Week 88: Cashing it in!

HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WORLD!!!!!!! 

I'm back once again, it's incredible how fast the time is flying, it's Monday once again, and here I am to give you the best and greatest from the World of Elder Slack! It's been a wonderful week this week so we've got some great experiences to share!

This week we were with the ETM's! Whoo!! Do you remember back to a few months ago where I would go to a ton of different areas and all that????? Well, now instead of me going to the area of other missionaries, other missionaries came to my area! Whoo!! It was a great week to tell the truth. We were here this week with Elder Haak, from Wyoming, and Elder Figueroa, from Chile! So we were able to t0 do a ton of work this week with the ETM's. It was great! 

One of the greatest miracles, happened on Saturday, All week we were looking for, talking with and finding a ton of new people to teach, it was incredible! On Saturday I was with Elder Figueroa, we went and we found 2 new families!!! One family of 7 people who are really really great, they were all paying attention and it was awesome. The Sosa family! And the other family was a reference from a member, he said that she has been asking for a while for the missionaries to pass by her house and teach her a little bit, and this time he passed the refferrel along and we went on by when we had an appointment. Her name is Gabriela, she is super super super prepared! We had an incredible lesson with her and her mother and her son. She said "What I really want is a church where we can all go together as a family, be happy, and that is the true church of God." :D What more can you ask for? Well, it just happens that that's exactly what we've got here for you!! So we invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon and we invited her to be baptized when she recieves her answer from God that it's true! We fond 10 new people to teach in one day! WHOO!! I know that God blesses us for our obedience.

Side note, on Thursday night I decided to live on the edge a little bit and try a little bit of weird food that they sell here on the street, it was basically a big fried dough. Well, Friday morning I found out that that wasn't the best idea I've ever had. Talk about food poisoning. Whoo! So I was in bed all day with stomach pains until it all finally decided to come out when I drank some Sprite in the night time and well... It came out the upside not the downside if you know what I mean! Haha! But! Don't worry, I've been eating with a lot more care these days so we're all good now. Few! 

One of the great things that I have learned to apply a lot more this week was something that was taught in the World Training for missionaries. One of the things that Elder Bednar said twice was that all things are 1 in Christ. Many times as members of the church we try and look at things as all different steps, first Faith, then Repentance, then Baptism, etc. etc. one after another, as some sort of checklist. But it's so important to remember that it's all one, without Christ there is no Faith, without faith there is no repentance. We can't talk about the Gospel as separate points, we can't talk about Repentance with out the next thing being Baptism, it just doesn't work. This week I've seen how true that is in the lives of the people, we as missionaries don't do a whole lot of good if we can't talk about the Gospel as one. Really it's all very simple the Gospel, but we have to be willing to accept it in our lives. We need to accept Christ in our lives!

We had Interviews with President this week as well, it went great! Tomorrow I'll only have 2 months left here, I can't deny it! It's so incredible how fast the time has past and I'm so happy that I can be a Missionary and Representative of Jesus Christ. I'm determined to keep enjoying the missionary service until the end! I hope you all know that I love you all! :D Until next week! 

-Elder Slack

P.S. 

We made Fried oreos this week! WHOO! And we found these little tiny eggs in a store, we bought them to see how they are! They taste like.... Well.... Small eggs! And here's a photo of our companionship this week in Celina!

Week 22: Hello World!

Hello to everyone! 

Sorry I haven't been 100% consistent with the letters, but hopefully I can get back on track.

It's been so good here in Argentina, a lot of heat during these past 2 weeks, but it's finally starting to cool down and we can get some good sleep in. There are the hints of fall coming on and the work continues.

This week we've been working a ton, as well we got to have 2 special things. First, I got to return to the hospital, yay!! We went back and we put a date for a micro surgery I have to have on my foot because I've got an ingrown toe-nail (I don't remember if I told you that or not). So that was great, I'll be returning the following week on Monday the 7th, so we'll have to see If we email Monday or Tuesday. The second, Elder Bednar came this week! It was sooo amazing! Elder Bednar a living apostle came and visited here in Buenos Aires. Our mission had the opportunity to go and see him live as he helped us learn so much about teaching by the Spirit and how it is that we can help our investigators learn. It was so incredible to be able to go and see him as we spoke with him. There were about 800 missionaries in the chapel with him, and as well there were around 6000 missionaries from all of the area south america south, which includes Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay! It was amazing to hear him as he taught us and feel the Spirit as we all learned together, there's been a lot of things that I learned that I still need to apply and change, it was so amazing though!

This week we've been working a lot with the investigators that we have, right now we have more or less 8 or 9 investigators. And we worked so hard all of the week so that they could all be ready set to go to the church this past Sunday, we went and...... Not one came. We went to look for a few in their houses, but there wasn't anyone at home. We've been thinking a lot about what it is that we need to change so that they can have the desire to come to the church and become closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. As we were thinking last night in our pension we were clueless. So we decided to go ask our Zone Leaders who are these 2 great missionaries and they work in the same ward with us and live next to us. So we began to talk with them and they gave us some great advice and we did a few practices and we are all ready now to start off another week strong and really strengthen the faith of our investigators that we have here in González Catán!

I've been learning so much here with Elder Ribeiro, my companion from Brasil, he's a "Capo" as they say here, which means essentially a "Stud". We'll just say he's a really really awesome missionary! He came so prepared here for his mission with so much energy and excitement to come and work hard! It's been such a great opportunity to be able work with him. We've got our differences and we disagree sometimes, but we are learning so much together and we are changing and becoming better and better people everyday!

Other than that, the weeks been pretty normal, lots of changing peoples lives, lots of happiness, lots of joy, and of course we can't forget that the food is sooooooo amazing here! The mission life is amazing, being able to dedicate all of my time to something that I learn to love even more everyday is such a great opportunity! I hope you are all great! 

That's all for now!

-Elder Slack

P.S. I robbed my companions camera and took 2 pictures, they aren't amazing pictures, but good enough! There's one of my companion and a selfie of him and I.

 Elder Ribeiro 

 Elder Ribeiro and me!