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!