SEASON FINALE

Soo. THIS WEEK ON THE SEASON FINALE.

We went to capital! We had interviews, I had a TON of food!!! My camera's battery died... And I saw a friend from home!! And I left a clean slate for the new visero Elder Thomas!

So this week was the final week of my mission, and man was it busy! We had tramites on Wednesday in the morning over in Immigration (my last time :´( ohh...) and it was good, we only had a few complications but it was a good time!

Then that night I went over to the assistants pench to sleep over with Elder Pribyl and another Elder that was going home because we needed to be in capital at 8:30 in the morning. And we took a train over to Capital and MAN was it packed in the morning, and once you thought it wasn't full enough people started to take a running start to shove themselves into the train... Yipee... Ha, but we saw a ton of things in capital! We saw the Colon Theatre, the Obelisk, the ¨Boca¨, and a Ginormous super super super rich cemetery, but it was really fun, Buenos Aires has a ton of interesting Culture.

On Friday we went with the whole group and President Calquin and his wife over to the temple, which was AWESOME. An amazing moment with a ton of inspiration and setting some goals and pace marks for me when I get home while I was in the Celestial Room. Next we went to a restaurant to go eat that was pretty much right next to the Temple, and then we headed over to the Mission House to have our final Interviews! I got to know all the people in my group a lot better, and they are all such awesome people! There are 3 Americans, 2 chileans, a Spaniard (not sure that´s what they call people from Spain), and one from New Zealand.  The one from new Zealand says that she goes to Issac Preston´s town all the time! So maybe one day they will get to know each other! 

During our last district meeting it was REALLY REALLY hard for me, because this is by far my favorite district!!  We all had a really good time and we did some practices and then our district leader Elder Colman had everyone share a 3 minute testimony about the Atonement and Missionary work and when he has said that I knew that the tears were gonna come! Especially because I was going to go last and everyone´s testimony were rock solid! But yeah I cried but it was OK because I love my district so much!!  After I decided to make them something... ¨From Home¨... Mom´s famous cheesy bean dip!!! AND IT WAS SOOO GOOD! But then Elder Colman decided that the last song was going to be ¨Sing we now at Parting¨ SO that just brought the tears RIGHT BACK!! HaHa

The Elder that did the visas before me came to visit Buenos Aires with his parents.  It was so awesome to see him!!

The Office Elders and Elder McFarland (Kevin)

  

Ok so some final words. And to be honest I would really just like to share this scripture from D&C 76:22... ¨And Now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which [I] give of him: That He lives!¨ 

I testify that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ lives and that as a representative of him, I know that he has atoned for the sins of the world. That every single human being has the power to be healed from spiritual, emotional, and physical wounds through the healing power of his eternal sacrifice and the restored power and authority of God on earth today. He is the reason why we all exist, and if he is not the center in our existence then we better take a step back and try to look over life one more time. Because through him, we might receive the most precious gifts of all the gifts of God. Which is shown to us in D&C 6:13... ¨... thou shalt be saved in the kingdom of God, which is the greatest of all the gifts of God; for there is no gift greater than the gift of salvation.¨ 

Thanks for all the love, help, and support that you have all given me so that I could be able to testify in His name and be His servant.

Love you all and can´t wait to see you all this coming week!!

With all my love and Appreciation!

Elder Ward

I CAN'T DO THIS!

OK so yeah this last Monday we had interviews, and it was super awesome! President Calquin talked a lot about talking with everybody and testifying of Christ in EVERY opportunity that we get. And next week I will have my last interview with him, and I can´t believe that this is the second to last time that I will be writing you guys!!! My next email I will probably get super spiritual and make you guys cry a couple times so I will keep this email a little more on the lighter side of life, haha. But it was good, he is doing the interviews a little different from how President Thurgood did it but yeah different is good! Right?

A funny story, we were at a dinner appointemnt with some members and we shared a scripture and all that and the appointment was super good, and the moment was perfect to ask for referrals, and out of no where the dad of the house said that the other day he was reading the bible and that he made a conclusion on Noah´s ark and how Noah could actually manage the whole animals in the ark. He said that he didn´t take 2 of every animal BUT he actually took DNA of every animal species, and that way the boat was actually much smaller too so that everyone could fit on it... Uhh... Ok... AND after the the spirit went flying right out the window... WHOOSH! Haha but yeah we shared the scripture in Lucas that says for God nothing is impossible but that he does everything in a perfect dominion.

Every night that we are going out we just keep talking with more and more people! I just hope that as we are doing this we will be able to find the next reactivation or baptism. Elder Tobler has been here a really long time and he deserves a baptism! Let´s just hope that we keep working the way the Lord wants us to and then we will see the miracles.  There is a missionary that ended the mission here in adrogué a couple transfers back and she told me this... We need to believe before we see, not see before we believe.

Next week we have 4 tramites planned so I will definitely be super super busy up till the last minute and I might have to rearrange some finishing missionaries plans so that I can make sure I can show Elder Thomas how to do all the visa stuff before I leave because well... After I leave I won´t be too close for questions, haha but luckily email exists!

Today we went shopping for some stuff that I want before I leave! It was really weird because we went like to a busy place and it´s a Saturday night... I felt like I was just kickin' it on the town, but as a missionary, haha. It was weird.

Well hope all of you have a good week! Something that I learned this week while I was reading The bible was something very interesting in Matthew 10:37.  It talks about that we should love God more then our families and that hit me... That´s some heavy stuff! It was weird to think that people I love so much should be put under somebody. But God is our All mighty and all powerful Father. He deserves it!!

Well I hope that you all enjoy this next week!!!

Elder Ward

p.s. wow this is weird... my second to last email... I CAN´T DO THIS!!! THIS IS SO WEIRD!!! LOVE YOU!!!

ARE YOU GUYS JAPANESE?

SOO THIS WEEK in the wonderful world of Adrogué (my area, haha)...

SO this week we found some new people to teach! One of them was a referral from the elders whose area is right next to us. He is super cool! Haha, his wife is a Jehovah´s witness so she doesn´t want ANYTHING of anything to do with us, but we had the first lesson with him on Wednesday.  We had another lesson scheduled with him yesterday in the church, but he didn´t show up.  As we were walking to our area we saw him walk out of a casino and he was drunk... Haha so yeah we got some things to talk about, haha but everyone has the potential to change!  It was funny because we talked to him when he walked out of the casino (because we walk right in front of it to get to our area) and when we said goodbye to him another one of our investigators walked out of the Bingo (that´s what the casino is called here) And the ¨Bingo¨ is right next to the ¨Shopping¨ (that´s what they call a mall here, haha).

So because we have a new mission president all of the legal stuff isn´t set in stone yet... For example, the mission presidents like sign checks for stuff that the mission does, but that hasn´t been finished yet so President Calquin can´t sign checks for the church yet... SOOO that means that pretty much the mission doesn´t have money, and no money means no tramites... Oh Shucks! haha, but I have been helping everyone else a little more and finishing tedious tasks for them that maybe they didn´t have time to do, but also Elder Thomas (the comp I had for a week) is coming back tomorrow!!! So I will keep training him for these 2 weeks and hoping that he memorizes everything, because if he doesn´t he will be making a lot of international calls because all of the other old viseros have all finished their mission so yeah... We´ll see what happens. 

Usually missionaries have like a 24 hour division with their district leaders but for some reason Elder Colmán and I had one for 30 minutes, but right as we got to our area we contacted every house on the first block, and one of the families let us in! The kids were super cute and right when we walked in the house one of the little kids screamed, ¨are you guys Japanese???¨ and the other one said ¨no they are from Paraguay!!¨ Well that was definitely a first... Haha me and my comp were dying.

There was a wedding reception in the stake center yesterday and since no one cleans the church we got the task to clean it... all that we had to work with was a broom, a squeegee, some bleach, and some floor cleaner...it was quite the feet.

Well hope all of you have a good week!!! 

Elder Ward

TENDER MERCIES OF THE LORD

Ok so luckily this week has been way better on the side of proselyting.  We have left the offices at 6 on the dot or on somedays we left even earlier! We are just trying to alzar nuesrto hoz as much as we can!! And this week we found 3 new investigators! One is a lady that we found by contacting and the other 2 are a couple that was a reference from some elders that contacted this guy in the area that is right next to ours!

We also had members go out with us 3 days this week.  So I think slowly but surely we are working a little harder.  There is still room for a lot of improvement! I gotta keep on keepin' on so that I can hit the brick wall at the end of my mission sprinting!!!

Elder Thomas still has not come back yet. He will be coming here in a week. I will have pretty much a week to train him because the last week is full of all the ending missionary stuff where we go to capital and take a tour and have our last interviews with president and all that jazz. So I pretty much have a week to train that champ! Let´s hope that he is a fast learner!!!

The mission president is awesome!  He hasn´t really made any HUGE changes yet. I think his 3rd or 4th transfer here in the mission he will be changing it to the way that he likes and all that stuff. But actually the week after I leave President Packer´s son (Elder packer who is now the President of the South America South Mission) is going to be in the offices for 3 days directing it and teaching us (well I won´t be here haha) how a mission office really needs to work and how we need to do everything and yeah so woohoo! I am sad that I am not going to be here to learn from Elder Packer but oh well, I guess I wasn't meant to be here when he comes.

This last weekend there was a stake activity in the church and they were cooking something. Well everyone left and they had forgotten that they had left the oven on and it is industrial so it is suuuuuper suuuuper hot. The table right next to it caught on fire and just destroyed the whole kitchen! Luckily the fire didn´t enter into the gas lines but it was seriously a miracle because the fire just stayed inside of the kitchen and didn´t affect any other part of the church! But yeah that was super crazy.  On Sunday morning we walked into the church (the activity was Saturday night) and it smelled like something was burning, so we were running around the church to find out what was burning and it was the kitchen, but the flame was out and the whole place was just charcoal black from the fire.. SO yeah! Tender Mercies of the Lord!! Saved us on that one! Or I woudn't have been writing this message to you! Because there wouldn't be a church or a computer!!

The weather doesn't really get any getting colder then it is now.  It just seems to stay the same, haha freezing cold in the morning, and by mid day I need to take off my jacket and sweater because it is so stinking hot!!! I seriously don´t understand this weather down here! The humidity just kills me! You can never predict the weather!!!

So yeah well that was the week! Hope that cali was a blast and that everyone had a blast! 

Love you all!! Keep strong in the faith!

Elder Ward

IT'S OWN SPECIAL WAYS

So this week was EXTREMELY full of tramties!! I went over to immigrations every day except for Monday! It was quite the week! And seriously I love my assignment! It is so fun to be with all of the Missionaries of the mission and to get to know all of them and all their different personalities! They are all so awesome and all of them have a ton of desires to share the gospel! We were talking to a bunch of people over there in Immigraitones and sadly like almost all of the people that we talked to don`t even live in our mission but at least they said that someone could go over to their house! It was a cool experience and it was a goal that I had to do that because I am just sitting around for like 4 hours in the same place and why not take advantage of the situation and talk to some people! 

So this last Monday we also had a 3 hour training with President, and it was really interesting. It was a little long because he talked a lot about some business principles and all that jazz but it was also very useful! He is a really good business man and he actually worked in the area offices for Chile.  He said that the Church was a super high ranked business... Not really sure how that works but yeah... It was strange to me when he said that to think of the church like a business, but it also makes sense.  Because the Lord doesn`t only give us Spiritual Revelation but also Secular revelation to things such as what people should do for Work, how to be self sufficient and all that stuff.. Actually here in Argentina and I am sure all over the world the church has started to do self sufficient classes for the people of the church.  They want to help them to grow in their businesses and get a job and education and how to be smart with your money and the Argentine Government in some Province wanted to implement it! Super cool!

The church gets recognized in it`s own special ways I guess!

We also had a family night where we had a movie night! I have pics but i can`t send them because the computer in this cyber doesn`t have usb ports, haha. But we started watching 17 miracles which I don`t think I have ever seen before! It was amazing!! It is about the Willie-Martin handcart company... I think... I LOVED IT! It just reminds me the amazing heritage that this church has! And me too! I am so grateful that I could have ancestors that were actually Pioneers! Hopefully we can make their sacrifice worth it but giving our all to the church and the Lord!

Well that's about it for this week! Hope you all have a good week in Cali and be sure to send a ton of Pics!

Elder Ward

LITTLE BY LITTLE

Wow... Welll... IN THIS WEEKLY UPDATE. We had transfers, I got a new companion and lost him in the same week :´( , Elder Pozos had a birthday, we had english classes, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand same old same old... haha

So we had transfers this last week and we did it a different way because the last transfers were TERRIBLE. And they were really confusing for everybody and there were taxis everywhere. So this time we decided to put everyone in buses and actually it went super super well! Except for one part... Right when we went to go open the offices we put the key in the door and it wouldn´t open. so we decided to go ask the propiedades (like the people that fix the churches and that stuff) to see if they could call a locksmith. But then the guy came over and he just tried to open the door with the keys and then told us that the door was jammed. Yeah. THANKS! Yeah the ambiente was a little tense that morning because we had 140 missionaries showing up over there and we couldn´t even open the door... Haha But in the end it all came out good! We did it a lot faster and saved a ton of money doing it this way! Yay!

So I got my new comp that is named Elder Thomas... Aaaaand he was learning all the visa stuff really quick and then he actually had to leave. There was a new missionary that had to go home for problems that I don´t know, so they had to put him in there immediately.  It is the most dangerous area in the whole mission and the new comp that stayed hadn´t even been there for 4 days so yeah they sent Elder Thomas because he knows that area very well because he was there for a couple transfers. But he was sad that he had to go but supposedly he will be back in a couple weeks to finish his training before I go!

Elder Pozos (el Mexicano) had his birthday this past Thursday! And he turned 26! Wow... a little old, haha but he is awesome, he is a convert of 2 years and none of his family are members and he is a super trooper and he just rocks everyone's socks off!

We went prosylyting this week and we just keep searching for people! We had a lesson with some less actives that were actually progressing super well! BUUUT. (there is always a but, haha) the father of the family relapsed and started to drink and smoke again so we have to keep working with him! The wife is so willing to help and she is super active and an awesome member. But yeah we are just trying to little by little to improve sacrament attendance.

Sorry if I am just rambling a bit. Have a good week!

Elder Ward

AIN'T NO PARTY LIKE A MISSIONARY PARTY

So This week we got the transfers for this monday!!! And I am.............................................................. ...............................................................................going.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. .....................................................................................to.......................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................. ................leave...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... my bags unpacked because I am staying here!!! But Elder Tobler and I have a new companion that mainly I am going to train but after I leave Elder Tobler will train him because he eventually he will take over both of our jobs!!  I think that it´s really cool that President is cutting down the number of missionaries in the offices so that there are less missionaries that have 3 hours of proselyting every day!

Yup so surprise! I keep doing visa stuff every week, haha, this week we went to immigraciones once and did what we call the ¨minibus¨ tramite where we go and do some boring tramite stuff that I will spare you the pain of listening to, haha. But this week some people from the area offices came to train me a little bit and help President Calquin understand the whole visa process. 

Today (Saturday) is Argentina´s Independence day! And it´s super cool because it is actually the 200th anniversary of their independence! So we decided to make a cake and eat it. Wooo, Ain´t no party like a missionary party!!! OFF THE HOOK!! WE MADE A CAKE! Haha. And then we played football... SOOOO I guess it was more like celebrating the states independence but yeah. 

This week we had another Family night! And I know that´s the only thing that I send pictures of but hopefully you still enjoy them. Haha

FHE

Well hope you all have a good week! I will make sure that this next week I have a little more to write about!

Elder Ward

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