Monday, November 29, 2010

Monday, November 29 2010

Man i forgot that Thanksgiving was this week, i forgot it was November haha, because this is not November weather i am living. But man Disneyland sounded way fun, pretty suprisingly short but fun nontheless, vacations are the best!Im glad that you all had a great time and that you all got home safe, sounds like a crazy trip home, but its sweet that all is well. Man the family has changed so much, its hard to recognize you all, and its hard to imagine that ill be there one day, it seems like so long ago, and still seems far away haha, but im used to these feelings. Formosa is great, really, ridiculously hot, its not even December and its about the weather of Posdadas in the summer, so i cant imagine what its going to be like in February, but i have it in my head, four months of fire and then the physical part will be overcome, the water cuts out here always, ive showerd twice this week because we havent had water, so its been quite the week, i was only with my comp one day this week because of meetings so i have been with different elders every day, which has been awesome to work with other guys. But ive felt pretty lazy this week, its been a struggle to work, as always, but my desires havent been that great, ive been praying for quite some time now, over two months, to see if the book of mormon is true and if the church is true, i believe it is, for that reason im here, but ive never recieved a spiritual confirmation that clicks in my head that its true, so ive been trying that for so long and i think i just got tired of trying, but i pulled my self out of that hole, i know one day ill know its true. So thats been my problem for a while. But other than that this week has been awesome, ive gotten to know alot of members and made alot of friends. Our church building has a ward and two branches that attend so it was fun to go to church and have all of these people acknowldege my existence, it makes me feel great haha. My comp Elder Myrer, is freaking awesome, we get along super great and its great to be with an American, sometimes we get distracted but we teach a whole lot more powerfully and our personalities help the people alot. Ill take more pics of us and the apartment and all of that, and send them in the future. Mom im just going to call from our house because we have a phone, our apartment used to be the owners house, so it has furniture and decorations and everything, so its just like a house, pretty awesome haha. We even have a washer to wash clothes, when we have water of course. But ya, as usual im having trails overcoming my attitude but im getting there, hopefully before my mission ends ill figure it all out haha. Frustrating. Well i love you all, im greatful for my family and for all the love they show, im really not great at all, but im greatful that my family thinks that i am. Love ya all!

Heres a couple pictures of the wild elephant and dragon we found here in Formosa, dont worry i killed it, so it wont cause any more harm!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Tuesday, November 23 2010

Well hello again family!! So now im writing to you from the hottest area in the mission, FORMOSA!! It gets up to 130 here, so when i got the call i was pretty scared to get here, i was used to the weather in Reconquista and now im going to have to try and live in the oven haha.It was really hard to leave Reconquista since i was helping so many of my friends, they were great. We all got together to watch a movie tuesday afternoon and after the movie i got the call, so it was great that all of them were there. So now im with my new comp, Elder Myrer from Provo UT! Hes a sweet kid, an awesome comp, so were going to do miracles together. We live in a nice house in a pretty ghetto neighborhood but im used to that. This area is a lot more roudy than my old one, the air smells like pure beer for how many people drink, but its a pretty humble place, everyone talks with us so its a whole lot easier to talk with people here, which makes the work alot funner than walking. Its a small area also so its alot different from the last. The elders in my zone are awesome!! We all share the same church building, which is huge, there are 6 elders in the same ward and then there are two branches, its pretty sweet. They are all happy and uplifting, and even though its super hot they are always making it fun. There are literally clouds of mosquitos above our heads, and each is about the size of a nickle or dime, huge! This area is a whole lot more physically challenging but the work seems to be a whole lot easier, as of right now we are finding alot of people who are wanting to get baptised. The members are great and its the first time in 5 months that i havent participated in the church haha, im loving it here so far, but its not that hot yet, 100 or so during the day, we will see how it goes.Well i dont have much more to say, i super miss the snow right now it seems haha. But we do have air conditioning for the first time in my mission!! So i sleep peacefully at night, awesome! Im loving it here, my comp is teaching me alot. It sounds like collin is doing awesome!! Keep it up man! Well love ya guys! I finally did the pic mom but i dont know how it turned out, didnt have that much time, or materials. But at least i remembered haha, peace! oh here is some pics of right before i left Reconquista also.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Monday, November 15 2010

Hey family!!
That was pretty sweet to see andy and judd able to meet together, but ya that would be a bit wierd at first haha. After being on the mish for this long i would act the same. Thanks for emailing me, i dont have much time this week, its been a busy pday, its the last one before transfers this wednesday so i was cleaning up some stuff, im absolutely dreading this wednesday, i cant leave here, this week has been an awesome week and i am finding the love of the mission, i love finding friends that want to hear the gospel. We have alot of people that are looking for the truth and they will be baptised soon, so quickly this week has also been one of the worst, because so many of our baptisms fell through, we werent able to baptise daniel because Reconquista is super lazy, i was pissed off, it really was because of laziness andill explain it better next week, also the twins that i was going to baptise also had a few problems and they cant get baptised now and we had alot of setbacks, but i got this going again, we had a bunch of investigators at church, it was district conference and they were all loving it, President was there so we got to listen to him, it was great, we also had zone conference tuesday, that was a good learning experiance, i realized that i dont have that many friends but i have good quality ones. Well ill have to tell you more next week, im loving it, even though it super hard im finding out the solution. Wow ive forgotten what home looks like, that just blew my mind. Well have fun my family, i dont have much time. Sorry mom, ive been super busy and a super big flake, i dont know when ill send the picture, but ill try, but its only a picture anyways ;) plus i dont have any supplies but ill try to find some paper and write something. Ill try to give a good effort this week! Love you all!!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Monday, November 8 2010

HEy FAMily! So ya im going to explain, this is no ordinary paintball picture that i took before the mission. That pic was taken here, today in argentina, haha as a zone we went paintballing today, and i showed all of the latinos how an american plays paintball, haha it was a blast! Im super exhausted right now but so satisfied with my pday activity, we woke up early this morning, went and took a roof off of a house, like the time i did it in Posadas that one hot summer day, but this morning was a bit more cooler. (i feel wierd writing in english so if i dont make sense understand.) The roof collapsed while i was ontop but luckily i was quick footed and was near the wall. It was pretty sweet.So the other photo is the baptism of Catalina, ya it was a great baptism, she is awesome. But sunday she didnt come to church, after the baptism she moved! Not out of the city limits but way out in the country, so she couldnt come and we didnt even know it! so were going to try and find her this week.The next picture is a picture of me cutting my friends hair, i know its a shaver but ive learned how to cut hair with scissors also, so im pretty proud of myself.And the other pic is of our dress code for summer, haha nah we cant have shorts, but it would be cool. Well this week, like i said in my last email, i have been working really hard to find the happiness, and how cool is it that i found the same scriptures and everything, Mosiah 2:20-21 was my turing point for the week. I have been trying the fake it until you make it, but ive never been able to fake myself haha, but now im going to try and put it to the test. This week has been a great week, not because i have been focused on myself, but on my friends who dont know the gospel. Dont be suprised if i dont send alot more photos of baptisms home in the next few weeks because the lord is definitly pouring out his blessings over me even though i havent been such a great servant, but even with that, Heavenly Father has blessed me with 10 friends who are really wanting to be baptised, of course they have their trials but once we can overcome them they will enter the waters of baptism. It was such an awesome experiance for me to baptise again this week, during the baptism i had to do it twice because i get nervous, but because of this i got to feel like i was alma baptising in the waters of mormon, i felt like one of the missionaries from the book of mormon and it was an awesome experiance. Like andy and judd even though i have alot of problems i am loving the mission for the moments of happiness and learning that i have. Daniel is about to become a member, we fasted for him this week, so that everything would go well with his marriage and that he would stop smoking, saturday morning as i was finishing my fast we helped a member redo his terrain, or lawn or garden, i dont remember the word. But we moved alot of dirt, and now its super hot, it got to 100 this week. So at the end of the service i really felt like i couldnt lift my chair, i was so weak haha, not a good idea to work and fast, but i felt the fruits of the fast, daniel also fasted and he hasnt smoked since! And we will see how his marriage is friday! IM so stoked!! Thursday night we had cold pizza and i wanted to heat it up, so i turned on the oven, well it uses gas, not like our oven but propane, and i dont know what i did or what i was thinking, but somehow the fire exploded out of the oven, running up my right arm, buring off ALL of the hair, we all screamed as we watched it haha, it was a pretty hilarious moment, but dont worry it didnt burn my arm, only my fingers but its all right, the photo with the haircut was the same night after the explosion so i was able to cut hair. So dont worry, it was just a funny experiance. I forgot to do the pic mom, sorry, but dont worry ill do it this week! Youll love it! Wow collin!! Smashing it up as a freshman in the swim meet! Im quite impressed!! Cool beans my brother keep working hard! Hell month is about to start! I loved that month!! Well i dont have much else to say this week, sounds like dad is a working machine! I hope to be a little bit like him! Well i love you all! PEACE! oh send pics mom!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

Monday, November 1 2010

Hey family, sounds like its been a week full of news. Thats too bad to hear about Lindsay and Joe, and also about mike and rebecca, ill keep them in my prayers. Sounds like mom had a fun trip to NYC, but a bit tiring. Wow collin, 56 in the 100 free as a freshman, and your also on Varsity! Dude way to go, your going to be a champion soon. Im glad to hear that everything was great down at the university with steph. That makes me super happy to hear about Bishop Johnson and my letter, i never thought that would happen. Hes such an awesome guy. Before i forget, if you havent sent my package i would love for you to send gold bond! That stuff is gold haha. This week has been hard as usual, but i dont know if i was that clear, ive always tried to be obedient because i do realize its the only way to be happy I guess im just losing my patience, all of the other missionaries around me are happy and i really havent felt happy here, i promise peace to my investigators yet ive never felt it personally. I knew i would find challenges but also happiness, since thats the promise that "Preach my Gospel" gives, but maybe that will come after my mission. Anyways im really really struggling but i hope to find a way out soon, i really just want to be happy. To wake up wanting to be here thats all. Anyways, this week was a decent week with my investigators, all of them are super excited to get baptised, really. They all loved the church meetings and are all excited to see the baptism of Catalina this saturday. So im quite satisfied with the progression of all of my investigators, really there are only 4 who are going to get baptised in november as of right now, and they are all going to be really stong members, we have two more who are so so and alot of people who have the capability to progress. Daniel is going to get married the 12th of November so im happy about that. umm, ya not much else is up, today we played soccer, and it was me and two argentinos against 4, i wasnt that excited to play because it was way unfair teams, well i, the only white kid there,beat them all, scoring 7 of our 9 goals, and they only scored 3. They were all suprised, and even more as the game continued. So i guess i do have talent when i can conquer my mind. We also got permission to watch charley, what a cheesy chick flick but i totally cried, oh man ive changed. I also realized how selfish ive been thanks to that cheesy movie. I feel like maybe thats why im not happy, so thats my goal for the week, ill let you know how it goes next week. I dont ask you to pray for me because other people need your prayers, well i love you all. PEACE!