Less...awkward robot, more...servants of God (week 31)

Woah. so this week was something.  First off, none of our investigators came to church on Sunday and Argentina lost the Copa Americana finals in soccer yesterday. Secretly, Elder Wihongi and i were rooting for Chile to win yesterday in the Copa Americana. It was done out of spite that none of our investigators came to church. hahaha. Don't worry, I've already repented.

That's all the bad news, and theres not a lot, so thank goodness!! Besides those two things, this week was pretty sweet. We were able to meet alot of our goals this week and we are super stoked now. Also we have been getting progressively better with our teaching. I'm proud to say we're teaching less like awkward robots and more like servants of God!! 

So, now I know that I don't just have bad luck with the bikes here, I also have train issues! we had to go up to a little town in our area called Gowland which you can only reach by a 50 minute train ride. So we took the train up there and we visited all the less active and investigators we know and none of them were home (of course) so we went back to the train station to go home. As we're sitting on the train platform waiting, a guy comes up to us and says the train workers have gone on strike! Huh? So in the one hour that we spent in Gowland, the train went on strike!! My comp and I are thinking "oh good, we were hoping the train would go on strike today!!!" "Hope we can find some sketchy bikes to ride so we can get home by nightfall." So, we found some sketchy bikes and we started the LONG bike ride back to Mercedes. Sadly, we took some weird route that ran along the train tracks and we were on that trail FOREVER. The whole time i was just waiting for some random thief to jump out of the brush and rob us of our candy and cameras but luckily we had luck and that didn't happen. Instead, we were just chased by random dogs!!! But, because we got lost, we found out that we have a small lake in our area, a bunch of brick making Bolivians, and also another small town that we didnt know existed. So it was all quite eventful. 

Its Steadily getting colder here and its also coming into to the rainy season. Yippee. So there always seems to be a constant wind blowing and it always seems to be blowing against us, no matter what angle or direction we ride our bikes!!! haha. 

We visited a less active family this week and it was funny because at the end of the lesson the fathers uncle walked in and we met him and then we asked the family for references of other people we could visit and as we writing down some references we asked if there was anyone else we could visit and the uncle was like "Umm...you can visit me!" We looked at him and looked at eachother and were like, "Oh man! We are so lame!!" Did I say we were "less awkward robot and more servants of God?" Haha. Anyway, we quickly covered our awkwardness and asked the uncle if we could come tomorrow? It was super funny afterwards, as we were thinking about it because it was so random. So we visited him the next day and we managed to set a date for him to be baptized! Crazy.

Elder Wihongi and i have been sharing messages alot about the Atonement lately. The moment in Jesus Christ´s life when he suffered for all the sin of the world and sweat drops of blood for you and me.  We have really been trying to drive home the supreme importance of applying the atonement. I forget sometimes the significance of this, the ability to throw off my burden and guilt and to feel happy once more is not something to kept to oneself. We teach of the neccesity of praying on bended knee to God To receive this gift and not to wait but to apply it in our lives and apply it now!
I know that the atonement is of supreme importance and it is, in reality, something real. Jesus Christ really does exist and He Did do that for me and my family and all the people past, present and future. This knowledge of the Atonement is mine and no matter what happens i know that it is true. 
I love you guys and i love this work!!
Elder Ren Porter

The first pic was taken on the train platform right before we were told they were on strike! And the other two pics were taken on our journey home from the train!