Week 55: A storm is coming Mr. Wayne

HELLO! Hey hey! Welcome back all of you to this weeks news, coming straight from Argentina where you can get all the up's and down's, all of the left's and the right's, and if you even want we can give you the zig-zag's! Coming up right now straight from the life of Elder Slack, don't miss a chance like this to hear directly from me what's been going on!

Well well my friends and family, this last week there have been some mild changes in the mission. We received an email from our mission president this last week, there have been a few changes in the rules! We now have the exclusive opportunity to listen to only music from the Mormon tabernacle choir, or from the church! WOW!! #blessed! Am I right or am I right? As well, a few other changes, in the photos that we take, president has asked the we always look like representatives of Jesus Christ, because we are! So, I guess you will all have to say farewell to the funky faces of Elder Slack because we're just going to be all smiles here :D!! As well, we are not going to be having any more zone activities, we can have 1-2 district activities every transfer, Disney movies, that would be a no, because we are going to be having cleaner and safer and more productive activities from now on!! WHOO!! :D And as well, we can't visit the temple, even with investigators only if we have a convert who goes to receive their endowments or be sealed or if we go with the mission president. A few changes, but we're all good! It's all for the better of all the things! WHOO!!

Anyways, outside of that this week we've been doing a ton of prep for a ward mission activity that we are going to have this week, we're going to put on something that's called a Kermese here, it's like a fair or carnival type thing, but we're going to do it in the church, all of the members are going to invite tons of friends and family and we are hoping that we can help all of the people to get to know the inside of the church, and we are going to relate it to the plan of Salvation. Everyone will be given a certain amount of tickets, they can play all the games they want, and depending on how well they do on the games they will receive a ticket of a different color, at the end of it all the different colors will represent the different prizes that they will receive, the prize will represent the three kingdoms of glory. It's going to be great!!

And!! Just to make this week even better than ever, we had exchanges, you are not going to believe with who! With ELDER CORDEIRO!!! WHOO!! Yup! With my old companion from back in Villegas Elder Cordeiro! It was super great, he's a district leader here in our zone so we got to go on exchanges and be companions again for a day! It was super awesome, we got to remember a few of the fun and crazy things we did back in Villegas and we got to see how much we have both grown and changed!! It was great!!

On Thursday, we had a super Family home evening in the ward, Elder González and I, we put on a little musical show, we put on santa hats and we were able to sing a Christmas hymn for part of the ward. And we planned with those who were there what kinds of activities we can do as a ward to help the other people get to know the church through the Christmas season!!

And, the week's fun doesn't stop there, on Friday we had interviews with our mission president! Presidente Calquín! He's super awesome, I can see that he really loves every one of the missionaries and has lots of desires that we can become even great than we are! And in the same day we received a little bit of training from the assistants to the president, wow, I mean WOW! We did a practice of a whole lesson, it was super great, we learned a ton from what they taught us!!

And, I think I told you last week that we were going to have a baptism, well..... The investigator didn't come to the interview again! NOO!! So close! But we understand, he's 81 years old, what can you expect? We're hoping that this week we can get things together and he can be baptized this weekend. 

Anyways, it's been an incredible week, full of miracles and fun! This week is the last week of the transfer, so probably my last week with Elder González, but I'm still super excited to keep working hard here with my new companion if I get one!! Anyways, until next week, we'll be seeing us!! I'm still in search of a camera, so we'll see what we can find. Anyways! Chau chau!!

-Elder Slack

Week 52:

Hello World!!

Hey! It's Elder Slack once again, here to tell you what's going on in the Argentina world!! I hope you are all ready because this week has been super duper full of everything you can think of!!

First things first, we started Monday off with some good old bike problems, my companion paid for a few repairs and when I showed the bike man my bike for normal maintenance and he told me that it's better to throw my bike in the trash and buy a new one than to repair the things that are out of line. Whoo! Haha! So we talked to the pensioneros real quick and they said that they'd hook me up with a new bike some time soon, don't know when, but sometime!

And well, the rest of the week was pretty much normal running around, teaching repentance to the people of Alejandro-Korn, changing lives, seeing angels, you know, all that good stuff. I'll tell you real quick about the people that we taught this week.

Luciano, the child who's family is less active, he's super awesome, we keep teaching him and we are working with him so he can be baptized, but his family just doesn't come to the church, so we'll be seeing where that goes.  

Olindo, is the brother of one of the recent converts, super prepared and wants to be baptized, but..... He disappeared off the face of the earth this week! NO!! Ahh! We're not quite sure what happened, but we're hoping that his family can find him in his house this week, we're not sure if he got sick or something like that, but he just didn't show up at his family's house, where he normally goes 4 or 5 times a week. Weird right?

And Silvia and Brian! We had 2 lessons with them this week, both of them at the end of the day, they are super awesome, Brian is the son of Silvia, he is 15 years old, and just needs some friends, which he can surely find the the Church! And Silvia is just looking for some peace and happiness in her family, which also she can find in the Gospel! Whoo! We're hoping they can be baptized during November if they keep progressing.

Sharon, the all star child, she is 11, she's going to be baptized with her brothers the 26th of November with her brother and sister that are going to turn 8, She's praying really really well and they are reading the book of mormon for kids!

Matias and Camila, they are going to get married in January! It's a little ways away, but we're hoping that Camila can feel comfortable and ready to be baptized before then. Matias was less active, Camila is his future wife. They're awesome!! This week I ate the Kidney of a Cow for the first time with them! It wasn't that bad actually!

And well we're working with a few more people too. The biggest miracle of the week, Silvia is her name, why a miracle?? Well She's married!! Whoo!! The majority of the people who live here aren't married,if you didn't know, they are just boyfriend girlfriend and then decide to live together. But she is married whoo!! She was a referral from a member here, the member introduced her to us and we were able to teach her Saturday and we invited to her come to church the next day and she came!!! The member passed by her house in the morning and they came walking together!! Whoo!! It was awesome, she really liked the church and we're hoping to teach her husband and the rest of her family this week too! 

And well then, that's a lot about the investigators, but I guess I am here for them. Not much else happened this week. Oh yeah, on Thursday in a family home evening of the ward someone to remain unnamed who may or may not be one of the other missionaries in the ward here, "accidentally" knocked my camera on the floor and now it doesn't really work... sad face. But that's alright, I'll look around to see if I can find a used camera or a missionary that wants to give me theirs. I've got some other pictures from the rest of the week before that though. It's been a great week! Elder González and I, we're getting ourselves all ready for another great transfer here in the zone, super stoked, it's going to be great. Elder Cordeiro my old companion, and Elder Hall my companion from the MTC are both District Leaders here in the zone! Whoo! Anyways, until next week I hope I can write you guys! Much love, Chau!!

-Elder Slack

P.S. Some photos from the ward activity of halloween (my companion as "santa" and I as I don't know) And some other photos from the week.

Week 48: Living the Alejandro Korn Dream!!

Hey everyone! 
I've only got 2 minutes left so I'll write super fast!! I'm zone leader, I got transferred, I'm in the zone of Longchamps and It's super great! We've got bikes and my companion is from Viña del mar Chile!!! It's super awesome here the ward is super great! I love you all and hope to be able to write more next week, I'm going to through some pictures on real quick! Chau! (my companion told me that I can spell chau with U or O, so we're all good!

-Elder Slack

P.S. I met up with Elder Cordeiro!! He's in our Zone and we went and had another Capilla Abierta on Saturday!! It's raining a ton and there is a ton of mud in our area! The mud gets all stuck in the bikes and everything!

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 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 31: The week of everything!

Hello! Still here in Argentina!

I've been having a great time in my new area with my new companion Elder Cordeiro, he's a stud! We've been working really hard and we're really dedicated to the work, so we're hoping to see success by the end of this transfer. 

This week has been full of so many different things. Really though. so full. It's been so exciting to serve here in villegas. The members here are amazing, so loving and caring for the missionaries, It's such a blessing to have a ward where everyone wants to preach the gospel!

Well, what did we do this week, well, first off. THE MIRACLE OF THE WEEK: Yesterday, well, for the whole week me and my companion we were really really focused on our goal to find new investigators, we put the goal to find 15 new investigators during the whole week, it was a really good week, all was going well, but when yesterday came, we had only found 5 new investigators for the week. So, what do we do?? We decided, we have to find 10 investigators, we just have to! It was incredible, we were able to work the whole day, we had like 10 extra minutes before lunch, so we're like "Let's go!" And we bopped around really quick and we stumbled upon this family that were all sitting outside their house cooking up their asado for the sunday, and BAM! We slid right in their and taught them, BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM 6 new investigators in 1 lesson!! That's what I'm talking about! Then later that day, we're bopping around some more looking for some gold references we received from one of our other investigators and we pass by this group of guys playing futbol on the street. BAM! We slide right on over and talk them up a bit, BAM BAM! 2 more new investigators!! We're on a good run! We now have surpassed the amount we had the week before. And then, we pass on by the house of a member to use the bathroom real quick, they give us some diamond references of their neighbors who heard the missionaries before. Then as we are leaving, the hermana comments that this kid who is posted up on a car about 20 feet away needs a little help as well. Well, one can't simply resist that no? We slide right on over, we teach him standing in the sidewalk, BAM! We only need 1 more investigator!!! We're soooooo close, and we still have 2 and a half hours!! We go on a hunt, looking high and low! There has to be someone else who is in need of missionaries at this hour! We searched without success for 2 hours, we've got 30 minutes left! We're looking and looking! And then.... Who comes to mind?? None other than willey! Who's willey you might ask? Well, we had talked with him the other day, he's an old investigator, his wife is member but less-active. Well, we pass by his house... and.... BAM, actually he's super drunk, we enter in his house and teach something, but we didn't count it as a new investigator because, I don't think this morning he remembers any of the things that we taught him. Haha! But yeah. That's the miracle of the week! As we search in faith we can find!

As well, just a quick fun fact, here in my area of Villegas A, there are a ton of paraguayos, or people from paraguay, they are super great, and make some delicious food. I tried this soy coffee this week, from a member.  It's not coffee, it's just called that, it doesn't have caffeine or anything, super duper delicious. 

Anyways. I hope you are all great! I love you guys!!

-Elder Slack

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