Monday, May 31 2010

Well sounds like the trip gets funner every year! Ha it was wierd that i didnt even think about it this week, after last weeks email i was sick of my attitude, and tired of having the same feelings, so this past week i have decided to try setting goals, for the first time haha, and it really worked well, it gave me a drive to work and made time fly by and it gave me huge success this week, i didnt let myself or i didnt have time to think, i have loved this past week. Tuesday was independence day for argentina, so we got to eat a soup with the ward, it was alot of fun to have a ward party, i sure love my ward here, we brought our investigators, the gomez and pacheco family, and they loved it, then all week we have been setting up a talent show in the ward, and that came to pass saturday night, and holy crap it was awesome, i loved it alot, it had alot of argentinan culture and i got to see alot of comedy, it was alot of fun. I dont really want to leave my area but we will see what happens, this wednesday is transfers and i have been practicing all week how im going to be better, i have improved alot this week, im starting to learn when i get homesick to just be obedient and work and it is a little easier, if i keep this up ill be a pretty good missionary by the end haha, we played some soccer today, i kind of realized i wasnt made for sports that involve balls, never was haha, but it made me really miss my triathelon, thats something that i really want to do when i get back. Oh so i got the package! man the cars are sweet! I opened it while my companion was interviewing another companionships investigators and so we all opened it, there was three kids from 9 to 11 there and we played with the hotwheels for a while, one of the maple extracts opended up so everything is sticky haha, but it didnt do anything to the flavor! I am super grateful for the sweet tarts! And the other companionships loved the corn nuts, twizzlers and skittles, we had a good time sharing it all, but im not going to share my nutterbutters haha, thanks so much for the package, i was ju st getting used to not having delicious candy when i recieved it haha, what a treat, and i cracked up when collin wrote that hes turning into a girl! Haha what a wierdo! Thanks for the letters and the food and ill write you all next week, i dont have much else to say! I love you all and miss you so much! its wierd to think that in one week a year ago i would have recieved my mission call... time is flying by, but the same time its a never ending story, depending on the day haha! Well i lvoe you all!

Monday, May 24 2010

Hola familia! It sounds like life is a blast there at home! Oh man goblin valley... my heaven here on earth haha, man im going to miss out big time haha, congrats on stephs showcase, what a cool accomplishment to direct a play, oh i remember the senor dinner dance, i hung out with Thomas Peterson practically the whole time, what a blast! And wow two years has gone by since i graduated from seminary, whoa, and high school also, time really does fly by eh! Haha but its been dragging on here in the mission, but there are days that i love it, and days that i dont want to be here, so either way just depending on the day the time changes haha, its either fast or slow. This week has been a bit of a drag, mostly because we only had 2 youth investigators in the church and both the pachecho and gomez family didnt show up, this is week 3 of the gomez family not coming to church, so its a little frustrating, since we put the baptismal date they havent come to church... But im working on it, we will get them coming.This week we had to give baptism interviews in Ituzango, which is a little town 90 kilometers from posadas, about 1 and a half hours from posadas in the buses. It was a fun little trip, its a very calm town with a beautiful church, it was fun to break the routine, because thats whats been so tuff lately, at the end of everyday i just feel like ill be doing the same thing for the next 17 months and its a huge downer, which really staggered my performance this week, man my mind is like the ankle of achilles haha, if i think about the future or the heat i just lose all hope or patience or something, ive been fighting this weakness my whole mission and i havent been able to conquer it yet, its really frustrating, i dont understand why im like this, i try my hardest not to think about the future, and take things day by day, but its so hard and its practically impossible for me to do it, so if you have any advice i really need it, everytime i try to get lost in the work i get scared and back out, i have a huge fear, huge.It just eats at my soul, but dont worry, ill continue to fight and perservere and hopefully ill find the answer soon. But im trying something new, something that i should have done at the beginning of the mission, i have set goals every night to make sure that everyday is better than the last, that should help me alot. I havent done anything this hard, i hardly never enjoy it during but i am proud of myself after, so right now its worth it i think. More patience and diligence and ill get out of this mindset, or whatever this is.But on the good side i had an interview with the mission president this past week, he asked if i was ready to start being the Senor companion and i told him i could use the responisbility, he laughed pretty hard at that comment, he asked how many months ive been in Jardin, my area, and i told him about 6 months and i think that will be it, he laughed again and said who told you that you would be leaving, truthfully, i want to stay here my whole mission, i really do love the ward and we have found some really good families, but im willing to be anywhere that im needed, after this he told me that of all of the elders that have the potential to gain more responsiblitly that i was the one that stood out most, so that was good to hear haha, so we will see what happens in a week and a half, im excited for whatever happens.
Today i learned how to be a championship ping pong player, haha im addicted to it, argentina is really good at soccer, chilie is really good at ping pong, so i have been learing from the chileans here, and im learning to be really good, its alot of fun. I bought a mp3 player to play all of the songs i have recieved here in the mission, im pretty excited to listen to some sweet scottish music about Joseph Smith. All of my investigators are progressing, slowly and rapidly, ill tell more next time! Love you all so much, send a bunch of pictures of goblin valley and stuff!! I love you all!

Monday, May 17 2010

Dear Family! Well this week has been a pretty good one, difficult as usual but im starting to enjoy it a little more every week. First off thanks for all of the emails, i love getting emails! hehe. Well i did celebrate my birthday well, i started off the day finishing up my fast with eating lunch with the gomez family, we fasted with the family so that all will go well so they can get married, they almost died of hunger haha.We ate milonesas, which are like giant chicken nuggets, they are delicious, after that we worked hard and that afternoon spent a half hour with a professonial soccer player who has played in 7 countries, we had a good time talking about sports and then the gospel,after that we went to the Mochado family and they had a huge cake for me it was delicious they are a huge support here for me and they take good care of me, after that we went and taught a lesson with the Pacheco family who are going to be baptised, and they had bought me a cake also, so saturday i was taken care of haha, then all of the missionaires called and sung to me in english and spanish and we had a happy ending to the day, this week i did splits with the zone leaders to show them what i am made of and it was a good time, we rocked the area with numbers, we did more in one day than we usually do in three so i was pretty pumped about that.I believe the president will see something in me one day, haha one of my good friends from the mtc is already training, so thats crazy! I believe we are having more sucess than i can imagine, we have 15 people who want to get baptised, which is very rare here, seeming if you can have 15 in a year your a huge success here, but i believe its because we are finding all of the chosen that were prepared before and now, ha and the older missionaries here couldnt find them, but we are rocking it here, Elder Soclle is starting to be more obedient and its easier for me to do everything possible, so all in all everything is perfect, its a little warmer this week, but today changed the weather drastically, its raining like crazy here, and im soaked from head to toe, but i love it, i love walking in the rain, i feel like a traveler in lord of the rings or something cool like that. but all in all im having a pretty good time here, ive decided i dont ever really like it during the time, but when i look back i love it, so its worth the sacrifice. Its all in my mind right now, nothing is physically difficult here now, the weather is tolerable or perfect depending on the day, its always cold at night so thats all i want. The only really difficult challenge i am having right now is that i work so hard all of the time, but if i allow myself to think about the future and that i have to do this for two years i lose hope and its tuff to recover it, so im learning to not think in the future, but to only think about today like jesus said to do in matt 6, and if we do this we will be taken of like the birds or the grass are taken of, so i know that i dont need to worry as long as i am working for the lord, and im starting to love it here so much, well i love you guys, it is good to here from home as usual, it sounds like you had a good time in Las Vegas mom, and its good to hear about Bryce, ive thought about him alot this past month, and steph, oh man i remember gotcha, haha noone knew my target, nor the teachers who organized it... it sucked! Well good luck with it, dont be blonde about, take it seriously and kick some butt! Get the help from the professional, Tay tay haberman was one of the best! The legend of gotcha haha, it was good to hear that my idol also had a hard time yet he learned to love it also! Im working on it, alot of fasting and praying, haha im quite proud of myself that fasting isnt a problem for me anymore and i actually look forward to fasting once a week, its such a spirit builder! Well i love you all so much! Its hard to be away from my home but i have learned how much i want my family!! Good by my familY

Monday, May 10 2010

Hey fam! It was so good to hear from you guys last night! and i didnt even get homesick!! I really felt more of a desire to work, half to show what im made of and the other half to just get to work, to pass the time and get lost in the work, well this week i have done three big accomplishments, the Gomez family is going to baptise! And the pacheco family also, so i will have 12 baptisms this next month! All of my work will finally start to show, which makes me happy, and the third thing is that i wake up happy so thats a huge accomplishment!! Hmm i dont know what else to say this week, except that the members here love me, haha my bishop is going to buy 2 kilos of mint ice cream, and the machado family is going to make a huge cake for me! and all of this will be for dinner, and we will have a party for 30 mins during our dinner, and then the gomez family is going to do a bbq with me for lunch on my birthday, so im excited for that! Dont worry the members are taking good care of me mother, today we played volleyball and soccer from 11 to 5 today, im exhausted! We played for a cake and we won but i couldnt eat a cake because we had to go to try and call the mom of Elder Soclle, but he couldnt use my card but he bought another one and man it was a pain, but all is well now! Well i cant think of much else to say, so i will just say that i love you all so much and i cant wait to hear more! Goodbye!

Monday, May 3 2010

Hey hey mi familia! Its good to hear from you guys this week, this week has been pretty dang good, after last monday i decided that i better kick it into gear, so tuesday i decided to fast, and it was a very successful day, i felt good about my attitude and my purpose for fasting, wednesday my companion and i had a capatiation with the zone leaders where my companion learned how to be a district leader, and ya i still have my same companion. After this we found a perfect family of 6, who came to church with us all, it was really cool, they all loved it so much and we are going to challenge them to baptism for the 29 of may, so hopefully everything goes well. Idk what it was but my attitude really changed and i recieved alot of the help that i had been looking for and needed, its still tuff at times but im learning and as i learn to forget about myself i forget all of my worries, i have a testimony of fasting, which i have done twice this week, i know the lord sees our sacrifices and blesses us with what we need when we show our desire and do our part, thursday night we had a really spiritual lesson with the gomez family, they are going to baptize so soon! I want to challenge them to get baptized the same day as the other family, the 29th, so i hope that will go well, they are reading and praying in family and they needed that lesson to remind them why we are teaching them, so i am really excited to do so, saturday we spent from 11 to 7 walking in the street because noone would let us in and all of our plans fell through, but i didnt care and i was happy, which was really suprising to me, the first time walking under the sun for 8 hours and it didnt effect my mood at all, yup im being blessed, then saturday night we took a investigator to a baptism to watch what it was like and all of our zone was there with investigators it was sweet, then sunday morning we filled the church with our investigators, we had 11 investigators in the church, two families, more than anyone in our zone, it was sweet and i was so happy haha, i finally feel like im starting to be a missionary, i didnt even think about p day this week so thats a huge bonus. Today to celebrate our success all of our zone went to the chinese restaurant and we ate bigtime, after we had a uno card competition and then a ping pong tourney, its been an awesome day, awesome week, and one super happy missionary, a little homesick for sure but dont worry, hes trying. I didnt even know that mothers day was next week, wow time flies, well i guess i will have to find out how to do everything and so thanks for sending all of the info before hand haha, whew thanks for knowing your son haha. Thanks for the photos, just keep sending some from whenever, but this next week needs to be from the saqouya trees, the giants in california, noone here believes the trees are that big, and im here to prove them wrong! So send some pics of that and yellowstone por favor, i also need my line of authority so if you could scan it and attach it also that would be sweet. Well i dont have much else to say if im going to talk to you guys on sunday! Wow thats going to be wierd haha, time is flying by, well i love you all and i hope all is well at home!