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
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