Monday, May 19, 2014 1:19 PM

The weekly from Avellaneda 2

Well things are coming along. Just so you know Mom I recently started writing in my journal again and have set aside a little time at night now to do it. This week as I was studying I found a scripture Jacob 4:4-6 that made me think of you guys, it talks about how they keep those records so that those that come after them with know that they were believers of Jesus Christ. It kind of stuck out to me and made me think of the kind of testimony that I want to give to me kids. I want them to know that I believe in Christ and for them to search him out for them selves. I also want to thank you two parents for doing that with me, for sharing and living your testimony of Jesus Christ. Your example has inspired me to try this gospel out for myself and to find my own testimony of Him. So that was something cool I found. On Thursday we went out to do visits with someone who just recently got back from his mission. He walked super fast (I thought I walked fast) knocked the doors for us and did a bunch of talking. You could tell he wasn’t just going to leave his mission behind him haha. He is super cool though and super pumped to help us out and help out the ward as well. He even asked the ward secretary for a list of recent converts to be able to go and visit them. Wow! Then on Friday we had the zone conference with president and we talked a lot about the incitive piloto (pilot program they are doing). It is pretty cool and they made a schedule for us to read every single thing in preach my gospel in 25 weeks. I really love that book and it really is the key to being a better missionary and am looking forward to a 25weeks deeper journey through it. Hope that you are all still reading in there, I have started taking it with me to be able to share with the members in lunch and stuff. Such a great book! We had Silvia (the lady that has been inactive for 20 years) come back to church on Sunday! She was really happy, the relief society welcomed her and she even was asking for an envelope so that she could pay here tithing. Hopefully she is back to stay and is reading the Book of Mormon aful! She was already in Jacob and we only gave her the book a few weeks ago! Just goes to show that that book changes lives. Then with Noelia we are starting to make progress we put a goal for her baptism on the 7 of June and we are working steadily towards it and have all the support of the ward (they visit them without us even asking!) Lily was back in church this Sunday and is about back to normal but we still just need something that will pierce her hard heart and make her let the spirit in, but she has got a good base and we will see what we can do. Then we have Facundo Gonzalez, he is going to get baptized on Saturday. We were hoping to baptize him mom and sister on that date as well but the both lack a few things and he is ready and the mom want him to be baptized first. He really is an amazing kid. He is only 13 but says he took Moroni’s challenge and got an answer. When I ask him why he wants to get baptized he says because he believes in it all and has read the Book of Mormon and he loves it. He is super timid and it is hard for him to express himself but you can tell he has a deep testimony. He even said he wants to go on a mission someday. He is just so cool! Also cool is that a kid in our ward who is waiting for his call is the one who is going to be baptizing him! Two birds with one stone. We help the kid get ready for his mission and Facundo gets to be baptized, oh and we get to worry more about doing the program than being in clothes and all of that stuff. More awesomeness to come I love this work, a lot!

Love,

Elder Andrew

Monday, May 12, 2014 2:02 PM

This place just couldn’t get much better!

Well we were scrambling around because we couldn’t find an open ciber but we finally did find one... to answer Mom's questions. the taxis here are called remises but are expensive and you have to call them from a phone and it is just better to take colectivos (buses) but in the area that we work the colectivos don’t really run through so that results in a lot of walking and even though they feed us really well here we are walking a lot, I am doing better exercise, and we are working really hard so all those things are blessing me with a healthier body. The colectivos are nicer than what you described but have open areas to stand and seats and then things to grab onto and you press a little buzzer when you want to get off. At certain times of the day they can get pretty packed. Three companionships in the district. The hermanas (sisters) are good, I haven’t really met any bad hermanas yet, and they are a lot harder to come by. Talking is done through a phone call at night and the hermanas lost their phone so I don’t have much communication with them. And no problems yet. I think I would be the senior comp because I am the district leader (just me) but we just work together anyway so it doesn’t really make a difference. Send the pendrive!!! Well hope that helps you mom! i love you and happy mother's day again! I didn’t understand real well why Hermana Thurgood called you, could you explain that better to me? Well this week we have been kind of sick but we try and wear our scarves (we had to ask some investigators how to wear them because we had no idea) and eat well. I still keep doing my morning exercises which also seem to be helping me out and we rested a lot today to recover. I think that Elder Crowther and I are cursed for all the things that are happening to us. He lost his voice and then we found out that our investigator Lily got robbed. When we called her on Sunday after sacrament meeting (we found out from the family that passed by to take her to church) she was pretty mad and just was blaming God and it just made me feel so bad. We went over there later because we had lunch and talked with her and she seemed a bit better but just so almost hard hearted. They broke into her house with her two kids solos (home alone), but they didn’t hurt the kids, they were going to take a laptop and something with all their documents in it but it fell down as they were leaving and then someone returned some of the stuff that they said they had found in the street. Really the only big thing lost was a play station. After we left though, the hermanas from the ward went to visit her and lift her up, so hopefully their kindness can soften her heart. It just made me think that bad things happen to all of us but when they happen we need God and the church even more, and really the church is there for the hard times so that we can support each other. I am very grateful for the testimony that I have. We did divisions with some jovenes(youth) the other day that are both getting ready for their missions. It made me really happy the other day when a mother told us that her son was kind of rebellious and didn’t really want to go on a mission or receive the Melchizedek Priesthood but since the elders started going to her house for lunch (just a bit before I got here) and we have invited him to come out with us he received the priesthood and said he wants to go on a mission! It really is great to be a missionary and I love you all very much!

Love,

Elder Andrew

Monday, May 5, 2014 12:05 PM

Holding on strong!

Well I’m leaving...... the ciber soon to go back to the pension!!! Elder Crowther and I shouted for joy when we got the call Saturday night telling us that we would be staying together and in Avellaneda 2 for at least one more transfer. So sweet! They are trying some crazy new pilot program where they got rid of the 15 families and are just working with elders and elders with the endowment. They are piloting it in two missions in Argentina and two in Chile and if it works well it is going to become church wide.... so I could be a part of church history right there ahah. It is pretty cool and we still don’t know too much about it but we will learn more. Noelia and the family Beloso received a whole bunch of support from the Ward, a lot of them went later on Monday and were there with them like the whole day and continued passing by. We went again in the night and they looked a lot better than they had in the morning. Then on Friday we went to where they were going to burry the little casket in the cemetery. It was really different than the cemeteries in the United States and definitely way more catholic. It was sad and as I looked around at all the graves and tombstones I thought, "are all of these people really going to be resurrect and are we really going to see each other again, sera verdad (is it true)?" and I testify that it is true. That just as Jesus died for us he also resurrected for us, so that someday we all can have our bodies again, and so that we can have the chance to return to our heavenly father. The plan of salvation is real; we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. They also had babies’ blessings given to one of the little kids of family Beloso and the other little girl of Noelia and as we talked to her on Sunday night she got pretty emotional knowing that she had been blessed by priesthood holders. She will probably never be free of the pain until she sees her little Lucas again, but in her moment of need she turned to God and has found the comfort that he and his servants can bring. With familia Gonzalez we are also doing well. Facundo and Macarena both went to church and I was talking with their Sunday School teacher after and he said that he thought Macarena was already a member because she shared an experience about praying and having faith, and that Facundo always gives very good answers and pays attention. Que capos! Macarena was a bit shaky for a bit until finally we asked her what was wrong about a week or so ago and she told us that she was a little mad with God for things that happen in the world we listened and let the spirit guide us in answering her doubts and the spirit filled the lesson. Now she is doing better than ever. The potential in these jovenes (youth) is amazing. Lily also went to church with her two sons and was participating and asking questions in the gospel principals class and some of our new members helped to answer her questions! She is opening up and telling us more of her doubts and concerns and even put her name down to give us lunch next Sunday! That is when you know you are doing good work, when they want to give you food! I am loving the mission! Today we had to go to the transfer meeting to help Elder Hermann take his bags and I got to see Elder Corry! It was so good to see him and we talked and laughed and got really excited. It is so good to have such good friends in the mission and people that I want to look up after. He has grown a lot and I am so proud of him, his Spanish is a lot better and he is just such a champ! Hopefully I will have a grandson soon! I love you all very much and look forward to seeing your facecitos in algunos dias! (little faces in a few days)

Love,

Elder Andrew

Ps. thinking better about it I would prefer that no one came and picked me up, it would just be too much of a worry and I wouldn’t get to have that cool walking off the plane into the arms of my loving family moment. It would probably help me to keep more focused in my last days of the mission. Don’t think I am getting trunky either! I just wanted to let you know with time, cause I know these things take money but now I guess you don’t have to worry about that! toodles!

 



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.

The district having tacos a few weeks ago.

Monday, March 31, 2014 10:03 AM

Argentina is just so awesome i could faint...

I was sad not to see an email from dad but I understand, you should get a gmail account because it automatically saves your email as you type. You seem to have had a few times that this has happened so maybe that is a possible solution. We Elder Crowther and I are rocking it right now. We get along well and we have fun. He seems to have had a few tough companions and his last one Really tough and so I try to help him enjoy himself. We have taken up playing chess again! Anyway, back to the subject of this email... yesterday I fainted! How weird right. I felt sick and weird in sacrament meeting but then I went to the bathroom and felt better. No one (including "active" members came to church because it rained so we just all had the same class so I got to learn about José (Joseph) of old as well. Then, after the final class, the sick, pained, weird feeling came back and I was talking with the Hermana about the lunches we were going to have for the week and then I started feeling really bad and she asked if I was okay because I looked pale and I sat down in a chair and the next thing I knew I opened my eyes and there were these people all above me rushing around and two hermanos holding my hands. From the chair to the floor without realizing! It was pretty weird. Elder C told me that I sat down and then kind of just slumped forward and then they tried to lean me back to see if I was alright and then I fell out of the chair. It was a bit embarrassing and kind of strange but a little cool as well haha. After lunch we went back to the pension to rest a bit and I call President and then the nurse of the mission. She told me some weird name and says that it sometimes happens when the immune system isn’t at its fullest and your blood pressure just sometimes drops and that it is normal and nothing to worry about. I am pretty sure it is thanks to the fact that it was hot in the night and then cold the next day. Anyway, I drank a lot of water and we left to finish working in the night. Right now I feel perfectly fine and it is nothing to worry about (even though I know you are going to worry mom haha). I thought about not telling you but since it is no big deal it is more of just a funny story for me. As for the work we worked a lot this week getting to know all the members for my companion and also try to build their confidence.  To me, if the members are working then the area is successful so even though we didn’t have a million lessons with investigators this week I feel like we really made some ground with our members and we will now take them all out to do visits with us and some of them have already started giving us references. You are so lucky to have the missionaries coming around. I wish we had that when I was younger but I hardly even remember them coming to our ward. I am sure that they love you and will love you even more if you try and help them out with visits and with getting to know their investigators in church and maybe even a reference here and there. Maybe offer our house to bring an investigator over for a family home evening. Get creative and do your own missionary work! Us missionaries aren’t the only ones that can come up with creative new ideas to get more people to know the gospel. Well, everything is good here.  We have a couple people with baptismal dates that have promise but we are still really early on in the teaching process and will have to see! I love you all very much and hope you are all doing very well!

Love.

Elder Andrew

Avellaneda at night

Avellaneda 2

Elder Corry, Elder Andrew, the Caseres', and Malvina

Camila's baptism with her family, Elder Andrew and Elder Corry

I was finally able to post these pictures. The top picture of the city is Ben's new area. The other pictures are from his first area, Lanus.