Monday, October 25 2010

Hey Family, hows it going? It sounds like life is going great at home. Nick Smith is turing 19? Wow hes going to be a great missionary, im super jealous of his mission!! I would do anything to serve in the middle east haha, Karl Fleishel served there. Did collin go out toliet papering the day before the meet? Im excited to see how collin does in the coming years, he will be a whole lot better swimmer than i was! Sounds like steph is having alot of fun down at snow, and that ward dinner thing sounds interesting. Im glad that the dinner with Tommy was great, i miss that kid more than ever. Ya im learning how to play alot of fun songs and im learning how to make my own songs now. Its great. Im excited for my grandmas package, luckily ive learned patience so i am able to wait. This week i got to be interviewed by the Mission President, it was a good interview, he expects alot more out of me. He asked how i was with the family and i told him i was still pretty homesick, he asked how much time i had in the mission and i told him i had a year and he laughed and told me that i had to be over that 6 months ago. I told him i was a little wierd and not like the other missionaries. This week has been super super hot, it was like january weather, and since we work during the siesta (nap time) we just walked underneath 95 degree weather, it sucked. But i lived. This week has seen alot of challenges, ive felt pretty discouraged and not really wanting to work, thats been really hard, im really frustrated with myself and im not sure what to do. Its been hard. Ive been trying to forget myself but i dont know how. I hope ill be able to turn this around. But other than that, theres not much new, Daniel couldnt get an appointment to get married, so we had to postpone his baptism, but hes growing alot, hes going to be a great member. Pretty much all of the other investigators i had we had to drop, they are not progressing. So its back to step 1. Well, i hope all is well at home, i love you all. Thanks mom for the support, i know you think im the greatest, its hard for me to feel the same but ill trust you ha. I miss home alot still, i cant wait for the day when i feel like staying here, i have faith that ill feel that way one day soon. I love you all!

Monday, October 18 2010

Hello family, hows everything going? Well this is my first email after i have completed one year, and man it feels like time has flown by really fast, but at the same time pretty slow also haha. But thanks for the letters last week, they helped alot, its not only about responsibilty, thats a very small part of it, its about my personal progression, i really havent felt like i have wanted to do the work, ive never woken up saying, Ya! im excited to work today!, and thats whats frustrating me, when i talk about the Players i really just want to have the fire and the excitment that they have for the work, so thats been something that i have been seriously trying to achieve for quite sometime. But dont worry about me, this is just who i am and as long as i try ill achieve it one day. This week has been a super quick one, i felt like it was two days long. Ive spent every waking moment reading the Book of Mormon, because i feel like if i can strengthen my testimony maybe that will help me find a stronger desire to help the people here. But this week i have felt quite satisfied with the work i have been given, ive been "purifying" myself from everything that has to do with home so that ill be able to focus on here, so ive been pretty excited that im starting to plant my foot in the ground and make some necesary changes. I do trust in my patriarchal blessing so i know that all i have to do is give it my all and the lord will complete with the rest. This week i have been quite excited for our investigators, as of right now ill have a baptism every weekend from the 30th of October to the start of December, so im seeing some great progress here in Reconquista, a great friend who came with me from Colombia when i started the mission is in my zone and he has helped me alot to figure things out. This week at Church we brought a lady who never really seemed to pay much attention to our lessons but as she left church she was literally exploding with happiness and excitement, she loved the church so much and she couldnt stop saying how much she loved it, she repeated it like 20 times, so im excited for her, shes getting baptised the 6th of November, Daniel is going to get married next week, right now hes pretty much a member haha, the Pividori family is taking a beating from the world, it seems that alot of people are not that friendly with Mormons and the only thing that is helping them hold on is our example as missionaries, so we will see if we can plant a firm foundation with the book of mormon this week. The book of mormon is the greatest missionary, once the investigators know its true, they do everything to do whatever they are asked, which is so awesome! So in my package, i really just want some new drilux garments and alot of skippy peanut butter. I just want to make peanut butter sandwhiches! Oh i havent had one for a year... Sounds like life is all great at home, no i didnt hear about the Morlies dad, mom didnt tell me, but man 36 hour work... and i thought that i am tired. It just clicked in my mind that ive never seen a picture of stephs car... OH and mom i just thought id let you know that i play the piano every sunday at church, and miraculously i can play almost every song, its a talent i have gained here haha, so i thought id let you know that your years of wrestling with me to play the piano is paying off, and the church here in reconquista now knows how to sing on tune :) haha, thats great that your taking care of Tommyboy, but man he should have asked for Chicken Enchaladas or a huge Christmas Roast!! haha oh man i miss Enchaladas...Alright well family, thanks for always supporting me, i know im always hard of myself, but i dont know any other way haha. Ill try to figure out how to think in the other way. Well i love you all, goodbye.

Tuesday, October 12 2010

Wow! Man i was super super happy to hear from my cousins and the sweet news that has come to them! I always knew they were the greatest, they always had the ability and the knowledge on how to suceed! Man im super jealous of both! Ha im still the junior companion here in Reconquista, so nothing new happened here. But when i first heard i was quite disappointed, pretty sad also, because i have a year and i havent been given a new responsibilty, but after pondering for a while the talk from Elder Holland came into my mind from this conference, about the old lady who never had a lidership calling and felt quite she was just a helper, and that Elder Holland said if we could all be more like her, well that hit me and i felt better, and then i realized that im here for the people and that someone here needs me, so i learned i need to stop being a baby and get to saving some lives hehe. Even though there is only two of us from my mtc group who havent been given responsiblities i have learned a little bit more about my purpose as a missionary. But really i am so happy for Judd and Andy, they have learned how put Doctrine and Covenants 4 in practice! Im struggling with that, i feel like i have reached my limit, as hard as i try to push past it i havent been able to overcome it, as much as i have tried to overcome my weaknesses i feel like i havent been able to overcome them, but i guess ill have to keep on trotting, one day ill be able to break these barriers. I dont feel like im totally in the work and im trying my hardest to forget about myself but i dont know what else to do, so i would love some more prayers haha, because im in a huge struggle. Even worse than the heat of Argentina, which its been pretty hot here lately. But as i have learned here in Argentina, patience, but i feel like a year is long enough haha. Kind of frustrating.But anyways, my investigators are doing great! Daniel and Fabiana are going to get married next week! So im pretty excited for that. Maybe ill be able to see my first wedding here in Argentina. THen they will be baptised the following saturday. The Pividori family has had a huge struggle, pretty much the whole world is fighting against them getting baptised, even thier own family is fighting against it, but the only thing helping them advance is the spiritual experiances that we have with them. We couldnt talk much with them this week because they were gone but we passed by last night and were able to help them out. I do believe i found the family that was waiting for me to come save them, the oldest daughter is a member for 3 years but went inactive because of the huge amount of lidership problems that are here. But we ate lunch with them and man, i felt so great with them, im pretty sure if i do my part that they will all get baptised! They are a pretty grown up family, the oldest has 26, Rocio, and the youngest has 20, Hermanuel, they are 4 brothers and sisters and they all are attending the university and studying, a rare trait for an Argentine haha. SO they understand perfectly, now i need to help them have spiritual experiances and they will make it! Well sounds like life at home is pretty awesome, congrats lindsay and joe, the next boy will be even crazier than jake and maximus. Well i am sending some pictures of me at the riverside, we went to a swap meet and ate at a riverside restaurant it was great. well love ya!

Monday, October 4 2010

Hey family!! Hows its going? Ya im getting pretty close to the down hill mark, and its been quite a ride so far! Well goods news first, i had a baptism between conference sessions. Thursday night it didnt seem ike it was going to happen, she found a few doctrines that she wasnt in line with and she was wanting to wait for her baptism, well we taught her about the devil and the feelings he puts into us, that nothing good comes from the devil, well she listened to us and put her trust in us and in god, well it turned out great! Shes in love with the gospel and truly will become one of the great members here in Reconquista. Also Daniel and his wife will get married one day after my year mark! So that will be a good present for me! Then they will get baptised saturday. So i got to listen to all of the conference sessions. I didnt pay full attention because i am not used to sitting down for more than 40 minutes so i felt really sick the whole day, with huge migrains. But i will read it when i get it, i like that better. But i did love all of the talks, especially the priesthood session rocked! But the confrences put me a bit trunky, or homesick, which i have never liked, but as always the solution is work, which i wasnt able to do saturday and sunday, so for me it wasnt the greatest week but hey, i got alot more weeks to get better, the key is to keep progressing. So wednesday is transfers again so we will see what happens. I am kind of hoping that ill be able to be given some kind of responsiblity, since ive never had any since the mission began but i know that gods in charge and im alright with that. Nothing else has really happened this week. Thanks for the pics mom, could you send some more, thanks for the memories! So the greatest news of the week is that i finally found brown sugar here in this country! So i went right to work making pancakes!! So here is a photo of the deliciousness! and we also found food coloring, which was heaven, we put it in everything, green eggs, water, pancakes, milk, icecream, everything we can find, a great way to make your day! Well i love you all so much, oh and just for you to know, the date of when ill be coming home is like the 22nd of October 2011, so sadly i wont be able to goto conference at home. But hey its a long way off,so sounds like everything is good at home, congrats abbey, i have never been able to take notes, i think i wrote one sentance about this conference so your better off than i am, congrats collin on the swim meet, and steph if you want to get asked ask to be asked, dont be a baby haha. Guys dont know what girls want, true story! Hannah plays soccer? since when? i also play soccer haha, butonly once a week! Well i love you all, good bye! Thanks mom and dad for being the example i need, and for showing your pure love!