Aaron

Hello once again.  It´s crazy to see how time flies here.  I feel like yesterday was P-Day too!  Not a whole lot happened this week because my companion went to Cusco to do some legal work so he can go home when the time comes.  So I got to hang out with the zone leaders!  I got to see the differences in the two and realized what works and what doesn`t.  It was pretty cool though.

The first day my companion was gone, I worked with a member.  He is a recent convert but wants to serve a mission so I thought it would be good for him.  Not a whole lot happened that day.

The next day I worked with Elder Jackson, the gringo zone leader.  I have learned so much from him just talking to him, but now I got to see how he worked.  We also talked about a lot of things which I will probably explain in a minute.

The last day I was with the other zone leader, Elder Villa.  I have also learned a lot from him, the way he teaches, and what I need to do to improve.

The first thing I learned is that as missionaries, we waste a lot of time.  Not all missionaries, but most missionaries waste a lot of time.  Most of the time wasted is talking to investigators.  We talk about things to build a relationship, but when we talk about things and ask questions that we don`t really care about, the relationship is fake.  So with wasting time, the second thing I learned, is that we need to make sincere relationships with the investigators, and the best way to do that is to be straight forward, but also loving.

With creating sincere relationships and wasting time, I was able to learn how to contact people the right way, and also teach the right way.  A lot of missionaries think that they need to be in the lesson for an hour to be a good missionary, but really we are just wasting time.

One of the most important things I learned, is that we need to have faith that the Lord will put someone in our path, but we still need to look.  It`s not by magic we get baptisms. With this faith, I learned that wherever we are, the Lord sent us there for a reason.  If both our citas fall, we are there for some reason.

A story with that, yesterday we went out to Chapajal which is the farthest place from our sector.  It`s a pain to get out there.  The family we usually visit out there is always home when we come.  This time they weren`t there.  So we went to our back up plan.  We knew there was a less active family that lived out there so we visited them.  They didn`t have time, but we are now coming back Saturday.  We also got a reference from them.  So we went to the reference which was not far at all.  They are also less actives.  While we were getting a cita with them, I saw someone carrying shovels and things so I asked if I could help.  She said yeah, so we took the things to her house and talked to her a little bit.  We now have a cita with her.

Now I don`t know how well any of these people will progress, but because that one family wasn`t there, the only family we used to visit in Chapajal, we now have 2 families and one other investigator that we are teaching.  Sometime the Lord will put someone in our path and they will be ready.

I learned a lot more, but it is a lot to write.  In other news, we have a baptism this Saturday!  All he needs to do is show up.  Also right before coming to internet, we saw a moto crash.  Pretty sketchy, but everything is good.  I don`t know what is going to happen with the situation because we left, but everything looked good when we left.

Thanks for all the support everyone.  You guys are in my thoughts.  Love you all.

Elder Augat