Week 11~

So did you know that technically I am supposed to come home on October 18th which means that this week I reached my three month mark and i am one eighth done with my mission already! That might not sound like much to you guys haha but it has already gone waaaaay fast for me. Its crazy. This week wasn´t my favorite week of the mish so far but it was still good!

I ate a lot of weird foods this week. And I always get excited when I have the opportunity to try something new so that I can brag about it in my email home haha. I might have already said this but I have gotten to the point where I can eat anything that people give me. I can eat mayonaise now without wanting to throw up. This week I ate nutrial (which apparently is a giant rat)

I think I spelled the name right, you will have to look it up. I´m not gonna lie it was pretty mediocre at best. And the next day I got the sickest I have gotten on the mish.   I also ate lamb twice this week and both times it was actually really good. I would gladly eat it again. And the other weird thing I ate was.. wait for it..

Ostrich egg. Yeah theres lots of ostriches here believe it or not. The egg is like the same thing as a chicken egg but like the size of a baby´s head and not as good tasting. I wasn't a huge fan, but it did the job. So yeah this week was interesting food wise. But the good news is that there is always food. We are definitely not going hungry here in Feliciano. The Members are super loving and giving. I have lost about 15 pounds though so thats good! It was much needed after the MTC.

We did a bunch of service this week, we painted the outside of Abuela´s house (our favorite member) and we also dug this GIANT hole at our investigators house. He is using the hole for where his bathroom activity will go so it was like five feet in diameter and like 10 feet deep which is super hard to dig that deep so we dug for like four hours and got about 3 feet in. My back was destroyed the next day but I enjoyed the service.

The past three days have been super tough for me companionship wise.. The differences in our cultures and the way we have grown up is really starting to show at this point.  We are just different so I am trying to focus on the good. I made a goal at the beginning of my mission to love all of my companions and always find the good in them and the lessons I can learn from them so I am not going to let little things get in the way of that. I am realizing how much the mission is going to prepare me for marriage haha so thats a plus! Not that I am thinking about that ever..

I have been studying the Atonement a lot this week in Jesus The Christ and in some talks and scriptures and I have come to understand more how much love Christ has for us to give us the opportunity to repeatedly receive forgiveness over and over and constantly improve ourselves to become more like him. The Atonement is a process of love. I think a lot of the time we have (or at least I) this perception that the Atonement and asking forgiveness is this scary thing that only really bad people have to do. But if we were to truly understand the Atonement and understand the love that our Heavenly Father has for us I think we would spend a lot more of our efforts using the process of the Atonement. So thats my little lesson for the week haha. I love that I get to study the gospel every day and learn more and learn how much Heavenly Father loves us. Our trials are for our learning and benefit and we are given the trials that Heavenly Father knows we can handle because Heavenly Father would never set us out to fail. He wants the best for us and gives us every opportunity to learn and grow. I know the message I am sharing is true!

Thats all for today, hope everything is good! I love and miss you all at home and you are in my prayers!

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_20224168_ostrich-with-egg.html'>peternile / 123RF Stock Photo</a>
Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_21691588_nutria.html'>alein / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Week 10~

 I am going to send a little shorter letter to try to send pictures instead of taking so much time to write the letter. This week was really good! Slow and steady I am getting more comfortable and learning the norms of missionary life. The language for me kinda stalled this week for a couple days, but i figured out that I need to listen more intently and I have been doing that and trying to really focus on the investigators words and nothing else. I have seen a change since then! This past week I started teaching english classes! We are having them every wednesday night and anyone is invited to come. There was only five people at the first one, but I think its going to grow into a really good thing and a good way to bring others to the church! No one here can say my name haha. No one even tries. I introduce myself and there just like, oh whatever. We walked out to the campo super far for the first time this week. It took 45 minutes to walk to this house in the middle of nowhere.

I'll send pics of it!  We committed two people to baptism this week which was exciting. One of them is Edgardo and he is from the campo and we went to his house yesterday and helped him take care of all his animals. It was actually super fun. We had to chase sheep around to gather them into the fenced area and these two wouldn't go in  and we had to chase them around for a while. But it was really cool for me because the scriptures always talk about sheep and the fold and bringing in the one and it helped me understand better how important each person is. And the shepherd doesn't just give up on a sheep if he doesn't want to go in the fenced area. The shepherd keeps trying and tries different ways to gather the sheep. Sometimes with love, but sometimes with a little push or (throwing sticks at it) haha but i also fed a cow and when we walked in his house he had all the parts of a whole dead cow hanging in his kitchen so that was interesting. I almost threw up at first but then I got over it! Well it really has been a great week, my ears are fine! I didn't go to the doctor, just the pharmacy. So a branch president is basically the same as a Bishop, they do everything that a bishop does as far as I am aware so yes I spend a lot of additional time at the church while he is doing interviews or hosting activities for the youth because we are basically running the whole branch. Theres honestly like no leaders in the branch that help us out so we spend a lot of time teaching members and trying to train them to be leaders. We clean the church on Saturdays usually and go early on sunday to set everything up so yes it is very different from a normal missionary. A lot less time for the actually missionary work. Probably about half. It can be frustrating, but I know there is a reason that i am here and i am learning a lot of things that other missionaries don't get the opportunity to. Feliciano is an awesome place. It is super calm and tranquil and everyone is super friendly. There is like a town square and paved roads for maybe four blocks by four blocks and then after that is dirt roads and tiny little brick houses. Houses have dirt or cement floors and often roofs are tarps.  As always I have no time so please thank everyone for the letters and I love the pictures! The church is true!

Week 9~

SO my pdays will be on mondays from now on so I am writing to you today! This past week was a lot better than the first! I am starting to get into the swing of things a little bit even though its still super hard. Especially waking up haha.. its basically the hardest moment of my life.. except I have to make it every day.. But I am starting to enjoy it and love the work! The more I focus on how cool of an opportunity it is and how lucky I am to be in Argentina the better it is. çMore about Elder Saez. First of all his first name is Nacho!! Haha he knows about Nacho Libre

so we can laugh about it. I told him how I love that movie and how you guys would think that was super funny. He is from southern Chili and started his mission when he was 18 and he only his 3 months left so I am going to "kill him" thats what its called when your someones last comp. He is the first person in the mission to be a branch president and train someone so hes basically a total stud. I dont really know what that means for me, but he has a tough job. I am trying to help him out as much as I can but theres a lot to do as a Branch president. That has been one of the toughest parts because we have days where we only get to do like an hour or 2 of actual missionary work because he has interviews and meetings with members to train them as leaders and what not. And also activities for the youth or whatever. So its been a unique experience for me because I am definitely not having the normal mission experience. 

The language is still coming along. Its a little better every day. My progression was kinda put on a hault for a little while there because I had an infection in both my ears for like 10 days and I literally couldnt hear anything so that was honestly super frustrating. You cant learn the language if you cant hear anything haha, but I found a creepy guy in an alley that said he had just what I needed so I took that and everything is good now! Just kidding I got some antibiotics at the store.. Not as cool.. 

I am starting to like the food more lately. I am getting used to it and elder saez has started to tell people that I dont like mayo so thats nice haha. We have eaten some really good pizza and pasta lately which has been sweet. 

Right now I am in a bigger city, la paz for zone conference and tomorrow we have like mission conference training for leaders and new misssionaries in parana which is like a four hour bus ride tomorrow but I will see elder howe and all my buddies so that will be fun! 

Everyone in feliciano rides motorcycles all the time with like four people on them and babies and theres no stop signs and like kids drive the motorcycles so its prettty crazy haha but theres never really accidents which I dont really understand.. 

It has been a little less hot lately which has been super nice. I dont sweat like crazy when I sleep like before. 

Well I dont have tons of time, but the thing that I have definitely learned the most while I have been here is how lucky I am to live in the United states. We have so much more than we realize. The people here have so little. I just know that we are put in certain places at certain times for a reason. I am super grateful that I have this opportunity to experience the world and gain a greater appreciation for what I have. I wish everyone could have this opportunity. Okay thats all for today, but I hope you have a great week! Please apologize to everyone for me for not writing back to the emails, but let them know that I really do appreciate them! Even if I cant respond it is awesome to hear from everyone. The church is true. Send everyone my love

Week 8~First Week in Argentina~Feliciano

Well a week has gone by already and although it has been super fast.
The days have probably been the longest and hardest days of my life
haha. But no worries, it is getting better each day and I am doing
great! The first three days once I got to Feliciano were super tough
and very humbling. Spanish here is soooo different. And I am pretty
sure that every single person has a different accent. At this point I
can understand like everything that some people say and then other
people (the ones from the campo.. or away from the town in the farms.)
I can literally not understand a single word they say. Its ridiculous.
But the people are awesome! I love them. After teaching one lesson or
eating one meal with them we are best friends. They are so friendly
and welcoming and want to give you everything they have. We get
lunches from the members every day basically and they hardly have
anything, but they will fill your plate and make you eat more than you
want and you cant tell them otherwise.. Everyone says hi to us on the
street and everyone is willing to talk to you so really we have maybe
been rejected like twice since I have been here.. other than that we
have talked to everyone that we have tried. In our branch there are around 30 or
so active members, but I swear like half of Feliciano has been
baptized before and is now inactive. I am pretty sure there are like 2
or 3 hundred inactive members. So our focus is not just getting
baptisms. Especially since Elder Saez is the Branch President.. We
spend a ton of our times teaching members because about 20 of the 30
are recent converts. Because so
many people go inactive, our focus is on strengthening the members and
the branch and then having strong conversion baptisms.. not just
baptisms. My mind has been consumed by how I can strengthen the branch
and contribute to it so I am constantly striving to think of ways to
make the branch better. I have been trying to think of good activities
for the youth that we could have to help strengthen them. If you have
any good ideas for mutual activities or cool american activities that
I could teach them that would be super helpful! Please ask the fam.
The branch is very close to being super strong and growing really fast
if we do the right things but I feel like it could also fall apart
really easily if we dont work super hard to keep building it.
The language is coming along really well though, I am getting better
each day! And Elder Saez is such a stud! He has taught me a ton and I
feel super lucky to have him as my comp. Hes awesome.
More about feliciano: its a super calm friendly town, so we dont have
to worry about getting robbed here which is nice. It is not like other
areas. But it is a very spread out and large town so we do a ton of
walking and it is SO HOT. THe other day it was 104 and the humidity is
definitely worse than Georgia. And the thing about here is that you
never escape the heat because no one has air conditioning so we just
sweat all the time! We have one little fan thats from like world war 1
in our apartment haha but yeah We go to bed and wake up just drenched
in sweat. But I like to sweat so its good! We have a washing machine
and we are like the only area that does so that is sweet and we also
have a really nice apartment.. relatively speaking so i am grateful
for that. We also have hot water which turns out to not matter because
we take cold showers to escape the heat.
We drink so much water all the time so no worries about dehydration.
There are bugs everywhere because doors dont really go all the way to
the ground and windows dont really close here so pretty much
everywhere is free game for bugs. There are dogs everywhere. They are
all nice and not aggresive so its no big deal. The only ones that do
anything are the ones behind fences. They like to talk a big game, but
they are more scared of us.
No one really knows how to sing here so they all think I am a really
good singer haha so last night we were celebrating new years eve with
one of the members, her name is Abuela. Shes our go to member. And
they wanted me to sing an english song and the 11 year old (Javier)
knew some american music and he asked me to ing Hey there Delilah by
plain white ts so I sang that hahaha it was ridiculous. But It was a
fun night. We ate a ton of food and I was actually able to converse
and make jokes with everyone last night so it was fun.

One challenge for me has been the food. Because all anyone ever told
me was that the food is amazing so I just expected to be eating
delicious steaks all the time, but thats not really it at all. Its not
bad by any means but it is jut way different and there is some weird
stuff. The big problem is that they eat mayonase like its air.. And I
despise mayo. But I am getting over it and starting to enjoy the food
more and more. I hardly ate anything for the first three days cause I
had no appetite and the food was weird so I lost a bunch of weight
which was much needed after the mtc. My butt isnt quite as huge
anymore!
Sunday I bore my testimony in church and taught sunday school haha.
That was interesting.. Fortunately it was only five people and I was
already friends with four of them so they helped me out a bit.
Yesterday I gave my first blessing in spanish which was super tough
but it was awesome. It was for a little 1 year old girl in our ward
whos sick.

OKay I am running out of time. Sorry if it sounds like I am
complaining in this whole email or if it sounds like I am miserable
because I really am not. I love it here and am loving the work! It has
been very tough and different and humbling, but I love it! I have
already learned so much. I know that I cant do this on my own so I am
learning to rely on the Lord more and more. I have a lot to learn, but
I have the desire to do everything I need to do so I know it will work
out. When I got here I realized that I really had to figure out why I
was here because if I didn't have a good reason, it would be a huge
joke to be here and be going through all of this hard stuff for
nothing. So I made a list of the reasons why I was here for example I
am here because I know that the principles of the gospel have blessed
me and my family and I know they can bless everyone. I also know that
through Christ is the only way that we can receive all that our Father
in Heaven has in store for us. I have to share this message with
people or else I am depriving them of those blessings. I
really hope it doesnt seem like I am talking bad about anything or
complaining because I really do love it here and I love the people and
I love this opportunity I have. I know that my Heavenly Father loves
me and is aware of me and watching over me. I know that through the
principles and ordinances of this gospel, we receive eternal life and
all the blessings that our Heavenly Father wants to give us. I know
that Scripture reading, praying, and going to church are simple
things, but are the most important things we can do each day and each
week. Those three things keep us on the path. I love this message that
I get to share and I love being a missionary. I hope that you are all enjoying
this holiday season. Lots of love!
I will try to send some pictures real quick if I can.