Week 30: Miracle!

Hey! Wowie oh WOW! What a grand week! Villegas has been treating me pretty well! I love the area here! It's actually not to far from my old are, just a few miles, but it's in a completely different zone/stake. So I've been meeting a lot of different people and it's been so great to meet a bunch of new members and get to know my companion a little bit better. This week has been great! Full of miracles and just so incredible! I'm super excited to be able to work here in Villegas/Aldo Bonzi, my companion Elder Cordeiro is a stud and we'll be looking all over the place to find those people who are ready to accept the gospel!

First things first, I figured I'm going to try to be a little bit more consistent with my letters here, so I'll give you guys first, THE MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: Wow, this one is really hard, because this week has been so full of miracles I don't know which one I should choose. But, here it goes.. We were on our way to the house of an investigator the other day, moving right along and we're walking down the street. We're cruzing along nice and smooth, we approach this young man sitting on the side of the sidewalk on some stairs, everythings normal, no big deal. He says hola, we say hola, pass him bye and we take about 3 steps... BOOM Elder Cordeiro and I, we stop in our tracks, we look at the other and we just know, we've got to turn back. We flip around and we start talking with this young man. His name is Gabriel, he's 18, and for a long period of his life he's had troubles with drugs and a lot of things. We talk to him and everything and he really has a huge desire to change, he wants the help of God in his life. Now we've taught him twice and he's really so great, we'll be working with him so he can progress and we are so excited for him and we are looking forward and helping him prepare for baptism. 

It was such a MIRACLE! We were able to stop in just the right moment, the Spirit just hit us, and we knew, we talked and now we know that we can help him receive the blessings of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! So great!

Outside of that, this week has been amazing, we started out the week with only 2 or 3 investigators and now we're working well with about 7 or 8. We're hoping to be able to find a lot more during this coming week, this ward has such a huge potential to grow and spread I'm so excited to be able to work with Elder Corderio and really help all of these people receive the blessings of God in their lives!

Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, we kind of had a baptism this week! It was amazing! She used to be an eternal investigator, like she's been going to the church for a few years now and really has a strong testimony and everything, but the only thing that was preventing her from being baptized was that she isn't married and is living with this other member of the church. My companion and his other companion sat down and talked with them and worked really well so that now, this past Friday. They got married! And then Saturday Sonia got baptized! It was so great!! I'm so happy for them they are such a great family. Now Elder Cordeiro and I, we are even more excited to be able to go and find more people, more families so that they can be baptized and in a year they can go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity! It's so great to see people progress and receive the blessings that God just has waiting for them.

But anyways! It's been a great week! We also did 2 service projects this week, it's been incredible until now, and I'm sure the rest of the transfer is going to be really great and I'm super excited to be able to work with Elder Cordeiro, he's awesome! 

I love you all! Until next week!

-Elder Slack

Week 29: Villegas!!

HEY!!! Hello world! Sorry, It's been pretty crazy these last few weeks. Today we had transfers! We talked with our zone leaders on Saturday and.... I'm gone! I'm here in my new area right now for the first day. It's been really crazy. My new area is called Villegas A, in the zone/stake of Aldo Bonzi! I am so excited to be able to work here and to be able to serve the people of Villegas with my new companion. And guess what... BRASIL!!! Haha! I'm now with another companion Brasileiro! His name is Elder Cordero, he's from a city really close to Rio de Janeiro. He speaks really well english he studied for 6 years before he came out here for the mission. With the little that we've talked I'm super super stoked to be able to work with him. He has the same amount of time in the mission as my hijo, he just finished his training so we're already to work work work! 

This last week has been the best and worst week of my life. Some of the craziest and coolest things have happened during this last week. Edler Ribeiro and I left the area really really well, we finished it off with a baptism this last saturday and then sunday my last day in the area we had the confirmation of Matias, He's a stud!

Elder Ribeiro and I, whoa, I was able to learn so much form him during these last transfers. It was incredible to be able to serve with him. But as well some of the hardest times to serve with him. We are such good friends but we are so different as well. But now moving on I'm here with Elder Cordero, a good friend of Elder Ribeiro and we are really really excited to work hard here. Elder Cordero tells me this area has a lot of potential, and I believe it! I'm super excited to go out and do everything possible to serve the lord.

As well, a photo update! One of the members in my last ward gave me a camera!! He said he bought a new one and wasn't going to use it anymore, so I'll be sending photos once again to all of you!! Yay!!

I don't know a whole lot about the area or what's going to happen, but I'm  really excited and I'll let you know next week a lot more. But, until then Chua!!

-Elder Slack!

Week 27: Don't make a decision

If you don't know where you will go.

Wow! This week has been amazing, sorry I didn't write you all last week, there isn't much time here. But everything is going great I just wanted to leave you all with a few thoughts. 

Saturday and Sunday we had the opportunity to listen to General Conference! It was so great and something that I really thought about and learned was that we need to know where we are going. I've really been able to learn the idea of goals and plans here on my mission. They are so important! If we don't know where we want to be it doesn't matter where we go. All of our actions and decisions should have an objective or goal in mind!

As well, I'm still living it up here with Elder Ribeiro! He is such a great companion here in González Catán 3B! It is the best! We are soooo different in our opinions and thoughts, but really as we are united in our purpose we have been able to accomplish grand things! I just want all  of you to know that I love you guys! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't just some other church, it isn't just a thing I do because I like it, it is the Church of the Living Son of the Living God! As we choose to follow the teachings of our living prophet we will be blessed now and eternally. Our lives will come to have more of a purpose and you will understand really what you want and what God wants for you! I hope you guys are all great! A lot of love from Argentina!

-Elder Slack!

Elder Stockton Slack and Elder Ribeiro

Keeping it cool...

Photos from: Maria De Los Angeles Fernandez Bevans (thank you!!!)

Week 25: All for one and All for some

Hey!! This Wednesday I've been out for 6 months!! WOW! I can hardly believe it! The time is flying sooooo fast!! It's been so great here on the mission I love every moment!

This past week Elder Ribeiro and I, we've been back up and running to full speed! My toe is all good now, they took out the stitches and everything. Now I just have to make sure that I cut my toe nails really well for the rest of my mission so that I don't have to lose any more time resting! 

This past week has been a week full of everything and nothing at the same time. Every single day Elder Ribeiro and I, we head out of our pension all determined to work and find the people, teach them and change the life of every single person we talk with! So we did the same this week! We left, we talked with a ton of people, but almost everyday we had some sort of activity,  whether it was a district meeting, capilla abierta, we had to go to the hospital, we had our weekly planning, our ward mission correlacion, lots of things going on this week. With the time that we had we were out on the streets looking to bring people to God, teach repentance, baptize converts, all the good stuff. We worked sooo much this week, we were working working working, we passed by the house of all of our investigators almost everyday, we taught as many lessons as we could find, and then came yesterday. The last day of the week, we sit down to plan for today, we look at the week and how everything went, we count up the numbers from all of our key indicators/goals and!!!..... Wow, for all the work we have been doing the week looked almost like we sat around in our pench all day and only went working one day during the week. Hahaha! But I guess that's how it goes sometimes. We're still really determined and really working hard, we've got our goals all fixed and ready and we're trying to figure out some sort of new game plan, we're seeking out and getting rid of any disobedience, we're all ready to start off another week! 

It's been really good here in González Catán, the weather has been cooling down a lot, and now we are preparing for the winters, the food is still great the members are still great! I love being a missionary!!

This week as well!!!! Camila was baptized!! YAY!!!!! It was so great! She's been able to figure a few things out recently and has been able to come to church all on her own now, and she had her baptism yesterday!! My companion baptized her and it was really such a great moment to see her so happy and shining all day! It was a great feeling, and now she needs to come the next week on Sunday to be confirmed a member of La Iglesia de Jesuscristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Días!! Now we are going to try and work with her children as well, they are a little bit hard to work with, they have a lot of energy and are a little bit wild, but we're here to help them too! 

It's all great here in el Gran Catán! The time truly does fly and I'm trying to take advantage of the short time I have here to help the most people that I can! I hope you all know I love you! As well you should all watcht the church video about Easter! It's great!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-02-1000-hallelujah-an-easter-message-about-jesus-christ?lang=eng

Chau!

-Elder Slack

P.S. A photo from the baptism.