Argentina (Week 15) September 29, 2014

Hello everyone!!! This week was another good week!!! it was a little
difficult as far as working because Tuesday we had a district meeting
and had to stay and help out the elders in el dorado and then my comp
had an interview to give to one of the investigators of the Hermanas
because they were having a baptism this past Saturday! On Wednesday we
got a call from the zone leaders saying that my comp needed to go to
Posadas to do his paperwork so that he is still legal to be in Argentina.

While he went to Posadas, I went to el dorado with elder Collins!

He is super cool and his area has some beautiful places, I wish I would 

have had my camera!!It was awesome going to a different place and

meeting new people and helping them! I was there until Thursday night and
got home around 10 in Esperanza! Friday we got to work a little bit in
the area but had to go back to el dorado for a singing thing/dance and
there were a bunch of elders there and we sang!! After, during the
dance we ate a ton of food and just hung out! I got to see elder Ramos
which is always awesome!!! He is in the el dorado zone so I will see
him this Sunday hopefully too for general conference!! On Saturday we
worked and taught the family Duarte and they are super awesome!!! We
put a date for their kids to be baptized and then after their marriage
they would get baptized! That night the assistants came and spent the
night at our place and they went to church with us in the morning and
helped us look for our investigators and we got the family Duarte and
one of Mirtas sons who wants to be baptized soon! This is the crazy
part! I sang in church by myself in Spanish!! It was super cool!!!
Everyone thinks I’m like the David Archuleta of Argentina lol! I sang,

 Nearer My God to Thee! It was awesome and I felt good after!!! 

Then last night we taught the Duartes and ended up changing the dates

 of the baptism so that all of them could be baptized
together on the same day! I hope I stay one more transfer so I can be
there for the baptism and confirmation!! There isn’t really much else
or too big that happened this week just a lot of traveling!! But I am
glad everyone had an awesome week and I hope that everyone has another
one!!! I love you all and please be safe!!! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!!!

The cute little boy in the pictures will be 2 soon, he is the group leader in our wards son, I  was a little hesitant to pick up the frog lol! hahaha it was gross!!!!

We found another member like 3 weeks ago!! He is so awesome!!!
His name is Carlos Irala!

September 22, 2014 (Week 14 in Argentina!)

Hola!!! I am glad to hear that everyone is doing well back home
always!!! I love hearing from every one of you! This week was a good
week!! First we had the district/zone meeting where we met the new
elders and sisters in the zone! We have 1 new elder who is from Texas!
He is the newest one in the zone! He is cool! We had a good meeting
and after I went on divisions with elder Nielsen and it was probably
the best time I have had!! We absolutely killed it!!! One of the best
days!! He is one of my best buds and it was a pleasure to work with
him!! My comp and I have been working with la familia Duarte and they
have been to church now the past 3 Sundays and really like the
teachings and want to be baptized! The only problem is they need to be
married, but this past time talking to them they talked about
preparing to get married and then getting married in the temple!!!
That is soo awesome!! We had 14 people show up at church on Sunday,
but we should have had more! The members decided to buy a ton of meat
and cook it and sell it to other people, so we only had the leader of
the group and his sons there, talk about keeping the Sabbath day!! But
it still was a good day! This week I have been working extremely hard
in gaining my knowledge in the book of mormon and the bible! I have
been reading like crazy!!! i have come to learn that I love learning
new things and learning things that I can use to help others! We had
14 show up at church on Sunday and we had 2 less actives come too
which is really good!! My comp and I have been working really hard in
making everyone more as one and trying to get everyone to hear about the
church! That is one thing I have learned from my companion is that you
need to talk to EVERYBODY!!! He talks to everyone! haha! But things
are getting better and better and I am excited to see what this week
has in store!!! I love everyone and can’t wait to hear from you next
week!!!! i love you!!!!!!!!

Oh I forgot to mention that this week was the independence
week for Chile so we ate a ton of meat to celebrate haha I got sick
for like 2 days lol! I feel better now though!!!

Argentina (Week 13) September 15, 2014

Hello everybody!!! I am glad to hear everything is going well back
home!!! This week was good!! I have a new companion now and his name
is Elder Arevalo! He is Chileno!! From Santiago Chile and speaks pretty good English!! We have been eating a lot of cumpletos!! This week was good! It was sad to see my other companion go though!! My other companion went to a new area and is training again! This week we have been working on cleaning up the map in our room with all of the old investigators on it and seeing if they are still there and will progress! We were extremely happy that we had 22 people at church this
Sunday and would like that every Sunday!! We found a family whose name
is familia Duarte and they are really nice and have been to the church
now two times and had the opportunity to watch a baptism in El Dorado
on Saturday!! The only problem with them is that they need to be
married first! Here there are a lot of people who like living together
but do not want to get married. I don’t understand haha. We have been
working with them and also on the future priesthood holders here in
the area! It is a little hard because we only have one priesthood holder
and one of his brothers is preparing to receive it and his other two
brothers are a little lazy and have gone inactive again. We have been
trying to excite them into coming to church every Sunday but it is a
little hard! We also found a member who lives in an old folk’s home and
he has a hard time walking but we will try getting him to church this
next Sunday! My comp and I get along well and are excited to be
working in this area! It is crazy I have been in this area for like 3
and a half months! For p day today just cleaned the house and had lunch at a members house and then came here got some ice cream, the ice cream is actually really good here, and talked to the person working in the ice cream place and on Wednesday we are going to teach her! It is starting to get a little more humid! It actually rained a ton yesterday!!!! But it was still hot!! It was weird, but today is a nice cool day! I love the hot weather!! I have a little bit of a farmers tan now haha! Hope this week goes like it did last week! I love everybody and I hope everyone has an awesome week and be safe! You guys are the best parents I could have ever asked for!!Love you!!!

Argentina (Week 12) September 8, 2014

Hola Hola!!! it is always great to hear everyone is doing well back
home!!! This week was great! My last week of my training!! It was a
little tiring because we had to be in Posadas until Tuesday night because
I had to do some paperwork but got to spend my p-day with other elders
and it turned out to be fun!! Nothing too crazy happened this week,
but we found out the leader of the group here in Puerto Esperanza does
not have his paperwork from when he received the Preisthood and he performed
one of the confirmations for one of our converts and did some baptisms
in Paraguay, so we might have to do some things over again and maybe
some baptisms here and confirmations too. The papers for the other
members weren’t found in Posadas and so that might have to be all done
again so this next week will be interesting here! My companion and I
are doing well and had 3 investigators at church and they are all
really cool!! The only problem here is that some members are too lazy
to get up in the mornings and are going inactive and we don’t need that
at this point! We are working on finding more and more people that
will progress and that the church here will grow! We have one
investigator who has a heap load of questions and it is a little hard
to teach him because he really has 50 questions each time, but we have
been working really hard! I have been starting to try and learn
Portuguese and Guaraní and have been listening to the book of Mormon
in Portuguese! It is really similar it is just hard to pronounce the
words lol! I love everyone sooo much and I can’t wait to hear about
your week!! Jacob 7:5 I like it!! Keep doing the little things
everyday and nobody can take you out of your groove! Satan is always
looking for a way to enter our doors but when we use our faith and do
the things we need to he doesn’t stand a chance!

PS. I am really good mom and I am staying in my area for another transfer and my companion is going to a different area called Itouangzu! I am getting my new comp on
Wednesday and his name is elder Arevalo! He was in our zone my first
transfer so I know him a little bit! He has been out for like 14 months and
doesn’t speak any English, not a bit but I am ready hahaha it will help my Spanish even more! I can say a lot now, I wouldn’t say absolutely everything but I am getting there! I am really trying to learn
Portuguese and Guaraní right now too! I had to pray the other day in
English and it was super hard! I forgot words and mixed them with
Spanish!! haha my comp says sometimes I talk in my sleep in Spanish!!!! I love you guys sooooo much!!