Family,

 

This has been another really good week. We had another awesome baptism Saturday of Mayra (11) and Marlen (16). They're both the sweetest little girls! You'll be getting lots of pictures today (: I confirmed Marlen on Sunday and also gave a 20 minute talk that I was asked to give 9:00 Saturday night. Don't know how I pulled that off...  oh, yes I do. Divine help (; I also played lead kindly light at the baptism on my penny whistle. Everyone loved it. ALL I hear about right now is the new Argentine pope! The only way I see that it's affected anyone's lives is that they talk about it all the time =P Nope, still no  birthday package. Just have to keep waiting, I guess. I'm really glad you all liked my story. That's one of those life-changing experiences that only serving a mission can give you. Well, I'm gonna keep this short, cause I've got a lot of pics to send. Till next week! I love you all!

food that one of the sisters in the ward made for us.
American food: fried chicken and french fries (:

We had a pancake party (:
And yes, we made the pancakes. From scratch.

Strike a pose...

kevin, the son of one of our recent converts

yup. it's that time of year! Finally!
After going through two summers in a row, it's a welcome relief.

jewish food. It was actually pretty good.
there's a sister in the ward that always makes us interesting food.
She made us middle eastern food the other day, which was also pretty good.

Mayra and Marlen

When the oven doesn't work, we improvise (:

Testify!

Hello family,

This has been another good week. We had the baptism this Saturday of Kevin, the son of one of our recent converts. It turned out extremely well. I even played piano for the whole thing haha. I also got to do divisions with Elder Sturgell again this week. We had a pretty interesting experience. As we were walking down the road, a group of three guys started a conversation with us by asking how many kilometers a day we walk. The conversation went on, and they asked what church we represent. I said, the church of Jesus Christ, or otherwise known as the Mormons. Then one of them said, "You know, I've always wondered where that name comes from." So, obviously, we thought, awesome! They want to know about us! So, we started explaining the book of Mormon and where it comes from. Then the guy suddenly starts attacking the book of Mormon and denying it as scripture because it "isn't the bible." Elder Sturgell tried and tried to explain how it actually is scripture, even by using scripture. He asked the guy if he'd ever read the book, and he said no. Then I said, being a little worked up at this point (the guys were being arrogant jerks about the whole thing), "Then you don't know!! If you've never read it, you can't know what it is." The guy had no response for me. But, the conversation went on, the guys continuing to deny the church and the bom, and I just got angry. So, wanting to put my emotion to good use, I said, with all the conviction, power, confidence, and authority that I've ever said it, "It's true! And I KNOW It's true!" That effectively ended the conversation, and we both went our ways. I was shaking all over, from both anger and from what I just said. I've never born my testimony in such a way before. It proved to me just how strong my testimony really is. It is unbreakable. So, just thought you'd like to hear that story (: unfortunately, I can't sent pics from this computer (it's kinda ancient), so you'll have to wait till next week. I love you all! Oh and I still haven't gotten my package. ): Till next week!

my new friend

Happy 20th Birthday!!!!

Family,

Haha thank you so much for the pictures! I miss sloppy joes a ton! I hope you ate a whole bunch for me. And snuck lots of ice cream out of the freezer. Hah, It's crazy the things you forget about.... Anyways, my birthday here was awesome. This ward is amazing. They made me feel like I was celebrating my birthday with my own family. I was sung happy birthday to, and given an total of THREE birthday cakes!!! Isn't that awesome? I still haven't gotten your package yet, but I did get some gifts from the ward. I got a bamboo flute from a sister and a wall clock set in detailed leather from one of our recent converts, Elizabeth. I also got a book of mormon in a native language from Paraguay called Guarani. My first of two birthdays in the mission went very well. (: Staples closed???!!! That's crazy. Wow she's getting her patriarchal blessing? That's wonderful (: That will be a great help to her. I know mine has been for me. When I sometimes feel like I'm not worth very much, it helps me see the potential God sees in me and the plans He has for me. It's been awesome to see some of the things it says being fulfilled right before my eyes. For example, the Gift of Languages. I haven't quite made it to being fluent (yet), but I am completely conversant. I can understand just about 85-90% of what people say, even in normal on-the-street conversations. There were a handful of members in the ward I just could NOT understand when I first got here. Now, I can understand everything they say. It's truly a miracle. We have a bunch of awesome baptisms coming up in the next few weeks. We're pretty excited. (: I also taught Elder Dressler how to play army of helaman this morning on the penny whistle. Hah. Thanks for all the birthday wishes, and I love you all! 

The cake Yoana Coronel made for me!! 

The lady behind me (Marcela) smashed my face into the cake. Haha

The cake the Sotelo family made for me (((:

This is Roxy. She bought the flute for me (:

Love the people...

Family,

 

Yeah. I AM getting old.... =P I can hardly believe it either. Time just keeps getting faster and faster. I STILL haven't gotten my package from you yet. I got one today from grandma and grandpa. I'm sure it'll get here eventually. Anyways, this week's been really good. I actually do have an experience I'd like to share. Last Monday night, we were teaching an AWESOME new family we had found with the bishop. During the lesson, I realized something. I realized that i LOVED these people. A lot.  I wanted so badly for them to be happy and experience the change the gospel can bring to their lives. The feeling was almost overpowering, and Elder Dressler and I were both close to tears multiple times during the lesson. I've never experienced a feeling like that before. I had barely even met these people! But I felt such an intense desire for their happiness and well-being. I believe that that experience changed the course of my mission. I realized just how important love for the people is. Love the people, and everything else will fall in to place. EVERYthing else. I'm grateful for all these experiences. We have some AWEsome baptisms lined up for March. I'm pretty excited. Oh! And I also just got permission to play my flutes and harmonicas on pdays, and the flute in church! Yay!! =D Also, the weather has been changing dramatically. It's been rainy and cool or cold all week. I love it! But, they are anticipating an extremely cold winter this year, so we'll have to see how I handle that.  But, I'm gonna send a bunch of pics, so I'll talk to you next week. I love you all!      

Elizabeth, another amazing convert, and her family
and Brisa

I drew this to help a youth in the ward give a lesson
on the plan of salvation

Both of our puppies!!!
Chewbacca and Brittany Spears!

This is hilarioius. The sign says something like: please do not dump trash.
Let's keep our neighborhood clean.
Right over a mountain of garbage. HAAH!

my bunny and his pato (duck)

we went to a buffet today as a district :)

The end to sweat in sight...

Family,

Yet another week completed in Argentina. I realized something insane the other day: I only have ELEVEN transfers left. That's IT!!! Time is going by so incredibly fast. I'm trying so hard to make the most of it. The leaves are all starting to change color, which means fall is on the way. The end of the heat is finally in sight! Although, the heat hasn't been too unbearable lately. My health is finally better. I hope that it stays this way now. So I've been hearing people talk about a meteorite that hit Russia last week and damaged some surrounding towns. They even say there's videos of it! Have you seen it?! Also, they've been talking about some comet that's supposed to hit earth in 2014 and that NASA's preparing missiles to blow it up or something. Have you heard anything about that? Anything else interesting going on in the world that I should know about? We pretty much don't ever hear any news, so I'm curious (: I should be getting your birthday package this week sometime. I haven't had a chance to go to the offices to get it yet. That is if it's actually there... Anyways, I don't really have anything else interesting to talk about this week. Hope to hear from you soon! I love you!

"La Gran Torre" - The Great Tower. 

I made this for our apartment because it looks like a tower. 

It's funny because in the scriptures, the great tower referes to the Tower of Babel =P

A sign for the dogs we rescued. 

"Shaaarrornnn!"

Sickness and Storms

Family,

 

I loved all the spartan race pics! Looks like it was a ton of fun. Other than dad getting sick at the end. Speaking of being sick... I got really sick this last week. I got a pretty nasty flu that lasted about three days. The second night I had a fever of 104. It sucked. Having to walk literally everywhere when you're sick is terrible. But despite that, we were still able to catch up on all of our work from this week. And I'm doing perfectly fine now (: Asa for the missionary work, everything's going good. We don't have any upcoming baptisms so far, but we're working on it. Transfers is this wednesday. If one of us leaves, I'm almost positive it'll be me. But, we don't actually think either of us will be leaving. There won't be many changes this transfer. As for letters that I've gotten, there's a few cards from grandma and one from emma. I can't wait to get my package! It's probably sitting in the offices right now. Oh, so funny story. Yesterday evening, we had another really intense storm. We were visiting a member as it started raining, and we realized that we still had about 40 contacts to do to finish out the week. So, obviously, we went out and started talking to people. As we were doing that, it started DOWNPOURING. We ditched the umbrellas because we were completely drenched. At one point I just started laughing so hard because we were soaking wet handing people cards, and basically having to yell for them to hear us over the wind and the rain. It was so awesome! Anyways, I hope everything is well at home. Good luck planning the conference trip. I love you all!

Storms and Puppies

Hey family,

So I'm gonna make this pretty short this week so that I can send home all the pictures that I have. There's like 50 >_<  But, this has been another good week, other than a "refrío del sol" (cold that you get from being out in the sun too much) that I had. We aren't expecting to have too many changes this transfer, so Elder Dressler and I are expecting (and hoping) to stay together. So just a few highlights from the week: The other night we had a HUGE storm. There was a ton of lightning, wind, and rain. Half the neighborhood's still without power and it happened three days ago. Nothing really happened to us, other than a bunch of water got in the apartment. The other thing is we saved a bunch of newborn puppies that were just thrown out on the side of the road in a pile of trash! We were walking with a bunch of the youth to go visit someone and we saw them and decided to take them with us (: Well I'm gonna get to sending pictures. I love you!

David Fernàndez, an AWESOME convert of ours

We visited a cemetary one day.
Nothing like it exists in the US as far as I know...

Sometime you just gotta have a little fun...