November 23, 2009

Dear familywe got transfers on saturday so now i am in my new area. i am back in cordoba!!! so i am way excited. i kind of wanted to go back to my first area and be a district leader. but i guess the lords got other plans haha. i am way excited though. my companion is elder zuñiga, he is from chile. i actually lived with him 4 and a half months ago. its pretty funny because i was his zone leader, and now hes my companion and we will be zone leaders together. i am way excited to be in cordoba, there is just a special spirit about it, and i know its because the temple is coming here. we have a burger king in our area!! so i am way excited about that. so its a double bonus. the temple, and burger king. haha just kidding. it was pretty hard saying good bye to members and investigators that were in my last area. it was my home for 6 months, and now i am kind of home sick from that area. but oh well. thats the only thing i dont like about the mission. is saying goodbye. i was joking with my members and told them that i was never going to make friends in my next area cuz then i will have to say goodbye if i make friends haha. its the hardest part about the mission. but anyway, everything besides that is amazing. and i promise that i will endure to the end and we are going to have a lot of success in this area, i am pretty sure it will be my last area. my birthday went really well. some members cooked me the cake that you send me mom, and it was delicious!! we found a lot of success on my birthday so that was pretty fun. but i was a little sad on my birthday because it just means that i am 3 months away from leaving the mission. i dont think they have started doing the tithing settlement. they usually do it like in the middle of december here. i think its pretty easy to get it done here. i should be getting home february 17th. so you can say that to bishop rasmussen. DONT MAKE ME REPEAT THE DATE haha. it scares me. and i dont blame you for not having to much interest in the soccer game. its fun to play, but i cant stand watching it haha. and thats all the people do here. is play soccer and wach soccer. and thanks for the advice Dad. its funny cuz i gave one of the elders in my zone advice that was similar to that one. i told him to be obedient because we love the lord. then i told him that i have never ever regreted it for being obedient in my mission. and its the truth. i have never regretted it because its what we are supposed to do and the Lord rewards us for it. i cant believe spencer is already home! thats so crazy. oh and this thanksgiving we have councel as zone leaders with the president and the hermana. so hopefully we get a turkey or something haha. but i will have to tell you next week. we will see. thanks for all that you are doing for me, and i know you are praying for me in every one of your prayers. i love everyone so much and have a great day.Megani love the pictures of oriana. i cant believe how big she has gotten so fast. and her 2 front teeth are way funny. the ties are hilarious but i am not even allowed to where 2 of them haha. and the one thats black with flowers on it is questionable. haha. but i love them, and i will wear them when i get home. way to go on the 900 dollar bonus thats way cool. but i love ya a ton megan, and have a good day! thanks for the e mail.Nikkihelllllooooo. i think that was the second time that you put i need more allowance in you subject line. haha. i am glad that lance won the competition. i am not going to lie, i have a gained a little weight on my mission haha. but monday me and my comp won a competition too. it was to see what missionary could find the most new investigators in 2 hours. and we won. we found 2 familes, so we found 6 new investigators. to cound a new investigator you have to enter in their house, teach them, and leave them with a commitment and have a return appointment for the next day. so it was pretty funny. i love you very muchly chau!!Kelseyfirst of all. of course you take a second class of spanish or you are going to olvidar everything that you learned in your first class. and what are you talking about you dont have any fun classes. spanish is way divertido!!!! you better take it!! and second of all, you better not be trying to hook me up with Kenzie your roommate. i would just feel weird. you talk about her so much i feel like she is in the family haha just kidding. but i love you have a good day. chau!!

November 16, 209

dear familythis next week we have transfers so i am pretty sure i will be leaving. i have been in this area for 6 months now and so its pretty for sure that i am leaving. but i got the packages for my birthday and it has been killing me to not open them. but last week wasnt very fun. we were having a great week. until we lost a whole day traveling to do a baptismal interview and then we lost another day because my companion was sick the whole day. i had nothing to do all day. so i wrote letters, cleaned the pensh, studied for like 4 hours, wrote in my journal, did all of my laundry, sat around, and nothing else. it was probably the worst day of my mission. i felt like i did nothing all day and because of that we were only able to get one person to church. i cant believe that i am almost 21. thats like old person age... well in the mission thats an old person age. that means i dont have too much time left. that made me sad to hear about bingham losing, i remember exactly how skyler felt. its the worst feeling. all of our time playing little league we are just thinking about that one game our senior year. and when we get dissapointed its one of the worst days. haha, but now it just means so little but at the time it meant everything to me. so put your arm around his shoulder for me. And dad of course we will have to go to some alta basketball games together. i would love to. oh and the bulletin thing with all the missionaries addresses, i dont know if too many people take advantage of it. cuz i have never recieved a letter from anyone in the ward haha. i think from frank graph i recieved an email but thats it haha. and yes i know elder lineback. and i had no idea he went to indian hills haha thats funny. the city that i live in is called cruz del eje. you can send anything to the president and the hermana olsen and they will love it. pictures of christ i dont know. but i am sorry the email wasnt like, i want to try and respond to everyone. just know that i am doing great and i am loving the mission more then ever. i cant believe all the good it has done for me. i am so so so so so so thankful i came. if i wouldnt have come, i dont know where i would be. i would still be active, but i wouldnt have my priorities straight. i love everyone so much and have a good day chau!megani had no idea that orians is teething was actual a word in english. haha, i forget words sometimes. today i couldnt think of the word tamales. the one mexican food think. cuz they call it different here. and sometimes i cant prounounce words right haha. but oh well, spanish is screwing me up. and i know that twilight is a book, and kelsey told me that she saw the first movie. its about a vampire. they call it crepusculo here in argentina. its not too popular though. but thanks for everything you do. i got the ties that you sent me from hawaii and they were way cool. i dont know if i can wear a couple of them cuz they are too goofy but i wore the flower one the other day. but i love you and have a good day chauNikki and LanceLance, you made me way trunky!!! dont ever tell me that ever again haha. i liked your story about your comp buying you the linkin park cd. its a good thing i am not in the states. those kind of cds are basically impossible to get here so i am lucky haha. congrats on the band, and dont go killers style!! they are a good band, but they are good enough to have their style. tell them they are lame if they go that way haha. angels and airwaves is pretty good. and i dont know if i can be your man for the screamer haha, i havent listened to that music for a while. but i did here it like a month ago in the street and i couldnt believe that i used to like the music where it just constantly screams all the time. but oh well. i was stupid. for your band name i would definatley go with the destroyers, but if you dont like that i would go with circumstance. but i love you and nikki and tell hailee happy birthday for me. and she better enjoy this last birthday because i will not let her still my thunder. i will ruin her birthday to make mine look good. haha just kidding. chaukelseythe pictures were pretty cool. kenzie looks the exact same as you. i think you were somehow twins split at birth like in parent trap or something. you might want to go research that out a bit. i hope you are doing well at school and have a good week. keep having a good time at suu. and it seems like you are fitting in just fine. i remember your senior year at alta you had a ton of problems and trials. but now it seems like you are just doing great and i dont have to give you any advice. so keep it up and keep workind hard and do your best to stay happy. love you have a good day chau.

November 9, 2009

dear famsterso this week wasnt to cool. we had to drop susanna as an investigator. she loves having us over to her house because she feels better whenever we go by. but she just wont complete her committments. she likes listening, but she is just bad at the doing part. so it made us pretty mad. she wants to get baptized she just wants people to do everything for her. so we had to drop her. thats good to here that alta football is in the semi finals. and yeah i think it will be a good idea giving my clothes away to members. but i dont think they will accept a lot of stuff haha. a lot of my white shirts are now yellow shirts so its pretty gross. and i will agree about this being one of the hardest parts of your mission, only cuz when you have a hard frustrating day you think, oh its ok i will just be home in a bit. but i quickly get rid of those feelings because i still got a lot of time to help the argentines. i love my area so that helps me a ton. transfers are coming up, in 2 weeks. on friday we had interviews with president and we were talking a lot about a missionary who ends his mission in 2 weeks. how he has lost all desires to work. president told me there is nothing more pathetic then a missionary that loses his desires to work. because it means that they came on the mission in vane and not for the right reasons. so president decided to drop that missionary from district leader down to junior comp. and his companion that only has 4 months in the mission is now the district leader haha. so its pretty funny. but his companion loves doing the mission work. so its all good. that is way cool that L. tom perry is doing to the ward tomorrow that would be so fun. and yes we get the ensign, but here its called the liahona haha. but i love everyone and thanks for all the e mails. chau!!Nikkino i cant believe i will be 21 and i cant believe hailee will be 1. holy cow. i dont even know her and she will have one. haha, thats way funny. oh well. its not like she can talk, so i am not missing much haha. just kidding. tell Lance that he is a nerd for playing in a band again. one of the missionaries that i live with is in a band and they got invited to play with paramore he plays the guitar way good, he has some way good songs, tell lance to look up seasons extreme on i tunes. but anyway got to go. and i think kelsey is better then you at spanish haha just kiddingKelseynext time a boy tries to hold your hand you give him the advice that Dad has always given us and smack him in the adams apple. p.s. when you explain your stories i have no idea who these people are. the only one i know is kenzie and thats cuz you talk about her so much. i have never even met her haha. but i like the stories so its all good. you sound like you are pretty busy at suu. i love that place. but i think i changed my mind and i am going to have to go to college at home. i just miss home so much. so i think that uvu would be a little better for me. cuzi dont have to travel so much....... haha just kidding i would never betray good ol suu, i love that place too much. of course i am going back, but i think you love it more then me now haha. but i love ya and have a good day chau.

November 2, 2009

dear family, i am sorry but this is going to have to be another short email to everyone. we just baptized friday, so we only have one cool investigator. she told us she wants to get baptized the 21st of november and that will probably be my last saturday here in cruz del eje. so pray that susanna can get baptized. she is about 60 years old, she has already been to church and loves the book of mormon. she is a teacher and owns a shoe store so she doesnt have a lot of time. so pray for her so she can get baptized. she has had a hard life and needs to trust in God. so last week was pretty good. i am still with my same companion. his name is elder teemsma and hes from california. hes pretty cool. on the mission i have learned to have so much patience with people so its a lot easier for me to get along with people. sometimes we get so mad because people arent perfect and we think they need to be more like us. but they are probably thinking the same thing haha. so its us that need to change, we need to be the ones to have patience and get over it. thats great that your ipod didnt get broken, i didnt know you had one. we have to take another 3 hour colectivo to cosquin. so that will be fun. we are doing splits with some missionaries. i love everyone so much and have a good day. cuidensen thanks for all the support and prayers. chau!! besos y abrazos!!!

October 26, 2009

hey family i am sorry i dont have that much time again. i feel so bad, but thats the way it is. we just have to send a lot of stuff. i will try to answer all your questions and i think thats all the time that i have. but this week was a good week. we will have a baptism on friday so that will be fun. mom you dont have to send a package for christmas i was thinking that it would be better to just put money in my account so i can by everyone souvineers. we have to go on 3 hour bus rides at least once a week. and a lot of times twice a week. it would be like going to cedar city every week. this is the area that we ride bikes and its so fun. i wish i would have had bikes my whole mission. we get so much done. there is only one branch in the whole city. Sunday we had 50 members go. its the most that i have seen while i have been in the area. yes we still have a cell phone. the food is all the same in argentina. there is not too much of a difference anywhere you go haha. i would probably need like 150 for souvineers. unless you think thats too much. i will just take them in my suitcase. i think i will throw a lot of old shirts away. and i have enough sd cards. so i think i will be good. and i love everyone so much have a good day chau.

October 20, 2009

dear familysorry i didnt write yesterday, we had zone conference yesterday and they announced that on thursday so i had no idea that i wasnt going to be able to write ya on monday. but last week was so crazy. we barely had time to do anything. last thursday we had to travel to cordoba (3 hours) then we had councel with the zone leaders and it was way good. President and the Hermana Olsen do such a good job and we always learn a ton. its always fun because 7 missionaries in my group are zone leaders so we get a chance to talk and see whats going on. then we had to travel back and got home at 9 in the night. then friday we actually got the whole day to work so that was a relief. saturday we had zone meeting (where we teach our zone) then at 12 45 p.m. our bus leaved to cosquin to do an interview. so we arrived at 3 p.m. and did the interview and at 4 our bus left. and we were supposed to go to Dean Funes for another baptism interview, but there wasnt a direct bus from cosquin to dean funes. so we got to cruz del eje at 6 45 p.m. and our bus left at 7 30 p.m. and we got there at 8 30 and did the interview and the guy that i interviewed didnt pass cuz he was still smoking but his wife passed the interview. it made me so mad that the Elders that were teaching him didnt even ask him if he had stopped smoking. it made me want to drop the cane cuz we had to travel all the way out there. but dont worry there was no cane dropped. and by the time we got done with the interviews (which were done in this way way poor house) it was 10 p.m. so we slept there woke up at 6 am and took the but back to cruz del eje. got back at 7 30, so we got showered and went to church. then monday we had to wake up at 4 in the morning and travel back to cordoba to go to zone conference and it lasted till 6 p.m. and we got back to cruz del eje at 10 45 p.m. so we went to bed. and now its p day haha. what a week of traveling. jeffery should be happy that they have a car and they dont have to travel by bus and having to deal with that. and i swear traveling takes more out of me then working all day under the hot sun. i dont think i ever want to travel in my life again. so it was crazy. oh and i did get those garments. thank you so much. i got like cool underarmor ones too. there so comfy on the bikes. and i will make sure i wont open up the packages until my birthday. the investigators are doing good we will get a baptism on the 31st. last transfer we got 8 groups of people to go to church and ony 1 of those groups will be getting baptized. so it was pretty frustrating. but they just didnt progress after going to church. but we found a way sweet family thats married (not common in argentina) and they are going to church this week. so i am way excited. we lent them the movie joseph smith the profet of the restoration. and she just loved it. so we are going to commit them to get baptized tonight, so we will see what happens. and i am sorry for all the money i have used. the mission owes me a lot of money though, for all the travels that we have done. so i will probably have to take out some money today again. thank you for everything. and the candy was amazing!! and i gave the pictures of Jesus to all the moms in our branch for mothers day and i gave them a milky way and every mom just loved it and wanted another milky way haha. one even came up to me and said she didnt get one. then i said oh really, and she said, well, i already ate it but it was so good i wanted another. so it was pretty funny. but i love everyone so much and have a great day

October 13, 2009

Dear familywe had transfers but i didnt get transfered and neither did my companion. so this will be 6 months in this area. which is just fine for my. i love it. on sunday we had a huge change in the branch. president olsen put his 1st counseler as our president of the branch and now we have counselers and a mission leader. before we just had a branch president so it was kind of hard for him to do all the work by himself. president was saying that we got to change this branch and make it into a ward. so thats pretty exciting. we have quite a few investigators right now so hopefully they can make it to baptism. dad the city i live in is cruz del eje and we live on a corner and the 2 streets are eva peron and san luis. we are one street in front of the church. and no i have never had to go to a doctor or the dentist. and thank goodness i would be too scared haha. i have only gotten sick like 3 times on my mission. and thanks for the package i got it last week and it had way cool doctor pepper football shaped things in it. they were so amazingly delicious haha. so thanks a mountain!! ... a phrase in spanish hahah.... it means thank you a ton!! oh and i would prefer that you didnt send me anything for christmas so that i can buy souvineers for everyone. i think that would be a better christmas present then anything. theres a lot of cool things that you guys would love. its weird talking about that but oh well, i just dont want you to prepare any packages haha. i cant believe today i have 20 months. its just scary for me. but oh well. thanks for everything i love you all and thank you for being so supportive and praying for me and my investigators, i know that your prayers are working. the family that i baptized in my last area are doing great, they are the ward missionaries and they help so much giving references to the missionaries and helping them out. they are great. in about 6 months they are going to be able to be sealed in the temple. so that is way exciting. but i love everyone so much. and i am already out of money. we never have lunch with members so we have to buy everything and its really hard on us. hopefully it will change soon but we will see. on thursday we travel to a zone leader councel and president was telling me its going to be amazing and we are going to double the baptisms in the mission. love you have a good day