Monday, December 23, 2013 8:49 AM
Christmas is coming the elders are getting fat....
Well I Hope that all is worked out for Skype. Elder Corry is going first so he can take care of all the bugs haha. We have a camera and a microphone so hopefully things will be good from our end. Like I told you I will be calling around five o clock here (around 1 over there) and have 45 minutes to talk! How exciting no! Well I am glad to hear you are enjoying the Christmas season, I saw some lights on a house (very rare) and I thought of when we used to drive around and look at the lights. To start off I’ll tell you about what we will do on the 24th night. We are going to be with the Familia Leyes and they are going to cook us lechón (baby pig) y cordero (lamb) yummee. I hope I like the lamb because the last time I had lechon it wasn’t horrible but not my favorite. That will be a lot of fun. This week has been good. All my weeks just seem to be so good even though they are so hard. Maybe that is why they are so good because we are working so hard and seeing that the Lord is blessing us for our hard work. I’ll start with Miguel. He doesn’t have any legs and was baptized como testigo de jeohva (as a Jehovah Witness). And for that reason he knows a lot about the bible and has some weird doctrinal thoughts, but he is awesome. He really has a desire to learn and I think that he will, his faith is amazing and through some service we did for him (moving fridges) hopefully it opened his heart and the heart of some of his family (we think it did from what they said to us and just the difference we can already see). Olga y Roberto weren’t too serious investigators but recently are starting to progress. They are having a rough time financially and Roberto says that he needs a spiritual outlet. They really love us missionaries and Roberto even gave us both two awesome ties for the navidad (Christmas). Then on Sunday Roberto came to church, he liked it and asked how long someone had to come before they could get baptized. (Hopefully he was talking about himself and not just a general question we need to get back and talk to them about that). Then, finally, the perfect one, Malvina. We taught her the last lesson and did the pre entrevista (interview). She is so ready to be baptized and we have only been teaching her for a little over two weeks. That is why I say she is the perfect one. She had taken out her nose piercing but still not the one in the lip so I asked her if she could give it to me as a recuerdo (souvenir). She tried to take it out but couldn’t (it has been three years since she has taken it out). Then the next day in church she gave it to me because she put some soap on it later and was able to take it out. She did it without complaint and just said that she knew she had to. So now I have a sweet lip piercing..... I am thinking about putting it in to call you guys! Not really. We asked about who was going to do the confirmation and baptism and she said that Hermano Casares is going to do the confirmation and she asked me to do the baptism. I am so honored and so happy for this moment. She really is a miracle in our lives and a great blessing to help me work better. This week will definitely be the best one of my mission. My companion shared with me in Luke where the Savior is atoning for our sins. The Lord did not pass the bitter cup, but he did send an angel to help and support him. This mission isn’t any easier but right now I can really feel the angels and the blessings that he is sending my way. This week will be a lot of fun and planning for the baptismal program, it is going to be great and I am so excited!
LOVE;
Elder Andrew
Monday, December 16, 2013 1:03 PM
Subject: Chillin like a ..... actually it is really hot.
Well I will start off with the funnest parts of the week. A few days ago the water in the shower stopped working so now we are showering out of buckets. It is actually kind of fun and with the weather being so hot we don’t mind the coldness so much. We got the fans and really enjoyed them.... and then the power cut out. We have a new rule to be in the pension before dark because people are starting to rob a lot of business, but we haven’t seen anything to worry us in our area (so don’t have a heart attack mom). We had an awesome asado today with our district and if I do say so my cooking skills are improving. I made the rice, salad and cut up some tomatoes for a side dish. They call me "big mama" in the pension, and I do the majority of the cooking and dish washing and the majority of the nagging... so I guess you could say the title has reason behind it. I sent you a picture of noodles and tuco that I made and was delicious. I love the great opportunity we have to just learn everything on the mission; it is probably the best opportunity to learn ever. Yeah I could imagine that regular life would be boring if you weren’t a member of the church or weren’t on a mission right now. That too bad that Meghan feels the best part of her life is over (Meghan was a friend of Ben's that he knew in high school. Brian saw her the other day.) I really can’t imagine life not on a mission I have thought about how it would be to just go straight to college and that would be so lame and the mission is 100000x better than anything I ever did in high school. It all just seems so far away now. We are working hard. Alejandra’s kids are better but I wouldn’t say she is quite back on track yet. We called her on Sunday and she was sleeping and didn’t come to church. So we have some work there still and maybe a little of bajando la caña to do. Hady kind of disappeared; we will have to track her down again. Malvina is a stud, if there was ever anyone ready to receive the gospel it is her. She has come to church twice and doesn’t show signs of stopping. She understands everything and can explain back to us what she read when we go for the visits. We were going to teach her the law of chastity and word of wisdom but she fell back into depression about her boyfriend that died, so we took some time to talk about the Savior and his atonement and told her to take her problems to the Lord especially in sacrament meeting the next day. Well it seemed like she did because we taught her yesterday and she seemed back to normal and feeling the Spirit and we taught her the lesson. I was nervous because we were going to tell her that she needed to take out her piercings (one in her nose and one in her lip) and I was getting nervous but as I expressed that part with love she just kind of laughed and said she knew she needed to take them out and said she would. So we will see tomorrow when we get to her. I really am loving it down here so much and I am very excited for the next few weeks! I love you all very much and will tell you all to really study your scriptures it is very interesting what you can find when you really try.
Monday, December 9, 2013 11:52 AM
Bueno, esta semana fue excelente y muy dificil pero asi es en la mision. (Well, this week has been excellent and very difficult but such is the mission.) Are you still going to have those missionary mom meetings? Bennet told me he is training now too and is a district leader, talk about responsibility, but I knew that my best friends were studs and still totally are. Blake said he doesn’t have any spanish investigators, I couldn’t imagine that, sometimes I get frustrated with Spanish but I just love it so much and the people that speak it and how the culture is that I couldn’t really imagine it different. I am trying to talk is more spanish with Elder Corry and he is learning really quick. He is a cool elder and it will be cool to hang out with him after because he will be going to UVU as well. Could you get me Shaun’s email, I really want to email that guy. Oh Elder Reynoso went home due to his back and won’t be able to come back out for a year or two. I was sad but he really should have taken care of those problems before, I will still try and keep in contact with him though. The area....... Lanus Reading
Elder Andrew
Monday, December 2, 2013 8:02 AM
First with the companion; Elder Reynoso had ernias en su cintura o algo asi (I think Ben is saying hernias in his middle or back; perhaps a herniated disc? or something like that). Something he should have probably taken care of before his mission. We called president because he just didn’t know what to do the pain was so bad. So they took him away from me.... they stripped me of my beloved son. They opened a new area for him and another elder that has a lot of allergies and is sick and they are going to ride bikes to see if that will help. I really felt sad and miss Elder Reynoso we got along amazingly well and bit (knit?) a very strong bond for the short time that we had together. So I wasn’t too happy with that. In his place came Elder Correy. An 18 years old Yankee from Sandy, Utah! He is a newbie as well with only a week and a half in Argentina. He can speak Spanish better than I think I could when I had that time but of course struggles with it. To be honest it is harder to train him, and I really missed Elder Reynoso at first but I am trying to get over that, and I am starting to love just talking in Spanish and would a lot of times just prefer to talk in Spanish, but I need to use English to help him understand. I am starting to do better with that and I hope helping him out. He doesn’t have any health issues as far as I can see. I am really starting to love the Latin people and if the rest of my companions were Latin I would be happy. They also told me that because now I am a senior companion unless I do something bad I will be a senior companion for the rest of my mission. The Lord has just been giving me a lot of responsibility really fast on this mission. The language is coming along well; I can be a trainer in Spanish which is pretty amazing to me how much the Lord has blessed me with that. I obviously still lack a lot, but I gave a 40 or so minute gospel principles class on Sunday and it wasn’t really even a struggle. (It sure went a lot better than the one I gave in Glenview Ward). My mission is changing; it is completely different than it was just a few weeks ago. We are working so hard and I am getting so tired and it is so hot outside but I just am enjoying it more than ever before! We are getting more serious with the work and are seeing results. Alejandra is an investigator that we have had for more than a month, that we would just kind of teach lessons that weren’t super focus and you could tell she wasn’t retaining too much and wasn’t coming to church. So when elder Reynoso got here we gave her a more frank talk and said what she needed to do if she really wanted to be baptized. Then the next lesson we gave her a calendar that I asked Elder Juarez to make for me a long time ago, but Elder Aldana didn’t want to use because he didn’t like the idea. It has a calendar and the baptismal interview questions on it so she can see her fecha (date) that it is real and so we can write our next citas (appointment) with her and the reading she has to do. She asked us (reading some of the questions) who Joseph Smith was, even though we had already taught the first lesson. Afterwards she even told us that that lesson felt different than all the other ones before. We told her we would come back to get her for church so we could make sure that she came. Then when we went to pick her up, she was already ready. We didn’t have to wake her up or anything. She had already showered and everything, as well as the less active member she is living with. She is taking things more seriously and things are starting to change. They all came to church and really liked it, then after we had two baptisms of the other elders, so they got to be there to witness that. She has a date for the 21 to be baptized, and I really think that she is going to make it. I know that we are going to do our part, now it just is up to her. This week one of the sons of the Presidente de quorum (Elders Quorum President) died. He was young like 26 and got in a moto (car) accident and died. It was very unexpected and hard for them. We went during the day to their house and there was a bunch of people crying and we offered the hermana if we could do anything. I almost wanted to break the rules and just give that poor woman a hug, but I didn’t. Familia Casares (familia=family) they are called and they amazed me with their strength. The poor couple is active but none of their kids are and they have told us before how that worries them and now this happened. And then Hermano Casares (hermano=brother) made sure that his elders were still taken care of, that someone was there to teach the lesson and everything. We went to a viewing type thing because the hermano asked us to and we went. It strengthened me to see how strong those two were and that really their testimony of Gods Plan let them be sad but know that this is not the end. I could see their testimonies in the way they acted and held themselves. There were so many members of the ward there to help and comfort them as well. Seeing that family comforted and given brotherly love made me think, “como puede ser que esta iglesia no es verdadera?” (How can this church not be true?). It has to be true with members like that. I didn’t like this ward too much when I got here and I kind of thought they were just lazy people who weren’t really living the gospel. But over time these people are some of the best people I have ever met in my life. I will have the privilege to spend at least 3 more months with them, but when I have to go I know that I am not going to want to leave. The mission is so good, I am feeling the Spirit like I never have before, I am talking with people in the street about our Lord and Savior. Who else gets a blessing as great as that? I love the mission so much and I can’t wait to just keep doing it! The confidence is coming back. I had a lot of self confidence before and then lost a lot of it coming here and not knowing hardly anything or what was going on. Now the confidence is starting to come back and this is turning into what it really should be. The president told me that "you are always someone I can count on" that is a big responsibility to live up to, and I feel that responsibility every day, to train good, to live up to what my beloved family wants me to be and most importantly to be the kind of missionary the Lord want me to be. I love every one of you and wish you the best. Keep up the good work and keep opening your mouth about the gospel. I can’t wait to talk to you all in just a few short weeks!
Elder Andrew
Monday, November 25, 2013 12:59 PM Subject: The weeks get harder, the work gets better.
Hola mi querido familia!
Me encanta la opertunidad que tengo para escribirles cada lunes.(I love the oportunity I have to write to you each week.) les amo mucho y me fortalecen un monton. (I love you a lot and you strenghthen me.) La verdad es que pense que ya pase por thanksgiving pero alegro para saber que en relalidad todovia tengo tiempo para agradacer como un americano.(In truth I thought that Thanksgiving had passed but I’m glad to know that in reality I still have time to give thanks like an American.) Don’t worry dad I do miss wrestling especially since it doesn’t exist here and whenever I talk about it people don’t understand, but your updates won’t throw me off the work. I know how you feel mom with the not being prepared thing it was like I was taken from the frying pan and thrown into the fire, and I am getting a little burned. Literally with all the sun I am getting a bit more tan. I tell people that vine crudo y ahora me estoy consinando.(I came raw and now I am cooking) Pretty funny right? Well at least I think so. There was a bunch of crazy stuff this Monday so I don’t have as much time as usual and I will make my skpe next time and send you the information. Okay this week. Well Tuesday I gave birth to a wonderful twenty year old tucumano. If you didn’t understand that I got my hijo (son. When training they call the new missionaries their sons and the trainer is the father) on Tuesday and he is from Tucuman, Argentina! I guess I am just destined to have northern companions, and will probably come back speaking more like them than portainos, my companion even told me my accent is more like the people of the north. He is super awesome and already knows a lot of things. We are getting along very well and I am learning more than ever. We have a thing to help trainers called the 12 weeks which is a guide for training with the idea that in 12 weeks the new missionary will be capacitated to train. I am trying to really stick to that and use it well (something I wish my trainer had done, sometimes it is like I am reading something I never heard before). We are working very hard and I am even more tired than ever. We get lost sometimes but i am learning the streets quickly and he has a very good memory and even helps me out sometimes. I can tell that he really has desires to serve his mission and that he is out here for the right reasons. Actually he was supposed to go to Mexico but didn’t get his visa so he is waiting here. I hope I at least get to spend 3 months with him before he leaves. We are doing a lot of work with the members and trying new things. One of the things is teaching the restoration to the members so that we can practice and so that we can help out the members and also hopefully get some references. It is working well and I think I have taught more of the restoration this week than we taught my first three months here. I have to take the lead with everything in Spanish and I am holding out. The Lord really blessed me to learn quick and I still lack a whole whole bunch but I can survive. Elder Reynoso helps me to want to do better, I try to think of the example that I am setting for him and try to remember what it is like. We are having trouble getting investigators to come to church, we didn’t have anyone Sunday and we tried having members pick them up and we offered to bring them but it just didn’t work out. We did a lot considering that we only really had a bit of Tuesday until Sunday to work, and a lot of that was Elder meeting ward leaders and stuff like that. So this week is bound to be even better. My only concern is that his back hurts him a lot and even though he presses on and doesn’t let it stop him I can tell it is affecting him. We are working on a solution, just remember to keep him in your prayers. The Lord is really blessing me I just need to remember to remember him in all things and that really it doesn’t depend on how much time we have in the mission that this work is His and He will find a way to get things done if we will just work his way. The struggle goes on but the fight is worth it. The church evangelistas are lleno de gente (The Evangelist or Pentecostal church is full of people), the ones where they dance, sing, flop on the floor and all that weird stuff, and we are struggling with our church attendance. I guess it is just another testament that the church is true; nothing worthwhile in life is easy. I actually have that talk by Elder Holland. Elder Dodge passed it to my flash drive and I love listening to it de vez en cuando (at times). Stay strong Andrew clan and don’t forget who you are working for.
con un amor muy grande
Elder Andrew
Hola mi querido familia!
Me encanta la opertunidad que tengo para escribirles cada lunes.(I love the oportunity I have to write to you each week.) les amo mucho y me fortalecen un monton. (I love you a lot and you strenghthen me.) La verdad es que pense que ya pase por thanksgiving pero alegro para saber que en relalidad todovia tengo tiempo para agradacer como un americano.(In truth I thought that Thanksgiving had passed but I’m glad to know that in reality I still have time to give thanks like an American.) Don’t worry dad I do miss wrestling especially since it doesn’t exist here and whenever I talk about it people don’t understand, but your updates won’t throw me off the work. I know how you feel mom with the not being prepared thing it was like I was taken from the frying pan and thrown into the fire, and I am getting a little burned. Literally with all the sun I am getting a bit more tan. I tell people that vine crudo y ahora me estoy consinando.(I came raw and now I am cooking) Pretty funny right? Well at least I think so. There was a bunch of crazy stuff this Monday so I don’t have as much time as usual and I will make my skpe next time and send you the information. Okay this week. Well Tuesday I gave birth to a wonderful twenty year old tucumano. If you didn’t understand that I got my hijo (son. When training they call the new missionaries their sons and the trainer is the father) on Tuesday and he is from Tucuman, Argentina! I guess I am just destined to have northern companions, and will probably come back speaking more like them than portainos, my companion even told me my accent is more like the people of the north. He is super awesome and already knows a lot of things. We are getting along very well and I am learning more than ever. We have a thing to help trainers called the 12 weeks which is a guide for training with the idea that in 12 weeks the new missionary will be capacitated to train. I am trying to really stick to that and use it well (something I wish my trainer had done, sometimes it is like I am reading something I never heard before). We are working very hard and I am even more tired than ever. We get lost sometimes but i am learning the streets quickly and he has a very good memory and even helps me out sometimes. I can tell that he really has desires to serve his mission and that he is out here for the right reasons. Actually he was supposed to go to Mexico but didn’t get his visa so he is waiting here. I hope I at least get to spend 3 months with him before he leaves. We are doing a lot of work with the members and trying new things. One of the things is teaching the restoration to the members so that we can practice and so that we can help out the members and also hopefully get some references. It is working well and I think I have taught more of the restoration this week than we taught my first three months here. I have to take the lead with everything in Spanish and I am holding out. The Lord really blessed me to learn quick and I still lack a whole whole bunch but I can survive. Elder Reynoso helps me to want to do better, I try to think of the example that I am setting for him and try to remember what it is like. We are having trouble getting investigators to come to church, we didn’t have anyone Sunday and we tried having members pick them up and we offered to bring them but it just didn’t work out. We did a lot considering that we only really had a bit of Tuesday until Sunday to work, and a lot of that was Elder meeting ward leaders and stuff like that. So this week is bound to be even better. My only concern is that his back hurts him a lot and even though he presses on and doesn’t let it stop him I can tell it is affecting him. We are working on a solution, just remember to keep him in your prayers. The Lord is really blessing me I just need to remember to remember him in all things and that really it doesn’t depend on how much time we have in the mission that this work is His and He will find a way to get things done if we will just work his way. The struggle goes on but the fight is worth it. The church evangelistas are lleno de gente (The Evangelist or Pentecostal church is full of people), the ones where they dance, sing, flop on the floor and all that weird stuff, and we are struggling with our church attendance. I guess it is just another testament that the church is true; nothing worthwhile in life is easy. I actually have that talk by Elder Holland. Elder Dodge passed it to my flash drive and I love listening to it de vez en cuando (at times). Stay strong Andrew clan and don’t forget who you are working for.
con un amor muy grande
Elder Andrew
Monday, November 18, 2013 12:47 PM
Well it is good to hear that everything is good with the Andrew clan, you guys really are the greatest examples for me. My birthday passed really well and I had fun, some of the members even made me a cake, so that was really nice. I’ll get too the real news right away. Elder Holland came on Saturday with a few other general and area authorities and spoke to the three Buenos Aires missions. It was really amazing. Elder Gonzalez (who spoke in conference not too long ago) and his wife spoke and Elder Suarez and his wife as well. It was cool to listen in Spanish and understand it all, there are things and feeling and expressions that just don’t transfer over. They said many good things and it was pretty impressive and amazing to hear Elder Holland in person talking to a bunch of missionaries! His main focus was having our eyes focused only on the glory of God. I know there is a better way to say that but I can’t think of it in English. He also told us that we can not go inactive and that what we are doing here is very very important. He said the worst thing he has to deal with is missionaries who have lost the light in their eyes. All in all it was very inspiring and very awesome. In this last week I was thinking about the probability of change in this coming transfer and thinking about what I wanted. I thought maybe it was crazy but the Spirit reminded me that often the Lord has many blessings for us, or wants to give us our righteous desires he just waits for us to ask him. So I prayed and the lord answered my prayers in the way that I had asked. Entonces (therefore), Elder Aldana left today and tomorrow I will (have?) me one of the newest missionaries to the Buenos Aires South Mission. That’s right.... tomorrow I will start the training of my hijo. President called me Saturday night and asked if I was dispuesto (willing) to follow the advice of Elder Holland and of course I said yes and afterward he told me that I would be training. I still don’t know if he will be latino or yankee that I will find out tomorrow. For now I am with Elder Davis an elder in my zone who will also be training. It is crazy and after the call I felt dazed and a little bit sick. I guess be careful what you ask for! I am really excited though and I know we are going to see a lot of miracles. I just want to be the trainer that both he and his mom have prayed for. Please say a lot of prayers for us because we will definitely need them, and we will be more lost than argentines without their mate. I am very grateful for this chance to learn and be humbled. If I do get a yankee I feel like I know enough Spanish to survive, but we will see. So this weekend was pretty much just earth changing. Thank you, Mom, for writing to Elder Aldana. He really appreciated it and I could tell it lifted his spirits. Please continue to write him if you can. He may not have been who I thought was the greatest companion and we didn’t get along super well sometimes, but I think as I tried I came to understand him better and I really do love the elder and want the best for him. I will never forget my father (Elder Aldana), who now will be a grandpa. Elder Dodge also left and Elder Hayne came in his place, he is really friendly and nice and I already know he will be an awesome elder to get to know better. I cleaned the pension pretty good today because I want everything to be as perfect as it can for my hijo manana (son tomorrow). Even if I am not ready, the Lord has called me and I will serve. He will know how much I love the Lord as well as how much I love him. I am going to listen to him a lot, because I have come to find out that one of the greatest signs of love is listening, really listening and thinking about what other people say. God only asks that we listen and obey, but if we cant even listen to the people right in front of us how can we listen to the quiet promptings of the spirit? I love you all and hope you have another wonderful week and don’t have too much fun without me!
Elder Andrew
Well it is good to hear that everything is good with the Andrew clan, you guys really are the greatest examples for me. My birthday passed really well and I had fun, some of the members even made me a cake, so that was really nice. I’ll get too the real news right away. Elder Holland came on Saturday with a few other general and area authorities and spoke to the three Buenos Aires missions. It was really amazing. Elder Gonzalez (who spoke in conference not too long ago) and his wife spoke and Elder Suarez and his wife as well. It was cool to listen in Spanish and understand it all, there are things and feeling and expressions that just don’t transfer over. They said many good things and it was pretty impressive and amazing to hear Elder Holland in person talking to a bunch of missionaries! His main focus was having our eyes focused only on the glory of God. I know there is a better way to say that but I can’t think of it in English. He also told us that we can not go inactive and that what we are doing here is very very important. He said the worst thing he has to deal with is missionaries who have lost the light in their eyes. All in all it was very inspiring and very awesome. In this last week I was thinking about the probability of change in this coming transfer and thinking about what I wanted. I thought maybe it was crazy but the Spirit reminded me that often the Lord has many blessings for us, or wants to give us our righteous desires he just waits for us to ask him. So I prayed and the lord answered my prayers in the way that I had asked. Entonces (therefore), Elder Aldana left today and tomorrow I will (have?) me one of the newest missionaries to the Buenos Aires South Mission. That’s right.... tomorrow I will start the training of my hijo. President called me Saturday night and asked if I was dispuesto (willing) to follow the advice of Elder Holland and of course I said yes and afterward he told me that I would be training. I still don’t know if he will be latino or yankee that I will find out tomorrow. For now I am with Elder Davis an elder in my zone who will also be training. It is crazy and after the call I felt dazed and a little bit sick. I guess be careful what you ask for! I am really excited though and I know we are going to see a lot of miracles. I just want to be the trainer that both he and his mom have prayed for. Please say a lot of prayers for us because we will definitely need them, and we will be more lost than argentines without their mate. I am very grateful for this chance to learn and be humbled. If I do get a yankee I feel like I know enough Spanish to survive, but we will see. So this weekend was pretty much just earth changing. Thank you, Mom, for writing to Elder Aldana. He really appreciated it and I could tell it lifted his spirits. Please continue to write him if you can. He may not have been who I thought was the greatest companion and we didn’t get along super well sometimes, but I think as I tried I came to understand him better and I really do love the elder and want the best for him. I will never forget my father (Elder Aldana), who now will be a grandpa. Elder Dodge also left and Elder Hayne came in his place, he is really friendly and nice and I already know he will be an awesome elder to get to know better. I cleaned the pension pretty good today because I want everything to be as perfect as it can for my hijo manana (son tomorrow). Even if I am not ready, the Lord has called me and I will serve. He will know how much I love the Lord as well as how much I love him. I am going to listen to him a lot, because I have come to find out that one of the greatest signs of love is listening, really listening and thinking about what other people say. God only asks that we listen and obey, but if we cant even listen to the people right in front of us how can we listen to the quiet promptings of the spirit? I love you all and hope you have another wonderful week and don’t have too much fun without me!
Elder Andrew
Monday, November 11, 2013 12:32 PM
Okay dad as a suggestion read the section in chapter six of preach my gospel on humility, humility is part of pretty much every attribute, the fountain some would say. Also there is a little section on gratitude as well. Make sure to spend at least five minutes giving thanks for your wonderful 19 year old son and how awesome he is haha just kidding. Mom from your journal experiences it sounds like you had a lot of the problems that I am dealing with, although fortunately no parasites as of yet. (I make sure I boil my water before I drink it) Elder Dodge told me that thanksgiving here is hard because it is not recognized as a holiday at all, but I’ll try to be grateful igual (as well). The struggle continues but it has been looking up lately. Thank you for your prayers I definitely felt them and the language seemed to come in a big jump this week, the Lord really does bless me each and every day and in every moment. The only thing that He wants is to bless us and He does whenever He can. I am learning a lot of things about life and about the church. I really understand why a mission is a priesthood duty to serve a mission, I am learning what it really means to be a member of the church and be a priesthood holder. I am learning to go shopping for myself, to better manage money, I do my dishes every night and am learning to keep a schedule. The scriptures and the gospel are really coming to life. It is such a blessing to be a missionary, and to live in this day and age. Go to the restaurant and have great time! I want everyone to be happy on my birthday! For that I’m going to buy some pizzas and we are going to have a little party in the pension tonight! Nothing too big but a little party. Today I got to go to capital. What a present right? It was to do some visa stuff but it was really cool. I’ll have to send you some pictures next week because I didn’t bring my converter. With our investigator Alejandra who really seems ready and seems to be progressing well we are having trouble getting her to come to church. We are finding new people and the work is going forward. Sometimes my days are hard and my patience is really tried, REALLY. But it always helps to keep a prayer in my heart. About the middle of the week I was just really frustrated and didn’t really feel like putting up with it all. I realized I hadn’t read my patriarchal blessing in a while so I turned to that and read, that mixed with some very earnest prayers helped me to overcome those feelings though. Sometimes the mission is pretty bipolar on a day to day basis. Oh I am now legal because of what we did today! This week we did some service putting a floor in a house. It was fun to mix the cement with chunks of brick and sand and water. It was hard but a lot of fun and I really enjoy doing service. We might go back and help some more with other parts of the house, people just build their own houses here, so maybe you could just remodel the house yourself dad, all you need is bricks and cement! Oh you guys need to figure out the things for Skype such as the account you will use or however that works, because believe it or not (I can’t believe it) in about 5 weeks I will be calling home. So just a little heads up. I did find some mac and cheese in the cotto and let out a pretty big yell when I found it. It was different but still tasted pretty good, and made me pretty happy last Monday night. I hope that dad gets a calling soon and that he is a ward missionary! Now that we have sisters mom and Carolyn can go with them! Oh and mom and dad when a matrimonio (married couple) goes with the missionaries that is like gold. Keep up the good work, but if you do go with the missionaries don’t try to control the lesson. That can be very hard and annoying for the missionaries and they won’t be wanting to invite you to come out with them again. Todos ustedes son capos y les amo tanto! Be diligent chicos and do much good por su propio voluntad (by your own will). I love you all very much and you help me to keep going. The transfers are coming and I feel like one of us is going to leave. You will know next Monday!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Okay dad as a suggestion read the section in chapter six of preach my gospel on humility, humility is part of pretty much every attribute, the fountain some would say. Also there is a little section on gratitude as well. Make sure to spend at least five minutes giving thanks for your wonderful 19 year old son and how awesome he is haha just kidding. Mom from your journal experiences it sounds like you had a lot of the problems that I am dealing with, although fortunately no parasites as of yet. (I make sure I boil my water before I drink it) Elder Dodge told me that thanksgiving here is hard because it is not recognized as a holiday at all, but I’ll try to be grateful igual (as well). The struggle continues but it has been looking up lately. Thank you for your prayers I definitely felt them and the language seemed to come in a big jump this week, the Lord really does bless me each and every day and in every moment. The only thing that He wants is to bless us and He does whenever He can. I am learning a lot of things about life and about the church. I really understand why a mission is a priesthood duty to serve a mission, I am learning what it really means to be a member of the church and be a priesthood holder. I am learning to go shopping for myself, to better manage money, I do my dishes every night and am learning to keep a schedule. The scriptures and the gospel are really coming to life. It is such a blessing to be a missionary, and to live in this day and age. Go to the restaurant and have great time! I want everyone to be happy on my birthday! For that I’m going to buy some pizzas and we are going to have a little party in the pension tonight! Nothing too big but a little party. Today I got to go to capital. What a present right? It was to do some visa stuff but it was really cool. I’ll have to send you some pictures next week because I didn’t bring my converter. With our investigator Alejandra who really seems ready and seems to be progressing well we are having trouble getting her to come to church. We are finding new people and the work is going forward. Sometimes my days are hard and my patience is really tried, REALLY. But it always helps to keep a prayer in my heart. About the middle of the week I was just really frustrated and didn’t really feel like putting up with it all. I realized I hadn’t read my patriarchal blessing in a while so I turned to that and read, that mixed with some very earnest prayers helped me to overcome those feelings though. Sometimes the mission is pretty bipolar on a day to day basis. Oh I am now legal because of what we did today! This week we did some service putting a floor in a house. It was fun to mix the cement with chunks of brick and sand and water. It was hard but a lot of fun and I really enjoy doing service. We might go back and help some more with other parts of the house, people just build their own houses here, so maybe you could just remodel the house yourself dad, all you need is bricks and cement! Oh you guys need to figure out the things for Skype such as the account you will use or however that works, because believe it or not (I can’t believe it) in about 5 weeks I will be calling home. So just a little heads up. I did find some mac and cheese in the cotto and let out a pretty big yell when I found it. It was different but still tasted pretty good, and made me pretty happy last Monday night. I hope that dad gets a calling soon and that he is a ward missionary! Now that we have sisters mom and Carolyn can go with them! Oh and mom and dad when a matrimonio (married couple) goes with the missionaries that is like gold. Keep up the good work, but if you do go with the missionaries don’t try to control the lesson. That can be very hard and annoying for the missionaries and they won’t be wanting to invite you to come out with them again. Todos ustedes son capos y les amo tanto! Be diligent chicos and do much good por su propio voluntad (by your own will). I love you all very much and you help me to keep going. The transfers are coming and I feel like one of us is going to leave. You will know next Monday!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Monday, November 4, 2013 8:21 AM
The truth is that the argentine way to do Halloween is to not do it. I saw some stores that looked like they were selling costumes and some people had a Halloween episode of the Simpsons playing when we came in to their house but that was about it. The pictures I sent should be of an awesome asado that we had in the pensión last Monday, we bought and prepared and cooked, and then feast como reyes! (like kings) It was a nice break. Then some special Halloween pictures just for my beloved family!
Oh small story we now have the permission to use the secretaria para hacer ciber en p day so we are in the church doing it right now, but we made a copy of the key so each companionship could have one but ours didn’t work! And there are only two computers so the other elders are going to come later. Long story short there is a small window above the secretaria.... and nothing can stop determined elders from reaching their goal! haha the crazy things we do, I sometimes think that the craziest members of the church are the missionaries. Dad, it sounds like you were a missionary! Are you guys doing anything to try and brush up on your Spanish? The castillano is really hard for me sometimes. On Friday I had to present the information for our companionship for ward counsel because we had to do an intercambio (splits or exchanges), I just got a little discouraged. I completely forgot that yesterday was Fast Sunday and remembered after I had made and eaten my morning oatmeal, so I am fasting today, and one of the things I am fasting for is the gift of tongues through my efforts to learn. Also how did you work on your accents because that is also something I really want to do?
Thank you for the pictures! I was remembering last Halloween when we were all sharks, what fun it is to be part of the Andrew family. Daniel is quite the kid, que pícaro que es. Sounds like typical him. I don’t feel sick, just a bit hungry. Oh Mom, for your boy scouts, I recently bought a compass "brújula" to help me navigate better, I guess the things I learned weren’t actually pointless! And they don’t have scouts here, I think it might be starting in South America but I haven’t heard anything of it here. Oh there is a new rule that we can drink mate cosido en la pension ahora. It tastes like yard work but,for some reason, when you drink it you just want to keep drinking it, kind of weird.
Early in the week Elder Aldana and I kind of got into an argument; it was like the tensions just boiled over a bit. So we sat down and talked and argued a bit and sort of resolved a few things and then had to go to a cita. The next day I knew we had to talk about it some more, so I tried to come in with a humble attitude and I didn’t want to fight or argue and I prayed real hard before that to be able to do that and told him that how I was being wasn’t right and that I wanted to change and repent and help him out how I could. We talked some more and helped to resolve tension. It was so important to come into it with an attitude of humility and of change and to show that I really do care about Elder Aldana and I want what is best for him. And there are definitely still times that we aren’t the best of friends or we bug each other, but we know we can work on it. He wasn’t the kind of trainer I expected or maybe even wanted but I’m pretty sure that he is the trainer I needed. My training will finish in 2 weeks and i will be a "normal" missionary. It is so important to seek to resolve problems that you have with people. I don’t remember where I read it either scriptures or pmg that the easy way is to get mad and hold something against some one. And Elder Dodge told me that it is like a math problem, if there is an error early on in the problem no matter how many times you try to solve it you can’t until you go back and resolve that error. A lot of times it is embarrassing and takes a lot of courage to do, but it is what the Lord wants. I know that this kind of skill is very very important especially inside a family and especially inside a matrimonio.
Oh about the weather, it is still weird some days it’s hot and then other days it rains, and then other days it is cold. Argentina just hasn’t made up its mind to be miserably hot yet, but I’m sure it will come soon enough.
Elder aldana almost never gets correspondence from his family so I was wondering if you could get together with Levi or just yourselves and send him some emails. I think it would really brighten his day. Thank you for all that you do for me beloved family.
Elder Andrew
The truth is that the argentine way to do Halloween is to not do it. I saw some stores that looked like they were selling costumes and some people had a Halloween episode of the Simpsons playing when we came in to their house but that was about it. The pictures I sent should be of an awesome asado that we had in the pensión last Monday, we bought and prepared and cooked, and then feast como reyes! (like kings) It was a nice break. Then some special Halloween pictures just for my beloved family!
Oh small story we now have the permission to use the secretaria para hacer ciber en p day so we are in the church doing it right now, but we made a copy of the key so each companionship could have one but ours didn’t work! And there are only two computers so the other elders are going to come later. Long story short there is a small window above the secretaria.... and nothing can stop determined elders from reaching their goal! haha the crazy things we do, I sometimes think that the craziest members of the church are the missionaries. Dad, it sounds like you were a missionary! Are you guys doing anything to try and brush up on your Spanish? The castillano is really hard for me sometimes. On Friday I had to present the information for our companionship for ward counsel because we had to do an intercambio (splits or exchanges), I just got a little discouraged. I completely forgot that yesterday was Fast Sunday and remembered after I had made and eaten my morning oatmeal, so I am fasting today, and one of the things I am fasting for is the gift of tongues through my efforts to learn. Also how did you work on your accents because that is also something I really want to do?
Thank you for the pictures! I was remembering last Halloween when we were all sharks, what fun it is to be part of the Andrew family. Daniel is quite the kid, que pícaro que es. Sounds like typical him. I don’t feel sick, just a bit hungry. Oh Mom, for your boy scouts, I recently bought a compass "brújula" to help me navigate better, I guess the things I learned weren’t actually pointless! And they don’t have scouts here, I think it might be starting in South America but I haven’t heard anything of it here. Oh there is a new rule that we can drink mate cosido en la pension ahora. It tastes like yard work but,for some reason, when you drink it you just want to keep drinking it, kind of weird.
Early in the week Elder Aldana and I kind of got into an argument; it was like the tensions just boiled over a bit. So we sat down and talked and argued a bit and sort of resolved a few things and then had to go to a cita. The next day I knew we had to talk about it some more, so I tried to come in with a humble attitude and I didn’t want to fight or argue and I prayed real hard before that to be able to do that and told him that how I was being wasn’t right and that I wanted to change and repent and help him out how I could. We talked some more and helped to resolve tension. It was so important to come into it with an attitude of humility and of change and to show that I really do care about Elder Aldana and I want what is best for him. And there are definitely still times that we aren’t the best of friends or we bug each other, but we know we can work on it. He wasn’t the kind of trainer I expected or maybe even wanted but I’m pretty sure that he is the trainer I needed. My training will finish in 2 weeks and i will be a "normal" missionary. It is so important to seek to resolve problems that you have with people. I don’t remember where I read it either scriptures or pmg that the easy way is to get mad and hold something against some one. And Elder Dodge told me that it is like a math problem, if there is an error early on in the problem no matter how many times you try to solve it you can’t until you go back and resolve that error. A lot of times it is embarrassing and takes a lot of courage to do, but it is what the Lord wants. I know that this kind of skill is very very important especially inside a family and especially inside a matrimonio.
Oh about the weather, it is still weird some days it’s hot and then other days it rains, and then other days it is cold. Argentina just hasn’t made up its mind to be miserably hot yet, but I’m sure it will come soon enough.
Elder aldana almost never gets correspondence from his family so I was wondering if you could get together with Levi or just yourselves and send him some emails. I think it would really brighten his day. Thank you for all that you do for me beloved family.
Elder Andrew
Monday, October 28, 2013 7:42 AM
Well funny thing about the workouts.... this week from Monday to about Wednesday Thursday I felt pretty sick. My head hurt, my eyes hurt, my body felt achy and weak. It was weird because it just came out of no where. So for that week I cut out exercise in the morning to recuperate. But I want to let you know that that is the only thing I cut out of my morning routine, I made sure I ate, showered, shaved and was ready to study at 8. And then I studied. I left the pension even though I felt pretty weak some days and my head hurt bad, and I didn’t complain. I have unfortunately seen the opposite many times and I don’t want to be that way. I think sometimes I am learning more from what I see that I don’t like or what I see that I say "I will not let that be me in the future." We had a really good meeting about obedience on Thursday. And this week in my personal studies I dedicated a certain time each day to study the Christ like attribute of humility. Humility is said to be the fountain of all other attributes and I really do believe that. With respect to obedience those who are disobedient lack humility and faith. It is like Nephi always says to his brothers, that the things he says are hard to them because they lack faith and humility. The way that we can be humble is explained in Alma 32 especially verses 13 - 16. We can either humble ourselves because we have a circumstance that makes us be humble, or we can humble ourselves because of the Word of God. We are much more blessed if we humble ourselves because of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and faith that God knows better than we do. I would suggest the same for you in your personal studies to use chapter 6 in “Preach My Gospel” and take it slow like one attribute a week. This week I will be studying specifically patience which I can definitely use. A lot of times I get upset with my trainer because he will break a rule, because he appears lazy to me, or I feel like he isn’t training me very well. But I think he really is trying and I am trying to have a more Christ like outlook and it is helping. I really don’t know his past all too well but when I try to put myself in his shoes I can understand him better, and I really do have love for my companion, he has done a lot for me and I need to let him know more. Expressions of love are so important. I think that probably one of the biggest expressions of love is listening. Like mom said don’t jump in and just start giving advice without really listening. As you clear your mind of what you are going to say and simply focus and what the person is telling you the Spirit will guide you in what you need to say. Carolyn, I have felt that way many times and still feel like it a lot. I feel like no one has the same drive as me sometimes, I feel like no one is listening to me and that sometimes my companion doesn’t have real interest in me. But I can promise you that there is one person who understands, there is one person who felt everything you have. That felt the stress of having a hard class, of having friends that are doing things they shouldn’t, the stress of trying to be strong but feeling so weak. That person is our Savior, Jesus Christ. When the hard times come put your faith in him and in time the hard times will pass and you will know and have no doubt as to who is on your side and will know of a surety that the Lord is always with you. May God bless you my family you really are great examples to me, and Heavenly Father could not have blessed me with a better family. I am so blessed.
Love,
Elder Andrew
Well funny thing about the workouts.... this week from Monday to about Wednesday Thursday I felt pretty sick. My head hurt, my eyes hurt, my body felt achy and weak. It was weird because it just came out of no where. So for that week I cut out exercise in the morning to recuperate. But I want to let you know that that is the only thing I cut out of my morning routine, I made sure I ate, showered, shaved and was ready to study at 8. And then I studied. I left the pension even though I felt pretty weak some days and my head hurt bad, and I didn’t complain. I have unfortunately seen the opposite many times and I don’t want to be that way. I think sometimes I am learning more from what I see that I don’t like or what I see that I say "I will not let that be me in the future." We had a really good meeting about obedience on Thursday. And this week in my personal studies I dedicated a certain time each day to study the Christ like attribute of humility. Humility is said to be the fountain of all other attributes and I really do believe that. With respect to obedience those who are disobedient lack humility and faith. It is like Nephi always says to his brothers, that the things he says are hard to them because they lack faith and humility. The way that we can be humble is explained in Alma 32 especially verses 13 - 16. We can either humble ourselves because we have a circumstance that makes us be humble, or we can humble ourselves because of the Word of God. We are much more blessed if we humble ourselves because of our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and faith that God knows better than we do. I would suggest the same for you in your personal studies to use chapter 6 in “Preach My Gospel” and take it slow like one attribute a week. This week I will be studying specifically patience which I can definitely use. A lot of times I get upset with my trainer because he will break a rule, because he appears lazy to me, or I feel like he isn’t training me very well. But I think he really is trying and I am trying to have a more Christ like outlook and it is helping. I really don’t know his past all too well but when I try to put myself in his shoes I can understand him better, and I really do have love for my companion, he has done a lot for me and I need to let him know more. Expressions of love are so important. I think that probably one of the biggest expressions of love is listening. Like mom said don’t jump in and just start giving advice without really listening. As you clear your mind of what you are going to say and simply focus and what the person is telling you the Spirit will guide you in what you need to say. Carolyn, I have felt that way many times and still feel like it a lot. I feel like no one has the same drive as me sometimes, I feel like no one is listening to me and that sometimes my companion doesn’t have real interest in me. But I can promise you that there is one person who understands, there is one person who felt everything you have. That felt the stress of having a hard class, of having friends that are doing things they shouldn’t, the stress of trying to be strong but feeling so weak. That person is our Savior, Jesus Christ. When the hard times come put your faith in him and in time the hard times will pass and you will know and have no doubt as to who is on your side and will know of a surety that the Lord is always with you. May God bless you my family you really are great examples to me, and Heavenly Father could not have blessed me with a better family. I am so blessed.
Love,
Elder Andrew
Monday, October 21, 2013 12:13 PM
Oh man, I’m starting to get stretch marks.......... ON MY BICEPS! haha I wish, my companion very lovingly calls me "Little chubby" sometimes. I did make "La biblia de ejercicio" and has a different mini workout for each day which makes it much easier to work out because I have a plan, and to really push myself. Elder Dodge was doing it with me, but now it is pretty much just back to me exercising alone in the morning. Elder Aldana says that I am so active in the morning because I am still fresh, but I don’t think so, I wake up pretty tired usually.
Package: Mac and Cheese, Ranch, three Little flags (two de usa y una de mexico), Also please send me a few 1 dollar bills to give to investigators or converts, Microwave popcorn, Real old spice deodorant (they mostly just have spray stuff here, and I ran out), Jump rope, and please transfer like 200 or 300 dollars to my personal debit card. Is that enough? If you can’t send all that stuff or it is too expensive don’t worry about it. I finally got your first package! Too bad it is a Little late for winter clothes as it is getting pretty humid!
We got something to kill the mosquitoes. I got a haircut finally and the lady had interest in the church and said she had gone when she lived in Paraguay but she left before i got her address or anything, so we will go by another time to talk with her.
Also please send me a 4 generation pedigree chart. Sorry I’m just asking and asking. Thank you for all the help and support that you do give me.
I preparing to teach a noche de hogar (family home evening) and reading in the manual and I came across the idea to make a family holiday. Dia de los Andrews. You could just have a special night maybe do a gift Exchange on some specific date of the year. I was getting so excited, but then I remembered that I won’t be there for the first one haha. I’m glad the block party was a success keep up the good neighborly love.
Yesterday was dia de las madres aca (Mother’s Day here). Unfortunately I don’t get to call home, but I was thinking of you mom. Thank you for being so good to me and our family. It makes me very grateful when I see some of the broken or breaking families down here. I am also very grateful to have been born in the covenant, that is a privilege that not many have down here, and I am really starting to realize how much of a blessing it really is.
Rain is like poison for church attendance. It rained and once again there was hardly anyone there. Out of the 6 investigators that have baptismal dates 0 por 6 came to church. And it was 7 but here date fell through because she didn’t come. We have a lot of work to do, and Luisa was really sick that is why she didn’t come. But I don’t know if we will be able to teach her everything before the next transfer, her understanding is really very slow and we have to remind her how to pray every time and we only went by one time this week and lost control of the lesson. AY AY Ay the mission has them all, I sure do love it. I was thinking of the people my age going to school right now or starting to work and how blessed am I. I could never have this kind of experience anywhere else except serving in the Buenos Aires South Mission for my Salvador (Savior). We are working a lot and my Spanish is getting a little better.
My head hurts and I can’t really think of much else. I sure love you Andrew family, you are all super studs. Oh also I want a respuesta de todos los miembros de mi familia a esta pregunta (I want an answer from all the members of my family to this question). "Are you all praying to have missionary experiences?" Chow suerte mis queridos. (Good bye and good luck my dear ones)
Elder Andrew
Package: Mac and Cheese, Ranch, three Little flags (two de usa y una de mexico), Also please send me a few 1 dollar bills to give to investigators or converts, Microwave popcorn, Real old spice deodorant (they mostly just have spray stuff here, and I ran out), Jump rope, and please transfer like 200 or 300 dollars to my personal debit card. Is that enough? If you can’t send all that stuff or it is too expensive don’t worry about it. I finally got your first package! Too bad it is a Little late for winter clothes as it is getting pretty humid!
We got something to kill the mosquitoes. I got a haircut finally and the lady had interest in the church and said she had gone when she lived in Paraguay but she left before i got her address or anything, so we will go by another time to talk with her.
Also please send me a 4 generation pedigree chart. Sorry I’m just asking and asking. Thank you for all the help and support that you do give me.
I preparing to teach a noche de hogar (family home evening) and reading in the manual and I came across the idea to make a family holiday. Dia de los Andrews. You could just have a special night maybe do a gift Exchange on some specific date of the year. I was getting so excited, but then I remembered that I won’t be there for the first one haha. I’m glad the block party was a success keep up the good neighborly love.
Yesterday was dia de las madres aca (Mother’s Day here). Unfortunately I don’t get to call home, but I was thinking of you mom. Thank you for being so good to me and our family. It makes me very grateful when I see some of the broken or breaking families down here. I am also very grateful to have been born in the covenant, that is a privilege that not many have down here, and I am really starting to realize how much of a blessing it really is.
Rain is like poison for church attendance. It rained and once again there was hardly anyone there. Out of the 6 investigators that have baptismal dates 0 por 6 came to church. And it was 7 but here date fell through because she didn’t come. We have a lot of work to do, and Luisa was really sick that is why she didn’t come. But I don’t know if we will be able to teach her everything before the next transfer, her understanding is really very slow and we have to remind her how to pray every time and we only went by one time this week and lost control of the lesson. AY AY Ay the mission has them all, I sure do love it. I was thinking of the people my age going to school right now or starting to work and how blessed am I. I could never have this kind of experience anywhere else except serving in the Buenos Aires South Mission for my Salvador (Savior). We are working a lot and my Spanish is getting a little better.
My head hurts and I can’t really think of much else. I sure love you Andrew family, you are all super studs. Oh also I want a respuesta de todos los miembros de mi familia a esta pregunta (I want an answer from all the members of my family to this question). "Are you all praying to have missionary experiences?" Chow suerte mis queridos. (Good bye and good luck my dear ones)
Elder Andrew
October 14, 2013
Wow no longer Elders Quorum President. (Brian was released from being EQP yesterday) Well Brother Allen (new 1st Counselor) was a ward missionary so I guess you will be that next Dad and then you can take all the great advice I give you and use it haha just kidding. Thank you for fulfilling your calling, I can’t remember who said it and if it was in conference or not, but if you want your family to be blessed then you have to really magnify your calling. I certainly enjoyed the short time I got to have you as my priesthood leader. Mom made a comment on what I write, to remember my week because so much happens through out the week I will write in my to do list column in my planner what I want to write about to you guys, so it helps to have a script before. This one might be short though because today is the day of the races or algo asi (something like that) and everything is closed... Everything! I was going to cut my hair but I have to wait and so when we finally found a cyber that was open it is 5 and we only have an hour and now only about 20 minutes, which is too bad because out of all the weeks this is the one that a lot happened. I mentioned Elder Godoy and when he came back from the hospital his cast was too tight so we had to have President pick us up in the night and take us to the hospital, and then they couldn’t help him out until the next day, so we were out almost until 1 o’clock for pretty much no reason. But it was an adventure! Elder Aldana has 14 months in the mission. (I had asked how long Elder Aldana had in the mission. Not sure why he answered that question right in the middle of his Elder Godoy story. He must have been in a hurry!) Then when we went and he did get it fixed he had to stay in the pension (apartment) for a few days to recuperate, so I took the first shift of staying, which was only a half day luckily. He slept a lot and I watched a lot of “the district” and ate dulce de leche (SOOO GOOOD). It was nice to get a tiny break and to receive training from those videos, because that really is what they are. I also did some language study stuff. The next day I went out with Elder Dodge and Elder Aldana stayed in the pension. We had a really good day. I really like Elder Dodge and I had to navigate because we were in my area but Elder Aldana has never given me the map or really forced me to learn the area so we got lost a few times. Elder Dodge told me the best way to learn an area is to get lost anyway haha. I had some pictures to send but I’ll send those next time. Let me tell you about Luisa. We found her knocking doors at 8 o’clock at night and she just let us in her house, crazy. This was a week or so ago and she came to conference. Elder Dodge and I visited her and she had read and reread the leccion 3 folleto (lesson 3 pamplet) that we had given her. As we were teaching she kept making references to it and said that even though it is hard for her to remember things and understand (she is 65) she feels like God is helping her, And we definitely know that he is helping her because of her efforts. Then on Sunday she came to church by herself 30 minutes early! We were very pleasantly surprised and humbled at the Lord’s work. We have a great responsibility now to really teach her and need to teach her a lot because she has a fecha por 26 de octubre (date for October 26). Oh I got a letter back from Sis Valentino that was dated in September. How is her husband doing since his surgery? Also, I have not gotten the package. Suggestions would be, mac and cheese, pop corn in microwave bags, ranch mix (Elder Dodge had some, we made it and it was delicious) and I don’t know. I’ll keep thinking about it, but definitely the mac and cheese. (I had asked Ben what he might like in a package since his birthday is in Nov. and it will soon be Christmas as well) On that note I cooked a re pasta the other day that I thought was pretty good, I’ll send you a picture later, I was pretty proud. Also on Sunday we were going for an antiguo investigador (old investigator) and they told us that he lived a few houses down, Elder Aldana thought they were lying but I said we should check it out anyway. We found Laura and her three daughters, one whose name is Alma Peru
Love,
Elder Andrew
October 7, 2013
First for the questions from Mom. (I asked about the pictures he sent. The one with the big gorilla is in the bowling alley, actually it is in a place called COTO which is basically an argentine mix between a mall and Wal-Mart. The family if I remember correctly is la familia De Los Santos and they are a part member, part active family. The picture is from the birthday of one of their sons, they are starting to come to more church things though, not just the daughter, who is the most active. The lady and son are the Bulacios and are less actives, well soon to be actives. They are the ones that I talked about that she felt something was missing in her life. The lady that I felt we were supposed to find told us that due to something elders had said 15 years ago no one in her family wanted anything to do with the church anymore, and told us that we couldn’t teach her because her family didn’t want that. So maybe I was just supposed to learn that I need to watch what I say, the Elders said it in English thinking no one would understand but one of the granddaughters knew English. I have heard several sad stories like this. Those people just need to read the talk of Elder Uchtdorf though, I want to print that one out and give it to a few less actives that don’t want to go debido the members. On Tuesday we did an exchanges and that was fun. I went to the area of El Faro and found out that I really am in a pretty nice part of my mission haha. When I returned on Wednesday we went to talk to a family that the daughter is a recent convert, the dad doesn’t have much interest and the mother is just waiting for a marriage paper to get baptized (she already pays tithing and everything). We got there and the mom and daughter are having some major issues, mostly the daughter wants to do what she wants to do and doesn’t like that the mom is always calling her and bugging her about what she is doing and worrying about her (being a mom). Does that sound familiar? It was pretty bad though and we just sat there in silence as they fought and don’t know if we really offered much help. It shook me up pretty bad, really bad actually. The daughter doesn’t want to live there anymore and from other stuff we have seen it is obvious that she is not doing what she should be right now. I care about these people and don’t want to see their family destroyed, but all I can do is pray and hope for the best. We had a meeting for the trainers and new missionaries and that was really good and also kind of fun because I got to see my buddies from the MTC and those that I flew down with. They are all doing well and some of them have already participated in baptisms. I survived my first transfer!!!! Elder Aldana left and I’m going to be training and the new district leader! haha just kidding, not quite ready for that yet we are both staying here but Elder Juarez left today. He was a good Elder and I will miss him, but we got Elder Godoy de Uruguay I believe. He seems pretty sharp and we’ll see how things go. Cultural side note they have this stuff here call Dulce de Leche which is kind of like carmel but better, I have a big tub of the stuff and sometimes will just eat it plain. (And you wonder why I’m so fat). It is really good and I enjoy it. We had a home evening on Friday with the Ward and it was interesting that we brought as many less actives and investigators as there were active members there! That went really well though and we are starting to work a little better with the Ward. General Conference!!!!! Era re bueno, re re bueno! (It was very good, very, very good!) I missed some talks due to get there late or problems we had with the computer. The very first session I had to watch in castellano (Spanish) and it was good. Be glad that you all know English because it is way better in English, you can still get the message but a lot of the expression, voice inflection, and emotion is lost in the translation. For those I missed we will get a Liahona in English with the talks soon enough Yoo Hoo. You probably already knew I was going to mention it but look up Elder Ballard’s talk again. That was the ultimate member and missionary talk. He just dropped the cane on everybody, but in a very nice way. Elder Dodge and I were in the office watching it in English on the computer and when it started we were like "YEAH listen members” but then we were like "Oops we aren’t free of your fire" He said something to the effect of trying to do what Jesus Christ would want you to do... boom dagger to the heart haha. We had a lot of fun watching it in that little room Elder Dodge and I. We brought a new investigator Luisa to the first session on Sunday and had a short lesson with her about prophets before the session. She is 65, single and a little crazy. She said she wants to come to church all the time and says that the Lord sent us to her. She is very sweet but a little absent minded. She has a date to be baptized the 26 of October and hopefully she can reach it. The problem with her is going to be making sure that she really understands what we are teaching her, I’m sure that she will accept whatever we throw at her but we need to make sure that she really understands, so we are going to have to take things really slow in the lessons. She also believes in all the saints and when Elder Oaks was dropping the cane on no other gods before me I was like "ooh hope she takes that alright..." but I don’t even know if she realized what he said, we will see this week if all her saints are in the garbage. We are having fun and find time to laugh. I am going to try and look more on the bright side of things. Elder Scotts talk was really cool and I need to read that one like 20 times before I really think I can get the full meaning of it. I got a letter from Adam today and it was dated back in August, Whoo what has changed since then! It was nice to "hear" from him even though everything is probably already obsolete. If you could find out his missionary email for me that would be great. Probably just Adam.chappell but who knows. The name of the french man is brother cope or different spelling. Is Cheryl still coming? I think about the Glenview Ward often. May God bless you and I am glad you all have goals. The most important thing after learning what you need to improve is a plan of action Ether 12:27.
Con Mucho amor,
Elder Andrew
I can’t wear the name Benjamin right now but I am more than proud to wear the name Andrew, and more important the precious name of the Savior.
Con Mucho amor,
Elder Andrew
I can’t wear the name Benjamin right now but I am more than proud to wear the name Andrew, and more important the precious name of the Savior.
Monday, September 30, 2013 12:15 PM
Querido familia
Well mom it looks like you already stole the thunder of my email. You’ll find out why later. Whenever it is my ¨turn¨ for family home evening if you could read the quotes in preach my gospel in page 12 I believe that would be great. I especially like the one by Joseph F Smith. I will start with Dad’s birthday.... All of our citas fell through we were trying and trying and having no success, it was really hard. We picked up Pablo Bulacio to come with us to lessons that didn’t happen. (He is part of a part member less active family). Then to end the day we went to his house and had a lesson with him and his mom who are both less active members. The hermana confessed to us that she felt something was missing from her life that it wasn’t the same as before. We then talked about the importance of the sacrament and bore testimony of this sacred time to think about the Savior, His atonement, and how you will improve in the next week. As we spoke tears filled her eyes and I think now she knows what she was missing. We brought them to the Blanco baptism, I sent two pictures. It was a baptism that we did with the whole zone and 8 people were baptized! How exciting! Even though our "numbers" for Tuesday weren’t good I felt satisfied because we were there to say to Hermana Bulacio what she needed to hear and were able to witness the Savior and the gospel helping a person. I wish I could tell you that they came to church on Sunday but I can’t. It rained a lot in the morning and no one came. It was like God was testing the faith of the Ward because after church it didn’t rain any more, and most of the Ward failed the test. Where usually we have around 100 or more in sacrament meeting we had 24 or something. I was pretty disappointed to call Hermana Bulacio and hear her say they couldn’t come because of the rain. Oh well, patience in adversity. The meat of my message is about the Ward. I recently found out that the Ward doesn’t home teach the inactive families and that the Ward has basically no contact with them apart from what the missionaries tell them. Let me tell you right now that this is wrong. Missionaries are not here to do everything the Ward feels too uncomfortable to do; we really can’t do much good at all without the Ward. Recent converts are like babies; ultimately a person should have the faith that no matter the circumstance they will be true to the church. But recent converts don’t have that capacity yet. Missionaries have another job to do than babysit and aren’t always going to be there and the Ward needs to fellowship them. You don’t just except a baby to walk on its own without help from a parent, they need someone with more experience to lead and guide them until they can do it for themselves. There is one convert lady who has almost no friends in the church and talks to almost no one but is at church every single Sunday, and comes and cleans the church, and comes to every church activity. The other elders who baptized her said "we don’t even show her the support we should". There is a special place in the celestial kingdom for people like that, but the reality is that those types of people are few and far between and that often for a person to be like that they must first be helped by their fellow Ward members. I am not going to ask you to give a reference to the missionaries, if you do that is wonderful. I am going to ask you, that as I try to do my duty as a member of the church to reach out to others that you will do the same. Matthew 10: 37 and 38 says "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." When I read that this week it was like, “Whoa, Am I really doing my part, I have taken His name upon me and am I reaching out to my neighbors and trying to help and love those outside my comfort zone? I’m not going to tell you want to do but I invite you to prayerfully consider what the Lord expects of you personally as a member of his church to do to reach out to your fellow brothers and sisters. Dad, you have a leadership position over this as president of the Elders Quorum in your role in home teaching. Thank you for making sure that those less actives are getting home taught. That might be one of the best things you can do. Jesus said that we don’t send doctors to those who are well we send them to those who are sick. The focus of a Ward should be on those that are "sick" and without the fullness of the blessings of the gospel in their lives. Something like a block party is exactly the kind of thing you should be doing and like you said all the people now know that you are members and feel a bit more comfortable in your home. So when they have an aunt die, someone loses their job, they have a kid going through a really rough time doing things they shouldn’t, they know that you have something special and could very likely come to you with questions. Keep up the good work my beloved family. Also, Dad I don’t really remember any of the stories of converts that you had on your mission, if you could send me an experience or two that would be awesome! Also for you returned missionaries I was reading a scripture that reminded me of you, It is Ammon after their work with the Lamanites glorying in the greatness of God. Alma 26:12 "Many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." so remember your missions and the many miracles that you witnessed and may you praise his name forever. This work is great and it is hard, harder than anything else I imagined but I don’t believe that I could really call myself a member of the church or a follower of Jesucristo if I wasn’t out doing it.
Love,
Elder Andrew
Monday, September 30, 2013 12:23 PM
I forgot to say I do get to watch general conference and Elder Dodge told me they have a Little room for the Yankees. Thank goodness, my castillano is improving, but not that much haha. In the church at like 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 we don’t watch priesthood because it is so late, the people here just all like to party.
Querido familia
Well mom it looks like you already stole the thunder of my email. You’ll find out why later. Whenever it is my ¨turn¨ for family home evening if you could read the quotes in preach my gospel in page 12 I believe that would be great. I especially like the one by Joseph F Smith. I will start with Dad’s birthday.... All of our citas fell through we were trying and trying and having no success, it was really hard. We picked up Pablo Bulacio to come with us to lessons that didn’t happen. (He is part of a part member less active family). Then to end the day we went to his house and had a lesson with him and his mom who are both less active members. The hermana confessed to us that she felt something was missing from her life that it wasn’t the same as before. We then talked about the importance of the sacrament and bore testimony of this sacred time to think about the Savior, His atonement, and how you will improve in the next week. As we spoke tears filled her eyes and I think now she knows what she was missing. We brought them to the Blanco baptism, I sent two pictures. It was a baptism that we did with the whole zone and 8 people were baptized! How exciting! Even though our "numbers" for Tuesday weren’t good I felt satisfied because we were there to say to Hermana Bulacio what she needed to hear and were able to witness the Savior and the gospel helping a person. I wish I could tell you that they came to church on Sunday but I can’t. It rained a lot in the morning and no one came. It was like God was testing the faith of the Ward because after church it didn’t rain any more, and most of the Ward failed the test. Where usually we have around 100 or more in sacrament meeting we had 24 or something. I was pretty disappointed to call Hermana Bulacio and hear her say they couldn’t come because of the rain. Oh well, patience in adversity. The meat of my message is about the Ward. I recently found out that the Ward doesn’t home teach the inactive families and that the Ward has basically no contact with them apart from what the missionaries tell them. Let me tell you right now that this is wrong. Missionaries are not here to do everything the Ward feels too uncomfortable to do; we really can’t do much good at all without the Ward. Recent converts are like babies; ultimately a person should have the faith that no matter the circumstance they will be true to the church. But recent converts don’t have that capacity yet. Missionaries have another job to do than babysit and aren’t always going to be there and the Ward needs to fellowship them. You don’t just except a baby to walk on its own without help from a parent, they need someone with more experience to lead and guide them until they can do it for themselves. There is one convert lady who has almost no friends in the church and talks to almost no one but is at church every single Sunday, and comes and cleans the church, and comes to every church activity. The other elders who baptized her said "we don’t even show her the support we should". There is a special place in the celestial kingdom for people like that, but the reality is that those types of people are few and far between and that often for a person to be like that they must first be helped by their fellow Ward members. I am not going to ask you to give a reference to the missionaries, if you do that is wonderful. I am going to ask you, that as I try to do my duty as a member of the church to reach out to others that you will do the same. Matthew 10: 37 and 38 says "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." When I read that this week it was like, “Whoa, Am I really doing my part, I have taken His name upon me and am I reaching out to my neighbors and trying to help and love those outside my comfort zone? I’m not going to tell you want to do but I invite you to prayerfully consider what the Lord expects of you personally as a member of his church to do to reach out to your fellow brothers and sisters. Dad, you have a leadership position over this as president of the Elders Quorum in your role in home teaching. Thank you for making sure that those less actives are getting home taught. That might be one of the best things you can do. Jesus said that we don’t send doctors to those who are well we send them to those who are sick. The focus of a Ward should be on those that are "sick" and without the fullness of the blessings of the gospel in their lives. Something like a block party is exactly the kind of thing you should be doing and like you said all the people now know that you are members and feel a bit more comfortable in your home. So when they have an aunt die, someone loses their job, they have a kid going through a really rough time doing things they shouldn’t, they know that you have something special and could very likely come to you with questions. Keep up the good work my beloved family. Also, Dad I don’t really remember any of the stories of converts that you had on your mission, if you could send me an experience or two that would be awesome! Also for you returned missionaries I was reading a scripture that reminded me of you, It is Ammon after their work with the Lamanites glorying in the greatness of God. Alma 26:12 "Many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." so remember your missions and the many miracles that you witnessed and may you praise his name forever. This work is great and it is hard, harder than anything else I imagined but I don’t believe that I could really call myself a member of the church or a follower of Jesucristo if I wasn’t out doing it.
Love,
Elder Andrew
Monday, September 30, 2013 12:23 PM
I forgot to say I do get to watch general conference and Elder Dodge told me they have a Little room for the Yankees. Thank goodness, my castillano is improving, but not that much haha. In the church at like 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 we don’t watch priesthood because it is so late, the people here just all like to party.
Monday, September 23, 2013 12:28 PM
Dear Family!
Well dad I wish that knocking doors was a thing of the past, but if you aren´t getting references from members and you don´t have lessons.... there isn´t much else to do, but we have gotten a few appointments from it and are excited for a family who we are going back for this week because they were busy with a birthday when we found them but were very nice and gave us water and whatnot. Speaking of birthdays FELIZ CUMPLEAÑO viajito (HAPPY BIRTHDAY old man) congrats on one year closer to the spirit world! We have a lot of appointments tomorrow so it already looks like a promising day, and even though I try to work hard every day I´ll really do it on your birthday. I'll just convert a whole church of evangelistas or something haha. It is funny mom that you say dad said everything you wanted to say but still found a way to write a page and a half haha. Thank you for the story that is awesome and I will remember that the next time a dog gives me problems. Autos are cars the whole bleeping thing was supposed to be a joke about how much the cars honk at each other. This week was Elder Aldanas birthday and we had cake with a member and he seemed to have a good day, I gave him a pencil a watch and a candy bar and today I gave him some socks because he has like three nasty pairs and I have like 30 almost new ones. Today we all cleaned the pension together so maybe my example helped out haha, but it looks and smells a lot better. Also for birthdays here people will get huge banners that have Mickey Mouse, Bart Simpson, Betty Boop, or other figures on them and hang them across the street with the person their age and such, maybe you could do that for dad. Elder Aldana said he wanted to write you so if you get an email all in castillano unfortunately it isn’t me haha. We had stake conference this week and I sat in the very back and couldn´t really hear or understand much, but we did get the information of all the priests in the ward to accompany us and we are definitely going to use that. We had another week with out much success and we have been thinking a lot about self improvement and made a bunch of goals as a pension (part of the reason we actually cleaned today). Elder Aldana and I have been trying to pray more because of how important it is. I really love my personal study time in the morning, sometimes I feel like a balloon, throughout the day I get deflated and then with my study in the morning I´m pumped up for the day. If you are having a tough time don´t forget your study time. I had Elder Juarez design a baptismal calendar in the ciber for me, I got the idea from a teacher in the MTC. It should help our investigators remember what they need to do and take their responsibility more seriously. At least that is what I hope. I have been trying to read some of the new testament everyday and I really love it. I realized that a lot of sayings like the golden rule can be found in Matthew when Jesus is giving his sermon on the mount! pretty cool! We did an exchange on Saturday with the zone leaders that live with us, I went with Elder Dodge and we taught a few lessons. It was only an exchange from 3 to 9 but it was really good. We were going into the church to teach a lesson in the chapel when some people walking by asked if they could use the bathroom. Oh course we let them in, and then we had them trapped! haha, We talked about the Book of Mormon because of a question and a bit about the church and because they live in our area Elder Aldana and I have an appointment with them tomorrow in the chapel. The thing I probably learned the most from the exchange was that we need to make better plans. Sometimes if we get home a little late then Elder Aldana says we will just plan the next day. That didn´t really sit right with me, and now I´m going to make sure that we always plan before going to bed. With good plans all is possible and it all starts with the plans. I am also trying to take more courage and more initiative in the work rather than letting Elder Aldana do the hard spanish stuff. For example, I am carrying the phone today and already made a phone call. It was hard and Elder Aldana had to help me a bit but I can do it, and I need to do it. Why am I not hearing the missionary stories from home? I am going to use a missionary skill right now. will you give a reference to the missionaries in our ward by this Sunday? I know that if you join in the missionary effort in our ward your lives will be blessed and your son will be happy. I love you and hope your week totally rocks!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Dear Family!
Well dad I wish that knocking doors was a thing of the past, but if you aren´t getting references from members and you don´t have lessons.... there isn´t much else to do, but we have gotten a few appointments from it and are excited for a family who we are going back for this week because they were busy with a birthday when we found them but were very nice and gave us water and whatnot. Speaking of birthdays FELIZ CUMPLEAÑO viajito (HAPPY BIRTHDAY old man) congrats on one year closer to the spirit world! We have a lot of appointments tomorrow so it already looks like a promising day, and even though I try to work hard every day I´ll really do it on your birthday. I'll just convert a whole church of evangelistas or something haha. It is funny mom that you say dad said everything you wanted to say but still found a way to write a page and a half haha. Thank you for the story that is awesome and I will remember that the next time a dog gives me problems. Autos are cars the whole bleeping thing was supposed to be a joke about how much the cars honk at each other. This week was Elder Aldanas birthday and we had cake with a member and he seemed to have a good day, I gave him a pencil a watch and a candy bar and today I gave him some socks because he has like three nasty pairs and I have like 30 almost new ones. Today we all cleaned the pension together so maybe my example helped out haha, but it looks and smells a lot better. Also for birthdays here people will get huge banners that have Mickey Mouse, Bart Simpson, Betty Boop, or other figures on them and hang them across the street with the person their age and such, maybe you could do that for dad. Elder Aldana said he wanted to write you so if you get an email all in castillano unfortunately it isn’t me haha. We had stake conference this week and I sat in the very back and couldn´t really hear or understand much, but we did get the information of all the priests in the ward to accompany us and we are definitely going to use that. We had another week with out much success and we have been thinking a lot about self improvement and made a bunch of goals as a pension (part of the reason we actually cleaned today). Elder Aldana and I have been trying to pray more because of how important it is. I really love my personal study time in the morning, sometimes I feel like a balloon, throughout the day I get deflated and then with my study in the morning I´m pumped up for the day. If you are having a tough time don´t forget your study time. I had Elder Juarez design a baptismal calendar in the ciber for me, I got the idea from a teacher in the MTC. It should help our investigators remember what they need to do and take their responsibility more seriously. At least that is what I hope. I have been trying to read some of the new testament everyday and I really love it. I realized that a lot of sayings like the golden rule can be found in Matthew when Jesus is giving his sermon on the mount! pretty cool! We did an exchange on Saturday with the zone leaders that live with us, I went with Elder Dodge and we taught a few lessons. It was only an exchange from 3 to 9 but it was really good. We were going into the church to teach a lesson in the chapel when some people walking by asked if they could use the bathroom. Oh course we let them in, and then we had them trapped! haha, We talked about the Book of Mormon because of a question and a bit about the church and because they live in our area Elder Aldana and I have an appointment with them tomorrow in the chapel. The thing I probably learned the most from the exchange was that we need to make better plans. Sometimes if we get home a little late then Elder Aldana says we will just plan the next day. That didn´t really sit right with me, and now I´m going to make sure that we always plan before going to bed. With good plans all is possible and it all starts with the plans. I am also trying to take more courage and more initiative in the work rather than letting Elder Aldana do the hard spanish stuff. For example, I am carrying the phone today and already made a phone call. It was hard and Elder Aldana had to help me a bit but I can do it, and I need to do it. Why am I not hearing the missionary stories from home? I am going to use a missionary skill right now. will you give a reference to the missionaries in our ward by this Sunday? I know that if you join in the missionary effort in our ward your lives will be blessed and your son will be happy. I love you and hope your week totally rocks!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Monday, September 16, 2013
Primero yo contestaré las preguntas de mama. (First I will answer mom’s questions)Your Spanish makes sense! But then again if it is wrong I probably wouldn’t be able to tell because that is how I would say it! A lady in the Ward washes our clothes for free! So that is nice. For food, I always eat cereal in the morning, a member always feeds us for lunch and then we either go without dinner or just have a snack. Don’t worry about me and food the people here are worse food pushers than Grandpa so I’m more worried about me engordando (gaining weight) than anything else. I actually did weigh myself and I am 109 kilos, not bad huh. We get mail every three weeks and I didn’t get your package, there is probably about a 70 percent chance that mail sent arrives I would figure, but no worries. The only thing I really would need would be some flash drives to back up my camera with in case it gets stolen, but maybe I can just buy those here with my debit card. (I asked if it was ok for people to e-mail him or if they should write letters and send to the mission home. Here is his response.) They can email me, but I won’t have much time to respond personally, write the mission home. Like I said they bring us the mail from there every three weeks I think. This morning we did insanity (which is a kind of work out), and it was insane, I got pretty tired from it, but then again I am just a fat old missionary. It reminded me of Matthew and how he would do insanity con (with) Johnny. Tell Matthew to find out how Johnny, Prescott, and Mike are doing. Tell them that I love em and to keep up the good work. Cultural notes: The weather has been wacko. I got here and it was pretty much perfect, maybe a bit cold. Then it rained all day one day and was freezing. Then it was super hot the next day and really humid. Then it started up with the raining and freezing again, it has been raining the past couple of days, and I don’t think I’ve seen the sun for a few days, due to the cloud cover. But my cold and water stuff work really well so no worries. Oh and about the keyboard; the computers are Spanish so when I write in English everything has a red line under it like it is spelled wrong, so if my spelling is bad in English blame it on that haha. In the train, which we take once a week at least for meetings, there are always people selling stuff. They will walk into your car, Yell out their little spiel and then put whatever they are selling in front of every passenger and then move on to the next car. The stuff they sell is sometimes weird, too. Like a man was selling sewing kits the other day, que raro (how strange). They will also sometimes do it on the colectivos (buses) from the main station in Lanus. They give their spiel, sell a few and then hop off and go back to the station. It can be Handy if you are hungry and they are selling snacks. The autos acá (cars here? I didn’t understand this) really like to talk but their language is really fowl so it is always bleeped out. Todos las casas tienen reyas,(All the houses have bars or gates or fences) and then have bars on their windows. So if we ever knock doors we do a lot of talking through windows. Elder Aldana and I came up with the joke for the people that don’t even open their windows; they just part their blinds and then shake their fingers at us. When those people are knocking on the gates of heaven Jesus will just part the curtain and shake his finger at them. We had a good laugh but maybe that is a bit sacreligious and I hope those people will find their way to this gospel whether in this life or the next. People for heat will just turn their ovens on. All the ovens are gas so there is just a flame or two on the stove. I kind of wondered “shouldn’t there be a pot or something on that" the first time I saw it but then I figured out what it was for. The people here think that English people speak English much better than Americans psssh what do they know haha. Also if someone here ever needed to just quickly build a house or something they wouldn’t even have to drive to a local home depot, there are plenty of supplies for building houses just in the sidewalk! Just piles of bricks and junks who knows why haha. The ghetto of Argentina it’s where I’m at. Today was fun, we went bowling with some of the elders in my zone and I bowled a 92! I still don’t have it! We had a lot of fun doing that though. No cleaning today, I told the other elders it was their turn but we just didn’t, it is pretty clean anyway. It has been a week of ups and downs. The rain and grayness make it hard to stay motivated if you are just walking around in it all day, which seems to happen to us often. All our baptismal dates fell through because people didn’t come to church. It’s tiempo para bajar la caña (It's time to drop the cane. This means to chasten or rebuke) We had what I thought was a really good day. It was rough in the rain, but we found an old lady named León who is a less active member, for some reason I felt like she was who we needed to find that day, and I had been praying to find just one person who needed us, as I often do when we are just knocking and knocking and knocking doors. We have a cita (appointment) with her tomorrow and we will see how it goes. That same night we had an impromptu lección con Odulio one of our investigadores and he told us how he feels good and the gospel was changing his life, the spirit was real strong and little did I know that what I had studied that morning in personal study I used in the lesson! The Lord definitely has me in his mind, I know that much. We were very excited for him, but then he didn’t come to church and he wasn’t there when we went by later that day for a cita we had with him. It was odd and we are going to have to see what’s up, and maybe chew him out in a loving Christ like sort of way. With the member missionary thing if you all could read preach my gospel pages 160 161 for family home evening tonight and discuss it that would be awesome. Also a quote from President Thomas S Monson "The challenge is to be more profitable servants in the Lords vineyard. This applies to all of us, whatever our age and not alone to those who are preparing to serve as full-time missionaries, for to each of us comes the mandate to share the gospel of Christ ” We had an awesome meeting with President Thurgood and the assistants with our zone. It was motivating and led me to study more about repentance, and I made a list of the steps of repentance and am going to start using that with our investigators. The gospel of Jesus Christ is really just faith and repentance. The rest of the things like baptism and enduring to the end are just results of continued faith and repentance. So we have a new focus and hopefully a better week ahead. This is hard, but we did have success with some of an inactive family coming to church. I love you all. Also here they say the days that are hard and we work all day our wife gets more beautiful, and if we don’t wash our dishes our wife gains a kilo. Entonces (Therefore) Levi must have been a really hard working missionary, but forgot to wash his dishes a few times haha. I love you all and I was just kidding about the dishes Brenda
Elder Andrew
Primero yo contestaré las preguntas de mama. (First I will answer mom’s questions)Your Spanish makes sense! But then again if it is wrong I probably wouldn’t be able to tell because that is how I would say it! A lady in the Ward washes our clothes for free! So that is nice. For food, I always eat cereal in the morning, a member always feeds us for lunch and then we either go without dinner or just have a snack. Don’t worry about me and food the people here are worse food pushers than Grandpa so I’m more worried about me engordando (gaining weight) than anything else. I actually did weigh myself and I am 109 kilos, not bad huh. We get mail every three weeks and I didn’t get your package, there is probably about a 70 percent chance that mail sent arrives I would figure, but no worries. The only thing I really would need would be some flash drives to back up my camera with in case it gets stolen, but maybe I can just buy those here with my debit card. (I asked if it was ok for people to e-mail him or if they should write letters and send to the mission home. Here is his response.) They can email me, but I won’t have much time to respond personally, write the mission home. Like I said they bring us the mail from there every three weeks I think. This morning we did insanity (which is a kind of work out), and it was insane, I got pretty tired from it, but then again I am just a fat old missionary. It reminded me of Matthew and how he would do insanity con (with) Johnny. Tell Matthew to find out how Johnny, Prescott, and Mike are doing. Tell them that I love em and to keep up the good work. Cultural notes: The weather has been wacko. I got here and it was pretty much perfect, maybe a bit cold. Then it rained all day one day and was freezing. Then it was super hot the next day and really humid. Then it started up with the raining and freezing again, it has been raining the past couple of days, and I don’t think I’ve seen the sun for a few days, due to the cloud cover. But my cold and water stuff work really well so no worries. Oh and about the keyboard; the computers are Spanish so when I write in English everything has a red line under it like it is spelled wrong, so if my spelling is bad in English blame it on that haha. In the train, which we take once a week at least for meetings, there are always people selling stuff. They will walk into your car, Yell out their little spiel and then put whatever they are selling in front of every passenger and then move on to the next car. The stuff they sell is sometimes weird, too. Like a man was selling sewing kits the other day, que raro (how strange). They will also sometimes do it on the colectivos (buses) from the main station in Lanus. They give their spiel, sell a few and then hop off and go back to the station. It can be Handy if you are hungry and they are selling snacks. The autos acá (cars here? I didn’t understand this) really like to talk but their language is really fowl so it is always bleeped out. Todos las casas tienen reyas,(All the houses have bars or gates or fences) and then have bars on their windows. So if we ever knock doors we do a lot of talking through windows. Elder Aldana and I came up with the joke for the people that don’t even open their windows; they just part their blinds and then shake their fingers at us. When those people are knocking on the gates of heaven Jesus will just part the curtain and shake his finger at them. We had a good laugh but maybe that is a bit sacreligious and I hope those people will find their way to this gospel whether in this life or the next. People for heat will just turn their ovens on. All the ovens are gas so there is just a flame or two on the stove. I kind of wondered “shouldn’t there be a pot or something on that" the first time I saw it but then I figured out what it was for. The people here think that English people speak English much better than Americans psssh what do they know haha. Also if someone here ever needed to just quickly build a house or something they wouldn’t even have to drive to a local home depot, there are plenty of supplies for building houses just in the sidewalk! Just piles of bricks and junks who knows why haha. The ghetto of Argentina it’s where I’m at. Today was fun, we went bowling with some of the elders in my zone and I bowled a 92! I still don’t have it! We had a lot of fun doing that though. No cleaning today, I told the other elders it was their turn but we just didn’t, it is pretty clean anyway. It has been a week of ups and downs. The rain and grayness make it hard to stay motivated if you are just walking around in it all day, which seems to happen to us often. All our baptismal dates fell through because people didn’t come to church. It’s tiempo para bajar la caña (It's time to drop the cane. This means to chasten or rebuke) We had what I thought was a really good day. It was rough in the rain, but we found an old lady named León who is a less active member, for some reason I felt like she was who we needed to find that day, and I had been praying to find just one person who needed us, as I often do when we are just knocking and knocking and knocking doors. We have a cita (appointment) with her tomorrow and we will see how it goes. That same night we had an impromptu lección con Odulio one of our investigadores and he told us how he feels good and the gospel was changing his life, the spirit was real strong and little did I know that what I had studied that morning in personal study I used in the lesson! The Lord definitely has me in his mind, I know that much. We were very excited for him, but then he didn’t come to church and he wasn’t there when we went by later that day for a cita we had with him. It was odd and we are going to have to see what’s up, and maybe chew him out in a loving Christ like sort of way. With the member missionary thing if you all could read preach my gospel pages 160 161 for family home evening tonight and discuss it that would be awesome. Also a quote from President Thomas S Monson "The challenge is to be more profitable servants in the Lords vineyard. This applies to all of us, whatever our age and not alone to those who are preparing to serve as full-time missionaries, for to each of us comes the mandate to share the gospel of Christ ” We had an awesome meeting with President Thurgood and the assistants with our zone. It was motivating and led me to study more about repentance, and I made a list of the steps of repentance and am going to start using that with our investigators. The gospel of Jesus Christ is really just faith and repentance. The rest of the things like baptism and enduring to the end are just results of continued faith and repentance. So we have a new focus and hopefully a better week ahead. This is hard, but we did have success with some of an inactive family coming to church. I love you all. Also here they say the days that are hard and we work all day our wife gets more beautiful, and if we don’t wash our dishes our wife gains a kilo. Entonces (Therefore) Levi must have been a really hard working missionary, but forgot to wash his dishes a few times haha. I love you all and I was just kidding about the dishes Brenda
Elder Andrew
I was able to track down the e-mail for this week! Joleen
Word from Lanús 1 b
I am learning to deal with dogs, but more excitingly and more pertinant to my living situation, how to deal with rats! we found out that we had a rat my second or third day and found a few holes and covered them up. then we didn´t hear anything from the Little guy for a while. we live in a pension with two other elders (the zone leaders) Elder juarez and Elder Dodge. Elder juarez is from mexico city, mexico and Elder Dodge is from orem, Utah. They are really awesome and is a blessing to be living with them, they also have very funny senses of humor. anyway back to the rata. we saw him again this morning and Elder Dodge, juarez and i spent some time trying to smash him, but he got away. Then later i was scrubbing the floor of the bathroom with some disinfectant i bought. (the other elders don´t clean on p day but i feel like a should so i cleaned the bathroom and some of the other spaces, it is easier to feel the spirit in a clean pensión, although Elder Aldana did clean some of the outside área today!) anyway as i was cleaning the rat came out and was just sitting there on the floor, it was a Little strange, but Elder Aldana trapped him in a container and then we put him in a spring loaded cage that our neighbor gave us when he first Heard we had a rat (he owns the pesion). So now we have something to eat for dinner! cuando estoy limpiando El Señor me envíe bendiciones. Even though a veces es difícil a entender mi compañero we have a good time, we are always laughing and sometimes probably having too much fun and too many jokes haha. He will be 26 this week. In the misión your entrenador is your padre, but i joke that Elder Aldana es mi abuelo jaja. We had a bit more success this week but still have a lot of work to do. the people really like to talk and if we are not careful we waste a lot of time in appointments. I guess ill finish cultural stuff before i get into the spiritual aspect. We use colectivos here, they are like buses, but much more effecient, the driving here might be loco but people get where they need to go faster, colectivos drive by stop for about 5 seconds if someone is on the curb with their hand out, and then take off again as soon as the people are inside. I don´t know how they don´t get in accidents and can squeeze through the spaces that they do. they kind of remind me of that bus that is in the Harry potter movie. the dogs are everywhere and will bark, but don´t give you any real trouble, although i am forever jumping for fright, but don´t worry levi i don´t swear when dogs scare me. and when we were in someones house a dog peed on my shoe, so my love for dogs is definately not growing. I am in Lanús which i think is about as city as this misión gets. It is just kind of like a really big capri circle with a bunch of argentines and paraguanes living in it. Aperantly they asked this misión if we wanted i pads and all that stuff, but they said no because they would probably be stolen, so that is one thing i don´t have to worry about! I glad that my two siblings are learning to drive, it is good they aren´t taking lessons down here. the freakiest thing i saw is there was a bunch of burning garbage in the Street one day blocking an intersection and there were some somewhat quaotic people around. I was really freaked out and didn´t know what was going on. Elder Dodge later told me that when people are mad at the government they will do stuff like that. I try to excercise every morning so that i won´t get too fat, and Elder juarez even has p90x so we will do that some mornings. where ever i go the people will try to talk english to me and it is funny. there is this one member that will always say Ï love you baby! another member is in school to become an english teacher and we eat with them on saturday and i always enjoy that time. They keep telling me that usa is at war with seria right now or something? anyway.... this week started off better and we were doing better tan the week before. but one of the families that we visit who were partialy active decided that they don´t want to come to church anymore. You know what it is over? Facebook and texting. one of the laurel age girls in the family aparently got in a fight over a chico over Facebook and on the cell pone and now the whole family doesn´t want to come to church. they said that they know it is true but don´t want to come back until the problema is worked out but don´t really seem like they are going to do that anytime soon. I know that might seem silly and obviosly the familia de los santos is too blame as well and need to go to church, but just be careful with how you interact with others, especially over things like Facebook and texting where it is more of a temptation to not act like yourself. It is very sad to me to see this family struggling this way because of one laurels thoughtless actions. Next, work with the missionaries in the glenview Ward! You can trust Elder muschetti he is a good missionary. prayerfully consider who you can refer to the missionaries and then give them the referals! I know that now you have more room on the bench, so invite the investigators to come and sit by you, let the missionaries know that if they need anything, they can call the Andrew family. We are trying harder to work with our Ward and its hard because Elder Aldana only has two more weeks tan me here, so neither of us know the Ward very well. it would be a lot easier if members gave us references and gordan b hinckley said that is the better way to do missionary work, so do it! I regret not do that now that i´m out here and see how much it was needed. The spanish is coming well and the lord is definately blessing me with the gift of tounges. Sometimes i can understand pretty much everything that someone is saying and other times not really at all. usually it is a mixture of both, but in a góspel conversation i can usually pick out most of lo que paso, and i haven´t even been here two weeks! the gift of tougnes is real. the speaking is coming slower but i get better every day, i need to open my mouth more though, that is what i am lacking. My heart was broken on sunday because our investigators that i love so much, didn´t come to church i was very sad, this is their salvation and they are feeling the spirit and making progress, oh well time to bring the spiritual smack down! we did have sister tevés an inactive woman come with her daughter aixia that we hope to be able to baptize if the family reactivates and that made me happy. We have a lot of work to do and this is the week to do it, we did a lot of planning thursday and it is time to put those into action. the lord is my light so why should i fear? he is your light too don´t be afraid to share it. mosiah 20:11 it is time to fight like dragons for the góspel we know is true.
love,
Elder Andrew
ps. i really liked the poster, the pictures didn´t come through. I´m sure Daniel is a shoe in for the victory, Andrews are ganadores. there is a kid in the Ward that reminds me of a Daniel a lot. also there is a 7 year old girl that bore us simple but powerful testimony of the book of mormon, even though her mom is inactive. 7! so if she can do it, so can you Daniel!
Word from Lanús 1 b
I am learning to deal with dogs, but more excitingly and more pertinant to my living situation, how to deal with rats! we found out that we had a rat my second or third day and found a few holes and covered them up. then we didn´t hear anything from the Little guy for a while. we live in a pension with two other elders (the zone leaders) Elder juarez and Elder Dodge. Elder juarez is from mexico city, mexico and Elder Dodge is from orem, Utah. They are really awesome and is a blessing to be living with them, they also have very funny senses of humor. anyway back to the rata. we saw him again this morning and Elder Dodge, juarez and i spent some time trying to smash him, but he got away. Then later i was scrubbing the floor of the bathroom with some disinfectant i bought. (the other elders don´t clean on p day but i feel like a should so i cleaned the bathroom and some of the other spaces, it is easier to feel the spirit in a clean pensión, although Elder Aldana did clean some of the outside área today!) anyway as i was cleaning the rat came out and was just sitting there on the floor, it was a Little strange, but Elder Aldana trapped him in a container and then we put him in a spring loaded cage that our neighbor gave us when he first Heard we had a rat (he owns the pesion). So now we have something to eat for dinner! cuando estoy limpiando El Señor me envíe bendiciones. Even though a veces es difícil a entender mi compañero we have a good time, we are always laughing and sometimes probably having too much fun and too many jokes haha. He will be 26 this week. In the misión your entrenador is your padre, but i joke that Elder Aldana es mi abuelo jaja. We had a bit more success this week but still have a lot of work to do. the people really like to talk and if we are not careful we waste a lot of time in appointments. I guess ill finish cultural stuff before i get into the spiritual aspect. We use colectivos here, they are like buses, but much more effecient, the driving here might be loco but people get where they need to go faster, colectivos drive by stop for about 5 seconds if someone is on the curb with their hand out, and then take off again as soon as the people are inside. I don´t know how they don´t get in accidents and can squeeze through the spaces that they do. they kind of remind me of that bus that is in the Harry potter movie. the dogs are everywhere and will bark, but don´t give you any real trouble, although i am forever jumping for fright, but don´t worry levi i don´t swear when dogs scare me. and when we were in someones house a dog peed on my shoe, so my love for dogs is definately not growing. I am in Lanús which i think is about as city as this misión gets. It is just kind of like a really big capri circle with a bunch of argentines and paraguanes living in it. Aperantly they asked this misión if we wanted i pads and all that stuff, but they said no because they would probably be stolen, so that is one thing i don´t have to worry about! I glad that my two siblings are learning to drive, it is good they aren´t taking lessons down here. the freakiest thing i saw is there was a bunch of burning garbage in the Street one day blocking an intersection and there were some somewhat quaotic people around. I was really freaked out and didn´t know what was going on. Elder Dodge later told me that when people are mad at the government they will do stuff like that. I try to excercise every morning so that i won´t get too fat, and Elder juarez even has p90x so we will do that some mornings. where ever i go the people will try to talk english to me and it is funny. there is this one member that will always say Ï love you baby! another member is in school to become an english teacher and we eat with them on saturday and i always enjoy that time. They keep telling me that usa is at war with seria right now or something? anyway.... this week started off better and we were doing better tan the week before. but one of the families that we visit who were partialy active decided that they don´t want to come to church anymore. You know what it is over? Facebook and texting. one of the laurel age girls in the family aparently got in a fight over a chico over Facebook and on the cell pone and now the whole family doesn´t want to come to church. they said that they know it is true but don´t want to come back until the problema is worked out but don´t really seem like they are going to do that anytime soon. I know that might seem silly and obviosly the familia de los santos is too blame as well and need to go to church, but just be careful with how you interact with others, especially over things like Facebook and texting where it is more of a temptation to not act like yourself. It is very sad to me to see this family struggling this way because of one laurels thoughtless actions. Next, work with the missionaries in the glenview Ward! You can trust Elder muschetti he is a good missionary. prayerfully consider who you can refer to the missionaries and then give them the referals! I know that now you have more room on the bench, so invite the investigators to come and sit by you, let the missionaries know that if they need anything, they can call the Andrew family. We are trying harder to work with our Ward and its hard because Elder Aldana only has two more weeks tan me here, so neither of us know the Ward very well. it would be a lot easier if members gave us references and gordan b hinckley said that is the better way to do missionary work, so do it! I regret not do that now that i´m out here and see how much it was needed. The spanish is coming well and the lord is definately blessing me with the gift of tounges. Sometimes i can understand pretty much everything that someone is saying and other times not really at all. usually it is a mixture of both, but in a góspel conversation i can usually pick out most of lo que paso, and i haven´t even been here two weeks! the gift of tougnes is real. the speaking is coming slower but i get better every day, i need to open my mouth more though, that is what i am lacking. My heart was broken on sunday because our investigators that i love so much, didn´t come to church i was very sad, this is their salvation and they are feeling the spirit and making progress, oh well time to bring the spiritual smack down! we did have sister tevés an inactive woman come with her daughter aixia that we hope to be able to baptize if the family reactivates and that made me happy. We have a lot of work to do and this is the week to do it, we did a lot of planning thursday and it is time to put those into action. the lord is my light so why should i fear? he is your light too don´t be afraid to share it. mosiah 20:11 it is time to fight like dragons for the góspel we know is true.
love,
Elder Andrew
ps. i really liked the poster, the pictures didn´t come through. I´m sure Daniel is a shoe in for the victory, Andrews are ganadores. there is a kid in the Ward that reminds me of a Daniel a lot. also there is a 7 year old girl that bore us simple but powerful testimony of the book of mormon, even though her mom is inactive. 7! so if she can do it, so can you Daniel!
I don't know what happened but the family didn't get an e-mail this week. Brenda and Levi(Ben's sister and her husband) did and here it is. It does show that he wrote us one. Who knows how come we didn't get ours.
I used all my time on the family email. it rained all day other thursday here and it is serious about rain, but the good news is my rain stuff Works! I love you and sorry i doont´ have more time. We are going to start doing english clases as well as a means of finding people, (my idea haha soy capo y tengo ideas de diez)
Love,
Elder andrew
I used all my time on the family email. it rained all day other thursday here and it is serious about rain, but the good news is my rain stuff Works! I love you and sorry i doont´ have more time. We are going to start doing english clases as well as a means of finding people, (my idea haha soy capo y tengo ideas de diez)
Love,
Elder andrew
Monday, September 2, 2013 1:00 PM
Hola de Argentina familia!
Alright business first. I will not be using my debit card really down here unless I am buying something personal, which won’t be probably until the last área de mi misión, entonces I need you mom to put 100 or 200 hundred more in my checking account and get a card for my account as well. Buy three cheap things a month with it, so that I won’t get charged the thirty five dollars a month when I don’t use it. (Hopefully you understand what I’m talking about. I’m glad you put the blog up, and hope you posted about it on my Facebook también. I did not bring a bag to carry stuff around in, but I bought one in the mtc. It is working very well, so no worries about that! Also it is already starting to warm up so I won’t need the gloves and such yet but I’m sure I will appreciate them in a year or so! Daniel, I got the shirt in Nauvoo, so if you friends want one too they just might be out of luck sorry buddy. You flooded my inbox! There were so many emails, thank you the first two from you mom and dad were what I needed I think. I was sad I couldn’t talk with you in the airport, close to tears but then I chinned up and figured my misión isn’t for calling my family anyway. I will let Brenda tell you about Sam and that awesome experience because I don’t feel like writing it again jaja. I’m out of time dang it. My companion is native and the language it coming if not some what difficultly. Elder Aldana doesn’t speak English either. Four elders in my pension one speaks English. Pictures are my companion and my bathroom. We haven’t had much success but that changes this week! Sorry, I thought I had more time, I will write you first next time.
Con Amor,
Elder Andrew
Note from Joleen: I couldn't get the picture of the bathroom to download.
Hola de Argentina familia!
Alright business first. I will not be using my debit card really down here unless I am buying something personal, which won’t be probably until the last área de mi misión, entonces I need you mom to put 100 or 200 hundred more in my checking account and get a card for my account as well. Buy three cheap things a month with it, so that I won’t get charged the thirty five dollars a month when I don’t use it. (Hopefully you understand what I’m talking about. I’m glad you put the blog up, and hope you posted about it on my Facebook también. I did not bring a bag to carry stuff around in, but I bought one in the mtc. It is working very well, so no worries about that! Also it is already starting to warm up so I won’t need the gloves and such yet but I’m sure I will appreciate them in a year or so! Daniel, I got the shirt in Nauvoo, so if you friends want one too they just might be out of luck sorry buddy. You flooded my inbox! There were so many emails, thank you the first two from you mom and dad were what I needed I think. I was sad I couldn’t talk with you in the airport, close to tears but then I chinned up and figured my misión isn’t for calling my family anyway. I will let Brenda tell you about Sam and that awesome experience because I don’t feel like writing it again jaja. I’m out of time dang it. My companion is native and the language it coming if not some what difficultly. Elder Aldana doesn’t speak English either. Four elders in my pension one speaks English. Pictures are my companion and my bathroom. We haven’t had much success but that changes this week! Sorry, I thought I had more time, I will write you first next time.
Con Amor,
Elder Andrew
Note from Joleen: I couldn't get the picture of the bathroom to download.
Saturday, August 24, 2013 7:05 PM
Well, I leave on Monday so they said I could email today. It has been an awesome week and I'm sad to leave my district that I have grown to love so much but I am so excited for el campo. I need to talk to everyone, EVERYONE and I am going to try to. Why wouldn't I, it isn't my work it is the Lord's. I read Mosiah 14 recently and it was awesome you should check it out. I got an email from the Moultons today and it was so fun to receive. They have been through a lot of trying things lately and I hope that the Lord is preparing them to return to full activity. Today has been very bitter sweet; all our teachers have been talking about their missions, showing us pictures and bearing testimony. I have felt a lot of the power of the work today. Hermana Taggart taught us to always open our mouths, never get discouraged and just keep chugging ( she is un poco loco pero ella es super motivated, which I hope I can be tambien) and Hermano Littlefield, Daniel will like this part, brought us cookies and his pet pingúno named charley. He loved his penguin and always talked about him in class it was pretty fun (he was a stuffed animal). He showed us pictures from his mission and I haven't seen him emotional before but when he was talking about Cesar who they were worried wouldn't come to church because his cousin had died at 3 Sunday morning. Then they saw him at 9 walking to church, he could hardly say that part. Cesar was a kind of rough kid but changed his life around and is now serving a mission. I am going to meet some the best people in the world in Argentina and the gospel can really change their lives. I am so humbled to be called to a work so great. We sang "God be with you till we meet again" in espanol at the end of class and were all crying. I love you my familia I will try and call you when you asked, hopefully I'm not so busy preaching the gospel that I completely space it, but I guess that wouldn't be a bad thing. I will call from a payphone and when you pick up I'll probably hang up and then use my calling card to call. I will use change first just to make sure you're home so I don't waste my calling card. Tengo mucho amor para ustedes.
Love,
Elder Andrew
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