Wednesday, October 27, 2010

hey there little dogui...‏

well i don't have anything super exciting to say this week. but we are going to have a baptism here this next Saturday. more like cherry picking. they are the kids of an incomplete family. so they have already been going to church since forever. so kinda fakies but whatever.

 we have been teaching the husband as well. they just have to get married so the dad can get baptized. this last Sunday was mothers day here. its like the only country that has it a different day. but it was still nice. this inactive family came back for church. their son recently reactivated but he lives with his girlfriend. they aren't in our ward but they convinced their family to come if they went to ours. so we had most they're family there. they have twelve kids and they are all boys. they made up about a fifth of the congregation. lol.
then on Saturday we we out looking for people and we found a family. they are evangelical but they seemed fairly receptive. hopefully we´ll see some progress there. it was funny, we had to talk our way in and when we sat down the wife had some questions for us. originally we told the m we would only take a few minutes but as soon as she started asking we talked for about 45 minutes. then we lunched with a family, they really like to talk. these people here just don't shut up unless you leave. so we were there for about  2 hourssssssssqsssss. finally we left. but yeah. tons of fun. I'm sorry i don't really have a whole lot to say but that's just how it  is.   os dad to give you the insight on what goes on here. so most the people here are living alright. I've been in some nasty houses but there isn't a general poverty. they have an upper, middle and lower class.

 most the people live in the lower middle class. those people don't have cars. but they almost always have a moped. everyone here has one. as for the streets, only the main ones are paved. more in the main city everything is  paved. but alot of my area isn't paved. if you guys want to look where i live here's my address.    3 de febrero 3028, bahia blanca, we live in a town house dealio here . its actually really nice for a missionary apartment.

 im sad that im going to be leaving it. maybe ill get lucky again. i still don't know where I'm going yet. I'm kinda scared that ill be staying here in bahia again. pres wants to put full time missionaries into one of the office areas. that would be kinda gay. i just want to get out of bahia and go somewhere more tranquil. that would be nice. as for food goes: for me at first it was all kinda bland. but as soon as i got used to not so much flavor i really love it. the food pyramid consist of: pastas, milanesas, asado ( not so frequent), shepherds pie, raviolis, ñoquis, empanadas, oven cooked chicken , really simple salads-lettuce with diced up tomatoes and vinegar oil and salt.  i actually really enjoy that now.  potato salad. some sort of rice salad with peas. and that's really the extent of it . just all the basic food you can think of.

pres just took away the siesta from us but its practiced around 2-5, these people are so lazy its awesomely annoying. but these people remind me of people from the east states back home. they act like them, its silly. another thing i told you about is mate. its that drink they're always drinking. every hour of every day mate in hand. i kinda like it. the other day i bought a mate kit. well i was thinking about sending you guys a Christmas package. ill try and burn all my pics on some Cd's and some alfajors as well. so for Christmas i was thinking you should send me some slacks and socks and some candy and toys. look for some pants about 34-34, i was thinking those heavy duty thicker material ones would be nice. and whatever you send make sures its sent light and in a small package.   thanks famerilious!!!! que estén bien!!!!   chau!!

Friday, October 22, 2010

vengo de un pais lejano, donde gritan hombres y mujeres se quejan.................‏

well this has been quite the week. lets tell you about it. so to start off. dad you were right. they changed our p day to Monday now. I'm not sure if i like it still. but its a p day and I'm going to enjoy it. its just one of the big and endless changes that they are putting into place. to top it off the office elders have to work. well its not all the color of poop. I'm going to be leaving the office in two weeks. this last week was transfer week. and now there is a new secretary. his name is elder morrell. he is a good kid. he is a natural at the whole office job and does it better than i do. i guess some people just have the gift. but its such a relief to leave. it also makes me sad. i have really enjoyed the office stress and all. its been such a fun and cool experience. its kind of like high school. you still have the work but your with several others. i would say that the office elders are some of my favorite mission friends. its going to be weird without them. but its all good. I'm just glad to have things more tranquil. its very hectic in the office sometimes.

 so this last week was very good and interesting. so Sunday was easily the best one that i have had in the mission. because of conference we had fast Sunday and it was the most inspired one i have listened to. being a missionary i see a lot of the problems that affect the ward and the members. and the testimonies were all focused directly and indirectly about the problems that the members have. i felt that almost all the members there needed to hear some of it. especially our investigator Julian. he is married to a member and he is the "stake conference man", the hard headed one that thinks he is so right. well we had a good lesson with him and his wife the other night. we talked really directly about the things he had doubts on. which would be tithing and Joesph smith and temples. for some reason its so hard for him to accept it. he doesn't think god is behind any of them. well in the end we just said that if you want to know its right you have to read to feel the spirit to know its true. well in the end we started to grow on him and we told him that we wanted him to say the final prayer and to specifically ask about his doubts. i was surprised by his prayer and he actually said it very sincerely. now back to church personally i felt that it was mostly focused on him. i really felt as though it was his answer. everyone talked about his doubts and testified about them and shared a personal experience. it was awesome. i guess we´ll see if he was too hard heaed to accept ore think of it as an answer.

 so in church here the relief society makes us a list of people to have lunch with. so i guess no one was able to on Sunday and this old woman says to the rest" your just going to leave the missionaries without food??" ill feed them. she is a funny lady. she is old but she still has the light on upstairs. so she is more fun than the rest of the old people. well she cooked us up a bit of everything she had lying around.. then we go back to the house and i fall asleep.

 it was such a nice nap. then my comp said that we had a meeting with the bishop at the church. so we leave and when we get inside it smelled like cake. so i looked in the kitchen and then next door in the primary and there was a cake and some food on the table. so i walk in and there were some members. it turns out it was a little party for me! hahaha. they knew I'm leaving the area in two weeks so they decided to throw me a little party. i was so surprised. i had no idea. but it sure made my day!! its nice to feel appreciated by the members! even though this ward has a lot of problems i love it! the members that are here are the good ones that are unshakable. it makes me sad o leave it. i feel like that we've done a lot here.

this ward is like a big fat guy that fell over and couldn't get up by himself. i feel like we just got him to sit up and soon he´ll be back up. i just wish i could see it happen. but as long as the next elders keep it up ill be fine. then later Sunday night we went to a family to teach. they had some family over. so we taught them. the bad thing thing is that the visiting family has a very cute daughter. the worst part is she was actually paying attention. lol it was hard not to keep looking at her. so we kept the lesson nice and short.

as for the rest of the week ill start at Saturday with general conference. i really enjoyed it. i really like the talks from elder uchtdorf. i like the way he talks. i really liked his jokes. i liked how he said to go at a steady and sure pace and to not over do it. i like the guy that talked about his ranch and the cow that ate the wheat and died "STUPID COW!!!!!" hahaahaha. i want to say the guy is the area president down here. I'm not sure though. on that Sunday we had to drive out to punta alta to get the elders out there because its getting womanized with sisters. so we loaded four elders and all their luggage i nthe van. it was packed tight. we barely got everybody and everything in. but it was all fun. then that night we went to the terminal. then back to the house. then Monday the leaving elders came to the office. i really hate having them here because they make me so trunky. on Tuesday morning we took them to the airport and i got out of there as soon as possible. then later that night the new elders came in. that was really fun. its always a good experience with them. for the whole night i left with one of them and we did the work. it was just fun being with them. it made it a lot easier to do the work.

 then on Wednesday we took them to centro to get their documents done. that ws a hassle. then we left to go work with them again. i was with this colombian elder. he was a cool kid. he was telling me how he served a mini mission and he was with an American. he said he likes the American elders more because we have more love for the people. hahaha. its not always true. i know a lot of good latin elders but i can see why he would say it. a lot of Latin elders are terrible. there are a few that i don't like very much. also a few American elders i dont get along with.

 then on Thursday just normal business. on Friday we had the leaders conference. all the zone leaders came. so we had to buy their bus tickets back but there weren't any trips to mar Del plata because it was a weekend and today is a holiday here. so we talked president into letting us drive them back and we could do some office stuff there. so he let us do it and we were off. it was a long but good drive. i drove the whole time because the other elder i Latin and doesn't have a license. it was pretty cool to just drive around.

 while there we made some surprise visits to revise some apartments. first we stopped at some sisters. it was really funny. we didn't tell them before hand. we knock on the door. and they look outside and here's 2 office elders with their zone leaders. the sister live just as disorganized as the elders do. i was surprised. i expected more from them. then while there we bought m comp a little souvenir, he was kind of sad that he couldn't come. but was happy with the gift. it was just a little mate cup. then we left for necochea. we stopped in my old area for a little bit. i passed by a family. it was interesting. the mom wasn't home. so we left. then we stopped by some apartments as well. then we got some sand at the beach. then left for home. on the way home we stopped at a place called " El Perdido" or the lost one. we took some fun pictures there. ill try to send a couple. and i think that would pretty much sum up my week.

 oh wait. there is another story to tell you. did i ever tell you about the little dog that followed us? well we were walking back from a lunch and this little puppy started to follow us for a couple of blocks. we pass by a house where the family is out front and the dog starts playing with their kids. they didn't like that and shooed it off. we just stood there watching to see if it would follow us again. then a woman was like" do you want something to carry it home in?" we said that it wasn't our dog but she insisted again so we´re like, we´ll take it home to give it some food. so we carried it home in a nasty rag He gave us. then we gave it some empanadas. he ate three whole. then we put him outside the gate but he just kept whining, so we let him inside the gate and then we leave for ward council. when we get back hes laying there sleeping. so we start planning and he starts whining at the door. so we get a box and put him inside. then my comp gives him some milk. he drank a whole cup. then we found some old jeans left in the house and put them over him. so he falls asleep and we finish planning and then the others come home. they just roll their eyes. then out of no where another companionship shows up with the van. they see the dog and we had this genius idea to put a new twist on doggy ditching. unlike Sadie with the laser this time you literally leave the dog on their doorstep. it was really funny. we made a sign that said" i need a good home. love me. my name is reptar" like the dinosaur from rugrats. haha. we drive off and hes just got his head outside the box. the poor thing. it was sad but we couldn't do anything else. i think someone took him in because we walked by and there was nothing there the next day. well that's the silly dog experience. hope you enjoyed the email. i have to go now. love you guys!!

Saturday, October 2, 2010

heeeeeeeee eeeey!! ‏ 9/29/10

hellos everyone. its that special time again. sooooooo to start off this week. today we went downtown again to go lookssss for some stuff. well i needed to get some new flippy floppies cuz my other ones broke. so i have been walking around the apartment like a resource child so i don't have to walk around barefoot. so i found some cheap decent ones and now I'm happy. then i we bought some super delicious alfajors. I'm thinking that ill send you guys a Christmas package with some yummies in it. nothing special but if i had my way the whole world would try and alfajor and some dulce de leche. then we bought some delicious mentos. watermelon is tasty. then we went to the civil register to see if our Argentine documents were in. but since we are in Argentina things like that just don't happen when you want them to. so we took a bus back home. then i ate some empanadas. then i took an enjoyable siesta. then we came to the office . so i have been here for a coupe of hours. so no surprise the mission is going to see more changes with the the schedule and tons of gay stuff. they are moving p day to Mondays in a couple of weeks. not exactly sure when but ill let you know.

 so yesterday we tried to go teach a lesson. we even found a member to go with us but the perwon decided not to be home. i felt bad for the member because he is "special". he was all ready to go in a white shirt and tie. hopefully well have an appointment that doesn't fall through and he can come.

 so on Minda nothing exciting. recently president thought it would be fun that i take the mission dats. so we went in early to the office and for about four hours i was taking dats and entering them in and making them all pretty. after that i felt mentally drained. so after lunch i fell asleep on the couch. on Sunday i had to give a talk. i called out the members for not doing their part. i don't like doing it but sometime i feel like if no one does it they wont even try. what can i say i was just the same. but its al good.

 I'm liking my area alot. i feel like we have the support of the members or at least they see that we are trying and accept us. i wish they would find us people to teach but whatever. so Sunday we also went to a baptism for some other ward. Saturday was a long work day and we taught a few people. one with Julian (the conference man) he doing just as tough as ever. today i was reading in the bible and i read the parable of the talents. 3 men receive a few talents and the first two invested theirs in the bank but the last hid his. when the reckoning day came the first two had doubled their money and had great satisfaction in the masters eyes. but the third hid his and didn't have anything else to give back. it reminds me of this particular investigator. he is really hard headed. the type that thinks that you can only have so much spirituality. but this scripture openly explains that we need to develop our gifts so that way they produce more. if only he knew, oh that silly man ... its all good though he´ll burn in hell one day.

 well Friday we passed by some people with a member. it went well. this one family, the Roche family. they are always nice to us and give us something to eat. but they have been inactive for years until we showed up. we got the daughter activated. shes coming every Sunday now for the past month or two. i have noticed a big difference in her as the time has gone by. she has had a big spiritual change. the other day we found a family friend of theirs so we brought her over and we taught the restoration the investigator was really attentive and then we asked Belen if she would share here testimony. it couldn't have been more perfect. over time she has had a lot of questions about religion and stuff and she is starting to realize that she can find the answers in the BoM. she also talked about the importance of going to church. you would have though she had been going to church her whole life. but yeah.. .it all turned out well... so yesterday i finally got a letter from Matt. it was fun to hear from him. its about time too. it made me really trunky thinking about the good times before the mission. hopefully its better after the mission. i guess we´ll see right? well just some random memories.

 so i don't think i told you guy these. the lst week we were walking to an appointment and this guys tops in his car and opens the door and greets us. hes like. i really admire you for the work your doing. and shook our hand and then left. it was a cool experience! then another day we were walking to the house and this crazy guy on his bike stops and hes like "" heeyyyyy ammiiigos!!" he looked hammered drunk or just extra special. but he had hi arms out for a hug so i went in and shook his hand instead. i was like how you doing bro?! hey we gotta go now but you keep it real!! not exact words but something like that,, hahaha. it was pretty funny. well ithinks that about it. anything new exciting fun cool.??' id like to know. gotta go!!!! have a good week, seeeegrissssst