Well, this week was crazy. End of the month registros were insane as normal. I found out two days before they were all due that we were missing two more but didn´t know who they were or what area they came from so I had to go through all of the zone numbers of the month and figure out what I had recorded and what they had recorded and find the difference. Needless to say, it was a mess. But in the end I got it all figured out and everyone can rest happy. We´ve also started this new retention program and I had to fill out on these excel sheets whether or not a convert was going to church and if they had the 5 lessons taught to them after their baptism. And I had to do that for every convert in the mission over the past two years. So that was also a blast. But it´s good that we´re starting to work towards better retention because the retention here is horrible. There were a couple barrios where none of the converts in the past two years were actually going to church. Typing in all of those number really gives you a unique perspective on how strong the wards are here. Some wards had almost all of their converts coming and others had hardly any.
I got to drive in Argentina this week. The mission just traded out their old minivan for a newer one, the problem is that this newer one is stick. And Elder Ostler, who drives the car a lot to do errands and renew visas, didn´t know how to drive stick. So, on Thursday we had to drop some packages off at a nearby stake center where president was doing interviews and since we had just gotten the car the day before and Elder Ostler didn´t know how to drive...I got to drive it. It was so legit. I felt like a boss driving stick again. After that we had to drop some stuff off at a pench and then I taught him how to drive. It was pretty cool. Although I kinda wish he didn´t learn because it would have meant I get to drive more...but that´s alright haha. It was a pretty cool experience igual.
Yesterday night the Ward had a really cool Christmas Party. It was slightly unplanned (I spent a good half an hour trying to help them hook up a computer to the projector in the cultural hall) but a lot of people came and we had 4 non-members and a couple less active members come so it was great for us. Ward activities are the perfect time to invite friend because it´s a little more casual than church and they have better opportunities of getting to know everyone else and feeling comfortable. We watched the movie Joy to The World which has clips of the savoir ´s life while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir signs Christmas carols in the background. It´s a way cool movie.
Speaking of cool church movies, we got an email from the distribution center that I read about the new Bible Videos website the church is in the process of making and watched a couple and they are absolutely incredible. Right now there´s only 6 focusing on the birth of Jesus but they´re going to add videos gradually until there´s around 100. If you haven´t seen any of them you have to watch it. Now.
This week has been bitter sweet with Adriana. She is just so stubborn and doesn´t want to change because she says being catholic feels like home. It doesn´t make sense because she´s told us multiple times that she thinks the Book of Mormon is true etc. but we got to the point where we didn´t know what else we could do to help her and she wasn´t progressing. She loves us though, she´s gave us these mugs that say Mendoza on them, a key holder that has this saying in Spanish on it, and yesterday at the Ward Christmas party she gave us a poem she wrote for us (she used to be a literature teacher) and a Christmas Card. She is about the nicest person in the world but maybe it just isn´t her time quite yet.
Welp, that´s about all I got for now. I hope you all have a splendid week!
Love, Elder Lounsbury
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