Gone to the Dogs

I feel like it´s about time I said something about the dogs here. Hopefully, this doesn´t turn into a venting session. haha 

So the very first night I got here to Argentina I remember that I couldn´t sleep because of all the dogs that were barking right outside the window. I remember thinking, "This is going to be a really long year and a half."

This week I was thinking about how I hadn´t really heard the dogs barking outside lately. That same night when I went to bed I realized that there were still hundreds of dogs barking outside but we are just so tired at the end of the day that we fall right asleep. 

Every time we walk past a house, the dogs run up to the fence jumping and barking. Every time we knock a door, the first thing we do is close the fence or look to make sure the wall is high enough that the dogs can´t jump out. We have weekly scares of almost dying and fighting the stray dogs off. 

This week I had the biggest scare of my life. Honestly nothing even happened, but I really thought in my head, "This is it." Haha! So, nobody ever ties up their dog unless they are REALLY bad. If they are bad, they roam, free to bite and attack. But if they are REALLY bad, sometimes they tie them up. My comp wanted to clap this one house that had the meanest, scariest, blackest, biggest dog I´ve seen in Argentina. It was chained up and had this full on harness thing and the chain was attached to two different stakes in the ground. Obviously we examined the situation before we knocked. We started clapping and the Dog started running FULL SPEED at us. The first stake ripped out of the ground and I literally thought I was dead. I started bookin' it. The dog got super close to us and luckily the second stake held in the ground. #almostdied

We had a lesson with this really sweet family. All the children have special needs and problems. They live in a really humble home with hardly anything. We introduced ourselves and were asking the mom about her family and she asked us if we would go in and see her daughter. We were a little confused, but we walked to the back of the house and one of her daughters that is handicapped was laying on the bed. The mom was asking us to try to get her to get up and bathe herself and talk to her. The daughter, Fransica, has been there for months and wouldn´t move or talk to anyone. We talked to her for a little bit and she started crying and got up to take the picture of Jesucristo. When we left, she was on her bed but sat up for a minute. That moment humbled me so much. 

I couldn´t help but think of the people that begged Jesus Christ to help their sick and afflicted. It is so amazing to me that we are complete strangers but because we represent Him, this lady invited us into her home and wanted us to help her daughter. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary. 

Love you!