Week 73: Small Town

Hello starshine! The Earth says Hello!!!

Um... Actually! I say hello to all of you!! HELLO!!! 

YAY! Another great week has past by here in Argentina. I can't believe sometimes how fast the time is flying. It's the last week of the transfer right now, by next week we could have some change, or maybe not! But, we'll just wait and see! 

It's been a pretty awesome week, this week we were in Cañuelas, it is the 3rd farthest area in the mission from everything else. It's a little city in the middle of not a whole lot. But now it's grown a little bigger because a giant, like literally GIANT, oil factory is there. We had a great week! We were with Elder Vergara from Texas and Elder Curtis from Montana! It was super awesome being with them this week! I loved it!!!

Cañuelas is a little bit of a small town kind of place, but it was super fun! A little bit of an interesting experience, the elders there told us that sometimes when the missionaries get called there they feel like they have been banished or something, because it's super far out, but really they were doing really great and it was good to see that they were always really excited as they were working!

We taught this really nice lady this week that they had found 2 weeks ago, her name is Isabel and is about 65 years old, she is super awesome, she always reads in the Book of Mormon and she is super excited to be able to come to church. She can't really walk well because she had a stroke a few years ago. But she was so nice! We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and how God has revealed to the Prophets in these days that we shouldn't drink tea, and right before we had gotten to her house she had prepared herself a tea to drink, when we taught her about that and we asked if we could throw her tea in the sink she was like "Of course! I don't even really like tea that much" Haha!

Also there was a storm this week on Thursday, some of the trees had fallen down or some big branches in some places and stuff like that, when we went to visit Isabel a tree had fallen in her yard and broken her power wire, so she was without electricity, we were able to help her, the 4 or us missionaries, to cut up the tree and move all of the branches that had fallen and then her son came and reconnected the cable! She was so happy! I was so grateful to be able to serve her and help her!

Last night when we got back to Monte Grande, where we stay on Sunday nights, we talked with the elders a little bit and we found out that their neighbors were a little bit angry with them for a few of the things that they and we had done, careless things, like forgetting to close the gate a few times, but still we felt bad. I was thinking a lot about that last night, I kept thinking and thinking about what we could do to gain their confidence again. We could buy them a little dessert, or bake them something, we could leave them a little card to say that we were sorry, or we could pass by and ask them what it is that we can do to not annoy them so that we don't keep doing it, lot's of things. We are representatives of Jesus Christ and we hope that we can act in such a way to have the trust of the other people. While I was pondering a little bit about that I realized that it really applies to repentance all of that, when we mess up or do something wrong we should always think like that. I want to be able to recognize what I have done wrong and then think of all of the possible ways to make it right and all of the ideas and things I can do to be able to avoid the problem again! That's what I thought, so that's what I am going to try and do! 

Anyways it was a great week, it's starting to cool down now as fall is coming very slowly. I loved being able to work with the Elders this week and learn and teach with them, they are so awesome! I hope you are all well! I'm loving the mission! It's so great! Until next week! Chau!!

-Elder Slack

P.S. Sorry can't send photos this week, the USB drive doesn't work.

Week 60: We teach English!

HELLOOOOO!!!! 

Hi to everyone out there in the world, I'm back! Once again! We're here and it's been another incredible week!

This week we were in Laferrere 1A, which is in the zone of González Catán! (My first zone!) We were with Elder Hunt and Elder Alvarez! Elder Hunt is from Virginia, and Elder Alvarez is from Mexico, from a city right next to the border of the United States. It was a week full of work, we worked and worked and worked until we almost couldn't work any more, then we worked some more! Haha! But it was great!! It was a little bit harder this week because we had some activities that we had to go to so we had a little bit less time. But it was great! 

On Tuesday we had to wake up and we all got together with the zone in my first wards chapel, Catán 3, and we got on a bus and we went all the way out to San-Vicente again! We had zone conference there, it was amazing! My favorite part was easily the presentation from the assistants. They asked us a question "What does it mean to be a representative of Jesus Christ to me" and then they showed a ton of the videos and photos from when we all got our mission calls. They showed videos of us opening our call and reading that we have been called to serve in the Argentina Buenos Aires South Mission! WOW! It was so awesome, you could just feel the spirit there, it was incredible to hear as everyone of the missionaries read their calling. Then at the end of the video they asked us the same question, "What does it mean to be a representative of Jesus Christ to me?" and then we had a little bit of time to write down our thoughts and impressions. It was incredible, normally when we have zone conferences there's lots of talk about how to teach, how to contact, how to baptize, lot's of different things, but this time they just asked a simple question, and I think it was one of the best zone conferences that I have had. It really reminded me why I am here, it reminded me that it was my decision to come here and be a missionary, this is my dream, I have wanted to do it all of my life and now I'm here. So what will I do to be an amazing representative of Jesus Christ?

Anyways, the rest of the week was work work and work, one of the best persons we found, I was walking with Elder Hunt and we saw some men working on their trench sewage thing in front of their house, so we offered them a little bit of help, naturally they declined, even though we work for free, but then we started talking with them a little bit about the light up the world project that's going on right now, and a woman that rents from one of the men was right there in front and she started talking with us too. We talked with her and after a little bit she told us that she always liked learning English in school, but never could develop it a whole lot. And naturally Elder Hunt and I speak English, and just last week the elders started teaching English classes in the church once a week on Thursdays, which that day just happened to be Thursday, we invited her to come to the class that we were going to have in an hour and a half. And she came!! She loved it a lot and then she stayed afterward for the ward family home evening! It was awesome, then we had a little discussion with her in one of the classrooms and we taught her a little bit about the Restoration of the Gospel and Repentance and Baptism, it was a great lesson, and she said that if she receives an answer from God she would be baptized on December 24th! It was awesome!

Anyways, one of the crazy things from the week, on Friday night our neighbors decided to have a party, so they had music blasting from their giant speakers outside all night! So I woke up like every hour to the bass dropping hardcore as they listened to their electronic music all night, then when we got up at 6:15, the decided to turn it off.... AHHH!! Hahaha! It was an interesting night! 

Anyway's I love you all! I hope you have a great week! It's been so great here! I love working with and getting to know the missionaries here! They are all so amazing and everyone has a different story, it's so great to have this assignment! I love it!! Until next week!! Chau!!

-Elder Slack

(Oh! And we celebrated my birthday with oreos and cookies! And I bought this candy type thing that's called Mantecol, It's essentially like the inside part of a butterfinger. SUPER DELICIOUS!!! The other elders had a baptism and we did a service clearing out all of the tall grass from a half constructed house!)

Week 44: Say it like it is!

Hello world!! I'm here again! Elder Slack!!! It's been another week already and now is the time to write all of you!!

This week has flown by, it's been jam packed, as ever week is, but I've just got a few things to tell you to sum it all up for you guys!

First things first! This week we had the cumpleaño of Hermana Cortez! (that's birthday for those who don't speak Castellano) WHOO!! Hermana Cortez is a sister here in our ward, she is super amazing, she washes our clothes and always helps us if we need help with anything, and she is super excited all the time and is helping and motivating the ward to keep growing here! And she is super funny and has tons of great stories! But... Anyways, that was this last Tuesday! So, what did we do?? Well we cooked her up a peach cobbler! I don't really know how turned out, we prepared it Monday, and then just cooked it Tuesday but we didn't really finish cooking it before we could bring it over. But we did it! And now all this week the Hermana Cortez has been eating it. But that was super fun, and then that night we went on over to her house really quick to have a little birthday celebration!! Whoo! I'll put a few photos.

All this week, just so you are all informed, it was a ton of Rain rain rain, and then lots of mud, and then more rain, then sun for one day, then rain again and again, then more mud! So, it was................... AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOO!! Haha! It was a pretty great experience! To get to our area, we had to cross from where we live, through a little forest type thing, and right in the middle, when it rains, it makes a mini river. Haha! So we got a little wet this week, but it was awesome!!

And, what I think the highlight of the week was, INTERVIEWS! This week we had interviews with Presidente Calquín! He is so amazing! He taught everyone of us essentially the same thing, it was really different than how Presidente Thurgood did the interviews, but I loved it all the same! He taught us how to open our mouths, how to contact people effectively. Essentially what he taught us is that we need to be Simple and Direct in the things that we say. We are searching for the prepared people, not anyone that wants to hear a quick bible story and that's all, no! We are looking for the people that God has prepared to receive the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!! And, after the interviews, that's what we have done! When we talk with someone, we tell them how it is! We are representatives of Jesus Christ! And God and Jesus Christ sent us here to talk with you right now! To share with you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to tell you that there are tons of blessings that God has prepared for you, just waiting for you to grab them! And I know that if you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ that you are going to be Happy! Your life will be filled with Joy, you will know and have a sense of security that you are doing exactly what God wants you to do. Can we pass by your house tomorrow at 4? We say something like that (but in Castellano, obviously) And if the person is prepared by God, they'll say SÍ! All we have to do is remind them of the things and the plan that they already accepted in the premortal life.

Anyways, yesterday talking to people directly, we were able to find 5 new investigators, so I think it's working! Anyways, that's about it for this week, I'll put a few quick photos below, I hope you guys liked my video last week! I love you all!! I hope you know that!! And I hope you can all be as happy someday as I am right now!!!

-Elder Slack

We've got here, all of our shoes and boots trying to dry so that we can use them the next day, after we got drenched walking through the little river! 

And we bought lots of bananas!

And all the mud

And Elder Marty cleaning off his shoes in the sink!

Elder Phillips, Elder Villegas (yes, like that name of our ward and area), Elder Slack (that's me), and Elder Marty