Letters to Connor~

Connor's Apartment

Hi friends & family~

Connor's birthday is coming up on May 24th, if you would like to send Connor a letter I know it would be the best birthday present he could get...... hand written letters are better than gold to him! 

Connor's Address~
Elder Connor Jamon Cushman
Argentina Rosario Mission
Blvd Argentino 7935
2000 Rosario
Santa Fe
Argentina

If you would like to send him a letter but don't want to have to deal with mailing internationally, you could send the letter to me, I would be happy to mail it to him.
  
Lisa Cushman
4435 Beckwith Place
Cumming, GA 30041

FYI~ at this time Connor has told me NOT to mail any packages, he will NOT receive them.  

Thanks for ALL the love and support you have shown Connor as he has been in Argentina!

6 Months~

Elder Cushman Cooking with Albina Cardoza

I don't think I am gonna write too much today because we will be talking on the phone next week!! I didn't even realize that until today haha.. But I think I am going to try and use google hangout so that everyone in the fam can join in! And I hear you have been talking with my friend Alvina on facebook haha. Hopefully you guys aren't sharing too many embarrassing stories.. But thats cool that you get to see pictures!And no worries about the glasses. I use them pretty regularly to conserve contacts and also rest my eyes. I have a feeling there is probably going to come a time when I run out of contacts so I am starting now to conserve them haha. But no worries all is good! I honestly don't know what to do about that whole situation to be honest haha.. I am going to look into to seeing if I can get more here. I am sure I can.. So no worries. 

This week went super well. We had a lot of success in finding new people and also preparing a few people for upcoming baptisms. We have one baptism coming up this weekend which is super exciting too. We have branch family home evenings on friday nights with the members and I lead that this past weekend and it was super good. I have gained a testimony of family home evening and how important it is for our families and for the love and unity we have in the home. Whether it be the whole family or just two people. It is a time to grow closer together and strengthen the family bonds we have here on earth. 

It has been raining a bunch here and all the streets are dirt roads in Feliciano so we are pretty muddy these days.

Hope all is well at home! Love you guys a ton and I am super excited to talk to you next week! Tomorrow I complete 6 months in the mission.. Pretty dang crazy how fast time is flying!

Albina Cardoza

Week 25~

This week was super good, we worked hard as usual and have a bunch of people that we are preparing for baptism in the upcoming weeks. One of which has been investigating the church since naum.. Literally.. I think they have been listening to the missionaries for like 20 years but things are looking good with her! We are also teaching a girl named Natalia that doesn't speak at all because she is deathly shy because they live out in the country far away from everyone.. I think I have mentioned them before, but she is progressing!

This week we started up english classes again which is going to be better than the last time because I actually know spanish now... Turns out you need to know spanish to be able to teach english.. 

But we are getting lots of activities going with the branch and putting more time in to helping the branch and organizing everything and things seem to be moving in the right direction. I am really excited about these next five weeks that I have here to help the members more and leave this branch better than it was when I got here. But its definitely not all flowers and butterflies.. I am learning lots of patience and love for the members. And also realizing what a lazy bum I was before the mission. I didn't do anything! But the good news is that I am changing that! Things are good with my comp Elder Cac. He is always just super chill and he is glad that I am still here to help him out and push him so things are good!

This week in one of our contacts this guy told us that we came from monkeys and that he wasnt convinced that the world is round. He thinks it might be flat.. So you can assume how that conversation ended up.. Haha it was interesting. You meet interesting people on the mission! But you also grow to love people that you have only known for a short period of time. And thats what I love. I feel the love that God has for His children every day. I am trying to act in the way that he wants me to because I don't want to let him down and I know that we are the happiest when we do what He asks. I love the mission and I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for all of the many blessings I have. Especially my awesome family that I have at home. I feel so lucky for the life I have been given!

As far as fluency goes, I have come to find out that being fluent is very hard to define.  There are lots of levels of fluency, but yes Ihave definitely hit a very comfortable level of fluency which is great! I am super comfortable with the language and can converse naturally so that's good!  

Week 24~

So I just got the call and I am not being transferred! To be honest I was fully expecting to be. And I am not going to lie, I am a little disappointed that I am staying, but I also know that the Lord calls us where we need to be for certain people so I am okay with it, there are lots of positives to staying and I would have been really sad to leave! But I am pretty sure I am the first person to be companion to a Branch president for more than three transfers and I will have spent a quarter of my mish in Feliciano after this transfer which is crazy! But all is good, this week was another pretty normal week. Easter was very different.. There is no Easter bunny or eggs or bright colors or anything of the sort here.. Which made me feel like it wasn't Easter, but I was able to focus on what is really important and the significance of Easter. I gave a talk which went really well, I talked about how we as members of the church can show our gratitude to the Savior for all that he did for us. And i did a little bit of what they call "dropping the cane" on the members. Basically I was very direct about the things that they can be doing better. But it was out of love and by the spirit so its all good! haha. We had Easter lunch with "Abuela" Alvina and she cooked asado, which is a bunch of meat cooked over a grill that is on the ground. Its something that you eat on special occasions basically because it is expensive. So that was good, sometimes there are some weird meats though which is a trial of my faith haha..

Everyone has parrots here as pets and I was holding one on my lap at someones house and it dropped a sweet deuce all over my suit pants, so thats my cool story of the week. Haha

And something else interesting that is happening with me is that I have started to realize that I am always thinking in spanish and I have been having dreams in spanish and it is really hard to speak english now haha. The other night Elder Cac and I were going to say a prayer and I decided I would say it in english and it was so hard, I couldn't even form a sentence. Its weird how my mind has shifted to spanish.

Everything is good here! Love and miss you all!

Week 23~

This week was pretty not interesting.. The work has been so dang slow here. The hearts of the people are getting harder by the day and finding someone to teach has been a real challenge for us lately.. We have been dedicating a lot of time to organizing the branch so that has been good but we did find one new investigator named Eduardo who is 72 years old and come to find out he is under house arrest for stabbing someone (he claims it was self defence) and I pretty much believe him because he was super friendly,but we will see how he is on the next visit haha. 

We had zone conference this week with all the elders and hermanas from our zone as well as president and his wife and the assistants and it was super good! I learned a lot about how I can be a better missionary and person in general. One thing I have been able to realize on the mission is how hard it is to be perfect haha. That sounds weird, but for real, I want to be perfect, but it is so dang hard.. I dont even come close. I fail every day. And for that I have come to realize more and more how crucial the Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ is. We need it every day. Because we are so far from perfect. So yeah I am super grateful for the mission helping me to realize all the things that I need to change about myself and all the things that I can do better. I know I will still be very far from perfect when I get back from the mission but I will at least be a little better in a few things and for that I am grateful. This upcoming week is transfers so I am expecting to be transferred to another area.. We will see if I stay, but I would be the first person to be the comp of a branch president for more than three transfers so I am pretty sure I am leaving. Which is sad! I love the people here, I love Feliciano and it will be hard to leave, but I am also ready for new experiences and new opportunities!

The floors by the way are a lot like you heard. No one cleans their floors because they are just dirt and rocks.. Sometimes cement but either way pretty dirty.. As far as the shoes and socks go do I need to send pictures? Basically they all have holes in them so I don't know what the policy is but I can take pictures if needed!

Week 22~

This week was good! This week we did a lot of organizing for the branch here, honestly this week I didn't really feel like a missionary that much.. We spent a lot of time in the church, organizing the calendar for the rest of the year, reading leadership manuals so that we can training the leaders,  also we set up a bunch of interviews and did paperwork, made calls and plans for a trip so that the members could travel to see the conference, we planned activities for the branch, we also organized our area book that hasn't been touched for months, and then we did a little bit of missionary work. Its been good, I know it is helping Elder Cac to feel a little bit more comfortable and have a little more peace of mind and although we aren't getting to do a lot of missionary work, we are doing things that are going to help the branch here in the long run. 

I still always feel like we can be pushing ourselves a little more and working a little harder.

This week my comp taught me how to roast a banana.. We cooked bananas over a fire and it was delicious. Definitely going to eat that more often, apparently it is something they do in his house a lot.. For real though, Elder Cac is awesome. He is an awesome companion. I don't think his emotions every really change, he is just like super chill all the time, which is nice cause he never gets mad at me. He is also super smart and knows a ton about the scriptures so that has inspired me to keep studying hard and learn as much as I can. He also has a very diverse vocabulary so he always says a word and I give him this confused look and then he laughs and has to explain it to me. So far in the mission I have been blessed with incredible companions. All three have taught me very important qualities that I want to have and all three have been very different, but awesome missionaries. 

I feel super lucky. 

General conference was super awesome this weekend. I hope you all got to watch it. There is really something special about hearing the words of a living witness of Christ. Boyd K. Packer yesterday told us that he has seen Christ and he knows Him. What more do we need than that powerful witness of Christ to remind us of our purpose here in this life? Like Boyd K. Packer, I know that Christ lives. Maybe I haven´t physically seen Him, nor will I in this life most likely, but my assurance of His reality is as if I have seen Him. I have felt His love and the power of the atonement. His grace is the way we can return to live with our Father in Heaven and we receive his Grace by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The scriptures say that His grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before Him. Be humble and recognize God´s will in your life. Remember why we are here on earth. And don´t let the world make you forget that. I love you Mom, lots of love to Dad Ryan Brittany Jordan Brooke Kaylie Jonathan Summer Hallie Boston Blakely and Avery. And I guess Brylee... Not sure if its love to brylee.. but give her a pat on the head for me.. 

Have a great week!

This is how we cut the grass here! I was prepping the ground for where we were building the house for the Piriz Family!

Week 21~

Dinner with the other gringos that live in Feliciano. They live way out in the campo for a service mission. James and Jolene Ficklin! We had peach cobbler and beef stew and all sorts of american things. It was incredible

This week was super good as usual. We have had pretty much no success finding people that want to listen to us and many many failed appointments and rude people, but its all good! It makes me sad that people don't give us the chance to share with them the joy that we have but at the same time I know I am doing my part. I am learning more how to handle the rejection and just keep working, searching for the people that are waiting for our message. 

I was feeling a lot of weight the past few days from all of the rejection, but yesterday it all went away. I have really come to understand better the power of the atonement and the opportunity we have every sunday to partake of the sacrament and start over. Leave everything behind that happened in the week and just start fresh. I have really been feeling that on the mish. I get so excited for sundays because I truly feel a weight lifted off of my shoulders every time I take the sacrament. So that has been a great lesson for me and has strengthened my testimony of the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and going to church. 

I am trying to learn how to cook more and more and this week I made tacos which were super good. I found some sauce that is like tabasco sauce in a store and even though i didn't even like that before i came here, i was super excited about it because its kind of american and the food here lacks flavor a lot of the time so I put it on everything. So yeah I made tacos and they were really good. Elder Cac enjoyed them too because here no one eats anything spicy ever. So we made them extra spicy.  Last night there was a big soccer game between the two best teams in  Argentina and every time something big happened the whole town erupted in yells ans cheers, haha it was nuts.  All of a sudden everyone was just yelling.  It made me excited for the world cup, but also a little nervous cause it is going to be crazy.  Everything is super good as usual.  I am happy and healthy and learning a lot.  I know I am super blessed and have so much to be grateful for.