Week 27: Don't make a decision

If you don't know where you will go.

Wow! This week has been amazing, sorry I didn't write you all last week, there isn't much time here. But everything is going great I just wanted to leave you all with a few thoughts. 

Saturday and Sunday we had the opportunity to listen to General Conference! It was so great and something that I really thought about and learned was that we need to know where we are going. I've really been able to learn the idea of goals and plans here on my mission. They are so important! If we don't know where we want to be it doesn't matter where we go. All of our actions and decisions should have an objective or goal in mind!

As well, I'm still living it up here with Elder Ribeiro! He is such a great companion here in González Catán 3B! It is the best! We are soooo different in our opinions and thoughts, but really as we are united in our purpose we have been able to accomplish grand things! I just want all  of you to know that I love you guys! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isn't just some other church, it isn't just a thing I do because I like it, it is the Church of the Living Son of the Living God! As we choose to follow the teachings of our living prophet we will be blessed now and eternally. Our lives will come to have more of a purpose and you will understand really what you want and what God wants for you! I hope you guys are all great! A lot of love from Argentina!

-Elder Slack!

Elder Stockton Slack and Elder Ribeiro

Keeping it cool...

Photos from: Maria De Los Angeles Fernandez Bevans (thank you!!!)

Week 24: Why do we fall?

So that we can learn to pick ourselves up!

Hello! Everythings going grand here in Argentina! I had my toe surgery last week on Monday, and now I'm here once again all back to almost normal! My toes been going great actually! I had about 1 day resting and now I'm walking like normal, we've just got to go back to the hospital to take out the stitches on Thursday so I'm still being a little careful not to kick my companion to much, but everything's all good! I rested for 1 day in the pension, the next day we had a member with a car help us out to go and visit a few people! And the next day when we went back to the hospital they said I could walk normal now! Yay!!!

This week has been truly fantastic!! I love being a missionary sooooo much!! I have been able to learn and grow and experience so many different things, and I have become to understand what my goals are in my life, what I want to do, who I want to become, and as well it is such a great blessing to be able to help others realize those things as they follow our Heavenly Father's plan for them! It's the best!!

This past week after the surgery and everything we have been getting right back into it! We were able to visit a few of the people we are teaching on Friday and then next......on Saturday... We went to the temple!! It was so cool! Our area here in Gonzalez Catán is about 30 or 40 minutes from the temple of Buenos Aires, so, when we have 2 investigators at least, and a member to come with us we can take a short trip to the temple! 

So Saturday we all met up in the church and we went on over there, it is such an amazing place, the temple! We were able to give a great lesson about the plan of salvation and share a little bit of time with everyone as we walked around the temple and just enjoyed the peace and the Spirit that you can feel there, even when you are just on the outside. Something that I've learned to appreciate even more now that I'm away from my home in Utah. The opportunity to have a temple so close to your house, or multiple, is a huge blessing!! It's such a sacred place where really we can be close to God and feel His love for us His children!

After we went to the temple Saturday, Sunday we were able to go with a recent convert from our ward who is called Brandon, he is 17 years old and has a testimony so strong about how the church and the Book of Mormon helped him change his life! It was so cool to be able to go visit a few people during the afternoon and night and have him share his testimony with us and with the people here. He's such a great young man and now he's really excited to be preparing for his mission when he turns 18 years old in July! Really it's so great to see people change and have the desire to follow Christ from the testimonies of 3 young people of 17, 19, and 20 years old, it's incredible to see the power of God in the work. 

And that's how the week went! Full of great things and miracles everyday! I hope you all know that I love you all! Take an hour or 2 to go to the temple this week, even if you aren't a member of the church, go outside and really think about what your personal goals are and ask God what His goals are for you! 

From El Gran Catán! 

-Elder Slack!

Week 14: The Sky is Falling and Blessings from the Heavens

Hey! Feliz Año nuevo de Argentina!!

I hope that you all had a great time over this past week, the life as a missionary is definitely not the best on the holidays, but I loved it all the same. And now that we have full weeks we can put in more work!

On our P-day last week, after we went and emailed we went out on an adventure, the great adventure of Walmart in Argentina! It was long and hard, we searched for days and nights, through wind and snow and sleet, in jungles and mountains, and crossed a great river, but eventually we found it!! Yes I know, we found a Walmart!! Actually it was probably more like 15 minutes on a bus and 20 minutes of walking, but we actually crossed a river, a little one, on a bridge, and there was a lot of trash. But hey, It's all part of the adventure. Now you may be wondering, why would we want to go to Wal-mart while we are here in Argentina? Well I had one thing in mind! PEANUT BUTTER! And I am very pleased to say, that our mission was successful, I used my remaining funds of the month to purchase 2 very tiny, expensive, and amazingly delicious jars of peanut butter. 

The adventures of the week didn't stop there though! We had New Years this week, I hope all of you did too. If you are not yet in 2016 then you need to change something. But anyways. We spent New Years with a bunch of other Elders from our zone, we had about 10 of us. We all got together, everyone brought something and we were able to cook and eat our own asado. We didn't have a ton of meat, but it was good. We all got together in the pensions of 2 companionships of elders that are right next to each other and used the "Grill" of a member to cook it. It was great, and then at midnight once again, fireworks everywhere. New Years was even worse than Christmas, I thought Christmas was a lot. But here it started at midnight and went for about 45 minutes of non-stop explosions everywhere! It was insane!! Us Americans think we do a lot of fireworks on the fourth of July and everything, but they use probably 5 times as much here in Argentina for New Years. It was good. 

After New Years eve and New Years (when we couldn't go out to proselyte or work or anything) it was a lot better. We had a ton of appointments on Saturday and Sunday, because we couldn't put anyone on those 2 days. And It was great! We now have 3 different investigators with a baptismal date! It's so exciting!! And 2 of them went to church yesterday! We had to go out and search for Camila in the morning to bring her and her family to church,  

and we told her the night before "We're going to be here at 8:30, you need to be ready to go." We show up, still sleeping, but wait... Miracle, in 15 minutes they get all dressed and ready to go, and we leave for church the bus comes right as we are getting to the stop and we arrive at church at 9:03, not bad right!! It was the best to finally get her and see her family at church, her 2 little children found right away 2 little friends in the primary and they helped them to all their classes and everything, and after the classes when we saw Camila talking with some of the hermanas from the relief society, it was the best to see her so happy! And then in Sacrament meeting we had fast and testimony meeting, and we had the most peculiar meeting, all the people that decided to go up to bear their testimonies were couples. And they went up as husband and wife and shared their testimonies together and they talked a lot about the blessings of being with their families, and it was just the best!!

And then yesterday, we went out and had a ton of appointments all afternoon and it was good, we taught 3 lessons and have 2 new investigators. I can really tell a huge difference here when we are obeying the rules as missionaries. When we aren't being obedient to what God wants us to do he won't bless us and can't bless us. But when we are obedient and truly are doing all the things that we can to follow his commandments, he can pour out the blessings of heaven upon us! It is incredible! 

I'll wish you all a happy New Year, and I hope you all have some amazing new goals, and remember that a goal is only a wish until you write it down.

Your missionary here in Argentina

-Elder Slack

(note from Elder Slack's mom: Sorry I couldn't turn this...if you know how, email me and teach me how. Thanks!)

Here is what we ate for Christmas! Asado!!!