Baptism!!

Hey everyone how was your week! This last week has been awesome! On saturday we had the baptism of Jonathon Reyes which was an amazing experience. He was baptized by the bishop and had some family members who weren´t members come so that was really good for them to be able to see a baptism and feel the that strong spirit that is always in a baptimal service. Jonathon is an amazing guy as well. Yesterday he told us in church that he was up until 3 am reading the scriptures/the gospel principles book. He has done a complete 180 and is really a new person in more ways that one. When I met him I honestly didn´t think that he was gonna get baptized all that quickly if at all. He´s really a great guy and has been really converted. His dad had a big influence on him and this last saturday when Jonathon got baptized was also the month aniversary of his dad´s death. I think it made the day even more special for him and I´m sure his dad is extremely happy with him in what he has done. Maria is struggling a little bit. She´s been traveling a lot back and forth between Dorrego and Bahía cause she has to go to doctors that are in Bahía and it makes it tough for her to go to church. Her son Sebastian is about the same cause he says he wants to get baptised with mom so until she settles down and gets into a routine it looks like it´ll be a little tough for them. Please pray for them so that they can get everything settled and start progressing. We do have a baptismal date with Maria´s daughter, Daniela. She´s a way cool girl who really wants to do things well. She´s 19 and has 2 kids already which is tough but she´s working really hard and wants to change her life which is awesome. She´s really willing to make changes and do what the Lord asks so please pray for her as well so that she has the strength and help that she needs. Besides them it´s somewhat slow as always. Thing´s here in Dorrego are pretty much all the same but Elder Thomas and I are doing well. We are working well together and I´ve probably gotten along better with him than almost any other companion I´ve had. I´ve been really blessed with good comps and Thomas is a stud of a missionary. We´re doing a lot of contacts and I´ve started to realize that a lot of people already have decided if they´re gonna let us in or not before they even open the door. The other day we knocked a door and I asked the lady who answered if we could come in and share a message. She said no so I asked her why and she said she didn´t believe in the same things as we do. I said "Do you believe in God?" and she responded "No I´m catholic". That kinda left me thinking/laughing a little bit. It´s kinda funny cause sometimes we could say almost anything and it´s like the people don´t even listen to what we say. Interesting stuff. Well I gotta get going, we have a family home evening set up with a member and she was gonna invite a bunch of non member people to it. Thanks for all the love and support you all give me. You guys are amazing and I really appreciate it!!! Con amor

-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

After I wrote...

Hola familia cómo están? Everything is going good here in Dorrego. This week was a little slow but we´re recovering and gonna have a much better week starting today. On monday right after I wrote you all I got a call from one of the members here and she told us that Maria took a bunch of pills and was being taken in an ambulance to Bahía and they weren`t sure if she was gonna make it or not. We all starting praying like crazy cause she wasn´t conscious. On thursday we went to that members house to see if they knew anything more and they told us that she had woken up! Apparently during the week they were also in Bahía and they went to go get some missionaries to give Maria a blessing, they did and she´s been getting better and better. The doctors had done everything they could before that and there was nothing else they could have done and then they went and got some missionaries (who just happened to be our zone leaders) and they gave her a blessing and slowly she started getting better. So on thursday Maria woke up but still couldn´t talk, then we went back to the members house on sunday cause we had lunch with them and they told us that Maria started talking, they took her out of intensive care and that she keeps slowly getting better. And from what else they´ve said to us, Maria´s son Sebastian really wants to get baptized! Looks like we´ll be taking care of that as soon as they get back. We´re still not sure when they´ll be coming back here to Dorrego but we hope that´ll it´ll be soon so we can keep teaching them. So that was the crazy stuff that happened this week investigator wise. We also had zone conference on friday which was awesome!! I learned a ton and it was a really good experience. Now we only have zone conference every 3 months so they´re a lot more intense and hands on which is great cause I think we learn a lot more and it´s a lot more personal. My interview with President Detlefsen was really good and just things that were said in conference really helped me put things more in perspective and I´m starting to see more the purpose of everything and the sometimes mysterious ways the Lord works in our lives. I felt like I knew there was some lesson for me to learn here I just couldn´t figure out what it was yet. President is amazing though and he helps me out a ton, it´s kind of a bummer cause we only have interviews every 3 months as well and the interviews are only 15 minutes long or so. Not a whole lot of time but hey it´s what we´ve been given and we gotta make the best of it. Besides that things are going pretty well here, a little slow but well. Thanks for forwarding that email from Daniel, it´s cool to see how he´s doing and what´s going on with him. Oh I also heard that Pedro and Angelica got baptized this last weekend, how cool is that!!!! Elder Dominguez sent me an email telling me they were gonna get baptized which was way cool!!! Thanks for all the love and support!!
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan

Dorrego

Hey everyone how´s it going? Things have been pretty good here in Dorrego, a little slow as usual but good. We´re almost done with another transfer which is hard to believe. We have this week and next week and we´ll already be at transfers once again. Not a whole lot of stuff goes on here in Dorrego. This week we were able to find quite a few new investigators and have a few people with baptismal dates but it looks like we´re going to have to move them back because they´re taking a little longer to progress. We have Maria and her son Sebastian for the 14th of this month but they didn´t make it to church yesterday and Maria was telling us that she felt like it was a little soon so we´ll probably be changing that in the next few days. She´s way cool though and you can already see the changes that the gospel is making in her life. Before we started teaching her she had a ton of problems and it was almost like she didn´t know what to do with herself or everything that was going on. Then we started teaching and she looks happier everytime we go over there. Her son Sebastian is the same. When we first got there he was way quite and didn´t really talk much, now it seems that we´ve gained his confidence a bit and he´s a lot more open and talks to us a lot more. They´re way cool people we just need to get them to church, that seems to be the only thing they struggle with for now so please pray for them so they can do that. We also have another lady Betina for the 21st of this month. She´s a super nice lady who we actually found knocking doors. The missionaries had taught her a few years ago but they both got taken out at the same time and for whatever reason the new missionaries never went by her house. Talk about being guided by the Spirit cause we almost went right passed her house then I stopped and said to Elder Thomas, "hey let´s knock this door". We knocked and she basically let us in right away. Please pray for her as well cause it will help her a ton. That´s pretty much it investigator wise. We keep finding people but not a lot of them are progressing so that´s gonna be the new trick, to help them progress or find those who will progress. Things are going good though and Elder Thomas and I get along really well, which is really good being in a small town pretty far away from everything else. Yesterday in church was a bit of a shock. Only 15 people showed up including us, I had never seen so few people in a sacrament meeting before. Looks like we have our work cut out for us and I think it´s a little more than I thought but it´s all good. We´ve been working with the members a lot more which has been great. I´m getting a huge testimony of how important it is to have members in the lessons with us cause they had a whole new aspect that makes the lesson a lot better and much more powerful cause investigators are hearing testimonies and experiences from people that don´t walk around preaching all day. I think it helps them see how the gospel applies more in everyday life cause sometimes we explain one thing 5 times and they still don´t fully understand it, but then the member comes and gives testimony and it they have a better understanding of that principle. That happened with one investigator we have called Marta. We had a lesson with her and a member Hermana Molina. Marta has a ton of challenges in her life and the Hermana Molina has had similar challenges. Having both of them together was amazing, the spirit was way strong and it was one of the best lessons I´ve had in a long time. Marta didn´t want to pray cause she said she was angry with God for all of the things that had happened in her life. Hermana Molina beared testimony and helped Marta feel like she´s not alone and needed to pray to God to get help and to have more peace in her life. Marta committed to pray and we saw her yesterday and she was way happy!! Much happier than she had been that day we taught her. Stud members are the best. That´s all that´s really been going on out here in Dorrego. Thanks for all the support and all the love. You guys are amazing and I love everyone of you! Mom I can´t believe your in NY!! And dad thanks for all the advice and encouragement. John your sweet, keep being how you are bud. Love you all,
-Elder Nicholas Gaughan