Monday, February 24, 2014 1:02 PM
I am glad to hear that you are willing to make sacrifices to fulfill your calling Dad many would say that they were tired and how important are a couple rowdy 12 year olds anyway, but not my dad he will go the extra mile, thank you for being such a good example for me. My district is the zone leaders and a set of hermanas so maybe not your typical district but I am doing what I can. I hope that your missionary efforts are going well and that you are continually inviting the people. This week we found a lot of people. all the people we are teaching have different needs, are at different levels of understanding and spirituality so it makes it an interesting challenge to teach them all, but as we study and teach we learn much together. We are starting to ask everyone, active members included; how they are doing on their scripture reading and finding that even some of the faithful members aren’t reading their scriptures everyday, so we start with that because before they can help us out they need to be on a spiritual level to be able to. I hope that all of you are dedicating yourselves to personal scripture study and really searching for greater truth and knowledge every day. So that you know Shaun’s brother Brett died and Shaun is home for the funeral, the mission president said he is one of the best missionaries. Keep the family in your prayers and do what you can to help them in this very hard time. Sorry I don’t have more time to write.
With a lot of amor,
Elder Andrew
Monday, February 17, 2014 11:39 AM
Avellaneda 2 = new home
Well this week was tough... I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t (and still don’t) know anything about the area, and I felt the new pressure of being a district leader (they made me give a meeting even before I went to the capacitation! (capacitation is training I think. JA)) We walked a lot and all the change just kind of hit me. But for the most part the worst of that is gone and I am now feeling more comfortable and more excited that anything else. There is just so much to learn and so many new things to try and new people to meet! The bishop here is on a business thing for 9 months so I will probably never get to meet him (weird) but the consejeros (councilors) are doing his job in his absence. There is a whole, whole bunch of Bolivians y Peruvians. I think in Lanus I knew one guy who was Bolivian so now there is just a whole bunch of short dark people, but I like it! The ward members seem animated to doing the obra(work) and we have already received many references, I have the hope that in a week or two, or maybe even this week, the work is just going to explode!!! Elder Dahl is very obedient and very, very generous and nice, he reminds me in some ways a little bit of Matthew. He is really wanting to work hard and really wants to see the results. He has only had one baptism so far and it was someone that was already going to get baptized when he got there so he wants more (we’ll see what we can do :) ) there are a lot of young families and right now we are trying to get the numbers right so that we can build our own church building because we are currently sharing one. that has the ward with a focused goal I think and is helping with reactivation and finding new people. We are focusing on trying to take the leaders to our visitas (visits) so that they can be the examples for the rest of the ward. I just see so much potential here and it just makes me so excited!!!! The lunches are very good and a lot more peruvian food (super rico (rich or delicious) and also has picante!(spicy) something I have missed) I am learning a lot from my studies and trying to implement it. The ward mission leader, Victor Ramos, is very involved in what we do and left with us to work one day already. There are 5 boys in the ward on missions and a number of kids preparing for the mission. So we are going to try and help out those jovenes tambien (youth also) because I remember how grateful I was for Elder Kirwan and Elder Mutchette helping me out. Elder Kirwan actually wrote to me once, it was pretty cool. Even though the pench (apartment) was already pretty clean we cleaned it today and did some organizing so now it is even better! We are thinking about doing maybe a revised version of what you said that other elder did in lunch. Part of our work as missionaries is to capacitate the members to help them know how to do missionary work. So mom maybe you could ask the missionaries for some tips, the sure could help you out I am sure. Make sure that you always talk to the investigators you see and menos activos (less active) as well, in church and outside. I was thinking back to when I used to go with the missionaries and how it helped me to know those people and then without the missionaries telling me to I naturally felt like I should go talk to them in church, and I remember giving a less active lady a ride home from Fry’s one night with Zach. Just look for opportunities like that, they really do make a difference and go out with the missionaries so that you can know who these people are, or at least get to know the ones in church so that when you see them in the street you can talk to them! Let them see how true this gospel is with the smile on your mouth and the smile in your eyes!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Andrew
Avellaneda 2 = new home
Well this week was tough... I didn’t know anyone, I didn’t (and still don’t) know anything about the area, and I felt the new pressure of being a district leader (they made me give a meeting even before I went to the capacitation! (capacitation is training I think. JA)) We walked a lot and all the change just kind of hit me. But for the most part the worst of that is gone and I am now feeling more comfortable and more excited that anything else. There is just so much to learn and so many new things to try and new people to meet! The bishop here is on a business thing for 9 months so I will probably never get to meet him (weird) but the consejeros (councilors) are doing his job in his absence. There is a whole, whole bunch of Bolivians y Peruvians. I think in Lanus I knew one guy who was Bolivian so now there is just a whole bunch of short dark people, but I like it! The ward members seem animated to doing the obra(work) and we have already received many references, I have the hope that in a week or two, or maybe even this week, the work is just going to explode!!! Elder Dahl is very obedient and very, very generous and nice, he reminds me in some ways a little bit of Matthew. He is really wanting to work hard and really wants to see the results. He has only had one baptism so far and it was someone that was already going to get baptized when he got there so he wants more (we’ll see what we can do :) ) there are a lot of young families and right now we are trying to get the numbers right so that we can build our own church building because we are currently sharing one. that has the ward with a focused goal I think and is helping with reactivation and finding new people. We are focusing on trying to take the leaders to our visitas (visits) so that they can be the examples for the rest of the ward. I just see so much potential here and it just makes me so excited!!!! The lunches are very good and a lot more peruvian food (super rico (rich or delicious) and also has picante!(spicy) something I have missed) I am learning a lot from my studies and trying to implement it. The ward mission leader, Victor Ramos, is very involved in what we do and left with us to work one day already. There are 5 boys in the ward on missions and a number of kids preparing for the mission. So we are going to try and help out those jovenes tambien (youth also) because I remember how grateful I was for Elder Kirwan and Elder Mutchette helping me out. Elder Kirwan actually wrote to me once, it was pretty cool. Even though the pench (apartment) was already pretty clean we cleaned it today and did some organizing so now it is even better! We are thinking about doing maybe a revised version of what you said that other elder did in lunch. Part of our work as missionaries is to capacitate the members to help them know how to do missionary work. So mom maybe you could ask the missionaries for some tips, the sure could help you out I am sure. Make sure that you always talk to the investigators you see and menos activos (less active) as well, in church and outside. I was thinking back to when I used to go with the missionaries and how it helped me to know those people and then without the missionaries telling me to I naturally felt like I should go talk to them in church, and I remember giving a less active lady a ride home from Fry’s one night with Zach. Just look for opportunities like that, they really do make a difference and go out with the missionaries so that you can know who these people are, or at least get to know the ones in church so that when you see them in the street you can talk to them! Let them see how true this gospel is with the smile on your mouth and the smile in your eyes!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Andrew
Los cambios vienen
First and foremost I did get transferred! I am now in Avellaneda in the area Avellaneda 2 which is way bigger than my last area. We live in a big apartment building on the tenth floor, the pench (apartment) is pretty nice and my new comp Elder Dahl (Logan, Utah) seems pretty awesome. He only has one less transfer than me but I am the comp mayor and his district leader. Yeah, that’s right, President also asked me to be a district leader. It seems like every change just brings its new challenges and this to bring me back to ground zero... oh well it is the best way to learn. It was hard and weird to say goodbye to the ward and to my three companions but I did it and now I am here. I already met the ward mission leader. He is a young returned missionary who seems very excited to work. I am excited too; there is just so much newness ahead of me! This past week was definitely different. We found a husband of a less active lady that we had just barely found and started teaching so hopefully the other elders can help them out. Then on Viernes (Friday) it rained, and rained, and then rained some more. As you can probably see the whole place got pretty flooded. But we decided to take advantage of the situation and leave to go and help people and so that is what we did, we spent all day wading through water offering help and doing service. It was different, fun and very tiring but I think we helped to change some people’s perspectives or at least let them see the missionaries aren’t just annoying guys that knock on your door. Then, by the next day all the water had left and we helped one member family that had their house flooded really bad clean it out. Because of that we had to do our weekly planning on Saturday afternoon because we left on Friday when we would normally do it. As we were doing it, it just started raining a whole bunch and I thought "oh no all these poor people. It can’t flood again and what if this makes it so that we can’t have the baptism" so I told Elder Corry we should pray so that the rain would stop and so we did, and it did! We then gave a prayer of thanks and as you could see Camila was baptized! She is so awesome and pure. I am just a little sad I won’t get to be there to see the confirmation or to help out the rest of her family activate (right now it is just Camila y Marcela la madre) She said she was going to miss me and I gave her a dollar bill with my signature to remember me by. Then later on Sunday night we had a meeting with Flia Caseres (the Caseres Family) and Malvina. We talked and exchanged information to stay in contact and ate some pizza. Malvina gave me a recuerdo (souvenir/gift) that was a little rabbit that has a heart that says "te quiero". I thought it was a bit strange but I’ll keep it anyway. I left them with my testimony and poor Malvina was crying but I know she will be okay; she is going to go on vacation to visit her family in Entre Rios and she asked us for Books of Mormon so that she could give them out to her family! que capa! I will let you know if I become aware of any of the results of that. My new companion I have heard is very obedient and it seems so to me. He wants to work and he wants to get baptisms. He also told me a Ward goal is to have the requirements to be able to build their own capilla (chapel) by the end of the year, so we will definitely help out with that. By the way there is a Wal-Mart like ten blocks from the pension.... I like this place already! Keep up the great work and keep inviting your friends to come to activities and everything, I know that you will!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Andrew
Monday, February 3, 2014 12:54 PM
Wow so many things are changing back home it is weird, and Argentina is starting to feel more and more like home. Daniel is just quite the little man now. Matthew and Carolyn super studs! And from Brevi (Brenda and Levi) I haven’t heard anything but I assume they are their usual awesome selves! I feel like I am learning too many new things, as I have been trying to teach Elder Corry from the 12 week training program I am learning a lot of things that are helping me with the way I teach! (Elder Aldana never really did the 12 week program with me). It is amazing all there is to learn and ideas that were there on the same pages for so long just seem to jump out at you. Well Camila is a nine year old girl of inactive family. The mom, Marcela, stopped working a lot and started spending more time with Camila, she then realized that Camila needed a church and so told some of the family members of her husband who are active and they passed the reference on to us. The mom and Camila are the only ones that show interest in going to church ( for now ;) ) Camila is super smart for only having 9 years and is super pure. She is going to get baptized on the 9th! We asked her who wanted to do the baptism and she said me, I wanted her to pick Elder Corry and I guess I should have just suggested that he could do it instead of asking her, but the important thing is that she is going to get baptized! I am pretty sure this will probably be my last p day in Lanus but I guess we will see. It is weird to think that I might leave this place. We are working with new ideas and some new people. We did a charla with Malvina and had her make a list of about 15 people she knew that weren’t members of the church. From that we had her choose five and then set up a time to have lunch with them and told her to invite her friends to come to the lunch. She told us she has done it and some of them already said yes so we will see how that goes on Saturday! We are also going to start doing that with all our lunch appointments (since we eat with the same families almost every week). The days are going by fast, we are teaching more lessons. The president told us that we can and should work towards teaching 30 lessons a week, although we still have a little ways to go we are steadily increase the amount of lessons we teach and working towards that goal. I love being a missionary and if I stop to think of all the blessings it is so amazing, the trick is I have to stop and think about it. I really love the song "I Stand All Amazed" It is amazing that for me, just a tiny little speck in the universe, a guy that makes so many mistakes and does so many things wrong. That for me a sinner he suffered, he bled and died. I know that my Redeemer lives. He helps me in every moment when I will just turn to him. He can bring light to the darkest situations if we will just allow him to. I love you all very much!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Wow so many things are changing back home it is weird, and Argentina is starting to feel more and more like home. Daniel is just quite the little man now. Matthew and Carolyn super studs! And from Brevi (Brenda and Levi) I haven’t heard anything but I assume they are their usual awesome selves! I feel like I am learning too many new things, as I have been trying to teach Elder Corry from the 12 week training program I am learning a lot of things that are helping me with the way I teach! (Elder Aldana never really did the 12 week program with me). It is amazing all there is to learn and ideas that were there on the same pages for so long just seem to jump out at you. Well Camila is a nine year old girl of inactive family. The mom, Marcela, stopped working a lot and started spending more time with Camila, she then realized that Camila needed a church and so told some of the family members of her husband who are active and they passed the reference on to us. The mom and Camila are the only ones that show interest in going to church ( for now ;) ) Camila is super smart for only having 9 years and is super pure. She is going to get baptized on the 9th! We asked her who wanted to do the baptism and she said me, I wanted her to pick Elder Corry and I guess I should have just suggested that he could do it instead of asking her, but the important thing is that she is going to get baptized! I am pretty sure this will probably be my last p day in Lanus but I guess we will see. It is weird to think that I might leave this place. We are working with new ideas and some new people. We did a charla with Malvina and had her make a list of about 15 people she knew that weren’t members of the church. From that we had her choose five and then set up a time to have lunch with them and told her to invite her friends to come to the lunch. She told us she has done it and some of them already said yes so we will see how that goes on Saturday! We are also going to start doing that with all our lunch appointments (since we eat with the same families almost every week). The days are going by fast, we are teaching more lessons. The president told us that we can and should work towards teaching 30 lessons a week, although we still have a little ways to go we are steadily increase the amount of lessons we teach and working towards that goal. I love being a missionary and if I stop to think of all the blessings it is so amazing, the trick is I have to stop and think about it. I really love the song "I Stand All Amazed" It is amazing that for me, just a tiny little speck in the universe, a guy that makes so many mistakes and does so many things wrong. That for me a sinner he suffered, he bled and died. I know that my Redeemer lives. He helps me in every moment when I will just turn to him. He can bring light to the darkest situations if we will just allow him to. I love you all very much!
Love,
Elder Andrew
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)