Monday, June 30, 2014 2:01 PM

Quilmes 101

That’s cool mom that you did some studying on this place, you probably now know more about it that 95% of the people that live here haha. No there isn’t any ocean in my area, and there is a railroad track that divides the place but I don’t know the other side of the tracks. We actually live in a place called Ezpeleta at least that is what the train station is called next to our pension. Well I am getting to know my area better and also my companion. It still isn’t too easy but oh well what else can you do? haha. It is sad as we go around and I get to know the members better I am seeing a sadly common theme. They may be active in the church but they aren’t being active in the gospel. It is split up into groups and there are several class divisions as well; wealthy, middle, and poor. It makes me sad and if the ward isn’t good it makes it super hard to work. But I just keep thinking in what Jesus said to his apostles that if they had faith even like a grain of mustard then they could tell mountains to be valleys and they would do it. What a great trial I have ahead of me! What a great opportunity to see the Lord’s hand in action. I know I am but one small elder but I know also that the Lord has put me here with a reason. So what if the members don’t do much, so what if people don’t let us in, so what if it is hard/nearly impossible to find new investigators, so what if it isn’t the best companionship yet, so what if all the bad things in the world happen. I’m on a mission! I am part of the Lord’s force! He can work through me and will be there to guide me. Every time I seek Him in humble prayer He helps me out. There are great things that await us here. Remember to never give up on yourselves and don’t give up on the Lord either. Magnify your callings, and make the difference in the lives of those around you. I love you all very much and your words of support help me to keep going.

With much love,

Elder Benjamin Andrew

Monday, June 23, 2014 2:07 PM

Living the life in Quilmes

Well things here are pretty crazy... yes the world cup does affect the work... especially in Argentina and even more especially when Argentina plays. When Argentina plays the country stops. Right now they are working their way through the groups and so there are three games a day and wherever we go there is always a game on and there is always a game on at 1:00, the lunch hour, so we have been forced to watch some futbol (soccer)..... It is kind of fun though and it gives you something to talk about with everyone at least. This last week was kind of tough. It is always hard to go from somewhere where you knew everywhere and everyone and you were the champ of the area, to go somewhere where you don’t know anyone and you have new responsibilities. Elder Suarez had a companion that died right before me (finished his mission and went home) and that kind of disanimated him because the guy that left was super trunky I guess haha. But we are getting better and getting more excited and little by little working more. There was also pretty much nothing when I got here, just one family of investigators and a few recent converts but that just makes me more excited to just make the area explode!! Just faith and a lot of HARD work and I think anything can be done. The ward has some really cool members and some really rich members too. There is a patriarch (who is also ex mission president), also an area 70 and the stake president in my ward so it is aful (don’t think he is really saying awful but not sure what he is saying). The area here is kind of weird because there are a lot of super rich parts and then we went into a part that was the poorest I have ever seen in my life! It is also kind of weird going into some of the member’s houses and their houses are like even fancier than our house! Well Elder Suarez and I are getting along alright and getting to know each other a little bit better. Our zone has a bunch of new missionaries and a few old missionaries. Including an ex assistant that is ending his mission training (he is from El Salvador and a super capo) then there are about 5 missionaries from the same group that got here with me, including Elder Richards! So that is pretty cool. Our ward mission leader is a cool recently returned missionary. The assistance (attendance) on Sunday was 131! That is a lot for Argentina! The one family that we are working with is pretty cool and Elder Suarez told me that they have changed a whole bunch, and they all went to church on Sunday asi que todo bien! I’ll end with a little experience. Like I said the week was tough. I don’t know anyone and I feel like just a step behind everyone else. Elder Suarez wasn’t super animated and I felt like I was annoying him. It was hard for me to talk in lessons because I just felt like I didn’t know anything! Then on Sunday I really tried to focus on the sacrament and later they gave me the opportunity to share my testimony as I was new to the ward. As I shared my testimony it was like all of those feelings melted away. I got my confidence back. I could talk with people. I remembered really why I am here. I am very grateful to our Savior Jesus Christ and the very uncomfortable sacrifices that He made for every one of us. I love you all very much.

un besito,

Elder Benjamin Andrew

Monday, June 9, 2014 9:42 AM

Well it has been a good week. To start things off we had the baptism of Noelia!!! It is pretty crazy how much she has changed! If you look at the picture of the big group of people I sent to you those are almost all of the people that live in the house we were teaching in..... lets just say it was not the easiest at times. When I first started teaching her about 4 and a half months ago I thought she would never get baptized, but the Lord sure helped us all out. Through the death of her baby son and many other things she gained a strong testimony. She is a girl that grew up in the street and has a pretty sad past, even though she only has 18 years! But the change was big and she was very happy. Her confirmation was also a very special experience and you can tell she has things to do. Well Facundo passed me the sacrament yesterday! How cool is that! He is a way better deacon than I ever was haha. On Sunday I was thinking and reflecting a lot on repentance and things that I had to change. Our gospel principles class was on repentance and it really made me think. Repentance doesn’t mean that you are a terrible sinner; it means that you are human and you want Christ to help you overcome your weaknesses and mistakes. There is always a lot that I can do better and I think I need more courage in this work. We also re found the sister of Facundo who was supposed to get baptized with him but then went rebel all the sudden and taught her and put another meta (goal) for  her baptism. We also put a goal for the baptism of Lily and her son, and she is changing a lot as well and finally starting to read more in the Book of Mormon!!! Transfers are next week so we will see if I get to keep working with these awesome people or will start working with a new group of awesome people!

Mucho Amor,

Elder Andrew

 

Monday, June 16, 2014 11:17 AM

Changes come and I go

First of all a very happy Father’s Day to my awesome Dadio. I love you dad and thank you for your awesome example in everything. This last week I had been thinking about really how awesome you were as parents to always make us have family home evening, family scripture study, and family prayer. I never realized what a blessing it really was and now I can see a huge difference between families that do it, and families that don’t. And I can proudly say that I come from a family that did. Also Dad I have always been impressed by your commitment to live the gospel. You had told me that when you were a kid you kind of had the choice to go to church or not and you are so cool for choosing to go. I also admire you for choosing to get all 4 years of seminary. I was talking to Elder Payne who is from California about his life before the mission and he was telling me how hard it was and that at age 17 he just decided not to date girls because the culture there was so against the culture of the church. So you are a super stud that is for sure Dad and I can’t wait to talk with you in Spanish after. You are the best dad I could have asked for and I try to mold a lot of what I do after your example. Well the time came for me..... I left Avellaneda.... and so did Elder Crowther.... they wanted the zone leaders to be in the same ward as the stake president so they took us both out and moved the zone leaders over. It was a pretty shocking call that we got on Friday from President telling us this. And it was right before a lesson so who knows how good that lesson went. Elder Crowther is going to some campo place super far away and will be a senior companion! Then I am now in Quilmes and Presidente just doesn’t let me rest so I have now been given the assignment of Zone Leader! Pretty weird and all before I even have a year in the mission. My comp is Elder Suarez who is from Paraguay! Finally not a Utah companion haha. I knew him when he was a district leader when I was back in Lanus. He is super cool and I think we will work really good together. The Ward is supposedly one of the oldest in Argentina. It was super tough saying goodbye to Avellaneda Elder Crowther and I had just been through so much together and grown to love everyone so much. There isn’t a family that we loved more than others we just loved the whole Ward collectively and they loved us back. There was some laments at the both of us leaving and some tears shed (I was one of the participants in the tear shedding) a lady that we helped reactivate after 20 years of being inactive made the gospel principals class give us a round of applause. I felt so blessed to have been able to serve there. Lily also said in the class that she knew baptism was necessary and understood much better, her poor little son Rainer was super sad and didn’t want us too leave even grabbing onto our legs to keep us there. Macarena Facundo´s sister came back to church and she is pretty much surely going to get baptized. We actually started the sacrament meeting on time and so no one was there (Argentina typical) and so they asked us to pass the sacrament with the only Aaronic Priesthood holder there. Facundo! So that was cool to get to pass the sacrament with him. If I ever do come back to Argentina which I really hope that I can I will definitely spend a few days in Avellaneda 2. But as we all know the Lord has his purposes for everything and I have something special to do here. I am grateful for the opportunity He has given me to serve a mission and that He prepares people to receive the gospel. In our last week there we found a new family that is married and shows a lot of potential, it just goes to show you need to work until the last moment, it is hard, but it is worth it! I love you all very much and hope you are all doing very well!

Love,

Elder Andrew

Monday, June 2, 2014 8:46 AM

The work accelerates.

We had another very busy week as it sounds like you all did too. The summer is a great time to do a lot of scripture reading! ;) and sharing the gospel. You guys are just growing up so fast I can’t believe it. I hope that you boys enjoyed a boys only week at home. I always loved those. Well we are preparing Noelia for baptism. We have taught her all the lessons and gave the pre interview, and we hope that she gets baptized this Saturday the 7th. She really has changed a lot and it is impressive that with all the trials she has had, like the loss of her baby, that she has followed and wants this to be a part of her life. More updates on that next week! Just remember to keep praying for her to make it and then to keep going after! We keep on trying to teach more lessons and got it done, teaching 6 lessons in one afternoon on Friday! Let’s just say that we are getting back to the pension pretty tired haha. We are trying to open our mouths more to share the gospel just with people in the street and stuff and it is paying off. This week we found a new family that is evangelist and go to church two times a week! They told us about a whole bunch of problems that led them to have their faith and seemed pretty receptive to our message. I hope that we can help them to find for themselves the reality of this gospel; because with the faith they already have you can tell they would be awesome members of the church. We also got a reference from a lady that we contacted in her kiosko to visit her daughter. We made plans to contact her the next day. With my enforced studies of “Preach My Gospel” I learned in chapter 9 that you should try to contact a reference within 24 hours and then afterwards sometimes you have been given that reference because someone around them is prepared so we should make plans to do some contacts with the neighbors and in the neighborhood. Well we went to contact the reference and no one was there, but confiding in “Preach My Gospel” we knock the door of the neighbor. We talked with some ladies there and then this very big man (so big I looked up to him, felt small, and was a bit scared) came out. He told us that he had rented part of his house to missionaries almost 30 years ago! He was interested in meeting with us and we set up an appointment to go back. When we went back he had forgotten but seemed even more interested and wanted a Book of Mormon and told us he was remembering some of the stuff from before. Then we tried the reference again and this time she was there. She seemed pretty confused at first because we said her mom had sent us and she was super confused, but as she felt the Spirit she invited us to come back another day and even started telling us about some problems she was having, even getting a bit emotional. Those are both families and so we hope to at least find two more families next week! How great it is to be a “preach my gospel” missionary! But probably the highlight of my week was yesterday. This Saturday the young men and young women went to do baptism for the dead in the temple. Facundo went and got his recommend and was, as he said, "baptized two Saturdays in a row".  It was quite impressive and then on Sunday they sustained him to become a deacon. He is super timid and so we were quite surprised when he popped up on the stand to give his testimony. He talked about what a spiritual experience the temple had been for him and that he knew that God was helping him and he knew this church was true. He sounded like a member of all his life! As he spoke it was very emotional and the room seemed to fill with light. I felt like the sons of Mosiah in Alma 26 where they talk about how great their converts were and how blessed they were to be the Lord’s servants. I don’t think I can understand how important this work is, and I feel very humbled at His great power and mercy. I love this work and I love all of you very much, until next week.

Elder Andrew