Week 39: Trio Baby!

Hey hey everyone!

This week has been super crazy, a few changes coming along now, this last tuesday we had a quick last meeting with our Mission presidente Thrugood and his wife! It was so amazing they have served and loved us so much!! Presidente Thurgood and his wife are from Idaho, but I think they are going to live in Centerville Utah after the mission, I don't really know. 

As well, we started off strong on Monday with our Zone activity, where we prepared a song to sing for Presidente Thrugood, created and directed by yours truly. My companion and I we put together this great song this past week it was a mash-up of Señor te necesito (I need thee every hour in spanish) Brillan Rayos de Clemencia(Spanish of Brightly beams our fathers mercy) And then we sung the last verse in English I need thee every hour with the melody of Brightly beams our fathers mercy. It was so great!!!

We had another week full of interesting Inter-cambios, I think they are called Exchanges in English, I'm not sure. But I went with Elder Phillips from here in our district, we live in the same pension, so that's pretty easy. And then later in the week I went with one of the zone leaders Elder Tipaz from Ecuador! That's was a really cool experience. After everything what I really learned from all of it was that as a leader, a lot of the time I have a lot of freedom. If I want to motivate and inspire the people to be better missionaries or to perform better, I have to think of the way to do it, there aren't a ton of guidelines, it's just like they throw me out here and are like "Go for it son! I know you can do it!" A little like at the start of the mission! Haha! But it is super great!! I love it!!

As well My companion and I we were able to cook up this delicious Brazilian food this week, it's called Stroganoff, it's like this curry, but you put cream of milk and tomato sauce and we made it with chicken, then you put it all over rice. It's soooooo Good! I think I've learned how to cook more Brazilian food than Argentine food while I've been here! Haha!

This week I've been thinking a lot about how none of our efforts are wasted. That as we work and as we invite the people to know more about the Gospel, it's really their choice if they will accept it or not. Our job as missionaries is to do our best and to find the people that are prepared for the Gospel in their lives! I'm so grateful to be able to be here and serve with 100% of my time in Argentina!

We've got transfers coming up in two weeks, if things go without a surprise I should be staying here and my companion should be heading out, he's been here for 6 months now. So we'll see how things work, but just last night we had quite the surprise!

We were doing our daily planning and we received a call from one of the assistants, he tells us that one of the elders from our district has his arm broken and has to end his mission 2 weeks early so we'll be in a trio for the next two weeks with his companion! Whoo!! Elder Cordeiro and I will be working with Elder Torricella these next two weeks! We're pretty excited! 

But as all good things do, my time here has come to an end. Investigator update, this past week was a little discouraging as none of our investigators that we had planned came to church, but we continue working hard and improving! WHOOO!!! I'm so happy to be a missionary and full time servant of the Lord! I love you all so much!! Keep it all real!! Chau!! 

Elder Slack

Ps. No photos this week, there's no time, I'll send some next week. But lot's of cold and rain here! 

Week 38: El TEMPLO!!

What a week it has been indeed! I've got lots to tell and little time to tell it, so I'm going to try and type really really fast!

This week we started off with a great P-day, we had our actividad de Distrito, (district activity) It was pretty awesome, different than what we had planned, but it was good. We made some great pizzas, and we watched the new disney movie Zootopia, it was way good. I'm not sure if it is out on disc there yet, but the movies here come out of nowhere from the street venders with there illegally copied movies so yeah. It was great though! 

The rest of the week has been filled with a few different things, but first a quick investigator update, 

we're still working with Juana and Gustavo, they are super great we are going to have a family home evening with them tonight, they still need to go to church and get married, but we're seeing good progress with them. 

As well we are working with Pamela still, the miracle from the Capilla abierta, she is sooooo amazing, we taught her about the plan of salvacion this week and the whole time was asking all of the right questions and asking questions that are a lot more complex than the normal investigators that we have here, and she is only 12, so that's pretty amazing! We're hoping that she can be baptized here in July, but her dad still is thinking about giving permission.

As well we are working with this great man and his family, his name is Vicente, it's like Vincent, but in Castellano :P He's super great, he has lot's of desires to know more, he's having a little bit of trouble know with work and everything, but he's super excited to go to church this next week!

As well we are working still with Fidel and with his daughter, he is really great, he is accepting and remembering everything really well, but.... He didn't come to church this last week and it was so sad. But we'll keep working with him!

As well we are working with Agustin and Patricia, we had talked with only Patricia once this last Saturday and she said only she would be able to go to church, be we were just starting the Gospel Principles class and BAM! In walks both of them!! Whoo! It's so great!

Those are the main investigators! It's the best thing to teach the people here and to invite them to come unto Christ. It's the best!!

Outside of that, really quick I've gotta give a shout out to the best dad in the world, I'm not sure when Father's day is in the USA, but it was yesterday here in Argentina! I Love you Dad so much! You are the best!!

As well, we had a Zone Conference this past week, we all went to the temple and we did a session and then we were able to have a good discussion for like 2 hours in this other building really close! It was the second to last time that we are going to see our mission president, he is going to leave this week and the new one comes in. We'll see him and his wife this wednesday. They are so awesome, I have learned so much from them! 

And this morning, we got a surprise visit from the Hermana Thurgood the wife of the president! Her and the secretary of the mission passed on by to do a 5 minute inspection to make sure we are maintaining our apartments really well and everything! It was awesome! And they gave us a kit kat!

Anyways, there's not a lot of time, but I went on 2, I don't know what they are called in english, but inter-cambios in spanish, like a split or something like that. With 2 elders in our district this week! I love learning and serving the Lord! I love you guys!! 

Chau!!

some members gave us some food to eat and the end of the night in our pench, so we ate the four of us!

this is the kit kat

Week 37: President

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd let you know that I'm enjoying a ton being on the mission, it's the best thing in the entire world

This week in my life I've had a few exciting things happen, but overall we've been doing lots of missionary things! Whoo!! I kind of realized as well that I haven't told you anything about our investigators or like how often we teach or anything, so I'll try and fill you in a little bit. 

Right now we've got about 12 different investigators, I'd say the hardest part with working here is that the people don't have a lot of time. It's hard, depending on the person, to find them in their houses, but overall we get to teach a lot.

We been working with this man and his wife, but they are really young so I don't know if you'd say man. But they are living here and they are really amazing. Gabriel has been having problems in the past with drugs and things like that and now he is living together with his girlfriend Laila. They are really awesome, really dedicated to learn and they've got a little boy that's 9 months old. We haven't been able to find them this last week though, so we'll have to see how that all goes.

As well we are working with an old investigator that was investigating the church a few years ago. He's from Paraguay and now he lives here with his family. He's really interested in the church and knows that it is something important for his life. He's got a little bit of a brain problem where he forgets things sometimes, but he's really awesome, his name is Fidel, and he lives with his wife and kids and he's been progressing a lot and he's normally in his house so we can find him pretty easily. He wants to be baptized too!

In another part of the ward we are working with this couple, their names are Gustavo and Juana. They are this amazing couple always working, but we are able to find them at the end of the day. They love hearing about the Gospel and are really talkative. As well their daughter has a little bit of interest as well. They weren't able to come to church yesterday because they had to work, but they are super excited to go this next week, and we are going to pass on by tonight to talk with them some more!!

As well we've been teaching Pamela, this girl that is 12 years old, she is super excited about everything that has to do with the church, she is always reading in the Book of Mormon, she's actually almost finished it now! She came to church yesterday and had a super time being there with the young women and as well the president of the young women is super excited to have another young woman here and is working a lot with her so that she can be all ready for her baptism and be really active in the activities that we have here in the ward!! She's planning on being baptized the 25th or the Saturday that is close to that!

And we've got a few other investigators as well that are pretty new, as well we are working with this other couple, Patricia and Agustin, Patricia is already a member, but less active, we are working with Agustin right now so that we can teach him and so that he can understand better the church and to reactivate Patricia and he can be baptized too.

This week has been great!! 1 Highlight of the week, on Thursday we were able to go visit a few people with our mission president, President Thurgood. We will be changing presidents here in a few weeks so we've got our zone conference this week in the temple and he helped us out teaching with us and teaching us so that we can become better servants of God. It was super great to go and see him teach and everything! He really is an amazing man! We'll be getting a new mission president this month, he's from Chile. I'm super excited to go to the temple this week!!

Elder Cordeiro and I we've been working really hard here. I've been helping him out a lot with his English, he speaks really well already, he took 6 years of English classes in Brazil, and now I'm helping him with his conversations and things like that. And as well, he is in turn teaching me a little bit of Portuguese! It is so cool! I can almost completely understand Portuguese because it is so similar to Spanish, and I can converse pretty well with him as well now. It's pretty great. 

All of this week has been full of fun, my companion and one of the other Elders in my pension got sick this week. On Tuesday we took a quick trip to the hospital and everything. We all crammed into a little tiny car on the way there and back, like a taxi type thing. And spent the day there, they did some tests on my companion and stuff, they said that it could be appendicitis, but after the tests they just said it was something like gastromnoitis, or some weird name like that, essentially he ate some food that was weird or drunk some bad water. But that's what happened, so we spent a day there. But now he's all good and we're working a ton!!

It's been getting pretty cold here as well, I have now determined that I essentially hate the humidity, Argentina is great, but the humidity no! Because when it gets cold.... IT IS COLD!!! We've been bundling up everyday and winter hasn't even arrived yet. The members tell us that this is one of the coldest winters that they have ever had here! They said there are chances of snow!! Whoo!! Haha! But it's all great here in villegas!

I love you all! Have a great week!!!

-Elder Slack

Week 36: Fun in the Mud

Hey hey! How's everyone going! 

It's been another great week in the missionary life of Elder Slack. On a scale of 1-10 I'd have to say it was an 8 of a week. So that's pretty good right! I'll try and sum up some of the most exciting things that happened this week, but overall we'll see how this turns out

Tuesday: We were heading out to teach some amazing people and it was around 6 o'clock, just starting to get dark, we were all geared up in our cold weather clothes. And we just barely get into our area when we look over and see a car stuck in the middle of the mud. We headed on over to help them out. We tried in many different ways to push pull or put rocks underneath to give it some grip, but nothing really seemed to help. Before we finally got it unstuck there had to come... about 9 teenagers passing by to try and push, a little car that couldn't do much and then finally something that is called the Gendarmeria. It's sort of like the police, but like 1step above it's essentially the people's army that they help out with lots of stuff and they had to come in with their huge truck and everything. Pretty sweet, but when all was done, we were a little lot messy, we had to run to the church to teach English classes.

As well, we've been working with our new investigator Pamela, she's this golden investigator who is 12 years old. She knows a ton of things. Came to church yesterday, but when she asked permission from her Dad, he put a few rules. One of which is that she can't get baptized yet. So, we'll be talking with him sometime this week if we can find him. Haha! But all in the time of the lord!

As well, with my new assignment to be District leader, I had to go this week on Thursday to a meeting with all of the district leaders and the president of our mission. It was way good, we were able to talk and I know a little bit better about how I can be a better missionary and leader now as well.I'm super excited to learn lots of new things and help out all of our District. 

Speaking of our District, my companion and I had an opportunity the other day to help out some Elders in our district. They called us up as we were in the middle of our Language study this last Saturday night and they tell us that they ate some bad chicken and one of them has been throwing up all day. They asked us to pick up some peaches because that is recommended to help, or at least the juice in the can, when you are a little sick. After completing that little mission we felt pretty good being able to help other people is always good!!

As well we had stake conference here in our ward this last week! It was amazing! We had this seventy come who was from Chile, and as well all of the people who talked were able to teach some amazing things, and on top of all of that, we had 3 investigators there with us as they were talking. They talked a ton about the importance of the family and shared some great experiences! It was such an amazing conference! As they were talking about the families I thought about my family and as well I realized that all of the people here are our family, Me and my companion have to take care of all of the investigators and help them to grow and become better people! 

It's the best to be a missionary!! I love you all!! Thanks!!

-chau!!

Week 35: Keep bringing on the Brasil!

HELLOS to everyone!!

Elder Slack here once again, and as you may know, this past week was the transfers!! And guess what! Elder Cordeiro and I we'll be keeping house here in Villegas A! Let's go!! I'm now going 6 months, it'll be with this transfer, that I have a companion Brazileiro! I'm hoping to learn to converse this transfer in Portuguese, I've got down the basics, I'll be helping my companion a lot with English and he'll keep teaching me portuguese, It's really really close to Español so should be fun!!

I don't have a ton of time right now, but we've been working really hard here in Villegas! I'm really loving the area and my companion, we're growing a lot together and becoming better servants of the Lord!!

A few highlights of the week, we were able to do a few service projects this past week, we helped the bishop clean up after he's been doing a lot of construction on his house and we helped clean out the church. We're working a lot right now to contact all of the referrals from the capilla abierta, we've got so many people and so many names to find, SOOOOOO much work to do here there is literally no time for almost anything! It's so great!!

Yesterday was a day a little difficult for the people to come to the church, it rained a ton and where the people live in our ward it's all dirt roads so that all just turned into mud, and there is hardly anyone with cars in our ward. So, there weren´t a ton of people, but we had a great class that the bishop gave where he said one of my favorite quotes I think "The gospel doesn't work for convenience, but by obedience!" Which is so true!! God blesses us when we are obedient, it doesn't matter if it is convenient for us or not, if we put the Lord first in all things all will be well!!

Miracle of the week: We were contacting the referencias from the capilla abierta and we went to contact this one girl that is 12 years old, we searched and searched and searched and we just could not find her house!! We were just about to give up when this woman walking by heard us saying here name and said "Pamela, oh she lives right here!" and walked into a house that was 2 houses away! We talked with the girl and she told us that she had recently moved from Paraguay and that she had been investigating the church and everything, but moved just before she could be baptized. She told us she knows the church is true, is super excited to got to the church again, always saw us passing by but was always to afraid to come and talk to us! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! The Lord truly prepares the people.

That's pretty much it, lot's of great things happening here in Villegas!! Here's a few photos of us in our area that we have to take discretely because we don't want anyone to rob our cameras. All is well!!

-Elder Slack

Lots of mud!

Elder Cordeiro and more mud!

Cheeeeeese!!!!

Happy missionaries...even in the mud and rain

Oh, and I forgot to say, I got a new assignment!! I will be serving as District Leader during this following transfer!! I am so excited to have this responsibility and help the people in our District grow their testimonies as they help me grow mine so that we can help even more people everyday!!

Chau!!

Week 34: Capilla Abierta Round 2!

WHOO! Hey hey to everyone! We've been having a great time here this last week! It's been full of lots and lots of planning. This last Saturday we had what's called a capilla abierta, or for those of you who don't speak castellano, an Open Church. It's essentially like a big open house for the church. Haha! It was super great. We had one in my last ward and now we've had one here in Villegas, but this time it was even bigger. Here are all the people!

So, as you can see, lots of people. Haha! It was super great, we had to prepare the whole entire week getting all of the plans and materials ready, then Saturday came and it was amazing!! We have 2 wards here in our church that share the same building. And we are super close here to the temple and the MTC of Argentina. So we had all of the missionaries of our zone come, and as well all of the Latino missionaries from the MTC here and they all came to help us out. It was a super missionary activity. Pretty legit if I do say so myself, which I do. But anyways at the end of the day we received somewhere near 175 referrals of people that we can visit during this upcoming week that either went to the church itself or we contacted on the road! 

As well other exciting events of the week, we were walking down the road the other day and we stopped to see if one of our investigators was home. We knocked on the door and there wasn't anyone, so my companion started writing a note to leave her and I looked around, this man was looking at us a little strange and kind of funny, so what do I do? Obviously I need to talk to him. I walk up to him and introduce myself and.... He starts talking in English to me! What in the world? I could hardly understand him with his thick paraguayo and Argentino accent, but he got the message through, we talked for a little bit and he told us that he is from paraguay, lives now in Argentina, but lived in Burmingham England (cough, mission of my sister Lara cough) for 11 years, and he also commented that he's got a girlfriend from Russia. He turned out to be very interested and now we're going to meet up with him this coming week! We'll see how it goes!

Miracle of the week (or something close to that): This last Wednesday we were looking for a few people and on the way we approached this young man sitting on the ground in front of his house, BAM we start talking with him, and he says "Whoa whoa, I don't sell drugs and you're not going to get any information out of me!" Well, we tell him we're just missionaries and all and we talk a bit more, he is super chill and has some interesting thoughts about life and everything. We ask him what makes him happy, he tells about his love for music and that he actually loves to rap. "Can you rap for us right now" we asked, and he told us "If you can beatbox" well, what do 2 young missionaries do? We look at the other and then I look back at him and we start beatboxing! And he started rapping in spanish! It was the coolest ever! I've never heard anyone rap in spanish!! Haha! We talked some more, at the end of things he said his mom needs more help than he does, so we're going to return to talk with her another day! But it was legit!

Other than that this week has been full of lots and lots of contacting, our zone put the goal that everyone companionship can do 100 contacts during this week, my companion and I, we only need 20 more before tomorrow morning so we're going pretty strong!

It's been great here! The next week is transfers so we'll see what happens! Love you all!! Chau chau!

-Elder Slack

That's me and the fog yesterday morning

me and a dog because there are lots of dogs here!