FIRST BAPTISM!

Family-

The baptism at first was super stressful. First, the ladies showed up like 2 hours early, at like 3 and the baptism was at like 5. So we just had to let them sit in the chapel while we tried to do other preparations because there is a missionary rule that we can`t be in a house with women unless there is another man there. So then as 5 rolls around no one else shows up, not the 2nd counselor, not the people doing the baptism. NADA. So then we went home to get our baptism clothes because we were planning on members doing the baptism. We grabbed the clothes and when we came back EVERYBODY was there, in a matter of like five minutes (because we live really close to the church).  Everybody showed up and it was SUCH a blessing and a MIRACLE! Yeah we started an hour late but other than that the baptism went perfectly! So yeah it was a super fun day!  My comp said that`s pretty much how every baptism goes here in Argentina, so I am very excited for more stressful days!!!  The feeling afterwards was so awesome!  Especially after confirming people the next day!  Elder young and I got to do the confirmations, and it was just amazing. It is an indescribable feeling to bring people to this gospel!  I can definitely tell you that it is a feeling of extreme joy!!!  Just a whole lot of other feelings too. but man was this an awesome weekend!

The Lobos Rama (Branch)

It was so great to talk to the fam on Christmas!!  Just so good to see everyone!!  The rest of the day was pretty basic.  We just went out proselyting, we finished cleaning the font and went on our way teaching other people! 

We stopped by our investigators house just to make extra sure that they were ready for their baptism. But yeah, it was just a good ol' regular day!

Baptismal Font

Christmas Eve was really when we celebrated Christmas I guess.  We had dinner at a members house and we were allowed to stay out till 10:30, if we had a car ride home (usual curfew is 9 or 9:30) And we just had a giant fest of some super good chicken called pollo al disco. So yeah, nothing too exciting!

We have a short p-day today because we are going to the temple tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED. The Buenos Aires temple is soooo beautiful, and it is just going to be a dandy time to have my first session in spanish... I am actually super nervous, haha but we`ll see how it goes!

Buenos Aires Temple

Well nothing much else exciting happened besides the preparations for the baptism. I went on exchanges with my zone leader because he had to give our investigators interviews to see if we taught them everything well. And then our other investigators totally promised to go to church but they didn`t!! We stopped by to see why they didn`t come and he said that he stayed up till like 6 in the morning for a reason that he wouldn`t tell us... So yeah! But it was a super awesome week! FINALLY GOT MY FIRST TWO BAPTISMS! CANNOT WAIT TO GET MY NEXT ONES!!! Oh, and these past couple days have been the hottest days of my life. it has been pretty terrible. there is just always sweat on my face because of the humidity. So yeah, haha

Love you all so much!!!

Elder Ward

FELIZ NAVIDAD FROM THE ARGENTINA BUENOS AIRES WEST MISSION!!

THUMBS UP!

Elder Ward and Elder Young - Photo sent to us from Hermano Gimenez

Family!

Missionary life is really just starting to become a blur now, I gotta start taking weekly notes or something.

But Anyway! This week we had transfers! And luckily me and my comp are not going anywhere! We are becoming pretty good buds! But the Hermanas that were in Lobos left and to get to the transfer meeting we had to sit in a taxi for 2 hours and I was the fortunate one to get the Hermana´s luggage on my lap.  It literally weighed like 90 pounds, so by the time we got to the office I could not feel my legs.  Luckily I was able to see all of my mission buds!  I got to see Elder Udall so that was super fun to see my papí! A papí is the person that does your training.   We had this awesome, massive Christmas party for transfers! We had a huge feast and then we listened to music and did a sing a long to a bunch of Yankee (that´s what Argentine´s call Americans, pronounced shankee) songs!  We listened to Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and I freaked out, but they started playing JINGLE BELL ROCK!!! It made me so happy. Then after all the fun we had an awesome devotional with some narrations and singing, and then we got to watch this movie called Ephriam´s Rescue, if you haven´t seen it I highly recommend it! It was super good and uplifting! And one of the actors went to Skyline and I totally know him! So that was kinda wierd.

But other then that nothing much has happened here in Lobos! But our investigators are going to be baptized this weekend on Saturday!!! I am so happy to finally have my first baptism! It´s going to be so awesome! It is going to be such an awesome day!! Can´t wait to finally have my first convert to this AMAZING gospel!! 

Love you all so much and I hope you have a super happy and joyful Christmas!! I´ll be praying that it doesn´t snow on christmas so Dad can be with the fam! Christmas with Dad there was always a million times better! But I have a challenge for all of you! Try to think more of Christ this week! Even if you are buying gifts, think of what the FIRST gift of Christmas was and the sacrifice he made for you! I just had to give a talk yesterday about Christmas, and it was awesome! It definitely helped me think more of Jesus Christ as I prepared that talk! So try to think more of Him, and share this wonderful message with somebody that probably doesn´t know about it or doesn´t have a strong testimony! That is the best way to think of him! I love you all so much! Have a SLPENDID Christmas!


Elder Ward

Photo sent to us from Hermana Olson with the caption - "My Favorite Elders!"

HELLO FAM

Hello Fam!

This past weekend we had stake conference! So that meant a lot of traveling for the Rama (district) of  Lobos!  We all hopped in a combi (little bus, like a shuttle) and headed out for 3 hours each way to the stake center! Both yesterday and Saturday! That was actually super fun. I love this rama so much!  They are all just super awesome and love the gospel so much!   It is growing so fast and the work here just keeps getting better and better the longer I am here!  You asked me about the size of  Lobos.  It is really small. It is probably comparable to... something like Kamas, haha. This little campo town isn´t very big.

Stake conference was cool. We went to both sessions and I didn't understand everything, but luckily the conference was about missionary work so I could understand a fairly big chunk! Our mission president and his wife talked both days and it was super awesome! they are so sweet and i am extremely glad that they are my mission presidents! I feel bad for anyone who isn´t a missionary under them or President and Sister Felix! Best two missions in the world right there!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! Don´t think I forgot about that! Hope that your birthday was awesome and I am jealous because you probably got chocolate covered raisins and I am DYING to eat some of those!  They are too expensive here for missionaries, haha. 

This week we started teaching an abuela (grandma) of a recent convert who is 11.  He is a stud!  He brought his abuela to church without anyone telling him too!  He is going to be such a good missionary!   His abuela loves the gospel so much! She wants to start inviting ALL of her friends to her house to hear our lessons. and I mean ALL of them! This week she said she talked to like 10 people and told them to come and listen and I think some will probably come!! I am super excited for that! This week our investigators are getting married on the 18th! I am so excited for them! They are super awesome and I can´t believe their faith! They want a baptism in their lives so bad! Oh man that guy is just a stud!

Transfers are this week. I do not think that me or my comp will get transferred this week. But we will see!! I really hope I don´t, I love it here in Lobos so much! And I have a lot of plans here for Christmas and baptisms!  We will go to the mission office on Wednesday in Ramos Mejía.    This time is different because we are having a big Christmas party, so everyone goes to this one, but usually you only go if you are leaving or being transferred!

Well that was pretty much our week! Can´t wait to chat it up with the fam! Love you all so much! Have a wonderful week, and I hope it snows over there! Not having a white Christmas is really weird... REALLY weird. Well see ya!

Elder Ward

WORKING HARD!

Hola Familia!

I have a new companion, his name is Elder Young. He is from Wyoming and has a ranch up there. He has been out on the mission for like 14 months, and he is a stud! He is an awesome missionary, and we are working hard here in the area of Lobos.

This week was fun! Me and Elder Young got to work and just worked really hard trying to get this area moving! Also. Coldplay is on the speaker system at the ciber (internet cafe) this week so that´s pretty sweet. This week also we had something that´s called Asado at an investigators house. This is one of the big things here in Argentina, it´s like a family dinner every weekend (depending on the family). And they have asado, it´s just a MASSIVE BBQ that´s cooked over a huge fire and there is just meat everywhere. Sadly I had to have my first churriso (like a bratwurst or hotdog) so that was fun, since I haven't eaten one since I threw up at scout camp.   But it was good! We had a bunch of steak ensalada (salad) and just a good ol´feast!

Btw, you asked about meals.  I mostly cook my own meals because in campo people are super busy, and just work aful (spanish for a lot).  

This week we tried to find a lot of people. So we asked everyone we met or talked to and asked them for references, and we found a lot of people! 

Investigators wise no one really new.  There is the couple I told you about last week - They are awesome! This last Sunday the dad went to church! And he loved it and want´s to come to Noche de Hogar (family night, since the branch is small everyone come to). And he is super excited about being baptized at the end of this month! His wife didn´t come to church and we don´t know why, we went to pick them up on Sunday morning and it was raining a ton!! So we got a remis (taxi) to pick us up, but yeah! They are great!!

We also have another couple we are working with - The dad is what we call a dry member. He does everything he is supposed to, but he hasn´t been baptized yet. The problem is that His wife  doesn´t want to get married, and you can´t get baptized if you aren´t married. So we fasted yesterday that his wife will change her mind. 

In other news it´s freaking hot here! And it keeps getting hotter! It´s like 80-85, and what makes it worse is the humidity. Literally all day I am covered it sweat. It really makes me feel sorry for John and Corbin that are in Thailand and Brasil and it´s like a million percent humidity with like 104 degrees.

ME AND MY COMP LOVE THE ADVENT CALENDERS!!! Especially me because it is Lego Star Wars!! It is so fun to open one of those every morning!

Well I love you all and all the things that you have done for me, are doing for me, and will do for me! You are all AMAZING!! 

Love Elder Ward

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

DID YOU DO ANYTHING TO CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING THIS WEEK?

 No, Argentina doesn´t have it but on Thursday me and Elder Udall just made a bunch of food and counted it as a sufficient enough thanksgiving!

 TELL US ABOUT YOUR APARTMENT/PENCH?  IS IT GOOD, BAD, ETC.

 My Pench is pretty sweet, doesn´t have many problems which is good because almost all of them do have problems. So yeah!

HOW DO YOU DO YOUR LAUNDRY?

Luckily we don´t have to do it, the members help us out with it and do it for us! It is super nice! The members are so loving and caring here! Glad I could be in an area that has an awesome member base.

WHERE DO YOU BUY GROCERIES?

 At a supermarket, and at a place called pollo loco because all we pretty much eat is something called Milenesa (breaded chicken) and you just fry it, it's pretty good!

DID YOU GET THE CHRISTMAS PACKAGE THAT WE SENT WITH OUR FRIEND?

 Yes and I opened the first one today! Love the Lego theme!

WHERE DO YOU GO TO CHURCH?  IS IT CLOSE BY?  IS IT A WARD OR A BRANCH?  ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE GO?

We go to church in this little house that is just the church, no one lives there. It is a Rama (branch) and about 20-30 people go every week. But that´s gonna change soon!

ARE YOU AND YOUR COMPANION GETTING ALONG?  TELL US ABOUT HIM.

 Yes, but Elder Udall got flashed, it´s a transfer in the middle of a transfer not with the transfer cycle. so I have a new comp now! His name is Elder Young and I have only known him for a couple hours so we´ll see if we get a long! but I loved Elder Udall, I was sad to see him go!

TELL US ABOUT YOUR WEEK AND  YOUR INVESTIGATORS.

This week was pretty good. I was still with Elder Udall, the flash just happened today. but we found our first golden family! They just wanna follow all of the commandments and they are just awesome!  They have a son and he´s like 2 so he can´t talk much. They are going to be baptized at the end of this month so we´ll see how that goes! 

We also had a Zone conference this week and I didn´t understand much or remember much either, haha but we got new pots and pans!! That is exciting because our old ones were super old and gross and it feels good to cook my food on something that doesn´t look gross!

Also it rained super hard yesterday and the day before so that was pretty cool I guess, ha, proselitismo in the rain was pretty chill, and I was super thankful for an umbrella!!

Also go check out Youtube! The church bought the main banner for this month and there is a sweet video on there! So go watch it and tell your friends about it!!

Super jealous of the Grandeous Thanksgiving party! Sounds like it was a blast and I´m glad everyone had fun! 

So yeah! It was a good week here in Lobos but I am pumped for another week with my new comp!

Love you all and thank you for your prayers! I really can feel them lift me up when I feel down!

Elder Ward

CHILL WEEK

Hola Familia!

This week has been a pretty chill week, so nothing too exciting happened.  I will try and remember all of it!

We went to visit one of our investigators and as we approached the house of we saw his face through the window and he looked like he was super wasted. Me and my comp were so sad but as we went inside we saw that he had screwed up his knee pretty bad and he was on some pain meds. He had crashed on his Moto on Tuesday and we were visiting him on Friday and he couldn't remember anything that had happened the past 3 days. But luckily we visited him yesterday after a visit to the hospital and he is all good now! The hospital just cleaned his knee. He is one of the people we are focusing on really hard because he wants to be baptized but he needs to get married to the girl he´s living with first and she doesn't want to. We are working with her also and hope that she will be able to gain a testimony. So that´s all the news really investigators wise.

Last night was super cool, when we were coming back from the visit there was a gaucho (Argentine cowboy) parade in front of our pench. I guess it is for National Sovereignty Day (Dia de la Soberania Nacional) which is today.  It was AWESOME!! There were at least 3 or 4 hundred horses that rode by! There are holidays here like crazy. I think since I´ve been here there have already been 3 or 4 holidays.

And right now in the internet cafe they are paying Justin Timberlake... So I ain´t complaining, haha. But I haven´t been robbed this week luckily! I will use grandpa´s card to buy a new camera! But not today because it´s a holiday.

Tell David Ward and Grandpa Shields Happy Birthday for me! And have a Happy Thanksgiving! 

I am so Grateful for all of my friends and family that I have and I am so grateful for all of the examples I have in my life! Thank you so much for being there when I needed help and someone to just talk to in my hard times! Love you all!  And I am obviously grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father!! Or else I wouldn´t be serving this mission right now!! Haha, Love you all!

Elder Ward

BROKEN IN

Hola!!

This has been an exciting week so I hope you are all ready! And since you asked about photos mom  I have to tell you that my camera got stolen. And also my iPod and speaker!  So all of my pictures are gone, and I´m going to try to buy a new camera this week. We actually got our pench (apartment) broken into twice before the mission offices got us bars for our windows but all is well now! We got bars and now the pench feels safe again!

So glad that you got to hear from the Cali Elders, literally love them so much. Hope they are doing good! Can´t wait to meet up with them after the mission is over. So this week was FULL of travel. There was only one day that I  didn't have to sit on a bus for at least 2 hours so that was dandy. I had exchanges with my zone leader on Tuesday and Wednesday. His name is Elder Cardozo and he´s from Argentina so that was definitely a different experience having a native comp, it was super fun though. He´s a stellar missionary and was super patient with my Spanish and I learned a lot of Spanish from him too! The other zone leader Elder White, was with Elder Udall during the exchange.  They were riding our bikes (we have bikes because we are in campo) and Elder White ran into a parked car while on the bike. He screwed up my bike pretty bad too. But luckily we have a recent convert that owns a bicicleteria (bike shop) so he fixed my bike up.  We call my bike the "Rusty Steed" because it´s just a piece of junk, haha.

On Saturday morning my mission and the Buenos Aires Norte mission got together and listened to Elder D. Todd Christofferson (I think I spelled that right)! It was super cool. Him and some other important church people talked to us about how we could apply the atonement to missionary work. How pretty much nothing has any true meaning without a Savior and the atonement. So that was pretty stinkin cool! Also last night we had a late appointment out in campo and as we were riding back and there were fire flies EVERYWHERE!!! It was literally one of the sickest things I have ever seen. And then as I was gazing at the fireflies my bike chain broke... So that was fun. The Rusty Steed never fails to live up to it´s title. 

Well I love all of you! I have felt the prayers of all of you and I hope that I will be able to send you some sick pictures of the beautiful and majestic ARGENTINA!

Con Amor

Elder Ward

LOBOS

Hola!!

This is weird because the keyboards in Argentina are a little different, and it says I am spelling everything wrong, haha... But here we go! Hopeefully I can tell you everything that happened in these last 2 weeks! So I was super sad to leave Cali, but me and my comp decided we were going to work super hard for our last transfer together! sadly no one got baptized but we left that area with some solid progressing investigators! We also had to let go of a few investigators too which was super sad because we dropped my favorite investigator. Hopefully she realizes one of these days how much this gospel can bless her life!

In news of travel, I hopped on a plane at 11 am last Monday, and ended up in Argentina 7 am on Tuesday, and there is a 4 hour difference, so I had lots of travel!! It was good though, probably the only time I´ll be able to catch up on sleep in my whole mission, haha. And all of the visa waiters from my MTC district got their visas and were on my same flight, so that was fun to talk to all of them.

My first days in Argentina were crazy! We got to go see the temple and it is GORGEOUS!!! We then had lunch at the Presidents house and just chilled for a while, during his interviews with all of the new missionaries. We then went to the mission office, had more food, talked more about the mission then walked to where we were going to sleep that night. We slept in this massive apartment building that had at least 20 floors and we stayed on the 15th I think. It was a cool experience and all the missionaries that lived there were really welcoming and just studs. Then the next day we went to transfer meeting and I met my new companion! His name is Elder Udall and he´s from Mesa Arizona! He´s super awesome and I feel like we are going to work some miracles in this area.  Elder Udall is the district leader and we have a relief society (the rest of the district is only sisters. The Area is called Lobos. It´s fairly rural and I LOVE IT!! and it took about 2-3 hours by bus to get to Lobos. I have loved meeting the people here even though I can´t understand their Argentina accent. It's funny, here they have a different name for Spanish, instead of Español, it´s Castellano. We have a branch here and all of the people in the branch are just awesome! Everyone of them loves the gospel and, well they just rock.

So some new things about Argentina.  They have siesta (the long lunch) and there are a ton of dogs that just run around the place.  Luckily most of them don´t bite.  

Love everyone so much and I am so grateful for everyone! Love you all!

Elder Ward

MICHAEL HATCH IS THE BEST!!

Our dear friend, Mike Hatch, occasionally has work in Buenos Aires and he had a trip this week.  He was so kind to take a Christmas package for Spencer and deliver it to the mission office.  Thanks Mike!!!

ARRIVED SAFE AND SOUND

Elder Ward with President and Sister Robertson at the Buenos Aires Temple

LA TEMPLE - ADIOS CALIFORNIA

Elder Davidson and I

Because Elder Davidson's Birthday is in October - we were able to go to the LA Temple.  What a great day!!!

LA Temple at night 

Breakfast on my last day in California - We are all off to Argentina!!

DODGE BALL - STRIPLING WARRIOR STYLE

The Battlefield

President Felix and the zone leaders

President Felix (King Ammon)  and Bishop Quezada

I GOT MY VISA!!

Hola!!

So this is the biggest news of the week... I GOT MY VISA!!!! BOOYAH! I am super excited but I am also super sad, I've loved my time here in the "Great California Ventura Mission" and hope to come back someday! I have met so many nice people and they all have been so loving! And they all have been EXTREMELY patient with my Spanish! SO this week in my final week in Oxnard, in California and in the USA!!! I'm going to try to make it the best one! 

But this last week was fun! Lot of success and lots of fun time with the people here and the missionaries as well!

Our investigator was bashing me and Elder Davidson about the Word of Wisdom and stuff, we sadly didn't take our time in the lesson and listen to the spirit. In times like that it's really easy to pull out scriptures and tell them how they are wrong and be all up in their face! But they aren't going to have good memories about this church! I've learned that you always have to teach with love and patience! She then started to ask how we can even know which church is true, and it was a PERFECT set up to teach the Restoration, but sadly she had to go. WE WERE SO CLOSE! We also had another lady who is a less active and has pretty much denied all help from anyone in the ward and even heavenly help, but she still lets up come over and talk to her so hopefully she will progress.

Dragon Fruit

One of our less actives actually gave us some DRAGON FRUIT!!  Very cool fruit!! We also saw something on top of someones house... as we got closer we found out that it was a DINOSAUR! This was late at night and I could only get a picture of the shadow but it was super sweet, they were going all out for their Halloween decorations!

T-Rex on the Roof

Well I love you all and hope that you all have a lovely Halloween!!

Love, Elder Ward

P.S. Why does dad always have the best Halloween costumes? (No offense to  everyone else)

LOVE YOU ALL

Hola! So Pretty sure this week was a little less Eventful as the last sadly but still a lot happened!

This week I got to do my first service project and it was super fun/also scary. We cleaned up this lady's backyard that isn't able to because she is in a wheel chair. As we were cleaning we found these gross bugs that I have never seen before. In spanish they are called Ninos de la tierra.  I wish I had a picture of them but I  forgot my camera that day. They are pretty much giant ants that have zebra butts, haha look them up.

Ninos de la Tierra

This past week we had dinner at one of my investigators homes.  Her family is awesome but sadly the father of the house said that they love that we have devoted our time as missionaries to the Lord and they respect us but they don't want the gospel and they are happy the way they are right now. I Just wanted to explode because I know they need this gospel so much!! Everyone does!!!! Me and Elder Davidson will keep trying but sadly we will probably have to stop teaching them soon.

I went on my second exchange with my Zone leader on Saturday and it was super fun! We rode bikes around our area a lot and tried to find some people to teach and we did, he seemed extremely interested and so did his son surprisingly! So hopefully we will be able to change his life with the Gospel!

I cannot believe that I only have 2 more weeks in my first transfer, it seems like I got to California yesterday! But we will see if I go to Argentina this next transfer. I know for sure that I will go to Argentina at the same time as my transfers but I do not know which transfer I will go, So that keeps the work even that more interesting! Hopefully I can stay at least one more transfer in Oxnard because the people here are so awesome! 

 Love you all and thank you so much for the love and support of serving a mission! 

Elder Ward