HELP THE MISSIONARIES

This Week wasn´t too eventful. But we did go to the temple again!!! I also found people from Neuquen there, so I sent a letter for Elder Motzkus with them!! We´ll see if that gets to him, haha, I have faith. The temple was awesome as ever. We had some families come for the first time and they just Marveled when they sat in the visiting wing of the temple. They were just left with awe. They loved it so much! Hopefully that motivates them to get baptized!!  I took a bunch of pictures of the temple.  I just love that place so much.  Some of my photos look professional! Tell Kate Bushell to look out! I might give her a run for her money!! haha

On Sunday I also gave a talk about Missionary Work! And I talked a lot about how the missionaries can´t do ANYTHING without the help of the members! The Church will NOT GROW unless members help out the Missionaries! So give them references! Have a Family Night with a 

non-member family and invite the missionaries to share something! There are so many things that we can do to help this Church Grow! And they are so simple! 

So HELP THE MISSIONARIES! I promise they don´t bite... Only when you help them! Haha Have a good week! And I hope that everyone had Fun in Cali that went! Love you all!!

Elder Ward

CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN

This week we had a Zone meeting, interviews with president, and someone say she would finally be baptized!! After missionaries asking her since December!

The interviews with president were good, and he gave me an AWESOME ANOUNCEMENT!! Instad of coming home the 12 of July next year I will be coming home the 22 of August!! I was so excited!! I am able to serve for 2 years and 9 days! I was so happy to hear that and to be able to serve more time! It was so awesome. The thing is that they can´t release a missionary from missionary work more then 30 days before the day they entered the MTC. If they want that they need  approval from the parents, mission president, stake president, area president, and a general authority... That´s a little much so I decided to leave it as President told me.

We then had an investigator make the decision to be baptized!! And it was really hard. The last time we asked her to pray to our Father in Heaven to know if she should be baptized on August 1st. We then visited her 3 days later. When we came to the house we saw that her and her mom were yelling in the front room. Everything was a mess. She said she wanted to be baptized and now her mom is angry (she is SUPER SUPER Catholic). We entered into the house and tried to explain to the mom why but nothing got through to her. She had the spirit of contention in her and she wasn't going to be accepting anything anytime soon. After the mom left and we got the opportunity to talk to her, she said that she prayed the night before to know if she needed to be baptized. That night she said that she had a dream of her being baptized. She took that as a big ol´ yes. She said that even though her mom was furious with her, she was still going to be baptized. She feels like that it is the right thing to do for her and for her family.

It was such an awesome experience to to able to be here when she made this decision! This week in the Gospel Principles class (the missionaries teach it) I gave the class on chapter 26. It was about sacrifices and the sacrifices some people have made to follow god´s commandments. One of the examples was of Abraham when he was commanded to sacrifice the only son that he had, Issac. 

  

A challenge would be to make a sacrifice! God gives us challenges to be able to give up earthly things. Whether it be sleep, time, money, whatever. So that after that challenge we can be reminded that the important things are things ETERNAL, like knowledge, our families, testimony. So yeah. Pray to Heavenly Father that he will give you opportunities to exercise your faith, and to be able to make a sacrifice! Pray for mountains to climb! It´s hard to climb the mountain but we know that from the top the view is worth it!

Love you all so much! Have a good week!

Elder Ward!

MISSIONS ARE TOO SHORT - 1 YEAR LEFT!!

This week we had a super sweet patriotic festival or something... We got a bunch of food and it was good so I'm not complaining. It was called Locro. It`s a like a soup that has just a bit of everything. 

And it was in a GIANT pot. 

Pot of Locro

This week we had a family come to church!! They have 6 kids that are under the age of 10... The were kids running everywhere during the sacrament meeting which was hilarious! The parents were so happy! We have been working with them for 2 or 3 weeks and it was super awesome to see them in the chapel finally!! They are waiting for a call from a lawyer for the divorce of the dad and his first wife so that they can get married and the mom can be baptized!! We are super excited to see that happen! We think that she will be baptized in August.

And for this week that was about it! We didn't have too much happen. A lot of walking and a lot of people not answering their doors because it is cold haha. But we had a lot of lessons with less actives and the recent converts luckily!

The whether is getting colder. Not too bad. But the coldest time is at the end of July, beginning of August. sooo yeah. But the pench doesn`t get too cold because we have heaters and all that Jazz. 

The only difference in the South mission is that this Mission President is putting a lot of trust is us. He doesn't ask for ANY numbers. Only the attendance that we have Sunday and the baptisms we have. The rest he doesn`t want. But that`s pretty much it. I don`t think it's better or worse just different. 

P-Days are pretty boring. Today we are going to Walmart but other than that we haven`t done anything fun so far. haha there isn`t anything to really do here but play sports and we can`t do that unless we have a district activity or zone activity and that`s like 1 or 2 times every 6 weeks.  

They have told me that my release date will be July 12, 2016 which was 1 year from yesterday!!  I can`t believe it!  I screamed a little bit yesterday when I realized it... The mission is too short!!

We can`t extend. President said only if we have a really good reason to extend. But if the reason is because we want to serve more time. He doesn`t give it. Something that he told us that Boyd K. Packer told him is that they want to leave the missionaries wanting more. So that when we come home we keep dong missionary work!! 

Well that`s about it from me! Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Ward

BUENOS AIRES SOUTH MISSION!!

Farewell to the Buenos Aires West Mission - Elder Ward is on the very back row in the center

The New Buenos Aires South Mission Boundaries

So these 2 past weeks (sorry for not writing last week) Have been FULL of a lot of stuff! First we went to the temple 2 Thursday`s ago, then the following Friday we had a BAPTISM!!! This last week we changed missions.  On Tuesday we had our goodbye with the Robertson family in their house, had a testimony meeting and ate some food! Then on Thursday we met our new Mission President, his name is Pres. Thurgood, and he`s awesome. He was a religion professor at BYU - Idaho and knows a lot of stuff about the gospel. I am super excited to be able to serve under him! SO that`s pretty awesome.

President and Sister Thurgood

A drunk came into the church during an activity, it was my comps birthday last week, I have eaten at least 6 cakes, annnnd I got robbed. I will spare the details, haha, but nothing bad happened. They only got my cell phone and 10 pesos.  So that is just a fun week right there! I tell ya nothing is ever boring while you are a missionary. 

Teaching wise this week we have two families that we are focusing on. They both have an inactive Husband and the wife isn't a member. One of them really wants to be baptized but can`t yet because they aren't married.  We are just waiting for a call from somebody so that they can get the divorce over with and get the marriage going! The other one doesn't want to because she is scared of what her mom will think... Even though she is 36 years old. But that`s ok! We just have to keep teaching with the spirit and she will realize what is more important! 

Something that the South mission is doing together is studying the Attributes of Christ in Preach My Gospel. And it is Awesome, I invite everyone to read them. It is so amazing to be able to study how Christ is and how we should be. 

Well love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Ward

P.S. So jealous, haha looks like the parade was a complete success! Glad to see that you guys are havin fun!! and Welcome Home Sarah!!!!