just a day in the life: Argentina Update

Hey all!!

I went and saw the penguins again today, so I'm a bit late. It was so much fun! We rented a little mini bus with our whole zone this time and went out. Unfortunately, 3 of the boys were real sick, and my Imodium and Metamucil wouldn't help them too much. But we all enjoyed it, and I touched a penguin again and this time I have evidence because my camera is still in my possession!

All is going well down here. The Zone leaders moved in with us a week and that has been fun having them in with us. Its a lot more messy, but it is a lot easier to unwind at the end of the day and have a good laugh before bed hearing stories and telling about good contacts and stuff.

We've been working hard still down here. Friday I went on divisions with Elder Evans, our zone leader who ends his mission in 2 weeks. He was really good to work with for a day because it let me be the junior companion for a bit and not have to do everything. It was a good recharging day, and I was able to learn a lot from him and the way he does his work. It was a great day.

We found a lot of new investigators this week and I am curious to see what happens with all of them. Normally, 95 percent of them no show us on our appointments or just tell us to come back another time or tell us to go away. But we got 17 new investigators this week, and some of them are really legit. I hope this is kinda the burst through we need and have been waiting for. Its really tough when you don't have many people to teach. Our fechas went up to neuquen for the weekend, so we didn't get to see them for about a week. Other than them, we've started with Julia again to see if she can start progressing. She has read 7 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the past week and a half, but she hasn't been to church in a long long time. Were always trying with her, and I know her life can become so much better with this gospel but she just doesn't understand that no matter if its us teaching it or the 3 different members we have brought over to teach her. We'll see what happens with her.

Having a new companion is tough work. Its week 5 and we still haven't really connected yet. We are pretty different personalities, and he is still learning the language, so its always a fun experience everyday. We´re working on getting closer and loving the people and positive attitudes. Luckily, basically every missionary wants to succeed, so we both have the same end goal in mind. We´re probably going to have one more transfer together, so we are just going to have to do some team building or something!

Dad- Sounds like a fun experience splitting the ward. That's a big change, huh? I'm glad faethy stopped by. I hope he's doing well—I miss that kid! There is an elder down here that reminds me of him. But he isn't quite as cool. Ha-ha. I'm looking forward to hearing from him!

Mama—that's tough about the economy... hopefully everyone survives these cuts! Sounds like I picked a good time to jet out of the country. We feel some of it here... our prices rise pretty frequently too. I loved the Noche de Hogar package!! There is some really good stuff in there that I'm really excited to use. We've played the flour game and the animal game.... its always really fun!

Big news of the week and most exciting thing for me—Matias always wants us to come over and this week we challenged him to read the whole book of Mormon. I was ready to set the goal for the end of the year or something, but he said he will do it before I leave in April. That's about 10 pages a day, and I was a bit skeptical. But as of yesterday at church, he was way ahead of schedule! He was on page 57, which is about 9 pages infront! I am really excited for him. He just keeps wanting to learn and learn and learn. He also really wants to go on a mission. It makes me appreciate a lot the influence I can have on people here, that people will completely change their lives for the message we share. It keeps me humble, knowing that at any second someone could be in our path that is ready to hear the Gospel and change their life too. It is such an exciting work, even when we aren't teaching that many people!

We had a noche de encuentro this week and it went well. We had about 15 members and 1 investigator and we taught a lesson one with 4 or 5 member testimonies scattered throughout. It was a good spirit we felt, and all the members really liked it. Hopefully it will help animate them to get out and start sharing a bit of the gospel with their friends! We've gotten about 6 or 7 references in the past month, so were doing better in that regard.

Other than that, not too too much is different. Still learning, still teaching, not as hot, still loving life!!