Knowing God

¡Hola!

Wow sounds like a crazy busy week for everyone! I still can´t believe that Anna is 8! Thanks for all the pictures etc. It was good to be able to at least see all the pictures. It´s kinda funny to see pictures of a baptism that is not a convert baptism since that is all that I see here... I found myself wondering "where are the missionaries?".I also wish that I could´ve been there but am glad that I wasn´t :)Ha ha the whiffle ball game sounds like it was a blast. I once had a very bad experience with whiffle ball in high school so I am not tooo sad that I missed it. Ha ha just kidding... we´ll have to play when I come home.

At every lunch appointment we have we give a little short lesson at the end of it. Yesterday it was my turn to give the lesson and this past week I had been reading in Alma 22 about Aaron and the conversion of King Lamoni. I love this whole story but in particular verse 18 where the King says that he would give away all his sins to know God. My companion then shared John 17:3 where is says that eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ, and how is it that we show that we know them? By doing the things in our lives that they would do if they were here.

I want to invite you all, as we did this family, to think about what "sins" or things you have in your life that is keeping you from knowing God or acting/doing the things that He would do if He were in your shoes. (Yes, that´s right I am always being a missionary :)

This week was really good. The weather here reminds me a lot of Idaho in that some days it is really warm and other days I am dying from the cold. But all in all it is pretty good. I can´t remember if I remembered to tell you that they literally dig huge trenches to capture all the water from the rain.... yeah winter should be pretty interesting here.

My new companion is incredible. I am learning tons and tons from her. One of the members in our ward talked to her about how as senior companion she should talk less than I do because I need to learn (yes the members here are basically like my family so they are always looking out for me). Not that she talked a ton more than I did before but now I talk a ton during lessons which is way helpful for my spanish! Including the fact that yesterday I taught Gospel Principles by myself! It went well so I was excited about that. Also during our testimony meeting the members basically just talked about how amazing the missionaries are and how they need to help us. So it looks like this week we will be having lots more lessons with members and Family Home Evenings :). It´s really great when hard work pays off and the Lord blesses us.

So I´ve found that when people yell things in the street it is really easy for me to not listen to what they say. So the other day we were walking in the street and a guy yelled "Dame la palabra del Señor"... I wasn´t really paying attention and then my comp looked at me and in english said, "Give me the word of the Lord". It was so funny that I laughed for probably like 10 minutes.

One of the biggest things that I learned from my companion is that is Argentine culture I am a bit cold. I tried to explain the concept of personal space (Yes, Cade I know right now you are singing the MC Hammer song, "Can´t Touch This") but apparently it just comes across that I don´t love the people. So well it´s true that I don´t really like to be touched... But I am working on it. I guess I never really thought about it that much before but my comp dropped the cane on me this week that I need to change that... SOOOO I am working on hugging people etc more... Ha ha we will see how it goes.... Goodbye personal space... But in all honesty it´s super awkward for me still (yes I taught my comp the word awkward to explain this situation since there isn´t really a good word in spanish) but I am pretty sure that it will get better :)

There was a change in things in the mission so I will only get mail about once every 3 weeks.... oh my. This was just a little FYI for you all :)

Ok I better go but am glad that we are an ETERNAL family. Know that I think about you all often, pray for you always, and love you forever!

Hna Escalon (ha ha that is how everyone says my name here.... it means stair :)