Sunday, November 10, 2013

Nov 5, 2013 Villa Lugano First Area

Hey!

Sorry I don’t have a ton of time. Things are great! We got into Buenos Aires about 7 in the morning! Then we met the Mission President and his wife. There was 22 of us in this mission. We got to go around and take a little tour of the City. Took pictures at the Temple. And saw some of the main sites like the Pink house which is basically like the White house but the President doesn’t actually live there. Yes I met Elder Chriss. He was on the Plane with me. And a couple other Elders and sisters said hey my mom talks to your mom on missionary moms. Haha! It was funny. So after the site seeing we were dropped off at the mission Home. We ate Empanadas, got our Credit cards and had interviews. There was a little training on how things work here in Buenos Aires. And it is way different. Here they work SOLELY through the members. We don’t go tracting. We don’t knock doors. We don’t do any of that. We spend all of our time with members. And it is really strange. Because in Salt Lake, we got in trouble if we are spending all our time with members. So it is a weird change of pace but it is okay. Then we had pizza in the mission Home and then we given our assignments for the week. Because transfers were today and so vie just been waiting in a different area. So I and one of the Elders from the MTC hopped in a taxi. They sent us off to our area. When we got there it was literally a small little shack! And we have to fit 4 Elders in there. Me, my old companion from the MTC, Elder Johnson, and 2 others. The next morning they said that I am not in that area so I packed back up to move to the area I would be working in. Lopez Camelo. It was awesome. My companions were Elder Loza from Buenos Aires waiting for his visa to Venezuela, and Elder Vidal from Chile. They were awesome! Elder Vidal knows a little bit of English. He gets by but he still has a long way to go. And Elder Loza knows nothing of English. But it was a lot of fun, and I got to sleep on a mattress on the floor again. Haha. But now I am with Elder Estrada in an area called Villa Lugano. He is from Mexico and he doesn’t speak English and so this is going to be a fun transfer. All we have done is put my stuff away and come straight here so I don’t know him. So here we get 900 peso a month. And the exchange rate is about 1:5.8. So 900 pesos is about 160 bucks. so that’s pretty cool.- I’ve been with out money because you have to go take money out of the ATM and the only opportunity I had to do it my Companions didn’t tell me that we were passing by the ATM. Also it takes 35 pesos every time I need to take money out. I don’t need money. I’m good cuz I got some yesterday. But if I need some from my account I will let you know. Don’t have much time. Life is good! Had 3 baptisms this past week and everything! Way cool and a lot of fun! There is this kid named Dario. He is a boss. He was baptized a month a go. And has gotten 2 of his friends baptized already. He would go around with us and help us teach and basically he would do all the teaching, and me. Haha. He’s only 14. Straight up boss! Oh yeah! I saw a kid from HIGHLAND he is in the mission and I didn’t even know until I saw him. His name is Troy Hicks. His older brother Brenan Hicks would drive me to LIGHT. So that was pretty cool! I have tons of pics. I don’t know which to send because I don’t have time!


Love you be safe bye.

 At the Airport
 22 New Missionaries - Buenos Aires Temple 1st Day
 The Pink House - Same as the White House
 1st Baptism
 Bike Riding in the Church?
Connor's New Buddies.  Doesn't take him long to make friends.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Oct 21, 2013 He got his VISA

We have great news....Connor received his Visa on Friday, Oct 18th, but he couldn't tell us until his pday on the 21st.  He let us know through an email that comes through as a text.  I read it at work and got really excited.  He was pretty excited, too.  He has had some great experiences in Utah, but it is time for him to head to Argentina!!! So that means a phone call on Monday, the 28th.

Well anyways. This week was a fairly strange week. On Tuesday one of the other Elders got sick and so they asked me to go stay at home with him. So I sat and watched Mormon messages all day long until 5pm. While I was there my companion went out with the district leader and they put someone on date and had a "lesson" with our investigator Maria Castro and her husband. Basically my companion just told them they needed to be married. And he said it got pretty intense and at the end he wouldn’t look him in the eye. But we have gone by since and there is no hard feeling... well yet at least. But still they haven’t gotten married yet or even brought it up so I’m not sure what is going to happen there.

Thursday was Elder Hall’s birthday. We went to KFC for lunch. And then we had an exchange. So Elder Hall went with the district leader to the English assignment and Elder green (who doesn’t speak any Spanish) came to our area to work Spanish assignment. So basically I had a whole day by myself. Surprisingly I did pretty well. We taught a lesson to some kids that are going to be baptized. They speak English and Spanish and so I and Elder Green both taught but when I was talking it was in Spanish and he taught in English. I thought it went fairly well, until after I realized I missed a bunch of parts but its okay! Haha. We got a lot of work done and I set up a lot of lessons for future days so I’m pretty proud of myself. One of the days we got to eat dinner with a ward mission leader that went on his mission to Argentina and married a woman from Argentina. And so she made empanadas and a bunch of other stuff and we almost spent 2 hours talking about Argentina! It was really fun! It was bad because we shouldn’t have spent that much time there but its okay! It was really funny because Argentinians are known for being very prideful. And she would talk and be like Argentina has the best beef. And the best Dulce de Leche and other stuff like that and she’s like I’m not saying that cuz I’m prideful it’s just the truth. Because the dairy is so much better in Argentina. It was really funny. I told her this joke and she got a really kick out of it. "Why do Argentinians go up to their roof during a lightning storm? Because they think God is taking pictures of them!" haha!

Anyways. Wed I got a call from mission President. Basically he said that Spencer can’t come up here to see me. He said it’s written pretty strictly in the Mission Pres handbook that missionaries can’t see or work with siblings. And he said that if he expects his missionaries to be obedient that he should be too. So that kind of sucks. But oh well. I'll see him in 20 months. But hey! I don’t remember if I told you this but my goal was to be in Argentina by the End of October! And I was right! Boom! I am so good! Oh also! When I am down in Argentina DO NOT send me packages. What happens is the Argentina Government opens up the packages and goes through them, Puts a price on each thing in there and I have to pay that amount. So say you send me down a $200 camera, they will charge me $200 in order to get my mail. So it is so much better to just put money on my debit card. Also. They will steal things. Even if it is just like a birthday card with money in it. They will open up the letter and take money out of it. It sucks. But that’s how things are down there. So if there is anything you need to get to me before I leave, send it like today!!

Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend! I can’t wait till mine! Haha! But it will be with Spencer’s baby in stead of Lauren’s. Or maybe both! Haha! Anyways. Yeah I’m not sure how calling is going to work. I have a calling card. But I don’t know any details about it. Like if I am going with a group or if we will have time at the Airport. All I know is that I have to be at the mission office at 7am, and that I can have 2 bags under 50 lbs., that one will be hard. Ill probably be sending stuff home. Like my back pack/ I have to get a side bag, I’m going to look at Walmart today but if I can’t find one I will look in Argentina. Idk. Guess we'll just figure it out on the way.


Super funny. So President called me on Friday at 9am right after Personal Study. I was still praying when he called. He said, "I am looking at an itinerary for you to go to Argentina" It was awesome! We talked for like another 3 minutes about what I need to do. And then I called my old companions Elder Julian and Toborg. They were like that’s awesome but we got to go do Comp study. So I hung up. Then I realized that I had Elder Roberts phone number (the Other Elder going to Argentina that is from Draper) I was going to call and ask if he got his and either rub it in his face if he didn’t have it or congratulate him. Haha. His companion answered and I asked if I could talk to Elder Roberts. He sounded confused but was like ooookkk? And in the back round I hear "Give it to me". Then Elder Julian gets on the Phone and is like what the freak are you doing! This is companion study! Get back to work! I was like what? You are having companion study with them? Oh and did he get his visa? Yes he did, He is freaking excited, go back to work! Haha! It was pretty funny! But yeah so I’m guessing that everyone in this mission will be headed down together! Basically I’m just super excited! Love ya ALL!

October 14, 2013 Taylorsville The Tracks.....

Hila!

That’s cool that Spencer is going home! Crazy! I’m a little jealous! When I get down to Argentina I won’t be jealous anymore though. So the other day I got a call from the mission office telling me that I need to go down there on Monday at 10 because all visa waiters need to be refingerprinted, and so I went and did that this morning. There was about 12 of us, and it took forever just sitting in the waiting room at the police station. Some of the sisters had been in the mission 6 months plus. And we heard rumors that when you go to get fingerprinted it meant that you were getting close. And so they were all made that us Elders that have only been in the field for 2 months were there. But we'll see what happens.

So I got funny stories this week. So quick to answer questions yes it is getting cold. It has snowed once on us but it didn’t stick. And it rains super often! So we were riding our bikes home to go get food. A lot of times we get the food dropped off at our house or something like that and we have to drive through a church parking lot to get home and as we were riding through I saw a weird green bug on the floor. So my companion turned around to look at it and as I turned around my bike slid and it just slid out from under me and I landed right on my belly. Nothing hurt. It was all pretty Graceful. I just kind of landed on the floor haha! I got pictures. It was really funny and quite fun but I wasn’t going to try it again! =P

2nd funny story! We are riding our bikes kind of towards where we were having dinner on Saturday (Everything bad happens around dinner time apparently!) so as we are riding along I just hear this LOUD BANG!!! And suddenly I feel a gust of wind and smoke come up in-between my legs! I knew exactly what had happened. My back tire just exploded. There is this Giant hole in it, I didn’t run over anything. It just randomly exploded. And so we have been walking and begging for rides everywhere. My companion says there is a bike shop that will come pick up the bike. Fix it all up and everything and all I have to pay for is the cost of materials. For missionaries they don’t charge for labor. Just my companion hasn’t done it yet. I don’t know why. So when we got to dinner we were eating with what seemed like a single guy. Super nice and we had a Great conversation. But he asked us where we wanted to go and my companion said Fortune Buffet. Which you could imagine was just a Chinese buffet and so we all ate way too much and we all just felt like throwing up and taking a nap! Only difference was that he could go take a nap and we still had 2 hours to work! And had to walk our bikes home from the furthest point from our home! Haha! Good times!

Next I’m going to talk more about food. So one dish that is very popular in Venezuela is called Arapas. They are a tortilla. But not one of those flat tortillas. It’s a thick one. And they cut into it and they put food inside. Meat, Lettuce, butter, sauce, etc. Anything they want! They are SUPER good! I took a picture of some that we ate! It was really fun at that house cuz they were helping me with my Spanish. They didn’t give me time to think I would just talk and whenever I said something wrong he would correct me and then finish the sentence haha! Super nice guy he is in the Young Men’s.

So Sunday night we got to take the Rubio’s family to Temple Square. We were really struggling with finding a ride. But we found a ride for our investigators. They brought the whole family. So there is Emilio and Raquel.  They are the parents. They are on date for this Sunday. And their son Alejandro and his wife Maria. And they had their 3 kids with them. So we found them a ride and me and my companion were going to take the tracks(basically the light rail). When we got on the tracks we got a call from the people who were going to take them and they thought that there was going to be 2 cars and they planned on taking the whole family. So we weren’t exactly sure if they would be able to take them and we were getting on the tracks anyways. So the family took both of their cars and they just brought everyone! There was 14 of us with like 5 little kids! Haha it was crazy! So the Tour went really well. It was bad cuz they thought it was supposed to be in English. And so they sent us English sisters. But one of them was like its okay I’m from El Salvador I speak Spanish. So it went over really well and the other sister just kind of hung out haha! But it went really well and we put Alejandro and Maria on date for the 27! Whoo! So after wards we had planned on taking the tracks. We sent them off and started walking to the station. We looked for the schedule to see when the next one was. A train pulled up. It was a blue train going to draper and we needed to go to west valley on the green train so we let it go. We found the schedule. And that was the last train that ran on Sunday night!!! On every night it runs till midnight. Except for Sunday! So we were stranded in Downtown Salt Lake City! We started calling people for a ride but it was 845 and NO one was answering their phones. Finally we called one of the WML (Who is a BOSS) and he said that he could come and get us. So we got home about 920. It was a super intense night but it was a good one.

So one of the nights this week we had to do a Lesson exchange with the zone leaders because they speak Spanish. And so I got to go over to their area for about 2-3 hours. Elder Roberts who is also waiting for his Visa to Buenos Aires Norte used to be companions with these zone leaders (same situation I was in) and he just got transferred out to my old zone. so while I was with Elder Birch we talked in Spanish the whole time and we taught a inactive lady and talked to one of their investigators and when he dropped me off he told his companion that he was mad at himself because my Spanish was WAY better than elder Roberts and that he failed as a trainer. And he just kept talking about how good my Spanish is. And a lot of people have said how good my Spanish is compared to our people at 3 months in. So that’s pretty cool! =P


So just a quick report about our investigators. Maria Castro. She fell off date because she didn’t come to church. She still needs to be married but we are going over there to talk to them tonight. And she works on Sunday at a Swap Meet and it closes when it gets cold and so once it closes she will be able to start coming to church! Then we have the Aburtos. They are 2 kids. We haven’t gotten in to talk to them but they were on date until they didn’t come to church. The mom is less active and the dad is non member. Basically from now on we aren’t going to let the parents stand in the way of those kids salvation. And so we are going to send members to pick them up for church and try as hard as we can to get into lessons. The parents don’t have a problem with the kids getting involved, it just seems like they don’t want to do anything. So we will be seeing them soon. Hopefully good things happen! Hope things go well this week! Love ya! I pray for all of ya every day!  

 The Mission Home Borrowed Bike had a Blow Out!

Arapas A Venezuela Tortilla Sandwich
 Wait Elder, I see a Cool Green Bug

 Rubio's Trip to the Salt Lake Temple