Surprise changes!

Dec. 15, 2014

Well sometimes it is tough for good things to last forever. We received a call from President on Saturday morning to let me know I am being emergency transferred. So after only 8 weeks here in beloved Mayol I am already leaving. My new area will be Ingenderio Budge, which is in the same zone as Lanus, my first area, asi que Back to Banfield! Elder Garcia is going to be my new comp and I already knew him in Quilmes. He was a district leader and I was his zone leader but now we are going to be comps! President told me he is having a tough time and really didn't get along with his last comp (therefore the change) and said he prayed about the whole mission and felt like I was the elder who needed to be his companion. I ask for your prayers in this new change, I hope to help him and will surely learn a lot as well. I feel a little sad leaving here because I didn't have much time and Elder Cottrell and I got along really well and he has really helped me in my progress as a missionary, but when the Lord calls I'm not going to say no. So on Tuesday at 4 we will be making the change. Anyway, this week on Wednesday we had the big Christmas Zone Conference! We did it with the Quilmes Zone so it was fun to see some old friends and talk with Elder Bastias some. We talked a lot about the Navidad (Christmas) and Christ and how we can use this time to better do proselyting, like with "He is the Gift". Then we ate lunch (delicious asado!) and went to the acts. Our zone prepared a nativity skit thing and I had to sing a solo of "Maria Sabias Que" ("Mary Did You Know?") and I was pretty nervous but people told me that it turned out well. After we talked some more and had a short testimony meeting. All in all I think it was probably the best zone conference I have ever been to! The other day there was a hail storm, they are pretty crazy here when they happen and the hail is huge! Well we are not having too much success with getting investigators to progress but a lot of menos activos (less actives) are coming back. The asistance (attendance) on Sunday was 125! Which is quite a bit, we almost didn't fit in the chapel. Do you know how much is an average assitance (attendance) in Glenview Ward? Then on Sunday we did divisions with the hombres jovenes (young men) again and me and my comp went with a joven (youth) of 13 years that is the deacons quorum president. This kid is a K-PO! He was telling us that he prays for the quorum and hopes to be able to help the other deacons come back and be active. Looking for one joven (youth) we found an apostate member that had started his own iglesia evanglica church in his house. It was a really weird visit but we asked the kid, Juan, to give his testimony and he gave such a pure simple and powerful testimony. Jovenes (youth) rock, I wish I had been like that when I was 13. Well I don't have much to say this week but I love you all!

Elder Andrew

 

 

 

 

Christmas is coming, Elder Andrew is getting fat!

Dec. 8, 2014

Well another good week in Mayol, we are still struggling with getting investigators to progress, or just getting investigators in general haha but a lot of personal growth this week. As I have told you I have really been trying to remember the Savior and think of him during the sacrament and this week I am going to start on the goal to remember him ALWAYS throughout the whole week. That is obviously a hard goal, but it is also the key to always having the Spirit. Speaking which the rap music in the ciber right now doesn't make it that easy haha. Anyway, I feel like I have been doing some fine tuning on skills and obedience this week. We had a very sad lesson the other day with a less active family we have been working with. We were talking about the sacrament, what it means and the importance of taking it and the understood pretty much perfectly and then when we asked them if they would prepare to take the sacrament and go to church they said....... no. It was like a stab to the heart, because it wasn't just like the didn't understand it was them denying against their knowledge. Sad day and if they don't´ get better soon we might stop visiting them for a while. But then maybe it is as Moroni tells us in the last chapters of Mormon to not get mad because of the mistakes of others but to give thanks to God for having seen the errors and being able to be better. How great and true is the Book of Mormon! Hopefully I can finish it off this week I am in Ether 10 right now, so not that much left! Then there is another menos activo family (less active family) that we are teaching just recently and they are really putting the batteries! They are reading and praying and the mom and her two daughters came to church on Sunday (even though it was raining!) The dad had to work but will surely come when he can. I just love these people so much. That is one of the greatest lessons I think I am learning is how to love and what having love and not pity for someone really means. Loving the Savior and understanding His love for others helps us also with our capacity to love. We obviously can not atone for another's sins but we can be like the Savior by making others burdens lighter or even in some ways taking their burdens upon us. Sometimes that just means caring enough about someone to ask questions and earnestly listen. Well I hope you have all shared "He is the Gift" on every social network that you have accounts on! We made an announcement about it in sacrament meeting and hopefully the members were paying attention haha. We as members remember the Savior the whole year, but what a special time when the whole world, not just members remember Him. What a great time to share the Gospel! I love you all and wish you a very good week!

un abrazo fuerte,

Elder Andrew

PS. start planning the skype stuff...... cause you know what's coming up

NEW transfer!

Dec. 1, 2014

 Well transfers have once again come and gone and (drum roll please) we stay the same! We were hoping to stay together for at least one more cause we feel like we have a pretty good thing going here. It is so crazy that I have already been here for 6 weeks though, it pretty much blows my mind how fast time is going! Well this week we didn't teach too many people it felt like but Mara was baptized! We saw a really big change in her and now we are really going to focus on the family, because the mom is a strong active member but the dad and a few siblings don't go, so as we teach her the lessons again we will try and get the whole family participating! The stake also has a temple trip planned for the recent converts from each ward and we are going to send her on that! So one week after being baptized she will go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead! Just like Facundo! That is what we hope at least. Well this week I finished the Book of Mormon, and so now I am in Ether. Mormon and Moroni's lives seem pretty sad to me, they watched their whole people be destroyed and were the only righteous ones. I am so grateful to live in a time where living the gospel doesn't require me to stand so quite alone. Even though it is tough I always have a ward, leaders and my family to back me up, what a blessing! I also ended John in the Bible so the four gospels. I feel like that through reading those I have gotten to know my Savior a lot better, probably be a good thing to read this month for you guys (hint hint) and now am started in on Acts which is really cool. I really do love the scriptures and look forward to my personal study times and companionship study times to share what I learned. If we share what we learn we retain it better maybe something you could try is talking about studies around the dinner table or something or allow a time in family home evening to talk about what you are learning in your personal studies. That way; one, mom and dad can make sure everyone is doing their studies haha and two, you can all learn from one another. Just an idea I'll throw out there. I am really excited to work in this Christmas season and help others to get to know the true meaning of Christmas. May God be with you 'til we meet again over internet.

Love,

Elder Andrew

feliz día de acción de gracias!
November 24, 2014

Well that is a much longer name than Thanksgiving! And they don't really eat turkey here haha. I am really thankful for my family and for the support you all give me as I serve this mission. Well this week was another packed one. We are trying to do good follow up with all the new investigators we found and still find a few new ones. We found a cool new couple by doing follow up with someone we had contacted my first week in the area and couldn't speak with us in the moment but this week let us teach them. I think we at least tried to get in contact with all of them and some worked and others not. The family of six turns out the dad doesn't want to listen to us so we will see what is up with that this week. We passed by Gustavo a few times but he never had time to let us in but is still reading and praying. On Saturday we called him to remind him to go to church and he didn't answer. Then he sent us a text later saying that he had drunk a lot, didn't feel good, missed his family and would go to church. We told him that we would go pick him up for church and he sent back "okay, en el nombre de jesucristo, amen" (okay, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen) so even though he was pretty drunk at least that shows he is praying and remembers the steps haha. Well he didn't come to church but we are going to teach him today. Mara is on track to be baptized on Saturday, the bishop got to know her and we talked with the leader of mujeres jovenes (young women) so that they could all be there at the baptism, so things are hopefully coming into place for that. The ward is working a lot and that is super important, even though we might not see too much progress with our investigadores (investigators) yet (I say yet because it is just a matter of time before they are all ready for baptism #ibelieveinmiracles) but the forces of the ward are starting to get more organized and starting to show. Missionary work that lasts is done with the members, so it is always a big plus to be on the same page/team. I did the same thing with the sacrament yesterday and it helped me again, that really is the key to just focus on Christ. Well something cool that I got in my email is a huge thing that the church is going to be doing this Christmas that will start pretty soon. "He is the gift" its called so keep your eyes and ears open for that. It will be a great chance to share the gospel in this Christmas season! Oh so that you know we found Ulises and his family again they seem fine but even though they promised to come to church they didn't, so I wonder if there is still something we can't see that is going on over there. (the dad is not back in the picture) This Sunday we also did divisions with the young men's organization to visit inactive young men (apparently on the ward list there is like almost 100!) and it went really well. It is surprising the power that the youth really do have, for that very reason "let no man despise thy youth" the Lord calls the young to do great works. Maybe that is something you could suggest to do, Dad, with the deacons. I don't know if there are any inactive boys in the ward but if there are you could not only help them, but also their families. This work is so marvelous I really do love it and I hope you can all look for new ways to join it, and help out our brothers and sisters to listen to these eternal truths!

I love you all. Sorry if this letter was all over the place,

Elder Andrew

buscad y hallareis

Nov. 17, 2014

Well one cool thing about this week is that we found 15 new investigators! That is a mission record and is mostly because we found two new families that are complete families: mom, dad and a bunch of kids and then a few others here and there. Now the trick is just to get these people to progress. Before in my mission I have never really been able to find prepared people through doing contacts but now we are (at least I hope) and I think it is because we are making it a focus. We found one guy, Gustavo, where we just talked with him and his mom in front of their house one day and then set up a day to go visit them. When we visited them, Gustavo opened up (something he doesn't do according to his mom) and told us he wants our help because he has been into drugs and alcohol and that has caused him to lose his family, mujer(woman/wife) and 3 hijas (daughters) and realizes he needs to make some changes. We talked about Alma 36 and the change that Alma had and afterwards he said he felt more peaceful. We passed by a few days later to see how he was doing and he wasn't there but his mom told us he had been reading in the Book of Mormon! That is something not many people do right off the bat! Then, a family we found, we just clapped a door one day in an area that we don't usually go to because we were lost and asked for help.  The lady seemed really nice and even told us about her experience that led her to believe in God. So we went back this week and taught the whole family! Husband, wife and 5 kids (4 kids over 8 years old) and she had actually read the folleto (pamplet) we gave her, something that also no one does right off the bat! haha So it will be interesting to see how we can keep working with these people. One key is to always be searching because a mistake we sometimes make as missionaries is to say "well we have already got a pretty good group of investigators so we will just focus on them" then they get baptized and there is no one to teach..... so always looking is important and then dropping the people that aren't progressing but leaving a good registro (register) in the area book so that other elders can find them when it is "their time." Then, Elder Nelson talked to us on Thursday, that was great! First, Elder Cevallos and his wife spoke with us. They're from the area presidency and from their accent I could tell they were Chilean, whoo go Chile! They gave very great talks. Then Elder Nelson and his wife. She talked a lot about the premortal existence and the 12 tribes, pretty interesting. Elder Nelson talked about how important the work is that we are doing and what I really wanted to share with you is that at the end he gave us an apostolic blessing and in that blessing he blessed those that are sick or afflicted within our people (family groups) that they would be okay. So, little Benjamin Brimley is going to be just fine :) Then, this Sunday, I had a really cool experience in church. Sadly, as a missionary it is sometimes hard to focus on what is really important in church. Sometimes we are thinking about who didn't show up or why they are teaching some weird doctrine if there is an investigator there or that it is hot or something and it is something I need to work on, but during the sacrament this week I dropped all those thoughts and just focused on the Savior. As I pondered on his life, what I have been learning about Him in the scriptures lately and his love, a big peace overcame me. I didn't notice the distractions and the following meeting was one of the most spiritual meetings I have ever been in. Was it so much more spiritual because the talks were really great, or someone special came to speak to us? The talks were good but I think the difference was me and where my focus really was. That we may all remember Christ through the whole week and especially during that sacred time of the sacrament.

I love you all and until next week,

Elder Andrew

P.S. Facundo Gonzalez from Avellaneda sent me letter and he is on fire! Going to seminary and sharing the gospel with his friends, that made me happy to hear!

 

One year older and wiser too!

Nov. 10, 2014

Well this last week was pretty sweet, we are working pretty hard with elder Cottrell and have a lot of ground to cover so we try not to waste time. Things are heating up again but there are already clouds in the sky so looks like rain. Cool announcement..... Elder Nelson comes to talk to our mission on Thursday! How cool is that! An apostle and just our mission! Hopefully he doesn't drop the cane on us. Something we are really focusing on with my comp is doing more contacts. We set daily goals of how many people we are going to do contacts with and then try to push ourselves to get those goals. We find some prepared people that way, but I feel like the best result of it is that we can have the spirit stronger and new investigators just come out of nowhere. Like random members from other wards coming up to us to give us references (that happened today). I feel like as we show the Lord we are willing to push ourselves to proclaim the gospel he lets us find more people and abundantly blesses us. The ward is getting pretty pumped up to do visits and the leaders of most of the organizations really want to get working so we are going to use that. We have a goal to pass by every leaders house this week to see how we can help them out with their different responsibilities. That is what the missionaries are here for, to serve the ward. So if you have a need, use them in your ward! Then on Sunday we had a kid just show up in church. Apparently he has been coming to mutual for a while and just wanted to go to church. He is 16 years old and seems pretty cool. We set up to go teach him and his family on Friday! We have Mara, a girl in a part member family, that has a date for the 29th come to church. We started calling in between our set appointments to make sure she was keeping her commitments and she has really started progressing. She is a little slower learning wise but we are seeing a big progress since we started and also cool that her family that was less active is also putting the pilas (?) and doing more things as well! When they went they were a bit afraid but thankfully we talked to the president of the mujeres jovenes (YW president) before and she help her out a lot to feel comfortable. Working with the members, it is the Lord's way! I am reading now in 3 Nephi in the part where Jesus is here teaching in the Americas and am also reading in Juan (John) in my New Testament studies. The teachings of Christ seem so clear and precious and I just want the people to understand them as well. I am also very grateful for the Book of Mormon that helps me to better understand the Bible and visa versa. The Bible working with the Book of Mormon are some of the strongest tools we have and that God has given us. So you had better be using them! Well, we will see if someone makes me a cake tomorrow! I love you all very much y espero que se quiden (and I hope that you be careful)!

Love,

Elder Andrew

Mayol, my new home

November 3, 2014

Well I am starting to get a little bit more adjusted to the routine here in Mayol and things are going pretty good. Well this Halloween I had nothing to dress up with in the pension and I was kind of tired do no pictures for you all (sorry!) but it was a pretty good day. This week started off REALLY hot and humid and now for the past few days it has been raining, so we are at full speed on the argentine weather roller-coaster! Elder Cottrell and I get along really well, he is a super chill guy and he knows what he is doing (he only has 4 months left) and I feel like we are really trying to help out. One thing I like is that we are doing a lot more in companionship study, like practices, talking about investigators and setting goals. And we are trying to try a lot of new things with new ways of doing contacts and stuff like that. We are still trying hard to get to know the area and all the members but that will probably come with more time. We have started doing more calls to verify how investigadores (investigators) are doing and make sure they are keeping their compromisos (commitments) and it seems to be helping a lot. We also have 2 ward missionaries which is something I have never had in a ward before, so now we just have to get them more involved in the work because they really want to work! This Saturday was a great day! A highlight was finding a new family. It is the mom, a 16 year old son, and a 8 years old daughter. Norma, Ulises y Ati. Ulises is the friend of a member and went to church like a year ago for a while but then his dad wouldn't let him anymore. Recently his parents got separated and he just started going to church again by his own will. So that is how we found him... he just showed up in church haha. But his mom is also very prepared. We had our first lesson with the family on Saturday and they listened attentively and had already been reading in the Book of Mormon. Norma said she could feel peace and that she wanted to learn more and Ulises also, Ati is kind of like most 8 year olds and didn't pay much attention but she is funny. Norma did the last prayer and asked to be able to understand and keep going. So good start with them, they have a goal to be baptized the 29th of November. Other good news, Elder Bastias told me that Federico got baptized and it was awesome! He is going to send me some fotos later. It is nice to know that the work keeps going! Today in my studies I came across something in Preach My Gospel that I wanted your help on. In chapter 11 in the back where it has ideas for personal study it has the idea to write family members and ask them for a testimony on the blessings they have received from keeping a commandment, or something like that. And since we are focusing as a ward on trying to get the members to do more visits I wanted to ask you all; how have you been blessed from doing your visits (home and visiting teaching)? Or how have you been blessed from receiving them.? Thanks! Well I'm sure I have a great week ahead of me and I will soon be an old man! Just 8 days more! (Ben turns 20 Nov. 11th) How crazy..... well I love you all lots!

love,

Elder Andrew

the summer is arriving

Oct. 27, 2014

Well as you may have noticed in one of my pictures, I tried to send you a picture of the tan line that is starting to form on my arm, summer is upon us and it is already showing! Don't worry though I change my watch to my other wrist every day just so I don't get one of those nerd tan lines ha ha just kidding.... but I really do change my watch. Something I didn't tell you last week but we have bikes!!!! First time in the mission, it really makes travel a lot easier and helps because the sube (bus card) prices have really spiked, the lowest cost trip when I got here cost 1.50 now the lowest cost trip is at 3.25! So having bikes means we don't really take busses which makes it nice. Also we technically have two areas because they closed down the branch of San Fransico and joined it with Mayol and then took the elders out from over there so we have both areas, and even though it makes things a little harder I feel like it is necessary because there aren't the best feelings between ex-San Fransico and Mayol, so having both areas we can help build up the unity! Well I am really liking my new area! It is tranquilo and there are a lot of good members. I still feel like I hardly know anything but that will come with time of course. My comp also only has about 5 weeks working both areas and his last comp didn't help him out too much so we are getting to know the area together! We have been doing a lot more contacts and even though we haven't seen too many results yet we have high hopes for the future! My comp had the good idea of taking out the peoples phone numbers in contacts (something I had kind of stopped doing) so we could call them to confirm the visits we set up with them that way we don't waste our time with people that aren't there. I have great hopes for this area and I feel like there is something big that the Lord has in store for us here. There are some really capo leaders and the bishop has about 2 months as bishop so that is an animo (excitement) factor. They also give us good almuerzos (lunches) something the Lord has blessed me with in every area. I have nothing more but than to be grateful to Him. I owe everything to him and I love him. I love being able to work here with the people of Florencia Varela, Argentina. What a great place to be at this time in my life! I love you all,

Un Abrazo Fuerte,

Elder Andrew

Photos: Saying goodbye in Quilmes.