SHOUT OUTS

Dear People.

First off I have three shout outs.

Happy Birthday to... The best little sister ever ERIN!!! And the best cousin ever JAKE!!!!

And a happy father`s day to the studliest dad that a son could ask for!

So this week was pretty good. Yesterday was the best of them all but I'll get to that later...

So this week I got to finally make waffles in Argentina. I told a member that I made waffles before the mission, this family was baptized in December. We passed by a couple days later and she had bought a waffle iron just so that I could cook them for the family... I was so surprised!  So I showed them and they loved them! Now every time I see one of the kids of the family he is just dying to know when I am coming by to make waffles again... Maybe I should just Waffles de Sabado (Saturday`s Waffles) here!

This last week me and my comp had a hard time finding new people to teach for some reason. We were trying really hard to hit our goal of find 6 new people to teach. Almost every day of the week we had no success. Monday through Saturday we found only 1 new person. On Sunday we said a prayer that we might be able to find some more people to teach. That day right after Church we had lunch with some investigators to celebrate father`s day, we had an asado (the BBQ of Argentina) and as we were there we had his daughter and her family come in and eat with us unexpectedly! We taught them a little bit and found out that they live really far away, but in 1 or 2 weeks they are moving into our area! They were really receptive and have a lot of desires to go to church this next week! There were 4 people that counted as an actual new, but they had 2 kids under 8 years, so I counted that as an answer to our prayers! I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord!

And yesterday we had the opportunityto go to the temple. It was so awesome. Seriously love going to the temple, I regret not going more before I left. Because now we can`t go whenever we want and I am getting temple withdrawal!! I had some really cool experiences in the temple yesterday. Haha I'm not gonna share them, but I'll just say that my testimony of receiving revelation in the temple is a lot stronger. Then we had a family night with the whole mission and the Hermana Robertson talked a lot about how we should have a stronger faith and caracter (I can`t remember how to spell it - haha).

I am going to the South mission this next week! As in I will still be in LaFerrere but it will be part of the south mission!  I am not really sad, the majority of my mission buddies are coming with me, except for everyone that was in my MTC group, and Elder Alexander, but I will definitely see most of them after the mission, I think all of them are gonna go to BYU after the mish.

  

Well love you all! A challenge for the week would be to go to the temple with your family or a session with those that can! Have a good week!!

Elder Ward

P.S.  Sorry no pictures this week.  I could not find my camera in the pench.  But don't worry I know it is in there.  I don`t really use it too much outside of the pench here because it`s pretty dangerous, haha so yeah

GETTING COLD!

Hello Family!

Exciting news for the week is that we found a huge family to teach!!!  The dad is a member and he has 10 kids. He always wants us to come over to eat in the night, so that`s pretty awesome!

Things are going great with my new companion!!  He's a stud!!  It's a little weird leading things because I am the senior companion but luckily I don`t do more then he does, he`s is great and knows a lot of stuff.

Elder Cortez, me and the other two elders in our ward.

The club by our house is such a problem... the music is really really loud during the weekends... Luckily I had some spare ear plugs on hand, without them I cannot sleep.

The Club

It's getting cold... Really cold... And it hasn't even hit the dead of winter yet!!  The thing that stinks is that during the day it`s really hot, and during the night it`s really cold, so I have to lug around my giant jacket everywhere during the day, haha I am hoping that no one steals it!  I am also using my sleeping bag at night to try and keep warm.

Our pench is huge!! And it's awesome because we have a WASHING MACHINE!!! That`s unheard of here.  There are hundreds of penches and only a couple that have them... So I guess we lucked out! We also have a huge grill, two full bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and 4 BEDROOMS!

This week we are going to have a baptism on FRIDAY!! I AM SO PUMPED! Her name is B and she is awesome! She is my age and loves the gospel, the missionaries found her through a recent convert. 

We also have another family that we are working with. We are going to set a baptism date with her today. Her husband is a less active and they both just barely started wanting to go back to church. and they always give me my favorite drink that`s called Malta.  I'll send a picture of the package, like I said it is Mormon coffee.

Malta

Well that`s about it! My advice for this week would be to talk to someone you know and invite them over to your house to listen to the missionaries. I personally have not felt a greater Joy than the joy I feel when I see someone accept the Gospel!  And please have my good ol' Grandpa Ward in your prayers!! He really needs it!

And a shout out to my favorite little sister Erin for her Birthday this week!! I love you so much and I will be thinking about you that entire day!!!

Well see ya'll later!

Elder Ward

LAFERRERE, ARGENTINA

Transfer Day was crazy!!  We woke up at 5, packed a little bit more, took a taxi over to the mission offices, saw the slide show of the transfers to see where people were going, and then we left! I have been sent to the area called LaFerrere.  My comp`s name is Elder Cortez and he is from Chile, he has been out 6 months, and he`s awesome! He is done with his training but I have been made senior companion.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of him before we got to the ciber, haha oops, but for sure a photo next week!

I think I will be going to the South mission, but I am fine with it, haha it`s the mision igual (same mission)! No worries!

La Ferrere, it is pretty poor, none of the streets are paved and most of the houses are just made of bricks and not painted or anything. But I am excited! Humble people means a lot of baptisms!!!

The new ward is pretty awesome, there are like 80 people that go every week and are like 400 members that are on the records.  This happens a lot in South America, lots of less actives. There

are 4 missionaries in the ward, and the bishop seems like a stud! I am super stoked to be working in this ward and I know that there will be a LOT of miracles that happen here.

My last days in Villa Madero were good.  We just went and visited people that I wanted to say goodbye too.  I was sad to leave the Famila M****** but it is ok because I know that I  will be seeing them in April this next year at their sealing!!! BOOYAH!  It is always sad to leave but I am glad to be in another area to meet more people and to change more lives!

Well not much else happened this week.  Something cool about my area is that there is a MCDONALDS IN IT!!! Heck yeah! Been way too long since I have been there! Haha, but sadly it`s super expensive, more then the states!

Also there is a club right across the street from our new pench... And sleeping on the weekends is pretty much impossible... These are all the `Zombies` After Saturday night clubbin.... The worst was on Sunday morning when we went looking for investigators and all the drunks were out... Yeah that wasn`t too fun, haha.

Well that`s about it! I love you all and hope that I have a little more to say to ya next week! Haha see ya!

Elder Ward

LEAVING MADERO!

Well I am finally leaving Madero! I am so sad and I was so glad that I got to be in this AWESOME area. This Wednesday I will find out where I am going so I will have to give you an update on that!

Saturday's Waffle - Argentina Style

You asked for an update on my daily schedule, so here it goes....

Get up, pray, do exercises for 30 minutes, have a malta (Mormon style coffee, it isn`t made from coffee beans but from wheat, tastes the same and is free game) take a shower, shave and be ready for studies at 7:00am.

I do personal study for an hour, an hour of comp study, then 30 minutes of language study. Then we leave the house at 10:30am for proselyting. 

 We have our visits through out the day, we knock some doors, sometimes we have success, sometimes not. Most of the time we get the door slammed in our face, haha. And usually lunch with members.

Then we need to be in the house at 9:00 to start daily planning for the next day on where we go, and that`s thirty minutes. Then we get ready for bed, maybe eat something and start our nightly prayers by 10:30. And then we sleeeeeeeeep! Best part of the day right there, haha.

You asked about laundry, a member that we call Mama Santoro (she`s our missionary mom) she washes our clothes here! She`s the best! I am really going to miss her and all the stuff she did for us!

Well this week we had a super miracle happen yesterday night. We were with an investigator teaching them and she was grinding her son about going to some super weird church and as she was doing that we walked in, and then she said, ya know what, you are going to come with me to the Mormon`s church... We were fairly satisfied with that, so we will be expecting them next Sunday! Also the sister of the mom of that family was there and as she was listening to us she told us that we HAD to stop by her house right now. She wanted her whole family to hear what we had to say, and... well we were fairly satisfied with that as well, haha. 

 We went over there, got to know the family a little bit, the parents recently split up and found out that they had just been having a bunch of problems lately and they just didn`t know what to do. So we taught them the first lesson of the restoration and it was just the most I have ever felt the spirit, while we were teaching the first lesson. Me and my comp were bawling, the mom was bawling, the 4 kids were bawling, even the dad was. 

 It was just such a testimony builder to me that people are prepared to receive us! What are the chances that we there in the house of the investigator while she was grinding her kid, while her sister was there, while the sister`s family was in a super crappy time in their lives. It was just awesome. Both of the parents told us that they had always ran inside when they saw the elder`s walking down the street. And even though I won`t be able to get to know this family better and possible baptize them I am just glad I was a part of finding them! It really was a glorious night!

 

 

We also had stake conference this past weekend and it was really focused a lot on the family and the importance of FAMILY HOME EVENING. It really hit me hard for some reason. It just made a really strong impression on me!

 So I guess my challenge for this week or the next would be to have family home evening this week! Cause you will receive blessings! Haha love you all so much and I hope you all have a good week!

Elder Ward