April Fools Day, 2013 Hey famsauce This week was pretty good. Oh I just remembered. I was going to tell you that my first day here in Mendoza zone (I am actually in a place called las Heras...) was really stinky, smelly, sewagey and overall a foul experience. I am not one for mucho negativo but la verdad, it was like that. Here is why. We got to our apartment in Las Heras and I started to get out the things that for sure had to be unpacked like my almost 70 ties for example and my books so that I didn´t have to waste any time the next day or that night unpacking instead of feasting on the good word... So I did a little unpacking, and then we decided to head out to go meet some investigators and members. First of all, this area has the most part member families I have ever seen. Where everyone is a member except for the dad (there is even one case where the whole family is baptized except for the parents, but only the dad doesn´t know that all the kids are actually baptized in the church... So thats kind of uncomfortable.. I met him the other day and I kind of felt bad that he thinks we keep coming to his house because we are buddies, and not because we teach the recent converts and secretly want to get him baptized too... ) anyways.... We were about to leave and I realized I couldn´t find my funda anywhere (funda is scripture case). I tore apart the recently clean and pretty much empty apartment because the funda had MY spanish scriptures. They are MAR-CADAS. And now I don´t have even english scriptures so I was really worried for a little bit. Well... I decided that I left them on top of the taxi that took us to the pench (like all those tragic times when you get in your car and realize that you left your big gulp on top as you peel out of the 7-11? I know at least mom knows what I mean:). So I decided that I was just going to pray, ask for a miracle, and take out a backup funda that Elder Crawford had, with some give away copies of the Book of Mormon. I promised in the prayer that if God somehow got my funda back to me, I would redouble my study efforts and cut back on just reading, and I also asked that through this miracle someone would come to know the church. Okay. So we leave the pench. We do some things, and I am not really worried about this funda thing because I am just really really confident that the Lord is going to bless me with some great news. We go to a service project. The hermano wanted to fix some plumbing, that entailed digging in the rocky, hard Mendoza soil (all of the "tierra virgen" is used in the vineyards and fields...). So we dug and broke rock for a while until we hit a big nasty problem. Apparently the pipe we are fixing is the pipe that leads from the "throne" of several nearby houses.... At least thats what it smelled like, and that what the hermano and us came to conclude... Not positive yet... But for one reason or another, we ended up having to reach our hands down a perpindicular pipe to "unclog" (ewwwwwww) it so we could do something else. I know, not really clear because I didn´t really get the point of what we were doing anyways... so my comp was busy digging in another part of the trench we digged....dugged. daged? and so the hermano and I played catchipu (rock paper scissors) and I beat him 5 to 0. So up went his sleeve and and in went his arm. That was some foulness of such evil that I have never smelt before.... Well the hermano is a larger guy, who enjoys his alfajors and mate, and unfortunately his arm did not reach to the point of the clog. So this guy (pointing to myself) rolled up his sleeve and shoved his flaquito arm deep into the abyss. Mission accomplished. The clog luckily was a little plastic flower plant.... No idea what that was doing deep in the plumbing but whatever. I washed my whole arm with what was available... paint thinner, a antigrease detergent, dish soap, and finally a nice bar of soap. Since the smell had not totally faded away, the hermano sprayed some of his wife´s perfume all over my arm and it was a done deal. At least I was overpowering everyone with a smell like Augest Lavender instead of... well you know. So that was the terribly smelly part, but I actually really enjoyed myself. Still no funda. The next morning, we started studying and luckily I had my paperback Book of Mormon so as I was finishing Alma 19, we got a call and the Hermano who called us asked my comp how Elder Daybell is doing. Which was wierd because I hadn´t met him yet.. so watch this. He was inside the chapel watering the plants there and some young married couple came to the church and knocked after they realized that the title of the church written on my scriptures that they found scattered in the street matched the one on the big plaque right in front of the chapel. OH YEAAA!!!!! Miracles do happen ladies and gentlemen. Unfortunately we don´t know anything about the married couple, but they should live in our area. I will be on the look out. Other cool stuff happened. Elder Steeves is one of our district leaders and he is also the most experienced and the other two are newbies, so we are WAY excited. Our zone has set a super high, but faith filled goal of baptisms this month. We are going to help Elder Crawford finish well:) Well, I am good. I love you guys. I haven´t heard anything about a release date. But in my temple recommend interview President said that the 19th I would be in the Buenos Aires temple. So I haven´t recieved any date besides that. If you want you can email or call the mission. I don´t know the phone number... but for sure you could find it on the website of the mission or something like that. Love you guys. Have a way great week. Elder Daybell