Ben's Painted Easter Eggs



Monday, April 28, 2014 12:31 PM

Argentina, my second home

Well this week was crazy but really good! About calling on mother’s day they haven’t given us any details yet so I really don’t know anything... and transfers are on may 5th so I could even be in a new area (I hope not). Well this week we had a lot of fun and worked really hard. One really cool experience was with Silvia. She is a member that has been inactive for more than 20 years and the first time we passed by she told us that she was never coming back but would listen to us. The second time she told us not to lose our time passing by because her son (who isn’t a member and we want teach but still haven’t found) wasn’t going to change and she was never going to go to church, but we were persistent and got in and gave her a spiritual message. The third time we passed by she received us with a smile, let us in and you could feel that the atmosphere was different (more of the spirit) and she asked us that if she came back after so many years if she would have to be baptized again. And, saying that she was going to have to come back! Amazing what the Spirit and the Lord can do! Really we are just fountains of the Spirit and have to take it to other people 2 Nephi 33:1 I think talks about that. This weekend we had stake conference and it was really good. The stake president is in our ward so we know him and the conference was wonderful! And the mission president was there! How cool is that. It was very spiritually uplifting. Elder Crowther and I have been able to bring a lot more of the spirit to our teaching and you can super tell the difference, I really hope that president lets us stay together another transfer here. Today in the morning we got a call at about 6:20 from an hermana crying and telling us to rush to the hospital. We took a colectivo and then ran the remaining blocks to find her and the investigator that lives with her sitting down crying. The investigator, Noelia had woken up to find her baby which I think had about 8 months stone cold in bed. The poor little baby had died and we went to give the mother a blessing, and try to help calm down the family. It made me think of what bishops must have to do. We called ward leaders and they should be helping them out now. I only ask that you keep the family Beloso and Noelia Quiñones in your prayers and that you pray that we can be given the words to help teach and comfort them. These things just make me even more grateful for the gospel and I don’t know what I would do without it is my life. I know that we can return to live with our loved ones and that the plan of salvation is real. May we live worthy to receive the fullness of its blessings.

I love you all very much and thank you for the help you give me

Love,

Elder Andrew

                        Ben made these empanadas...YUMMM!

  


Chillin' Like Cool Kids

 

Monday, April 21, 2014 12:48 PM     

Easter in Argentina

Well here they have something called the Semana Santa, but like most sacred things the world just turned it into a normal week with an opportunity to have big parties at the end of the week, oh well we know where the real happiness comes from. All of the jovenes de nuestro barrio (youth from our Ward) were in Cordova doing a pioneer trek of all things! This is the first time that they have ever done something like this and it made me think back to when we did a pioneer trek as a family and it was just such a good experience and how we were with Joe and Roxanna and how great it was to just work hard and feel just a tiny bit like pioneers. I love the Kimball Stake and I love you guys. So with all the jovenes (youth) gone Facundo came to church but poor kid was the one joven (youth) there and had to go through two classes of just teachers and him. He didn’t seem to mind too much though, he is a super stud. We are teaching him and his mom and Macarena still and they didn’t come because Macarena didn’t feel well and the mom wanted to take care of her. They are progressing but we found out while teaching the word of wisdom that the mom smokes and the kids drink tea, so we will move the baptismal date back because we want them all to be able to get baptized together. The family Ramos went and got Lily and her kids to go to church and they all got there together. Lily really likes the church, her kids not too much yet (they get bored). We taught her all of the restoration and she seemed like she was going to have some problems believing but we are starting with a really good member friendship base already so we have some high hopes for her and her family. Oh we also told the family Gonzalez that it was a tradiccion (tradition) to paint eggs in the states so we painted eggs with Facundo and the mom one time! I’ll send pictures if I ever get a computer that can. I made a super saiyin from dragon ball z. the other day I made some noodles with tuco and it turned out pretty darn tasty, so Mom when I get back ill take my turn cooking to give you a break haha. Hey I keep forgetting to ask you if there is any slight possibility of you picking me up at the end of the mission? It is allowed here; in fact my zone leader will be getting picked up by his parents in two weeks. I just think it would be so cool to at least be with you mom and dad down here for a few days. Or if the adventure is too crazy at least send Brenda and Levi haha. To tell you about my recent preach my gospel study. Today in the morning I was reading in chapter 5 about the Book of Mormon because we are going to do an in depth Book of Mormon lesson with Lily tonight. A question in the "consider this" box caught my attention that said something along the lines of "why is what is in Moroni 10: 3-5 so important" and I started thinking about it and went to the scripture and did a more in depth study and then used an institute manual of the Book of Mormon that we have in the pension to study even more. It was very interesting and I learn many new things like for the fact that it encourages us to read and consider the things of both the Bible and Book of Mormon when it talks about the things of Adam up until now. I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true and that Jesus is the Christ. That Joseph Smith was chosen to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that we are very blessed to be members of His church. Let us share this joy with other people!

con mucho amor,

Elder Andrew

Monday, April 7, 2014 12:29 PM

Conference fun.

Well for conference I was able to see all the sessions only missing a tiny bit of the first one on Saturday and will be watching priesthood later this week hopefully with some members because it was too late at night. But I didn’t get much out of Saturday afternoon because this lady came that we had invited on the street like a week before and turns out she was crazy. Literally crazy like bi polar and probably some other stuff, we sat her next to a member not knowing and then they had us come sit next to her and she talked and just kind of made us feel uncomfortable, so don’t know if we will follow up with that one. Why is it that the crazy one comes but all the ones that really, really needed to come and that we invited three times, and they told us yes don’t show up.... oh well I am grateful that we could see a few less actives there and also one other investigator! There where some elders that rented a big van to bring a group of less actives and investigators, pretty cool huh. About the Moultens, Dad, I was reading earlier this week in President Monson´s talk from the priesthood session of last October and I think it would be good for you to read it. His friend was a home teacher to a part member family for many years and then when the father had 90 years! He finally accepted the gospel; I would call that preserving until the end as a home teacher! It talks about being a good shepherd and is really good! Today we made some empanadas and I made the stuff to put inside them and fried them, they turned out pretty good. By the time I get back I will be a regular chef. In preach my gospel what I was recently studying is a little in chapter 13 about the functions and working with the church leaders. It will also be the topic of my district meeting tomorrow. It is so important for missionaries and members to work together that is why they want us all to read preach my gospel, so we can all be on the same page. I would suggest that if you are looking for a place to start that you start in chapter 9, it is really good and I always love reading through it and will help you look for new ideas to open your mouth and share the gospel. It really is exciting to be living in this day and age and I am sure grateful to be on a mission. A thirteen year old boy named Facundo who is part of a family that we are teaching told us this week that he got an answer. He doesn’t have a religious background and didn’t know anything about prayer when we started teaching him but told us that he just did Moroni’s promise and got an answer, now he always does his reading assignments and is progressing really well. It is quite amazing the faith of the little ones.

Well, much much love,

Elder Andrew

ps. The mission told me to send this to you: Due to the constraints imposed by the government of Argentina for imports, we are having trouble receiving packages from other countries. Because of these constraints, we recommend that the next time missionaries communicate with their families via email, that they ask them to not send any more packages. If packages are sent, they will probably remain in customs and never reach their destination. We want to clarify that there is no malice in this, but removing these packages from customs is a costly process for the Church and can be avoided, if appropriate measures are taken.