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.

August 2016

August 1, 2016 14 months

Been studying the bible alot recently, mostly the teachings of Christ and His parables.

Starting to get warmer, lots more sun and clear days. And at night it kind of gets chilly.

At first it was really weird because you usaully contect different types of weather and seasons with months, but now I don't notice at all and isn't something weird.

The time is flying, got to take advantage of every moment. The most important thing that I have learned is everything is possible with God and faith. There are small miracles every day that we tend to miss or discount. 

We had transfers, I'm now a districto leader and my new comp is a Chileno Elder Pacuay

August 8, 2016

What a great quote!! I usually pray and read the scriptures to clear my mind. Also one of the best thing for me is to keep the mind busy, such as doing something and working hard. One thing that has been hard for me is leaving the people I know and change of comps after a long time together.

Been a crazy but good week! I know this week will be better and we have lots to do here :) I miss you and are in my prayers

August 15, 2016

Hola Madre,

Hope everything is going well back home! It has been getting really hot here. We had the baptism of B. this past Sabado, it was very special for me and also for her! She is a amazing women. Been working hard in the heat with my comp and we had a week with much success. A little stressful being District Leader but it is a time to learn new things.

we are in ´spring´ but it feels like summer. We figured out the living situatuion, we will be moving soon.

Love you 

August 22, 2016

My week was busy but amazing! We had 9 investigadores in Catamarca Ward! And we should have a ton of baptisms next sunday!!! That sounds like a amzing trip, didn't Uchtdorf talk about Dresden cathedral in his conference talk?

And we are moving to our new place tomorrow!!

-Finally found the picture when the streets flooded in Córdoba a long long time ago.

-Spanish Scrabble

August 29, 2016

Hahaha oh my gosh those qoutes made me bust out laughing. Especailly the first one. 

We had 3 baptisms! M. and A. are amazing family that we found this month. and C. is someone incredibly special to me, is a very loving and awesome man. Will have to tell you his amazing story when I get home. We still haven't moved...... we had a problem with the contract it was for three years and the mission wants one for 2. The new contract was sent today, so we will see what happens.

palo santo- smells really good when you burn it, pension smells really good now.