Happy Independence Day!

I hope you enjoyed the 4th of July. I missed all of the traditions we have in the USA to celebrate our freedom. Today is the Argentine Independence Day and the only thing they seem to do here to commemorate it is to close everything down and not work. I love Argentina, but I am so proud and grateful to be a citizen of the United States of America.

This week was good, but full of all kinds of ups and downs. Guess what? I have a new companion... again....and it´s possible that she´ll only be my companion for 10 days. It´s possible that I could have a record number of companions in the mission. Hahaha. Hermana Rojas is my seventh companion. She´s from Peru and spent the last 3 months of her mission serving in the Lima Central mission waiting for her visa. We´ll see how everything develops. I guess God knows I need to progress a little more and that´s why He´s giving me so much change in so little time.

I can´t believe I´ve reached my ten month mark already. The time passes by way too quickly. I am determined to give everything I´ve got to these last 8 months of my mission. Each day I feel that I´m turning everything over to God and losing myself in the work. It´s a great feeling. I only wish I could have started doing it sooner, but I think I´ve had a few major turning points in my mission the last two weeks that have helped me understand my purpose as a missionary and what it is that I need to change to be a useful tool in the Lord´s hands.

Andrés came to church yesterday. This time he was able to stay until the very end of Sacrament meeting. It was really hard on him, but he´s really putting forth the effort to be able to be baptized on the 21st. He´s going to be a really strong, faithful member of the Church here in Argentina. We have some other really good investigators that are progressing slowly and I´ll give you some updates on them as they progress a little more.

I started reading the Book of Mormon over again. I´m trying to do it from the perspective of an investigator and pretend like I´ve never read it and have no idea what´s going to happen next. I´m loving it. I don´t think I´ve ever been so excited to read from the scriptures every day or ever felt the Spirit so strongly as I´ve read. Every day I feel more and more how special a book it is and feel grateful more and more every day to be able to have it in my life. Yesterday, Marcela, a recent convert, taught in Relief Society. The lesson was about missionary work, but it turned into a discussion of the Book of Mormon and the power it has in conversion. It was so great to be able to listen to the sisters in our ward remember their conversion and share the experiences they´ve had with the Book of Mormon. I love the Book of Mormon and know it is true. It really does testify of Jesus Christ and contains the fulness of His Gospel. I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I have as a missionary to share it with the people here in Buenos Aires.

I love you all. I am so grateful for all your support and prayers. God bless.

Erin