March-April 2017

Click on the link to watch an Easter Message
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly9xk59Qkfc

March 7, 2017 - 21 Months

Hey mom So I'm training Elder Ragasa who is from the Philippines. He is a great missionary, he was in the Philippines for 6 weeks waiting for his visa and then was in the MTC for 6 weeks. Very dedicated and trying his best with the language. He understands English and speaks it kind of, sometimes it can be a little difficult to communicate. We have a been receiving many blessing lately, we have a baptism this Sunday and we found a young couple Saturday that wants to get baptized, they just have to get married. Loosing myself in the work and very busy. Love you so much and excited to see you all in person very soon. I hope all is good at home. We went downtown today and went exploring we went to a cool museum. I should be coming home the 23rd of May.  Got the package!!!!! 

March 14, 2017

My week was really good, we are teaching the new couple almost everyday. Really are awesome and progressing super fast. B. went to Church and love it she felt super compfortable, D. couldn't with work. He should be coming this week though. We are working with getting married, If things go the way planned the should get married in a 2 or 3 weeks and then have their baptism! We had to push V. baptism for this Sunday, we are planning it this week and super excited. Fall is starting to begin here, feels really nice out.

Well I got the email asking what airport I would like to travel to for my flight back home. I need this asap possible so they can reserve a seat and find the best option. 

March 28, 2017

Sorry that I didn't write last week, B. came down from catamarca to go to some doctors apointment and then we met up to eat lunch and after we went to the temple session in the afternoon where 3 members of our ward were endowed. But V. did get baptize last sunday, was a great baptism service and she was comfirmed Sunday. We had a great week we had 6 investagadores in church! We are also teaching the wife and 2 kids of a less active member that is reactivating. We have lots of potential and work here in the area. However my comps back has been bothering him for a while now, yestarday we went to the clinic, that was a diaster of its own, but the doctor says that his muscles are really tense and spasm so he gave him some medicine that helps his muscles relax. He has 5-7 days of rest... limited walking, etc., etc. So yestarday I organized the area book, going to have to do find things to do and try and do a lot of splits with the other elders in the pension. 

April 4, 2017 - 22 months

The week was really slow with my comp's back problem, but everything is back to normal now. The conference was great I had many favorite talks or talks that really called my attention, I really liked Saturday sessions.  I reorganized the area book, studied a lot, it was a very rainy week. Yeah 5 weeks until I get to call and 6 to be home.

April 11, 2017 - Transfer to Dean Funes 6 weeks left!

My week was really good. We went to the Zoo P-day, we had a conference, a had a church activity. Yes my comps back is better and we were teaching alot of people. We have a awesome family that decided to get baptized. We just had transfers, I was transfered to Dean Funes to end the mission. I thought I was going to end where I was but transfers are always full of suprises. So now I'm trainer breaking Elder Man. It was really hard and sad to say goodbye to many of the investagadores and members there and also Elder Ragasa. 

It's a small little town with a branch. And I'm not traing, I'm the first comp after the Elder's training. I'ts 2 and hours away.​

Miss and love you guys too!


Click on the link to watch an Easter Message
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly9xk59Qkfc

February 2017

February 2,  2017 - 20 months

The week has been good, We've been busy. We've been teaching V., pretty sure she will get baptized near the end of the month, We have to teach her two more lessons. We had a good lesson with her and her mom about the plan of salvation.

We had a zone conference with president, said goodbye to two really good friends of mine(Elder Seely and Elder Alvarez)

We had a Pollo al disco with a family from the church who invited another family, was super good and great missionary work. Made french toast for breakfast yestarday with a family for the church, we got a referal. lots of food combined with missionary work the week, haha.

Love this area so far, strong ward with very loving members.

My comp is a realy good worker and he is really fun to talk to. 

​more pictures of our fun pday to cosquin today. River pic and the train ride.​

February 15, 2017

I have one plack with the name mendi on it, it's my mission nickname and I use the name for the people that can't say my name well. I usually use that name tag pdays.

Now that I'm back in the city I can go to the temple every transfer.. so 2 more times.. wow!

Well I'm sick that is why I'm emailing today and at this time. I have a nasty head virus. Throat, ear, head hurt, and i have fevers. Have 2 days of rest(today and tomorrow) Went to the clinic this morning and got antibiotics and some stronger ibuprofen.

Beside that I am good and we had a good week. I did intercambios with my district and been busy working in the area. 

February 21, 2017

I feel so much better. My throat is still kind of sore but it is way better than before. Yeah it is very nice to be able to go to the temple regularly. Well I rested wednesday and Thursday and then elder mancero a elder from my group that was living in the same pension as me went up as assistent so now elder summers has a mini missionary. Friday the church had a primary activity, the mini and I went did the judging of the costumes and organized the games. We had 2 investagadores there which was nice. We had three investagadores in church this sunday and we should be having a baptism this sunday. Been working with the mini and also my comp. It is super hot and humid. 

February 28, 2017

I'm going to be training this transfer, so it is looking like I will end the mission training here in Chacabuco. Pick up my new newbie tomorrow. President most of liked how I trained because it isn't very often that someone trains more than once.

The investigadores are going well we have the baptism coming up of v, we reactived the dad and he is going to baptize her. They both came to church this past week and he was ordained to the office of priest. We are working with a lot of part member families right now.

January 2017

January 3,  2017 - 19 months

Hey mom!

My week was pretty good, was pretty hot and with lots of humidity. We had a rainy 31st but it was good, we ate alot and enjoyed the night. 

We are in Rio 4 right now because we have zone meeting tomorrow.

Miss you and love you!! thanks for all the help, support, and love

January 10, 2017

summer is going to go by so fast with all the stuff i want and have to do. 

I'm pretty sure the package will show up this month. 

We get the call this weekend, we'll see what will happen.(about transfers)

Was a pretty good week, we had some pretty good success. We also had intercambios with the zone leaders. Been studying alot during the siesta, I love the scriptures so much!!  We had a huge rainstorm sunday, got soaked going to church and everything was flooded. I also can't believe that i only have 4 months left, I'm sure they will pass by so fast with a new area.

Miss you all!!

January 17, 2017 Transfer to Chacabuco

Still nothing on the package... I hope it's in the mission home or super close to getting here. I was able to pull out the money, went smoothly and was very secure. I got transfered to Chacabuco in cordoba captial the north stake. I'm reading 10 pages each Day since the begining of the year and the Book of Mormon is flying by, I'm already in Jacob.

It was sad livinh my kid but I feel like the area is going to be great, I'm going to try to work my best 

Love you all 

January 24, 2017

The new area is great, really big ward and a big area with lots of work to do. Really strong members here and many want to help in the missionary work. My comp Elder Asplund is from San Diego CA, he has 5 months in the mission. Really cool dude, we get a long really well. 

My head is spinning with so much stuff lately, but working hard and keeping focused with the work. I'm trying my best not to worry and think about home, school, and all that stuff.

We found a lot of people this week. I'm flying through the BoM. In mosiah

Photos:

my comp and elder summer have more pics.

McDonalds lunch with my comp

Peruvian food Today

January 31, 2017

Wednesday we had a worldwide missionary broadcast with several apostols and other general authorities. They taught us several things about the importance of teaching repentance and baptizing converts. They also made a few small changes to the missionary schedule and the numbers that we report. It was very interesting to see how the changes they made were truly inspired to help us be more focused on the most important thing. It reminded me of the general conference talk "Good, Better, Best" from a couple years ago. Now, because of these changes, it will be a lot easier to focus on the "best" or most important things instead of being caught up on "better" or "good" things (which obviously are still good, but not as important). Its a great model for our lives, focusing on what is most important instead of procrastinating it for something of lesser importance.

My week has been great, we are working hard and having much success. We had H. and S. in Church sunday. Yestarday we taught a member's grand daughter for the first time, she wants to get baptized this month!!! We are also teaching this really awesome referal from the bishop. We are finding and teaching lots of amazing people here. Love the ward and my comp. The 4 elder pension has nice and lots of fun. Been running every other day in the mornings. I am now in the book of Alma.

I got a package from the Bush family, give the family my thanks! Can you send me her email so I can write here thanks and write back to her letter.     

Still waiting on the family package, starting to get worried.

Love you guys so much

December 2016

12/6/2016 - 18 months

I sleep great with the new pillow. Yeah the water is pretty nasty and it isn't fun, we just get soaked and covered in nasty who knows water. However luckly we don't get to many crazy storms like that too often. So we had transfers, next transfer is my birthday. I'm staying here to finishing the training of my kid, and then I'm pretty sure I will be going to my last area. It's been nice and sunny as well as super hot!!!!

My week was good was a normal week ( first time in a while ) We are in the process of finding new people. We've doing a lot of service lately which had been nice, cut and cleaned up a lawn/property and yestarday we cleaned the church.

Studied 2 nefi 25 and 26, Mosiah 28, and lots of DyC

12/14/2016

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! 

Love you soooo much, I hope you had a great day.

sorry that I didn't write yestarday, we had to travel to rio 4 for the zone meeting and zone pday. 

Yeah it's been pretty dang hot here but I'm loving the sun. My week has been good, but I'm really tired. We are working hard and we have been super busy and have had lots of traveling and stuff going on. The elder my district is traing a guy from arizona now. We have a really young mission now.

The christmas markets sound really cool and intresting. Thats awesome, I would love to talk to them. How everything at home and in the ward?

Wow 12 days!! time is flying 

Love you and miss you.

Can't wait to talk to you and the family

12/20/2016

t's very true the mission is always changing, but it is something very unique and special.  Rio IV is about 3 hours from where we are.

We don't have much planned for Christmas, pretty sure we will eat with a member and do our skype call. I'm thinking around 1ish here or 5ish there.

My week was really good, We had zone pday and zone meeting. And then we found a lot of new people to teach using the area book- finding and teaching with old investagadores from many years ago.

The best part of the week was making banana bread yestarday, spending time with some of the elders in Rio 4, and finding alot more people to teach.

Love  and miss you guys! Wish i could be with the family for christmas, gained such a appreciation for family holidays now.

12/15/2016 CHRISTMAS DAY SKYPE CALL

We were able to Skype with Andrew for 1 hr on Christmas day :) we forgot to take a picture!

We asked him lots a of questions, it was great to see him and his smile and hear his voice and his laugh.

Here are a few questions/answers from the call

Have you gotten your package?

NO *we sent this at the end of September!!! packages take forever 

Do you know when you are coming home?

My paper says May 16th

Do you have a mission Ipad?

Ipad?!? No, our mission doesn't have Ipads.

Have you purchased a matching companion item?

Yes socks

What has been your favorite P-day activity?

Paint ball

What is your favorite smell in your area?

After it rains

Least favorite?

Sewage water

What is the music like in your ward? Do you help with music?

Yes we help with them music. I'm learning to play the Guitar and Ukulele

Who does your laundry?

I do, this apartment has a washer in it

Did you get new shoes?

No I need to, but my debit card stopped working in November...

What do people do for work in your area?

Farming and construction

What is your least favorite thing you do as a missionary?

Weekly planning, it's 3 hours long

Are there street vendors in your area?

Yes, but they sell mostly junky things, except for the hippies they sell the nicer stuff.

What do you like about your mission president?

He is a very spiritual man

12/27/2016

It was great talking to guys, the time went by so fast. I didn't want to hang up at all. I love you guys a ton and I can't wait to skype and see you guys at home in 5 months. 

November 2016

11/01/2016 - 17 months

My kid is a mexican!!! We are going to be cooking mexican food together for sure, i'll make sure to copy some recipes. I totally forgot about halloween. They celebrate alot of catholic holidays here. That sounds like it should be fun! 

My week is has been good, kind of dragged on. My kid's name is Elder Peralta he is from the capital of mexico. Teaching him the ropes

Here are pictures from a while back with my old comp and now

11/15/2016

Well this past week went really well!​ We had lots of success and we also have lots of amazing people that we are teaching and progressing. Just got to get the people to assist** the church, the enenmy loves to put obstacles in the way. I'm doing good missing owen and noah a lot! Everything is good with my companion, things are a little less stressful now. Best part of the week was wednesday when we made tacos as a district and monday when we a found l, very humble but good guy. Really wants to go to church and know more about the gospel. So we had a mountain lion and its cub come down from the mountains looking for something eat/hunt. It was wondering our neighborhood and the neighboorhood next to ours. Heard it fighting with the dogs in our street one night, pretty sure it went back up.

The week I have been studying alot of the plan of salvation subjects so i've been jumping around all over the scriptures.

6 more months.... the time just keeps on flying faster and faster

Miss you guys a ton!

In my prayers and thoughts! love you

** yes attend haha asistir is the spanish word spanish is destroying my english little by little.

11/22/2016

Well I had quite the week! Wednesday we had the zone leaders with us for exchanges and it was a very rainy wednesday morning. I showed up to the chapel to prep everything for the District meeting however I realized I forgot my notebook that had all the things I was going to talk/teach about and the numbers of the past week. So my comp and I had to race through the rainy streets to go back to the apartment. We returned to the Chapel soaking wet. Was a really great meeting though, we all recieved revelation. Then after we finished the exchange with ZLs and they were in the bus headed back to their area my bike chain broke loose and I busted my knee pretty dang bad could barely walk and it was swelling. Took some ibuprofen and iced my knee the whole night and it was almost perfectly better in the morning. What a blessing and miracle in my eyes. Thursday morning at 4am we woke up to travel to Cordoba to attend a meeting for the newbies and their trainers. Was a really good meeting/conference. We went over the past three weeks and how they went and also talked about the strong points and the things we liked about our comps or how our companionship is. Then president talked to the newbies about the vision of the mission, how things won't always be like we think, respect towards the trainers and leaders of the mission, and what is a succesful missionary. Sunday when the zone leaders called me to recieve the numbers from the week of our district we experienced a little earthquake, was pretty crazy but it didn't last too long. Early monday morning I Had a nasty 24 hour stomach bug that really messed me up, had to use the bathroom a lot but the antidiarrhea pills did wonders and during the rest of the day I felt super weak and had a small fever. Was in bed the whole day, slept most of the day and read the scriptures when I was up. All healthy now and feel great now!!!

Yestarday I studied alot 

D&C 11, 12, 76, 130-133 and a little bit of hebrews

and during the week I studied about repentance, baptism, and the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands

Excited to talk to you guys soon!!

Miss and love you all

11/29/2016

We had a pretty big rain storm Wednesday, streets flooded in water and we got super soaked. This past Friday we had the christmas conference for the mission. It was pretty nice and fun. It was sad saying goodbye to alot of missionaries and friends who are heading home this week. The whole mission got new pillows, sunscreen, and a small bag of sweets. Church was great, I recieved a lot personal revaltion in priesthood and sacrament meeting. Kind of getting antsy for transfers that are coming up, Don't know if i will finish training or go somewhere else. This area has been pretty rough for me in terms of missionary work, but its been a time of much learning and personal development. I've definitley learned how to have more hope, patients, and much more. 

I like training but it bee very tiring, and training is 12 weeks but sometimes you only train half the time and a new elder comes in and finishes the training.

don't worry I got pictures to send you today! :)

October 2016

October 4, 2016 - 16 months

It rained today, so it's pretty cold and damp and it'll be like this for a week. Well we had a long day of travel and fun! 4 hour bus drive with chatting, playing suduko, and a small nap. Then we walked around down town in Rio Cuarto. And today we went to this book holiday/festival at the town square, was pretty cool. Then we played lots of ping pong, table soccer, and ate pizza with the other missionaries. Then we visted this really cool family from Peru. I really enjoyed the the conference, lots of focus on certain subjects which was intresting and shows the importance of the subjects. Love the second session from saturday when they talked alot about missionary work. I really enjoyed the talk from B. Kent Nattress and Kazuhiko Yamashita.

October 11, 2016

My week was pretty good. We've had a lot of bike problems this week but thats not anything new, just more then usually. We found and are teaching some really great families, really wanting to baptize. we'll see what comes out of these families, keep them in your prayes, especailly the S. family.

The new area is good, we are working hard. We are have lots of success in two neighborhoods. The ward has the assistence of a branch but the members I know are very nice.

My mission president is from Chile. And there are about 200 of us

Love you and miss you!!

October 18, 2016

It was pretty good we have everything nice and fixed up on our bikes right now, hopefully everything will last and we can avoid problems for a few good weeks. Been a very busy week with intercambios with the LZs and doing baptism interviews for my district. It has been pretty rainy here, we got caught in the rain riding home last night which was kinda of fun but we were soaked. We had a guy show up to church by himself this past sunday. We also had lots of service opurtinities this week which was nice! Love service. 

October 25, 2016

BIG NEWS will be training this transfer! Pick up my 'kid' tomorrow. We had a big thunderstorm last night and its still pretty gloomy, but the rest of the week was very nice and warm. We get alot of thunderstorms in Río Tercero.

I'm good in cordoba today and tomorrow, went to the temple and did a session and then we ate Mcdonalds. The week was good we have a lot of people that we are teaching and there are many who have baptism dates but the problem is that they aren't assisting church. Really pretty here lots of fields, horses, and love the river.

Been studying 2 Nefi (the isaiah chapters) and isaiah in the bible. I like to download the audio copy, I listen to one before I go to sleep or during personal study. I've only seen one primary program in my mission and that was when I was in Arguello. 

My first time training. The Mcdonalds menu is super tiny but they do have a few special burgers that pop up every once in a while that I've never seen but they arent anything really crazy or Argentinian. Do have a really good mcflurry thats of a argetina cookie brand/sweet. Super hard to find a Mcdonalds here, have to be in the city.

Nutella is hard to find here and super expensive, also peanut butter. I miss a bunch of stuff, there is not a big variety here. But I really miss salids, mexican and Asian food.

September 2016

September 6,  2016 - 15 months

We are having a lot of changes in the mission especially with rules and things we can do. We now have P-days Tuesdays. 

My comp was super sick this week had a 104 fever and we made a fun little hospital trip.

i'm just kind of stressed out and a bit overwhelmed. Just some of the changes and the the living situatuion still not being resolved. But its a trail and a learning experience everything will be fine in a week or so I'm sure. We have transfers this weekend, think i will be leaving which will be nice. A nice fresh start 

I miss you guys a ton! Only about 8 months left. Christmas is just around the corner too.

Things to send in my package - socks, tie, toothbrush heads, maybe a small cologne ( my clothes always seem to smell like dirt haha got to love washing clothes by hand )and some peanut butter!!!

September 13, 2016 - Transfer to Rio Tercero

Yes this week was very good! Yes, I transfered to Rio Tercero(third river) as DL. I'm know back in Cordoba but more south, Had two bus rides with 9 hours of travel. I'm pretty dang beat, but I'm all unpacked and already loving the area, we have a really nice apartament and we have bikes!!

It was pretty hard leaving Catamarca with all the family and friends I made there, each transfers seems to get harder. We baptized again Sunday night. We had to fill the fount with buckets of water for 2 hours because the water was cut off again but this time we found the place to turn it on. But the water was still pretty slow after we turned it on. Howevever everything ended well :) Sent a picture of me filling a bottle water of water so we could fill the water cups for the Santa Cena. 

Sending a picture of me and my new comp fixing our bikes up, feels so wierd to ride a bike... so much faster!

Don't have anymore stress really, just had a tiny meltdowna and was pretty overwhelmed with alot of things last week,

Love you!

September 20, 2016

The new area is treating me well! Legs are kind of sore from riding the bike all over but all is good. We had stake conference this past sunday so we had to travel 3 hours and the we had interviews with president and rode back in the car with him. Was good trip with him telling about life stories. Drank some really good real grape juice yestarday with some really good meat my comp made. We've been working hard and always seem to have little problems with the bikes but we always find a solution and fix them. Will be really good at fixng bikes. We went to this small meseum today where they had some cool bones from ancient animals here. I giant shell from a giant armadilo looking thing

Yeah I got a new suit it was pretty cheap  and plus lost some wait so kind of needed a suit a little bit smaller. My comp is ELder Venegas from Peru, he is from my group or better said we came into the mission at the same time. He is crazy fun

September 27, 2017

My week week pretty good, kind of dragged on but we had lots of fun and we talked and taught alot of people, sadly not too many people went to church becasue it was pretty cold (for argentina) here. We gave talks sunday, I gave a talk about the scripture and the importance of daily study and my comp about keeping the sabbath day. Very excited for General conference!!

The area is good, lots of things we have to help the ward become stronger and we have lots of people we are teaching but we have lots of young couples that need to get married before their baptisms. Hopefully we'll see some baptisms next month.