June 23, 2014 Lucas is Baptized & Go Argentina

Hey!

Well we baptized again this week! A kid named Lucas! He is super cool! And making great progress! This was really a miracle baptism! But he got baptized and confirmed! He is a great kid! He is 20 and from Paraguay! He has great desires to follow Christ and change his life! So we will have to wait and see and help him get that change! But I’m doing great! We have been working really hard looking for new investigators! Working a lot with the members and strengthening the relationship we have with them! A little bit of the way that we are working here is. We try to do most of the work through the members because they know the people and can help us to the people who are ready and all that stuff but what we do is like on the way to a lesson or the neighbors of a member or investigator or something we work on short lessons. Like a three minute spiel about the Gospel and what we teach to see if they are willing to listen to us. Come to church and be baptized by someone who hold the authority of God. And since the Zone leaders are in our ward we work a lot with them and I had the opportunity to go out with them a couple times and they have taught me a lot! It’s crazy because they showed me that it only takes those 5 minutes to tell if it is worth our time to continue with these people. And its not that we don’t love these people that we aren’t willing to give them all our time and all. But we are looking for the people that are prepared! We know that the Lord is preparing his people and we need to find them! And we need to determine if people are going to progress or not! The Zone leaders don’t waste time! Haha! It was really impressive to see the way they work! And that’s the way we all need to be! God is preparing them through the members and the Missionaries and other ways! We just need to be in tune with the spirit and help them that are willing to be helped! But yeah. Things are going great! I love helping people and seeing the change in their lives! This week we had Zone conference with President. He showed us videos of Messi and Michael Jordan and a video of him bungee jumping. Haha! He talked a lot about Faith and that we need to take that jump and Trust in the lord that he will protect us and help us always!

But I am doing great! I noticed this week that my Spanish isn’t as good as it could be. So I’m going to be working on my Spanish to see if I can improve it! Well this week Argentina won again so we are moving on to the next round! I think USA will move on too and Mexico. But Mexico has to win this next game. If not they are out! They ruined it with the tie against Brazil. But at least they didn’t lose. In our district there is a girl from Brazil and my comp is DL and so they are always fighting and placing bets haha! But it’s all out of fun... I think... haha! Oh and the girl from Brazil sends her love to the family

Hope everything is good and that you are all well! I didn’t get an Email from mom this week so I guess I’ve been out so long that she is starting to forget me..... but it’s okay. I still love her! And I’ll be home in about a year to bother her! <3

Love you mom! And everyone!

 I pulled out my new jersey while we were filling up to Font! because in the morning at 10 we had a baptism and then the Argentina game was at 1 so we were getting pumped!! 

 Bautismo! Lucas got baptized! Whoo! 

June 16, 2014 YM Fishing Trip

Well this week was an interesting one! My companion was sick, and we had a lot of things to do, so starting with Monday. We went to a mall to eat a Wendy’s. And there I bought a Jersey of Messi! They all called me crazy but I bought it. To me it’s important that it is Original. Sometimes things are nice being fakes from places like china town but I want the real jersey. Haha! Oh well we will see what happens. Well we ended up going back to the pension and my comp was sick and slept the whole night. I ended up writing and updating my journal. Tuesday we had district meeting. It went good. Wednesday we had to go to Capital to do paperwork for my comp, and so did the zone leaders so we all went together and had planned to go to a giant villa in the capital to eat food from Peru (food from Peru is the best!) well what happened was my companion didn’t come to Argentina with a Visa. His passport doesn’t have a stamp in it. And so what he tried to do was renew the legal card he has and since the passport isn’t good he couldn’t do it. Although they said that was he was doing was supposed to be easier. So we went to a place near the giant tall white thing that looks like the Washington Monument and they sent us to Retiro. Which is in a completely other part of capital. So we had to leave the group and find the other place. Well going there was a waste. But it was cool because we took a bus that took us through all of the cool parts of Argentina. (Well Buenos Aires) but they are things we’ve already seen before, it was just cool to see Capital again. Haha! Well since we were in a different part than the other Elders we decided to do our own thing, and just went to McDonalds to eat and they told us we had to go back they next day. So we went back the next day and they basically told us the same thing and so my comp might have to leave to Uruguay or Brazil to get the Visa stamp and come in, and I might get to go with him. So we will see what happens. Haha! Well we found out later that the other Elders went and spent the day in Capital and found some really cool spots and found a plaza that has a giant TV to watch the world cup and then went and bought stuff from Argentina really cheap. So I was kind of bumped about that, but that’s okay. Then on Thursday we got invited to a family to go eat in their house! They made us Hamburgers and fries. She made me a full hamburger with tomatoes and mayo and chimichurri and ham and cheese and just all kinds of stuff and I ate it all with a smile! You would be so proud! Haha! Oh and we ate while we watched the Brazil and Croatia game. I’m not sure if we are allowed to watch. They haven’t said no. They only say that if it looks dangerous we have to go to the pension. Nothing else. Oh well. Haha! Then on Friday we did Exchanges and I was left in my new (dangerous) area with a kid that has less time then I do with two gringos walking through the Villa. Haha! I got lost a couple times but we survived and we haven’t gotten robbed yet (knock on wood). Saturday was a crazy day. In the morning we went and did a service project where they took off all of the concrete and put new concrete on the floor and the walls. We had a hammer and a nail to take off the walls and that was fun but the members were doing the majority of the work because they all are experienced. Basically we were focused in the asado we were doing. Elder Ballesteros and Luiscito (recent convert) didn’t know how to start a fire. They just through a bunch of wet logs on new paper and tried lighting it. It was bad but we eventually got it lit and we ate choripan which is like bratwurst I think. They are really good! Then we had to do visits with the Elders Quorum while my comp did a bap interview and I got left with one of the Zone leaders that didn’t know the area either. So we spent Saturday night walking in the street looking for a member that we never found! Haha then Sunday we did the confirmations. They made me go first so I think I didn’t do that well but oh well. And after the zone leaders had more baptisms. Then we went and ate pizza and asado with a really cool family and watched all the pre- world cup stuff. Had a ward council that lasted too long. The brothers were all antsy because the Game was about to start! Haha! It was really funny. After we went with the Paredes family that just bought a giant 3d smart TV for father’s day! It was awesome! The zone leaders showed up half way through the game and so Elder Ballesteros was trying to look like he wasn’t watching the game but they kept poking their heads in to see the goals or anything exciting. Haha! I could tell they wanted to watch it really bad because they made pancakes but they came out really bad. Haha! Their minds were in a different place. Oh well it was a fun night! Then we went fishing this morning. We couldn’t find a place to go fishing because the place we planned in Tigre didn’t let us go fishing. So we ended up walking a lot but it was fun because we saw a lot of cool areas and cool shops. But it wasn’t open. They don’t open anything on Mondays, It kind of sucks but that’s okay. Well things are good! I’m staying healthy. I loving it and we should be having another baptism this week! Love you all be good!

 The map of the 3 Areas Connor has served in so far.

So Connor's brother, Spencer, is dating a girl that is from Argentina (moved to Utah when she was 10).  I sent Connor a picture of them and Connor said,  My companion says he is a Capo! Spencer said it means, I'm a stud, and that I did a good job!  lol

 wE WENT TO wendys the last Pday

 I bought the really expensive Argentina jersey. but I'm thinking about taking it back because everyone is calling me crazy haha

 My companion had to go do paper work in down town and it didn't work. He has visa problems and they don't know why. So we spent a lot of time downtown it was fun but tiring

 Today we went fishing with the Young men. We went really early so everyone was like tired haha!   

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 Elder Hogge sleeping on the bus.

 Then we played football in the Train.

 Elder Engelbretsen has a Football it was fun. 

 This kid is Erick. He was Baptised and Confirmed this week

 All of the young men we took were recent converts.

We ended up going fishing in an area that says fishing prohibided. haha! just like an Olsen! 

Our fishing poles were bamboo sticks. with tape.

The Mall

San Miguel Cathedral

We had KFC homemade when we got home! I love Peruvians!