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.   

Week 20~

Buendia!

Estaba pensando en escribiendo mi correo en Castellano pero despues pense que problamente nadie podria entender que estaba deciendo entonces voy a terminarlo en ingles!

This week was quite the week of rejection and failure and cancelled appointments haha.. It was kind of a tough week and I think there is a lot that Elder Cac and I can improve on to see more results this week. But I also have to work on not being too hard on myself when others reject our message. But we are working hard and we have a few investigators that have potential. We are working with a guy named Julio who is super awesome and is really familiar with the church because he drives a van that the church always uses to make trips to the temple and what not so the only thing that he needs is to recognize the answer to his prayers. He really likes everything about the church and is willing to follow the truth, he just needs to recognize the answer, so pray for Julio. He is married and has three cute little kids, they are an awesome family. And he was super excited that i know how to play chess so we are going to play sometime haha. 

This week I ate duck for the first time which was super good, enjoyed that. And i also found the best facturas (little pastries) that I am probably going to be eating a lot of. They are bread with dulce de leche inside and powdered sugar on top. So good. 

Story of the week: I got kissed by a drunk old man.. It was awful. We were walking in the street and all the drunks love us here for some reason. I think its cause we always say hi to them. But he comes up to greet us and he's all excited and he is talking in drunk spanish which is still kind of hard for me to understand. I have gotten sober spanish pretty much down but drunk spanish is a little different. And it didn't help that he didn't have any teeth, but he shook my hand and then started going in for the kiss on the cheek and I got all weird and backed away.. As any normal person would.. And then he got kind of sad and asked if he could give me a kiss on the cheek and I don't know why on earth i did but i felt bad and allowed him to give me a kiss on the cheek. And let me tell you, he really planted one on me.. It was way too long. It was the worst. The funny  part was that afterwards Elder Cac had to let him give him a kiss too haha.. But yeah it was awful.. I have since recovered I am pretty sure.

I am loving every day here! My gratitude for this opportunity grows every day and I know that I couldn't be doing anything better with these two years!

Se que este evangelio que estoy compartiendo es el Evangelio de Jesucristo y por medio sus enseñanzas podemos ser felices en este vida y tambien tener un seguridad que estamos en el camino de Dios. Estoy tan agredecido por mi Salvador, Jesucristo. El sufrio para que podemos vencer nuestros debilidades y llegar a ser como nuestro Padre Celestial. Amo Jesucristo, Amo mi Padre Celestial, y amo la obra en que estoy! 

Les amo mucho! Que tengan un buena semana!

Con mucho cariño, Elder Cushman

Week 19~

This week was super good. My comp and I get along really well, we are pretty different but in a good way, I think we complement each other really well in our teaching and in our personalities, which is a little different from Elder Saez because we were really similar..

This week we were very busy helping members of the ward as well as visiting all of the members so that Elder Cac can get to know them better. We helped build a house for this one family which was several hours of work for a couple days in a row and it was pretty tough but Edgardo did basically all of the work. Edgardo offered to basically build the house for this family at a price that was so low that it basically covered the costs of the materials and paid for his friends to help him. Edgardo works out in the campo so he knows all about that stuff so he basically did everything and he had two friends helping him and Elder Cac and I helped where we could. And in three days we built the whole frame of the house which was so cool to see. This member has been waiting and saving up for this to happen for like two years now and it has finally happened for her, there have been so many miracles along the way that have happened to make it possible.

It was amazing to see the amount of service that Edgardo was willing to give to the members, literally the week in between being baptized and being confirmed. He is seriously such an example to me of someone who gives everything. He is always thinking of others and serving. Its so cool to see how God works. He had to help the missionaries to find Edgardo in order for Edgardo to help this family have a home. 

Yesterday we were with Edgardo and Eva and they were telling us how they feel like we are their sons haha and its true, they are like my family here. They are always giving us food and taking us places in their truck to help us out, they are super sweet. Also yesterday I was sitting in their kitchen and all of the sudden a chicken jumped on my lap and it freaked me out cause it was so unexpected haha but it was funny. 

Lots and lots and lots of animals here. Still don't really love them though, but I have definitely become more comfortable with them.Everything is good here!  I am loving the mission. I am so happy all the time.  The church is true! 

Photos from Feliciano~