Monday, October 3 2011

Oh crap... First off mom, i put my drivers licence in the mission safe... so that no one would steal it, but i have my old one, but i have a paper copy and ill try to descern what it says through the paint smugdes, and plus i have my old one... Oh man what a week, my emotions are everywhere, im a complete wreck haha, a chicken without a head running around. This has definitly been by far the most absolute hottest week here in Corrientes, i was laughing histarically because it was unbearable, its super impressive how hot it can get. But at least i dont cry anymore like my first summer. Rained just in time for conference, cooled down enough to enjoy conference. Oh man i hate how fast the conference is, i used to dread priesthood session, two hours on saturday, your crazy!! And now its totally different. Oh how grateful i am to a family who is converted to the gospel, grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Parents, Brother, and Sisters. The first session had less than 10 members here, which made me pretty sad, my converts were the only ones from my branch that were there. Then just like last year we baptised between sessions, and Carlos did the baptism, oh man super cool! Betty got baptised and was super taken care of by the district. And the talks oh man super cool. I got home at midnight saturday after the priesthood session and was unable to sleep for all that was going through my head, ¨oh man heavenly father expects alot from me¨ i said to myself, it was quite a difficult night for me to sleep, as usual Elder Horrocks never thinks too well of himself. But then the spirit told him that hes doing his best, and that if this is his best than he will do well after the mission. For the mission is there to strech him and make him stronger than he could have done by himself. And Elder Horrocks was able to sleep. haha i loved the talk about the mountain climbing, that they made a promise to not look how much they lacked, but looked to see how much they had gained. What a cool analogy. I Loved every single talk. Elder Eyring, Elder Uctdorf, President Monson, i love mormon humor, its so simple, it has no need to be dirty or offensive yet it made me laugh my butt off. What a simple life we live as mormons, or at least can live. My testimony grew tons, and how grateful i am to have been able to serve a mission. This area has been the hardest, with all the trials, but ive made some awesome friends here, some super awesome friends. Conference made me sad to know ill never see many of them ever again. Well at least until the milenium. My mind is a scrambled egg right now. So if im not making sense just know that i have no capability to think, only two more weeks of work then its done, over. I cant think.
Anyways, we moved today, i hate change, it really does, if i had everything my way i would never change. But we moved like 4 blocks down the street, super close, and its alot smaller. We dont have power yet but tomorrow we will, we dont have any fans so im praying and hopeing that the heat doesnt rise or im not sleeping haha. We live on the third floor and its very, very similar to my first apartment in Posadas, the neighbors even listen to the same music as there, so im quite missing my first area haha.
Anyways, i dont know what else to say, im excited for working, schooling, sleeping, eating, exercising (a definite need), and growing an awesome beard/mustache combo.
Yet i am still working hard, dont worry, last week was the hardest, now its all good. I think. At least i know how to work hard, and my comp is always on my back helping me to be focused, hes super cool, we clash at times but its always to help both us grow. Ive learned alot from him.
Ill bring home some Jerseys, mate (like the cow hoof), and some toms, or apargatas as they are called here, but they are quite cheaply made. Im sure the states are higher quality, but if its for originality im all up for it. Loves ya all!
Im so grateful for our dedication to the lord as a family, the goal is heaven right?

Monday, September 26 2011

Hellloooooo! As grampa would say. So this week was super fast, it suprised me how fast it passed, this has definitley been the week that i have dug in and gave it my all, i wouldnt let myself think of home, yet i thought only in my investigators, and it flew by! Theres the key haha, and we had tons of success, we are finding tons of people who seem to be quite willing, weve excelled all our goals, and the families are progressing. The Navarros daughters came to church, the parents couldnt because they were sick, but other than that they are all progressing and will surely get baptised. We had a baptism this week but it fell through, she was super confused with the interview and then she thought no one would come to the baptism, we filled the font and cooked the cake and the members were starting to show up and still she hadnt come, so i called her and she said that she didnt want to get baptised because she was the only one... wierd excuses, we were very straight with her, super bold and so she commited to get baptised between sessions at conference, so thats going to be sweet.
We have done a couple family home evenings every week and last week as we were singing the closing song the family started changing the words and started chanting, all 10 of them, ¨Elder cannot go! Elder cannot go!¨ Or something like that would comeout in english. If it didnt get hotter i would be tempted to want to stay, thank goodness i hate heat! But ive made some good friends here. I have no idea how life is at home, it feels like so long ago when i think of home i dont know if im capable of living that kind of life, super wierd eh.
I did splits with the Asistants, they want to make sure i dont die trunky, yet the asistant started the mission one transfer after me so we are way good friends, so it was a fun day, so much fun to teach with someone who has tons of experiance, there is so much power.
So i cannot even wait for conference! Im super excited, i love conference so much!!!
So family, i feel like its time to start looking for a few souvenires, wow i dont know how to spell that word, soveniers, suvenirs, gifts from another country... Anyways, i am wanting to know if there is anything special that you want, so let me know, that way in the last two pdays i can go hunting!
Well i love you all!

Hey Hey! Ha so youve liked my last few emails, ya ive been quite freaked out this week because its been so good, im afraid that something bad is going to happen to make me suffer like before, something definately has changed. One month left! It hit me thursday, i went to my last zone conference, we got to listen to Elder Foster, the 70, it was pretty good, not much deep doctrine like lasttime, more like capacitation, which was cool, one month to put it into practice, he practically talked about our job as a missionary is not only to baptise but to edify the church in the area we serve, so i felt alot better, he said something like a missionary at the end of his mission will not measure his success by the amount of baptisms but of the legacy he left in the areas he served. Pretty cool eh.I gave my final testimony to the 98 other missionaries that were there, if front of the 3rd of the mission. What a blast, to bare my testimony to every single one of my friends, i saw so many there, it was absolutely one of my favorite moments of my life, brothers in arms. I spent the day with many old friends from the mission, it has felt so long the mission, yet has flown by so fast, so many things have happened in my life since then!
This week was ok, i messed up alot in alot of descions i had to make, which brought very little success, but i learned and hope to never make such stupid decisions, but oh well, i learn from every event. We had some awesome lessons this week with Rokie and Betty! Oh man if all goes well they are definately going to get baptised, im super excited to see how it goes, they are praying, reading and have promised to go to church as a family, and they are always trying to get the whole family to listen to us at the same time, every time im there with them i feel like this is the family god had prepared for me! Super sweet, Navarro is their last name for future reference. Then the Casais family, the mom was the first lady i interviewed the day i got here 4 months ago, and since we inherited that area it is now our responsibility to help the rest of the family of 7 to get baptised, they are super cool, the dad knows its true, but he has a doubt that i cant understand yet, hes scared to make the change or something, i know he doubts jose smith and he doesnt like the fast and testimony meetings, but i dont like those here either, everyone says the exact same thing, but there is something thats holding him back, but they all listen and hes breaking down bit by bit, i sure hope to be able to make the change! Betty is going to get baptised this weekend, she had a smoking problem, i asked her to show me her brand of cigs to see what they are like, she showed me and i sacked them out of her hands and put them in my pocket, since then she hasnt smoked. and is super excited for her baptism! Super cool stuff! Romina is being a baby, she loves reading the book of mormon but doesnt want to commit, shes so cool yet frustrates me! Yet we will try to help her.
So i woke up 4 30 in the morning saturday morning to what i thought was a nuclear explosion, first i saw a huge flash of light, then the BOOM! almost shattered the windows, everything was rocking, sounded like someone shot a gun next to my ears, and we heard the roar for the next 30 seconds, the biggest lightning bolt, or thunder that ive ever seen or heard, SUPER COOL! I sure love the lightning storms here, dont even feel lke sleeping.So im sending a couple pics, the big church thing is a momument to where the catholics believed the virgin appeared to talk with them, super crazy, so i showed them who holds the real keys! Another is my pday activity that i did with Elder Brown, there is an american war veteren that lives here in corrientes, we went to his house and hung out with him for a while, super cool! Another of my zone here in Corrientes, the coolest bunch out of them all!
LOVES YA!

Monday, September 12 2011

Hey family!! Hows it all going? Im doing quite well, this is definitly going to be my favorite time in my mish, these past two weeks have rocked, and even though im so excited for home, im enjoying my time here, loving it! I have a major activity every week until my death here so i have something to keep me busy, and they expanded my area, the other Elders in this branch left, so i have to open one more area along with the other area i already had, so President is giving me alot more responsibility! So ive been super exhausted, and they added one more companionship to my district so i have had no time to sit down and relax, which is awesome. I love preaching, teaching, and suffering, because it wont last much longer haha.
We have worked our butts off this week trying to get everything into place, we need to find a new apartment, reorganize all of our work, and try to find all of the investigators of the other elders, and focus on ours, find new people, the list is infinite! But im loving it, the only thing that is a pain is that its getting a little hotter everyday, but im getting a little taste of summer before i go back and freeze to death, i wonder how that will be...
So we have a super cool family that we found, they had never listened to the missionaries but they have recieved a book of mormon from old neighbors, during the whole lesson i truly felt that god told me that i have the possibitly that this family can get baptised, that they are prepared, so that was super cool, now it all depends on me. Ive only visited them twice but man ill do anything to get them baptised, the oldest daughter, 28, is the ring leader, she gets her whole family there to listen, so i sure hope that all goes well, Rockie and Betty are the parents names so please pray for them!! Romina is having a tuff time, her kids are crazier than ever! She just wont come to church, but we will get her there!! Betty is an investigator from the other elders, shes getting baptised next week, so i get to baptise at least once in September haha, shes super cool, she gets Nephi mixed up with Joseph Smith, its quite funny. And we have a few other part member families that i inherited, that i have taught a few times since ive been here, and im excited to help complete the families, since that was my goal here in Corrientes, im glad Heavenly Father has given me the oprotunity to inherit this other area, now i can do it again!!
The Nordahls are coming back! Super cool! That is like the week i finish the mission, what a crazy week that will be eh! Ya i was pretty trunky yesterday with 9/11, time flies by.
Well not much new, next week will have plenty of info im sure! so LOVES YA ALL!!

Monday, September 5 2011

Hey Familia!! Como Estan todos? Man this week was an alright week, ive learned a whole lot this week. So first off i was only in my area for two days, the rest of the time i did splits with other Elders. So in my area there is no progress, noone came to church and we dropped eveyone but Romina, and we found a couple that has a chance to get baptised but we will see, they arent that literate and cant understand that much but im sure if we are simple that it will work out.So first off, the Hermanas in my district have had a super hard time, like us, bringing people to church, so the asistants had us do splits with them, My comp and i went with one sister one day, and the zone leaders with the other, then the next day we switched. These were the splits that i learned the most, and i will never forget, so amazing. So both days we drew the short straw, we didnt have any set meetings with any investigators so we ended up looking for people from 11 in the morning to 9 at night.At first i was like crap this is going to stink, but then man i fell in love with the work, we talked with every single person that came into our sights, and we werent light about any of it, we were super bold letting everyone know. It was super fun, and with a sister missonary we were super focused and our lessons that we had were some of the best ive ever taught, in fact every single person we talked to couldnt deny the fact that it was true, but had to decide if they were going to follow the truth or not. And since the sisters work in downtown Corrientes we got to work in the city, super fun. At night when we got to the apartment i was too excited to sleep, i wanted to get back out and work, and there was a feeling that i had never felt up until this moment, and i can say i felt very much like Ammon, now i understand why they would serve a 14 year mission a little better. For the first time in my mission i wouldnt have been too upset if they asked me to serve again. I liked it alot.I learned so much from the Sisters, so cool. When i got back to my area, i was quite sad, i loved those two days, but now i get to go put the same things in practice here in my area. So thats the plan and we will see how it turns out. Im super grateful, we went with the intentions of teaching the sisters and they taught us. A super success.
About other things, so Saturday we ate lunch with my converts, then right after we went down to the river to take a few pictures in a boat thats beached, super cool, so we took pictures and hung out there for 10 mins, then we felt the need to leave, everyone felt it. So we started leaving, but we couldnt go back the way we came because its a cliff, so we had to go around, so we helped everyone get off the boat, the kids got off first then we helped the mom and others, well the two kids ran towards another beached boat, which has a pathway behind it to get back up, and they saw a bunch of druggies coming down the path, so they booked it into the forest to hide, then the two girls warned us and we with the moma and two babies hid beneath the second boat,well my comp didnt understand what was happening so he didnt move that fast, and i was too nervous to tell him, anyways the druggies saw him, and they broke a bunch of branches and blocked the pathway so we couldnt escape, we hid beneath the boat for like 4 mins before they made eye contact with my comp through one of the portholes, but luckily they also found one of the girls at the same time, they knew that she knew who they were and if they did anything to us that she would report them, so they let us go, they didnt know that the family was with us.man it was quite nerve racking hehe, but we were super blessed, so you dont need to worry. And we got some cool pics out of it. I felt like i was in some kind of movie.
Anyways, so maybe in a few weeks ill have another baptism, Romina is progressing quite well, by our conviction she knows its true and she will pray and know for herself. And we will find some more people so im excited. But i cant believe i only have 6 weeks left, it flies by so quick, so im pretty sure that im not going to let this time go to waste.
Thats quite funny bout steph, but im glad that shes ok. The twins are always crazy, and im excited to get back to participate in the crazyness. Anyways, thanks for the candy and for the spice packets im super excited to use them!
Anyways, love ya all so much!!

Monday, August 29 2011

Hey Family! Hows it going? Im normal, nothing new. This week started out warm and got super hot, holy crap i felt like i was in Formosa again yet without the nice people. This week has been as tuff as the usual, not a single progressing investigator, Romina, the young mom we found this week, got separated this thursday, a crazy experiance, and so its been hard to talk to her, seeing as how her exhusband had already gone to jail for beating her up, she had to be quite careful on the whole breaking up thing. So anyways i hope she will start to be able to progress, her kids are crazy, 5 and 3, the 3 year old brought out a liter of milk and poured it all over me, quite a delicious smell the rest of the night lingered about me. The family of five hasnt been home, so that kind of stunk. The mom and daughter who came to church last week, the mom got bit by her pitbull, a huge gash in her leg, so she couldnt go to church, and many other difficulties with them, we are loosing them to the world haha. And thats it, weve found a few others this week but we will see, not to much hope. We had no investigators in church, but i did have 2 less actives come to church, but i did nothing but put myself in contact with them and invited them to come back to church, and they came back. Quite amazing. Maybe they will help us in the future.
So this week to lift our animo, or enthusiaism, a member took us to walmart and we ate at McDonalds for a lunch apointment, sounds quite normal eh, but no this was the first time in my whole mission that someone has taken us out to any kind of restaurant, so it was super cool. That happened to be the best work day, other than that. This week was super tuff, as usual. I just want to teach, yet noone is letting us in, thank goodness that this is my last area and that i didnt start here or man, i dont know what i would have done, i would have been destroyed. Super frustrated, and the branch is falling apart now also, every week more people go inactive, and no one new is coming... So i hope things start to change, i wanted to make a difference in this area, but its not turning out that well haha. But ill just have to continue and try to do my best, 7 weeks left to do what i can. Anyways, thanks for the info from home, my zoneleader called me last night, said i got the package, he took half of the seasonings haha, but THANKS!! I love you guys so much, im so excited to come home, my dreams kill me each night, yet i try my best to not be trunky but to tell the truth im ready to go home, yet ill do what i can to finish with my calling. Love ya all!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Hey family! Hows it going! Im ok this week, super frustrated, but content because i found a family of 5 that at the moment i feel like they will progress and become members, so i hope that is how it goes, we also found another cool young mother, so hopefully everything goes well i would love for these guys to progress and become members. We have sure worked hard this week, yet not much progress in getting people to church, we did, for the first time here in corrientes, bring two new people to church, that made me feel good, but they came for us not to come closer to christ. We have had to stop teaching many people and start over. But this is the missionary life.
Since ive been with my newbie we have had to watch a bunch of preach my gospel movies and ive come to realize how much of the missionary life i havent put into practice, i feel a very very heavy burden over my shoulders and it just gets bigger, i have so much to do i cant focus, i feel like i cant help my investigators because i dont have many, in trying to help my comp i dont have much time to think about how i can help my district, and then i have to think of things that i have to do, very frustrating, yet i know that i just need to get lost in service with all of them, but its hard. Anyways, not much new is going on, i cant think of anything else to say. These are just one of these weeks when i need to just push forward, ive lost my patience but hopefully ill find it again, im not willing to stand down just yet.
Anyways, i love ya all, thanks for always caring about me, see ya next week!