia that he was patient and full of charity. I highlighted both of these based off of his actions during the division. He made me breakfast in the morning which was something that I completely did not expect. He also remained very calm and patient with me even though I knocked him off of his bike on accident. He is quite the missionary.

Our second division was with Elder Marple and Elder Sales, our Zone Leaders. I was paired with Elder Sales and got to speak Castellano for another full day. This division would have to be characterized by the amount of contacting we did. I felt like we contacted everyone. We could barely have a conversation with him because every time we started to talk about goals or the mission, we´d contact someone. I learned that we could probably be doing a bit more of contacting in our own area, but I recognize that our area is different than Villa Amelia. I still had an awesome time with Elder Sales and his approach to missionary work is very unique and effective. His Castellano is incredibly good and it really helps him to contact anyone he wants to. He gave me some advice during the division that caught my attention. He said ´´Don´t compare yourself to other missionaries. God put you here to be you and do missionary work in your own way. You can take advice from others, appreciate the work they do, and augment your work based on that, but at the end of the day, just be yourself and do the work.´´ I loved that.

I have to talk about the fact that I used Nnamdi Okonkwo´s ´´I´m a Mormon´´ video.  (Click here to open the video on Fayetteville GA artist Nnamdi Okonkwo.) We went to a lesson and I decided to share that video with them. Man. Nnamdi Okonkwo is a cool guy. I realize that I haven´t been away from home that long, but seeing him and all of his kids in that video brought back so many memories of home. I am super excited to have known him and his awesome family. Sometimes on a mission we have to deal with hard things. ´´Come What May and Love It´´ is a great talk. The advice that I pulled from it this week was to laugh when life is difficult. I got pooped on by a bird. I laughed. Instead of being a nuisance; it was actually really funny. I still have a stain on my shirt and that´s rough, but instead of losing focus and having an awful day, I just enjoyed the moment for the comedy that it was. (Click here to see the video, Come What May and Love It.)

I must apologize for forgetting you guys a bit. I didn´t realize how long I´d gone without thinking about my family until Elder Millett said the name of one of my friends. I realized that I had been so busy all week that I didn´t have any time to think about home.

We taught an awesome lesson this week. I´m not sure who first showed me this connection, but I love it. Alma the Younger sees and angel in Mosiah 27 and recognizes that he needs to repent. He repents and changes into an amazing missionary. If we don´t look very closely, it can seem like Alma´s conversion came through an experience that many people will never have. How many of us have ever seen and spoken with an angel of the Lord? However, Alma´s testimony didn´t come through this experience. Alma 5 distinctly shows that Alma´s testimony came through fasting, prayer, and hard work. I think that all of us can handle a bit of hard work. I taught this lesson to a less active and it went very well. I was comfortable and spoke freely, and I know that´s what we needed to share with him.

Hope that all goes well at home. I love you guys.

-Elder Sultan