Week 51: Crepes and fun!

Hellooooo!! World!!

This week has been incredible, sorry I couldn't write last week, we had to run to our zone activity and their wasn't much time, but I'll update you all real quick on the week!

So! Investigators, well, we are teaching right now, not a ton like I'd like to be doing, but we've got a few investigators. First we are working with Alexis, he's the son of a family of members, he's really awesome, he loves to come to church and he knows it's really important to come to church and everything, but he's having a hard time because he can't stop smoking, so we're helping him out with that. 

We're also teaching a family, their names are Hector and Cynthia, they are awesome, they have 2 daughters and have been together fro 10 years! But like the mayority here in Argentina, they aren't married. But they are so awesome, they read all of the pamphlets that we leave with them and when we get back they essentially teach us the lesson! haha!

As well, we are working with a little girl and her family, her name is sharon and she is 10 years old, she is a little shy and her family was less active, but now they come to church and she is going to be baptized with her siblings in november or december, because her brother and sister are 7. But they are super fun to teach, it's always fun teaching little kids.

And we are teaching another little kid, his name is Luciano, his family is still a little less active, but we are working with them so that they can come back.

And we are also teaching another family, their names are Camila and Matias, they aren't married either, but Matias is a member already, but he was less active for awhile, but now they have a marriage date and everything! But it's in January, but that's alright! they are both awesome!

And those are the mayority of the people we are teaching right now, we are still looking to teach a lot more people and I'm sure we'll find some more this week!!

On Monday we had our zone activity, we played this Football game with questions from Preach my Gospel, where they had to answer to advance! Whoo! that was super fun too!! 

Also another fun thing we did this week, the ward had a talent show activity!! The missionaries couldn't participate, but it was awesome to see some crazy dancing and as well, some did some classic dancing from argentina, and a young man even sang in English! Wow! It was super incredible! (and he sang really well!)

This week I've been learning a lot about the importance of being kind, Elder Gonzalez and I, we are great together, but we've had a few little problems here and there. (What can you expect being together 24/7 haha!) But I've found it is really important to look and find the good in others, and then tell them! So that's one of the things that I'm trying to do right now. 

As well, I'm trying to always remember to pray, to pray in every moment, it's so important to have the help of God, in lessons in the street, in every  moment, so I am trying to remember to always always pray!

Whoo! Thanks for all of your support! I love you all! I'm at a year this Friday! WHOO!!  Love you all!

-Elder Slack

P.S. Photos from the week! I learned to make crepes a while ago and I love to make them always, and one of them looks like a buffalo. 

Week 49: Sick day

Hey everyone! I'm here again! I've got just a few quick things for you all this week! Argentina is awesome!!

To start things off, this week on Tuesday we had our District meetings and Wow! My first time as Zone leader and I was able to learn a lot, it was an experience very very interesting. Started off everything normal, we had our zone counsel before the meeting started with the 3 district leaders here, it went all smooth. We started our district meeting with our district leader, it was pretty normal, we did some introductions and all. But everyone the whole time was making a lot of jokes and things like that, okay, I guess what can you expect from 19 and 20 year olds. But as Zone Leaders Elder Gonzalez and I, we have to go check on the other Districts to see how their meetings are going. I went over to another class and BAM! Wow, what a difference I felt, when I walked into the room everyone was sitting listening to the district leader, and he was teaching and testifying. As I sat and listened I could feel such a huge difference between the two different meetings, One where everyone was shouting a little bit and making little jokes the whole time and the other where everyone was sitting and listening contently, The Spirit hit me like a wall when I walked into the room. I learned there the importance of reverence that day, that it is so important to have the Spirit that we need to take out all of the distractions and put the jokes aside for a little bit sometimes.

On Friday, I went for an exchange with some other Elders in the zone, I went with Elder Bahena, it was super great, he only has 2 transfers left in his mission and I could learn a lot from him, we taught some great lessons and in the morning we went to a service project of the ward where we had to help put in the cement foundations of cement (well here all of the houses are made out of pure cement and bricks), so that was pretty awesome!

And last but not least, yesterday morning I woke up with a devastating stomach pain, I woke up super sick, I slept a bit more, we got up and went to church at 9:30, we stayed for sacrament meeting, but I was almost dying the whole time, at the end of the meeting a few people were talking to me telling me to feel better and I ran out and threw up in the trash can. So that was super fun! And we went to the hospital after that where they gave me a prescription and some shots to help with the nautiousness and the throwing up. Whoo! Super fun!! They said I probably had Gastritis, I think I got it from drinking the water from an investigator that I asked from. I think he took it out of the tap, but I didn't know so I drank it anyways because I was really thirsty. But I woke up this morning, feeling thousands of times better! So we're all good here! I feel like I'm back to about 80%. So by tomorrow I should be all good to go!!

More than anything else those where a few exciting bits of the week! It's so great here I love serving the Lord! Being a missionary is the best!! I'm learning a ton as Zone Leader! Love you all! Until Next week!!

-Elder Slack   

I got my hair cut.

 My companion on a ladder, Elder Gonzalez

It's been raining and it gets so cold!

Elder Gonzalez- some other photo that I don't remember what it is. 

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 46: So little time, so much to do!

Hello! Hola! I'm back again! Elder Slack, one more week has flown by!

I hope all your worlds are doing well! Mine is great! Missionary life as usual doing all of the things and none of the things. But we keep on chugging here in Villegas!

Well this week has been full of fun! We started off last monday we had our District Activity! I cooked Stroganoff (BRAZIL!!) and we had some great conversations, and at the end we kicked a soccer ball around for like 20 minutes. We were going to do a scavenger hunt for photos, but it started raining! So, we are going to do the scavenger hunt part this week! WHOO!!

Then Tuesday we had our district meeting and fun stuff! It was great! We had some great fun classes and I've got some great ideas for the district meeting this week, it's going to be super awesome!! I'm not a big fan of having meetings where we all sit around for a lot of time people start getting sleepy so I always try to include some sort of game in the teaching, this week I've got planned to teach about baptism! But in a super way! We're going to do a practice baptismal service!! Without water and stuff, and we don't have anyone to baptise, but we are going to practice all of the other things, taking of the photos and the invitations and all that good stuff, to help keep in mind the goal with our investigators is that they can make it to baptism!!

Well, Wednesday and Thursday we had to do 2 intercambios, or I think they call them exchanges in english. They went great! I went with Elder Villegas one day and then the other day I went with Elder Ramos! They both are still being trained, but they are super awesome! I was able to learn a lot from the both of them! They are going to be super great missionaries! Elder Villegas is in our ward here, the ward of Villegas, (Yes his last name is the same as the ward!) And Elder Ramos is here in Ciudad Evita, which is where we live, It's super great!

On Saturday night, we got together 2 familias from our ward, the familia Cortez and the Familia Quiñones and we had a family home evening in the house of Juana and Gustavo! It went super well! We got there at around 7 and we were super stressed out for like half an hour because the other families were already supposed to be there, but they weren't, so we tried calling them and calling them until we called son of the Familia Cortez who could give the phone to his mother and everything was "mas tranquilo" as we say in castellano! (It's like... More chill?) And then when everyone got there we talked about the importance of the small things with a fun activity that my companion did, and then we talked about how we have to trust in God, and we played that one game where you have to fall and have someone catch you and you have to trust in them to not let you fall! Whoo!! It was great!!!!!!

And Rufino! This week, we've got a baptism planned, we need to line up the interview for our investigator Rufino and if he passes Saturday we've got a baptism!!! WHOO! It's going to be great!!! Rufino is a bit older he's got around 50 years. And he's really nice and just likes to know more about God! So, I'll be updating you guys next week how that goes!

Juana and Gustavo are going great, they didn't come to the church yesterday, so that was a bummer, but we went by their house later with a member and we taught them about the sabbath day, and they are super great and excited to go to church this next week. Now we've just got to work with them so that they can start the process of getting married!

As well, Elder Marty and I we are trying to figure out better ways to plan and we are putting all of the less active members and the old investigators on our map to with their house number and we can plan super fast with them on their, so that's great too!

But yeah, that's pretty much a full week, it flew by! This upcoming week we've got transfers AGAIN! What! It went by so fast! So we'll be seeing what happens! But until then we are going to keep working super hard! There are so many things to do, but not a ton of time to do them. So we'll do all that we can and leave the rest to the Lord!

Lot's of love and hugs for everyone! It's been warming up a lot this week, it looks like summer is coming really early, winter is mostly gone. Thanks for all you guys do! 

Chao! 

-Elder Slack

P.S. My companion told me that I've been spelling chao wrong my whole mission, so that's whats up. 

Here are a few photos from the intercambios, where they've got an empty pool outside their pension, and the district activity and fun times with elder marty sneaking the camera around in the area!

Week 45: Sermon on the mount!

Hola everyone!! How's it going! I'm Elder Slack again! Reporting from Argentina! We're living the Villegas dream and hope you guys are all enjoying life!

Well, this week has been pretty interesting to tell the truth, full of adventures, changes, lies, tears, joy, and drunk men!

So... What this week had in store for us was pretty interesting, we started off pretty normal, we've got a hecka ton of appointments and lessons to teach, some of our investigators are progressing and some are not, but it's all good in teachingsville. Juana and Gustavo are doing great, they are going to get a date for their marriage during this month! Whoo! Um, Fidel, we haven't been able to find much, sad face, Rufino is progressing really well, he's got to fix a things before his BAPTISM this SATURDAY!! And yeah, that's pretty much the week in a really really small nutshell!! We had a sweet family home evening on Saturday night with Hermano Quiñones, our ward mission leader, and Juana and Gustavo, where we made up an obstacle course inside their house and we blindfolded them and we taught about the Holy Ghost! WHoo!!

Friday, we got this really important call, we were on our way to our area to start our day of proselyting, when we received a call. I answer, who is it? Well it's the traveling assistants! (I think that's the correct translation) WHOO!! Elder Cortez and Elder Miller! I don't know if you remember Elder Miller, but he's a stud from our high school, I found him here on the first week in the field! And they told us that they were going to be staying with us for a week in our area! WHOO!! We were super stoked! We had a ton of ideas planned to get everything prepped for a super mission week, but then.... Sunday during lunch, they gave us another call and they told us that they weren't going to be able to come to our area because there had been some changes in plans, so we cried on the inside and we moved on. 

And yesterday, we had our own little sermon on the mount! Elder Marty and I, we received a referral from the Hermana Medina here in our ward, she sent us to visit a woman with her family and told us that she was really nice and that her father had died about a month ago. We went looking for the house, when we went to knock, a man with a wine bottle shouted at us from this field, he came over, and told us that the woman we were looking for was on this HILL in the field. We look over and sure enough, we see two people and a child on top of this little tiny HILL! A HILL! HILL!! The first hill that I have seen in all of Argentina! Whoo!! So we marched on over, we talked with them, and the man was slightly drunk, but the woman was really nice, they had an old mattress up on top and we sat down with them and had an interesting chat, the slightly drunk man was convinced that we had to come to his house to eat an asado (the argentine barbeque) and tried the whole time to convince us, but the woman listened really well and was so happy to listen to us and hear our message! It was great! And we taught as the sun was setting from on top of our little mount. Well, we are going to go back to see them on Saturday, we'll see how things turn out!

That's about all for this week, I've put a few Photos, we ate hamburgers for lunch yesterday! We ate asado for lunch the other day, and a few other things from the week! Life is good! I love being a missionary!!! Love you all so much!! We'll see you next week!! Chau!

-Elder Slack

(note from Elder Slack's mom: this was a baptism that Elder Slack and Elder Marty helped at)

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

Week 43: We Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts

​Hey everyone!! It's a me! Elder Slack!!

This week has been amazing, as almost all of the weeks in the mission, and I've got a lot to tell you guys, so hold on to your seats!!

Well, I think we'll start simply, on Monday we were pretty relaxed, we just hung out a little bit, and bought our food and then while my companion took a nap I was able to make my breakfast for the week! We bought a ton of these tortilla type things that they use to make empanadas here, and we bought some cheese, and I made about 57 quesadillas! WHOO!! And yeah, so I've been enjoying those throughout this entire week!!

Secondly we've been teaching a ton this week!! We cranked out 15 lessons this week, and we're looking at this upcoming week and I'm sure that we're going to be teaching even more!!! We've got a ton of investigators right now, and so many of them are progressing so well, I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to learn to teach and to be able to teach better with the spirit every time that we teach! 

As well, here in Villegas the members have been working "A full!" (a fool) as they say here. It means that they have been working a ton! They have been accompanying us to our lessons with our investigators, and they are visiting a ton of people who don't come to church, as well we've been inviting the members during lunch everyday and teaching them how to be missionaries! I feel like it's working out so far, but now we've got to verify how they're going with that this week, but I'm sure it's going to be great! As well, this week we were able to go to the ward council, that was pretty awesome, we talked about the investigators we are teaching and the help that they need from the ward, and then we had to bop on out because we had another lesson to teach, but Wow, from what we are seeing this ward here is going to be progressing a ton!!

And the most exciting part of the week! SUNDAY!!!! Well, after teaching everyone all week and they all commited to come to church, we went to the house of one of them in the morning so that he could come to church with us, but I guess he was sleeping or something, because no one answered. But then, we get back to the church and who's there? Rufino! And Fidel! WHOO!! There they are sitting in the priesthood class!! Then, at the end of the first our, who shows up?? Juana and Gustavo!!! WHOOO!!! And we had a super full class in Gospel principles! Then we go to head over to sacrament meeting and who do we have? There comes walking down the hall from the youth class Melani (the daughter of Gustavo and Juana) and Pamela!!! Whoo! And just to top it all off, we find out that Fidel's daughter who we've been teaching and is 8 years old had come with him too!!!! WHOOOOSLDFJIEDILSKDJWEOIJLSDJFO!"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!JWJJW!!!!!!!!!!!! Yayay!!! It was so awesome!!! Almost everyone of our investigators were able to come to church yesterday!!! Wow!! It was so incredible! What an amazing feeling, and not even that, but all of them came on their own or a member passed by their house to pick them up! It was such a great feeling, and I realized even more that God prepares the people, I just here to run around and look for them! 

And to top it all off... Last night, we went to teach Juana and Gustavo, and we taught them about the Law of Chastity, and they were super cool about it and really agreed with it! It was super great!! They've still got some changes to make, but it's going to be great!! I've learned so much with them, especially teaching about the commandments of God. I've realized the importance this week of the commitments that we invite the people to make, what we really do here is teach repentance and then baptize converts! That's what we do!

Anyway's, that's been our crazy week! I love you all! Let me know how you're doing! Luckily this week I can write with all 27 letters! (27 because spanish has the ñ too!) haha! Love you! Chau!
-Elder Slack

PS. The Photos are attacthed in a google doc link, I made a video too, I don't remember how much spanish I spoke or if I spoke any english, but if you don't understand, ask your local argentine!