Week 90: Happiness isn't a destination

HEEEELLLOOOO EVERYONE!!!!!!

It's me! Elder Slack! I'm back once again, another week has come and gone very quickly and what a week it has been! We've been enjoying some colder humid weather this week, it looks like winter finally got here, so we getting all bundled up and we're enjoying the mud! 

It was a great week this week, we did so many things that I can't even tell you all of them, but! I'll try!

Monday was a good start, we went and we had our district activity, we cooked up some hamburgers in the oven and we played a new game that I had never played before. It's called, Soccer in chairs! Everyone has their own chair and the goal is to hit the chair of the other people when you kick the ball at it. If someone hits your chair you have to sit down and you can try and revive yourself if you can manage to kick the ball at someone else's chair whilst sitting, and the game continues until there's only 1 person left. SO! ..... We had some fun with that and that was pretty much all our P-day. 

Tuesday was pretty exciting, I woke up feeling a little abnormal, I thought it was because it was cold, but as the morning went on I realized that something wasn't quite right, after a few trips to the bathroom I resolved that the hamburgers that it probably wasn't the best idea I had ever had to eat 5 hamburgers on Monday. We went to the district meeting and I seemed to live, but when went to lunch in the house of a member, I started feeling pretty bad, so that was the start of 2 days in bed. But I rested up all day Wednesday and by Thursday morning I was feeling 95% better, so I decided to take it a little bit slower, but we still went to work. We found a new investigator that day. We contacted him and he told us that his sister and a few of his brothers were members already! Wow! He let us go inside his house and we taught him a little bit, he's a really nice humble man, he works collecting plastic and glass bottles that people leave on the street and he trades them at a recycling place for money. His name is Luis, it was very nice to meet him.

It was very interesting, whilst I was laying down on my bed, feeling horrible in my stomach I began thinking a little bit about my mission and about this transfer, I remembered one of the things that my president told me in our last interview, he said something like: sometimes you don't need to worry so much about the end of the goal, but you should look at all you are learning while you are working, be happy for all of the little things that you achieve, God's plan is our progress, sometimes if we put a goal, the important part isn't when we achieve it, but how you get there. I was thinking a little bit about that and I realized something, the joy isn't all at the end, it's throughout the entire journey! Happiness isn't a destination, it's an experience. Happiness doesn't come only when we achieve our goals, but we can experience it while we are working towards our goals as well. We should always be happy, we should learn to enjoy being happy always, in every moment, because that is why we are here! "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy."  I love scripture even more now, it came to me right now, and how true it is.

Saturday we had a great day, my favorite part, we finally got to teach Gabriela and her family again! Whoo! It was great! She had looked on internet and had found some very interesting things about the mormons, we were able to explain several things and clarify some of her doubts, but the most important thing that we told her that she can do, is read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. Because if the Book of Mormon is true, it means that all we teach is true, if it is not true, the rest could be totally a lie. And I can testify to all of you who are reading this letter, that I know, with a certainty that can't be broken that the Book of Mormon is true, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God to restore his true church, and I know that this is the church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth today. I also know that Jesus Christ lives, and loves everyone of us. And this is what i wanted to share with you all today. And I do it, in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

-Elder Slack

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