Week 82: WHAT?

Hey! 

Baptism this week! Maria!

Not much time right now, but I did Skype yesterday with my family!! Yay! It was awesome!

Umm.... We're focusing on finding a ton of new investigators now, so we'll see what comes up this week!

Elder Garcia and I are super bien! (Super well for those of you who don't speak spanish) I'm super happy here! It's the best to be able to help the people here in Villa-Celina! No time left, but here are a few photos! Love you guys!! Chau!!

-Elder Slack

Week 76: A week without breath

Heyllo everyone! (yes that's a new word I just invented, combining hey and hello)

It's been a great amazing week here in Villa-Celina! It's been so crazy how fast this week passed by. On Friday we had a Zone Conference and Activity, so that took almost all day. Then Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference which was super great! 

 

I don't have a ton of time so I'll share some quick highlights. A bunch of investigators came to the conference! It was awesome, on Sunday morning we went running (literally running sometimes) to all of their houses to wake them up and to tell them to go to where the bus was going to take them to the stake center, that was super crazy. But sadly as well a bunch of investigators decided to go do other things on the sabbath day... Sad face. But! We're going to call them to repentance this week so that they can come to church this sunday! 

I loved conference! One of my favourite talks was by Elder Costa (you can read or watch it here), if you saw it you'll know why. And especially because we were sitting right by 2 of our investigators while he gave the talk! Their names are Istanislao and Sabina, (sorry if you can't pronounce them) an older couple, they are so nice and kind and it was there first time coming to church this Sunday!! It was so awesome to hear the talk and to look at them and see how happy they were as they heard him talk about his experience of getting to know and his conversion to the church. I learned a lot from this conference and I'm super excited to be able to apply it now!

The rest of the week was super great, we didn't find to many knew investigators this week so we are going to be focusing on that, but we helped a little bit the investigators that we have that they could progress. But now we just need a little push more so that they can start getting baptized we hope! 

Anyways! Until next week! I love you all!! 

-Elder Slack

Week 74: HEY! I feel like I've been here before...

Heeeeeeellllloooooo!!!!

It's been another incredible week here in Argentina! I'm still loveing it here in the mission and!!!!!:...... We have a transfer!!!!! WHOO!! Haha! Last night I slept my last night on an air mattress because today I'm going to have an area again!! Yay!!! And I know my area probably sounds familiar because it might be... I'm going to Villa-Celina!!!!! (Or sometimes known in the mission as Villa Zion. Villa (pronunciation: Vee-sha Se-lee-na) means like ghetto.) WHOOO!!! Villa-Celina is the area where we went where there are a ton of people from Bolivia and Peru! It's going to be great! I'm super excited, and I'm going to be Zone Leader.

Last transfer we went there the first week of the transfer, we were there with Elder Jones and Elder Hernandez. I'm going to be on the other side of the ward, with Elder Gonzáles who is from Bolivia! It's going to be a super awesome transfer I'm super stoked. We are going to work a ton to be able to help the zone grow and to be able to help the ward grow a ton! We're going to work work work, and that's not all because then we are going to work some more! After being an ETM (traveling missionary) for 3 transfers I'm pretty thirsty to help tons of people repent and be baptized! AHH!!! WHOOO!!! Haha!

Anyway's, other than the transfer it's been a super great week here. We were in Villa-Fiorito this week. And I was with Elder Ribeiro again! yay! (but now he uses his moms last name instead of his dad, so he's Elder Branco) He was my second companion here in the mission and I trained him! He's progressed a ton, and he's still working super great as a missionary. It was awesome to be able to work with him this last week. 

In the ward on Saturday there were 4 baptisms. But last minute on Saturday, when we had everything planned out super well, there was a problem. I was with Elder Branco (Ribeiro) and the my companion Elder Cedeño and the other Elders, Elder Portugal and Elder Curo (we had a trio of missionaries as well) called us, and they tell us that there isn't water in the church or anywhere near there! AHH!!! So we start trying to change the baptism to do it in another church really close, but they have an activity and they tell we can't do it there! AHH!! So we had to move the baptism to a church super far away, in the stake-center, which was about an hour, hour and a half in bus. We had to run around all day to make sure that the clothes would be all ready, we had to do a quick service project in the morning and we had to run to all of the houses of the investigators who were going to be baptized and then we went with them all the way to the other church, in a ward called Banfield. Anyways. It was super crazy, and there wasn't anyone from the bishopric there so we called the branch president and he said that we could do it. So my companion conducted the meeting and I presided! Whoo! It was short, simple, but sweet! 

It was a great week, but now I'm super excited to be able to work once again in my own area! It's going to be GREAT! Anyway's I love you all! I hope you have a great week!!!

Chau!!

-Elder Slack

Waiting at the bus stop

The baptism that we helped plan and prepare for

Elder Slack is the one in the front

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Week 69: Bolivia or Villa-Sión

Hey everyone! It's been another great week here in good old Argentina. We've been enjoying some more new experiences this week. It was pretty great! 

I'm here with Elder Cedeño from Panamá, this week we went to the area Villa-Celina! One of the most interesting areas in the mission. Why? You may ask. Well, here in Argentina, there are many people from other countries from around here. From Paraguay, from Chile,from Perú from Bolivia. And well, this week we were in Villa-Celina, which is full of people from Bolivia! It's like it's on little Bolivian/Peruvian community! It's very interesting. So this week we were able to see a little bit of Bolivia here in Argentina. And surprisingly it's very different. I got to try new foods, some of the classic Bolivian foods. I got to see how they build their houses, it's interesting because they build up and up and up. 3 or 4 floors is normal and they keep building more and more! And Like 3 or 4 families all live in the same house. 

So yeah! It was a pretty interesting new experience! I just love getting to know all of the different culture! And I love getting to know the new people! We were working this week with Elder Jones from Pleasant Grove Utah and Elder Hernanadez from Mexico! They are both great missionaries and I liked being able to work with them, they are both really awesome!

On Friday Elder Cedeño got sick so we couldn't work (sad face). But in between his bathroom breaks it was good to be able to talk with him and get to know him a little better! We ended up going to the hospital yesterday morning to be able to see what's up, and in the end they said he had Gastritis, what I had a few months back in Villegas, They said it's probably from eating differently, the new Bolivian food that we tried was pretty heavy and he's not used to eating so much So they said he should eat more lightly for this next week so that he can better and that he should still take it easy.

This week we are going to VILLEGAS!!! WHOO!! My old ward!! With.... ELDER TOLENTINO!!! Whoo! My trainer again!! haha! So it should be pretty fun! Thanks for everything, this week I can't send photos either, but i love you all and you can imagine my face smiling super big and being happy! and in the rain, because it is currently raining outside. Until next week! Chau!!

-Elder Slack