Monday, February 28 2010

Hey family, wow time sure flies by! Well the coolest thing that happened this week is that it rained every night, and it rained continually from tuesday night until thursday morning, so it was super fun to walk around in knee high water, luckily we have boots in the apartment because my shoe covers dont help when the water is above the ankles haha, there were so many houses that were flooded and it was interesting to work this week, because all of the ditches are filled with crap we had to be super careful to watch where we were walking, the water in the streets was all contaminated with dead dogs and animals, the smell was great this week, leeches were everywhere. It was an awesome adventure walking around in water, there was so mud, because there was not a single dry spot i felt like i was working in waterworld! Anyways other than the rain the weather has been perfect this week! The air has been fresh and its been great, i didnt sweat much at all!

But as ive come to realize the weather has been the least of my problems, this week has been super hard in the work, a few of my recent converts truly hate me and have stopped coming to church, because i helped the mom get ready to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and anyways, the bishop screwed everything up so when she got here she didnt have a recommend and anyways she had to wait outside for a few hours, well aparently its my fault and shes stopped coming to church, she has really torn me down and its been a hard week with her and her family, on top of that the people have been really tearing me down, usually it would have never affected me but really the only person that i have felt is on my side is my comp, so emmotionally a super hard week, the work is almost at a stall, i dont know what has happened but i cant find anyone, i havent even been able to sit down with the people this week, we have no progressing investigators, and we have to start from 0. We had a baptism this week, but it didnt go down that well, in reality she got baptised but that night disappeared, and she didnt get confirmed. So ive felt like crap this week, and i was just looking forward to p day to start all over again. Im really hoping that this week will be better, im really going to do my part to do so, its been one of these weeks that i just want to sleep and forget haha. But hopefully all will turn around.

The only good thing this week is that i saw that god used me as an instrument in his hands to help a couple to get baptised next week, she lives in another area and she wanted to get baptised but didnt know how to tell her mom, who is a pastor in her church, that she was going to be mormon, well her mom lives in our area, and i felt the need to pass by her, i didnt know who she was at the moment but it was a decent lesson, it didnt seem like she was going to progress, but we left after. And she went to her daughters house and told her daughter that she was learning from the mormons and it was exactly what the daughter needed to hear to tell her, so thanks that we passed by the couple can get baptised, so god does work in mysterious ways, what seemed like a failure to us from our point of vision what a huge sucess to the other missionaries, so thats what i learned this week.

Well im glad that all is good at home, interesting that luna had to go, sorry dad. Mom thanks for the help, thats going to be super hard to do but im going to try, i feel overwhelmed. well i love ya all, see ya next week.

Monday, February 21 2011

HEY FAMILY!! So luckily it was a temple weekend, when our ward once every three months goes to Paraguay to visit the temple. So while they were there i had a sister buy me my scriptures, they were 3 dollars for both! Hardback also, i love the church, super cheap haha! This week has been an awesome week, well, ive never felt so hot in my mission as i did this week but other than that we have had alot of success! As you can see in our pictures we had our 4 baptisms, 3 little girls that have almost finished the book of mormon and already have set goals to go on missions! Oh man they are so awesome, they come to church alone and they are part of the ward! So cool!!Then the 24 year old girl, Elisa! SO COOl, right after her baptism she was teaching some investigators about the church and how cool baptism is and stuff, shes already a better missionary than i am!! HAHA We had a bunch of problems with finding baptismal clothes and a whole lot of problems but we overcame them and it turned out awesome! We have a super lazy bishop and thats the hardest part, our ward is falling apart here, we used to have like 10 elders and now our ward is down to two, i dont know whats happening, its sad for me but we are trying our hardest. We have a baptism planned for this week and three more for the week after that! Its so cool that god blesses us even when we arent the best.
Anyways, ive been really down on myself lately because its really hard for me to be obedient, it never was hard in Posadas and in Reconquista maybe once or twice, but here its been quite the challenge.I really think God is trying to see if im willing to dedicate my all, and thats been the hardest part. I have desires to be obedient and to be diligent but the heat and fatigue have been hard to overcome. I have prayed alot this week on what Heavenly Father wants me to improve on, and for one of the first times in my mission an answer came super clear to my head, that i need to improve my obediance, diligence and my prayers. So i put the goal to improve on these, well the coolest thing happened this weekend, we had zone conference and it was focused on OBEDIANCE! DILIGENCE! AND HOW TO IMPROVE OUR PRAYERS, wow i felt that god really wants me to learn these things, so i am super grateful that i learned what i needed to learn and now i just need to put it into practice, the hardest part haha.Sounds like life is so awesome at home, i just realized i have 5 tranfers left in the mission, im freaking out that im almost sure i have just three more weeks here in formosa, so i am frantically looking for a family just like that family that i found in posadas, that from the moment we found them to their baptism was three weeks, so i got alot of work to do this week, so please be praying for me, to be more obedient, diligent and that we find this family, and ill let you know how it goes next week!
I SO MISS THE FOOD IN THE STATES so im pretty sure when its all said and done im gonna be fat from al the rootbeer ill be drinking haha, jason buck is almost home!? man time flies, and whats up with CHRIS NESTMAN? didnt he come home also? It seems like a few months ago i talked with Laura Ramsey, man thats crazy. Well thanks for the pics and ill see you guys next week!! LOVE YA

Monday, February 14 2011

Hey Family!! Like Andy, the weather here is super wierd, it was quite cold this past week, like 75 degrees, i actually had goosebumps haha, i never thought i would freeze to death at 75 degrees haha, but i felt like it. Well this week has been super hard, first with the cold weather, it was brought by a huge storm, which started monday night and continued during the night, the rain was so loud it was hard to sleep, but its so relaxing to listen, well while i was listening my comp woke up to use the bathroom and to our horror, when he went to take a step our horror, our apartment was flooded, destroyed alot of stuff, my scriptures are past recovery, i went to pick them up and it was so wet that it just ripped in half... so i have no weapons now to fight satan... haha so fun, anyways i didnt sleep at all that night, then i have felt super homesick this week, for that reason i dont like good weather, because it makes me want to be home, but when i suffer i dont think about it.So its been hard to overcome homesickness this week, but i kept working, but the work is falling, no matter how hard we try to work it seems we cant decide the outcome of our work, Aldo and Yanina are a lost cause, he ran from us this week more than once, and he doesnt want to get rid of his doubts. We wasted all saturday trying to help them. I have learned alot this week, and now i know how to help people more easily and hopefully for the better, i had a baptism this week and i have 4 more this weekend, then 3 more next week. But only if they can feel the conversion, and thats been hard this past week. But we are working on it, its been a tuff week because we put so much on Aldo and Yanina when in the end they are just falling farther and farther away. But we are going to give them one last chance. But we are not going to focus so much on them, we are going to let them decide. One of our investigators tried to kill her husband because he was cheating on her and we got there just in time. She had thrown gasoline on him and tried to light him on fire but it seemed like the gas was too old, so she pulled out a knife and was going to go after him right when we got there, it was crazy!The house was destroyed because they had fought for quite some time it seemed, crazy... My comp is so awesome, hes one of my greatest friends here, we mess around a whole bunch, the mission gets fun and when we are super down we can always find a way to laugh, he and i talk to each other like gollum and do a bunch of stuff like that. Im glad that hes my comp, we just had transfers and im staying here with him. Today we played soccer and wow, it seems that i am capable of doing a little more than running up and down the field, im actually super proud that i can play a sport, ive never felt capable of playing anything but now i feel super great, i think ill play in intermurals when i get home. Anyways, grats collin for kicking butt in state! Next year your going to have to get even better!! I miss working out in general, one hour of soccer kills me and cutting grass with a matchete is a killer, i need to get back into shape haha. Oh ya ive seen spam a lot, in Desert Theater in murray. Thats a great play, dont get down on yourself steph, its the attitude thats going to take the prize!! Well im off for another week of work, hopefully this ones a little bit more effective, productive and overall satisfying. I love you all! OVER AND OUT!

Monday, February 7 2011

Whoa!! Congrats Collin!! I cant imagine how great you are going to be year after year! 3rd as a freshmen is super awesome!! Crazy, i recognize a few of the kids in the pics haha, it seems like so much time has passed, so much time! Thanks alot for the recipes, ill put them to good use in the next 9 months. Haha cool dance thing with abbey and great testimony steph, look she didnt need to serve a mission to learn these things, thats why girls dont need to serve missions haha. They can learn without it. OH man Thomas Peterson came over!! Dude i always had the intention of writing him on the mission but i never had his address, give him my email so that i can write him a few times, we had such an awesome time together before he left, i MISS THE STUD!! (Tell him to date my sister so that we can be brothers in law one day haha!)( DO IT STEPH!) Well this week has been a super hard one, the baptism of aldo and yanina fell through... He knows its true, he receieved his answer a month ago, but now he has all of these challenges and problems that usually come when someone is getting to know the gospel and he feels that god is being unfair, now he wants to feel the same way as before just to feel it again, even though he knows hes recieved his answer, hes starting to get back into drinking, going to the same bad places as before and is only praying. Stressful, the family jaquimin, let me tell you that the 3 little girls thought that they had to read the whole book of mormon, in one day they almost got through all of the intro and 1 nefi!!! And they remember the whole story, they came to church alone and all, Rene the old guy, rents a room in their house, we came to find out that him and the mom live drunk, because we passed by one time when they didnt have any money to buy drinks, and they were sober, totally different people, pretty crazy. Maria is ignoring us, or hiding. Our only hope is Elisa and Gonzalo, they have come to church and will be baptised the 19th, i could have had alot of baptisms this month but it seem that we filtered out those that arent willing to follow the commandments, but we wont give up quite yet, ALdo and Yanina commited to being baptised this weekend... We will do our all to help them! But it seems hes falling. We didnt find anyone great this week, it was a hard week to work, im used to the heat, everyone complains but if this is the hottest month im going to great, its nothing like last year... But they say we are far from over haha, but i just think i dont have that much time so its not that bad. My last super summer, i hear its cold in the states, how awesome! I dont care what anyone says i would love some freezing weather, my friend and i sat inside one of those huge freezers today for a while to escape the heat, pretty fun, we played alot of basketball today, i suck even worse than before, ugh, haha. Anyways, this weeks been tuff but as usual nothing new, still homesick as usual but ive really found desires to overcome this stuff, i havent been able to but i really have so much to learn still, im nothing what i want to be, and so ive decided that i have alot to do in the time that i have. Anyways family, i love you all alot, im happy that great things are happening at home! Ill write more next week, hopefully good news, oh man im stressed, exhausted and exhausted. Did i mention stressed, nothing seems to be well but usually something good happens after moments of problems so im hopeing to learn from this. Love ya!

Monday, January 31 2010

Hey family, whats up? Life is hot here as usual haha, super hot but im used to it, so its not bad at all, in fact, i sweat less than the people that live here haha, so i feel like im even more used to the weather than the people here haha, its a huge blessing. But as always this life is full of difficulty and distress, its still hard to enjoy my life and im rarely content but i know that its supposed to be hard, and im just trying to keep pushing forward, yet again this week has been a test of diligence, the power has gone out three times this week so i havent slept that much at all this week, i opened the only window i have in the apartment and tried to sleep in the chair but the mosquitos are numberless, and the stupid buzzing in my ear kept me up so much, our air conditioning broke and we spent one morning in the doctors office for some kind of growth on my comps hand, so i have felt super useless this week, and its been a challenge to get lost in the work this week, but we have had alot of progress this week, so aldo and yanina are going to get baptised this saturday, i didnt think they would because friday aldo freaked out and they had a huge fight and she disappeared and we couldnt find her, and we were sure they werent going to come to church, but they came and they are planning on getting baptised. So thats great, we worked alot with them this week, there is so many things working against them. Also we found a family last week who told us a story last friday, 3 days before we found them the mom, maria, had a dream were she saw me and my comp come to her house and give her a book of mormon and baptise her, haha we wondered why it was so easy to get her family to come to church, god pretty much did it all for us. Also another family of 5, the Jaquimin family, they called us off the street to come talk to them and they have 3 little girls, 13 12 and 11, they came to church with an old man who lives with them, who his dad is member, well the family and the old guy who lives with them are going to get baptised in two weeks, my landlords are going to get married when he gets his hearing aids so please pray for them, then the wife is going to get baptised. We have a 8 yearold kid named carlos who wants to get baptised next week, his ¨dad¨or the guy who takes care of him got excommunicated and is starting the process of coming back so we are having a whole bunch of sucess. Then we have a 23 year old girl named elisa who wants to get baptised but there are alot of things she hears that is destroying her faith, alot of ex members are trying to stop her from getting baptised and its literally impossible to fight against so many when she has her head clogged with so much stuff. But we will trust that the holy ghost can clear it all up. Well i have felt like i havent pleased god this week but he sure has blessed me with so much mercy that i get the chance to serve and teach so many awesome people who are really looking for the truth. This has been a super hard week with super cool results, but i know i can do better, because i feel so unsatisfied. Im depressed because i feel like i cant give it my all and after all of the problems ive seen from my investigators i have absolutly no desire to get married. haha oh so many problems and stress. I want nothing to do with it. Well im glad to see eveything is well at home, i got alot of letters this past week, and id like to thank them, thanks nebekers for the ice cream money! Ill put it to good use, they actually didnt except the money to change because they have never seen what the new 10 looks like, oh man argentina... thanks platts for the card and grandma for the card also!! Well love ya all!! oh and mom maybe you can try and send me a few recipies, like how to make tortillas, refried beans, and chips! i think it would be cool to make some mexican food! Well love ya!

Monday, January 24 2011

hey family!! Hows life? Man jordan westra came home? That went by fast. My health is good i think, i am always super tired because the heat is just eating me up, and my calling is also a little more burdensome haha, but not that much. Ive been wanting to excercise alot but i can do a few pushups and situps before im exhausted, i have really wanted to run but its too hot outside to run. Yeah its superhot here, but its not unbearable, there was only one day that i felt like dying, wednesday was a killer, i dont even know how hot it was but the power cut out and it was such an aweful night trying to sleep, above 100 degrees all night and its like sleeping in a pool of sweat haha, but after that the week has been hot but enjoyable, im used to the hot feeling and sweating so its nothing new, and the spirit has been there to help me alot so im loving it here, we are having a bunch of success, we have found alot of people this week that are wanting to get baptised, so on top of aldo and yanina and my landlords who are progressing super fast we found 6 more people to get baptised in the coming month, i know that if im even more obedient that ill be able to baptise all of these people. The lord has blessed me with an awesome way to teach and with awesome investigators to receive the teaching. Life here is hard as always but im loving it, im learning how to become more like a servant of god and im starting to see in a little way the completion of my patriarchal blessing. As i continue to press forward i know that ill become who i want to become, but its super hard believing in myself haha, i seem to fall so easy, it takes so long to reach a goal and then in five minutes it gets destroyed haha. But ive learned to continue on. Ya i do regret somethings from swimming, i was afraid to push myself beyond my comfort zone, i now know that going beyond the comfort zone is the only way to grow. So thats why i love my mission, not because its something fun or something i would prefer to do, but i love the person heavenly father is making me become, living out of my comfort zone is how i know that i can grow. i am coming to see the gospel as my life and less like a hobby like it always was in my life. Now i want to keep the commandments not because id disappoint my family, but because i know the blessings i could recieve and because i want to make my heavenly father happy. Have fun this week, thats cool your in california, enjoy the good weather haha. Love ya all!!
(and i have 14 baptisms i think, not alot but there they are)

Monday, January 17 2011

Hey family! Hows everything going? Oh man you dont know how much i want to switch cold for heat! This week has been ridiculous, i really havent felt such heat before, but miraculously it doesnt really effect me that much, a little, but not near as much as before. The sun here is super strong and with humidity it just becomes a magnifying glass, the mornings are unbearable haha, the people complain, but i always have a smile on my face, unless im hungry haha. This week has been good, Aldo and Yanina want to get baptised and hes doing everything he can to stop drinking, we go by and drink fanta with him so he wont drink beer. Diego has disappeared, but a few more people have appeared in his place, we are going to baptise our landlords the 12th of Feburary, which is super awesome, ive never heard of something like that happening, so we will be working hard with them, its funny just having to open our door and sit down and teach, and if we forgot something to run like two seconds to get it, its awesome haha. We got about 8 baptisms planned for the next 3-4 weeks, president is really trying to get us to baptise every week so we had a special capacitaion that helped us to achieve it, we took all thursday learning the precepts and when we put it into practice it really showed its fruits, so we will be studying and focusing to putting it all into practice, did i mention its hot? haha we had kind of a downer in church, we had planned for alot more to come and only 3 showed, so i hope to work a bit harder this week, i remember i used to be able to bring 12 or so, so im trying to find families to bring, my comp and i work hard and we try and always teach to the needs of our friends, and we are finding alot that want to learn more, but to go to church is always the most difficult part, mostly because the people here are super lazy. Thanks for the quotes and for the information, im truly trying to become better yet its super hard and feels like such a super hard uphill climb. Well collin, just dig in and dont let anything get by you, if its one thing i regret is not putting my all into the little time i had into swimming, so its your turn to become better than me. Abbey, being popular is not the cool thing to do, just make sure you have alot of cool friends who wont stab you in the back, steph, keep busy being busy, it helps alot to forget about problems, hannah, you keep watching sponge bob for me. I love you all! I hope all goes well this week.