Week 34~

Hey Fam! Well this week was a crazy week! With the final of the World Cup going on, we didn´t have a whole lot of successful work haha but my mission pres let us watch the game!! It was so awesome. All of us missionaries went to another city (Pergamino) to meet the president and he is such an awesome guy. I seriously am so excited about having him as our president. He is giving us a lot more freedom to do what we want and says that he trusts us to do the right things, which I think is great. He is changing lots of things and I think the mission is going to keep moving forward and progressing. While we were there, president asked to interview a few of us and I was one of them and I had an awesome interview with him. He gave me some great council and I am even more excited to be in this work! So we got to watch the final and that was super sad. WE SHOULD HAVE WON! Argentina didn´t really play that well which was a bummer, so all the argentines are sad, but maybe now I can bring some joy into their lives with the gospel! This weekend transfers started and yesterday they called to assign the new trainers and zone leaders and I was actually really hoping that I might train because I think that would be super fun to help a new missionary in his first two transfers.. But I got a call from one of the assistants and they told me that I have been assigned to be a zone leader in Santa Fe.. I was super shocked. It was something that had never even crossed my mind. It almost never happens that someone goes from being a junior companion to a zone leader because normally they should have experience as a district leader or at least senior companion.. So I feel super unprepared and inexperienced and not ready for the assignement I have. And I am also super sad to leave my area here in Venado Tuerto because I love the members and we have some awesome investigators and I feel like I just got here. But I am excited for the new opportunities I will have to lead and help other missionaries and learn a lot from those I serve. I feel super humbled and not ready, but I know that God puts us where we need to be in the mission and I know that He will help me to learn and grow and fill the capacities that I have to fill.. So hopefully I don´t blow it! Haha. But My new area is called ciudadela, in the city of Santa Fe in the provincia of Santa Fe and my new comp is Elder Knight from the States! I heard he is awesome guy so I am excited about that. So I have a lot to do today to pack up and say goodbye to everyone before I leave tomorrow morning. And I have to do a lot of praying... That will help for sure. Other than the big changes, I am doing great, I am super happy to be a missionary and super excited about all the time I still have left. I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am doing what I am supposed to do and that brings me the greatest joy that I have ever found in my life. The mission is so dang hard. If anyone ever says its not, then they did it wrong. But it truly is the best two years. I love the Lord and I know He Lives and loves us. I love you all and am so grateful for your love and prayers. I am praying for you all and I know the Lord is blessing and protecting you during these two years. Always seek to recognize the immense amount of blessings we have. There are so many! Have a great week!

Tried to make stir fry~didn't turn out so good!

Week 29~

Hey mom! Another good week in Venado Tuerto! This week was transfers so thats why I am writing today.. Elder Hokanson and I are staying together for another transfer so thats good! It will be a lot of patience and hard work on my part but its going to be a great transfer! The good news is that Elder Howe is coming to my zone!! My comp from the MTC whos like my best friend in the mission. I love that guy. And I havent seen him in 6 months since we got here so I am super excited for that! This week we have been working hard to find more people to teach and working a lot with the members of our branch to find people that are prepared to hear our message. Working with the members really is the key to success in the mission. I have realized more and more the resposibility that every member of the church has to share the gospel with others. It is a commandment from our Heavenly Father and as Joseph Smith said, the most important thing we can do. I am trying to keep being patient with my companion and know that I have a great opportunity to help him so I am going to keep doing everything I can to help him out! We are teaching a family right now that is so awesome that we are preparing to be baptized at the end of the month. Nelson and Maria and their son Gaston and they are so awesome. Everytime we teach them, the Spirit is so strong. I feel so much love for them and they lready feel so much love for us too. They always ask us a million questions about our lives and its actually kinda nice. It is impossible to teach a lesson in less than thirty minutes because the people take a topic or an answer to question and just run with it for 10 or 15 minutes without taking a breath. Haha its really funny, but the people are super open and willing to share their thoughts and experiences which I love. The people here are so great. So tonight this family invited us over for dinner so that will be good! But today is the start of my 5th transfer in the field and it is just flying by so fast. I cant believe it. But I m excited for another transfer to be better and improve my ability to teach and speak spanish and most importantly, strengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ. I dont have too much to tell this week, but know that I am doing great and working hard! I love you guys!

Week 27~Leaving Feliciano

Well you have already heard that I got transferred in the middle of a transfer this week! It was an emergency transfer and I was the lucky candidate. To be honest.. it was TERRIBLE. I got a call last tuesday morning saying I was being transferred to Venado Tuerto in the Provincia of Sante Fe. So i had Tuesday to pack up my stuff and say goodbye to everyone and I left Tuesday night! I was so sad to leave. I felt like I was leaving my family again. When I said goodbye to Edgardo and Eva (my converts) we all cried like babies.. haha kind of embarrassing, but they were like my parents in Feliciano. Edgardo said it was the third time in his life that he has cried so I guess that is an accomplishment.. But for real it was super tough to leave. Elder Cac was such a good companion too so that was tough to leave him.. But hey it happens.. Tuesday night I had a 10 hour bus ride by myself to the complete opposite corner of our mission. Haha I left the very northeast corner and went to the very southwest corner. And I arrived here Wednesday morning. Honestly it has been the hardest week of the mission for me, maybe other than the first week.. But it has been super tough, but I am learning a ton and continuing to try and develop the attributes of Christ that I lack. My area is great, super chill like Feliciano and the members are awesome. We have our go to families and the branch here is like four times the size of Feliciano. It was weird because yesterday all i did was sit in church.. We ride bikes here so my legs are getting jacked. My apartment is a little smaller and worse but its still good! Everything is going good! I have learned a lot this week and everything is on the up and up. Well I am out of time, but i love you all and am grateful for you guys. Thanks for the birthday wishes. Be good and choose the right. The church is true and Heavenly Father loves us!

Photos from Feliciano~

Week 12 & 13~

Week 12~So I saw the picture of the nutrial and it was way nastier than I was expecting haha I can't believe I ate that. But this week I ate cow tongue which was pretty good I guess! 

Things have been much better this week, we both realized this week that we are super similar in a lot of ways and I remind Elder Saez a lot of him at the beginning of his mission, other than the fact that I am white. By the way Americans are called yankees here (pronounced shankees because of the castellano). Argentines dont think they speak spanish, ¨its castellano¨ as they would say angrily if I call it spanish.. Haha. But things are going really well! The weather has been super nice here and not fiery hot like my first week.

This week was a really good week with one of our investigators, Edgardo, he came to church and really enjoyed it and you can just see in his countenance the changes that have happened in him since we started teaching him. He talked about how he has felt the spirit and described it as a burning in his chest and a feeling of peace. To be honest when he said that, it made everything thats hard about the mission worth it. I have been feeling like I have been doing everything I can since I have been here and not really seen much from it. So I had been starting to worry that maybe I wasn't doing enough, but the happiness that Edgardo has found in his life from meeting with us and learning more about our Heavenly Father has been a really cool thing to witness. Yesterday he committed to quit smoking to prepare for his baptism in three weeks and he didnt even hesitate to say he would do it so we are really excited about that. The Lord has prepared Edgardo to make these changes in his life, Elder Saez and I just happen to be the missionaries that get to watch it happen so I feel super lucky.

So I am emailing today instead of yesterday because of transfers. THe first six week transfer ended yesterday so that means Elder Saez only has six weeks left in the mish! Which can be a little bit distracting sometimes. I will admit, it makes it a little difficult to have a companion that is about to go home cause it makes me think about how far away going home is haha but I know it will go by super fast and I am glad that I have lots of time left because I still have so much to do!

Send everyone my love as always!!

Week 13~Another week has passed by and they keep getting faster!  This week I have been a little frustrated witht the language, I have been feeling like my progression has slowed down or almost stopped and I couldn’t figure out why.  I honestly felt like I was doing everything I could, but earlier in the week I kind of had an epiphany and realized that I really wasn’t listening as hard as I could be.  I found myself kind of letting my mind wander sometimes if I didn’t know what they were saying.  So I started to focus as hard as I could every time we would talk to people and I immediately noticed a huge difference in my ability to understand.  Since then, I have been understanding really well for the most part, but it is still difficult.  Something I feel very lucky to have that my Patriarchal Blessing talks about is the ability to always have peace and confidence during my trials to know that its going to work out.  Nothing is ever more than I can handle and I always know even during the hardest times that its going to work out so I don’t need to worry too much.  I feel very grateful for that. we talk to people and I immediately noticed a huge difference in my ability to understand. Since then, I have been understanding really well for the most part, but it is still difficult. But Something that I feel very lucky to have that my Patriarchal Blessing talks about is the ability to always have peace and confidence during my trials to know that its going to work out. Nothing is ever more than I can handle and I always know even during the hardest times that its going to work out so I don't need to worry too much. I feel very grateful for that. Yesterday in church our investigator Edgardo, that will be getting baptized pretty soon, walked into church right as it was starting and it was quiet and he kind of yelled and said "hola todo!" hahaha, it was so funny, he is such an awesome guy. And even though he is from the campo and I can still hardly understand a word he says, we are best friends. I love that! The only thing I have against him is that i stepped in the nastiest dog duece at his house. I didn't realize it until we got home and by then it had stunk up the whole apartment. I almost threw up while I was scraping the poop off my shoe. It was the worst smell I have probably smelled in my life.  

I have learned more this week the importance of putting my faith in the Lord instead of relying on myself and that is why I am a terrible teacher haha. We are so much better when we rely on the Lord. There truly is real power in faith. But faith is action. We have to do our part to have the power. I heard a quote that I really liked, "Pray as if everything depended on the Lord, and work as if everything depended on you." I thought that was perfect to define faith. We have to have that level of confidence in the Lord, but then do everything we can and he will help us out. Well that's all for this week. Everything is going really well. Things with Elder Saez are great. I am happy and healthy & working hard. I can't ask for much more. Hope you have an awesome week. I love you ALL!

Image credit: <a href='http://www.123rf.com/photo_14989263_curious-holstein-cow.html'>ghita / 123RF Stock Photo</a>

Week 7~Merry Christmas~Traveling to Argentina

December 20, 2013~I got a new flight plan today!  We'll see what happens on this one.  I leave SLC on Sunday December 22 and land in Dallas, then I leave Dallas and get to Buenos Aires at 8:30AM onMonday December 23rd.  So that's the plan!  I will get to talk to you all two days later on Christmas, hopefully!  Elder Howe left this morning which was super sad.  We were planning on not saying goodbye until we got to Argentina, so that was a bummer,  but now me and Elder Hansen are comps for a couple of days which is awesome!  He is a stud.  So yeah, that's the plan, hopefully it doesn't snow again!  I'll be in touch!

December 25, 2013~It turns out that my comp and I had to stay at the Mission home yesterday while everyone else left because our mission is really far away and there were no buses.  So we are getting on a bus for about 7 hours at 11:45 here which is 9:45 in the morning your time.  I don't know if I will get to call you when I get to Feliciano, but I can call you here before I leave.  Merry Christmas!! Love you all!

I have to leave in 30 minutes to go to the bus so we are going to have to do it later.  We will get to La Paz around 6:00 my time, but we have a place to use skype there.  So I should hopefully be able to get on for about an hour around 4-4:30 your time!  So be ready for that.  Love you all! Hope you have an awesome day.  By the way, my companion is a total stud.  He is awesome! 
Sorry I am late! The bus was late!  I am ready now so try and call back as soon as you can because we don't have tons of time.

I love you all!  Sorry the skyping didn't really work out as planned.  It was great to see everyone.  I am doing great so no worries!  Life is good.  Have a great Christmas and I will be in touch soon!